The days passed by slowly as nothing happened while Seth continued his daily life without problem. He also learned that he couldn't level up his cultivation as quickly as he did last time. Then as he awoke one day, he saw a message.
[You achieve a mana heart.]
[You are now a first circle mage. Your Intelligence, Concentration and Magic increase by 10.]
'Well that's a good way to start the day.' He thought before he sat up and had breakfast, before going to his dungeon. These past 5 days, he had created 3 boss monsters and 3 regular and minion monsters.
One other thing he did was call Jin, who told him to increase the prices because monster meat was rich in mana, which he did.
[Name: None.
Species: Direwolf.
Level: Earth.
Strength: 45.
Agility: 50.
Vitality: 47.
Intelligence: 20.
Magic: 25.
Mana: 34.
Skills:
Howl: Summons 5 other direwolves to aid in battle.
Chain barrage: Summons chains that it can use for multiple purposes.]
[Name: None.
Species: Bullet Bull.
Level: Earth.
Stats:
Strength: 50.
Agility: 35.
Vitality: 80.
Intelligence: 10.
Skills:
Flame charge: Charges at the opponent at high speeds while lit ablaze.
Paralyzing horn: Upon being hit by it, enemies will be paralyzed.
Ricochet: Shifts into a rapidly moving sphere.]
[Name: None.
Species: Fire sprite (Newly created).
Level: Earth.
Stats:
Strength: 15.
Agility: 20.
Vitality: 10.
Intelligence: 50.
Concentration: 70.
Mana: 87.
Magic: 85.
Skills:
Firestorm: Launches a fire tornado directly in front of it.
Fireball: Launches a sphere of flame that explodes upon impact.
Soul impact: Deals damage directly to an enemy's soul.]
As for the minions, he had gotten too many of different types, so he only inspected the three monsters.
[Name: None.
Species: Junk robot.
Level: Mortal.
Stats:
Strength: 13.
Agility: 10.
Vitality: 20.
Intelligence: 11.
Skills:
Chain fist: Ejects its arm to punch the opponent. Retractable with a chain.
Tuning: Increases stats by 100% for 10 minutes.
Synchronize: Turns into a set of armor that can equip itself to any person or creature in sight.]
[Name: None.
Species: Speed robot.
Level: Mortal.
Stats:
Strength: 9.
Agility: 20.
Vitality: 13.
Intelligence: 11.
Skills:
Sonic edge: Deals 200% of its regular attack damage by striking the opponent with a spinning kick.
Full gear: Doubles its attack for a single attack.
Rocket boost: Uses extreme speed to strike its foe.]
[Name: None.
Species: Dino worm.
Level: Mortal.
Stats:
Strength: 3.
Agility: 2.
Vitality: 1.
Intelligence: 5.
Skills:
Silk spit: Spits out high quality silk to entrap opponents.]
While the stats of the worm he had acquired were incredibly weak, he wasn't simply gonna neglect it because it was weak, so he kept it alongside the other monsters he could carry on him. Maybe it could level into something useful.
Now how was he going to hide these for his test? He wasn't. But he began to think of how to exploit the gods with this.
Fortunately, someone else also had the same idea.
[The insect of storms offers you a trade. Accept or reject?]
He checked the conditions of the trade, which required him to walk into town with all his monsters revealed in exchange for a storage skill or two. He quickly accepted and waited.
[The insect of storms proposes a bet to the other gods]
He then led the monsters out. The larger ones struggled to squeeze through, leaving cracks on the walls near the door but it was nothing his dungeon core couldn't easily fix.
After locking his doors, he got on Vince's back before he rode to the city, to the awe of countless other people and officers, as well as the awakeners, as no one wanted to be on the receiving end of 11 monsters and 20 minions' attacks, no matter their level.
After a smooth, unperturbed ride into the giant test building, he received another message.
[The insect of storms grants you two gifts.]
[Demonica lv.1: The ultimate monster storage skill, capable of storing any being if its level doesn't surpass yours by more than one. Current slots: 0/50.]
[Lightning steps lv.1: A footwork technique that allows you to move faster by harnessing the power of electricity.]
He then stored all of the 31 monsters away before entering and walking up to the receptionist. "Welcome sir, how may I help you?" She asked with a smile while quietly looking him up and down.
"I'm here to take the awakener test." He said while also staring back at her.
"Right that way, sir." She said while pointing to a door to her left. "Pick up a ticket and wait until it changes to your number." She explained.
