Chapter 10 Runic Test

March 1, 2028

Alliance of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN)

P-Base Sanctuary, Sector 2

ASEAN 1st Senior High School, Sector 2

•••••

The P-Base Sanctuary was one of the Minor sanctuaries in ASEAN, but it's one of the fiercest bases of ASEAN's various Sanctuaries. It was extremely strong, the wall has never been breached.

To be able to become the Vice Governor of the P-Base sanctuary, Yu Jin-ho was definitely a Runic Champion himself.

Who would not be excited to see a Runic Champion?

"Hello, students!"

Yu Jin-ho gave the students a simple greeting, and the Runic Tests officially began.

The testing machine was a combination of a Pod that looks like a CT scan machine and some scary-looking needles.

There was a total of 50 Pod, and each time 50 people could undergo the trial. One vial of serum can run the machine 100 times.

After a class teacher called out names based on the list, 50 students walked up the stage. Then, with the guidance of Government staffs, they operated the Pod and started the trial.

"Is that the device and the serum that will test if someone will awaken their Runic seed? I read it on the internet, I heard it's super expensive!"

"It's not ordinarily expensive! To put it bluntly, even you have the money, even if you triple that money you can't still buy it, I heard you need special privileges!"

"Are you for real?"

"You think? The device is made out of two components, a smart computer, and a helmet. Once we put on the helmet, our minds will be in a state of absolute calmness, and we'll experience some extreme situations!"

"At the same time, those scary-looking needles will puncture some vital parts of our body then the Serum will do the rest."

"Under the stimulation of the Serum the seed in our spirit consciousness will grow some roots, now that the seed has it roots, we can now cultivate and absorb runic energy without a problem."

"Generally we cant cultivate without having the standard physique of an 'Elite Warrior', but the newly awaken Runic Champions will not have that problem."

"Tsk, the advantage of a Runic Champions on normal Champions are truly disheartening; a special ability, faster cultivation, resources, and some special privileges"

As the audience below whispered, the Government staffs operated the Pods.

The next moment, all 50 students trembled because they are enduring something unusual. Some were angry, some were desperate, some were fearful, some were afraid..."

Their expressions were varied but all extreme.

Larry was secretly amazed. While experiencing extreme stimuli and injecting the Serum into the pineal gland, the seed would be awakened under the stimuli. So this was the Runic Trials!

Of course, only those with extreme luck will awaken. If you don't have that extreme luck, start praying that you will pass the academy exam.

"I wonder who in these 50 students will have their seed awaken?"

Larry stared at the 50 students closely, and all of the students on the field watched them nervously as well. It was the first time most people were watching a Runic test, but it might also be the only time in their lives.

Unknowingly, a minute had passed, and aside from screaming, the 50 students showed no abnormal behavior.

"They have failed!" Yu Jin-ho shook his head and motioned the staff to stop the test.

"Next batch"

The school faculties had long gotten accustomed to this. There were too few students awakening every year, and in the previous years, getting even 10 was good enough. In fact, in 5000 students there should be 25 lucky ones, over the years students who are awakening their runic seed is getting lower and lower.

This year's trials had only just begun, so it would be impossible for them to strike something yet, so they had to be patient.

Seeing this, many students gradually despaired.

"To think that there's no one in the first batch passed... It looks like we're done for!"

"Damn, the probability is just too low!"

Larry was secretly anxious. He was not a person without confidence, but he was unable to muster any confidence with the situation before him. 50 students, and not a single person. That made it more harder to cut the line!

"Larry, it's our turn!"

Larry looked up and saw his teacher walking to them holding the list in his hand.

"Whether I live an easy life or become a cog for the rest of my life, it all depends on this!" Larry said to himself. At first, he doesn't put that much hope on becoming a Runic Champion, but who doesn't like superpowers?

When Runic abilities had first been introduced to the human race, people had quickly discovered that some were far more powerful than others.

The abilities themselves were also different from person to person. They were dependent on what kind of seed could be activated within the body and how much Rune energy a person's body could consume.

Not long after came the introduction of the power level system, which differentiated between a total of 12 power levels.

These levels indicated the size of the Tree(seed) and leaves inside the body or spirit consciousness but not how strong the ability was. The World Council further divided them into Grade subcategories; Elite Warrior, Master, GrandMaster, and Challenger, and every grade is further divided by ranks 3, 2, and rank 1 being the highest, a total of 12 levels.

(Martial warrior ranks are the peak of a human capability without cultivation.)

