This chapter has been proof-read by: AnthonyL

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On his way to the summoners guild, Kneeko walked down the main street where the biggest shops were located. Walking down the road, Kneeko eventually came across a shop called 'Lotostuff Fochïp'. He had already calculated what he would buy with his newly acquired gold, and also knew this shop had the best prices on what he wanted.

Since he was already there, Kneeko decided to go inside and buy the necessary items before continuing toward the guild. Having only 58 gold in his pockets, he wouldn't be able to buy nice clothes and equipment but other things needed to be prioritized.

The shop was mostly selling consumables like spellbooks, scrolls, potions and various objects having a limited number of uses. Sadly, there was no time for him to do the mission allowing him to grow closer to the merchant and lower the prices, but he only needed 3 items.

2 mana potions worth 10 gold coins each, and a familiar contract scroll worth 35 coins. Kneeko quickly completed the transaction and walked out of the shop with only 3 gold left in his pockets. Usually a single familiar contract was useless, since most creatures would refuse a bunch of time before finally accepting to become someone's familiar, but Kneeko was a cheater after all so a single one was plenty enough.

The 2 mana potions would be used as nutriment for his fungus, while the contract would later be used to mess with the game mechanics a bit. Kneeko couldn't help but giggle in anticipation, but there was a problem he needed to deal with first. For him to go forward with his idea, he needed to be able to 'convince' (bribe/coerce/threaten) an admin from Exodus into assisting him.

The young delinquent he had met a few days ago still hadn't given any news which was unexpected. What delinquent would miss an opportunity to make 100k yens? Luckily, Kneeko who was a prudent (paranoiac) man had taken some precautions and had two of his men keep a close eye on (stalk/spy) the rebellious teenager.

The next time the teen would make contact with his corrupted admin friend, Kneeko would learn who it is and then use this information to his advantage. If this admin turned out to be impossible to control, then he would have to go for plan B. No matter what this unknown admin decided to do, he was already certain to lose against Kneeko's plan B.

It took 45 more minutes to finally reach the summoners guild. This went to show just how immense the capital city Nakubar truly was. This time, the guild building was a circular one, made out of large red clay bricks and was 3 stories high. The summoner's guild's red flag was elegantly floating on top of a pole near the entrance so people would know exactly what they were.

Unsurprisingly enough, the area seemed very popular with the players. Summoner was an overly represented class for many obvious reasons. The major reasons being one, summoned creatures are basically free pets and two, people who didn't like fighting or getting injured were naturally appreciating having a creature doing it for them.

For these reasons the beast tamers, shamans, summoners and other classes offering the possibility of controlling some type of creatures were quite popular among the users. The demon races were quite common among players, and it was also common to see a 'fresh spawn' coming to the guild for an affinity test. Because of this, nobody paid any attention to him when he finally entered the building.

The building was full of people pleasantly talking to each others. Some were comparing their 'creatures' while others were exchanging information. Pushing his way through, Kneeko eventually walked up to the counter where a lizard-woman busily worked. He then installed himself at the counter and stared at the woman without saying a word, until she finally noticed him and came closer.

“Yes, are you here for an affinity test cugnoo?” Asked the small green scaled woman. To her question, Kneeko simply nodded while still staring at her. “Down the stairs, you're number 42 cugnoo.” She then said after giving him a small piece of paper with the number 42 written on it.

Not wasting any time, he then walked down the stairs and entered a room filled with chairs. Around 6 people were there waiting for their turns, so maybe the number 42 wasn't so bad thought Kneeko. Following the procedures, he silently sat on a chair, and waited for his number to come up.

Next to him were two annoyingly loud women who kept rambling about how their 'online' boyfriends were the best. Unsurprisingly, it took all of Kneeko's willpower to resist the urge to snap at the two of them. A few minutes later, a young demon boy exited the area everybody was waiting to enter with a radiant smile on his lips.

The young man walked up to one of his friends who had been waiting for him, struck a pose and summoned his newly acquired creature to show off. The creature was something looking like a black salamander with lava red stripes on its body. Kneeko couldn't help but smile. He knew this little thing had the potential to evolve into a dragon. 'Lucky lad' he thought to himself.

Sadly though, there was a better chance of it learning how to sit, roll and give a paw rather than learning how to fight, so the dragon path seemed unlikely. “Number 42” Then called an old woman wearing a mage robe. The old woman's red and black eyes were very creepy, but Kneeko had seen worse.

For Kneeko who still remembered the eyes of his pissed off dragon wife after he had accidentally killed their children, the old woman's glare meant nothing. Of course, back then his wife knew that he could simply load their save files and resurrected them afterwards, but Anastaria was merciless when it came to her children.

Having spaced out for a second after getting lost in that memory, Kneeko then quickly stood up and followed the old hag down to a giant circular room. The entire place was filled with carvings on the walls, columns, ceiling and floor. The entire room was also illuminated by a bunch of crystals shining with a faint blue glow.

At the centre of the room was a pedestal shaped like the talons of a dragon which were holding what looked like a crystal ball. On the outside of the circular room stood 3 people wearing mage robes. These mysterious people couldn't clearly be seen since their faces were cloaked by their hoods, but they were most likely the summoner's guild's leaders.

