Now that Norn was full and didn't feel anything out of the ordinary...
It was time to think!
First of all - why the fuck would his first system show up?
It's not like it acted on it's own before...
Yes, he did know that it exists.
He knew about it because several years before his death he achieved full retardation and started crying out silly phrases...
One of them worked, suprising him so much that he almost passed out from happiness!
Sadly, it only worked once, no matter how much he tried it never showed up again.
The secret phrase was [Open profile], but it was useless... until now!
[Open profile]
Nothing happened.
"Fuck you, you fucking piece of shit, dumb fucking cunt..."
Norn just couldn't help but swear at it.
Why would it work, then not work, then work again!?
And now, it's not working again!
How and why!?
Norn didn't know.
But oh well, what can he do?
He didn't bother with it anymore, as there was something more important...
"What about Erika? Did she die or something?"
He couldn't help but wonder, she must've used some spell on him to protect him from unexpected dangers, but...
It didn't work!
Was it because the person that killed him was too powerful or was it because she died?
That was just a wild speculation tho, she herself told him that she was powerful enough to hold her ground against anyone!
But... Why didn't she save him then?
It was a mystery Norn could find an answer to.
As such, two of his biggest concerns were unanswered and will be unanswered for god knows how much time...
Norn didn't even think about a reason why he was reincarnated it that body, why he had a system in the first place or even why the new system couldn't gauge his soul power...
It was all something he couldn't bother with, he knew perfectly well that if he cant even understand why the first system barely works he wouldn't be able to answer those.
He had a guess that his reincarnation was linked to the first system, but he didn't know how.
As far as he could remember he didn't have any skills when he looked at it the first time, so why would he now?
It's not like they can just appear out of the blue, can they?
After several more minutes of useless thought about those things Norn moved to another problem that he had...
"What do i do now?"
He was obviously a "hunter" now.
Norn didn't even doubt the fact that other hunters could somewhat guess that he was one aswell.
Why? Well, as a first - that woman somehow knew that he was one.
Yes, it could just be a guess since he looked somewhat retarded, not wearing a shirt and all that... But so what?
On a normal day people would think that he's just a hobo or something!
But that woman called him a hunter without a second thought!
That means that there's a way to know!
But what was it?..
Alas, there was no infomation on the internet, Norn already checked it.
Even if there was a method like that - there's no way some random weak-ass hunter would know how to use it.
It was just a fluke, Norn didn't know that, obviously.
Anyway, it didn't even bother that much, just a small concern.
It was beneficial for him to be a hunter, as it was obvious that they were needed now...
And if u're needed - you'll get paid for your time!
Dont get me wrong, Norn wasn't greedy or anything.
Yes, he loved money, but he wouldn't sell himself for cash.
He needed it just so he doesn't have to worry about food or anything else, nothing more than that.
As such, by combining those two things Norn came up with a solution to both - he needed to become a hunter!
Earlier, when he was browsing forums, he saw quite a lot of recruitment posts and ads.
Almost all of them required a person to have at least a [D] rank.
What was that rank and how to get one?
Strangely enough, it was just a basic assesment thing, just like those that Norn read about in novels.
Obviously, as it's actually a good way to control things or whatever.
Hunter organization or whatever it's called in his world would obviously be run by the government so that they can scout people immediately.
And of course, whoever didn't officialy register as a hunter was a criminal... How convenient.
As such, Norn needed to register!
There were more reasons than just that, first was to asses his own power!
Norn wasn't that stupid, strange, but not exactly stupid.
He knew that the best way to do that would be to ask from someone who knows strong people!
How exactly? Well, if he's given, let's say, a [B] rank - the world is full of weak pussies that he can just bitch-slap.
If he's given [F] rank - he wont even stick his nose out of his house before he finds a way to get stronger.
Norn was such a person, wouldn't act arrogantly before strong people, but will absolutely do that before weak bitches!
And so, Norn left his house after looking for a location of the closest hunter association center... or whatever it's called.
...
An hour or so of walking later Norn finally arrived.
Before him was a business-looking building full of windows.
"Fancy shit."
