SSS-Ranked Evolution: Worlds Unbound

"Hey! You can't just walk away from me like that?!"

"I'm an adult and I can do whatever I want!"

20 minutes earlier.

"Huh? Where am I? How did I get here?" his dull brown eyes opened to a dark space as his mind raced a million thoughts per second, how on earth did he get here? Confusion grew on him till he remembered what happened, "oh yeah, I got hit by a truck, I guess when that happens you die." he gently rose to his feet and understood that he was in the afterlife, but it was so dark, "guess I didn't make heaven either." he chuckled darkly to himself as he tried to find his way around.

Ren was a regular boy who lived a very average life of pain and suffering. He was unlucky in many things and even in his death, he was so unlucky to have been hit by a truck travelling the speed of light. It happened so fast he didnt even get to say his last prayers. He didn't have any parents, and he was fresh out of the foster system trying his best to survive. To himself he thought worse, at least his miserable life had been ended.

As he tried to get around the dark area, lights from out of nowhere lit the entire space, and it showed an elegant throne room, a decadent space with a massive throne in the middle, the entire room draped with silk and gold as linen and on top of the throne, was a beautiful woman who wore black silk with gold linen and jewellery that adorned her. She seemed lost in her thoughts as she circled her wine in the golden cup until she noticed Ren's presence.

Immediately, excitement wound up in her soul.

"Are you....mine?!" she squealed at the thought that she finally got to keep her own lost soul, if not, it wouldn't have been sent to her domain. Ren who immediately thought she was crazy held his hands up and stepped back in caution.

"Hey woman, calm down, jeez. How do I get out of here? This very much doesn't look like hell, so I'm just trying to go where I belong." He was as cautious as possible, but it only made her head cock to the side. It was then Ren realized that she had fox ears and a fluffy tail that wouldn't stop wagging.

"No you are in the right place, hell doesnt exist anyway." she shrugged his words off and took a deep breath, her chest falling as she exhaled, "welcome to the afterlife! My space! I have great news for you! You are going to be reborn!" she raised her hands excitedly, but it only made Ren scoff.

"Reborn? Can I just skip that and become nothing?"

"I saw that you suffered in your past life, and it ended tragically." she sympathized and at the same time ignored his question to cease to exist and judging from the way she moved, he knew she did that on purpose, "now in my infinite mercy, I have decided to give you a second chance."

"But I don't want a second chance, can't I just stay dead?" he ran his hands through his dark hair, his words breaking through the goddess's daydream, her eyes narrowed at him. He should be happy and here he was being so ignorant,

"You are going to be reborn and that is final. But out of my unending grace…" she kept praising herself, and it was making him sick of her already, then she snaps, and three massive gates fell with a loud thud behind Ren, forcing him to turn back to see what it was, "you will have a choice to choose how you want to be reborn."

"Yaayy, at least I get to choose." he rolled his eyes at her excitedness and listened to her as she explained the gates. There were three gates: The blue, the red, and the black.

"Step into the red gate, and gain immortality, a strength no mortal has ever seen. You will be loved by all the lands, feared and worshipped by many nations. You will become god amongst men." she introduced the red passage way to him, and it made Ren shiver. 

"Pass through the Blue Gate and you will have an advantage over your peers. A system that will allow you to become stronger than the strongest. You will never be discarded, you will be a hero in all the seven worlds." her voice was dripping with evil amusement, and it made Ren even more scared at the option she had just presented him.

"Go through the Black Gate, and remain, unchanged. You will have a normal life, a family, loved ones, you will grow old and be very fulfilled. But that option is boring and—"

Before she could finish explaining the black gate, Ren was already walking towards it with his hands in his pocket and the most nonchalant attitude she had ever seen.

"Hey! You can't just walk away from me like that?!" she screamed at him.

"I'm an adult and I can do whatever I want!" and he screamed back.

Having enough of his insolence, she closed the black gate and floated towards him, her aura carrying her around, making her look more ethereal.

"You can't choose the black gate! You will have a normal life! Just like your previous one!" she explained to him, and it was his turn to roll his eyes.

