School

"Are you all set?"

Ezra's father; Gardner asked as he started the truck. The vehicle coughed out massive amounts of dark smoke before moving wheezing to life.

Ezra nodded, leading a black sheep to the back of the truck before hopping in.

Having noticed the sheep was the biggest of his farm animal. Although it had no combat strength, it was enough to increase his neural pathways.

Gardner removed his gaze from the sheep and swept his his eyes over Ezra and asked.

"Have you decided?"

Ezra adjusted his body and sat comfortably on the torn vehicle seat.

"Yes, like you've told me several times, having no combat strength isn't bad, as long as I don't put my self in grave danger, linking with the sheep would eventually increase my neural nodes."

Hearing his words, Gardner looked at his son deeply, a bit startled by his obedient behavior but he ultimately nodded his head, placing his hand on the acceleration button, the vehicle wheezed once more and then moved.

* * *

The old truck finally stopped 50 meters away from a large government owned high-school gate.

Ezra stared at his dad for a second before getting down from the vehicle.

He had actually wanted to inform his father about the lost 79 sheeps but he wasn't sure how his old man would take the news of his blood and sweat been reduced.

Ultimately, he decided not to tell the old man in fear of him collapsing to the ground out shock.

Walking to the back of the truck, he guarded the large, black sheep down.

His father remained seated on the vehicle and didn't leave until Ezra couldn't be seen and was mixed with the crowds of other students.

* * *

Although the sight of walking a sheep was rather rare, Ezra did not capture that much attention. After all, practically every household has a genetically modified beast as their means of defense, similar to how cats and dogs were kept as pets before the cataclysm.

Furthermore, sleeves came in all shapes and sizes as most people would choose to genetically modify their beasts. Most people chose monsters that looked cute or majestic. At the same time there would always be those with unusual tastes that chose the strangely modified monsters instead.

For instance, just to Ezra's left was a fashionable looking student who was holding a chain as thick as an infant's arm to walk her one-meter tall, three-meter long, medium-sized Rainbow Python.

That's right: a python of this size only counted as a large, medium-sized snake in this day and age, not a large snake.

Ahead, hurriedly running in Ezra's direction was a young teenager in a Jean and a t-shirt who looked like a real nerd. Seated on his head was a red stripped cat, closing its eyes.

Behind the nerd was a 11th-grade student like Ezra who seem to have just reached 16. Walking by his side was a three-meters-tall bear with rippling muscles which even it's long furs couldn't hide.

The bear had six retractable blades in its back and it's eyes glowed a mechanical light that scanned it's surroundings.

This was probably a Steel-bear that had undergone genetic transformations and had a few tech mods installed in it to raise its grade as well as its combat ability.

For some reason, people found modding their beasts with various bio-tech, fashionable.

Making them appear more menacing. It was a popular trend amongst the kids nowadays.

In contrast, Ezra's black sheep looked very plain and almost ugly at first sight. But after careful observation, it was rather cute and innocent to look at.

There were quite a few students walking along the school gates rushing to their classes, many of whom were walking their beasts.

No matter what kind of monster it was, they had one thing in common.

Their eyes were devoid of life!

No, the beast weren't been tortured when they were alive nor were they experimented on.

One thing about beast-link is that it is impossible to work with a beast with even the slightest bit of consciousness.

Therefore, the most usable/suitable beast to link with are the genetically modified ones.

But generally speaking, genetically modified beasts are too expensive, especially the exotic ones.

They cost almost an arm and a leg to purchase, even at the market which is why some people even older than 16 couldn't get a sleeve.

Just like Ezra, his family wasn't all that well off and the farm was the only thing they depended on. They didn't have enough money to purchase a sleeve for Ezra even when he had turned 16 a year ago as the farm was the only thing they depended on. 

The only one with a Sleeve in their family was his father. However, his sleeve was an old bear he had encountered and had luckily killed in the woods a few decades ago. If not for that, he wouldn't have gotten a Sleeve even after so many years.

Without a sleeve, Ezra wasn't allowed to graduate. Beast link was an important subject a student must pass in order to graduate high school and move to college but since Ezra didn't own a sleeve, he was hence, unable to able to graduate.

His father had tried to convince him in linking with one of their black farm sheep to which Ezra absolutely refused. Apart from its fur and meat, they had absolutely no combat power and could barely increase the neural pathway or open other neural nodes.

Linking with it meant that he was cutting off his future and giving up the path to become a Demon Slayer.

The day Ezra was considering linking with one of his family's sheep, he had gotten to a fight with one of his class mate who had attacked him and blasted him with one strike of his linked sleeve.

Hence, the newly reincarnated Ezra took over, along with the beast fusion system.

He would have still thought the fusion of an entire flock of sheep merging together to form an epic grade monster was a dream but when he activated the beast=link, he knew clearly that what happened this morning was reality and not a dream.

If the fusion of 79 flocks of sheep could create a monstrous beast such as the Abyssal Bloodhoof Wrathram with three blood skills, just what monstrosity would a thousand sheep produce?

He could imagine that there would be some sort of limit to the fusion ability but it was still an heaven-defying ability to fuse monsters together.

He could imagine if it was an herd of genetically modified monsters, then he would truly truly create a mythical beast that no one had ever seen.

Deep in though Ezra continued towards his class with the sheep in tow.

The sheep was in its calm state, looking like a normal black sheep only that it was especially tall and large, with four horns coiled behind him.

Once one had linked with a beast, ones consciousness would be divided, a little part controlling the motor function of the beast, letting it move in sync with your thoughts, like a little rouge finger. 

For example, while walking, if you wanted the beast to suddenly stop, it would really stop because you wanted it to.

Currently, all schools were public schools managed by the government. The government also prohibited the setting up of private schools.

Education had always been important, and it was even more so in this new world. The minds of children were the most pure and also the most easily led astray. Childhood was the most crucial period for one's thoughts and ideas to be shaped and changed.

In the peaceful times of the past, a troublemaking child would probably grow up to become a troublemaking adult, and at most cause some minor trouble in society. In the new world, however, it was almost impossible to tell what a person might amount to in the future. Should a troublemaker manage to link with a high-level monster, even the most minor trouble could result in major damage.