Infinite Beast Evolution: Floating Islands (Litrpg/Inner world base building)

[Ardenox]

"Participant number 21, step forward."

Karl, an 18 year old young man stepped forward.

Reasonably tall at 6 feet, medium build, black hair and a short beard, one could say that he was above average in looks.

A good number of eyes followed him as he stepped on the podium.

It was the first day of the year 4012, and everyone who had turned eighteen the previous year was gathered in this hall.

The awakening ceremony would decide their fates. It manifested an entrance to their Soul Space and discerned what kind of biome had awakened within it.

At rank one, a Soul Space could grow to a maximum of one million cubic meters.

People who awakened low quality biomes like swamps and mushroom forests often only had a starting volume of a thousand cubic meters or slightly more.

For geniuses who awakened high quality biomes like cosmic space and deep ocean, their biomes more often than not covered 900,000 cubic meters or more, already brushing the peak of rank one and capable of housing far more powerful beasts.

"Place your hand on the awakening orb."

Karl nodded at the professor before placing his hand on the orb. The surface was cool. Smooth. Completely indifferent to his expectations.

At that moment, a deep rumble echoed within his very soul as lights began scattering outwards.

He suddenly began hearing the sound of war drums in his ear, but looking around, he seemed to be the only one to experience it.

[The system has detected an entrance to the Soul Space manifesting.]

[Booting up the system.]

Karl mustered all his willpower to stop himself from making any unnatural expression.

When one turned eighteen, their Soul Space would awaken and manifest a biome, but only during the awakening ceremony, with the help of the awakening orb, could they open that Soul Space and begin using it.

Even after the entrance to his Soul Space was formed by the awakening orb, the war drums kept pounding in his ears.

After waiting for a few seconds, the professor glanced at the projected image and noted down the results with an indifferent gaze before speaking.

"Low quality biome, Dry Gravel Patch, 20,000 cubic meters. You can leave."

Fuck! Life is unfair!

But if I am not hallucinating from reading all those wish fulfillment novels, a system is booting up in me, maybe there's still some hope?

After leaving the hall, he walked towards the campus gate of the university.

The large ground outside was filled with numerous shops. It was a common occurrence on the day of the awakening ceremony.

"Hey, what biome did you awaken, my man?"

A hand wrapped around his shoulder as a merry voice entered his ear. It was his best friend, Lucas.

Before Karl could even answer, he continued.

"Little D awakened the volcanic ash plain biome of 400,000 thousand cubic meters. Not a genius but nothing to scoff at either. Representatives from various organizations are already hounding him.

"But like we already decided, we three will be going to the military academy on the outskirts of the island, so he should be here soon after rejecting all of them."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a booming voice rang out behind them.

"I'm here already, it didn't take much time."

The Little D in question was a 6'8 feet tall young man with visible muscles, his name was Dawson.

Wrapping his hands around the shoulders of both Lucas and Karl, he informed the latter with a hint of surprise in his voice.

"Yo Chef, did you hear? This Boombox manifested a primeval titan forest of 960,000 cubic meters. All those girls and organizations were on him the moment the professor announced his biome. There were also some guys, by the way.

"An organization was even ready to give him an infant War Treant if he agreed to some of their conditions."

Seeing that Karl was still silent, their smiles faded as they realized something was off.

The silence only lasted for a couple seconds before Karl smirked and spoke up.

"What is this gloom for? Even if I only got a dry gravel patch of 20,000 cubic meters, this daddy can still catch up to you both and beat you in no time."

He revealed his biome, and also told them not to worry about it while walking past those shops, towards the campus gate.

"Bro, you aren't going to buy a beast and its growth guide? There are so many shops here all at one place, it will be difficult later on."

Lucas asked, watching Karl continue toward the exit.

"Nope, I think I'll rest today."

As he settled down on his bed after reaching home, the rumble within his soul gradually increased.

Karl had been hearing it ever since he placed his hand on the orb, but the professor had not noticed anything unusual.

Even his friends, who had been standing so close to him, did not hear a thing.

If Karl could look within his soul, he would have also seen motes of light scattering out.

Finally, when the sound reached a certain threshold, a loud boom echoed, ringing his ears, before something crystalline manifested in his mind.

[The system has awakened.]

[Detected biomes: 1]

[Dry Gravel Patch: 20,000 cubic meters.]

[No main beast detected.]

[Would the host like the system to display the optimal beasts for this biome?]

Woah! This would save me a lot of money.

In this world, everyone awakened a Soul Space around the age of eighteen, with each person manifesting a different kind of biome within it.

They could contract a beast by enticing it to enter and live inside the biome of their Soul Space.

Once inside, the beast would get to live in an environment better than the outer world, but it would have to fight when the owner called for it.

If the beast was in Soul Space, the host could also borrow its skills for their own use.

That meant, you couldn't ask the beast to come out and also borrow its skills at the same time.

However, all this began with finding a perfect beast for your biome.

Beasts could only rank up in a perfect biome suited to them, which made choosing the contracted beast extremely important.

Sometimes, a beast would still enter a suboptimal biome, either out of desperation or poor judgment.

Who knew how long it would take for the owner to realize the beast was not growing due to biome incompatibility, only to kick it out later, having wasted months or even years.

