They sat down in the hall, catching their breaths from what seemed to be frantic twenty-four hours. Igor and Sven had survived, Igor killed a total of three daemons and Sven used all the cards in his arsenal to provide as much assistance as he could.
"What do you think of the style!" Sven shouted. "The style of the immortal trapmaster!"
Igor had some questions to ask Sven but now wasn't the time for that, why did he use cards that already had an elemental act inscribed into them and why did it seem like he had a terrifyingly low mana pocket? These would be questions he would ask when he gained the trust of the Ianbris.
Clap! Clap! Clap!, Emirus applauded as he walked into the hall. "You're the strong ones, the ones that survived a day with the eternal foes of mankind. You are hunters," Emirus looked around. "Well, all twenty of you are anyway."
That was right, the two hundred students that crowded this hall were reduced to a mere twenty. He couldn't understand why the exam was done this way but right now he didn't want to think about it, he survived and now he was one step closer to reaching the goal he set for himself.
"All twenty of you are students of Vancrest. From here on out you will be studying, living, and taking commissions for daemon extermination as part of your daily routine." Emirus looked at Igor. "Your first class is tomorrow, by the zenloft and by the end of the month you will all participate in mock battles to increase your rank from an insignificant D to a paltry C."
Each person in the hall had the full magnitude of daemon hunting etched into their brains, one slip up and your food for a daemon. If any of them were to go against a dragon class, there was no chance of them surviving. Mael Ianbris went up against one and won by the skin of his teeth if that was any normal person. Well, they wouldn't be here to tell the story.
It had felt like so long since they last had a breath of fresh air, the dust and grime that covered him from the desert disappeared immediately after he left the room. He had fallen asleep in the hall while waiting for Gladius to fetch out his room tag and no one had bothered to wake him up, he took a nice swing of the calm night breeze and realized. He was exhausted.
"I wonder if I'd be able to see Liric tomorrow, tell him about today ." He thought to himself as he stepped through the door.
Walking through the veranda of his dorm, Igor stopped. For the first time, he truly saw how big Vancrest was. Though still considered one of the four great nations, Vancrest was more or less two countries that created a nation. Rosso horizon was a small country that shared its borders with Vancrest, it wasn't like Havenstale to galestadine and more like its own thing separate from Vancrest. If people came to Vancrest to find daemon hunters, people came to Rosso horizon to come closer to Alto.
"Door 23, hopefully, I'm not paired up with a weirdo."
Igor chuckled as he knocked on the door before pushing it open.
"Fire seal, water seal...need to get one for wind later," Sven said as he hung from a bar in the middle of the room before briefly stopping as he saw the door push open.
"....."
Both humans paused looking at each as if time had stopped for a moment.
"Wrong room." Igor closed the door and looked at the tag given to him by Gladius. "Number 23." He took a quick glance at the door to reaffirm himself. "Okay Igor. You know him just be cool."
Opening the door again, Sven was fully clothed, sitting down on a chair and the bar was gone. "Hey, Igor. Sorry about that, thought for a sec that maybe I didn't get a roommate."
"Yeah, I understand. So... What were you doing?"
"Nothing," Sven turned his head to his arms, before shaking his head and looking towards Igor. "You wanna hear a story?"
"Now? Umm sure."
"There was this boy, he was born without an affinity or given magical type."
"That's possible?" Igor asked.
"Yep and this boy was an outcast, he was born into a huge clan possibly the worst place for someone like him to be born but he wouldn't falter. If he didn't have his determination he probably would've killed himself. Everybody was expecting him to be something he ultimately wasn't."
Igor was quiet, looking at Sven with calm eyes and a patient aura.
"His parents didn't want him, his mother killed herself after enduring most of the blame from the clan for producing a failure." He chuckled. "So his father. Well, he gave him something priceless. He gave a piece of the clan's history. An heirloom of sorts and with that, he sent his son off into the world before he would suffer the same fate as his mother."
"So where did he go?" Igor sat down adjacent to him.
"Where did he go?" Sven asked a question, but he wasn't asking Igor. "Goodnight Igor, we have class early." Sven walked into his room shutting the door behind him.
"Yeah." Igor said as he watched him leave.
At the zenloft, everyone gathered in front of Emirus as he addressed the first mission. Pairing everyone into balanced groups of four creating five groups from the twenty students. Today's exam.
"Subjugating a daemon," Emirus said while staring at Igor. "However today you're solving a case along with the subjugation of a tiger class daemon."
"A case?" Ashae asked.
"Yes, this is the first thing a daemon hunter must know. There are five requests and your job is to locate the daemon using teamwork and the clues you can find." Emirus turned to Gladius who was at his side and she pulled out a book from her bag.
"I'll announce the pairings and coordinates now"
Team one(1) - Nox
Igor Dragonstead
Rex Miiks
Diana Miiks
Ula Finterbaal
Team two(2) - Galestadine
Mael Ianbris
Ashae Haldia
Sven Ianbris
Taera Inazuma
Team three(3) - Rosso horizon
Everest wallflower
Qiba Serenity
Leonard Hollowhound
Arya Halterglaide
Team four(4) - Tavar
Draco'nel Drauvagast
Micah Deux'raal
Hiakam Sinvow
Emma Kilforhlm
Team Five(5) - Leigrix
Hex Altrathor
Otto Jacquard
Luna Hermione
Willow Roosevelt
"Where's Tavar?" Emma asked looking at Gladius.
"South of the fourth nation, Leigrix. As daemon hunters your gonna have to learn to locate places by yourself, so the exact place. You'll have to find." Emirus replied before Gladius had a chance to.
"Seems like more work." Micah yawned as he held his sword close to his chest.
"Shut up Micah." Draco'nel cautioned him. "I know my way around Leigrix with it being my hometown and all."
"We'll follow your lead then," Hiakam told Draco'nel.
Igor looked at everyone and wondered, maybe the first exam worked. The atmosphere there and the one he felt right now were nothing alike, everyone here knows they are the best of the best and it shows on their confident faces. They were so different, everyone here could more or less handle a tiger class by themselves and he almost died to one, he needs to get better. That's the only way he can convince them.
"Fulfill your missions and be back here within three days, there isn't normally a time limit but I believe in you guys ." Emirus almost burst out laughing, but not even he could deny the quality in this room. "Precede the motto of Vancrest, Hunt, save, and most importantly. Survive."