Firefly City, GAA branch.
At the moment, a twenty-year-old blond-haired slim man—Julian, was looking at the profile sent by the Branch Master with an errand of picking up the profile’s owner from the airport.
With him was his brown-haired, bulky-sized partner of the same age, Roken.
“Hey, isn’t this profile strange, Roken?”
“What do you mean?”
“Take a look.”
[Almond Crowshade]
-Silver-rank / level 10
-Combat Power: —
-Combat Arsenal:
—Physical Enchantment—
↳ Stage 1 Strength Boost: level 10.
↳ Stage 1 Focus Field: level 3.
↳ Stage 1 Fortification: level 2.
—Aura Enfold—
↳ Stage 1 Body Enfold: level 2.
↳ Stage 1 Weapon Enfold: level 4.
—Mana Transmutation—
↳ Stage 0 Elemental Mimicry.
↳ Stage 0 Complex-Combine Mimicry.
—Flow State—
↳ Stage 0 Overdrive.
↳ Stage 0 Overload.
Roken tilted his head, “He ain’t better than us. What’s the issue?”
“Look at the damn details below! And his level, you skipped his level.”
“Haha, it’s so low, I skipped.”
“Idiot,” Julian made a disgusted face. “He is eighteen years old, and his level being Silver level 10 meant that he fucking entered the Labyrinth this month, meaning he awakened this month. At most, it’s been 23 days since he got access to Mana if he awakened on the 1st day of this month.”
Only now did Roken connect the dots, resulting in a dumbfounded expression as he exclaimed, “Fuck, this profile is fake! Ain’t no way he reached these levels in those techniques in 23 days. It wasn’t like he trained every day all day!”
Julian muttered as he looked at the profile, “It’s also strange that his Combat Power is yet to be assigned and that he got a strange position called Special Hunter. What the fuck?”
“Who is this guy?” Roken looked at the photo. “Dude is handsome. Must be from some big family.”
“Are you saying only big families have handsome guys?” Julian snorted, his mood foul.
“Chill, bro. You are also handsome. Anyway, so are we going to pick up this dude?”
“As much as I hate to do it, we have to go now. He should be landing in ten minutes.”
…
Almond landed from the private jet belonging to GAA’s upper brass in the airport’s GAA’s plane landing area.
“Lily doesn’t know I am here yet. I should give her a surprise,” Almond smiled. He soon arrived at the Arrivals Hall, where he spotted two people, with one of them holding a sign of his name.
They also spotted him.
Almond nodded at them as he walked toward them.
“Hi, I believe you are here for me.”
“Yeah, let’s go,” Julian said with a plain expression as he nodded and turned around.
“Hello, friend,” Roken smiled and put down the sign as he nodded. “I am Roken, and that guy with a bit of a bad mood is Julian.”
Julian’s lips twitched, but he just continued to walk without any reaction or response.
“Nice to meet you,” Almond nodded.
As Almond followed the duo, Roken curiously asked, “Almond, I haven’t heard of the Crowshade family. Where are you from?”
Almond blinked, “Well, I am from Frostar City. And it’s not strange you haven’t heard of this family as I am the only member with this surname, though I don’t know if there are Crowshades somewhere else.”
“Ohh, I thought you were from some influential family, haha,” Roken laughed while scratching the back of his head.
“Haha, nope,” Almond lightly chuckled before he paused and added, “Well, if you consider my girlfriend’s family, then yeah, they are kind of influential.”
“Oh, nice, nice. Is she in this city?”
“Yep. She is a member of the League of Firefly. She just joined recently.”
“Damn, that’s pretty good. What’s her name?”
“Lily,” Almond smiled.
“I had a girlfriend, but she broke up with me a week ago, right before the Labyrinth opened,” Roken sighed. “She said I was not serious at all and not working hard, so she went inside with another group. Well, I can’t blame her, but it feels a bit bad, heh.”
“So she was right?” Almond asked with a wry smile.
“Well, kind of, yeah. I got my sub-class the previous month. It’s called Runic Blacksmith—A-rank, so I started focusing on it since my specialized class and primary class are both B-rank, but she wanted me to focus on my combat arsenal,” Roken shook his head. “So that became the catalyst for our breakup.”
“Then she is wrong,” Almond smiled. “You do what you want to do.”
“Yeah, man. I think I’m getting the hang of this blacksmithing stuff. I even crafted a decent Rare-rank weapon the other day!”
Julian immediately snorted. “Oh, sure—after failing a dozen times, crafting shitty uncommon-rank products, wasting tons of materials, and going completely broke.”
“Hey, that’s just part of the learning process! I’m only going to get better from here.”
‘A-rank sub-class, Runic Blacksmith, huh? Sounds interesting,’ Almond raised his eyebrows.
The group arrived at the car by now as Julian entered the driving seat.
Almond went ahead to sit in the backseat while Roken sat in the passenger seat.
As Julian started driving, he said, “The Branch Master ordered me to take you to the branch for your Combat Power evaluation. Are you ready for it?”
“Is there anything specific I should know beforehand to be prepared?”
“Nothing particular. Just know that usage of weapons or items is forbidden during the evaluation, so don’t use them even by mistake.”
Almond thought of something and asked, “What if my summon uses an item? My summon is a part of my power, and so is the weapon it wields, right?”
“That…” Julian frowned.
Roken laughed and said, “That’s a good question. We have to ask it there to get an answer. Adventurers who have summon-type powers are pretty rare, after all. We don’t have any in our branch.”
“I see,” Almond nodded.
“So, how was your first adventure into the Labyrinth?”
“Pretty good and rewarding,” Almond smiled.
“Good, good. Oh yeah, are you going to participate in the Rising Star Tournament?”
“Rising Star Tournament?” Almond blinked, curious. “First time hearing this.”
Roken explained the tournament, causing Almond’s interest to pique up.
“Sounds interesting. When is it starting?”
“After eight days,” Julian said. “You won’t get much far in that since you just entered the Labyrinth for the first time and are only at Silver level 10.”
Pausing a bit, Julian added with a hint of mockery, “Well, If your Combat Arsenal is accurate as displayed in your profile, then you might get a good rank in the Silver-rank bracket.”
Roken wryly smiled as he used Magic Whisper. ‘Come on, bro. You don’t have to say it like that.’
“I see, so you think the Combat Arsenals evaluated in my profile are false?” Almond asked, an amused smile on his face. “Do you think GAA would do that?”
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“Then what’s with your strange position in the branch?” Julian asked, his tone raspy. “Usually, newbies start as Scouts, then climb up to be Officers, then to Marshal, then Captain, and then Commander. So, what’s with the Special Hunter?”
“You really want to know?” Almond’s voice dropped, taking on a deeper, almost unsettling tone that caught both Roken and Julian off guard.
Roken coughed nervously. “I mean, yeah…we’re curious.”
“Are you absolutely sure?” Almond’s voice grew even lower and more somber, adding a strange tension to the air. “Like really, really sure?”
Roken swallowed hard, visibly tense.
Julian, feeling both irritation and pressure, didn’t back down. “Just say it already.”
Leaning forward, Almond lowered his voice even more, his tone deadly serious. “Listen carefully…”
“I have no idea.”
*Screech*
“Bro! Eyes on the road! Don’t crash!”
*…Screeeaaach!*