7 Chapter 6 - Awakener Exam

"Why the fuck is this happening to me?"

~WARNING! YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE A RANKED DUNGEON: LICH KINGDOM! DO YOU WISH TO PROCEED? Y/N~

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3 Hours Ago~

"T-This can't be real...." That was all Puck could think as he stared at his Gacha inventory.

It was hard to put into words what he was feeling at the moment....

But a hand on his shoulder quickly shook him from his thoughts. "Hey there, bud.... You alright? You look like you've seen a ghost." Rebecca asked, giving Puck a questioning look.

He honestly didn't know how to respond to her question. Especially since she practically hit the nail right on the head.

Puck gulped heavily as he stared at what could only be described as his entire Gacha library. It was even organized and labeled by genre and cost!

But the main thing that caught his attention were the slots that were greyed out with what looked like locks on the item frame.

Trying to click on one of these greyed out characters resulted in a error screen appearing.

~WARNING! The user is currently not high enough level to summon the selected creature! Doing so will result in a cataclysmic event!~

"Ah....that actually makes sense...." He thought to himself when he noticed that the character he just tried to summon had a familiar feline appearance....

And it's cost was 200.

"Yeah....maybe it's for the best?" He mumbled to himself as he stares at the screen with a thoughtful look, staring at the 300+ characters he was able to use.

"Maybe what is for the best?" A voice suddenly asks from directly beside his face, causing Puck to jump away in shock at the sight of Rebecca's face inches away from his own.

He had completely entered his own little world and had forgotten that she was even there!

Which she didn't seem very happy with.

She let's out a small annoyed huff, placing her hands on her hips as she pouts childishly. "I swear! All you guys are the same! You're out on a date with a hot woman and all you care about is what's in your inventory!" She exclaims, causing Puck to freeze up slightly.

"D-Date?!"

He'd never been on a date in his entire life! He's a shut-in for crying out loud! He wasn't built for these types of situations! He'd take a dungeon break over this type of scenario any day of the week!

If her saying "date" was surprising, then her bursting out laughing was something that he definitely wasn't expecting.

"Y-You should've seen....your face!" She exclaims as she tries to catch her breath, holding her sides as she wipes away a tear. "B-But seriously! What's got you spacing out like that?.... C'mon. We should probably get going." She says with a grin as she suddenly turns and beginning to walk away without even giving Puck to answer.

"W-Wait a minute! W-Where are we going exactly?" He says as he runs to catch up with the female Guild Master, a bright embarrassed blush adorning his cheeks.

"There's somewhere you've gotta be and I've gotta make a report." She says easily as they approached a rather large building in the distance.

It was mostly made of glass, but Puck could see that it had several large dome like areas that could probably house several football stadiums.

They passed several people wearing different types of armor and wielding various types of weaponry. That when the sign on the building came into view.

A.B. USA

Rebecca stops before the large glass doors to enter the building, a large grin splitting her face. "Welcome....to the Awakener Bureau USA branch!" She exclaims before throwing open the doors.

Puck was absolutely speechless. He had dreamed of one day opening those doors and standing in the lobby of this building.

It was overwhelming.

Seeing all the awakeners he could usually only see in TV or passing by on the street from time to time....

He was almost moved to tears.

If a slap on the back from our favorite brunette didn't shake him from his sentimental moment.

"What're you standing there for, kid?! Let's get a move on! You're making me look bad!" She exclaims before beginning to lead Puck inside. He just now noticed that everyone's attention was on them. They were whispering things along the lines of:

"Wow! Isn't that Rebecca of the Dragon Fist?!"

"Yeah! Who's that she's with? A newbie?"

"Looks like a new recruit!"

"Weird....I've never seen him before.... He had to be good if that old battle junkie is going after him though!"

Puck couldn't help but blush slightly at all the attention, which Rebecca noticed and smirked slightly at. She leaned in to his ear and whispered, "You know you'd be getting a LOT more attention if you officially joined my guild, right~?" She says slyly, only to get a eye roll from Puck in response.

"I'll think about it, alright?" He says with a small annoyed sigh, causing Rebecca to pout as they approach the receptionist.

