"You passed." came his simple response.

  'I passed?' I asked, genuinely surprised.

  This test was... surprisingly easy? These didn't seem like particularly difficult questions honestly.

  Contrary to his serious first appearance, his questions were rather simple in nature, talking about long term goals and what his thoughts were on the development of the tortoise race.

  I was open and honest, talking about how I would help the tortoise monsters develop without interfering with humanity.

  Coexistence.

  Hearing this, Fuxi showed a sheepish look as he explained helplessly.

  "Well, the test wasn't really made for someone like you. As a result, this test has become easier for you.

  The point of this test was to test your devotion to the race as a whole, a long-term view on how to develop their people.

  For monsters, who rarely have a sense of loyalty to their race and little understanding of long-term planning, this requirement would be insurmountable. Despite being long lived, turtle monsters are cowardly and self-serving most of the time. Only large clans like the xuanwu and dragon turtle clans would instill some race loyalty into their descendants, and they wouldn't bother coming here, not when they are already superior monsters."

  Hearing this, I understood. Indeed, questions like those would be difficult for turtle monsters, but as a lord, I naturally had more insight into these areas, as well as a dedication to the long term development of a people.

  No wonder it seemed easy. This test was practically tailor made for me!

  Seeing my expression Fuxi laughed. "Indeed. I had thought at least you would be a bit more selfish since you had only recently become a turtle monster, meaning less loyalty, but no, you seem to have a full support for turtle monster kind." He said with honest surprise and I shrugged.

  'i was a lord. My concern was always for the people, and naturally as a turtle, my loyalty has to shift a little. Besides, many races align with the human race. If I gathered my people and led them to support humanity, wouldn't I gain the best of both worlds?'

  I wasn't human anymore, and even if I wanted to continue to remain amongst humans, I would be viewed more critically.

  Having more friends never hurt, and gathering friends amongst my own kind was critical. Even if I didn't believe it, many believed that those of the same kind would inevitably have different hearts.

  Fuxi gave me an approving look. I did want to ask.

  "But why is this your test?" I asked, and hearing this, Fuxi showed a tired look.

  "Because the one to inherit my old junior's inheritance isn't just doing so for themselves, but for all of turtle kind.

  Once you inherit her bloodline, you will enter the world with it. Before she died, she left a will, listing some of her requirements.

  One of them was to propagate her bloodline. Partially, this is to ensure that when she returns one day, there will be enough turtles with her bloodline that she can easily regain her former ability.

  The other reason, however, is to help turtle kind propagate.

  As someone with a system, you don't understand how hard it is for ordinary monsters."

  At this moment, Fuxi had a look of exhaustion, clearly the look of someone who had to deal with problem often.

  I admitted it immediately.

  'No, I don't. I thought monsters thrived?'

  Hearing this, Fuxi laughed.

  "Yes, but no." Fuxi both affirmed and denied before explaining.

  "While monsters have survived, they haven't really thrived. To be more precise, it's rare for any species to truly emerge amongst the myriad monster races and develop into a stable race."

  'I mean... skarpans. And dragons.'

  "Dragons can't form their own civilization due to some taboo. As for skarpans... would you really consider that thriving? Half your race doomed to become mindless savages?" He said with an amused smile, pointing out the major flaw in the skarpans.

  Well, he wasn't wrong.

  "It's not that it doesn't happen, it's just extremely hard for a race to change from an individual to a genuinely thriving race. The races you've seen commonly are merely fodder that have made their niche by being expendable in high numbers. True high level monster races rarely manage to reach a surviving populace.

  And the reason for this is inheritance."

  I understood pretty quickly, but also not quite.

  'Then can't they just create inheritance?'

  Instead of answering, he put forward another question.

  "Did you know monsters can record things in their bloodline? Their species' natural skills for one, and important pieces of knowledge.

  Yet many races fail to form a stable inheritance, ultimately disappearing after one individual. Do you know why"

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  I shook my head.

  "Because half of them are smart but selfish, the other half unaware. You players are really lucky. A system helps design your evolution and provide this newfound race innate skills.

  But this is not how it is for most monsters. For most monsters, they must figure out and develop their own racial skills from scratch before manually or instinctively inscribing these skills in their bloodline inheritances.

  However, it is that one step, the change from 0 to 1 that poses itself to be the most difficult. And not all individuals care to record their skills or memories, merely evolving and moving on, and as a result the next a monster evolves into that same race, there's no inheritance to learn, and they are all the way back at 0.

  Because of this, dragons are one of the strongest families, as their inheritance contains knowledge dating back millions of years ago, ensuring that no matter what they evolve into, they have sufficient knowledge to act.

  Humanity has something just as good: written knowledge.

  Even though they have no racial skills, humanity has the ability to record and upkeep knowledge, passing it on to the next generation.

  Humans take it for granted that they can learn swordsmanship and woodcrafts and cooking and other skills, while most monster races have to rely on blindly grasping the path forward, often never bothering to leave a trail for those who follow."

  'Then this senior, she has already developed the path forward?' I asked, finally understanding why long term vision and racial affection were necessary.

  Fuxi nodded in approval.

  "Indeed, she had already long explored her path and skills, prepared to develop her own clan. However, tragedy struck and she and her friends were targeted by the Immortal Tyrant, the eternal enemy to the dragon race. She had been traveling with her friends at the time, among which was Qinglong.

  As a result, she died before she could take on the grand undertaking of spreading her bloodline.

