They soon arrived at the Academy Testing Grounds or what they called Testing Site. Turns out, it was an island. Barricaded with high walls all around.
They soon landed and then saw the school. It was more of a military camp than a school.
Renji arrived and walked out of the helicopter then saw his fellow candidates. Well, they were mostly his age and some were looking at him with a proud looks. Thinking that they can beat him up or talent that they possess too.
Many individuals were already exercising and were sweating out their boredom. Yuan was impressed with how hard-working they were.
It was then, a woman in a suit approached him. Carried a tablet with her then fixed her eyeglasses.
The helicopter then started to rev its rotor blades and left. Maybe more were still going to be recruited. Yuan went to the side as it was windy with the helicopter leaving. She then guided him inside the building.
"You are Renji Yuda right?" she asked politely.
"Yeah," Renji said in a hesitant voice.
"And you are a genius copycat?" she was curious.
"I don't know how that rumor has reached you. All I did was beat all the athletes in our school. Whether it be on physical sports or mental sports," Renji was a bit hesitant to tell more.
"Ah, I see, well as there are still more to arrive. Please sit," she said then the lights went on.
He saw a room full of chairs and it looked like a briefing room if Renji won't make a mistake.
"I will give you a device that will help you while killing monsters. Killing more, the better. It will absorb the essence from the monsters you killed and convert it to upgrade points like stats. Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Focus. I suggest that you have to treasure each point," she then gave him a rugged phone that was built for bad weather.
"What do I do with this?" Yuan asked.
"Looks like a rugged phone,"
"I present you the PUD. It is called a Personal Upgrade Device. It will collect monster essence from your body and upgrade your stats. It is called the upgrade phenomenon where your absorbed monster essence is converted.
"And the monsters have essences that are discovered by our research team. It was a tremendous discovery that gave us hope to fight this plague," She said.
Islinda paused and grabbed a device that looks like a smartphone. He handed it to Renji and Renji grabbed it. It looks like a thick device that has a camera and a screen. In its back was a miniature solar panel.
"Press the fingerprint sensor and it will be automatically registering you as the owner," She explained.
"Okay that is easy," Renji said then pressed the circular button on its front screen just at the bottom.
To Renji, it was like a home button. He pressed it and he was stung by a needle in the forefinger.
"Ouch! What is that?" He shouted as he lets go of the device.
Blood was spilled on the fingerprint button and Yuan sucked his finger.
"It registered your blood to imprint you as the user by your DNA itself," Islinda explained.
Renji was impressed and then looked at the PUD. He saw a profile sheet on the screen and entered his name, age, and blood type.
"It was handed from the Inventors faction to the other friendly factions fighting this plague. It will serve as your ID and companion.
"It can serve as a radio, Gps, clock, alarm, flashlight, heat sensor, and night vision camera.
"It can be attached to your battle suit at the nape, facing the solar panel to the sun to charge while moving. Or attach it in your hand while combatting," Islinda said.
"Wow, that is awesome!" Renji said in glee. 'Though I have better ones.' he smirked
Looking at its back and front. He smiled like never before.
"It is waterproof and shockproof. Now we are not yet on the best part," She said to them.
Renji looked at her and was silent. Waiting to know more about the device.
"Go to the Upgrades and press the collect essence," Islinda said.
Renji without second thoughts, Pressed [Upgrades], and [Collect essence]. Immediately, he felt that something was being sucked from him.
He can see steam getting out of his body and it was sucked by the PUD. After it, he saw that the PUD was getting his essence.
"I have monster essence?" Renji blurted out.
"The essence that your body has sucked from the monsters will be converted to your enhancements," Islinda explained.
He saw that a bar was getting full and he saw that it went to level one.
[Extraction complete]
A chart of Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, and Focus was just below the bar and it all went up to one.
[Would you like to assign points manually?]
[Yes] or [No?]
[If yes, then you will remain Level one and the rest essence will be saved to your essence points]
[If no, then your essence points will be put into your initial stats]
"Yes is my answer," Renji puts his fingers on the button.
.....
Statistics
Level 1
Strength: 14
Dexterity: 20
Endurance: 9
Focus: 36
Essence points: 20
...
Renji felt lighter than before and his burdens and shackles were all now gone. He was in deep thought and was thinking.
'Twenty points to the essence? That means I will be level 6 if I choose no. Or is it?' Renji thought.
"What level are you?" She asked.
"Level one," Renji replied.
"So you chose to manually spend it. Well, you can receive points when extracting essence every time you've hit a level. Every level up was four essence points.
"It's up to you if you want to convert it to level or essence points. But every level up was an immediate plus to the stats. Choose carefully when spending your points. It was far more precious than diamonds," Islinda said.
"Well, that wraps it up. Thank you for teaching me. I will save my points. Does my stat means it was only one or it was a plus to my base stat that was what I have currently?" Renji asked concerned.
"That was just a plus to your stats. You can rest assured that your performance was not lowered but heightened," Islinda said.
"Oh really? Haha, that was reassuring. I can make a necklace out of this," Renji said.
Renji tweaked his new device and used all its functions. He examined the explanations of each stat and was reading it.
.....
[Stats explained]
Strength
–the power of muscles in general. It was the stat used when dealing with melee damage or the capacity to carry armor/ backpack/guns/weapons.
Dexterity
–involves the reaction time, attack speed of melee attacks, movement speed, precision, evasion chance, and critical chance.
Endurance
–the capacity to handle pain, health capacity, stamina capacity, defense, and resistance.
Focus
–increases the abilities of the person in critical times. The mental state to be able to work under pressure. Triggering chance of mental ability. Protecting sanity and willpower. The capacity to enhance intelligence. Affecting wits and memory power.
...
He thought of experimenting with the device furthermore. He puts one point each to his stats and his level rose to level two.
....
Statistics
Level 2
Strength: 14+2
Dexterity: 20+2
Vitality: 9+2
Focus: 36+2
Essence points: 12
.....
Renji felt empowered as he put points to his statistics. He felt that something invisible went inside him and he felt lighter.
'So that's it! If the lowest number is two and it was all evenly two. I can make other points and put it all into strength but it will still be level two.
'But if my points are all evenly distributed, it will make my level rise higher. The yes or no button is pretty reasonable, to begin with. It was pretty much the same.
'But if you want to specialize in strength, you can put it all into strength. But your level won't be affected. Wow, this is interesting.
'Now I need to farm more essence. Maybe in the future. Does this device get its battery drained or something? I don't see a plug to charge it like my phone. Well, let's just hope it doesn't get drained,' Renji said in his mind.