He had activated an evolution path. These were guides granted by the system which could aid the descendant in upgrading their genes to unlock special abilities and boosts unique to said path. As they were premium to only a select few, the ability he earned could be a tide-turner in battle.

Take us take for example, [Hail Storm Armour] — It was a skill that allowed him to boost his defence to a ridiculous degree, and reflect a percentage of the enemy's attack back to them. The stronger the enemy, the higher the damage he would reflect back! Although, it costed about 15% energy and could not be used twice in one day.

Mark shook his head as he turned to the window. He smashed it open with his leg, and then he jumped out through the window. As soon as he had jumped out of the window, he dug his hand into the wall and slid down calmly, drawing a thick line across the wall of the building with his hand dug into the wall, and after a while, he crashed into the ground.

“Well, not many would care about the numerous Kinli’Ku that died from an unknown accident today. Hmm, maybe they would attribute it to the extremes of the fauna.” Mark made his way back to the vortex, trying his best not to get lost in the area again. Of course, he had taken his time to learn all he could about the area with Izyrx before escorting her home.

As he moved forward, he calculated it to be already half the day spent in this world. He was done with the boss already, and it was time for him to leave. As for being late for the test and losing marks after everything he experienced in that short time with the Pained Demon of A Thousand Swords, he considered it to be quite worthless at this point. He had already chosen by himself.

All that remained was for him to execute his plans.

Mark walked for a while before reaching the area he had appeared in. The vortex had appeared amid all the flora and was spinning as violently as he had seen it inside the armoury. As a calm Mark approached the vortex, he clenched his fist and braced himself. He stepped inside, and a notification appeared before him,

[Test Complete!]

——

“He is out!”

Mark narrowed his eyes to find two men staring back at him with glistening eyes. He wondered if they were the supervisors of the test, and why they looked so glad to see him. He also wondered where everyone else was hiding in, looking around to find himself back in the weapons room with none of his ‘colleagues’ except himself.

"Is there an issue? I am sorry for being late, but I can assure you that my reasons are surely going to be—“

“Don’t worry about it! You have already passed the test, all that remains is a simple evaluation before we let you out of this room. It is just some simple questions, and nothing excruciating…” As soon as the man was done with his speech, he ran back to the computer and began typing away, “I want us to start with the simplest. Describe the world you ran the test in.”

Mark felt something suspicious, but he described the world as vividly as his limited vocabulary could carry him. After he was done, he stared at the man behind the computer.

His colleague who was standing initially, seated himself on a desk beside a tall rack of sniper rifles. After some time the man behind the computer lifted his head and opened his mouth to continue the questioning,

“Can you deliver a report on the boss you battled, the inhabitants of the dungeon and the enemies you faced?”

Mark took in a deep breath, and then he began to speak calmly. Make sure to leave out sensitive topics like the paths and the massacre of an entire group…

After listening to Mark’s speech, the man behind the computer lifted his head. A distant expression was on his face as he opened his mouth to speak,

“The world you appeared in was a distant rim on the edge of a neighbouring galaxy, We calculate a very high mortality rate of recruits sent into that world…”

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"An earlier expedition revealed the presence of a threat at the level of a Collapsed Forsaken, and this led to the handling of all expeditions to that area until Father noticed. It is wondrous to witness the survival of a mere recruit from a world like that — and I guess the gear you wear helped in that."

The man sighed. Regulars like himself were never trained to utilise the potential of Hunting Gear as only those who were members of massive factions or influential families could afford the training for using such gear. Mark on the other hand stared with a poker face, as cool as solid ice.

"Well, our servers received the information, and the monster you defeated does match what you described and what we have on our database. You were not supposed to fight something like that at this stage, but a mistake on our end had shoved you into a high-level world we call the Blood Rim,"

A light flashed in his eyes as his deep black hair swayed softly,

"All you discovered was merely 0.01% of a quarter of that world. It is a wonder you spawned at the location of the boss, and did not have to go through the harsher regions before that. I apologise for all the inconvenience caused, but…"

The was silence as Mark narrowed his eyes. He had barely expected things to evolve on this path and had not imagined today to be this wild. He imagined a scenario where the arena he was to find a forsaken in was on the other side of the world, and he would have had to beat everything in a day…

He could brag all he wanted about his skill, but the thought of something like that occurring lingered at the back of his mind as he wondered how differently things would have ended.

"Let us keep this a secret, shall we? Rest assured, you will be heavily rewarded. As of this minute, you should join the others outside and have yourself registered. You stay for some time before you decide on what area of the force you want to join or remain on…" The seated man spoke with a distant look in his eyes, all the glisten in his eyes seemed to have died off completely.

Mark nodded, and he took his leave. He wondered if he could finally take out his weapons now and begin hunting monsters for the experience. Of course, the system refuses to deal him any XP at this point, even after he has slaughtered a massive group of targets. He wondered if it was because their deaths were too pathetic and he barely learned anything from it…

As soon as Mark left, the duo turned to one another and their distant eyes exploded with fierce lights as they exploded into a careless chatter. The man behind the computer led their chat, with a loud voice that showed how carefree he was about someone listening in on their conversation.

"What a monstrosity! I do not know how he got that gear or how he managed to deceive the test into registering his victory, but the fact he battled a threat like that and survived is a wonder I cannot wrap my head around! There is no shortage of surprises for me to enjoy today, and I must enjoy them all!"

“I have lost all hope in life… I am still struggling against Uncontested Masters, and here lies one who is barely a recruit going out against a forsaken! With training and resources, I am sure he’d be the strongest core a force could need for galactic conquests. This is quite wonderful for sure.”

Mark who stood outside frowned, but he ignored their chatter and walked away. He noticed the high-threat demon sitting calmly with a somewhat welcoming expression on her face, and he felt the coldest shiver run down his spine. He shook his head and moved towards her, sitting himself down and watching the others scrambling around in the area where they were to get registered.

As soon as he sat down, Mark frowned.

“Hey, isn’t that Mark? He walked out of a different room than ours. Did he get special privileges or something? Dammit boss, no wonder he didn’t join us in battling those monsters, and you all had thought he was chicken for bailing out of the test…”

There was a dry giggle, and then silence. It was so silent, that one would hear a pin drop as everyone turned to Mark who sat calmly. His eyes were twitching, he recognised the voice as one of the others he had beaten up after they had ganged up on him sometime in the past. He was a cowardly menace.

“Nah, they just threw his pathetic self into the weakest dungeon they could find. I guess they had all thought he wasn’t good enough for a dungeon like that. Would not want him dying on their necks, now would they? ”

Laughter erupted behind him, and Mark felt a wickedness brew in his heart. He stood to his feet and turned to face the small group chattering behind him, and he smiled, “It is not hard to believe an idiot like you would get trooped up with other fools to bully weak Defective Platoon threats. It is sad I did not get to see you struggling with monsters of that level.”

The laughter and chatter came to a dry halt, and everyone turned to a silver-haired male amid the small crowd. He had a calm expression on his face, and similar facial features to Mark, although his build was a bit more buffed than Mark’s build. He walked towards Mark, and all who stood around him followed like lost puppies.

“Hayden, still as stupid as ever?”

There was always no love lost between Mark and his relatives. As he stood before the bully who annoyed him throughout his stay here, Mark maintained his cool demeanour. Things like this could not rival his cool, but every dumb issue would be settled with a fist to the face, and it was as simple as that when it came to annoyances this like.