Chapter Nine | Assessment

Once again I wake up to excruciating pain in my chest.

'It's getting worse each time.'

Slowly the pain dissipates and I get ready for the assessment. When I go out of my room I see that Eva's still asleep and go into her room. I kneel next to her and rub her head, but soon hear something in the back of my mind.

"Sleeping humans can't fight back."

A chill runs down my spine and quickly got away from her.

'That voice belongs to the demon that took over me.'

I went back to her and gave Eva a light shake, but when I was close to her I could hear my heart beating faster.

"Eva I'm leaving now." I tell her, "I'll see you soon."

"Bye Alex." Eva says, still half asleep, "I love you."

"Love you too." I tell her as I stand up, but she grabs my shirt.

"Please stay safe brother." She tells me.

"I will." I say, putting her hand back on the bed.

I leave the apartment and head to the Hunter Alliance Building.

When I arrived there were around 500 people there. I start looking for an uncrowded area to look through the < Market >. Since the first floor of the building was where everyone was, I went to a nearby alley.

'There is still an hour and a half till it starts so I should have enough time to look through the < Market > for better weapons. I don't know what we'll be going on in the test so I should be prepared.'

'< Market | "Daggers" >'

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===< Market | "Daggers" >===

< Iron Dagger | 100 Gold >

< Steel Dagger | 180 Gold >

< Orcish Dagger | 300 Gold >

< Dwarven Dagger | 550 Gold >

< Elven Dagger | 950 Gold >

< Glass Dagger | 1,650 Gold >

< Obsidian Dagger | 2,900 Gold >

< Dragonbone Dagger | 6,000 Gold >

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'I'm guessing the more expensive it is the better it is. I can get two < Glass Daggers >, but those might break when I use < Flaming Blade >. On the other hand, the < Obsidian Dagger > I can get one and it might give an extra buff with a fire < Skill >.

'< Buy "Obsidian Dagger" >'

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===< Market >===

---< Buy "Obsidian Dagger" >---

< Yes >

< No >

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'< Yes >'

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===< Market >===

---< "Obsidian Dagger" Bought >---

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'< Bag | Obsidian Dagger >'

I hold out my hand and the dagger starts materializing in it. The dagger is smooth, jet black with a luster covering it.

'I guess I can test out a skill while looking at this.'

'< Insight | Obsidian Dagger >'

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===< Insight >===

< Obsidian Dagger >

< Name: ---- >

< Weapon Type: Dagger >

< Damage: 100 >

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'I can name items?'

< Name "Obsidian Dagger" | "Valtari" >

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===< Name Change >===

< "Obsidian Dagger" - to - "Valtari" >

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'There.'

'< Insight | Valtari >'

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===< Insight >===

< Obsidian Dagger >

< Name: Valtari >

< Weapon Type: Dagger >

< Damage: 100 >

< ??? >

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'Naming it gave it a new feature, but I can't see it. Is my < Insight > too low?'

'< Bag | Valtari >'

The dagger starts to fade away and appears in the < Bag > screen.

I looked up and out of the alley and saw that someone was watching me. I quickly start going after them, but they mesh into the crowd.

'< Spectral Sight >'

'Fuck! Everything is just yellow!'

Suddenly a loudspeaker started going off.

"Hello, examinees! We will start the Hunter Assessment! Please grab your sheets if you have not already and head to the second floor, go into the room that correlates with your group!

'Damn it.'

I head inside and find the sheet that I filled out the other day, on the top right corner it has a stamp that says "Group C". I quickly head up to the second floor and go into the "Group C" room.

When I entered the room there were 19 other people in there.

'These are either my competition or my comrades.'

A TV turns on and there is a doctor from what it looks like about to tell us what's going to happen.

Then I notice it. The "Doctor" is Monica.

'Did she rig this?!'

"Ahem! The first phase of the assessment will be a physical examination. We will be testing your strength, seeing your abilities with weapons and magic, taking blood, among other things." Monica says.

Her saying "Taking blood" was a warning for me and why she was in charge of my group. She rigged this so I could pass or at least move on.

"I will be calling in by first names, little different from most examiners, but I can run this how I want." Monica says, "First: Alexander Kleave."

I walk to the door and go inside to the room Monica was in. When I opened the door I sped up a bit to get inside because I could feel so much fear and smell the blood of other participants. Once I got inside and closed the door, I slid down the door on to the ground and started laughing a little bit.

