3 Chapter 2

After finishing his business at the police station, Nex got directions to the Hunters association there he will register as a Hunter and will get a permit to hunt and sell demonic beasts and devil remains.

Through the old man teaching, he learned about the ranks of the hunter's. The ranks are in order from F, the lowest, all the way to SSS, the highest(although the old man implied that there may be higher ranks then SSS). F to B rank is considered low-leveled and is mostly indicate rookies and ones without much talent, their capability is limited and they won't have much combat potential in real battles and their earnings aren't much better than a normal person. Afterward, there is C to A rank they are considered mid-level Hunters and have abilities that far surpassed the ranks below them, and their earnings are comparable to the monthly pay of executives in large companies in each time they have a successful hunt. And lastly, there are the high-class, S to SSS rank each of them is an important person with high social standing, their power is said to have surpassed the human realm and they have the ability to get a high-level job in whatever they desire, in addition, their earning from hunting can reach to the billions(of credits the GA currency) and they considered as idols to the general public.

Getting to know all of this, Nex decided immediately what rank he should aim for.

'A rank, of what I heard it the ranks with the least constraint yet highest earning, and in addition, since that there is a lot of people in this rank it should be the best rank for me if I don't want to raise the public awareness about me and live a quiet and peaceful life.'

While thinking that, he arrived at the hunters association. Entering there he saw a reception desk and a cute girl wearing work uniforms sitting behind it. Walking over to her Nex smiled while passing her the letter he got from the police station and told her.

"Hi! My name is Nex and I came to register as a hunter, and I have been told to bring this from the police"

The recipient, momentarily dazed by his handsomeness, came back to her senses and took the letter from him while smiling back.

"letter from the police? Let me check what it says, and if everything is well then we shall have you tested," she replied while opening the letter and reading it. After a while, she looked back at him with slightly sad eyes. "It must have been rough," she said to him softly.

Nex hearing what she said, understood that she meant about his "backstory", and answered back while flashing a reassuring smile "it's okay, I over that for some time now"

"Then that's good!."

Hearing Nex replay and seeing his smile cheered the girl and she told him, and then as if remembering something continued: "look I forget for what you came for, didn't you what to register as a Hunter? Well if so go to floor 3" she pointed to an elevator room while she continued "I will already inform them about you by the time you reach there."

"Thank you"

Nex said while smiling one last time toward her and walked to the elevator.

***

"Welcome! Are you the new guy who has come to register right? If so then please follow me"

Arriving on the third floor, there was already another recipient, another cute looking girl, waiting for him there.

Nodding, Nex walked after her and asked "sure, do you know how will I get tested?"

Staring at him with a weird face and then starting to giggle, the recipient apologized to him: "sorry, it's just the first time I heard that someone doesn't know how does he get tested."

Nex smiled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head.

"Let's say that I was in a distant place for a while."

The recipient let out another giggle and continued "As for the answer, it is simple, we use a device that scans the level of the magic power in your body, and according to it, we will assign you a Rank and will have you do a combat test in order to access your combat potential. If you pass that test we will grant both aHunter ID and a Hunting License, if not you will get only the Hunter ID and will not be allowed to hunt until you managed to score otherwise in the combat test. And that's pretty much everything you need to know in order to get tested."

"Okay, thank you" Nex nodded again and replied while smiling gratefully.

And as if just realizing his handsomeness, the girl blushed and said shyly. "No, no, its one of my duty to help you know about this." and then after gathering some courage, she tried to say something to him as they were about to arrive.

"by the way, my name is -"

"Haha! I see that you caught our little Tina heart, just that you know that we will not let you take her away!.

Cutting off what the girl, who Nex learned that was called Tina, was trying to say, was a giant and burly man standing at over 2.2 meters that stood at the entrance they were about to enter.

"Geez…Goz, are you going to do it every time you saw me talking with a guy who comes to get tested?" Tina said while blushing harder.

"haha, and when was the last time you have spoken to a guy so much? You should be more honest with yourself" replied the burly man Goz while grinning mischievously.

"Ahh! Just shut up" she yelled at him while she couldn't even look at Nex direction."Anyway, take him to have the test okay?! I'm going back." she said while starting to walk(run) away.

"He, he, it's rare to see her acting like that," the giant Goz said, then he turned to Nex, who had a confused face about what just happened now. "Just as you heard my name is Goz and I'll be the one who will test you, now let's go have you go through the measuring test. And immediately turned and entered the entrance that was behind him.

Nex, without much hesitation, entered behind him and followed him into a small room with a device at the center that was composed mainly of a large screen and a crystal ball.

Without waiting for Nex, Goz walked into the device and began pressing a couple of buttons which seemed to turn it on and making the screen turn-on and the crystal ball to glow. He then turned back to Nex and began explaining.

"This is the measuring device, you put your hand here and the crystal ball like this," he put his hand on the crystal ball, making it start to glow and the screen to change until it showed the letter A, "and as you see it check the magic power in your body and then reveals your Rank accordingly like here that it shows the letter A meaning that I have an A-rank magic power energy in my body, in other words, I'm an A-ranker. Simple right? Now it's your turn now, but do not think of changing your result it's impossible" he moved and cleared the way for Nex to put his hand on the crystal ball.

