My parents were not as shocked as I had anticipated. They accepted my class without much questioning, only a look of concern on my mothers face when she thought of the danger I may be in when hunting monsters beyond the gates.
I should be responsible and make sure I don't do anything too dangerous so as to not upset them. Plus I may not even become a hunter depending on how my registration goes. There should be no issue getting my license as basically anyone could become a hunter so long as they have a combat class and have a clean record.
The door to the System Association HQ opens automatically, the glass doors slide seamlessly apart welcoming me. A woman stands beside the door lightly bowing her head to welcome me with a business-like smile.
Her eyes dart to the tablet she's holding, tapping her fingers a few times before lifting her gaze towards me.
"This is your first time in the System Association HQ right? Are you here to register as a hunter? Or is there anything else I can help you with?"
The voice that left her lips was confident and smooth yet cold and deliberate.
"I'm here to register as a hunter."
"Please make your way towards the desk over there"
She turns her gaze towards a long desk that stretches across the whole back wall of the building. Half a dozen clerks stand behind the desk, some talking to people who must be here to register like myself and others stand at attention, waiting for someone to approach.
After thanking the woman I move towards the counter, looking over my options before deciding to talk to the clerk nearest me.
"I'm here to register as a hunter."
I repeated what I said to the lady at the door to the short thin man standing behind the counter.
Without delay he pulls out some paper and a pen, sliding them across to me and then speaks.
"Please take a moment to read over the form and once you're done sign your name at the bottom. You may ask me any questions if you don't understand something."
The form has lots of legal junk on it.
'The System Association isn't liable for any injuries sustained during your work as a hunter.'
'You may not sell materials obtained in gates to anyone outside of the System Association, Affiliated Companies or other hunters.'
There's about 4 more pages of information to read through but I don't bother reading beyond the first and just flip to the end, scribbling ym name at the bottom and I slide the paper back towards the man behind the counter.
He gives my signature a quick look over before filing the pages into a cabinet just behind him. Another page replaces those that just left but this one has lots more blanks to fill.
"Please provide your basic information."
I quickly scribble down my name, date of birth, address and anything else before my eyes gloss over the final line.
I look up to the man and ask,
"Must I put a specific class? Or may I just put down mage?"
The man raises a curious brow at me but states that it is not mandatory to put your specific class so I write down mage and hand back the form.
"I will process this information and after a short background check you may be issued your license. One last thing, please make your way towards the elevator" he gestures with his hand to an elevator at the side of the room before continuing "We would like to test your ability to confirm you possess a combat class"
I nod my head and make my way to the elevator where another woman awaits. She is dressed much more casual than the other employees and greets me with a large grin.
"Hey I'm the one who's gonna test your ability, I'm a C-Rank hunter."
Her grin somehow gets even bigger at the mention of her rank, clearly waiting for me to react in amazement. Instead i return a polite greeting and step into the elevator.
She spends the ride down explaining more on her class, abilities and ranking within the System Association. Apparently she volunteers to run the ability tests here once a week as she loves to see what kinds of abilities people bring in. I dodged a few questions about my class and ability, a little embarrassed I might disappoint her.
A ding sound interrupts her yapping as we arrive at our floor, an unknown amount of floor below the surface. What looks like an archery range stretches in front of us with targets ranging from close to as far as I can see. Special targets seem to line one end of the room, some have some kind of writing on them and others are interesting shapes but my gaze is pulled away as we walk to the other side of the room, the targets getting closer as we walk until i see the wall at the end of the room with a target dummy for those with melee ranged magic I guess.
"Most don't make use of the special targets and make use of the normal ones. Tell me boy what kind of range is your spell."
I open my status window, the emerald glow feels alluring, drawing the eyes of my examiner even though she can't see the contents of my window she can still see the window itself. Pressing on my skill hoping for a more detailed explanation to appear but my skill betrays me, keeping its vague nature.
"It's a long range skill but I'm unsure of how far it really goes as I haven't used it yet."
She takes a moment to think before stopping near the end of the room, a target 100 meters away from us.