"And who said I didn't want a normal life? Look, all this superhero stuff is too much for me. I ain't gonna be transmigrated into some main character of an anime or game, i just wanna be a regular boy." he told her and put his foot down.

The goddess's eyes shook with disbelief, never had she seen an unbothered man in her entire life. But her disbelief turned into anger, and she huffed out steam as her frustration left her body, "I am trying to grant you a better—"

"Hey um fox lady, I get what you tryna do but no thanks. Normal life it is for me." he rubbed her head like he would a dog and waited for her to open the gate for him. She stared at him in awe, such disrespect! Steam blew out of her ear and nose but with another deep breath, she calmed down, her eyes menacing this time.

With a snap, she opened the gate for him and Ren's face lit up with enthusiasm.

"Thanks fox lady, if I see your temple in my new life, I promise to bring flowers." and with a playful salute, he stepped through the black gate to start his new life. But after Ren passed through the gate, it glowed a golden aura and its colour changed to a very bright golden one.

It all started with a light giggle, and then it became a full-blown Light Yagami laugh, all from the goddess that had just granted Ren his rebirth.

"Have fun with your new life as an overpowered beast taming MC!"

If only Ren knew that he would be reborn with an S ranked talent, he would have preferred not to die in the first place. He started his life as an infant born to a royal family. The duke of the Gidor Province, one of the four major provinces under the Tzen Empire. His birth was tasking and had almost claimed the life of the duchess but alas, Ren came out a healthy baby and immediately was given to the mage, who sensed that he had no Mana core.

"My lord, your son has no form of magic in his blood. Unfortunately." he announced to the duke who immediately grew respite for the defenseless child.

"What? Impossible. Feed him to the dogs, I have no business with a powerless offspring." and he was ready to make sure his weak son didn't bring him any shame by killing him. But the duchess could not bear to see her hard work go to waste just like that.

"Please my lord. We do not need to kill him, it was we who brought him to this life. We…" There were tears in her eyes, but she sniffed them back, the pain from childbirth still overwhelming, "we can give him to a family, they will take care of him, no one will know...he is your son." she finally broke down into tears and the duke hearing his wife cry got him irritated.

"Very well! But he must be out of this palace by midnight!" and with that, he left the room, her baby was given back to her, and she sniffed back hot tears. It was so unfortunate that she would have to leave her son but alas, she made arrangements to have him dropped into a family. She already named him Ren, even before he was conceived.

She gave her child to her trusted maid and Ren was dropped in the arms of a woman, her hair was as white as snow and when she saw the helpless child, she couldn't help but want to care for the child. Her name was Miyo and her profession was that of an entertainer. She did all she could to raise her daughter and her new son but during a performance, she was severely injured by one of her peers and since then, she had not been on the stage. Her source of livelihood, taken away from her.

She struggled, and her children grew up to be fine people. Hanabi, Ren's older sister awakened an S ranked Hunter ability at the age of 16! People only awakened at the age of 18 so she awakening 2 years earlier was seen to be a blessing from the gods. Ren was just 14 when the government came to take his sister away after her awakening, leaving him and his mum behind. Often Hanabi would come back to the house to have important festivals with them and also taught Ren some hand-to-hand combat, also as well as sword fighting so he would be able to protect their mum. And whenever she came back, she came back with a lot of money for her family, but even Ren knew that his sister was different the moment she was taken by the empire.

Ren wakes up to the bright sun beaming through his almost shredded window blinds and realises that today was his birthday. He was finally 18! And just as he expected, nothing happened, he wasn't awakening anything. He was so happy that he would continue to have his life but when he went out to check on his mum, he could see her in their small garden, looking very sad. She had so many wrinkles now and her snow-white hair was a mess.

"Mum?" he called out to her, startling her from her thoughts. Upon looking at his face, she realised what a fine man her son had become. Jet black hair, beautiful amber eyes, quite a height and a fit physique. Who wouldn't want to jump on him the instant they laid eyes on him?