The receptionist was a young woman who looked fresh out of highschool. She was wearing the female Awakener Bureau's uniform which consisted of a dark blue suit with skirt and blue beret to match. On the left side of the uniform, right above her heart, were the letters A.B. in white.

Upon seeing Rebecca approach, the receptionist immediately jumped to her feet and bowed respectfully.

"Good morning Mrs. Rebecca! What brings you to the Awakener Bureau today?! If we had known you were coming we would've brought someone more qualified to come me-"

"Yeah~ Yeah~ I'm not here for me. Just tell your boss I need to meet him and help this kid get signed up." Rebecca said impatiently, interrupting the receptionist mid sentence as she jabbed her thumb in Puck's direction.

The receptionist immediately looked over Puck, who simply gave a small wave and nervous chuckle as the receptionist nodded in understanding before sitting down and beginning to tap away at the keyboard to her left.

"Understood! The Director is free and in his office. I'll let him know you're com-"

"No need, I'm heading up right now." Rebecca says, interrupting the receptionist again as she began walking away towards a rather large elevator, but not before throwing up a farewell wave towards Puck. "Don't think I've forgotten about you, kid! I'm not one to give up that easily!" She says before disappearing into a crowd of people.

Puck and the receptionist were speechless as they slowly blink at the spot Rebecca once stood before turning to face each other, giving small nervous laughs. "S-Sorry about that....she can be a bit...." Puck began, only to be interrupted a small giggle from the receptionist.

"It's perfectly alright. We're used to Mrs. Rebecca's personality by now. Now what's your name, class, and rank? Or would you like for use to bring out a status stone to appraise you ourselves? It's a lot easier and you can head straight on to taking the entrance exam once you're registered into our system." She says in a all too friendly tone as she pulls out what could only be described as a dark pink crystal ball.

Seeing the crystal ball caused Puck to smirk. The crystal ball worked just like the system in that it'll show you your status, the only difference being that anyone would be able to see it and you can't hide your name, age, race, class, level, or stats.

He's so glad that he spent all his time shut up in his house doing nothing but playing Gacha games and studying different things about becoming a awakener. It prepared him for moments like these!

Puck thought over his options for a moment before deciding on the most obvious choice.

He placed his hand on the crystal ball before pausing and looking up at the receptionist with a nervous look. "U-Um....how exactly does this work?" He asked, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

The receptionist gave him a friendly and reassuring smile. "No need to be embarrassed. The process is really simple! All you have to do is pour your mana into th-"

Puck quickly stopped her though, holding up his hand to get her to pause. "O-Oh! I know all that! I-I just mean.... Um.... I'm a Gacha class user so...." He scratched his cheek embarrassed.

He admittedly skipped over learning anything much about Gacha class awakeners....

He never thought in a million years that he'd actually become one!

The receptionist paused for a moment, you could tell that she was looking him over judgementally before letting out a small disappointed sigh. "That's not a problem. Cost works just like mana. The only difference is that 1 cost for a Gacha user is usually around 10 for a regular awakener. The process works the same." She says, albeit begrudgingly.

No wonder why she was disappointed. Most Gacha users are deemed as useless unless they have a high rank, but even then they're known for their low stats. So they're useless in actual combat.

Hell the only reason she probably even talked to him after finding out is because Rebecca showed interest in him.

High ranked Gacha users are rare and sought after, after all!

Puck gave her a strained smile. "O-Oh! Thanks!"

She simply brushed him off, causing his eye to  twitch in annoyance.

"That bitch! Even when she knows a high Ranker like Rebecca is interested in me, she still showed prejudice since I'm a Gacha user! Well jokes on her! Once she sees my rank she'll be kissing my ass!" He seethed before smirking at the thought as he began pouring his coat into the orb which immediately began to glow.

His stats immediately appeared like a holographic projection.

~Status~

Name: Puck Gier

Age: 21

Lvl: 48

Race: Human (?)

Job: N/A

Status: Awakened

Class Type: Gacha (Humanoid)

Rank: S

Str: 489

Int: 320

Dex: 600

Luck: 248

HP: 900/1000

Cost: 225/400

Current Titles: N/A, Dragon Slayer

Skills: Gacha Summoning, Gacha Inventory, Gacha Wave, Assimilation, Full Assimilation

~Status~

The receptionist blew him off, not even bothering to look at the screen as she continued to tap away at her keyboard, even as his results started to print out of the printer beside her monitor.

