Chapter 92: Hunter Exam

"Hmm... Boring..."

Mordred muttered as she along with Lucias and Erza walked inside a room filled with a large group of people.

"Don't tell me we're going to fight this weaklings?"

She shouted causing the people inside the room to look at her direction with a frown on their faces.

"Huh? Got a problem with that?"

Mordred said with an irritated expression on her face while glaring at the group of people inside the spacious room.

"Don't cause trouble, Mordred"

Lucias said in a helpless tone as he pulled both her towards the corner of the room, ignoring the bloodthirsty look of the people around them.

"We aren't here to actually take the exam. We just need to find someone and negotiate with him. That's all"

"So we're not going to fight them?"

"... Probably. I have investigated about the contebts of the hunter exam, so there maybe a point where we have to fight them... but if that happens, don't kill them, am I clear?"

"Tch, how boring"

Mordred said as she clicked her tongue in annoyance while following Lucias and Erza from behind.

"We'll be quick, there's only one rune in this dimension"

He said as Erza looked around the room with sparkling eyes, before her eyes landed on two people.

One of them was a pale man with a slightly jester like appearance while the other was a tall man with several pins pierced on his head, occasionally twitching and moving in a very suspicious way.

"What's wrong, Erza?"

Lucias asked while silently spreading his mana on the ground to locate the current holder of the rune.

"Those two... are strong"

She answered without taking her eyes off of them, causing the both of them to look at her direction.

The jester creepily smiled at her as he noticed her figure while the other only had a neutral expression on his face.

Because Lucias and the other 2 came from the dimension with an entirely different system of power and magic, they appear to be weak to the beings of this world, only the jester and the pinned-man knew how powerful the group of 3 really are due to their instinct. Especially Lucias who gave off an extremely dangerous feeling like he could kill both of them without them noticing, causing the jester to widely smile in excitement while licking his lips.

"It looks like today's exam would be... exciting"

The jester muttered while staring at Lucias, causing Lucias to glance at his direction.

"Oh..."

He muttered as he waved his hand at Lucias.

"... That guy..."

Lucias muttered as he noticed the jester like man stare at him like a predator, causing him to narrow his eyes in response.

"Why is he staring at me like that? Does he swing that way?"

Lucias said as both of them got closer to the location of the rune holder. There, they found 4 people standing together as they chatted while the fat guy at the front gave them a can juice from his bag.

"Found them, Mordred, Erza, that spike-haired kid is our target"

Lucias whispered to the two girls by his side, causing the two of them to glance at the kid's direction.

The boy looked like a 12 years old kid with with long spiky black green tipped hair and large, hazel brown eyes, wearing a green jacket with reddish edges covering a black or white tank top underneath, green short shorts, and green, laced boots.

"That kid... has a weird physique that's for sure"

Mordred muttered as all 3 of them walk towards their direction.

"His body is being strengthen by the rune... and it looks like it's a rune of virtue since he isn't being corrupted. Only a rune of virtue can strengthen its holder when its holder fulfill the virtue specified by the rune... It's just that I have no idea which rune of virtue he currently hold"

He said as they arrived in front of the group, causing the teenage man with medium blond hair and brown eyes to glance at his direction.

"Can we join you?"

Lucias greeted with a friendly smile on his face, causing the green-haired kid to immediately response with a friendly smile on his own.

"Of course!"

The boy said as all 3 of them held the can of juice in their hands, stopping their actions of drinking it due to Lucias' sudden appearance.

"Thanks. My name's Lucias Frey. It's a pleasure to meet you"

"Gon Freecss, its nice to meet you too"

Gon greeted with a large smile on his face as he shook hands together with Lucias.

"I'm sorry for bothering your conversation a while ago"

"No, it's okay! These are my friends Kurapika, and this is Leorio"

Gon introduced as he pointed at them, causing the blond-haired teenager to nod his head in response while Leorio stared at Mordred's direction.

"Huh? What are you looking at?"

