"So this is the core city area, eh? Damn…" Aeron was slightly speechless at the core city area.
It was twice as good as the inner city area in terms of basic infrastructure, housing, lights, transport, and such things. It also took up 60% of the space of the whole city.
The buildings were exotic and high quality.
'Holy shit, this is better than new york, honk kong, Tokyo, and other supercities,' Aeron could feel many strong auras here in this clean and big city with modest sci-fi and magic vibe.
Many structures were unique because of Mystic resources used as materials.
[Look at the city board. It's the city map with guilds and important locations marked with names.]
Aeron Fortified himself and swiftly arrived at the board before finding the Star Horn guild's location.
Many people were speeding and Aeron occasionally saw people who were flying away as well.
'I want to fly. It shouldn't be hard, right?'
[To fly, you need to maintain a recovery speed that matches the consumption of flying, so only peak B-rank and A-rank Phantom Hunters use Flight. The stronger your curse and spirit sources become, the more affinity you gain with atmospheric phenomena and energies, increasing your recovery speed.]
'I see. I can think of a way to fly, but it's probably not as refined and efficient as those who are flying,' Aeron wryly smiled as he made a turn, speeding at a constant speed of 8-10 meters per second towards the Star Horn guild.
[Of course. Your spirit energy and curse energy also gain higher affinity with general auras and energies, so your consumption on Flight decreases. But if you do it now, your consumption will be massive.]
Lapis chuckled. [Don't worry. As long as your speed is good Spirit Training and Curse Training is good, you'll progress faster. You can have the taste of those training tonight.]
'No pain no gain,' Aeron shrugged and finally slowed down as he arrived at a wide concrete and clean road with trees on the sides.
As he entered this particular territory, Aeron saw people with similar consumes and symbols. The traffic was low and everyone curiously looked at Aeron.
Soon, Aeron arrived at a huge palace 300 meters tall with an area of 800 meters square.
'This is fabulous, alright. Star Horns, eh?'
At the top of the palace were two starry blue horns just like the night sky full of stars, which wasn't visible in this world anymore.
People could only see the sun and moon for over two decades. No other stars were bright enough for this world's outer atmosphere to become visible.
[They want to see the stars again and reach for them by piercing through Haunts and Dark Ruins.]
'You threw that randomly, right?' Aeron whizzed. He could totally feel it from her tone.
Lapis grinned. [Just felt it made some sense that way.]
'True.'
Aeron arrived inside at the reception desk in the hall where a lady greeted him, "How many I help you?"
"I am here to take Star Horn guild's entry examination," Aeron said with a sunny smile.
The blond lady with a wavy hairstyle smiled and nodded, "Thank you for your interest. I will now write down your information to make a profile. Please answer the questions."
"Alright," Aeron nodded.
"Full name?"
"Aeron Specter."
[What?]
'What?'
Lapis rolled her eyes.
"Age?"
"Twenty-five," Aeron smiled.
The lady's head raised as she looked at Aeron suspiciously.
"N-Nineteen," Aeron coughed.
The blond lady wryly smiled and continued writing.
After several seconds, she handed him a card she created with Conjure.
"This is your application card containing only your name and age. To enter the Star Horn guild, you need to show enough talent and aptitude for combat by taking the examination."
Aeron held the card while the staff lady called someone with a magic card and a man looking in his late twenties soon arrived.
The guy took him to an examination hall, which was vast and sturdier than the Phantom Tower's 24th-floor training room.
It was empty aside from Aeron and the examinee.
"You can call me Dravin," the man smiled at Aeron. "We'll assess your basic combat ability first, so come at me using your Fortity."
"Alright," Aeron nodded and used Fortify x 5, consuming 500 curse energy and enhancing his body's parameters by five times.
Aeron dashed forward with a straight punch aimed at Dravin's gut, which Dravin attempted to grab but Aeron swiftly changed the punch, throwing it upward.
Dravin's chin was hit as he flew up several meters but landed gracefully with a nod, "Not a bad reaction. Continue."
In the next second, Aeron disappeared from his spot as he sped up again, throwing his kicks and fists at Dravin from all sides while Dravin just blocked all of them.
'This guy is good.'
[He is a B-rank Phantom Hunter, so of course.]
"Throw some attacks. It's boring if only I attack," Aeron grinned.
Dravin raised his eyebrows and laughed before he swiftly deflected the next punch of Aeron while swinging his fist. However, this fist attack on Aeron's face was a feint. Dravin's main attack was his knee which was moving to hit Aeron's stomach.
However, Aeron's eyes glinted. He didn't like defense when someone attacked but also initiated counterattacks. Since he could think of one, he had long adopted this style when he started fighting in the underground arenas at 17.
Since Aeron's punch was deflected, he had two choices, if he took a step back, he would avoid both but Dravin would have enough time to extend his knee attack into a kick that could easily smack Aeron.
If he defended, he would fail as well because he lost the initiative and one of his hands was useless for the next 1 second.
As such, Aeron instead let himself get hit by the knee hit, which he cushioned with his free hand's palm and stomped his feet to fly up to decrease the impact of the knee hit.
However, his palm clawed the knee, making Aeron stick to it as he spun backward before putting his feet on Dravin's shoulder, basically standing on him.
'What?' Dravin was dumbfounded as he looked up at Aeron. "That's some kung fu monkey tactics, alright."
Dravin could think of two ways he could've been attacked after Aeron cushioned his knee attack to prop himself up, but he knew that Aeron could think of more than two based on how attacking pattern in the past two minutes they fought.
"This is enough for basic combat assessment, right?" Aeron cheekily grinned before he jumped off.
"Yep. Your reaction and combat senses are good enough, and your style of combat too," Dravin smiled. "But you'll have to show more."
Dravin's bodily aura showed a brown metallic hue before it released two trails that landed to his left and right before creating two 2-meter-tall dark gold metallic soldiers with glinting brown patterns holding a round Shield and a Sword.