An Arrow Tailed Monkey would refuse to enter an underground biome, while a Red Scaled Octopus wouldn't enter if it saw a desert biome. However, a Poison Devourer Slug might enter a murkwater swamp biome even if it wasn't its optimal biome.

Because of this, people purchased guides, spending money to find beasts suitable for their biomes. However, he could get it for free!

Karl mentally agreed with the system.

A moment later, a list of beasts appeared in his mind, some which he hadn't even heard of.

[Stoneclaw Lizard]

[Dust Raptor]

[Gravel Shell Beetle]

[Stone Scale Viper]

[Gravel Burrow Scorpion]

[Dustcoil Serpent]

When Karl focused on each beast, he received more in depth information, including but not limited to images, required diet, skills, and expected growth timelines.

Wow, so I don't even need to buy the diet guides? I am going to be rich.

Eh wait, saving doesn't make you rich. Whatever, I at least won't need to spend a crap load of money in those shops.

After receiving everything, he settled on a Stone Scale Viper. It was one of the best and more available options.

Without wasting any time, he left his home and headed towards a shop which he knew sold that beast.

After a bit of bargaining, he managed to buy it for 4000 credits, and its two days worth of food for 30 credits.

Standing in front of the Stone Scale Viper, he opened the portal to his Soul Space, revealing the dry gravel patch within.

The host could enter their own Soul Space. For other humans, even if they were much stronger and the host kept their portal open to allow them inside, they wouldn't be able to enter.

Beasts were different.

They could enter if allowed by the owner, whether they were free beasts or even contracted beasts belonging to someone else.

The five meter long viper slithered out of its box and entered his Soul Space, obviously willing to live in the dry gravel patch.

Instantly, he could feel that a mental connection had been established with the beast, they were contracted now.

He had saved around 15000 credits after leaving the orphanage and working part time, but he still felt the pinch considering he only saved 500 to 700 per month.

Nevertheless, he was thankful that he didn't have to buy optimal beast guides and diet plans which cost 1500 to 3000 and 800 to 1500 respectively.

Yup, he had definitely saved a lot.

Lying on the bed, he wondered what other functions the system had.

He had tried asking the system itself multiple times, but there had been no response.

Nevermind, I might as well take a rest. I need to go to the military academy tomorrow.

******

"Feeling excited Boombox?"

Karl asked Lucas.

He was nicknamed as such because numerous times his old phone ended up playing weird noises which ranged from animal cries to orgasms to baby laughs on serious occasions like a funeral or an important speech.

"Nah chef, I thought I would be all over the place, making friends with everyone here on the bus to the military academy, but all I feel is nervousness.

"I am pretty sure Little D feels the same."

"Don't lump me in with you." Dawson rolled his eyes.

He was sitting in front of them next to a cute girl he had been trying to talk to, but she seemed intimidated by his size.

Karl on other hand was checking up on information online.

Humanity now lived on floating islands scattered throughout the void, which was filled with void monsters.

They constantly attacked these floating islands, forcing the beast tamers to fight everyday to cull their numbers, keeping them at bay.

On this island, there were three Academies which trained the youngsters.

The Military Academy was located on the outskirts of the islands, and specialized in combat.

The Green Thorn academy and the Imperial Academy were located in the central zone, with the former specializing in logistics and the latter leaning towards management.

That isn't to say that the Military Academy didn't have the logistics and management departments and vice versa for other academies, but just that their fields of specialization differed.

When they finally reached the Military Academy, only a single senior greeted them at the gate.

"My name is Nicole. I am tasked with giving you all the first and the last free benefit you will get at this academy, and then showing you to the rooms.

"The others are busy, so you won't get any grand, useless welcome ceremony.

"The general information, and basic necessities have already been placed in your rooms. You can go through it yourself.

"Follow me."

The whole group of eighteen year olds followed her to a large ground filled with cages containing void monsters.

Pointing at them, Nicole announced.

"This is the first and last free stuff I mentioned, Aether. Think of it as a freshman benefit. After this, you'll have to earn every credit and Aether through sheer hard work and combat.

"Line up, and kill the void monsters trapped in the cages."

People could transform their biomes manually, or through Aether, although the latter was strongly discouraged.

Aether could only be absorbed by killing void monsters found in the endless void.

Since Aether could increase the volume of the Soul Space, which in turn raised the rank of the Beast Tamer, it was considered wasteful to use it on biome transformation when that could be done manually.

In fact, there even existed services where you could hire contracted beasts of others. Cobblestone beetles, water serpents, sand mantises, and more could be temporarily brought into your Soul Space to help reshape terrain or form new biomes.

All in all, Aether was very valuable.

Just as Karl killed the void monster in the cage assigned to him, a notification popped up in his mind.

[Killed a rank 1 void monster - Void Hopper]

[Gained 35 Aether.]

[Harvested void ability.]

[Blink - Instantly displaces the user up to 0.5m when threatened.]

[Would you like to graft Blink on Stone Scale Viper?]

[Compatibility: Excellent]

[Cost: 30 Aether.]

[Evolution time: 4 hours.]

[Survival probability: 99%]

Karl froze.

Holy shit, for as long as anyone could remember, it had been a universal truth that void monsters dissolve into nothingness upon dying, leaving behind no resources, no materials whatsoever, giving only aether to the people responsible for killing it.

But my system can harvest their abilities…and also graft it on my beasts?

Holy fuck.

Life suddenly felt even more unfair… this time in his favor.