Chapter 140: Exam

She did not object to the words, however. She also wished for the opportunity.

After some more words were exchanged, Reina hung up the call with a colorful face. She looked at Aria with gleaming eyes as she announced. "It's decided, everything is ready!"

"Well, then... It's time to go get your Hunter certificate, young lady!" Reina raised her hand up to the sky and slung her hand around Aria's shoulder, directing her towards their car which they would be riding to the Association's building.

Aria was a little uncomfortable with the gesture, but she didn't say a thing and let herself be dragged inside the car.

They all boarded the car Aria viewed as quite luxurious, with Elgin as the driver. They sped off towards the Association, reaching the familiar building in less than five minutes of driving.

"We're here. It's time to get off. Remember, this is you best chance to gain profit and benefits. I recall that you said.. you are a very opportunistic person. I am also someone like that. If you want more opportunities, then it's a given that you have to work hard in order to place high in the Hunter ranks. That way, you will be able to gain recognition. Do your best, and don't hold back. If you hide your powers in this stage, it will do you nothing but negativity," Reina whispered towards Aria as she gazed at the building, which had a black and gold them to signify an elegant concept.

Aria nodded. It would be dependent on the situation later, but as long as she did not stand out too much, then she could fairly operate well without having to adhere to too much responsibilities, especially since she did not plan to enter a guild. She thought that it would be fine to get a Hunter rank that suited her current true power.

They entered the building. Reina was in the front, and she separated from the group to talk to a female receptionist who stood behind the counter wearing an all black suit from top to bottom. Reina spoke some incoherent words with her, and Aria felt the woman's gaze scan her figure.

Aria's instincts got defensive, but of course she knew that the woman probably wasn't hostile and was just trying to evaluate who she was. Reina returned to their side a minute later. She left alone, but she came back with the receptionist. Her spot had been replaced by another worker.

Reina had a happy face as she conversed with the woman she brought, to which the woman displayed some uncomfortable expressions and shirked away from Reina's bubbly antics.

Aria wondered how this change was made possible, and why Reina brought this woman. Surely, her status would not just be an ordinary receptionist if Reina was well acquainted with her?

The woman turned out to be 'Yoona'. She had heard that name before when Reina spoke to the other side of her phone call, so this woman must be the one she contacted. Theone that was going tot ake care of their matters for today.

Aria looked at the woman with curious eyes as they walked inside the building. Seeing this, Reina chose to clear up some matters ahead of time. 

"Yoona is this place's.. Informal examiner. Well, not exactly. She holds both the position of a formal and informal worker. She is a B-ranked Hunter, but she is also employed by the Association to sometimes take charge in the building as an examiner. She regularly stands at the front desk because she calls it 'testing the waters'. She can see whether who has a great potential or not just by a simple glance, because the power she holds related to that. This reason was also why the Association chose to employ her too instead of just letting her be a Hunter," Reina spoke, explaining Yoona's background.

"Will she be the one who grades my rank, then?" Aria took in the information Reina presented her with and realized that this person was going to be the one who assigns her the rank.

"Yep," Reina confirmed. "Although, she wouldn't be the one you fight. It would be us. The rest of the procedure will just be you hitting some machines and some physical, magical, and mental tests to determine how flexible you are as a Hunter. I'm sure that you will ace those tests, but the one you should be looking forward to.. Is fighting us. Who would you like to fight first?"

"First? So I will have to fight multiple people? If a Hunter evaluation exam is this hard, wouldn't there be no one who passes?" Aria joked, smirking in amusement.

"Ao? But you are special, Ariaa~ Special people must get special treatment. Besides, it's not like in order to pass the exam, you have to beat your examiner. You just have to pass their criteria, but its very low. We are just testing how well someone will do in the battlefield here, not blindly going in and intimidating them and bullying newbies. Someone with powers, whether it is attacking, defending, support, scouting... all of that will be accepted by the Association if their powers fall in the category of D-rank. However, below that, some considerations have to be made. It's as simple as that,"

Weak people who gained powers because of the world's change, but isn't suitable to fighting and becoming a Hunter lived their normal lives just like everybody else without powers. However, in certain situations, they would be able to utiliize their given powers in order to aid them in their daily lives.

"Alright, then. Let's just.. see how this turns out," Aria was given a name tag containing her name and a serial number 19. The number was the order of people who came into the Association today and asked for an exam, so there has previously been eighteen more people that came before Aria even though it was still rather early in the morning. Aria was quite surprised by this fact. If eighteen people came for an exam, and it's still not noon yet, then how many people exactly did they evaluate daily? So many people are becoming Hunters. In the end, what if all the surviving people in the world are Hunters, and no one really works their typical daily job anymore?

Or perhaps, precisely because they all have became Hunters, the job won't be revered and will instead be treated as a regular chore, and the world will continue to revolve the same way as it was before the dungeons struck.

Or perhaps.. The world's change will be far too fast, and the humans will fail to adapt.

Aria sighed lightly as she put on the nametag and got into the examination room, where Yoona was already standing inside, a tablet held tight in her arms. She gestured for Aria to place her hands on top of a pillar that was next to her.

Aria hovered her hands on top of it, and felt a warm aura surge from the object, indicating that it was a magical item that probably served to scan her. After a few seconds, the warm aura stopped and Yoona gestured for her to release her grip, which she did.

With much anticipation, she waited for Yoona to examine the results. She wondered how high she was going to place right now. In the future, she would definitely grow stronger, but what level exactly was she in right now?

"Aria Schreiner.. Strength is High B-rank. Magic.. High A-rank. It's superb, indeed. Congratulations for picking her up into your team, it's guaranteed that you will thrive as long as she stands with you and grows," Yoona solemnly said as her eyes widened. Typically, someone would have one stat higher than the other by quite the large amount in high ranks like this, but Aria's stats were actually balanced with both physical and magical attacks being her forte.

Of course, this scanner only served to roughly guess where the Hunter was going to be accepted in, and the real test began when they are asked to show their powers in a battle. Typically, there would be someone from the Association, or even the examiner themselves who faced the wannabe Hunters.

However, for Aria's case, the one she fights would not be them, but instead people from Lichte.

Aria was given the chance to pick who she wanted to fight. The requirement would only be the first fight, but because they did come here to fight multiple times, it would be allowed later on since they asked for the permission.

First, Aria chose Reina as her opponent.

"Choosing me... Huh? I wonder what went inside your head in order for you to make this decision?" Reina chuckled as she accepted the offer and stepped into the fight podium with Aria.

Aria shrugged, not having a particular reason for it. She just wanted to handle Reina first because she knew that Reina would definitely be the loudest.