Mordred said as she clenched his fist, causing Lucias to quickly grab her by her shoulder to stop her from attacking him.

"This is Mordred, even though she doesn't look that friendly, she's a good... girl"

Lucias introduced causing Mordred to frown from his introduction of her.

"Don't call me a girl!!"

She shouted while struggling to get away from his grip.

"This is kid is Erza"

Lucias introduced, causing Erza to politely bow her head to the 4 people in front of her.

"What's a kid doing here? She's even younger than Gon so why did you bring her here? Don't you know how dangerous the exam is?"

Leorio asked while looking at the 7 year old girl on front them with a slight frown on his face.

"Don't worry, it may not look like it, but she's far stronger than you think she is. She can hold herself easily in this exam so you don't have to worry abouther safety"

He assured while patting Erza's head, causing the little girl to shyly lower her head while enjoying the sensation of his warm hand on top of her head.

"That's right, Leorio. We haven't seen how powerful she is, so I'm sure she's strong"

Gon assured before the fat guy from before suddenly interfered with their conversation.

"Are you new here too?"

He asked as he went closer to Lucias with a kind smile on his face.

"You are?"

"Tonpa, you could say I'm a veteran"

He said causing Lucias to look at him with a weird expression on his face as he didn't understand what he meant by being a veteran in this hunter exam.

"Veteran?"

"He just means that he has taken this exam multiple times and is experienced in this field"

Kurapika who was silently watching them from the side said as he noticed the confused expression on his face.

"I see..."

Lucias muttered with a weird expression on his face, not understanding why he bragged about being a veteran when it only means that he failed multiple times in taking the exam.

"Its my 287th try, so I know quite a lot about the hunter exam. If you have any questions, you can ask me if you like"

Tonpa said as he took out three more cans of juice from his bag.

"Here, let's have a cheers to celebrate out new found friendship"

He said as he handed the 3 cans to each of them, causing Mordred to look at him with a suspicious expression on her face.

"Thank, Tonpa-san"

Lucias said as took the can with a grateful expression on his face.

"Cheers!"

Tonpa said as Lucias and the other 3 girls opened their can of juice, before they all brought the can close to their mouth.

[Toxin has been detected]

"..."

The notification rang before Lucias could even take a sip of the juice, causing him to frown as he immediately grabbed Erza's and Mordred's can with his hand.

"What's wrong?"

Gon asked as he and his other 2 companions stopped their actions, looking at him with a weird expression on their faces.

"... Tonpa-san, I like my juice with a little less laxative, but I appreciate your kindness"

He said as he crushed the can with his barehands, causing the juice to splatter on the ground.

"Laxative?"

Leorio and Kurapika muttered in suspicion before pouring the juice on the ground without hesitation.

"W-What laxative? I wouldn't do something like that, Lucias"

Tonpa said in a panic as he faced Lucias who had hidden anger in his eyes. Erza still didn't had [Poison Resistance] in her body so if he was a step late, then his daughter would have been poisoned in front of his eyes.

"I see..."

He said before grabbing him by his neck ad lifting him up in the air, causing him to struggle as Lucias strangled him with one arm.

"I hate people like you the most, Tonpa"

Lucias said as his grip tightened around his neck.

"Ack!! P-Please..."

"..."

Lucias didn't listen as his face started to pale, causing Lucias to let go of his neck before his body dropped on the ground.

"Y-You're crazy!!!"

"My, I never said I was a normal man, Tonpa"

Lucias said while looking down at the fat guy who was gasping for breath, holding the red marks on his neck with a pale complexion

"Don't show your face in front of me again or I'll kill you"

He said causing Tonpa to immediately crawl away while holding his neck with pale complexion, staring at him in fear due to the pure bloodlust directed towards his direction.

"Ahem! It looks like everyone is here"

A man with pale lavender hair which curls at the end, blue eyes, a long-pointed chin, and a curly moustache said as he arrived in front of the crowd of participants.

