Upon reaching the Wanderer's Guild, the receptionist was surprised to see the ruler of this planet.
"Good evening, Sir Ruler. How may I assist you today," despite her flustered exterior, the receptionist responded professionally.
"We were looking to join the Wanderer's Guild as of today," Barter's Ruler responded.
The receptionist looked to the rest of the crew, mainly the two child-looking persons of the group.
Knowing full well the ruler of the planet was not in to pranking and used his time wisely, she figured that the two could handle themselves.
Nevertheless, a few prerequisite assessments would have to take place before they were certified.
"I understand. Firstly, you would have to undergo an assessment to gather all of the information we can on your abilities and strength levels. We have a minimum requirement of Transient level strength."
"No problem there. When can we start?" Null perked up.
"You can all take turns while we get our examiners to test each of you separately. Give me a moment to call them," the receptionist picked up a device and spoke into it.
Moments later, a guy with a large build and a fit woman came strolling through with the Wanderer's Guild logo printed on their workout clothes.
"These the one's undergoing the assessments?"
"Kinda weird that they have three kids with them dontcha think Orville?"
"You said it, Minerva."
The man and woman were fairly close to each other as they talked without heeding the crew's attention.
"Three?"
The receptionist turned back to the crew and looked between them trying to figure out which of them would be considered as a kid.
"Fucking reincarnation," Z'oelo muttered.
'Hehe. You can't hide from the keen eyes of a woman,' Muni chuckled.
At least he had experienced an advanced rate of growth compared to the other two— Null's situation being the only peculiar one.
"Each of them are registered for the assessment as you said. You can decide the order amongst yourselves," the receptionist returned to her official status.
The two in charge of the assessment just looked at the crew and waited for them to decide.
The crew in question looked to each other and decided with just their gazes.
"The two strongest will get it over with," Null spoke up to which he and Theef moved to an assessor.
Upon seeing the two step up after Null stating that the two strongest were attempting the assessment, Orville and Minerva were skeptical.
"The two strongest, eh? We'll see just how strong you are in a minute," Orville was the first to speak up.
Minerva spoke next, "You said it, Orville."
The big oaf took Null with him while the coquettish minx had Theef to be in charge of.
They were each brought to separate barren training rooms to begin their assessments; once they entered, there was no unnecessary wait as the assessors stood at a distance waiting for them to start.
Orville, the larger of the two, seemed to bulk up larger than his previous normal self that was already bulky.
It seemed he was ready to go, so Null did not hesitate to charge at the large target.
His milky white aura was unveiled as he let loose his cultivation side to boost himself physically against his opponent.
His speed shot up tremendously as he reappeared in front of Orville and sent a fist towards his hefty figure.
Orville braced himself as best he could seeing as the weak looking child before him was clearly something fierce.
However, right before the fist would strike, Null changed his attack to a flick on the brute's forehead sending him reeling back into the wall of the room.
And like that, Orville was down for the count from a single move.
Null's cultivation was something special as he harnessed the power of pure spiritual energy circulating throughout what he understood as his meridians.
He had discovered them alongside the help of Theef and Barter's Ruler long ago as he let the spiritual energy naturally flow throughout himself and resonate with the meridians along the way.
From there, he could guide the spiritual energy around to fuel his bursts of power and perform feats that would otherwise be impossible to realize.
---
On Theef's side of things, there was a bit of a struggle between him and Minerva.
To begin with, it seemed that she had also possessed the strength enhancing power that Orville had as she appeared to physically bulk up in her training outfit.
Theef thought nothing of it as he entered his chimera form to deal with the muscular chick.
The forms he had currently were practically useless as the Imeni form had no mofei to manipulate and taking in the strength enhancement with his Shetavi form seemed a bit lackluster.
As such, he figured he ought to take on the challenge with the might of his original chimera form that had all of the abilities of the items he consumed.
From golden rocket horns and acidic saliva to vampiric blood enhancements and frost emission, Theef held the most power with this broken form.
The treasures that he consumed became his own power and from that, he took on his opponent with a flawless victory in mind.
Reality was often disappointing however as Minerva was more flexible than her male partner and could avoid Theef's overpowered abilities leading to the challenge ongoing for the moment.
While Null woke up Orville, imparting a bit of spiritual energy to leave him better than before, Theef had to deal with his evasive opponent and her slickness.
To end the farce once and for all, Theef inwardly criticized himself for not using his tendrils to end the match earlier.
Once the thought manifested itself in his head, he immediately took to act upon the idea and cornered Minerva quite simply.
She could avoid no longer as his tendrils sought to block her way out and he could finally land a good hit on her with the rocket-like golden horns on his head.
They pinned her down for good and she was forced to admit her loss.
Barter's Ruler was next to face Orville and the battle lasted far shorter than Theef's own as the ruler forced his gravity rule on his opponent.
This left him completely open despite his increased strength and just like that, Barter's Ruler cleared the assessment.
The duo wondered just how Theef was considered stronger than Barter's Ruler given the ease of the victory, but little did they know the disparity between Theef's advancement when using his own ability against himself.
The debacle on the ship all that time ago still shook the ruler to his core after witnessing the power of Theef's chimera form in action.
---
Onto the last two facing the assessment, Klein had to go against Orville while Minerva took on Z'oelo.
As the two were less powerful compared to the others of the crew, the fights were lengthy and well fought.
For Klein, his manipulation had reached a level where he could cast simple objects and conjure miniature elements.
The more he spent channeling the mofei, the larger the output, but obviously his opponent would not allow him to do so upon seeing what he had to offer.
Orville was faster than Klein thanks to the strength enhancement and was easily stronger than him by many times.
This called for Klein to resort to quick casts such as water and fire bolts to maintain distance while he secretly channeled mofei into his specialized organs.
That's right.
Klein himself was inherently a beast.
He swiftly ended the assessment after an explosive air mofei fueled dash alongside the manipulation of a crude stone blade since his daggers had been destroyed.
Orville had lost in terms of speed and admitted defeat.
On Z'oelo's end, he had it easier as he was proficient in close combat thanks to his father's teachings.
Once Minerva got in close, he summoned Muni's physical form— the sword-like weapon with a blunted back much like a metal bat— and quickly bested her with a furious barrage of non-lethal attacks.
And with that, the crew were done with their assessments and were back with the receptionist for their official assessment scores.