Kane patiently waited in line while quietly observing around. He noticed that most of the people having their evaluation seemed to be young. He thought that maybe the region valued the experience so many youths would go to the hunter’s guild to gain experience in hunting in the lower-ranked dungeons.
“You seemed younger than me. High school students are not allowed to enter dungeons, even here.” The man who stood in front of him, who seemed to be in his early thirties, asked Kane.
“But I’m no longer a high school student,” Kane muttered as he tried to ignore the man who seemed to be looking down on him. He was tall for his age so why did that person mistake him for a high school student?
“Did you stop studying? The young ones should really stop acting recklessly. How could you people abandon your education and jump off to dungeons that could not even guarantee your safety?” The man shook his head in disappointment.
While Kane was waiting, he noticed that Clay had been typing on his phone with a serious expression. He looked at the man and patted his shoulder.“If you have work to do, you can go now. I will wait here for my ID then I’ll try to familiarize myself with the place.”“Are you sure you’ll be fine? I’ll come to pick you up later after I finish what I have to do,” Clay insisted but Kane shook his head.“There’s no need for that. I can go home on my own.” Kane smirked. “I just need to take the bus and get off on Maple St. After that, I can walk my way to the apartment.”“It seemed like you’ll be fine even without me.” Clay gave in. “But if you need me don’t hesitate to call me, okay?”“Sure thing.”Clay walked out of the building and Kane just covered his head with his hood. He did not want the attention that was on him so it w
Clay went to his apartment the next day and dragged him out. He informed him about the rookie training but the latter just became more eager when he heard about it.“Why do I need to come out of my apartment when I need to prepare for the rookie training?” Kane asked as he unwillingly followed Clay and entered his car.“It’s because you need to know about this before you leave for the rookie training. You still need to train to get used to your ability right?” Clay started the engine of the car and they took off.He started explaining to Kane about the place where they were going. “It was a place that your uncle prepared for the hunters contracted by the branch of AC here in the southwest region. Since there was no one using the place, that would be your secret training place. If you want to be prepared for the training, you should at least train your ability, right?”Kane kept his silence. Though he did not want
“Now try to control your speed by moving fast then slow,” Clay ordered Kane and the latter tried to do just what the man asked him to do.Kane used varying speeds as he walked closer to Clay. It was hard at first but because he had been practicing for two hours to use his mana to speed up and slow down, he was slowly getting the hang of it. He used full speed and then came to a full stop which almost made him tumble down. He let out a sigh of relief as soon as he got back his balance.“You did it!” Clay laughed as he patted Kane’s back. “Now you’ll survive the dungeon no matter what happens.”“What are you talking about?” Kane glared at him. “The rookie dungeon was supposed to be easy and I am an S-Class.”“Don’t let that Class get into your head, Kane. No matter how strong you are and no matter how harmless a dungeon could be, we can never tell what might happen. We just
Monday came and Kane was picked up by Clay that morning. Kane slept in the car since he had been exhausted from training in the secret place the day before. He had to be alert and ready inside the dungeon so he needed all the rest that he could take.“We’re here.” Clay slightly shook Kane’s shoulder to wake him up. He opened the car door and walked out of the car to help Kane bring out his things. “This is the inn that you asked for a reservation.”Kane nodded his head as he looked at the building. “Thanks.”Clay patter Kane’s shoulder and smiled at the young man. “You’re going to do well today and for the next 6 days. Call me as soon as you finished with the rookie training.”Kane nodded his head and bid Clay goodbye before he entered the inn. He showed his hunter ID to the receptionist and the young lady smiled as she confirmed.“You can go to room 201.”Ka
Kane went home dejected. Though he had a learning experience, he regretted that he made the wrong choice at such a crucial moment. Cyrus was right. If that was not for training, he would have died. Not just him, he would have dragged the others to their death as well. He should not be complacent that his skill training was going well. The dungeons were a lot more dangerous than he thought. He went directly to the bathroom to wash since his body was sticky from the sweat and the dust that came from the dungeon. Under the shower, he visualized the things he did and thought of the actions that he should have taken. Instead of splitting the hatchling into two, he should have shattered it to pieces. However, he was not sure if he was strong enough to do something to that extent. Once again, he gathered his mana and spread it throughout his body. He could feel his mana circulating but he really felt as if something was missing. He felt like a chick struggling to brea
Kane went to the dungeon earlier than the set time because he wanted to circulate his mana and try to make his core bigger. According to an article that he read on the internet, some mana users had the ability to make their core bigger—especially those who had abilities that required higher mana consumption.He sat behind a rock and sat in a lotus position. With his eyes closed, he tracked the mana circulating his body and guided its flow so that it would pass through all his mana channels. He could feel the contradictory coolness of the mana that made him feel warm within.He had a hard time trying to keep the flow going. But with persistence, Kane finally finished guiding his mana flow all throughout his body at least once. When he was about to try again, he heard Mila’s voice coming towards the entrance of the dungeon.“I’m a little late from the call time, but why is there no one here?”Kane opened his eyes and stood up.
As they go deeper into the forest, the stronger the pack that they encountered. They all had the chance to test how effective their abilities were when it came to teamwork and individual strength. Kane realized that maybe he was just a big fish in a small pond, or maybe he was afraid of the monster within him and he was unconsciously restraining himself. No matter what his reason could be, it would not erase the fact that his performance was unsatisfactory by his own standards. He was able to defeat the wolves, but he had to exert more effort compared to when he killed the assassins sent for him. “Is this the last pack?” One of the rookies asked when he saw another pack surrounding them. In front of the pack was a wolf bigger than the others and it had a moon sign on its forehead. Kane concluded that the bigger wolf must be the alpha and the others along with it were all stronger than those wolves that they hunted before. “Be careful of the alpha wolf
“The next dungeon would be a graveyard,” Cyrus announced as soon as all of them arrived at the dungeon entrance.The rookies looked at each other with wide eyes. They were about to enter a graveyard dungeon but they seemed to be excited instead of being afraid. They were about to face the undead instead of the normal monsters, how could they be excited?Mila signaled that they would enter the dungeon so the rookies followed as soon as she entered. They were all silent when it was suddenly dark as soon as they were inside. The moon shone bright and its light reflected on the granite gravestones.“This is creepy…” One of the rookies mumbled as they all looked around.As if on cue, the ground started shaking and the gravestones cracked. The shaking ground caused the pavement to crack open and the undead started coming out of their graves.Kane thought that the undead would look like normal human beings or maybe zombies b