There were two kinds of Champions; There were the so-called Runic Champions that have a Runic Ability, and the normal Champions who don't have special abilities, they only cultivate to get stronger.

During the war with the Superbeast, some people in distress started to exhibit powers, which the human mind could not comprehend. Scientists claimed it was humanity's last stand against extinction. The power the Runic Champions could display had come as a shock to the Superbeast and had proven to be enough to push them back.

These new Champions realized that they could share their powers with other people. So they did it quickly since humanity depended on these strange powers for survival. They wrote down how they accomplished this and put the information down in things that would later become known as Cultivation arts and breathing techniques.

After the war had calmed down, the information was no longer distributed freely and instead started to go on sale to the public. The first Runic Champions and Champions had realized that their powers now put them at the top of the food chain and they wanted to make the most of it. The top echelon decided to keep some of the more powerful abilities to themselves.

From that point forward, art and technique books ranging from level 1 to 6 were the ones sold to the public, while giant corporations, guilds, and the Alliances connived with the first known ability users to keep the higher-level versions to themselves.

As such, if one was a Runic Champion, they either belonged to a top family, top guilds or the 5 Alliances, one could only learn top knowledge from those who monopolize them. Unsurprisingly, the Runic Champions were stronger and accessed higher levels than the rest of the human race.

Additionally, not all Runic Champions had chosen to share or expose their abilities to the outside world and some had decided to keep it exclusive to their own circle. Runic Champions usually had the strongest of abilities that couldn't be measured using the power system.

Larry's student number was "32", and he was in the 2nd batch for today. After a few seconds, it was his turn.

"Bruce Li!

"Jack Chen!

"Anton Cruz!

"Sato Ryo!

"Azim Rha!

"Tae Ka!

"Sharim Ra!

"Larry T Xīng!"

...

"Larry, bro I'm so nervous!"

Bruce's trembling hands were sweaty.

"Bruce, look on the bright side, this is just a Runic test, not a circumcision. What the hell are you afraid of?" Jack smirked.

Larry laughed loudly and stepped up the stage first, but because he was too nervous, he stepped on air and stumbled like a fool.

"Bro, are you all right?" his friends asked as they laughed at him.

"I'm fine. Sh*t, a bad start!" Larry quickly got up and went up the stage nervously. Then the government staff helped them with the strapped and helmet.

"Whoaaa."

Larry only felt his consciousness blur for a moment after the pod started operating. Now his mind was in absolute calmness.

Suddenly he felt his consciousness is being pulled by something, he was shocked and bewildered at the same time, he arrived in a vast space, he felt that this is his own spirit consciousness, but this is impossible!!!

To enter the spirit consciousness, a cultivation of master rank is just one of the requirements, he doesn't even have 'Genetic Cultivation Art', so this is not possible.

What shocked Larry the most is, instead of a seed with roots, a giant leafless tree was standing in the middle of his spirit consciousness.

What makes it more crazier is, there is a long eastern Dragon coiled around the tree.

Larry was overwhelmed by the size of the tree and the dragon. "What is this? it's fake, it's just a dream, there's nothing to be afraid of!"

Larry tried his best to tell himself that, but his body is trembling uncontrollably, especially when he looked at the dragon. The fear in his heart became stronger and stronger. In the end, the dragon opened its eyes, suddenly a glowing golden-energy ball came out o it's head.

The energy ball flew into Larry's glabella, it happened so fast Larry has no time to react.

A lot of information suddenly appeared in his mind... A lot of data gathered and formed a weird golden characters, it suddenly appeared in front of his vision.

....

Name: Larry T. Xīng

Race: Human

Energy: H-High

Grade: Warrior-Rank 1 (Lvl Progress 10%)

Cultivation Talent: Devour-Soldier Rank

*****

Attributes:

"Physique"

Strength: Warrior-Rank 1

Constitution: Warrior-Rank 1

Dexterity: Warrior-Rank 1

"Mental"

Intelligence: Warrior-Rank 1

Wisdom: Warrior-Rank 1

Charisma: Warrior-Rank 2

*****

Runes:

•Copy- The ability to Copy someone's Runes.

*Needs human contact to activate.

*Cooldown: 6 months.

*Number of Copies: 0/3(Warrior Rank-1)

*Strength of Runes depends on Cultivation Rank.

....

Larry was trying to make sense what's happening, then he was suddenly pushed out of his own spirit consciousness.

Woooooooshhh!!!