Dual Cultivation: Beasts and Women!

Not to mention that there was nothing inside the 40 square meter room, there were mana lamps in the corners of the walls and two wooden benches. In addition, there were only the four white doors, one of which was the one they had passed and the other three were on different sides of the room.

Each of these three doors had a number underneath it, showing the order in which the five Aspirants would enter.

First Officer Cyrus stood in front of the door with the number '1' engraved above it, while the three masked officers stood in front of the other three doors.

Judging by the manners of these men, they seemed to block the way for their group, Liam observed.

Cyrus left the smile of a moment ago and returned to his usual mood, with an emotionless expression, showing his indifference to the five newcomers.

"The promotion exam has three tests. They don't just consider your mana cultivation, although your cultivation is obviously important.

Depending on the results, it's possible that you could become an Initiate, but don't take it for granted. Less than 5% of Aspirants achieve this when they join the sect. The main point here, as I've said, is to access your characteristics and indicate your initial functions.

From the test, you will be directed to the appropriate activities. Anyway, the first test is in the room behind me." He pointed with one of his hands.

"The first test, Awakening Stars, will measure your natural talents and your ability to understand. You will enter room number one individually and be given a random scroll. You will have five minutes to read and understand it. The test will begin thereafter.

Questions?"

They all shook their heads, having already learned what was considered in a talent test.

According to the most accepted view of the magical community, according to the books the five had read, talent was a combination of physical aptitude and the ability to understand.

Some Spirit Masters were natural geniuses who cultivated and fought with immense ease with no study or professional training. However, not all of them had high comprehension abilities, and they were people who depended a lot on the environment they were in.

In short, such a Spirit Master could grow a lot as long as they had resources or opportunities. But they would be limited by the environment and opportunities they had.

Other Spirit Masters were the opposite. They lacked the ability to grow with opportunities alone, such as the opportunity to cultivate in a hot spring or to absorb the magical essence of a legendary plant. They were terrible at taking advantage of opportunities that others could easily absorb.

But through their understanding of the world around them, they could use their powers with near-perfect efficiency, and they could even compete with the strongest ones who didn't have the same efficiency.

Those who had these two sides—talent and comprehension—in the right proportions were considered the genuine geniuses. It wasn't enough to be good just at one of them. A genius needed both types.

"Well, let's start with the weakest of you." The man, 1.9 meters tall, strong, with long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and a face that marked his square skull, motioned for Ajax to come to him.

After taking a deep breath, Ajax did as he was told and entered the room alone, while the others watched.

The moment the door closed, the lights in the white room where the four Aspirants and the inner members of the sect were standing went out, and door '1' suddenly glowed a bright green.

As the four Aspirants sat on the wooden benches waiting, door '1' became transparent, revealing a completely black room with a scroll emerging from a square device in the center of the room.

While Ajax read the contents of the scroll, nothing happened. But at the end of the five minutes Cyrus had promised, the scroll in Ajax's hands suddenly vanished, causing the 8-Star Spirit Apprentice to frown as he felt the object in his hands disappear.

An instant later, colored points of light appeared around the black ceiling of the room, making it look like a starry night sky.

More than a hundred stars flashed at first, some shining brightly, others fading quickly, as if they were dying every few breaths.

After 20 seconds of examination, only 33 of the original hundred or so stars remained shining.

"33 points..." Cyrus wrote on a clipboard he had brought with him.

The others looked at it, more or less understanding Ajax's result.

'Each ten stars represented a sub-level of the talent rating. This meant that Ajax's talent was between the advanced-level of the King-grade, and the lower-level of the Ancestor-grade.' Liam remembered the texts he had recently studied.

It was a common talent in Twin Lands. It couldn't be said that someone like that would never become an expert, but most times, such individuals would only become Spirit Earth Realm cultivators, probably a low-level one.

The initial cultivation speed of Spirit Masters was meaningless. As they progress, their next steps become longer and more difficult.

Since the first realm depends a lot on physical characteristics, even someone with a low talent can become strong quickly. But without a good talent, that person would find it more difficult to nurture more than one Spirit and still grow as they progress.

The big difference between talented Spirit Masters was precisely their ability to understand the world and absorb mana according to their needs.

If you couldn't feed your Spirit and still become stronger, it might be difficult to grow.

As one became stronger, the number of Spirits that would consume one's mana would increase. If you couldn't increase your mana absorption growth capacity too much, eventually you would get stuck at the same level without being able to get stronger!

This was a dilemma faced by Spirit Masters!

'Someone with 33 points in the Awakening Stars test can only sustain the consumption of three Spirits at most... Not counting special cases, of course.' Liam sighed in anticipation of his own result, fearing what his limits might be.

In order to achieve his goals, to get revenge on his kidnappers, to escape from Demon Gate, and to protect himself later, he thought he would need a talent capable of taking him at least to the end of the fourth realm of cultivation!

It was possible for him to get opportunities to go beyond what his original talent could take him, but these were rare opportunities of fate that reached a few, and even fewer of those lucky ones took advantage of them.

Not wanting to rely on chance, he hoped to at least have a talent above 45 points!

Ajax finished his test and soon Amias entered room number '1', followed by Seth and then, after 15 minutes, it was Mary's turn. Liam watched from his seat, tapping his right foot on the floor and scratching his toes more and more hastily.

After Ajax, Amias had a similar result and kept 35 stars shining. Next, Seth showed why he had reached 9-Star before his companions, achieving a result of 39 stars.

As soon as Mary entered the room, a scroll appeared from the strange box in the center of the black area, and once again Liam saw one Aspirant focus on reading that unique glowing object.

He didn't care about the results of the other Aspirants. As much as they had offered to work for him and Mary seemed to find it interesting to have them, Liam didn't see it that way. But while their results meant little to him, her result meant a lot to him.

'If I'm not mistaken, Dual Cultivation is one method that can change the latent potential of Spirit Masters... If that's the case, she should have a result of over 40 points, even though her initial talent is probably no different from those men.' Liam pondered.

The books he'd read didn't mention Dual Cultivation. But in his opinion, something that could speed up the cultivation speed could change the talent for a simple reason—stronger beings understood the world around them more easily.

He would have the answer to his doubts when the parchment in Mary's hands suddenly disappeared, revealing her result.

"43 stars, not bad." Cyrus looked at the still transparent door, for the first time showing a reaction other than indifference.

As Mary left the room with everyone watching her, Liam went on with his test.

He was calmer now than he had been before. After seeing the results of his peers, he was confident he had a talent that could at least take him to the fourth realm!