"The Hunter Exam will now begin! I am Satotz, the Phase One examiner"

The man introduced causing all of the participants to focus their attention on him.

"Examiner, Lucias Frey. Please try not to kill any other participants before the exam could even begin"

He said before looking at the crowd of participants in front of him.

"You must follow me to Phase Two. That's all"

He said before turning his body to the crowd to immediately start the exam.

"This is the exam's First Phase"

-with Asia-

"... It looks like everything is going well"

Asia muttered while watching the dragon slayers bring the different animals and insects from the mortal realm back to the headquarters of the faction.

Since letting them wander around the world would only give the Gastreas a chance to reproduce by infecting those animals, so they decided to gather every animals and insect back to the faction and alter them for a bit so that they could hold some kind of use in the war.

"Bring them to the elves, to inject them with mana"

"Hai!"

The dragon slayers answered in unison before making their way towards the elven territory to begin the experiment.

"What's the situation inside the dungeon?"

She asked a nearby imanity who stayed by her side to update her with any information about the progress of their preparation for the war.

"Almost 2 billion have died and 3/4 of that number is because of their violations of the rules. Right now, only a few groups have shown a promising performance... but 5 months have passed inside the dungeon, they only managed to clear up to the 5th floor of the dungeon, Asia-sama'

He said in a respectful tone causing Asia to sigh before asking the human another question.

"How about the progress of Hyoudo Issei?"

"... In 300 years inside the dungeon, he managed to clear up to the 15th floor, Asia-sama"

She said causing Asia to look at her in surprise.

"Despite being only he managed to reach that far? It looks like Lucias has a keen eye in recruiting talents into the faction"

Asia complimented with a soft smile on her face.

"The dungeon Issei-san is in... is a combination of 100 different instant dungeon, and each floor has a significant difference in time ratio. The higher he climbs, the slower time gets... It's a surprising progress since he was quite weak the last time we saw him"

Asia muttered before a portal suddenly opened from behind them as Muramasa and Emiya came out of the portal.

"What happened?"

"Europe has been cleared, and the defenses have been fortified according to your instructions, Ojou-chan"

Muramasa answered causing Asia to nod her head in understanding before following them inside the dungeon.

"It's faster than what I expected"

"Thanks to Emiya's efforts. The arcane towers and mana-imbued weaponry has been successfully constructed at each country. So once the war begins. It will be hard for the Gastreas to capture the city due to the defenses that we built"

Muramasa said as both he, Emiya, and Asia arrived on top of the tall wall made from vibranium alloy, to keep all weaker Gastreas at bay so that they will only have to worry about dealing with demons and high-tiered Gastreas. Especially when 60% of the enemies army is made out of Tier I to II Gastreas.

"Since the humans and other factions are more focused on defending, it's better if add more Vibranium golems in each city. We can't answer any of their call for reinforcements during the war since were the one initiating the attacks on the enemy side. How is the situation at other countries?"

Asia asked while glancing at the hundreds of mana-imbued guns mounted on the wall as the first line of defense, where many of the humans will be stationed to defend the walls from the Gastreas that manage to climb their walls.

"Only America is left, Asia-sama. The rest of the servants have already scattered in that continent and it would take at least one month to finish the preparations. Also, the number of mythological creatures protecting that continent are little in number compared to other countries so the citizens would have to rely on themselves for the war"

Emiya answered causing Asia to frown.

"... It is also one of the countries where the borders are located so there are Gastreas and Demons occasionally attacking the city"

Emiya reported as Asia contemplated of their next actions.

The border, is the place that they marked with the most dangerous concentration of dimensional rift located at the main base of the enemy, and is also the home of the camps of the demons. That is why they enclosed it within large borders to at leasts delay their invasion of the lands under their control. Only countries like North Korea, America, Africa, and Europe have this so called borders located at their lands, and America being the one with the highest amount of dimensional rifts.

