Krune returned to the Spirit Awakener Guild, where he gathered together with quite a few candidates. In the end, the attendant wasn't lying. Even in a small city like this one, a Spirit Awakener was still a famous profession. That being said, there were over a hundred candidates with cultivations ranging from God Foundation to the God Core Realm. He was pretty much the only Godly Fusion Realm participant here.

'Such a big difference. None of them seem to be more than 30 or 40 years old. Nevertheless, they're already in the God Core Realm. I wonder how Lila felt with her 7th Stage of the Nascent God Realm cultivation since she spent several chaos cycles to get there.'

​​

Sometime later, an elder of the Spirit Awakener Guild came out to receive the candidates.

"Hello. My name is Roben Suan, the one responsible for today's test."

Not even an instant later, Roben's sword came partially out of its scabbard before it spoke with everyone through Divine Sense.

"And I'm his Sword Spirit, Zap. I'll be helping out in judging those with talent for the Spirit Awakener profession. As an Awakened Spirit myself, I have a stronger sense when it comes to other Spirits. Even if you fail in awakening the Spirit of the equipment given to you, you might still get some reaction. As long as that happens, it means you aren't completely helpless. That's why I'm here, to try and feel that."

Roben Suan nodded as he said.

"I was the one who awoke Zap. Naturally, I became his Master as well. Anyway, if you guys have any doubts, go ahead and ask me now."

Krune immediately lifted his hand as he asked.

"I'm sorry to bother you, senior. However, how do you know that the Spirit will accept you or your client as a Master? What if they refuse to serve that person or demon beast?"

Sure enough, Krune had to understand that little at the very least. He didn't find the answer in the study materials he had read so far.

However, Roben simply shrugged his shoulders as he replied.

"I don't know. Whether the Spirit will accept that person or demon beast as a Master is their problem. However, you seem to not know much about Awakened Spirits, so I'm going to explain it to you. Awakened Spirits are just like babies. They aren't born knowing everything. That being said, you can take your time to teach them and gain their trust. Usually, as long as you treat them well, they will accept you once they become old enough to understand what it means to accept a Master."

Krune was taken aback as he asked in response.

"If that's the case, can't their owners just trick them into accepting them as masters while they're lacking in intellect? A child-level intellect shouldn't be that big of an issue to trick, no?"

Zap agreed with Krune as he explained.

"You are right. In fact, many of the Awoken Spirits' owners do exactly that. After all, a kid will trust the ones they've been with longer more than anyone else. They feel protected by them as if they were their parents. Naturally, it's very easy to have an Awoken Spirit accept a Master after a few years of nurturing."

Roben continued.

"However, most owners will still treat their weapons or other types of equipment Spirits well. After all, an Awoken Spirit will work much better if he trusts his Master instead of someone who's being forced to hear orders. For example, an Awoken Spirit who's being forced to follow orders won't do anything unless he's ordered. In that case, let's suppose that its Master was in danger, but the Master didn't notice it. The Spirit doesn't like the Master, so it obviously won't take the initiative to help its Master."

Zap nodded as it continued.

"However, a Spirit who trusts its Master will try to protect him even if his Master didn't order him to do so. That being said, there are very few Spirits serving Masters that they don't like. Of course, after the Spirit grows up and understands that he was tricked into accepting a Master, he might hate him or her. In the end, it's all up to how the masters treated their Spirits."

Krune nodded as he said.

"I understand. It seems Spirit Awakeners can only give the initial push. The rest is up to the two of them."

Zap confirmed as he replied.

"Exactly. However, Spirits have a strong reason to forgive their masters even if they understand they were tricked."

Krune's interest was piqued.

"Why is that?"

Roben smiled before saying.

"What else would it be? If not because a Spirit Awakener brought them to life, they would never have the chance to even think about it. It was thanks to them or the price their Masters paid that they can now think, feel, and talk. If not for that, they would be nothing more than a cold piece of equipment that had no will."

Zap agreed with Roben.

"Indeed. Whatever the reason might be, most Awakened Spirits are still grateful to be brought to life. Besides, if their Master allowed it, they can be released to live on their own. In the future, you might find one or another weapon that has been released and is now cultivating by itself. Well, those types are rare, though."

