Chapter 6

Mr. Ambrose, Jina and Urrie walked away from the crowd and headed towards the elevator. 

“The evaluation room is in the second floor. While we are heading there I will explain the things you need to know about a hunter and what does a hunter do, but you must already know what a hunter’s job is, right?”

“I have quite the idea.”

“Then allow me to explain. A hunter is a job where you fight monsters. It is either inside a gate or outside. I’m guessing you know what I mean by inside and outside?”

“Yes, if it is a blue gate, hunters fight inside. While hunters fight outside if the gate is red.”

“Correct. And now I will tell you all about hunters.”

They arrived at the right floor. They exited the elevator while Mr. Ambrose was still explaining.

“A hunter has five classification. A healer, tanker, fighter, assassin, and a mage type hunter. Surely, you know what is the difference of those classifications. A mage type has its own subdivisions. A fire type, water type, ice type, and earth type. In order to know your classification as a hunter we need to know your skills. A hunter is ranked by their magical energy. A hunter’s magical energy can be evaluated by five different grades and that is grade 1 to 5, which is 1st grade is the highest and 5th grade as the lowest. Of course, the first graders get a lot of privileges because they are the ones who are sent to a much more dangerous and risky gates. Well, you’ll know the rest when you start your journey as a hunter. But that is if you want to be a hunter.”

Seolurrie was taken aback on what Mr. Ambrose said. Specially when he emphasized the word ‘you’. 

‘What does he mean by if I want to be a hunter?’

“You seem to be confused. Not all Stimulated became a hunter even with the high salary. Some are scared because the job of being a hunter is dangerous, some doesn’t want to be responsible for the lives that are lost, while some don’t want to be monitored. We’re here.”

After explaining most of the things about being a hunter. They have arrived in front of the evaluation room. The door of the room is a smoky glass. It is different from the other rooms in this floor. The room was at the center of the floor.

“The truth is every room in here is a evaluation room. I picked the largest of them and this evaluation room is where most of the high grade hunters were evaluated.”

Mr. Ambrose was surprised when he heard that a civilian fought dozens of hard type monsters and when he heard that that civilian is alone and is a girl he was even more shocked, though he didn’t show it.

Mr. Ambrose is the kind of person that is rarely surprised by things. But when he met the girl he was disappointed because her magical energy was weak. It would be categorized as a 4th grade hunter. But his expectation rose when he heard that she had skills, although he wouldn’t call that a skill. Because he knows that this girl just learned how to wield a sword. And because of that he has high expectations of the girl.

The door opened automatically and the three of them went inside. Urrie saw an internal door in the room and a glass separating some kind of equipment.

They stopped walking in the middle of the room. Mr. Ambrose told them to wait for a minute because the preparations are still not done. He walked to some corner of the wall and pressed a button. Something buzzed and people started entering the room in a hurry.

Mr. Ambrose then signaled the two of them to follow him. They went to the inner door and swiped a card at the lock and the door opened. Inside was a variety of weapons and armors. There are swords, short swords, hammers, spears, shields, etc., etc.

“I think we don’t need to know what type of hunter you are. Just be knowing your last performance one will know that you’re a fighter type. Now, pick a weapon.”

Mr. Ambrose know that Urrie will pick a sword because that is what she used when she fought with the monsters back at the hospital. But his intuition was wrong because Urrie picked a pair of short sword.

“What should I do?”

Urrie asked Mr. Ambrose and he just narrowed his eyes.

“Are you sure that you are going to use a short sword?”

“Yes. I want to try it.”

Mr. Ambrose’s interest on Urrie just spiked up from what she said. Mr. Ambrose thought that most Stimulated will pick their original weapon because of the level of their skills, but Urrie picked a weapon which she didn’t know how to wield just because she wants to try it? Mr. Ambrose thought that she really is interesting.

“We will test your skills first by fighting.”

They exited the room and went back at the center of the evaluation room. Mr. Ambrose explained the rules of the upcoming fight.

“The skill evaluation will be repeated two times. The first one is to know what is level of your skills and the second is to know if you can manage to balance your skills. There are five common skills a hunter has namely: stamina, strength, agility, perception, and intelligence. I won’t tell you what you will be fighting. I believe that will spoil the evaluation.”

Mr. Ambrose and Jina left Urrie at the center and walked at the right corner of the room, inside where the strange equipment is located.

