.
.
Two guys were standing straight in front of a half-covered hole on the side of a hill.
Unlike the Rangers armor of ERA that combined both old-fashioned style leathers and furs with modern futuristic alloys and composite materials, the two guys were wearing a full on tight-fitting exo-skeletal suit of armor with unidentifiable materials that looked very durable.
Both of them were equipping a drill-like equipment where one had to put in their whole front arm while the other hand held on to the handle to sustain the vibration.
"The scan was accurate, the area underneath this hill is indeed hollow." One of the two men spoke.
"It's a tunnel alright, it might extend all the way to Naraka. Are we going in?" The other one asked.
"Yes. The scan revealed many pieces of Old Era styled structures close to the tunnel's entrance, that's our primary objective."
The second man nodded at the order and asked a follow-up question, "Are we also doing further exploration as well? there shouldn't be any danger, we've catalogued most of the Naraka inhabitants around the coordinates below."
"No." The first man shook his head, "While there most likely won't be any danger, we shouldn't disrupt the ecosystems involved. We don't want to provoke ERA's Rangers."
"We'll just inspect the area around the Old Era's ruins."
"Understood."
*VRRMMM*
The two people activated their Arm Drill at the same time, and a loud sound that startled the beasts in the surrounding area reverberated throughout the forest that late morning.
.
.
Shortly after parting with Odette, Claude had gone on towards the direction of the 2nd Procurement Division District in the southeast area of Sector-07.
Just like the other districts, the Procurement Division District carried a similar summer camp feel to it. The only difference was that in this area, you can sometimes see some Rangers walking around carrying giant-sized rabbits or lizards on their hands.
Most of them also had backpack-shaped bamboo baskets filled with all sorts of weird green plants and mushrooms of all colours.
But the most shocking thing that Claude had seen here was that of 4 Rangers pushing a huge cart carrying an elephant-sized mountain boar on top of it.
'So this is the 2nd Division.' He noted.
Claude soon arrived in front of the largest cabin amongst the surrounding that had a similar shape to the one he'd been in yesterday,
"This should be the 2nd Division's administration cabin."
He stepped up the short flights of stairs and enter through the open main door of the cabin, wherein he was swiftly greeted by the receptionist at the front desk.
"Oh, a new face! Welcome!"
He was a high-spirited middle-aged guy with a scar on his cheek.
"Are you here on an errand?" He asked.
"No, I'm here to ask some questions regarding the examination to enter the Division." Claude replied.
"Examination?" Hearing his reply, the scarfaced guy started to give him another look.
"Ah well, why don't you first try putting your palm on there for identification, since I've never seen you before."
He pointed his thumb towards a tablet looking device with semi-transparent black screen that was set up at the side of the desk.
Claude followed his direction obediently and placed his palm on top of the device.
when his whole palm touched the surface of the tablet, a glowing circular formation suddenly appeared and rotated within the semi-transparent screen, scanning him through his palm print.
'I'd thought about this before, but the technologies here truly feel like they came straight from Science Fictions.'
*BEEP*
Before long, a beeping sound was heard from the wall-mounted monitor behind the reception desk. It had turned itself on, and was now showing Claude's entire information on its large screen.
The scarfaced receptionist looked it over and scrutinized it line-by-line until he was satisfied.
"Well, you're eligible alright." He nodded, "Though I never thought I'd see someone who actually agreed to take in the Nano Explosives."
He shuddered as he thought about it.
It was like looking at a living breathing human bomb. If that Grade-3 Nano Explosives were to be activated right now, this whole building would be blasted away in an instant with nothing left inside.
"It just seemed like a good idea at the time." Claude joked lightly with a smile.
"HA! You're a crazy one ain't ya!" The guy snort out a laugh at his explanation.
"So! what do you wanna know about the exam?"
"I really don't know much about it, can you tell me the specifics?" Claude asked probingly, prompting the man to shrug.
"All i can say is that the content is changed annually. It usually spans over a couple of days where you'll be required to stay overnight outside the Sector."
"...Camping out? Isn't that too dangerous for someone who's not strengthened?"
"We're not sending you to some kind of danger zone. It'll most likely be a relatively safe area outside of Sector-07."
The scarfaced man tried to ease his concerns before following it up with a warning,
"Relatively being the keyword. Mind you, deaths aren't really that uncommon for our exams. Though it's still slightly better than the 4th Division's."
Claude nodded and thanked him for the warning,
"So the content changes yearly huh..." He started arranging his thought on how best to prepare.
"Our job as the Sector-07 Procurement Division is to secure provisions for our Sector, so no matter how it changes, the exam is still going to mainly test you on that category."
"I see, will the participants be provided with or allowed to bring anything for the exam?"
"Yes. Before the examination started, we'll take you to our equipment storage facility that we use to store all kinds of stuff." He grinned,
"And here's the fun part, you'll be allowed to borrow any number of anything from within. No limits!"
"Of course, you also won't be allowed to take any form of transportation during the exam. Oh, and no outside equipment either."
'That is interesting... It gives the participants a lot more freedom on how they should go about completing their tasks. And also...' Claude quickly grasped the intention behind the rather peculiar rule of the exam.
"We expect our members to be clever on matters of survival, and this rule is a reflection of that. After all, we are the lifeline that supported both the Alliance's citizens and the frontline Rangers with their basic needs." The scarfaced man concluded.
