The 2nd test day finally comes. There are a lot of reporters at the Central Hunter Bureau's office building where the 2nd test is held. They all have heard that there are 2 potential S-Ranks that will do their 2nd test today, after all.
S-Ranks are very rare existences, especially in the early years of magic era when there aren't many awakeners yet. Their country also still only has 2 official S-Ranks, so they have been waiting for more, and now 2 of them who are also siblings suddenly appear.
This case even attracts other countries' attention because they never found other cases where siblings awakened at almost the same time and both of them are S-Ranks. They still need to do the 2nd test to confirm their power, but it is still an interesting case nonetheless.
The 2nd test finally starts at 08:00 with the A-Ranks going first. Indra & Dewi will retest their magic power and then their abilities after the A-Rank. If they do it first, then the A-Ranks will be overwhelmed by the pressure and they want to serve the best show at the end.
There are 96 A-Ranks doing the 2nd test today, so it will take a while even if they are quick. They finally finished testing the A-Ranks at 14:00. Of all 96 potential A-Ranks, 8 of them turned out to be B-Ranks, so there are 88 new A-Ranks from all 38 provinces in Indonesia.
It is quite a high number but no one is surprised because the case of awakening keeps increasing all over the world. A-Rank hunters are still quite rare, but they will be quite common as time passes while S-Ranks will remain rare in every country.
Indra & Dewi enter the 2nd test room together and see a bigger crystal ball that will be used for the measurement. It's the core of an A-Rank dungeon boss which is still quite rare. Sometimes the hunters can't take out the cores because the bosses' bodies are too hard to open or the dungeons are too big so they need to abandon the bosses' cores to avoid being trapped inside the dungeons that are closing.
Anyway, Dewi does the test first and unsurprisingly gets an error because the machine can't measure her magic power. She is officially an S-Rank now and they just need to confirm her abilities after this.
Next is Indra's turn and he does the same thing that he did in the 1st test. He reveals his magic power slowly so everyone can see the number on the screen increases visibly until it becomes error unlike before when the error sign immediately appears on the screen.
Everyone is surprised because it's the first time they see something like this. They have received the report about this unusual case. None of them know why this happens and how Indra makes it happen.
"H-how could you do that?"
"This device works by measuring our magic power upon contact, right? That means it can only detect the magic power that covers our bodies. However, I can control the amount of magic power that is out of my body or covering my skin. I just released it slowly to see if it could work and it did."
His explanation makes them dumbfounded because they never thought that it's possible to control the magic power like that.
"I was only curious in the 1st test, but now I want to show you that it's possible for awakeners to fool the machine. If I want, I can make myself an E-Rank on purpose."
Indra touches the crystal ball again and only releases a small amount of magic power to make the machine detect him as an E-Rank. The result surprises everyone there because he really gets detected as an E-Rank.
"T-then, can someone get a higher rank by doing the same thing?"
"That's impossible because we can't release more magic power than we have. Except if we get buffed by spells, then we can't release more."
"Phew, that's a relief then. No one would be dumb enough to deliberately lower their ranks because they can only make more money if they have higher ranks."
"Well, not really. Sometimes people want things other than money. For example, a murderer."
Indra surprises everyone with that statement.
"Someone who enjoys killing more than money will lower their rank if they can because then they will be put together with the weaker hunters. Then they can easily kill those weaker hunters during the raid because no one outside will know what happened in the dungeons."
Now the people from Hunter Bureau become very concerned.
"T-then, what can we do to prevent it?"
"Nothing. You can't prevent it no matter how good you improve the machine. Unless someone with a special ability can do something to the machine so it will detect one's true power instead of the power released by them. I also don't know how to handle this problem, I just want you to know that this can happen, so you need to be wary."
It's unfortunate, but Indra really can't do anything about it with his current level of abilities. He has some ideas, but he still can't test it because he doesn't have access to the machine. He can only start his research after he becomes a National Level Hunter because then he should be able to buy one of those machines or at least get involved in its development.
After the 2nd magic power test, Indra & Dewi are led to a big Gymnasium. Everything here has been reinforced with magic by an A-Rank enchanter from China so it won't break easily. Though Indra is sure an S-Rank can destroy this place quite easily. Well, at least he can.
In the gymnasium, a tall & muscular man with long hair tied in the back is waiting while eating ice cream. He is Indonesia's 2nd S-Rank Hunter l, Doni Alman, that sent offers to Indra & Dewi to join his Guild. Indra requested the Hunter Bureau's Director to invite him here on their ability test.
"Heh, so both of you have been confirmed as S-Ranks."
Doni shakes their hands while introducing himself so they do the same.
"Asking me to come here and see your ability test, can I think of this as you accepting my offer?"
"That's actually what we want to talk about, Mr. Doni. You know, we actually want to create our own Guild, but then we got an enticing offer from you. We don't know what to do so we decided to do something to make a decision."
"So you don't know what to decide? Is that it?"
"Yes, we still don't know what's the best to choose."
"So how do you want to do it?"
"Hunters are divided by their power and we are S-Ranks, the highest rank of all hunters. But as you know, S-Rank just means those with magic power that can't be measured by the machine. No one knows how strong we really are. My sister and I are simple people. If power is that important for Hunters, then why don't we use it to make a decision."
"Your point is?"
"One of us will fight you. That way we can test our skills and also see who's stronger between us. If you are stronger than us, then we will follow you. But if we are stronger, then we will make our own Guild."
Doni seems quite irritated because he feels that both of them think they are stronger than him. But he also felt that when he gets his S-Ranks. It's as if no one can defeat him, as if he was the world's strongest man.
He still feels like that to this day because he never fought anyone or any monster stronger than him. So while he is quite irritated, he actually also gets pretty excited to fight another S-Ranks. He is thinking of putting these newbies in their place too, which makes him even more excited.
"HAHAHAHA! Alright then, it sounds fun. I never fought an S-Rank before, so this will be a good opportunity. So, who will fight me?"
"Me, I'll do it. I really want to try my abilities as soon as I can."
"Right, I am a support type anyway, so I'm not fit for direct battles."
"Good! Let's start then. Don't expect me to hold back even against a woman though, Little Girl."
"You better not hold back, old timer. I can't go all out if you lose too fast."
Both of them are standing in the middle of the gymnasium, facing each other, ready to fight. The Director, Deputy Director and the staff members look worried. But Indra just grins widely because this will be a good show.
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