Rohan stumbled forward several steps before barely managing to catch himself from face planting onto the hard floor.
"What the hell!?"
He whirled around in a fury, but the heavy metal door slammed shut before he could even finish the sentence, cutting him off from his only escape route.
Rohan's anger instantly cooled.
In front of him stretched a wide corridor with dark walls, bright overhead lights embedded into the ceiling in the typical office building fashion.
The place looked stagnant, void of any creativity or colour — so normal. If he weren't currently facing the situation himself, Rohan might have found it funny how such a boring hallway led to a place where live beasts from the Origin Realm were housed.
The feelings soon faded, leaving behind an atmosphere filled with relaxed chatter. The others were ahead of him, talking amongst themselves, eager to see how their test will go.
Still, his resentment never settled. He was in this situation because of that damned guy at the reception desk. Only in hindsight did he now understand why everyone else avoided him like the plague; he was a massive troll! — only newbies like himself being gullible enough to seek him out.
Rohan stood in place, his mind racing.
He had no experience whatsoever in fighting beasts. He'd only just awakened not even an hour ago, yet because of some son of a higher up deciding today was his day, he was thrown straight into the bull pen!
'Fuck, there's nothing I can do anymore except go with the flow. I'll just go look for the normal awakening registration department after this is all over.'
There was no going back at this point — not that he even had a choice in the matter.
The other awakened up ahead were already continuing on their way in a loose group, swiftly leaving him behind if he didn't keep up.
Rohan, meanwhile, felt like shit, but he still followed.
'This is insane! I can't believe they just let people do this…'
The group soon entered another large room, this one far more open than the corridor. It resembled a preparation hall for athletes before heading out into the stadium grounds. Metal lockers lined the walls, with weapon racks set at intervals between them and several association staff standing about wearing dark uniforms and holding tablets in their hands.
Mounted next to the door they'd just passed through was a large digital screen with glowing white text.
[F RANK CHALLENGE TRIAL
LIVE BEAST EVALUATION
PASS REWARDS VARY BY PERFORMANCE.]
The sight of those words made Rohan's stomach churn. This wasn't right!
As if hearing it from the young woman and gruffly looking man wasn't enough, this just had to pound the reality of his situation into him once more.
Speaking of the gruff-looking man, Rohan now knew that he was the supervisor of this test thanks to overhearing some mutterings between the other awakened being tested. Not to mention that he was apparently also a C rank awakened.
C rank! He'd just been kicked in the ass by a C rank awakened… They were high up in the proverbial food chain of awakened, as the majority never made it to D rank, let alone reaching C rank.
He should have been slowly eased into it like everyone else with their first experience in the Origin Realm — as the forum posts online from popular awakened had described from time to time.
A woman in uniform with her black hair tied up in a ponytail stepped forward and addressed the group.
"You all know the rules— what?" Her sharp and emotionless voice cut off once she saw Rohan timidly raising his hand.
"I-I don't, ma'am."
Her expression didn't even budge an inch when looking at him, but something inside Rohan could tell that she was judging him with her gaze.
"It seems I stand corrected. Let me explain them, then. You will each enter your assigned chamber individually. A live F Rank beast from the Origin Realm will be released inside with you. Last for three minutes, subdue it, or kill it, and your performance will be graded accordingly."
She paused to sweep her gaze across the room, no longer taking notice of Rohan.
"Attempting to flee, feigning unconsciousness or deliberately hiding without engaging with the beast will only lead to a quicker death. There's only two ways to make it out of this trial: either by passing or on a stretcher!"
Rohan's mouth fell open.
They really expected him to last five minutes against a live beast? How could they expect that from someone who hadn't even taken their first steps into the Origin Realm!?
'Even if I bring it up, these stone faced fucks won't even give a damn.'
He hadn't even bought a weapon to defend himself with thanks to the strict requirement of having to register himself with the association beforehand, which he precisely came here to do in the first place.
That spoilt son of a higher-up had unknowingly double-screwed him this time.
"Emergency intervention will be provided only if death is deemed imminent. Minor and moderate injuries are your own responsibility. Severe dismemberment compensation is covered under association policy clause fourteen."
The woman continued.
Rohan couldn't believe his ears.
'Severe dismemberment compensation?'
At what point did this stop being a trial and start becoming an execution?
A hand that wasn't Rohan's shot up from the group. One of the more confident-looking guys smirked.
"What are the rewards for clearing?"
The woman answered without hesitation.
"Lowest passing tier receives either $150,000, one standard F rank beast core, or an item of equivalent value. Higher evaluations may grant Genes or Genetic Armaments, or something of equivalent value. It all depends on your passing grade, if you even pass."
A ripple passed through the group at that. Excitement could be seen on everyone's faces. This was the reason they were all here, risking their lives to face beasts in live combat, was it not?
The promise of rewards like this was just too lucrative to pass up, and this was just the F rank Beast Trial! They could only dream of what kind of rewards were offered for trials of a higher rank.
Rohan could feel his own heart lurch just for a moment. In between his panic, stress and anxiety, some excitement appeared at the prospect of being rewarded such valuable items.
Especially the latter two mentioned, Genes and Genetic Armaments. Even with his one time stipend of $100,000 he wouldn't be able to get his hands on either of the two.
Genes and Genetic Armaments were two of the most sought after drops from beasts in the Origin Realm, as they could be added directly to the power of the Awakened themselves, drastically increasing their strength. Especially the genes — they were the most expensive items of all, but also the most rarely dropped, hence their sky high prices.
Genes were almost like magical abilities that granted their user powers they normally wouldn't be able to wield, the most common of which being speed or strength enhancing genes, giving an Awakened superhuman abilities beyond the already overpowered boost they have just from Awakening.
Of course there were rarer types too, which could grant all sorts of abilities like a healing power, the power to shoot laser beams from your fingers etc.
They were different from the starting gene one might have upon awakening if they were lucky, as they weren't limited to just 10 known genes. They were dependent on the type of beast that dropped them.
'I wonder where my Evolution gene fares up in all this.'
As for Genetic Armaments, they are physical objects sometimes dropped from beasts upon death. They can be weapons, armour, clothing, accessories or the like. They were pretty valuable too but were much more temporary than genes, as they can be replaced.
The one limiting factor of Genes was that every awakened is limited to the number of Genes they can absorb, as well as their rank. An awakened can only absorb 1 Gene for every rank they go up. F ranks like Rohan and the others in the preparation hall were limited to just 1 gene, so they had to choose very carefully or their future as an awakened could be over before it even starts.
Which is why Awakened who awakened with their own gene were generally considered more talented with higher potential, as they would always have one more gene than any other awakened without one.
'I better get a grip, and fast. A lot of these other guys here have their own higher quality weapons, and some even look to be holding Genetic Armaments, while I'm stood here with nothing.'
Thankfully, there were racks between the lockers where the rare few like him could choose from an array of weapons; only their quality was much worse than what everyone else was sporting.
Still, it was better than nothing.