The old woman walked down to the centre of the room, turned around and stood beside the pedestal. “Place your left hand on the elemental sphere and... That's it...” She then said as if she was in a hurry to get this over with. Seeing his perplex expression, the old hag eventually relinquished some more information.

“The sphere will change colour, yadiyada, red for fire, blue for water, yadiyada... Then you will automatically be contracted to a low level creature compatible with your dominant element, yadiyada... The creature's species and potential is determined by the analysis of your soul and personality, yadiyada... Satisfied?” She quickly blabbered.

“Can the summoned creature be more powerful that its summoner?” Curiously asked Kneeko. Annoyed at having to always repeat the same things, the old hag let out a long sigh before finally beginning her explanation. “Yes and no. You can train your creature more than you do yourself, but this ceremony analyzes your soul-spirit and determines your true potential. The summoned entity is then selected among all the entities of this world to find the one best suited for its summoner. This basically means that you can't summon a creature with more potential than yourself.” She quickly answered in a disinterested manner.

'So the young man from before had the potential to become as strong as a dragon? Interesting...' Thought Kneeko to himself. Sensing the old hag getting impatient, he then walked a few steps forward, pressed his hand against the crystal ball and injected a bit of mana into it.

As soon as he did so, the sphere began to react and slowly turned darker and darker until it became a totally opaque jet black colour. Seeing this, the 4 cloaked summoners around him subtly inched forward to get a better look. 'Guhuhuhu. Admire and be amazed at how dark and black my soul is! Guhuahaha!' He internally laughed to himself.

Once his affinity was successfully determined, a magic circle then began to glow in front of him with a faint red light. After glowing and pulsating for a few seconds, a dark silhouette eventually appeared in the centre of the circle. This dark silhouette had the shape of a human, but was barely visible to the naked eye.

By the look of it, Kneeko assumed his summoned creature to be something like a spectre. The 4 overlookers who had seemed interested until now, seemed disappointed after seeing what he had finally summoned. By their reaction, they had been expecting something more interesting after witnessing just how black the sphere had turned.

Then, the circle and the silhouette disappeared, returning calm and tranquility to the dark room he was currently in. “A common spectre... It's a rare thing to see a summoner with a 'death' affinity... My opinion is that you should have picked necromancy, but it's none of my business. The exit is this way. Number 43!” Quickly concluded the old hag.

[table=#800000]You have successfully summoned 'Thanatos – God of death' (Lvl-1)[/table]

[table=#800000]You have completed the quest “Summoner's affinity test”[/table]

[table=#800000]You have gained “125” EXP[/table]

[table=#800000]Thanatos was the daemonic representation of death in Ancient Greek mythology (daemonic here is used with its classical meaning, which refers to benevolent or benign nature spirits). He did not play a major part in Greek mythology and rarely appeared in any stories, as he was mostly displaced by Hades, the god of the Underworld.

Thanatos was believed to be merciless and indiscriminate, and both mortals and gods hated him.[/table]

'Khukukuku Common spectre my ass.' Internally laughed Kneeko. But on the other hand, he was glad they hadn't verified whether it truly was a common spectre or not. These types of things were better kept secret for the future, and there was no way they would have suspected that a player would summon a god just like he had just done.

Of course it was only at level 1, but it was still a god. This meant that the Exodus system had estimated Kneeko to have more latent potential than the god of death himself. Not wanting to hang around for too long, Kneeko turned around and walked out of the guild building while trying not to attract too much unwanted attention.

'I should be prudent and avoid summoning this thing when there are too many witnesses around to see.' Thought Kneeko as he walked toward one of the city gates. Once arrived at the gates, he then first decided to allocate his unused skill points before heading out into the wilderness.

He was definitely strong and good at fighting, but a higher level monster still remained a threat to him since he was only a level 1 after all. Wanting to grind his new skills, Kneeko decided to pour his 5 points into 'INTELLIGENCE' so he would have more mana at his disposal.

Since each point gave a hundred mana points each, adding 5 more to his previous 3 points gave him 800 mana units which was enough to summon Thanatos and use [Wave of aggression] twice. Now ready to venture out, Kneeko walked through the giant door leading into the wilderness. Near the door were a bunch of carriages and soldiers offering their escort services to anyone coming out of town but Kneeko simply ignored them.

He estimated that those who needed escorts to venture out weren't even worth gazing upon. The outskirts of the city were plains filled with beginner's prey like horned rabbits, demon foxes and other weak creatures. His plans were to hunt a few of them while walking toward his fungus which should be only a few minutes away from his current position.

But before doing anything, Kneeko went to a discrete area where no one could see him and summoned his new godly pet 'Thanatos'. [SUMMONING (THANATOS)] Soon after using the skill, the phantom silhouette appeared before him for the second time. Its appearance was that of a semi-transparent human silhouette with 2 creepy red glowing eyes.

“To reduce me, Thanatos the great god of death into a mere slave... What abomination might my master be?” Asked the ghostly being. At these words, Kneeko couldn't help but chuckle in amusement. “Well, what might I be, if not a more powerful and more deadly god than yourself, dear Thanatos. We will have a lot of fun together I assure you. Khukuku” He playfully responded with a smile on his lips.

Now with the introductions almost over, the deadly duo then entered the forest and headed toward the direction where they would find the devil himself, his fungus Heosphoros.