I could see Monica walking up to me and kneeling down. I could immediately hear the blood pumping through her body and stopped laughing, focused on the sound of her blood.

"M-Monica you need t-to get back a bit." I tell her as I slowly start convulsing from getting drunk on all the fear, "Just back up."

The combination of all the fear and the smell of blood was making my demon side take over, but luckily it wasn't the thing that would have me go on a rampage. I could taste blood in my mouth and felt my teeth being forced out, fangs growing in their place. This would be painful if all the fear wasn't here.

When I spat out my teeth, Monica pulled out a container and put my teeth in it. She then grabbed a vile and put the blood I spat out along with the teeth into it.

"Listen, I only came here because I'd like to make a deal with you." Monica says, "I want it, your blood, organs, and whatever else I can get my hands on. I know you can heal from drinking blood or eating flesh, so you wouldn't die from it if you continued to heal." She tells me, "You're quite the rare specimen, Demon."

All the joy I was getting from the fear vanished and I was scared myself because I'm not able to move right now. She could start dissecting me right now if she wanted and the only thing that could stop her would be that demon.

"Alexander you don't have to worry about that right now. I just want to make a deal now and when this assessment is over, come to that address and tell the phrase to the barista if you accept the deal." She says, "I'll give you a passing score and not report that you're a demon if you let me dissect you and take whatever I want."

Monica pauses.

"That reminds me, you have a sister. Eva was it?" She says.

'This bitch!'

My heart starts beating faster and faster. I could feel the blood starting to come up my throat.

'Calm down! If I lose control here, I'd be killed and Eva will be in danger too!'

I start coughing up blood and it's very slowly becoming black and boiling. I could feel the best wave of fear, besides Eva's, flow into me. It's coming from Monica.

Before < Metamorphosis > could take over, Monica stabbed me with a large needle and started injecting me with a drug.

The blood I was coughing up stopped turning black and returned to red, my heart rate was going down, and there was no trace of a demon in me. I even stopped feeding off all the fear.

I looked up at Monica and my fangs dropped onto the floor.

'I can't feel anything. Pain, fear, nothing. It's all peaceful.'

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===< System Locked >===

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'Does this mean I can't use the < System >?'

"I didn't want to use that because I don't know what the effects will be when it wears off." Monica says, "Listen, I may have gone too far with mentioning your sister, but you wouldn't accept it otherwise in my opinion. I didn't expect you to start going bezerk."

"I'll accept your terms." I tell her, having a hard time breathing, "Just leave her out of this. She doesn't know what I am."

When I accepted the deal, my body felt like it was electrocuted for a second. It didn't hurt at all, but in the back of my mind I felt the need to fulfill the deal with Monica, like it was now engraved into me to go through with it.

'Should have known that making a deal will force me to comply with it, that's something a demon must go through with.'

"After everyone has been evaluated the next stage will start." She tells me, "The second part of the assessment will be surviving a week in a portal. I would highly recommend staying away from people. When that drug wears off…. Nothing good will happen, I'll tell you that."

I start to stand up and Monica hads me some clothes.

'These are from my apartment!'

"I don't know if this is a threat or something, but don't go near my apartment again." I threaten Monica.

"It wasn't me." She says.

Zoe comes out of < Stealth > and I could see visibly that she was scared, but I couldn't feel her fear. I yearned to feel that fear, but I couldn't absorb it and it was chipping away at me.

"I'm sorry Alex!" She shouts, "I-I just thought you would need new clothes if you lost control!"

"It's fine Zoe." I tell her.

'She's a child, I can't get mad at her for this. She just wanted to help.'

When I was changing into the clothes Zoe got from my apartment, Monica watched the whole time. I could tell she was fantasizing about dissecting me and couldn't wait for after the assessment.

Something I could tell is that Monica was now stronger than me. I had lost all my < Status > gained from the < System >, yet even with the strength I had before meeting Liebe and training from the army, she was still more powerful than me.

When I finally got changed, I quickly got out of the examination room to escape Monica's gaze and entered what looked like a waiting room. I sat down on a chair in the back of the room and waited for the second part to start.

'< Character >'

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===< Failure >===

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'So I don't have access to the system. Then I also assume I can't access < Bag > either, so I won't be able to get to my weapons. This also means I would have to go against Monica's advice and get some help from someone and they might die.'