01.28 - 3×3 Hunters

Three days had passed since Luc’s thirteenth birthday. The intensity of the daily training had increased to a point where even he began to skip any additional preparations.

Most of the kids had been affected in a similar fashion.

Uriah and Rogue had to skip their misadventures in the city for a while.

Rem’s reading time took a hard hit.

Gabe and Mirai could not spend nearly as much time on the new Thrones as they wanted.

Rafe and Sascha had to skip their regular hunts.

And Hannah had to call off most of her time with Altair.

None of them had gotten fully used to the masks yet.

After observing their troubles, Aurelius provided nine fitting hooded mantles. It wasn’t a perfect solution, and they would give away their true height when wearing them without the mask's spell effect, but the combination of mantle and mask could hide their identity better than an unpowered mask alone, in case their Aura reserves ran low.

With his wired account unlocked, Luc joined the rest in studying some of the prior hunter exams. This was rather easy, as the whole exam was broadcast with a one-hour delay and later archived on video platforms on the wired.

The order of operation was mostly the same from exam to exam: Registration, Aura capacity test, Single combat examination, Group combat examination, and finally one to three different field tests. Each step provided points toward an overall evaluation score. Completely failing more than one step meant disqualification. The same was true for a lower than passing score.

All in all, they should be able to manage just fine.

The team size limit was seven, but a larger team led to higher score point requirements to reach the same final rank. The official ranks were named after the commonly accepted Core tiers, although the Aura capacity test of participants only played a small part in the final score.

The ranks thus ranged from Basic to Common, Uncommon, Rare, Exotic, Royal, Imperial, and finally Mythic hunter. There were no Ascended, Celestial, Divine, Primordial, or Eternal hunters. The higher ranks were unusual; even Exotic and Royal hunters were scarce.

Simply entering the exam with a recommendation from a legendary hunter like his mother, who had reached the pinnacle Mythic rank, was sure to attract attention, as was their group size. But entering three groups of masked black specters under different names and mentors would backfire even more.

Thus, the group was split into three age-based teams.

Hannah, Sascha, and Rafe formed the first team as the oldest. They were already used to teaming up for hunts.

The second team was composed of Rogue, Uriah, and Rem. Not much of a surprise there either.

Which left Luc, Gabe, and Mirai as the last. All three of them lacked real experience when compared to the others, but Mary was certain they could pass, even if they had a subpar performance compared with the other two teams.

Their daily training scheme was based on those teams and the synergies between their spells.

Even the members of the weakest team were not to be taken lightly.

There was the speed and precision of Luc’s Energy Manipulation spell-propelled projectiles, let alone the potential explosions, coupled with the mobility provided by Gabe’s Space Transmutation and the utility of Mirai’s future sight Time Deviation. Top it off with their water and fire spells, and the examiners would face quite some trouble.

The repertoire and synergies between the members of the other two teams were quite formidable too.

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Luc had just finished relaxing in the hot spring after another hard training day.

His original plan was to grab something to eat, then call it a day and go to bed early, but Rogue had requested a confidential meeting between the boys.

This usually meant trouble.

Usually in this instance meant three out of the five times Luc was invited to join them. The Lord on High only knows how many times poor Gabe or Rafe ended up as the butt of the joke.

This time, Rogue had promised that there would be no pranks and told Luc that it would be worth his time.

That, of course, could have been another lie.

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me thrice… well… worst case, Luc would accelerate Rogue skyward—not enough to seriously injure him, but high enough to make an example.

The scene that awaited Luc was not quite what he had expected.

They met in a storage room on the outskirts of the former spa resort they called home, far away from the housing area. It was dark, with only a little moonlight shining through a small window. The room was filled with dust and cobwebs. Silence filled the air.

“Ah,” said Uriah. “The guest of honor has arrived.”

The atmosphere had something of a conspiracy about it. They all seemed to be on edge. Rafe especially made sure that no one had followed Luc and that the area was free of any of their parents.

“So… what is this supposed to be?” asked Luc.

“Wait,” said Uriah, and touched his chin thoughtfully as he studied Luc from head to toe. “That manner of speech sounded a lot like Hannah. Are you really Luc?”

“What?” asked Luc. “Are you stupid? Just because I started my sentence with a ‘so…’?”

“Can’t be too careful,” said Rogue, while closing in on Luc. “Maybe she has learned to make her shadow clones imitate Luc’s appearance?”

He sucker-punched Luc in the gut.

Luc was taken by surprise, took the hit, and accelerated Rogue in response, sending him tumbling against the nearest wall.

“He didn’t disappear,” said Rogue after getting back up and dusting off his clothes. “I think we are clear.”

“What’s with all the secrecy?” asked Luc, bewildered and slightly agitated. “Are you about to reveal a plan to assassinate the Emperor or something?”