Krune couldn't help but feel impressed by that. He didn't even know that Spirits could cultivate. From the looks of it, the cultivation techniques that Spirits can use only appeared after Little Arty was sent to the Mortal World.

"Thank you, seniors. Your explanations have opened my eyes."

Roben and Zap didn't mind replying. Finding new Spirit Awakeners was too hard, so they made sure to not try and scare any of the candidates away.

"Very well, is there any other question?"

Someone else raised his hand.

"Is the Spirit Awakener's level determined by the level of the equipment he can awaken? Also, since Spirits can cultivate now, wouldn't it be better to simply awaken some low-level equipment and let the Spirit cultivate to increase their level?"

Zap laughed after hearing the last question.

"Hahaha! Sorry, but it isn't that simple. For example, you can indeed awaken the Spirit of one low-level piece of equipment and have it cultivate to get stronger. However, it will be forever limited by the materials it's made of. In the end, it couldn't possibly match a piece of equipment at the same cultivation level but was made up of rare materials. In fact, if the level difference between the pieces of equipment is too big, a Spirit with low cultivation can trash a high-level one just because of its higher quality."

Roben nodded.

"As for your first question. Yes, the Spirit Awakener's level is determined by the level of equipment where they could awaken a Spirit. The higher the equipment level, the more energy and rare materials it has. Naturally, its structure becomes more complex and harder to understand. All of that makes awakening its Spirit harder."

Krune pondered for a bit before asking.

"You said that a few Spirits have been released by their masters and are cultivating normally on their own now. In that case, how strong are Spirits without Masters? Also, can they take human form?"

Roben then explained.

"As mentioned before, a Spirit's power is determined by its cultivation and the level of the equipment he was awakened into. There are a few Spirits out there who have been awoken in powerful equipment. Naturally, they're very strong because of that. However, they have a big flaw. That's the fact that they can't move to another equipment."

Zap agreed with Roben as it continued.

"Exactly. So, unless a Spirit is awakened inside the highest level of equipment, he would never match a cultivator or demon beast of the same level. That being said, they will always need to be a cultivation realm or higher to match others. Last but not least, Equipment Spirits can't take human form. Because of that, they can't hold other equipment to help them in battle like humans and demon beasts can. In the end, an Equipment Spirit is better matched with a Master. An Equipment Spirit will never win against that combination alone."

Krune couldn't help but think about Little Arty. Because of the Soul Cultivation Technique, Little Arty was able to leave his equipment and enter a puppet.

'It seems like the cultivation system of the Spirits is different from the Soul Cultivation Technique. At the very least, their cultivation techniques don't include the option to move away from your actual bodies.'

Roben then looked at the group once again.

"Any other question?"

A female cultivator narrowed her eyes before asking.

"Suppose the Spirit still decides to not accept its owner as a Master even though it's still a kid. What would happen then? Can the owner wipe out that Spirit and ask for a new one to be awakened?"

Hearing that made Zap's mood turn gloomy. Roben noticed that but answered anyway. There would be no point in hiding this fact, after all.

"Exactly. If the Equipment Spirit refuses to accept a Master, the equipment owner can ask a Spirit Awakener to destroy it."

Immediately, the opinions of the people and beasts in the room became divided.

"Isn't that too wicked?"

"What are you talking about? If the owner of the equipment doesn't do that, he will lose his or her equipment!"

"That's what I call wicked! Is that a reason to simply kill a Spirit?"

"Ha! Of course, it is! What if you spent a fortune on that equipment? Will you simply let it go away and sulk over your lost money? I definitely wouldn't do that."

"I wouldn't have the heart to do such a thing."

"You're naive, that's all."

The discussion began to heat up when out of nowhere, Roben called everyone's attention.

"Enough! We're not here to discuss what is right or wrong. This kind of argument has already been going for a very, very long time, and no one has gotten to a conclusion yet. You definitely won't find an answer here today. If you don't have any more questions, let us start the test."

In the end, everyone could only stop and nod their heads.