  'The immortal tyrant?' I asked curiously and Fuxi smiled, but this time it was rather mean spirited.

  "No need to ask, last I checked he's managing one of the tests later down the road, so you'll get to meet him soon."

  'What?! But he killed her!'

  "Yes, and he feels very sorry about it so he's here to make it up. Honestly, none of us could stop him and he seems to have mellowed out."

  Hearing that, I wondered what I did to deserve this. This immortal tyrant didn't seem very nice spirited. One does not simply call themselves the immortal tyrant after all.

  'Regardless, it's no wonder that your test was simple for me. I won't say humans are selfless, but many are.'

  "Indeed. This system is a good example. I've been studying it, and I've noticed it has a very human element to it."

  'You don't mean Stolidus do you? Does it have to do with the evolution system?'

  "Indeed. I've been studying how it works and have realized that its calculations are done by a simulated mind, clearly based off a human."

  'A human made the system?' I said incredulously, having originally thought it was made by the Gods.

  "Not necessarily, but a human at the very least played a major role in the creation of this system. And this... "system" is a miracle in of itself.

  This system is truly miraculous. Born of the chaos attribute, it's potential is unlimited."

  'In that case, why not just make one just like it specifically for monster kind?' I asked.

  Looking at the system avatar in front of him, Fuxi sighed helplessly, gazing at it with desire, yet tinged with understanding.

  "Alas, even if we were to make something similar, it wouldn't be able to achieve the same effect. The chaos energy is the energy of possibility. Without it, this system wouldn't be able to generate the completely new evolutions for its players, nor would it be able to create brand new racial skills and inheritances for them.

  I've already investigated it. Each new evolution the system produces is completely reproducible on non-player monsters and come with full built-in racial inheritances. You do not understand how big that is." Fuxi commented wistfully.

  'I don't but with what little you've told me, it's clear that the system is truly a glimmer of hope for all monsters. Or rather, it already is, isn't it?You said it yourself; these monsters are already recruitable in the wild. In other words, they have began to appear.' I admitted, but it's easy to see how this snowballs.

  'But wouldn't this be bad for humankind? You said that civilization is what separates man from monsters and that inheritances are always lacking; and yet with the appearance of systems, that advantage dissipates to an extent, and monsters get a leg up. Why would the gods do this?'

  I said, confused. Afterall, the system was made by the gods. Why would they allow such a problem, where their core followers would suffer so?

  Hearing this, Fuxi chuckled, amused that I clearly hadn't grasped the full gravity of it all.

  "Your gaze is still short sighted. Humanity should never be too comfortable, otherwise it will begin to stagnate. You should be aware of the scandal surround the church of Isis dating a few decades back. This is natural for humans. When placed in harsh conditions, while many will die, humanity thrives. But once they've cleared out all enemies' humanity tends to stagnate as history has shown.

  And humanities' greatest warriors have only appeared amidst struggles.

  Pangu and Chang'e amidst the war against Dijun and Taiyi's demon clan,

  Lu Bu in the three kingdoms war,

  Merlin and Arthur during his campaigns against the Saxons,

  and other of humanities greatest heroes can only arise amidst struggle.

  Weak monsters can never put pressure on humanity.

  And since the ones who benefit from this the most are former humans now monsters, the reins are in their hands.

  They chose you, devotees, to ensure that this jump in monster strength will not harm human interests but benefit them.

  Truly, a genius scheme."

  Hearing this, I understood but was also confused.

  Even if this was the case, surely this could have the chance to spiral out of control?

  Before I could even ask, Fuxi dropped a bombshell.

  "This is merely the prelude. The plan of the Gods is to bestow this system on all of their followers soon" Hearing this, I quickly realized that in fact, my concerns were unneeded. Once this system was given to their followers, these concerns would fade.

  As for the fact that this wasn't granted to everyone?

  What's the surprise in that? Not even Gods are selfless, how could you expect them to give away systems to people who don't worship them?

  "Anyway, you should be on your way now. Your friends are likely growing anxious. Your next test will be in a day."

  He paused, looking at my second head before speaking.

  "As a senior, it would be rude of me if I didn't offer you a gift. A few decades ago, a group of mysterious masked man came passing by with special suits of symbiotic armor led by a man called Tsukasa.

  You're likely still learning how to utilize that metal slime bonded to you right? Their insight should be quite helpful to you."

  He said, before pointing a finger at my head, a light flashing through into the core of my head.

  [New skill unlocked!]

  [Armor change: utilize your partner to form a suit of armor made of liquid metal, which increases the user's strength by 50 percent. Passed on by a masked man passing by.]

  [Finishing touch: concentrate your power into one blow and finish off the enemy! Doing so will force you out of your armored form, requiring your symbiote partner to rest for an hour thereafter. Requires: Armor change in action]

  [camouflage: bend the world's perception of you and hide in plain sight. Requires: armor change in action]

  Seeing this, I realized I got quite the deal, and a way to actively use Ore, and even wanted to test it out at this moment.

  "Enough, enough. This old man needs to rest now." He said, waving his hand, and he disappeared, along with the rest of the room, and I was left confused, surrounded by my friends.

  Seeing that the young turtle had left, Fuxi chuckled. "How interesting, a killing star amongst turtles. Destined to be embroiled in conflict and live a short life just like his last life.

  Though now that he's a turtle, that short life can now be measured in centuries."

  Fuxi chuckled, a mischievous glint in his eye.

  The next test, a story as old as time.

  A race between the tortoise and the hare.

  He was looking forward to it.