"This is our third closest target. It doesn't matter if you can't hit the target, just aim and fire and we can move target if it seems too short or too long."
My hand is slightly sweaty but I still raise my hand, unsure of what effect may be produced. I take a long deep breath and silence engulfs the room. My entire future relies on how well my skill performs right now.
I feel mana being willed into my arm, flowing down towards my hand and condensing in my palm as I chant the skills name in my mind.
'Long Range Spell'
The target Immediately erupts into flame, burning for a moment before I lower my hand, then it extinguishes and leaves the target as no more than a pile of ash.
The hunter accompanying me looks at me and back to the target, shock clear on her face.
"How did you light that on fire? You didn't fire anything from your hand…"
I zone out the bombardment of questions and my focus is on the small green window that appeared in front of me. It's smaller than normal and the text is clear.
'Long Range Spell activated: Ignite'
Underneath the text is some more text that is smaller than the title above.
'The target ignites in flame becoming engulfed in fire until ash or the caster cancels the spell.'
As I finish reading the information box it disappears leaving me surprised. I hurry to open my status window and look again at my skill list but ignite is nowhere to be seen. Confusion evident on my face I turn to the female next to me who is still looking back and forth between me and the target.
"Can I try one of the further targets?"
She quickly snaps out of her confusion and leads me to another target with a range of 250 meters.
I raise my hand expecting the target to ignite and chant the spell again in my mind.
A green orb begins to collect in my palm, the liquid squirms around, trying to cling to itself as it grows in size. Once the size of a basketball, it fires from my hand traveling at fast speeds towards the target before slowing and plummeting towards the ground around half way. The orb of liquid splashes on the floor and it slowly begins to smoke, corroding it till a small crater is melted into the floor, then dissipating.
'Long Range Spell activated: Poison Shot'
'Fires a ball of concentrated poisonous goop with a corrosive effect'
Even my own shock was evident at this point but my instructor was even more confused as from her point of view I used two different abilities. Her confusion stunned her as we silently took the elevator back to the surface.
The man awaits me at the top of the elevator, ushering me back towards the counter where he pulls out a small stand and places a card onto it.
The card has a picture of my face with my name and other information that could be used to verify my identity. On the bottom of the card a long number and in the corner is the large letter F which must be my rank.
The man picks up the card and presents it to me, explaining the basic things on the card so I understand.
"And this long number is where you are ranked compared to all the hunters in the world. As you have just registered you can see that the number is quite high but as you defeat monsters within the gates and report those to the Association, your rank will increase."
I look closer at the card and read the number
'1,043,873,009'
Over 1 billion?! I suppose if 1/10 people then that would be about right for the current world population but it still feels a little bit unreal to think that over a billion people are a higher rank than me. The number on the card quickly shifts, the numbers blurring before reappearing 2 digits higher.
"As you rank up it updates automatically meaning you can see your rank accurately in real time. There are certain thresholds for your overall rank to increase from F to E and so on. The top 1000 ranked hunters are ranked as S. To enter E-Rank you will need to be in the top 80% of hunters so work hard and rank up!"
The explanation seems simple enough.
"Can you explain a bit more about how I increase my rank?"
"Of course. When you exit a gate your status window will open a new window that shows which enemies you have defeated. You then show this display to the attendant that is stationed outside every gate or for higher level gates you may have to return to here to report. Then they will use that data to update your rankings and to pay you so you don't need to wait till the resources have been collected."
So basically the more monsters I defeat, the more money I get and the more my rank increases. Seems simple enough.
"And can you tell me the closest gate that would be good for beginner mages?"
"I would recommend either the Horned Rabbit Tower for solo play and getting the feel for your abilities and their range or the Goblin Forest which is a bit more dangerous but would be a great place to learn how to work as a team if you have a party to hunt with."
"I see, thank you."
I place the card into my pocket and exit the building. I suppose I should test out my ability since it left me even more confused after using it. I might have an idea but I need to test it to really know…
END OF CHAPTER 2