"You passed."
"Wait," he said slowly. "If I passed… then why was the trial stopped early?"
The stern woman looked at him as if he was stupid.
"It wasn't stopped early. You lasted 6 minutes 3 seconds, that's past the 5 minute minimum. Your trial duration was deemed to be completed based on your physical state and combat degradation; your trial's supervisor judged that further continuation would almost certainly result in death. This was explained in the rules earlier before you entered, did you not listen?"
Rohan blinked.
"Additionally," she continued. "You passed the second performance threshold."
That brought him right back out of his thoughts.
"Second threshold?"
Her gaze met his again.
"The level above simple survival is to successfully injure the beast during the trial period."
Rohan's eyes widened. For a second, he was wondering whether he'd been hearing things wrong.
"I passed that too?" he asked in utter surprise.
"You landed multiple qualifying strikes. None were serious or life threatening, but nevertheless they met the standard."
A strange sense of pride overcame him at that moment.
He was standing here bruised, still fatigued and being told that not only had he survived an F rank beast trial, but that he actually performed well enough to score above the minimum passing standard.
It felt absurd.
"This is real?"
"No, we fabricated official trial records and interrupted our work to lie to you for amusement."
Rohan coughed awkwardly. He knew she was joking, but with how she never even changed her tone or facial expression once in the short time he knew her, he could never truly be certain what she was thinking…
"Right. Fair enough."
"You were fortunate, is all. Do not misinterpret your luck for actual skill."
Any rising pride in Rohan immediately cooled. She made it every clear that she wasn't praising him.
"You showed poor fundamentals, inefficient movement, no control over your weapon, and almost no understanding of range discipline beyond basic instinct. Though that's to be expected considering your situation. In the end, your survival depended heavily on terrain abuse and repeated emergency reactions. Against a slightly more powerful F rank beast, or one less degraded by hunger, you likely would have died."
Rohan's face twitched, but he couldn't argue back against that. Not a word she spoke was a lie.
"A pass is a pass."
Her brow twitched for the faintest moment.
'Aha! I finally got a reaction out of you!'
"So what are my rewards?" He asked excitedly, expertly shifting the conversation in another direction before the awkwardness intensified.
This was the one thing he was most excited for now that he knew that he'd miraculously passed the beast trial. From what he could remember, she said before that the lowest passing reward was $150,000 or an item of an equivalent value, though she didn't explain for any level above that.
"You can receive $450,000, or a genetic armament of equivalent value."
'Genetic Armament!'
Hearing those sweet two words come out of her mouth almost made him instinctively jump around in joy. But he held back for the sake of his dignity.
However, he wasn't disillusioned from reality.
Like every kid with dreams of being an Awakened, he'd already done extensive research into everything Origin Realm and Awakened, so he knew that while he'd be receiving a Beast Armament as a reward, he'd be getting one of the lowest values. $450,000 was just barely enough to buy a relatively average genetic armament from the market, so he wouldn't really be going from rags to riches in one fell swoop.
'But that's for any other ordinary Awakened. I have my Evolution gene, and if its use is as I suspect, this is a unique opportunity only I could capitalise from!'
Sadly, humans had to figure out everything related to the Origin Realm and genes themselves, despite having a status at their disposal. The status that every Awakened received upon their Awakening was just a simple one; it showed nothing more than their name and their most basic information. There was no such thing as being able to pull up a description for a specific gene or genetic armament.
Though, seeing their names was helpful enough and often gave away the clues to their uses. Which was why Rohan was so excited to try out his Evolution Gene whenever he had the chance to. The other starting genes all had simple names like 'Strength Gene', 'Speed Gene' and the like, and their uses were self explanatory. If his Evolution Gene followed that same self explanatory path, then his future as an Awakened was potentially limitless!
"Are you just going to keep standing there staring off into space, or what?"
Rohan coughed awkwardly. He realised how stupid he must have looked to everyone else while he daydreamed about his grandiose future.
"Oh, sorry. Where should I head to register myself with the association and pick up my reward?"
"Don't worry about registering; that's already been taken care of while you were unconscious. As for your reward, you'll have to head to the tenth floor for that."
Rohan lingered for a second.
"Out the same way you came in." She spoke, understanding that Rohan had no clue where the exit was.
"Thanks."
He didn't dilly dally any longer.
***
It took him a while before he managed to find his way to an elevator and up to the tenth floor, and then having to enter a queue that could rival an airport in its busiest hours.
The tenth floor resembled the first: rows of desks and receptionists there to attend to every Awakened present.
At first Rohan was baffled by the sheer number of people there but realised quickly that not everyone could be there to receive rewards from a Beast Trial, as there were for sure many ways to earn rewards from the Awakened Association.
There were even a few people there who looked like they were selling items to the association. 'This must be an exchange centre of sorts.'
A little patience and the passage of an hour, and his turn came up.
"How can I help you?"
"I'm here to pick up my reward for completing the Beast Trial." He kept it short and snappy.
The receptionist then asked for all his details, and showed him a list of everything that he was qualified to pick from.
However, Rohan's mind was already set.
"I'll have this one."
He chose a weapon type Genetic Armament.
Specifically, a spear!