Was what he thought when he looked at it.
He didn't enter immediately, as he waited near it to see who roamed in and out, to make his own assesment of people in this area.
Norn couldn't really be accurate in those things, as his "assesment" was basically looking at a person and thinking whether or not he looked strong.
In conclusion that he made - people here were fucking weak.
Those adventurers that he killed back when he was a goblin looked stronger than those people.
Obviously, he didn't think too bad about them, as magic was a new thing here, it was obviou that it's not well-studied so people wont be that good... yet.
After waiting for some more time Norn finally entered the building.
The moment he did so he felt strange, as if something looked at him.
It was just momentary, so he couldn't grasp what exactly it was.
"Fucking spies everywhere, cant even walk freely..."
He didn't say it out loud, but just thought about it.
In reality, it was just a spell that checked whether or not the person that walked in had any magic power.
It wasn't done with a bad intention, but to know how to talk to a person beforehand.
If it wasn't someone with magic - why bother with them? It was a courier or whatever, just send them off.
If it was a person with magic however... Utmost respect!
A person immediately approached Norn, who was just standing there, looking around with a dumb face.
He didn't know where to go, as there were 7 counters and all of them had queues of at least 5 people...
"Hello, may i help you?"
It was a woman, she was somewhat pretty but couldn't be called one.
Norn didn't even look at her twice before saying...
"I was to register as a hunter."
As he said it all of the gazes were focused on him!
Why? Well, because he was still barechested.
I dont know what was going on in his head, but all this time he was just walking around like that.
It's not like he didn't have any clothes, there were plenty of them in his inventory...
"Sure, sir. Follow me!"
The not-so-pretty woman said with a smile, Norn could feel greed from her.
How? Well, all thanks to [Foul Desire]. It was a skill that he had.
It had lots of uses, but the most basic one was exactly that, feeling "foul" desires of others.
Even better, if Norn actually bothered with practicing this skill he could amplify those desires easily!
However, he was too weak to do that, vaguely feeling them was the best he could do now.
Even if he could use that skill before, it was purely to him being in a body of a goblin.
Goblins are basically lowborn demons, so skill like that were easier to execute, while [Heal] or whatever else "divine" was harder.
It was a whole 180 now, [Heal] is easy, [Foul Desire] is hard.
...
After a minute or so of walking Norn arrived in an office.
In wasn't particularly fancy, but it had it's charm.
As he looked around the not-so-pretty woman sat on a chair.
This office was hers!
"Please fill out this form, after u're done with it we'll proceed with several tests to determine your rank."
She said as she handed Norn a paper.
[Registration form]
Was written on it.
The whole paper was really boring, so i wont talk about it anymore, the only "interesting" thing about it was one question
[What were you doing when you awakened?]
It's a question that Norn would've stopped on, which would be suspicious.
However, "would've stopped" is not "stopped".
He read all of the questions before filling them out.
Why, you might ask?
Norn was careful, he read enough novels to know that trusting anybody was a really, really bad idea... unless he had no choice but to.
That's the reason he used his brains at a whole 300% rate!
After filling out form and giving it back to the woman both of them went to the test room...
While they were walking the woman asked questions from the paper, Norn didn't know why.
He guessed that it was to check if he lied or whatever, good thing that due to his [Intelligence] stat his memory became better.
Sadly, it didn't make him smarter...
"You were... on a toilet when you awakened Mr. Ashenvale?"
The woman asked with a strange expression on her face...
"Yeah, it was the best shit of my life! I felt like everything just became better!"
Norn grined as he answered, it was obviously his counter-attack to that stupid question.
In Norn's head - if they asked it, it means it matters!
Maybe there's a correlation between awakening and doing something? He couldn't say that he died or whatever, that would be too suspicious.
As for that "Mr. Ashenvale" part - it was his real family name. His mother didn't have it, but he, for some reason, did.
He himself wasn't sure why it was like that, as he was the only person in his country with that family name.
Hell, even on the planet there weren't people with that family name!
At least he didn't ever see it anywhere, maybe there were.
A minute or so later both of them were now standing inside a test room.