The forsaken faction are the one to take responsibility of the borders around the globe since they are the only one that could deal with Tier V and high-ranked Demons, and the borders are the main source of those monsters since only the dimensional rift at the borders are able to support the crossing of those monsters.

"Go and report this to Sephie. We'll focus on fortifying its defenses"

Asia said causing both Muramasa and Emiya to nod their heads in response before executing their temporary master's command.

"... It looks like we have no choice but to release the demonias during the war"

-with Lucias-

"Y-You... Why aren't you tired?"

Leorio asked as all of them ran together for hours, staring at Lucias, Erza, and Mordred who all had unfazed expression on their faces like they had a pool of unlimited stamina.

"I don't know, maybe it's because I have more stamina than you, Leorio-san"

He said while looking at Gon and a white haired boy ran together at the front.

"Leorio-san, Kurapika-san, we'll meet you up the finish line"

He said before picking up his space, causing his speed to increase as he immediately arrived beside Gon and the white-haired kid while Erza and Mordred followed him from behind.

"Lucias! Meet my new friend, this is Killua!"

"... Friend..."

The white-haired boy whispered before a light smile adorned his face.

"It's nice to meet you, Killua-san"

"Mn"

The boy nodded before the 3 of them heard someone collapse from behind, causing them to see Leorio kneeling down on the floor.

"Tch, weak bastard"

Mordred said as all of them stopped in their tracks.

"Weak"

Erza muttered causing Leorio to grit his teeth as he suddenly threw his coat at the side, leaving his suitcase behind.

"Shit! Don't look down on me!"

He shouted while staring at the petite figure of Mordred who didn't have a single trace of sweat on her body.

He then started to ran with all of his strength towards the front while Kurapika only smiled wryly while keeping his pace.

"There he goes... Do you two really had to provoke him?"

Lucias asked the two girls following him from behind as both Gon, Killua, and Kurapika increased their pace.

"Let's race to the finish line, Lucias!"

Gon shouted at Lucias who kept a steady pace from behind, causing Lucias to smile before stopping in his tracks.

"Mordred get on my back"

Lucias said causing Mordred to look at him with suspicion as Lucias grabbed Erza in his arms.

"Oy, you can't be serious, right?"

"Just hurry up and climb on me"

Lucias said as he forcefully placed Mordred's body on his back using [Psychokinesis] before pressing his right foot on the ground.

"Clench your teeth you two"

He said with a large grin on his face before kicking the ground, causing the ceramic floor to shatter into pieces as his body was propelled forwards at incredible speed.

-with Rimuru-

"Are you two sure that we should do this?"

Rimuru asked the two legendary dragons beside him with an uneasy expression on his face.

"Yes, Lucias is busy so this is the least that we could do for him"

Ophis said as her, Rimuru, Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and Great Red stood on top of a large mountain, staring at the rift in the soace above them connecting to the void.

"That man will owe me a favour after this hahahaha"

Gilgamesh said with a proud expression on his face with his Enkidu stood by his side.

"We're the only one in the faction that could hold our grounds from Trihexa. Lucias wants it alive so were counting on you two for this one"

Rimuru said before glancing at Enkidu and Gilgamesh since only the 2 of them, including him, was able to restrain the powerful beasts alive.

"It's been years since I last fought that guy"

Great Red said with a large smile on her face, staring at the rift above them in excitement.

"Hmmm..."

The 'creator' hummed while watching the 5 of them stare at the rift she created as preparation when Lucias come back, but she didn't expect for his fiancées to initiate in attacking the rift instead of waiting for Lucias to come back.

"... With their current strength... It is possible for them to capture the Apocalyptic Beasts... should I give them my aid to release it?"

She muttered while Hanna watched them innocently as she sat on her mother's lap.

"Since they are resolute about this decision... then I should provide them my aid... Death, protect them if the situation becomes out of hand"

The 'creator' said before turning her head towards the pale skinned woman watching the show besideher together with the rest of the primordial children except for Balance, Evolution, and Eternity.

"Let us see your capabilities, as my husband's fiancées"