Silver couldn’t understand what was fully going on, he felt as though he was in a limbo. Half was inside his body while the other half was watching the creature use its power and survive.

He blinked, trying to find balance. Then, the system’s mechanical voice rang in his ear.

[Assisted Integration Active.]

His eyes opened slightly.

"...Assisted?"

[System intervention reducing synchronization loss.]

Silver frowned.

"What does that mean?"

[Beast instincts are being filtered.]

That sounded important. Still, he couldn’t understand.

’Beast instincts?’

The system continued.

[Host will retain ability inheritance while minimizing foreign instinct contamination.]

Silver immediately understood, at least partially. The beast possessed instincts. Its own behavioral patterns. Normally those would likely blend with the contractor after integration. Power never came for free after all.

The system was separating them and retaining the useful parts, discarding the rest.

That explained why it felt different, it was still invasive but not as painful as he had imagined. He had expected to pass out especially with the level of his contract.

The White glow intensified again.

[Synchronization: 62%]

A pulse echoed through his chest at that moment, as though the power was acknowledging him.

Silver suddenly felt something new. A new form of awareness that was different from the one he had honed in the army. It felt as though it had been multiplied by a hundred faults.

The empty air around him seemed... clearer. Even the ravine walls, stones, shifting wind, and even the tiny insects crawling between cracks. Everything felt easier to perceive.

But the feeling wasn’t in a visual sense but spatial.

He couldn’t completely place due to the newness of everything, it just felt like that. Like his brain suddenly possessed additional information it couldn’t fully process yet.

The sensation lasted only seconds before fading.

Silver blinked.

’... Wow, this is interesting.’

Another pulse followed then the tattoo began taking shape. Silver pulled open the damaged front of his shirt slightly.

Elegant and intricate geyish White lines spread across the skin above his heart. A small creature curled around a circular distortion resembling folded space itself.

The design looked alive. As though it was almost moving beneath the skin. The glow continued.

[Synchronization: 89%]

The final portion arrived suddenly. An unexpected rush of power followed by a flood of information. It wasn’t enough to overwhelm him but shocking enough to leave him breathless.

The light slowly sank inward. The tattoo flashed once, twice then stabilized.

Silence returned in the ravine.

The corpse was gone and the glow vanished. Only moonlight remained to illuminate the battered and rocky grounds.

For several moments Silver sat completely still. Waiting for something to happen, a side effect, or anything. Nothing exploded.

There was no dramatic transformation or overwhelming surge of strength. Just... A quiet sense of completion.

The system appeared.

[Integration Successful.]

[Space Affinity Acquired.]

[First Beast Tattoo Integrated]

Species: Voidstep Squirrel

Type: space

Tier: three

Another notification followed immediately.

[Ability Acquired.]

Spatial Sense Lv1

Description:

Allows perception of minor spatial distortions.

Then another.

[Ability Acquired.]

Short-Step Lv1

Description:

Perform limited short-distance spatial displacement.

Current Range: 2 Meters

Silver’s eyes widened slightly.

"...Teleportation?"

[Limited displacement.]

’Still close enough’

The notifications lingered briefly before another appeared.

[Ability Acquired.]

Space Slash Lv1

Description:

Compresses spatial energy into a linear distortion capable of cutting targets at range.

Current Limitations:

• Maximum Range: 3 Meters

• High Soul Consumption

• Requires Clear Line of Sight

• Power scales with Soul Capacity

A smile appeared despite himself. After nearly dying several times, the rewards felt worthwhile.

Then a new sensation touched the edge of his awareness. A faint ripple but still distant. His newly acquired spatial sense reacted before his hearing did.

A familiar voice echoed through the darkness.

"Silver!"

Silver froze.

Relief hit him before he could stop it. The older Contractor appeared moments later from between the jagged stone formations.

He looked terrible.

His combat armor was damaged. Several fresh bandages wrapped around one arm and part of his torso. Dried blood stained his clothing.

His face appeared slightly pale beneath the moonlight. Yet, he was very much alive.

Shawn’s eyes immediately landed on Silver. For several seconds neither spoke then Shawn walked forward and came to a stop a few steps from him

He looked him up and down. Confirmed all limbs were attached and finally exhaled.

"...You fucking idiot."

Silver blinked.

"Nice to see you too."

Shawn ignored the comment entirely.

The tension in his shoulders visibly eased. Only then did Silver realize how worried the man must have been.

Shawn had been responsible for him, even though he had volunteered, and Silver had disappeared in his care. That paperwork alone probably qualified as psychological damage.

"Do you know how dangerous it is,I’ve never felt a heart attack but I felt it now," Shawn said his jaw clenched," you fell off that cliff and basically disappeared... I didn’t even know there was a fucking Ravine there."

He ran a hand through his hair as he tried not to speak, mainly to avoid insulting him. Silver stood there looking at the man and assessing his injuries.

"Are you okay?" Silver asked.

Shawn held his gaze for a moment then patted his wounded shoulders.

"Don’t worry about it, I’ve been through worse this is nothing."

Silver noticed shawn’s condition, really studied it. The older Contractor looked exhausted. It wasn’t physical but soul-exhausted. The kind of fatigue that reached deeper than muscles.

Silver’s gaze lowered toward the faint outline visible beneath Shawn’s damaged clothing.

A new tattoo.

The soul imprint hadn’t fully settled yet. Its energy still fluctuated slightly.

Silver immediately understood.

"You integrated the ape."

Shawn glanced down briefly then nodded.

"Yeah, it’s lucky that the core survived."

A rare thing apparently.

The Tier Five beast had nearly torn both of them apart, yet, somehow its core remained intact after Silver had stabbed through its heart. It seems he had missed it by a sliver.

Silver remembered the conversation from earlier. Shawn wanted a strength-type beast. A direct combat beast, something capable of compensating for the limitations of his telekinesis.

Now he had found one. Though judging by his expression, the process hadn’t been pleasant.

"How bad was it?"

Shawn stared at him.

"...Have you ever felt your soul being crushed repeatedly by a mountain?"

Silver paused.

"No."

"Good."

That answer alone explained enough.

Shawn leaned against a nearby rock. For the first time since Silver met him, the man looked genuinely tired.

Soul integration wasn’t simply absorbing power, it was forcing two spiritual structures together.

Even successful integrations carried risks especially powerful beasts.

Silver looked at him curiously.

"You should probably be resting."

"So should you."

They both chuckled, though none of them knew why.

A strange silence followed. The kind that came after surviving something neither of them had expected to survive.

Eventually, Shawn spoke again.

"What happened after you fell?"