From what Levi knew, subduing dungeon creatures to unlock the Tamer class required forcing them into a situation where their only chance of avoiding death was to do as you ordered. He'd never done it himself, being a Swordsman in the original timeline, but he'd talked to enough Tamers and Summoners to know the process.

Once he Awakened the system and gained the Tamer class officially, it would be easier by far to dominate future minions. There were spells and abilities to make the task much simpler. Only the first one had to be done organically.

“Stop fighting,” Levi commanded.

The gremlin ignored his command, wriggling and trying to twist free as vehemently as ever.

Levi leaned his knee forward, crushing the breath out of it. “Stop fighting,” he repeated.

The gremlin wheezed and clawed at the ground, tearing grass up in clumps and dragging lines through the dirt, but it did not submit.

Someone screamed.

“Is that a child? Someone help!”

Levi tilted his head as someone kicked at him, one hand whipping up in battle-trained reflex to catch the leg. He shoved back and the young woman who’d assaulted him hopped and stumbled.

“Help! Murder!”

“It’s not human,” Levi tried to explain. “It’s a monster from a dungeon.”

“Help!” she continued to scream.

Oh, right. No one in these days knew what a dungeon was, or a monster. Awakened abilities hadn't become commonplace yet. No wonder she thought he was crazy.

Levi sighed and picked up the gremlin by the throat with one hand, holding its hands together behind its back with the other.

“See? Not human.” The horn on its snout and the lashing tail really helped to sell the image.

For good or ill.

“Help! Monster!”

Levi sighed. “Forget it. I’m taking it with me.” He shook the wriggling creature. “You, quit squirming.”

The gremlin ignored the admonition. The woman fled, still shouting for help. Someone had their phone out, pointed at them. Levi gave a half-hearted grimace of a smile, but his presence on social media was hardly his highest priority at the moment.

Unfortunately Levi’s momentary distraction was enough to give the slippery gremlin an opening. It bit his hand, and Levi instinctively dropped the creature. It turned to attack again, but Levi was faster. He kicked out, then dove on top of it, slamming his elbow onto its skull and knocking it to the ground. It lay dazed and twitching.

“Last chance. Do as I say, or I’ll find another gremlin to tame.”

It stared up at him groggily, tensed as though to continue fighting, then slumped and bowed its head.

“Good. Follow me.”

Congratulations Earth Human! You have Awakened!

Stat system unlocked! Good luck!

You have 1 level to assign.

Classes available:

Brawler Tamer

“Assign level to Tamer. Set Tamer as default class. Confirm.”

The commands came easily to him, though the first time he’d been utterly baffled by the unintuitive system navigation. There was no tutorial, no help menu, no guidance whatsoever. The system acted as though everyone should already be fully familiar with its functions.

Regens are now unlocked.

New ability: Tame

Attempt to forcefully convert a creature into a minion.

Tier: 1

Cost: 5 mana, 5 stamina

Restriction: Can only be used on creatures with less than 5% health remaining.

Class ‘Tamer’ has been set to default. Would you like to name ‘Horned Gremlin’ at this time?

Levi looked down at it and considered a moment. “Skarm.”

Skarm tilted its head, seeming unsure what to think of the name, but it was too late to complain. When Levi focused on his new minion, the nameplate became visible.

Skarm: Level 1

(Horned Gremlin)

Levi nodded. It wasn't much, but it'd do. “Wait there a minute. I need to—“

Skarm poked at Levi’s injured leg, making him wince.

“What are you—?” He looked down.

Skarm was patting the bite marks where he’d torn a chunk of Levi’s leg out. It was still bleeding, dripping down his leg. The gremlin was… trying to push the blood back in.

Levi couldn’t help it. He laughed. “That’s not going to work. Nice try, though. Just stand over there. I need to think.”

A wave of dizziness reminded him that he was, in fact, still injured. His regeneration should have taken care of it by now… no, wait. Skarm wasn’t the only thing at level 1. Levi brought up his personal stats and frowned.

Levi Morrison Unassigned Levels: 0 Stat Points: 1 Ability Points: 0 Primary Class: Tamer Tamer Level: 1 Subclass: None Strength: 0 Health: 67/100 Health Regen: 1 /minute Psyche: 0 Mana: 10/10 Mana Regen: 1 /minute Spirit: 0 Stamina: 42/50 Stamina Regen: 1 /minute

His first instinct was to put the stat point into Strength to increase his health regen, but those were his old Swordsman instincts. His health was draining steadily from his injury, but he had over ten minutes before he needed to start worrying.

For now, Levi closed the menu. He could decide what to do with his build once he was no longer losing health every fifteen seconds.

Whatever dungeon Skarm had come from would be his best bet. Even a low level dungeon should have a restorative potion he could find within ten minutes. He’d be fine so long as he didn’t dally.

Right now, very few people knew how to detect and enter dungeons, let alone defeat them. Levi had a head start on the world. He couldn’t afford to waste it.

“Alright. Come, Skarm. Let’s get started.”

Levi ran through the mana ping sequence by long-trained reflex, mentally shooting out a pulse of mana that bounded back only if it encountered another mana-infused object.

“Only ten mana. That’s going to take some getting used to.” The ping had cost his entire pool. A point in Psyche to increase that would make a much bigger difference in the long run. But he held off.

Skarm registered first, standing right beside him, then a fainter signal from further in the park.

Before he’d taken two steps, Skarm jumped up and down in place, waving both hands to catch his attention.

“What is it?”

Skarm squeaked anxiously and bobbed his horned head, pointing off to the side.

Levi turned to look, then immediately scowled. The screaming woman was back, now no longer screaming but accompanied by a policeman. She pointed at Levi and the officer started toward him.

There were no laws in place to cover this eventuality, and trying to enforce rules on Awakened would quickly become untenable. But right now no one knew that, and he did not have time to get caught up in petty legal nonsense over subjugating a gremlin.

“Time to go.” Levi broke into a run, Skarm scurrying to keep up.

“Hey! Stop there!” The policeman ran after him, but even with his just-Awakened body Levi was faster. He had to pause for his minion to catch up when he reached the dungeon entrance, but even the gremlin was faster than the policeman. He seemed to be struggling to catch up.

Dungeons presented themselves in any number of ways, depending on their nature. This one clearly had a standard destruction theme, judging by the horned gremlin it had acting as its scout, though Levi couldn’t have guessed that from looking at it. Dungeons increased in difficulty the more people used them, until they eventually became practically unassailable. It had been so long since he’d seen a level 1 anything.

If not for his mana ping pointing him right to it, he could have walked past it without ever noticing it. Levi turned to look at the waving patch of air, fluctuating and flickering ever so subtly. If someone wasn't looking for it, there was very little chance they'd notice the dungeon entrance. Levi placed a hand on the air shimmer and focused. The patch of air lit up, glowing brightly for him, and its info appeared. Destruction Dungeon: Level 1

Dungeons didn’t exist in real space, their entrances little more than a simple doorway. How that doorway presented itself depended on various factors - once a dungeon reached level 20 or so it would stop hiding and make its doorway visible to all - but in early days dungeons tended to rely on ambush and tricking the unsuspecting into slipping inside by accident.

It was generally recommended to enter a dungeon with a group no smaller than three, though two could do it if they knew what they were doing.

Fortunately, Levi knew exactly what he was doing.

Without hesitation, he stepped into the shimmering patch of light.