“Prepare yourself. The evaluation will start any minute now.”

Urrie felt her heart racing, but she immediately calmed it. She took a deep breath and walked around the room while trying to figure out what will happen. She felt that something about the room changed. She didn’t know if it is the room temperature or if someone just stared at her. She continued walking, not letting her guard down. Instinctively, her grip on the two short swords became tighter.

Her perception spiked and she felt something behind her. Without hesitation she turned around in an instant and swung the short sword in her right hand upwards to where she that ‘something’.

Her blade sliced on what looked like an ant with a humanoid form. She was surprised because the ant just showed up out of nowhere. She stared at the ant trying to examine it when she saw another ant popped out of nowhere from her peripheral vision.

‘Don’t tell me this whole room is a gate?’

She was confused but has no time for it because ant monsters in humanoid forms kept appearing. At first, they appeared one by one, but as seconds pass by two to three ants appeared at the same time.

All the ants that appeared started to look around as if they are looking for a prey. And when they spotted Seolurrie they pounced on her almost at the same time.

She fought with the ant monsters but the monsters skin are hard, harder than the knight monsters that she fought with back at the hospital. She raised her perception to know which directions the ant monsters are coming at her.

‘There is no way this place is a gate. But is this isn’t a gate then what is this place. Are there more ways that monsters can appear?’

Urrie was busy fighting with the ant monsters while trying to figure out what is this place and where does the monsters are coming from. She was having a hard time killing the ant monsters attacking her all at the same time because they have hard skins and there are a lot of them attacking her at the same time. Let’s not forget that the ant monsters appearing were increasing.

She was getting desperate when something happened. She the room as a transparent and patterned space and she saw through the ant monsters. The monsters now all looked like a detailed sketch. Some parts of their bodies were colored red. She narrowed her eyes on the red parts of their bodies and started focusing her attacks on them. 

The fight gradually became easier when she started to see all those patterns. Seolurrie didn’t know why or how, but she adjusted to the transparent and patterned space at the same exact moment she saw it. It was like her vision has always been like this.

She saw what was the change she felt in the room earlier. And she found out that the ant monsters were all just an illusion. After knowing that she became more calm and composed. 

The fight ended after fifteen minutes. The fight was tiring but she didn’t feel exhausted at all. Her original vision came back. She looked around the room and the sight was awful. The severed limbs of the ant monsters where every where and the floor was covered in sticky green fluid which Urrie thought was the blood of the ant monsters. She looked at the people at the evaluation room and they all looked back at her with admiration in their eyes.

“Can you release the illusion now? The sight is kind of nauseating.”

She looked at the glass room where Mr. Ambrose and Jina was. Mr. Ambrose didn’t expect her to know that all of it was an illusion. No, to be exact he didn’t want him to find out.

As Mr. Ambrose released the illusion the room reverted to its original look. Mr. Ambrose and Jina then exited the glass room.

“I am surprised that you know it was all an illusion.”

“Well, I kind of found out at the middle of the fight.”

“May I ask how? You see, only a few people has the same case as yours. Jina’s brother was one of them.”

“I just… I felt some kind of change occurred in the room. That’s all.”

Seolurrie didn’t tell them how she found out how she knew that it was all an illusion, but she didn’t also lie. It was an incomplete information. And it seems that Mr. Ambrose acknowledge what she said because he began nodding his head.

An employee of the Organization walked to them.

“You can give the weapons to Miss Lean here.”

Urrie gave the weapons to the employee as instructed and the girl walked to the inner room to place the weapons back.

“I am really surprised about the result of your skill evaluation. But we still need to determine your magical energy. Your magical energy will be the one to decide of what your grade will be.”

As Mr. Ambrose, Urrie and Jina headed to the glass room. A male employee came rushing into the room.

“Mr. Ambrose! The President!”

‘The President?’ Seolurrie thought to herself.

The male employee was still running, but it looks like he’s in a rush because before he could even reach Mr. Ambrose the male employee already talked.

“What is it? What happened to the President?”

“The… the President… he’s coming.”

The male employee was still catching his breath, but Mr. Ambrose made him speak, not caring about the tired employee.

“What?!”

The male employee took a deep breath, probably too deep, before he spoke in a clear voice.

“The President left his office and is heading here, Sir.”