Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

His mana core was complex in structures to a level exceeding what he’d anticipated.

Millions and millions of small connections, patterns that suggested design rather than evolution. Three nodes stood out seeming to represent his extra beasts, Mantis, Hydra, and Wolverine. Each being a cluster of light and transparent ethereal crystal connections pulsing with energy.

And all were united to a much larger very tangled network in the center with connections forming even more elaborate complex weaves.

But that central network was surrounded by a dense formation from which a more intense light escaped only through some small spaces between tightly woven ‘crystal roots’ of light wrapping the central structure.

Practically everything seemed like light or transparent crystal. But this light was different.

It was light with a particular color jade green mixed with gold. The coloration was beautiful but also communicated its nature to some knowledgeable beings.

Not normal mana, but something else. Something ancient that had been planted.

The roots weren’t protecting the core. They were containing it. Something was trying to break through. The light was pressing against the barriers.

But that wasn’t what most captured their attention.

In the center there was a crack impossible to ignore.

Not only ordinary damage but also contamination around it. Black and purple light entering through the fissure, it seemed the energy coming from the rift in the seed had contaminated the barrier and corruption had established an entry point into the net.

The girl had been mostly interested in this and smiled when seeing it more closely.

Her expression transformed from intense curiosity to what seemed like understanding from recognizing exactly what she was observing and what it implied about Ren’s present state.

It was a smile that wasn’t malicious, just satisfied. Like a puzzle she’d been contemplating had finally resolved.

She extended her hand with what seemed to be the intention to gently touch it.

The gesture was almost tender in its approach. Movement slow, delicate and careful like fully aware that she was handling something precious.

But Ren, still embarrassed, tried moving away to prevent contact.

Instinct warning that permitting ‘another girl’ touching him would be a mistake having serious future consequences. Even if this was just a dream or hallucination or whatever this space was.

Yet he realized with horror he didn’t have much control over himself.

His body, partially crystallized in this space, didn’t respond to the commands his mind issued. Paralysis being complete and leaving him vulnerable to whatever the girl, who Ren was realizing now was also covered by crystal in various places, planned doing.

She finally reached…

Her expression changed then.

Her smile transformed into something genuinely malicious when recognizing Ren couldn’t resist. Not cruelty exactly… Just a scary excitement at finally having access to a thing she’d wanted to ‘touch’ for so long.

But the delicate movement ended and she thrust both hands’ fingers directly into the crack she’d been observing.

Contact being established without the initial gentleness her approach had suggested. And even worse…

She began forcing the crack open. Applying pressure to expand the fissure gradually beyond the size it had initially had.

Ren observed with both fascination and horror while her delicate crystallized fingers worked to separate the borders of a structure his mushroom friend had made for supposedly protecting his core’s future.

It was as brutal as if his own body were being opened.

His mind even generated an image of his physical torso for a moment. Visualization of his ribs being opened and breaking under enormous force exceeding what his bones could support.

It was an imagination of a level of violence that should be agonizing, unbearable pain. He should be screaming.

But the reality he experienced was the complete opposite.

It didn’t hurt at all.

In fact, it felt inexplicably good. Like a burden he’d been carrying without consciously recognizing it was finally being removed. Like a cage he’d lived in was opening.

He felt ‘liberated’ from a restriction he didn’t know existed until it began loosening.

The sensation was intoxicating.

More free than ever before in his life. Like the crack being opened was also an expansion of possibilities. An intoxicating feeling making it difficult to remember why he’d think about resisting initially.

Power was emerging, raw, unfiltered… Unlimited. Energy beyond anything he’d experienced, beyond anything he’d imagined possible.

His core was filling. Not gradually, just flooding. The darkness pouring in through the crack girl was forcing wider. Drowning him in power he couldn’t control.

And it felt wonderful. Like finally breathing after a lifetime of suffocation. Like finally seeing after a lifetime of darkness. Like finally becoming what he was meant to be instead of the diminished thing he’d been forced into.

The amassed golden roots were breaking, shattering as the crack widened. As containment collapsed. As whatever they’d been holding back finally found a way to escape.

♢♢♢♢

In the real world, dark energy exploded from Ren’s position with an intensity that exponentially exceeded previous manifestations. It wasn’t simply black veins spreading beneath his skin, but a massive eruption that enveloped his entire form in a cloak of darkness that began to grow beyond the boundaries a human body would normally occupy.

And as it grew, the cloak began to take on inhuman features. Horns emerged from the dark mass, protrusions that curved backward in a way reminiscent of draconic anatomy. Wings began to form, membranes extending from his back.

It was a transformation that manifested power that had been hidden beneath the surface, waiting for the opportunity to emerge unconstrained.

The girls watched in growing horror as they realized that what they had feared was happening. They hadn’t saved Ren from corruption. They had only delayed the inevitability of what the transformation showed, which was now complete.

The creature Ren was becoming roared with a sound that was both human and bestial, a vocalization that surpassed what a tamer should be capable of manifesting.

The battle everyone had thought was ending was only just beginning in earnest, the escalating confrontation with a mutant invasion becoming something secondary to a considerably more dangerous threat.