As I looked around me at the forest I debated where I should go.
'My ranking in the second test was pretty high but not the best, so I need to make it up in this one. I just need to figure out where the most creatures are to do that.'
'I have no way of knowing where the most creatures or contestants are so that needs to be the first thing to figure out.'
'Maybe~ I ... could try to maximize my senses?'
'That's a good Idea!'
'Most of my senses are naturally suppressed to avoid overstimulation, but my intelligence stat is high so I should be able to process some of the information.'
With that idea I started to figure out how to actually do this. I tried relaxing my mind and closing my eyes while focusing on the sounds around me. I tried focusing as my ears naturally started to twitch.
After around 5 minutes of this it was as if I found a switch in my mind, so I pulled it, but I instantly regretted it. Everything was too loud, even the sound of a branch breaking 500 meters away was like firing a gun right next my ear.
It wasn't even comparable to soul damage since with that it was just a few seconds of immense pain, not this stimulation hell.
'STOP! STOP! STOP!' I mentally screamed.
'TURN IT OFF!'
And with that the switch was turned back on.
'Alright, that was stupid of me, I already knew how high my perception stat was. I should try to increase my senses very slowly this time.'
Instead of doing the stupid mistake of instantly increasing my senses to the maximum, I started to gradually increase it.
After around 15 minutes of practice, I figured out how to increase it slowly while still being able to process everything.
As my senses slowly expanded outward everything gradually became clearer and more intense, but I managed to control it. 10 meters, 50 meters, 100 meters, 500 meters, 1 kilometer.
Everything within range was clear and I was able to perceive a lot of things, so I started to discard useless information and only focus on signs of life.
Gradually I was able to know how many creatures were within 1 kilometer of me and in which direction they were.
'Southeast!'
'The southeast had the highest concentration of living creatures.'
Knowing this I headed in that direction.
.....
In a room filled with hundreds of monitors dozens of people were busy rushing about and recording information, but one man stood out.
He had a scarred face with short black hair and a cloak and was looking at various files as he sat in front of one large monitor with switching images. At one moment it was showing fighting, next it was the scene of an injured man fleeing, and after it was a woman with a depressed look wondering aimlessly in a desert.
"This year's awakeners are quite disappointing," he muttered to himself. "There are quite a few good seeds, but the average quality has gone down." He said while he glanced a few files in his hands.
As he continued to complain about the lack of talent a man nervously approached him.
"S-sir Cain, I found a few people of note," he stuttered while handing over a couple more files.
Having his curiosity peeked he started to glance at the files while he ordered the man to pull them up on the monitor. Upon hearing the command, he hurried to adjust the monitor as a young man with short dark brown hair and black eyes appeared on the screen.
He was fighting a giant bear covered in flames. No, it couldn't even be considered a fight. It was a one way beating.
After he seemingly got bored, he quickly used his sword to behead the beast leaving the corpse on the ground as he walked off.
"Runeheart ... I remember his sister. She was quite the monster, and it seems he doesn't let her legacy down." But in an instant, he frowned as he read his file and scoffed. "The only problem is that an idiot reported his race as common. Even an idiot could see the problem with that evaluation."
He put Blake's file to the side as he looked at the next one but the second he saw it he was overcome with rage as his veins nearly bulged.
"Sullivan," he said through gritted teeth. "I didn't expect to see that old fossil's grandson here." His brows furrowed as he seemingly remembered something but only got more annoyed. "Over 2,000 years old and still putting his nose in other people's business."
He quickly summoned someone over.
"S-sir, do you need anything."
He handed my file to them and ordered, "handle it," before going back to monitoring other students with potential.
.....
[You have killed an epic level 23 'tyrant wolf king']
[Your exp storage has reached maximum capacity]
[You have gained the epic skill 'the pack is one']
[You have gained the rare skill 'pack control']
['pack control' has integrated into 'novice supreme commander']
[You have gained the rare skill 'wind charge']
['wind charge' has integrated into 'affinity charge']
----------
[Name: Lucious Sullivan]
[Race: two-tailed void kitsune]
[Age:16]
[Traits: child of the void (unique), accepted by the world (special), unique existence (unique), user of void (special) ...]
[level: 25/25 (exp: 150,000/0) {apprentice}]
[mp: 1,532,000/1,532,000]
[strength: 19,610 (7,660*2 + 28%)]
[endurance: 18,537 (7,660*2 + 21%)]
[...]
[body augmentation skills: poisonous body (epic lv max), powerful body of strength and speed (rare lv 5) ...]
[passive skills: blood frenzy (epic lv max), pain immunity (epic lv max), resilient soul (epic lv max) ...]
[magic skills: advanced magic manipulation (rare lv 14), mental link creation (rare lv 3) ...]
[active skills: mad dash (epic lv 2), inheritance of power (epic lv max), the pack is one (epic lv max) ...]
*author note: let me know if you want me to change the way I shorten the status since I really feel like the status is starting to become a word filler at this point.*
-----
[Name: the pack is one]
[Level: max]
[Rank: epic]
[Description: a skill that allows you to take the power of allies as your own]
[Effect: you can forcibly drain the health or steal up to 95% of the total stats of subordinates within 100 meters of you]
----------
'Damn, that's the only epic monster I encountered so far,' I thought annoyed. 'At least I gained a new skill this time.'
Thinking back on what I have been doing for the past four hours I couldn't help but feel a bit frustrated. Not only have I encountered little creatures of high rank, but none except the wolf king provided any new skills.
This could be considered a good thing since I didn't have to worry about limited soul storage, but it still didn't feel the best to gain no tangible benefits.
'At least my exp storage has maxed out,' I thought trying to cheer myself up. 'With that I can go straight to level 10 after ranking up. However, there are truly not a lot of enemies here.'
With the low qualities of creatures, I was starting to regret going in this direction. Sure, there were quite a lot, but quality was the real way to gain points.
Even if I was having regrets on this direction, I already dedicated four hours to it. Turning around now could only be considered an idiotic decision
"Sigh, well I should continue the exam, I don't want to get a bad score after all."
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