"Now that we've got your information we'll call an examiner and pick a dungeon one rank lower than your own to see if your ability matches your....." She trails off as she finally reaches for the paper with his status on it, her breath getting caught in her throat as she looked at his level and class rank, her eyes widening in disbelief. "T-This c-can't be real! H-How are you..... you're level...."

She looked like she was about to have a heart attack as she read down from his level to his actual titles.

"W-Wait! Y-You're the one w-who.....who....!?" She started to foam at the mouth before passing out, causing Puck to panic.

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1 Hour Later~

After that situation was cleared up, Puck was asked to wait for his examiner outside one of the many domes that surrounded the Awakener Bureau. Usually there would be more applicants joining him for the exam, but seeing as he was S Rank and how hard those are to come by....

It was safe to say that it'd only be him and his examiner today.

As he waited, Puck listened in on some of the gossip of the passing awakeners.

"Did you hear?! There was a Dungeon Break downtown a few days ago!"

"What?! No way! Isn't that a safe zone?! I thought it was impossible for dungeons to appear there!"

"It is! But not only that, but I heard it was a really high ranked one too! A dragon came out!"

"Holy fuck! How'd they manage to beat it?! I bet it's bullshit! There's no way this city would still be hear if something like that were to appear! Dragons are known as walking calamities after all!"

"I know! But I heard a unknown ranker took care of it single handedly!"

"What?! Are you serious?!"

Puck couldn't stomach much more as he covered his face with his hands. He felt like he was going to die if embarrassment....

So why was he secretly loving the attention and praise?

He was soon pulled out of his thoughts however as a shadow loomed over him, causing him to take the chance to peak out from behind his hands.

That was probably the second biggest mistakes he made that day (the first being meeting Rebecca).

"H-Holy shit! I-Isn't that.... Bloody Massacre Billy?!" A random passing awakener exclaims in shock.

Standing in front of Puck was a intimidating man that dwarfed him in size. He was ripped, but not overly so, and wore gold metal gauntlets on both arms. Scars littered his body, along with could only be described as black tribal tattoos. He had a mane of wild red hair that reached his tailbone and covered his eyes from view. He wore no shirt, giving Puck a view of his 8 pack that made him green with envy. He looked like he was made of bronze if his skin tone was anything to go by, he probably stayed in the sun a lot. His legs were covered by what looked like the bottom half to a armored robe of some kind that were red and black in color and beneath that you could see black and gold armored leg wear. His feet were bear however.

All in all, he looked like a wild man you'd see on some kind of deranged battlefield.

"You Puck Gier?"

His voice came out sounding rough, yet friendly enough.

Puck gulped and gave a small nod, causing a wide frightening grin to split the intimidating man's face as he leaned back slightly to reveal a friendly golden yellow eye. "Nice ta meet'cha! Name's William Edward Junior! But you can just call me Billy!"

Puck couldn't help but give him a nervous and bewildered smile, his previous fear long gone.

"I'm the leader of the Wolf Blood Guild! And I'll be your examiner today!" The man exclaims as he roughly grabs Puck's hand and shakes it forcefully.

Puck would've screamed in pain at the fact his hand was getting demolished, if it wasn't for the fact that his brain finally caught up with him.

The man's name and appearance finally registered.

He was William Edward Junior, also known as Bloody Massacre Billy for the fact that he tears his opens apart leaving a bloody mess....

And he was the current guild master of the #2 Ranked guild in the world. The Wolf Blood Guild.

"Damn....they really went all out with this one....didn't they?" Puck thought as he was suddenly hoisted over Billy's arm like a sack of potatoes.

"Well let's get a move on, kid! I'm excited to see what kinda stuff you'll pull off!" He exclaims before charging towards the entrance to the examination area, which was also the entrance to a dungeon.

"Why the fuck is this happening to me?"

~WARNING! YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE A RANKED DUNGEON: LICH KINGDOM! DO YOU WISH TO PROCEED? Y/N~

Those were Puck's last words before his vision went white.

To be continued~

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End Chapter 6~