That was how Orion came to assume the body and identity of Ray Wiser and had been living his life for two months.
Therefore, when he saw a girl who looked very much like Ray's sister appearing in front of him and calling him 'Big Brother,' Orion was caught off guard, with no answers to the sudden situation he found himself in.
According to him—according to Ray—Tracy Wiser had been dead for over a year at the time he assumed Ray's identity.
When he found Ray on his deathbed, he had already thoroughly checked his background and discovered that his parents had died in an accident, and fifteen months ago, his sister had also died during a dungeon raid.
Since then, Ray had been living all alone in his house, only going out when he needed rations.
He turned out to be a sore loser of a big brother. His wind manipulation talent was below average, and his control over it was even worse, leading him to have no place in guilds that raided dungeons. It was his sister who had been providing him with money to somehow live a life doing nothing.
Ray's sister—Tracy Wiser—unlike Ray, possessed a very rare talent called Point Void. Using this talent, she could attack hundreds of targets with a single sword swing, making her one of the most talented hunters in Masturi City.
According to the reports Orion had read about her, she had joined a guild called Black Reaper, but after she 'died' in a dungeon raid over a year ago, there had been no news of her whatsoever.
Ray, believing his sister had also left and died like his parents, began to live a life worse than that of a human. He would hole up in his room all day and only come out to restock his food supply.
He continued to live like that until the incident that resulted in his loss of either his talent or his curse.
But Orion believed he lost his talent or that someone had forcefully taken it away. No one could control a curse in this world, and no sane person would want to have more curses—except for a certain someone.
If a talent was extracted from one's body, the curse would also disappear because a curse was nothing but a limitation placed on a human's body based on their talents. No talent meant no curse.
Therefore, he believed that someone had forcefully extracted Ray's talent and because of that he possessed no curse either.
However, in the end, all of this was just Orion's speculation and nothing more.
***
Orion nodded and approached the black sphere, touching it. But he was nervous about something. Since everyone used mana, he feared whatever they were using to test the rank of individuals would also be a mana-related treasure or machine that sensed mana.
But it seemed he had overthought it.
After touching the black sphere for a few seconds, a beep sounded in the room.
"Alright, you're done. You are in the gold rank," another woman, more mature than the first one, with short hair, said as she presented him with his hunter ID.
Orion accepted the ID and saw that the information on it had subtly changed. The silver rank in the rank column had been replaced by gold rank.
He smiled when he saw that and put the ID away.
"You can leave now," said the only man in the room, a bald-headed man who handed him a piece of paper and asked him to leave.
Orion gladly accepted the paper and left the room. On his way out, he read what was written on it and saw that it was just some rules and precautions, explaining what would happen if he lost his hunter ID and everything related to it.
He also stored it away and left the Hunter Association building.
Riding his motorbike, he went home and closed all his windows and doors.
In his room, he took out the piece of paper Tracy had left in secret and read it.
"Big Brother Ray, I am Tracy, and I am not dead. You might be angry at me for hiding this or faking my death, but it wasn't my choice. Black Reaper has changed. Some new people have come and taken control of it. They have taken a liking to my talent and threatened me with your life. They told me that the day I go home will be the day you die, so they planned my fake death and spread the news.
I don't know why I am telling you this or if you will ever be able to read this, but know that if you are reading this, it means I am really dead this time, for real. I am sorry you had to learn all of this the hard way."
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Also, I was hoping you could leave some comments or reviews to let me know your thoughts!
*Some gifts would be appreciated as well, but up to you.... *