9 Chapter 8

####

Name: Gon

Threat levels: scouting (tier 6), regular fighting (tier 5), assassination (tier 6)

Stats: strength (tier 4), vitality (tier 5), stamina (tier 5), durability (tier 5), dexterity (tier 5), agility (tier 4), perception (tier 6)

Singularities, gifts and buried talents: freecss, fishing, limitless potential, ageless, crowning deal, multiverse traveler, snakey bones, kingsnake genes

####

Name: Severus

Threat levels: scouting (tier 5), regular fighting (tier 4), assassination (tier 6)

Singularities, gifts and buried talents: snakey bones, kingsnake genes

####

After saying goodbye to my aunt, friends, and other acquaintances, I at last stepped aboard the ship. I was gleefully scanning the status windows for both Severus and myself. We had made some last-minute progress just before we were to leave the island.

Before we left today, we had registered a long time ago. In this period, we relaxed on the training. We'd rather avoid getting hurt right before the test. Yes, "we"... Just as Mito had asked me, any other form of life, including animals, could apply to take the hunter exam. It wasn't surprising because this world was strange in that regard.

It was just that these types of applicants for the hunter exam were rare and unusual.

The Hunter Association's executives couldn't care less if anyone or anything was willing to take the exam.

There was no discrimination or unfair treatment. Examiners would still assess test-takers' personalities and suitability to be hunters during the exam. I learned that from watching the episodes...

Anyone with the necessary skills and motivation could take and pass the exam.

Every year, serial killers, international terrorists, and even the most despicable criminals could take the hunter exam. So it was not surprising that animals could participate.

After a few years, I learned more about the tiers, which the system didn't fully explain to stop me from cheating because he couldn't directly assist me in becoming stronger. He claimed it would be too helpful to inform me completely about them.

The scouting tier was dominated by perception. However, it was also somewhat influenced by dexterity and agility. Dexterity and agility were the two qualities that mattered most in the assassination tier. The regular fighting tier was most significantly impacted by the other stats, such as vitality, strength, durability, and stamina.

It took some time to become acquainted with the system of threats and tiers. However, some statistics had a greater impact on each of the three threat levels than others. Singularities, skills, and talents were also important considerations.

The threat levels were assessments. A person with intimidating brute strength, for example, was not necessarily a good assassin unless he possessed a Nen ability that made him so… To use another example, someone with great agility may not be suitable for regular fighting if they lack dexterity. And so forth.

Now, I could tell you more about what the tiers themselves meant in terms of numbers. I had done a lot of training. In fact, quite a bit…

Because of my tier 4 strength, I was able to root out large, thick trees with just one hand. I had no idea how heavy those were or what this weight lifting feat entailed. And I could dig with two hands into a rock several times my own volume and bulk and eventually crush it into granules. Naturally, my tier 5 durability allowed me to do all of this while remaining damage-free. Carrying a Lord of the Lakes-sized fish was now as simple as lifting my empty suitcase on Earth.

I was slower than Severus, but I had the "flaw" of being able to run 0.2 kilometers in under two seconds. I took about ten seconds to complete a full klick. Yeah. It seemed like everything was a little frightening. Even though I was much more powerful than the usual Gon taking the test, I was still vulnerable because I lacked Nen. In the face of that magical force, which might function like a thicker and impenetrable wall of emerald or stronger and strengthened gems, it didn't matter how strong I was.

Nen was a mysterious roadblock even to the me of the present. I wasn't untouchable, not with the power I possessed. And even if I was strong enough to fight a weak Nen user, they frequently, if not always, had Nen abilities.

With all that said though, I and Severus both had and trained other assets… Our one-of-a-kind, smoldering, and toxic assets. As a result, both of us were classified as tier 6 assassins. Anyone with defenses lower than tier 6 had no chance if we caught them.

Severus' solo kills of those tier 4 lizards confirmed my thoughts. I didn't stop him from exacting his vengeance because the guys we met by chance were looking for their own stupid deaths one day.

Severus had stopped thinking about his mother and siblings as he grew older, but he could still remember every detail of the fateful night we first met. For him, and given that the lizards had provoked and ridiculed him for running back when he was a helpless child, this was probably a stain on his pride that he needed to remove.

Large, zoophagous koalas now inhabited and ruled that bloody, boney, gutty area of the forest.

Whale Island was no longer inhabited by gangrap lizards or miserable kingsnakes. Unless my very high, strange perception had failed me over the last four years, Severus was the only weaker descendant of oddish Majū descendants left on the island. Those Koalas and the famous foxbears who ruled over different parts of the forest were ordinary beasts.

"Severus, please, don't muck it up and risk losing that consent form for potentially missing and deceased people. I gave you permission to handle it, but don't mess around, okay?" As soon as we boarded the boat, I informed Severus. There were no Leorio or Kurapika on board. "Since you aren't registered as a pet, I'm pretty sure you won't be able to take the preliminary tests unless we give it back to one of those sailors."

Because I was aware of my snake's roguish and overly playful behavior, I warned him directly. Except for his name, he bore no resemblance to Snape.

He snorted through a hiss to convey his resentful nod, and I turned my smiling face and shaking head to look around the sparsely populated boat…

I had learned a few things from a young sailor wearing an orange bandana and playing with a knife, who answered my questions by the time the boat finally left.

Apart from me, he stated that no overly pushful or uninformed young people were attempting to apply for the exam on Whale Island… We apparently had to make several stops before arriving at the main island, which served as the meeting point for the genuine hunter exam's boat.

We should be there before dark, he added.