'Exactly.' Claude too agreed with their requirements for their members.
"Okay, that pretty much sums up most of the rules, excluding the specific content and duration of the exam of course..." The man tried to recall if he'd missed anything.
"All right, thank you very much." Claude expressed his gratitude, "May I apply for the exam now?"
"...Huh? Right now now?" The receptionist looked stupefied as he tried to confirm what Claude had meant.
"Is there a problem?"
"Not really," He scratched his head at the question, "I just thought that you'd wanna take the test together with the other applicants."
"The other applicants?" Claude repeated the words, 'Does that mean...?'
"Yeah, the day after tomorrow is the set exam time for this year's batch of trainees. You know, people who have just come-of-age." He mentioned,
"I thought that with your timing and all, you'd want to go at the same time. Grouping up is allowed you see, although you have to work harder with all your test objectives combined, there's safety in numbers as well."
"Hmm, do they usually group up, the trainees?" Claude posed a question.
"Most of them, yeah..."
"Then I think I'll take the test right now, thank you. Other competitors can be quite dangerous after all, they're certainly the most volatile and unpredictable variables." He smiled politely.
"Hah, wise decision! ...Though it's only wise if you have the strength and confidence to back it up." The scarfaced man smirked,
*sigh*
"Older guys are different after all, I've spent too much time managing those brats year after year..." He lamented.
"Haha, older is quite right." Claude replied while thinking,
'Don't you look much older than me though?'
"Right then, just go over to the terminal there and fill out the application. Come find me once you've finished."
The machine that he pointed to was located at one corner of the hall. This was the terminal that Odette had introduced to him previously, it stood at a man's height independently on its own platform.
The terminal actually looked like a high-tech ATM machine, And just like all the others, it was complete with the same semi-transparent black screen and side-view 3D projection monitors floating around encircling the front-half of the user.
When Claude approached the platform and made contact with the screen, he was pleasantly surprised with the unexpectedly friendly and intuitive directions given by the machine.
'This will be easier to learn than I thought...' He mused in his mind as he operated the terminal.
.
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Back at the Trainee District's activity area, a young handsome teenager was being very absorbed in his training even with his head full of sweat. The youth had a well-built body and a somewhat familiar face if Claude were to see him.
It was Rudy.
He could be seen swinging around a wooden staff as he hopped from one stump to another while hitting branches tied by different ropes left and right.
His hits were strong and precise even though his move were kind of rough around the edges.
As he was finished, a guy to his side that was presumably his friend called out to him while throwing him a towel.
"Great work! You seem more enthusiastic than before, who were you trying to fight? It's not like any trainees here are a match for you."
Rudy caught the towel and wiped his face dry as he opened a bottle to drink,
*glug* *glug* *pant*
"What do you mean? It's already this close to exam day, I'm just making preparation." He replied after chugging down his drinks.
"Huh? What exam?"
"?" Rudy looked confusedly at his friend, "The 2nd Division exam, what else? It's the day after tomorrow."
"What!? Are you crazy, why are you taking the 2nd Division exam??" His friend was exasperated.
Rudy was strong enough to enter any of the combat Divisions in his eyes, and to the lot of them, the greatest achievement and honor would be for them to enter the 4th Conquest Division!
It was like the youths dream!
Adventuring and exploring. Hunting down strong and unique danger beasts while also enjoying the largest amount of remuneration amongst Divisions.
In comparison, the 2nd Division who only went around hunting the same weak beasts over and over again and going back to fill their quotas looked like a dead-end job for weaklings in their eyes.
Most of the trainees staying in the district were young and frivolous teenagers. They only worshipped the strong and the cool. And to them, the figures of the Conquest Division's members were like superheroes.
And who wouldn't want to be a superhero!
Of course, they also hadn't thought about the realities or the full extent of danger that the members of the 4th Division carried with them on a daily basis.
Which was why when his friend heard that Rudy had applied for the 2nd Division exam instead of the 4th, he was struck with disbelief.
Rudy however understood both the danger and his friend's thoughts so he tried to explain, "You know that everyone from my family are or has been members of the 4th Division right?"
*sigh*
"Well they said that my current ability is not yet up to par for the 4th standard, so they told me to learn the basics in the Procurement Division first for a couple years before applying for a transfer later if I want."
"They said that this is the best way, and that the proof is in our numbers."
"Proof?" His firend had a look of confusion in his face still.
Rudy tried to elaborate,
"Most of the others with 4th Division family members all have very high death rate. All of my family members are still alive..."
'All of his family members' was basically referring to his Father, Mother, and Brother. The population of each Sector was small in the Elken Rangers Alliance. So of course, there weren't things like big families, or clans in it.
Rudy continued, "So if they say that I'm not strong enough, then that means I truly am not strong enough..."
Rudy said it calmly, but there was a glimmer of impatience in his eyes. Although he was more mature and had better world view than others growing up, he was still a teenager in his most rebellious phase.
His friend just nodded in understanding after he finished his explanation, 'Talented people are really different...' He thought.
.
After resting for a couple more minutes, Rudy resumed his training again with even more intensity than before.
'If I achieve some kind of record-breaking result in this exam, maybe dad will allow me to transfer directly come next month when the 4th Division's exam arrived...'