'So the amount of magic in his body is considered an A-rank? It's a little more then what I guessed. Oh well, it is still easy enough to mimic.' Nex thought while walking to the device and putting his hand on the crystal ball.

'Hmm? I see it's forcibly measuring my magic power quality and quantity I have and through that deduct my rank, no wonder he said it's impossible to cheat the results.' Nex frowned while staring at the crystal ball that has begun to tremble.

"What is this? Is this broken?" Goz furrowed his brows while he stared at the flickering screen and the trembling crystal ball.

But then, Nex suddenly smiled.

'That's of course applied on people other than me'

The screen suddenly stopped flickering and showed the letter A. seeing this Goz released a sigh of relief. "Good thing that it went well, or else I don't dare imagine how many forms I would have to fill." the then turned to Nex with a smile "Congratulations you're an A rank. It's your first test, right? It doesn't happen often that someone registers directly to rank as high as A."

Nex just smiles and says: "Let's say I didn't an opportunity to do it before"

"Ha! I heard about the reason you couldn't do it before, why do you think I have been dispatched to test you? Or do you think it's normal to have an A-ranked Hunter to test someone who it's his first time?"

Nex smile turned awkward, "news sure travels fast."

"Ha! Enough chitchat now let us go to my favorite part." Goz smile turned wider.

"The combat test."

***

After walking a few minutes they arrived at a large arena with seats around it.

"This is the arena we use when testing a B-rank and above Hunters, the materials that used to make this place are quite high quality and can withstand a battle of SS-rankers so you don't have to worry about destroying things around here," Goz explained while showing Nex the place and walking him to the center of the arena. "Usually, we either test you against someone from the association or have you fight and kill a Demonic Being(another name for Dark faction member) depending on their abilities, but, since we have no previous record of your abilities we decided to have you do both. So, what do you want to do first? Fight me, or fighting a lousy demon beast?" he finished while grinning.

Nex looked thoughtful and then answered: "since you seem eager to have a good fight, it's better if I warmed myself up beforehand. I choose to fight the Demonic Being first"

Goz, although a little disappointed that he would need to wait for Nex to finish the first battle, still nodded with expectation and said: "that's probably for the best, very well let's begin with it first."After saying that, he opened his communication device and pressed said a few words into it, after getting a reply he walked to the outskirts of the arena and yelled to Nex from there:

"Wait there for the gate over there" he pointed at the direction that in front of Nex, there was a large metal gate, "when you see it open get ready because the Demonic Being about to come from there. For now, choose a weapon from the pile over there." and then he added with a mysterious smile. "In order to push you to your limit, we decided to give you a different from usual opponent"

A bit disturbed by Goz last word, Nex walked to the weapon pile and chose a medium-length sword. Finishing with that, he now walked back to the center of the arena and begun to adjust his breathing and waiting.

After a few short minutes, the gate began to tremble and slowly go up. Behind it came the sound of not a large monster, but instead something that sounded like someone walking with boots made of metal. And soon the gate opened and out of it came out a humanoid being. It had a crimson skin and was around 1.95 meters tall, it had on his hand and feet scales and sharp thorns, among his other features, was a bunch of tattoos that seemed to be imbued on all of his body and moved as if they have a pulse.

'Pretty hardcore for a test isn't it?' Nex smiled wryly, he didn't need to ask to know what it is.

The strongest of the demonic being and the ones one should avoid the most unless they are among the strongest in their rank. In front of Nex stood a Devil.

***

"I thought they would turn me to a lab rat, yet instead they let me fight against someone like you."

After looking at each other for a few moments, the Devil opened his mouth first and talked in a deep voice.

"Hey, dude, is that supposed to be an insult? Anyway, I'm just as confused as you. That big guy over there said that I would fight against a lousy demonic beast, not a lousy Devil."

Nex said while pointing at the direction of where Goz sat, and surprisingly, there were to more people sitting there with him. One was the girl Tina who looked at him with worried eyes, and the second was a middle-aged man with graying hair.

'That probably a higher Rank hunter who came to make sure the fight won't end in a bad way'

Nex looked back at the Devil, who, instead of being angry from what he had said. Looked at him with a heated gaze while steam started to come out of his body.

"Khuhu," it seemed to laugh "normally If you were someone else I would have tried to kill twice, once for insulting me, and the second for turning your back to me when we about to fight," he said while starting to walk slowly toward Nex " but there is something different about you, something I sure that bastard's over there noticed too." and immediately afterward, he disappeared from where he was while his voice echoed in the arena.

"And I want you to show me exactly what it is."

Less then a moment later he showed up behind Nex, with a scythe coming from his arm and aimed directly for Nex's heart.

"Here's the thing..." finally reacting Nex spoke along with the Devil scythe stabbing his heart.

"Hmm? What is this?"(the Devil)

No, not stabbing but passing through. That wasn't the body of Nex, but an afterimage.

The bewildered Devil who didn't understand why his attack did not work, suddenly felt a cold touch at his neck and his vision beginning to spin. The last thing he felt was a voice

whispering in his head while his vision darkened.

"... you are not worthy for knowing."

Without ever knowing what happened, the Devil has died.