The Hidden World

It was early in the morning and Yuki was standing before the massive doors of the Headmaster’s Castle. He was about to enter to register to become a hunter. Yuna told him that this was where students received their licenses to officially be recognized as a hunter.

 

For the last two weeks, Yuki had trained daily to increase his physical and magical abilities. He would go out every night to practice against the simulation, gradually increasing the difficulty and varying the type of enemy and terrain he fought in.

 

Eventually, Yuki started to bring Akira along as well as he noticed that there was quite literally no one around during the night. It seemed that everyone was asleep at this time or had gone to the city for whatever they did. And so, he and Akira would train together. They would sometimes fight each other with other enemies trying to kill them both or they would work together to fight off hordes of enemies or a single boss.

 

The previous night, they had just finished one of their training sessions and Yuki was putting away the practice weapons that they were using. Yuki used a staff while Akira stuck with a single edged sword. As he did this, a notification appeared before Yuki.

 

[{Beginner Staff Arts} Has Reached Lv. 10. It Has Upgraded To {Intermediate Staff Arts}.]

 

‘Good to know,’ Yuki thought. But the notifications didn’t stop.

 

[You Have Reached Intermediate With Three Weapons. Passive Has Been Discovered. Unique Passive {Weapon Master} Has Been Found.]

 

[Due To Passive, {Expert Blade Arts} Has Synchronized With {Dance of the Dragons}.]

 

[{Intermediate Swordsman} Has Synchronized With {Dance of the Dragons}.]

 

[{Intermediate Staff Arts} Has Synchronized With {Dance of the Dragons}.]

 

‘What’s all this?’ Yuki thought to himself.

 

Then within his mind, Dance of the Dragons began to play sequences of new techniques that Yuki had never seen. They were weapon techniques that were both beautiful and deadly. The Yuki in his mind flickered around, wielding weapons magnificently.

 

‘Oh, that’s what it meant,’ Yuki realized. ‘More techniques got added to the Dance. And weapon master. Hmm, it explains why I can learn how to use weapons so quickly.’

 

Akira had noticed that Yuki seemed to be occupied with something and had asked him what it was. Yuki showed her the notifications and received a “that’s nice” from her before they left.

 

During those two weeks, Yuki also learned a great deal of spells from his Support class with Mabel. True to her word, Mabel didn’t really teach anything to Yuki and they merely sat reading scrolls. She would explain to him what some spells did but since Yuki seemed to grasp the ideas quickly she didn’t go to in depth. They also used spells on each other to practice casting them quickly and efficiently.

 

While Yuki was back at his dorm, he would read things online about magic technology and programming in Ethros. He also used Ancestral Knowledge to learn about topics monsters and the various pathways of magic. Once in a while, Yuna would drop by to have dinner and chat for a bit. When she wasn’t there, Akira would wander around his dorm and mess with various objects to see their functions. Other times she would sit and watch shows using the television that Yuki never turned on.

 

And now Yuki was ready to earn money. Those two weeks of training were enough for him to reach Rank C though it did seem to be a little too easy to Yuki. But according to Akira, Rank D was easy to get out of and rank C took only a little effort. Once one reached rank B, that was when most people’s growth will start to slow and eventually halt.

 

Yuki walked up to the imposing doors of the Castle and they swung open silently, letting him enter. He climbed up the steps of the lobby to the second floor. From there, he marched straight to the headmaster’s quarters. He opened the door and walked right into the room where he saw Selene staring at him from her desk.

 

“I would like to sign up to become a hunter,” Yuki said pleasantly.

 

“You know you just barged into the office of the headmaster of this school?” Selene asked.

 

“Yes,” Yuki replied flatly.

 

Selene stared at him for a couple of seconds before sighing and waving toward him to sit.

 

“You want to be a hunter?” she asked him once he sat.

 

“Yes,” Yuki answered.

 

“Alright, it’s simple enough to do,” Selene said. She tapped on her tablet for a bit before sliding it toward Yuki. “Just sign there and input the necessary information and then you’ll be set.”

 

Yuki didn’t reply and took the tablet. It only asked for things like his rank letter, class, and attribute. It didn’t ask for any specifics like his age, race, or gender. Yuki quickly typed in the information and gave it back to Selene.

 

“Oh, you’re rank C? I didn’t know that,” Selene remarked. Then she took out a small card from her desk and handed it to Yuki. “This is your hunter’s license. You will need to show this in order to enter the hunting grounds around the city as well as to trade your kills at the trading posts there.”

 

Yuki nodded and took the card. It was made out of material that resembled glass and was quite hard. On the card were blue words that stated his name, rank, and class. At the bottom of the card was the word “Hunter” written in a golden color.

 

“Before you start doing hunts, I should tell you about a few things first,” Selene said. “Specifically about being a hunter.”

 

Yuki looked up from his card at tilted his head.

 

“This is mainly legal babble so that you can’t blame us if anything happens,” she explained. “It’s just that we are not responsible if you are hurt during a hunt or are killed. You do know what the average rank of monsters are around here, right?”

 

He nodded.

 

“Good, then you know what you are up against,” Selene said. “You are only allowed to go on hunts on your free time. You cannot go during class or you will be facing punishment. I think that’s it for that.”

 

“Now, I have some advice for you,” she continued. “Since you are new to this world and to hunting, I recommend grouping up with other more experienced hunters before you embark by yourself. I know that you have chosen a support class so there should be many who are willing to accept you to their groups.”

 

‘I’ll just go hunting with Akira,’ Yuki thought to himself.

 

“Another thing that you should know is that you should make sure that you don’t get swindled when you are doing trades over at the trading post. Most people are trying to gain as much as they can so it’ll be good to know the usual prices of things,” Selene advised.

 

Yuki nodded to show his understanding.

 

“Lastly, I think I should tell you that you can accept requests from hunter outposts. These can be things like gathering resources or killing specific monsters that a client wants killed,” Selene said. “It’ll be another way to gain money outside of just hunting random monsters to trade.”

 

‘Requests, hmm. They would probably have difficulty levels on them so I’ll need to pick ones that I can complete,’ Yuki thought. ‘I’ll see what they have once I get to a hunter outpost.’

 

“Now with that out of the way, we are done and you are registered to become a hunter,” Selene announced. “Congratulations.”

 

Yuki didn’t respond.

 

“I was quite surprised when you reached rank C already,” she remarked. “But I guess that’s what happens when you train every night.”

 

Yuki stared at her, his face impassive.

 

“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble,” Selene said. “There is a reason why the training facility is open 24/7. It’s so that students can train whenever they liked. But no one seems to utilize it outside of classes.”

 

He didn’t say anything.

 

“Anyway, you’re are good to go,” she said. “You can leave now.”

 

Yuki nodded and stood up from his chair. Then he turned and headed out of the room.

 

“Remember to not barge into here next time,” Selene called out to him as he left. “It wouldn’t hurt to knock once and wait a little.”

 

Yuki closed the door behind him and began to walk toward the entrance of the Academy. There was some hunting that he needed to do.