Damian, who had a habit of immersing in fantasies, had imagined himself in various situations, one of which was being confronted with a wild animal. And since he thought of the situation, he also considered how to get out of it...

A plan to escape, a way to scare the animal, a weapon to use in defence, and the guts to use the terrain to his advantage, based on his knowledge of wildlife Damian was confident that he would have at least one of these. But he was certain that he would not be able to maintain his calm.

Or so he thought...

However, looking at the biologically impossible lioness that began circling him, Damian didn't have anything he expected to have, but he did have something he didn't expect to have.

'Calm,' he thought, and he was.

He knew he couldn't escape from the lioness who was circling him and blocking all routes of escape. He couldn't scare her, whose eyes gleamed with the arrogance of a supreme predator.

He couldn't deal any damage to her electrified fur with his bare fist because he would be the one receiving it.

But despite the odds, he remained fearless. In his eyes, the lioness's growling in an attempt to scare him was amusing. He wasn't sure where he got his confidence, but he let out a chuckle.

"Hehe!"

As if she sensing his amusement, the lioness paused her circling. She stepped in front of Damian, opened her jaw, moved her face inches away from Damian's, and...

*ROOOAR!*

Let out a thunderous roar.

Under the roar, Damian's ears went numb. It didn't sound terrifying to him, but rather irritating, like his sister's morning wake-up screams. And both were so irritating that he had to close his eyes and rub his numb ears.

In the moment of discomfort, Damian missed the very human-like smug smile on the lioness's face. As if satisfied with herself, she nodded her head and brought it closer to Damian's.

*Sniff!*

She took a light whiff, and her eyes opened wide. She drew her nose closer again, perplexed...

*Sniff!* She sniffed again, this time for a little longer.

*Sniff! Sniff! Sniff! Sniff!* Not satisfied with two, she moved her nose all over Damian's body, sniffing it thoroughly.

Feeling the hot breath on his "private", Damian for the second time in a day had his eyes snapped open.

What greeted his eyes this time was the elephant-sized lioness sniffing his body. Looking at the lioness sniffing him like a pet dog, Damian had a single thought...

'Great, I've seen it all; I'm not going to be surprised again.' Damian had no idea that his day had only just begun.

Damian had no intention of stopping the lioness, not because he enjoyed the sight of an elephant-sized black lioness sniffing him like a pet, but because he wanted to pretend he was dead. He was only pretending to be dead to allow the bear to pass through.

Damian's confused mind, which was racing with useless thoughts, came to a halt when the lioness stopped sniffing.

Damian realised how incorrect he was the next moment. His surprises had only just begun.

Sticking her pink tongue out, the lioness approached Damian and under his confused eyes... licked his face!

Stepping back the lioness stood tall, her predatory eyes locked with Damian's surprised one, her fur as dark as the night sky seemed to obliterate the sun, creating a beautiful painting Damian would never forget.

"Beautiful..." Unfortunately, before Damian could appreciate the beauty any further...

*Crackle* *Crackle*

Red sparks flashed through the lioness's black fur, and right in front of Damian's eyes, she vanished in thin air, leaving some electric sparks behind.

Damian jumped up in surprise, his eyes darting around in search of the enigmatic lioness, but they couldn't find her.

Despite his dissatisfaction, Damian's raging emotions were calmed by the strange feeling that this wouldn't be their final meeting.

Damian sat and rubbed his cheeks, perplexed as to how the saliva had dried so quickly. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind and moved on to more pressing matters. He reopened the system notification...

«Installation of the System: 98%»

"What the hell happened? How did it increase so fast?" Damian vividly remembered seeing the installation at only 29 per cent a few minutes before.

'Does it have anything to do with her?' Damian shook his head, not thinking about the mysterious lioness any further. It was pointless to think about something he didn't understand.

*Ding!*

«System Installation Complete!»

«Booting the 'Monster King' System...»

«Booting complete!»

*Ding!*

-----//-----

[‹Status› ‹Skills› ‹Companions›]

-----//-----

Damian needed some time to adjust to reality; everything seemed like a dream to him, something out of a fantasy, difficult to believe.

"Am I supposed to think about it and choose one of the three options?" Damian sat down and considered his situation, believing that this was indeed the case...

-----//-----

[«Status» ‹Skills› ‹Companions›]

>----

[ Name: Damian Colt ]

[ Race: ??? ]

[ Age: 19 years ]

[ Height: 1.8meter; Weight: 69kg ]

>--

[ Level: 1 ]

[ Experience: 0/10 ]

[ Stats: 5 ]

[ Class: (???) Monster King ‹0›]

>--

[ Strength: 6 + ]

[ Agility: 7 + ]

[ Stamina: 5 + ]

[ Vitality: 6 + ]

[ Mana: 18 + ]

[ Spirit: 0 ]

>--

[ Water affinity: 0% ]

[ Fire affinity: 0% ]

[ Earth affinity: 0% ]

[ Wind affinity: 0% ]

[ Spiritual affinity: 100% ]

>--

[ Spiritual abilities: N/A ]

-----//-----

It was a classic RPG system, so Damian didn't have to think too hard to figure it out. His stats were pretty average if 5 was considered average, with his mana being far and away from the highest. And his spirit was lowest, at zero.

The other stats were straightforward; they did what their names suggested, but the "Spirit" was new. "What is spirit, and why do I have a hundred per cent Spiritual affinity?"

He also had some other questions: "Why are there question marks ahead of my race and in front of my class?" Damian tried everything he could to get an answer to his questions, but the ever-silent system only answered one, and it too was...

-----//-----

[ Class: Monster King ]

[ Grade: ??? ]

[Level: 0; Experience.: 0/10 ]

[ Description: ??? ]

-----//-----

"Very helpful." Daniel scoffed at the "detailed" answer he received from the system, in form of a pop-up screen.

'At the very least, I know it can level up,' reminding himself that it wasn't a complete waste. Damian chose to proceed to the next section, "skills."

-----//-----

[‹Status› «Skills» ‹Companions›]

>----

[ ‹Passive: 0› ‹Active: 0› ‹Class: 0› ]

-----//-----

It was empty! 'No worries, skills are difficult to get. At least I would get some fire-spitting dragon as a companion, right?' Encouraging himself, Damian moved to the next section.

-----//-----

[‹Status› ‹Skills› «Companions»]

>----

[ Monsters: 0 ]

[ Tribes: 0 ]

[ Nation: N/A ]

-----//-----

'Nothing! I'm completely alone.' Damian sighed and laid back on the soft grass, ignoring the "Nation" and "Tribe" parts he didn't understand. He opened both his hands and touched the soft grass, trying to make sense of his absurd situation.

*Ding!*

As if the world didn't want him to pause for a second, a pop-up appeared on the right side of his vision, rather than the usual left.

«A new quest received!»

-----//-----

[‹Quests¹› ‹Inventory› ‹Messages›]

-----//-----

"With an inventory and a quest, my fantasy setting, straight out of some web novel, is complete." Damian laughed in the air, amused by the whole situation; even after everything, a part of him still treated it all like a dream, a dream he had always wanted but knew was impossible to achieve.

'If this is a dream, I don't want to wake up.'

He'd dreamed of it every day, in the middle of his lectures, doing self-study, brushing his teeth, eating, walking, bathing; there wasn't a single moment when he didn't imagine himself in a situation like this.

And now, if all of this wasn't an illusion, if it was hid unachievable dream, then...

"The Monster King... shall rise."