Sam took some deep breaths as he tried his best to calm his heart down. He knew he was the one who asked for this, but he still couldn't control how he was feeling.

  "We are on them," Marcus shouted at him over the sound of the tender moving on the water, "Target them with your skill."

  "Ok-Okay," Sam replied as he gulped.

  At that moment, only he, Rose and Marcus were in the tender. His sister joined as the tender's pilot and Marcus was there as protection. Ricky wanted to be the one manning the tender but his sister refused. He knew that she joined them both because she was worried about him and also because she felt that other people shouldn't be put through danger because of his whims.

  He clenched his hands as he got closer to the side of the tender. It wasn't on a whim that he wanted this though, it was important, his sister just didn't see it. His Class needed this, he needed this to grow, or not even to grow, just to be useful. He was a tamer, how could a tamer be of use without anything to tame?

  The tender was speeding around the Voyager's protective circle, parallel to the last few Swarmers still circling the cruise ship. Marcus had Rose keep the same speed and maintain the same distance from one of those Swarmers, all he had to do was target one of them and see if he could bring it under his control.

  From those Sam managed to bring this up with, it seemed that all of them, but one, got offered a skill choice at their level 1. It wasn't like that for him though, he was only offered 1 skill during it, it felt as if his Class had to have that skill at level 1.

  The skill he got was called Mental Imprint. From the description, if he targeted a qualified creature, it would send a mental imprint of some kind that would enter the creature's soul where its will would fight against his, if his won, the creature would become one of his tamed beasts.

  Sam took a deep breath as he prepared to activate his skill. He put all his attention on one of those Swarmers, which was in front of him exactly, moving with the boat perfectly. Having it in his eyes, he flipped the switch.

  Sam felt his head spin as something left his body. It was so weird, like nothing he had ever been through. At the same time, he felt a strong arm grab him.

  "Are you alright?" He could hear Marcus's voice. It was far and felt echoey somehow.

  "I'm- I'm good," he managed to say. His mind wasn't on any of that though, almost all his attention was on the new sensations he was feeling.

  He felt that he was connected to another consciousness, this new consciousness was so primitive though, it only had hunger and anger, as if those were the only two emotions it could feel.

  Fortunately, most of that hate was towards the threatening aura that felt almost like a barrier at its side. It had been fighting against it for hours and it was so, so tired. Even through that tiredness though, the wrath was still felt.

  Sam didn't know how he did it, but he knew that what he had to do now was bring the monster under his control. He also didn't know how he was supposed to do just that, but again, something deep inside him seemed to be awakening, an instinct that was put there after he got his Class.

  He felt something rise from deep within his soul, it almost felt like whatever the Swarmer was fighting against, just infinitely smaller and less significant. The thing this aura had going for it that that one didn't, was how it travelled directly to the creature's mind, it bypassed all its defences and attacked its already tired soul.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Sam controlled that aura, if it could be called that, as he hit it again and again against the Swarmer's will, soul or whatever it was. He just went at it relentlessly. At one time he felt the connection between them become fainter as if the creature was suddenly further away from him. Almost at the same time, he felt his body lurch a bit, but the hand kept him in place. The connection then got stronger and stronger till it returned to what it was at first.

  Even though it was tired and got hit time after time by Sam's aura, the Swarmer still bit back at him, he could feel a prickling sensation all over his soul as if his aura was getting injured somehow. Fortunately, that didn't last long, and soon, the creature's resistance became weaker and weaker till it finally disappeared altogether. Sam felt the imprint he sent at first settle into the creature's soul

  As soon as that happened he felt another being connected to him, it was kinda primitive and could barely form a few thoughts, but it was there, awaiting his orders. At the same time, he felt that the anger that the Swarmer felt towards him had disappeared, just towards him though, the little monstrosity was still angry at everything else.

  "It worked!" he shouted in excitement as he turned to Marcus who was holding him.

  "Happy to hear that kid," Marcus said as he pulled him deeper to the tender, away from the edge, "But I think that something went wrong in that little experiment of yours..."

  It was only then that Sam felt that something wasn't exactly right in the tender. First, the tender had stopped at some point in time. Second, both Marcus and his sister were looking behind him in caution for the first and panic for the second.

  Sam thought that they were only reacting like that to his new tamed monster, as he could feel it right on the side of the tender, so he turned around aiming to calm them down.

  "WhaAGHHHHHH!" He found himself making the highest scream he had ever released as he turned around.

  "I thought you said you only wanted to tame one of them," Marcus said slowly as he looked at the tiny swarm circling the tender.

  ***

  Dan was finally back in his room, that day was too much for his poor soul. As if the scare in the morning wasn't good enough, he found himself dealing with the mess that Sam brought.

  Well, it wasn't really much of a mess. It was just that his soul almost left his body when he saw the tender stop moving and all the remaining Swarmers, which were circling the Voyager, started circling it instead.

  Fortunately, it was a false scare, after Sam read the description of the Swarmers he got from the system after taming one of them, it was all explained.

  Those horrific creatures turned out to be quite simple-minded, they basically only had two thoughts in their minds, hunger and anger. They only existed to follow one of those two. It was surprising to realise the reason those creatures ignored Cornerstones was that they were too angry to care for whatever effect it had on them. Even the Voyager's horrifying aura, which was how they felt it from what Sam said, barely had them give up on coming after her.

  That simple-mindedness of theirs also meant that they didn't have enough brainpower to consider a lot of things, if one of them got triggered, they would all go on the offensive. Only after whatever triggered their fury disappeared would they return to their territory for rest. That also meant that if one of them, let's say, got tamed and suddenly became calm, the nearby Swarmers would also join it, falling into their default state of just swimming around, following the first.

  That was basically what had happened to Sam and the gang, after he tamed that one Swarmer, the others all followed its lead and fell into rest mode. Dan found it so absurdly funny when he realised what had happened.

  It wasn't all fun though, as they knew how truly frightening a swarm of those creatures could be. From what the system said, those creatures were magically connected, the more of them there were in a swarm the stronger they would become, in every single aspect, their bodies, their stamina, their biting power. Dan didn't doubt that with enough of them out there, even a Behemoth might be in danger. Again, Dan had to agree that the name Swarmers was extremely fitting for them.

  The one who came out at the absolute top in all of this was obviously Sam. He only went out to get one tamed creature, but he ended up taming 10 in total, 10 was the limit of the creatures he could keep using his skill at tier 1. With the help of those 10 though, he basically had full control of the 94 Swarmers that were still circling the Voyager when he went out to get one for himself.

  Dan started drifting to sleep as his mind kept going through all sorts of subjects, just as he was about to fall asleep for real, he got a notification. In his confusion, he brought up his phone and looked at it, trying to find it, but there was nothing there.

  As he kept on looking at it in confusion for a few more moments, his mind finally woke up enough to realise that it was a system notification, and not from his phone.

  Calling the system, he read what was sent his way. That one message chased away any sleepiness he had,

  Level 8 achieved, skill selection ready.