Norn was supposed to listen to the not-so-good-looking girl but he wasn't.
She was kinda boring and was just explaining what he can and cant do.
Why wasn't he listening? Because it was a physical test, Norn was a mage.
He didn't need that shit, and since it was a strength test - even less.
He wasn't even planning on using a sword or whatever, magic is all he needed.
Moreover, his physical stats were horrible, his only weapon was magic.
Another minute passed, so did the physical test.
Norn scored a strong [F] with his punch...
[E] with his grip, guess why.
And finally [F-] with his stamina.
Those weren't important, so Norn didn't think too much of it.
The girl, however, changed her attitude towards Norn.
She was a bit more rude now, and if previously she tried to talk to him or to explain something...
Now she was just silent. Why did Norn think that she was rude?
He felt like it, thinking that it's his 6th sense.
In reality it was just [Foul Desire] showing it's passive ability... it's only ability for the current Norn, to be exact.
After walking for a considerable amount of time, something around 2 minutes, they finally arrived to the 2nd and last testing ground.
It was a magic aptitude test.
As they were walking the woman explained something about the difficulty of making those tests as there were lots of skills yada yada.
That there isn't really a way to properly asses someone's magic power as it's too spread out yada yada...
Norn didn't care, he just needed his license to enter a dungeon, that's all.
Why not the tower?
Because he already read about it, it was... How to explain?..
Well, if dungeon was a [Normal] difficulty, then the tower was [You'll fucking die].
Norn was insanely lucky to survive his first entrance, as it's notoriously hard to do so.
Even first floor that Norn cleared was a death sentence.
Posts on teh forum he checked said that it's a 90% of death.
Some who cleared it said that it's basically the same as clearing a whole [D] rank dungeon alone, thus barely anybody even talked about tower now.
It was just too hard to try.
As for the reason behind Norn's successful clear?
He got lucky, strangely. If it was another trial, something that wasn't about goblins - he would've died.
Anyway, why am i even talking about it now? Wasn't Norn on a test?
Nope, that not-so-pretty girl is still talking, that's why i'm talking too... at least i'm not boring, am i?
Oh... Okay... it's time for a test...
"I repeat, DO NOT try to use magic, you got that?"
It's the 4th time she said it, it's the "Most important thing" about this test.
By her own words "Use magic - die".
Simple, right? Not really, as it'll only happen if you have too little mana.
Even if Norn used some high-leveled spell nothing would've happened, his [Magic] stat is far above this crystal's grade...
Oh right, the test itself was just a "Put your hand here, hehe" thing.
Nothing more than that.
It worked like a charm though, a really good idea to use magic crystals like that.
How exactly? Well, all magic crystals had a pattern behind their glow based on the amount of mana they have.
A lot of mana - a lot of light, as mana is a naturally glowing thing... unless absorbed by something non-organic.
Test itself just added mana to a crystal to see how strong the glow is.
As for why you cant use a spell - because you'll lose that little bit of mana you had left and probably die.
How does that work, you might ask?
Well, okay.
You put your hand on a crystal - it absorbs all but a bit of your mana - it glows - you get your rank.
What happens when you have more mana than the crystal can handle? It fucking explodes, that's what...
And that's exactly what Norn wanted!
Too bad, to actually do that you need to have your [Magic] stat at 30.
However, it did glow nicely.
Norn got a [B-] rank based purely on his mana capacity.
His overall rank was [D] however, because his physical tests were horrible.
"Actually, if you do some physical training it wont be a problem to issue a [C] rank for you, mages are quite rare you know?"
Not-so-pretty girl glowed just like that crystal after she saw his test results.
Why? Well, because Norn wasn't that good-looking, so she thought about "catching" him for herself, wasn't it easy if the guy is kinda meh?
Too bad, Norn had other plans.
He responded to everything she said with a "Sure", "Okay" and "Yeah".
After finally getting his [Hunting License] he left the building.
The not-so-pretty girl looked quite dissapointed, was it herself or Norn who's the reason is unknown.
Not so long after he arrived to the nearest [Dungeon Entrance]...