"Ren…" it took her a moment, her lips parted before the words came out, "happy birthday son. I…" sadness was drowning her being, "there isn't much at home, I was just thinking of what we would make for your special day." he could see the tears in her eyes and Ren walked over to embrace her in a big hug, "I want to give you everything but i…i…just can't." she sobbed into him, her own failure weighing on him.

"You have already given me everything mother." he pulled her back to wipe the tears from her eyes. He hated it when his mother said such horrible things about herself, "this is what I have always wanted. A normal life with you…" he still remembered his past life, no family, having a family was what he always wanted, he didn't care if they were poor, "I will kill something for us to eat for dinner. I don't know if Sister will come but...it will be enough just being with you." he brought more tears to his mother's eyes as she hugged the life out of him.

The world was ruled by magic and sword and people with special talent awakened different ranks of different classes. The lowest Rank being F and the highest being SSS, the strongest variation of the S rank. Many talents included warriors, hunters, mages, and the rarest of them all, beast tamers.

There were not many beast tamers. Out of a thousand youths that awakened, only 5 awakened beast taming abilities, and they were all S ranked. The empire, knowing the power of the mystical beasts that roamed the lands, immediately took these tamers and groomed them to serve the empire. They harvested rare mythical beasts and used them in wars against the enemy troops. 

Ren awakening nothing was a trump card to him escaping the crazy life of those who did. To everyone, he was deemed worthless and he wouldnt have it any other way.

He had taken his hunting knife and some equipment and went into the forest to hunt for his birthday meal. His sister was the one that taught him how to hunt, and it had become his guilty pleasure. He planned on catching something big and after a while of waiting, he was able to catch a wild pig. It was so big that they would only eat a portion of its meat and sell the rest so they could have money for other things.

As he prepared to carry the injured animal, he heard a low hiss. Turning around, his eyes searching for where the sound had come from, he met with the piercing gaze of a serpent that was hidden in the bushes.

Ren's heart pounded as the snake reared back, its mouth opening to reveal long, dripping fangs that told him he was going to be snake food if he didn't move fast enough.

"Oh crap." he muttered, taking a step back in defence, and also at the same time, initiating the battle.

The snake lunged.

Ren barely managed to dodge, stumbling to the side and raising his knife. He swung wildly, the blade nicking the snake's side. It hissed in fury, coiling back for another strike. Adrenaline surged through him as he tightened his grip on the knife, his hands slick with sweat.

"Stay back!" he shouted but was it possible that a hungry snake would listen to him?

The snake didn't listen to him. It lunged again, faster this time. Ren ducked, rolling to the ground and slashing upward with his knife. The blade sank into the snake's side, and it let out a horrible screech that didn't sound like any snake he'd ever heard.

The snake recoiled, its body writhing in pain. Ren scrambled to his feet, panting. He could feel his legs shaking, his mind racing. He was just an ordinary guy. Why was this happening?

But then something strange happened.

The snake stopped moving and stared at him, its eyes glowing faintly. A golden light began to seep from its body, swirling in the air like smoke. Ren froze as the light moved toward him, wrapping around him in a warm, pulsing glow.

"What… what is this?" he whispered, shielding his face from the glow that became brighter as the seconds passed.

The light flowed into his hand, and suddenly, a faint symbol appeared on the snake's forehead—a glowing glyph, intricate and alive. Ren could feel something shift inside him, like a string being pulled taut. The snake hissed softly, lowering its head as if in submission.

Before Ren could process what was happening, the snake slithered off into the shadows, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared.

Ren stood there, trembling, his knife dangling loosely in his hand. The forest was quiet again, but the air felt heavier, charged with something he didn't understand.

"What the hell was that? Did I just…awaken?" he muttered, looking down at his hands, unsure of what had just happened. He began to fret and a burning sensation in his chest hit him like a wave, taking off his loose shirt, he was greeted with a taming glyph that glowed an eerie golden light. Ren had seen these glyphs before despite them being extremely rare, and now his worst nightmare was coming true.

"I awakened beast taming?! Oh crap!"