"This is your battle suit, boots, and the Animanium Blade G1. Do you have any questions?" A male military officer passed a set of objects to Thomas.
"No sir!" Thomas put on the jet-black battle suit, the boots and the twenty-five inch blade. Despite bladed weapons being inferior and highly outdated, all other weapons were too expensive to him so he only learned how to use knifes and short-swords.
The blade glowed in a green luster under the sunlight. Tomas could feel his anima energy his fluctuate the second he held the blade, he could feel the blade was made with Vitality-attribute Animanium.
"Here is a TCD, which can send calls even within the area of a Spatial Rift, it also has GPS and some other features. And this is an incense grenade, throwing it will attract some of the wild monsters lurking in the woods. Just be careful with how you use it, otherwise it will be a suicide. "
While the officer was saying that, he was a bit suspicious as he looked at Thomas. Even if he had indeed become an adept, the old officer found a little hard to put a sixteen-year old boy on a battlefield.
Thomas could feel the officer feelings and shrugged his shoulders before he sprinted away. He had been the target of contempt for too long and learned sometimes he had to respond such things with actions, not words.
Close to the entrance of the forest surrounding the city ruins, each of the 50 participants received the weapons that were most suitable for them.
Each of them used cold weapons! This was the requirement for any Adept as Animanium and Energy Weapons are too expensive and no one would waste it making bullets or charging their energy weapons with it.
Another factor is that the blades are nourished by the Anima Energy of their users, so the blade will never lose its edge.
At this time, Thomas who had finished changing into the battle suit was together with a few other participants chatting.
"The battle suit they let us use is so expensive! If you put down everything I have equipped, it'll be worth at least two hundred thousand credits." A seventeen-year old boy was pointing excitedly pointed to his uniform and equipment. He was a young and straightforward Adept from a simple background that became an Adept with his own effort.
A girl with a stern expression laughed, before speaking. "Of course they are expensive, just the metal alloy with 20% of Animanium is over ten times the price of other battle suits. They're only lent to us for this part of the selection. However, it can defend against the low and mid rank demons and other creatures on the same level. I heard from a friend that most dimensional creatures within the forest are ordinary 1-star monsters so the suit is enough to protect us. "
Thomas then cut in. "Even if the won't rip can't rip, I heard the force of the monsters are still enough to break our bones. I heard that there is at least over 40,000 of them in the ruins."
Mid-rank beast were different from the colorless demon's Thomas met, the lowest rank of creatures in the demon world. The weakest mid-rank demon is already equivalent to a 1-star Adept.
Even Thomas was secretly a bit nervous, unlike the demons that appeared regularly, he didn't have the chance to meet other types of invaders this is the first time.
General Kaiser glared at the participants before him: "Soldiers open the gate! The second stage of the selection is starting now!"
Thomas and the other participants walked for at least half an hour under the lead of a soldier. They reached the huge metal walls that separated the safe zone from where the monsters appeared. It was already evening at this time, and the sun has dropped.
Various howls would make your heart skip a beat could be heard from the dark forest.
The entire forest and city ruins was surrounded by many barriers of barbed wire, iron walls and other traps to keep the monsters inside. Following behind the participants were a large amount of soldiers with energy guns in case a more powerful monster appeared.
General Kaiser explained the rules to the participants. "From this point forward you guys are all by yourselves. You will have until 6:30 PM tonight, we will begin. The more monsters you slaughter, the more points you get. For each monster you slaughter, you must bring its heart as proof. "
"Guys open the gate!" Two middle-aged officers opened the huge iron gates leading into the forest.
The 50 Adepts in the selection dashed forward, and braved into the training grounds.
"Shut the door!" Ordered the General.
...Pang! the only gate closed shut.
Now the true selection begins.
In the forest on the outskirts of the city ruins, the fifty people rapidly spread out and started to hunt their prey. Some in teams while others went out all alone.
"Hey, Thomas are you going to challenge monster town alone?" One of the participants asked as he formed a group with four other Adepts.
Thomas firmly nodded his head: "Yes, this isn't just about hunting monsters and other creatures. This is a place for training your courage! I have lived too long hiding my emotions and only watching as I was left behind. The dangers of fighting alone are high, it is the only way to reach a high position in the selection. "
That Adept thought a little before he nodded: "You're right. Brother, just be careful."
That Adept left with the other four. Thomas also breathed deeply and also quickly sprinted towards south.
[Hey boy what are you doing ?! You could have easily taken them as your mortal servants, why did you refuse ?!]
Hearing Ares' angry voice in his mind made Thomas a little uncomfortable. It was already hard enough to talk with the system and keep hearing the notifications. Now he even had a particular chat room with a god and all he does is keep screaming.
"Weren't you who said I should become the first in the selection. If I went out to hunt in group, I would have to share the kills with my teammates. Which would make my final result lower than it could be if I fought by myself. I also don't want to risk revealing my secrets or losing the system. "
[I see you thought a lot about this. I don't like people who are too calculating in battles, it reminds me of Athena.]
This time Thomas slowed down when another deity got mentioned. "Athena, I remember she was the goddess of wisdom."
[Wisdom and Strategy. Among all us she is the one I fear the most.]
'Because you are stupid and she is smart?' Thomas thought, but he won't dare to speak it loud.
[Watch out!] The voice of Ares made Thomas immediately raise his guard when he noticed movement in the brushes. Strange creatures with a saucer-shaped body and tentacles at their feet attacked him with by shooting a strange green fluid at him.
'Swift Feet!' His feet let him out a glow as he quickly dodged the fluid which fell onto a tree. Upon contact, the tree lost its color and began to decompose at an fast speed.
Seeing how potent the acid was, Thomas took some distance from the creatures who seemed to be speaking in some unknown language.
"What creature is that ?!"
[I don't know. We only ever traveled between Gaia and your world, we didn't even knew about so many dimensions these rifts that are appearing here. You should kill them instead of wasting time thinking.]
"But I must think before I attack!" Thomas dodged another acid ball before taking out his blade.
'If I get too close, even if I did kill them I'm not going to escape unscathced. I must find a way to kill them at least 10 m away.'
Thomas ran around the three saucer-shaped creatures. Gathered some Anima Energy, forming seven Titan God's hands.
These hands were way smaller than the one he formed when the eight Adepts attacked him. The Seven hands surrounded the three creatures, attacking with a barricade of punches.
PAN! PAN! PAN! PAN! PAN! PAN!...
The acid of the creatures still managed to melt a little of the hands, but all them were already dead.
"Phew." Thomas cleaned the sweat off his forehead. "Oh god, Fighting like this is exhausting. System! Why there isn't a way for me to know how much I have of energy?
[System Notification: You can buy it on the System Store.]
[Energy Sensor: It enables to user to see and detect the source and amount of energy in either creature or object. Price: 130,000]
[Ares: are you going to by that?]
"Yes." Thomas paid the 130,000 credits and another skill appeared in his character sheet.
The segond he got the skill he could a small energy bar on the left corner of his vision.
[Anima Energy: 200/300] [Demonic Energy: 100/100]
Not only that when he stared at the forest, he could see countless shining dots. In some places the dots were lighter while some were getting darker and darker.
It made it easy to see where the true dangerous beasts were. With it he could hunt a lot easier without caring about a monster's ambush.
[Alert: 6 females have been successful impregnated with the help of the Aura of Fertility. 10 attribute points acquired!]
'Wait, what!?"