Chapter 29: Genuine

August 3 Year 1,000 of the Mystic Calendar

After three whole days, the final test for the orphans finally ended and they head back to the Hunter Camp through teleportation point inside the fortress

The familiar training grounds graced themselves to Keon's eyes and he can't help but feel nostalgic. He might only be away for three whole days but these few days felt like years from him

For the whole duration that Keon is in another realm, he never lowered his guards in the fear of his death. His nerves were always tense. Not to mention the sudden turn of events when Gabe and Mady suddenly became his faithful subordinates made his mind exhausted

From what Keon learned, the Avatar of Death is one of the proof that he is their master. Although there are also a lot of other mystic forms similar to the one that Keon uses, it resonated with the blessings of the people like Keon and Mady

As for what they meant for the 'people' like them, Keon is completely clueless as they just won't say anything. Still, he can guess that they don't want to tell him all the things he should learn because of the 'bad thing' that happened in the past that is also a great source of shame for people like Gabe and Mady

No matter how much Keon wants to learn all the things he should learn, he can only do one thing and that is to raise his strength. Gabe said that this is not the right time yet and it would be better if he is clueless

Keon was also warned that if it isn't necessary, he shouldn't use his Avatar of Death when there are a lot of humans present. There might be mystic forms similar to his but it is still better to be cautious

For now, Keon can only trust them when they say that there are a lot of enemies lurking everywhere. This matter affects Keon's life and he won't easily dismiss that warning

Keon's group waited for a few hours but even after waiting for such a long time, too few of the other trainees in their batch returned alive

Aside from Keon's group of four, there were only two people that returned and both of them have ashen faces. Even if Keon doesn't ask them, he can still guess that they are the only ones that survive in their group

Even Keon won't feel good if any of his teammates die. They have only known each other for three months but they shoulder the training hell with each other. Not to mention, Keon is roommates is his team and although Gabe and Mady rarely speaks, he still has some interactions with them

Out of the twenty trainees, only six has returned, that is a death rate of 70% which is a ridiculously large number

After waiting for a long time, their supervisor Dante finally arrives. Seeing only 6 people returning, although he still has an expressionless face, there were still some concealed sadness in his eyes

Dante supervised these trainees for 3 months. Although he always looks down on them but he still watches them grow. But people like him have already experienced a lot of his comrades' death, this isn't something new for him anymore. Thus, Dante immediately recovered and started ridiculing the trainees again

"Oh? Our strongest team actually returned all alive. Say, did you rob the luck of the other teams?"

Despite Dante's irritating words, none of the trainees have the mood to rebut after seeing that only 6 of them returned alive

The other two besides Keon's team were clenching their first while looking at each other

With Dante's experience, he can already guess what is in their minds

"From this day on, you will either become a Hunter until you can't fight anymore or you will die. There is no backing out. If you don't want to be a Hunter then I don't have a choice but to kill you right here, right now "Dante harshly said and the courage that the two gathered immediately bursts like a bubble

The two felt that they can't bear the life of a Hunter and they want to quit. But just like what Dante said, they will die and it is not like it's easy to choose death. Thus, they can only cower in the corner in misery

"Now, I will explain some things to all of you. Since you survive, from now on all of you are Hunters. However, since you came from a lowly origin, unlike other Hunters, you can't quit whenever you want. You also can't change your department like the police or military unless there is a good reason. Also, unlike the other Hunters, the government will give you missions once a month that you won't be compensated. Treat of it as your way of paying for all the things the government gave to you after all these years of being orphans "

"Of course, we will also not mistreat you. Aside from what I said earlier, we won't let you do other things for free. Doing so will harm both you and humanity. After all, we also want strong mystics to be born from ordinary people to help humanity. If we exploit you too much, how can you even grow? "

"Now, give me the five energy cores. You won't be compensated for this but if you have other cores that are filled, we will buy it to you for the market price"

"In your future hunt, we won't charge you for the teleportation prices but in exchange, after you return, you need to give us two energy cores for every trip. Aside from that, if you decided to sell the things you gained from your trip, depending on your level, we will buy some of it for half the market price. Of course, we won't buy everything for half a price, as long as you fill the minimum requirements, the other resources you will sell to us will be bought the same as the market price. Don't think that we are exploiting you too much though. For every resource that you will sell to us, you will gain corresponding glory points that you can use to buy items that are not normally available in the market"

"I won't explain these things too detailed. I will send a file to your watch with this basic information. For now, go rest in your room. From tomorrow onwards, you will be sent back to the city you were born into. Since all of you are orphans who don't have homes, we will provide a 1-month free lodging. After a whole month, you can continue to rent rooms from us or choose to rent other apartments with better facilities "

After explaining what he needs to explain, Dante took the energy cores from the trainees and sent them back into their rooms. The three-day trip surely exhausted all of them and it would be better if they rest early

Keon, Mady, and Gabe started returning to their rooms but they realized that Nath was left standing there while clenching his fist hard to the point that veins were already popping in them

"Nath, what's wrong?" Keon asked with a frown

Nath turned his head to his friend and Keon was shocked at the angry expression on the man's face

"Those monsters .... they killed our friends. I forgot about that since we are busy dealing with our own dangers but after returning and seeing that less than half of us returned, I can't help but be angry on their behalf"

"Those people are the ones that we laugh, talk, and, eat with. But now, we won't be able to see them anymore. It makes me really angry and I want to kill all the monsters out there"

"I don't fear losing my own life but seeing this situation, I wonder if I can take seeing my future comrades die. I don't want them to die"

Keon was almost speechless by this. He forgot how soft Nath is. This man has a great sense of justice after all and he treated everyone around him as friends

However, Keon can't blame him much. Keon might not be as soft as Nath but his young heart was still affected. Keon knows that he has great ambition and there might be instances in the future that he will need to dirty his hands but he is still young and inexperienced

The death of those people also makes him a bit sad. If Nath was the one that died, he thinks that he will really be furious towards those monsters. Nath has become his best friend and he doesn't want him to die

However, what can Keon even do? Even he can't even defeat a mere projection of that masked man. What more if he encounters that masked man's real body and it really wants to kill him. He thought that he already gained some strength but he is still weak, too weak

Keon sympathized with Nath but what can he do? Keon can only walk towards his friend while patting his back

"If we don't want any of our comrades to die again, we need to be stronger. Stronger than any danger we will face. We should move forward, okay? After we return to Hone City, I will treat you with food to cheer you up" Keon said with a smile and Nath can feel some warmth in his heart

Nath doesn't know why but he felt that this is the first time that Keon treats him this genuinely