Without another word, he walked into the testing room, picking up a ticket before sitting down and reading a book in silence.
Inside the room were three people. One man talking to a beautiful woman with a cold attitude, and a muscular middle aged man swinging a sword. Everyone was doing their thing before "Ding" The number changed, and a dejected young man exited through the door.
After him, the middle aged man confidently walked in with his sword in hand, leaving only three people in the room. Seth occasionally glanced at the two while they did the same. But other than that, they had no further interaction.
"Ding." The number changed and the man left the testing room with a huge grin on his face. "Rank B, baby." He said before leaving through the door.
The man talking with the woman then entered, but not before giving her what seemed to be advice, and the next moment, she was walking up to Seth. "What do you want?" He asked her indifferently.
"What are you reading?" She asked him while staring at the book in his hands.
"For bread alone." He said while flipping the page, not looking at her as he ignored any other questions she might have had.
"Ding." 30 minutes later, the man walked out of the testing room, and the woman entered after him, glancing at Seth before she did.
The man remained inside the waiting room for her to leave, while Seth read his book as 2 other women entered the room, laughing and talking with each other.
The number changed, and the girl left the room alongside the man as Seth put his book into his bag of holding before walking into the room.
"Welcome, mister..." The invigilator said, before realizing he didn't know the examinee's name.
"Seth." He spoke, staring back at the man.
"What is your level?" He asked, while his eyes shone golden.
"Mortal, first circle." Seth quickly responded.
"No, I meant as in numbers." The man explained.
"I don't know... I guess zero?" He spoke, confused as well.
"I-I see." The man said, seemingly caught off guard. "Please touch that crystal in front of you." He requested, to which Seth obliged.
His status window appeared, this time with something different.
[Name: Seth Malik.
Age: 26.
Species: Some sort of primordial lizard.
Level: 0 (Mortal, First circle)
Status: Perfectly fine.
Mana: 1200/1200.
Class: None. Dungeon master recommended.
Stats:
Strength: 55.
Agility: 64.
Vitality: 58.
Intelligence: 113.
Concentration: 75.
Magic: 130.
Luck: 125.
(Other stats hidden)
Equipment:
Emerald Fang (Katana sword).
Crystal Ant's Shell (Exoskeleton armor).
Skills: Taming Lv.4.
Equivalent exchange Lv.1.
Reroll Lv.1.
Mana manipulation Lv.2.
Multiple heads cultivation lv.2.
Partial transformation (Basic) lv.1.
Demonica lv.1.
Dark magic (Basic) lv.1.
Lightning steps (Basic) lv.1.]
The invigilator stared at the status in shock. These were NOT stats and skills a level 0 should have. In fact, a level 0 should not have any skills and their stats should be ranging from 1-10, because a level 0 was just a civilian, not even awakener. "O-okay, and for what purpose do you want to become an awakener?" He asked.
Shortly after his question, the crystal cracked and burst into dust.
"My and my monsters' food supply is running out." He said nonchalantly, to the surprise of the proctor. "And money to earn on the side."
'On the side? What kinda job does this guy even have?' He thought. "Can I see those monsters?" He requested with a smile.
Agreeing to the request, he summoned all of his monsters into the room, leaving the man stupefied once more. "Goddamn." He spoke. "Alright, I'm gonna need to see your ID." The man said, while he handed it over. "Any criminal charges?"
"Battery, assault with a deadly weapon, murder, vehicular manslaughter and domestic terrorism." He quickly listed off, which earned him a bewildered expression from the invigilator
[The gods want to know more about your past.]
"How the fuck are you not in jail?" He asked him while quickly blinking as he wrote things down.
"A good lawyer and knowing people. Anyways, am I done or what?" He inquired.
"One more preformance test." He said before pressing a button, making several monsters appear. The monsters were goblins and wolves.
To a man who was already trained in swordfighting and actual combat, these were nothing as he cut them down with his sword and its skills, the ones he cut disappearing into some blue cubes. The fight ended quickly.
"I guess it doesn't matter if you're a criminal since we need all the help we can get." He said as he handed him his ID, a badge, and some sort of identification card. "Don't lose them, because they'll be a pain your ass if you do."
"Is everything that goes here private?" Seth then asked.
"Of course, sir. All your information is secure here." He quickly responded.
The number changed, and Seth quickly left the waiting room, which was now packed with people. Then, he headed to check for any open dungeons, and picked a few suitable ones before heading out towards them after talking to the receptionist.
He was unaware he was being tailed by a few people, all of whom seemed like businessmen.