Chapter 11 : Final test

At the bottom of a hill near a small river, bare-chested James stood in the sunlight with his eyes closed as a white aura enveloped him.

Then the next second his aura exploded around his body becoming more violent, he maintained this state for about ten minutes before the aura around him shrank in his body, greatly diminishing his presence.

he had started the cycle, Ten, Ren and Zetsu for almost a week, he stopped only to feed and slept only three hours a day.

He first exercised his Ten, then continued with the Ren, then rested and recovered his energy with the Zetsu.

While Ten allows a user to keep aura from leaking away from their body, Zetsu stops the flow of aura from their body altogether, by closing all of their aura nodes, the user is able to halt all outflow of their aura like water from a valve, making their presence much harder or even impossible to sense.

Zetsu can also be used to relieve fatigue, since it forces the body's external layer of aura to be fully contained within, however, for the same reason it can be dangerous due to it leaving the body defenseless against any aura attack. 

During this week he was able to slightly improve his Ten and managed to increase his Ren time to 10 minutes.

He had also been able to learn Zetsu and now had some simple notions of it.

As for Hatsu he had no idea where to start, creating a Hatsu can be as simple as it is difficult at times, but with his current control of Nen he knew that it was very difficult for him to create a Hatsu.

The best thing for him to do would be to continue training and increase his control of the first three basic principles of Nen until he developed a Hatsu.

At sale tome, Khara's voice suddenly echoed across the island.

"The Fourth Phase of the exam

has just ended."

"Will the applicants please return to the starting point at once? You will be given one hour of extra time, If you do not return during this time, you will fail the exam."

"Furthermore, you are not allowed to exchange tags, after reaching the starting point, anyone caught swapping tags will be disqualified."

James stopped his training and undressed, washed himself in the small river before getting dressed again, and then went to the starting point.

. . . . .

One hour later, the applicants who managed to get the necessary badges gathered in front of the boat, Khara got off the boat and approached them with a notepad in her hand.

James looked from left to right but did not see Gon, Leorio and kullapicka.

"Don't tell me this mc group failed."

"Then we will now check the tags of everyone here!"

"#44 Hisoka-san."

"#271 James-San."

"#53, Pokkle-san."

#99, Killua-san."

"#301, Gittarackur-san."

"#191, Bodoro-san."

"#294, Hanzo-san."

"So seven applicants have passed? Oh?" Says Khara with a slightly astonished look before her gaze turns to the forest.

It was Gon, Leorio and Kurapika.

"Ah, three more arrive at the last second."

"And now for the last few members..."

"#404, Kurapika-san."

"#403, Leorio-san., and #405, Gon-san."

"These Ten applicants have passed the Fourth Phase of the exam!"shouted khara as the association's airship flew over them.

. . . . . . .

In a room of the airship James was facing Chairman Netero while both were seated and the Chairman was scratching his beard.

"I'll just be asking a few questions

to satisfy my curiosity, first, why do you want to become a Hunter?"

James looked pensive for a moment before replying with a smile.

At first I just wanted money, but the more I fought, the more I got a taste for the excitement of fighting, the lure of the unknown, constantly push my limits."

"Most people can't find a purpose to their existence, but I have found a purpose to mine.quenching my thirst for adventure and living new experiences is now my only goal.

Hunter is the perfect job for that."

"I see." Says Netero

"Then I'll move on to the next question, which of the other eight applicants are you keeping an eye on?"

"#405"

One last question, which of the other nine applicants would you least want to fight?

"#301"

"Nice job, you're excused."

James greeted the Chairman one last time before leaving the room leaving Netero who watched him leave with a smile on his face.

"That kid was really sincere earlier, it's people like him that we need at the association."

"Hahaha..."

James walked for a while in the airship and met Killua in the hallway.

"Hey, Killua, congratulations on passing the test."

Killua looked at him suspiciously for a moment before responding.

"Thanks, but the test was easy."

"For what happened on the island, no hard feelings." Said James with a slight smile as he left.

"Wait, I have a question to ask you."

"What?"

" When you attacked me on the island, you gave off a feeling of brutality and violence, your strength seemed to have suddenly increased, I have an older brother who gave me exactly the same feeling as you, so I would like to know, how you do it?"

James thought for a moment and then shook his head.

"Explaining the method your brother and I use won't help you now, you'll learn it after you pass the exam anyway."

James left leaving killua standing with more questions on his mind than answers.

The night passed and James' who hadn't rested for several days fell asleep as a baby before waking up the next day a few hours before the test.

A few hours later the airship landed in the courtyard of a large mansion and the applicants were taken to a large room where the examiners of all the previous tests and Chairman Netero.

Chairman Netero stepped forward slowly and looked at the applicants.

"Well, gentlemen, did you get plenty of rest? This hotel is owned by the Hunter Exam Selection Committee."

"The place is all yours until the

battles have concluded, for the Final Phase, we will be holding a one-on-one tournament."

He removed the cloth that covered board

Seeing what was on the board, James really wanted to hit Netero.