Episode 3: License Exam (2)

Upon hearing the sudden voice echo in his ears, Jace took a quick glance towards the direction of the sound, soon noting that a blonde-haired man was standing right beside him. "...oh. It's you. The noisy guy outside." At the sight of him, Jace replied unamusedly.

"...what?! Noisy?!" Landon cried out. "I'll have you know that I'm not noisy!"

"..." At the man's response, Jace only looked up and down at him, lazily nodding his head. "...uhuh."

"Bah! That's beside the point here!" Waving his hand to change the topic, his attention fell on Jace. "You didn't answer me earlier! Are you alright?! I know I may be strong, but you nearly fell off the stairs there! Did I bump into you too hard? Surely I didn't right? If you're hurt, tell me!"

"...huh?" As Landon began suddenly yapping, Jace was left awkwardly standing there, confused. "...yes? I'm alright...? There's nothing you need to worry about," he casually replied. "If there isn't anything else, I'll take my leave now."

"You're alright? Great! As the future 10th S-ranker in the country, it is my duty to ensure the safety of—" Before Landon could even finish his sentence, Jace casually walked away, leaving him behind. "What? Hey! Come back here! I'm not done with you yet!"

As Jace started walking further down the hall, Landon began frantically turning left and right towards the direction of the young man and to the registration counter beside him. He was left there indecisive, not knowing whether to catch up to Jace or to register first.

"Ugh...!" Annoyed at the situation, he hurriedly grabbed onto the piece of paper from the attendant, soon attempting to fill up the form as quickly as he could. "Alright! This should be it, yeah? Yeah?" Then, right after finishing up, he swiftly took out his ID and gave it to the attendant. "Here's my ID! So, there's nothing else, right? Then I'll be going!"

"...e-eh?" Before the attendant could even comprehend the spontaneous scene occurring before her, Landon disappeared in the blink of an eye. "I sure hope this isn't going to mean anything bad for the exam..."

...

Through the noisy hallways of the Hunter Association, Jace could be seen making his way towards the second floor of the building whilst a man was following close behind him.

"—so as I was saying! it's great that you're not hurt! Who would have known that after giving that awe-inspiring speech to my bros, I would somehow bump into you? It was unexpected! But I'm glad I didn't injure you, or it'd be too much trouble!" As soon as Landon caught up to Jace, he began talking once again. "Sometimes I can't control my strength, you know? But enough of that! What's your name, hmm? Oh right! I see you're participating in the exam too eh? As you can see, I'm participating in the exam as well!"

"..." No reply could be heard from Jace.

"Now, not to brag, but, you're looking at a future S-ranker here!" he rubbed his nose proudly. "So you should be honoured! What about you, hmm? Come on, answer me! You can't possibly be mute since you talked to me earlier!"

"..." Yet again, there was no reply from Jace.

"Well, since you're not answering, no matter! I'm Landon Von Davies, by the way! Since you're not going to tell me your name, I'll just call you... Mr Nothing to Say? Mr Quiet? Mr Lazy Eyes! Ah, that works!" Continuing to talk non-stop, the two men finally arrived at the waiting room, where they were greeted by a bunch of people idling around for the exam. "Now where was I? Ah! Since we're both taking part in the exam, why don't we help each other out, eh? I have some tips and tricks from known hunters on how to pass the exam with flying colours! Then there's also the upcoming—"

"...no need," Jace answered.

"Eh...?! No need?!" Landon cried out. "Are you that confident that you'll pass the exam? Hah, I like you already! So, what's your game, huh? What got you so confident?"

"..." After Jace's initial reply, there was now only total silence from him. The only thing that Landon could see was that Jace had taken out his phone, immediately going into Rankers War right after.

"Oh?! So you play that game, huh?!" Landon nodded his head. "So you're confident because you play Rankers War? What's your IGN? How long have you been playing?! You should add me!"

After entering the game, Landon began rapidly firing a bunch of questions towards Jace, but there was still no answer from him. It was only when he logged into the game, that he witnessed the sight of the MC on his home screen.

"WHAT?! You set the MC as your home screen?? How boring!!" Landon shouted out. "I'll have you know that I have Selene set as my home screen! You should be setting cooler characters on it to greet you when you enter the game! What's your team comp, huh? It must be trash!" As Landon peeked into Jace's phone, his eyes widened in shock. "HUH?! YOU HAVE SO MANY S-RANKERS??"

"Hey, would you shut up?! Some of us are trying to focus here before the exam begins!" A bystander, finally having enough of Landon's cry, shouted out. "Keep it down will you!"

"Ah...! O-Oops..." Landon coughed.

And so, Jace continued playing Rankers War, finally in peace while Landon sat there with folded arms, quietly watching Jace play. After a few minutes or so, a man in black walked into the waiting room.

"Hello, everyone," the man greeted. "It's 8:37 AM, and we will now begin the License Exam. The written exam will start first, followed by the physical test and then practical combat."

"Oh! It's finally beginning!" Landon excitedly said.

"...right." Contrary to the excited Landon, Jace sighed, already wanting to get the exam over with.

...

With the cue from the hunter associate, the people in the waiting room began following the man into the exam hall. There, Jace and the others were greeted by rows of empty seats, followed by a few pieces of paper on the tables.

The first segment of the exam was the written exam. Much to its name, it required the participant to answer a series of questions on paper, all on the topic of general knowledge of gates, abilities, guilds and how hunters typically go about their daily lives. For Jace, the exam was no problem to him, being one of the first to finish the test early.

Right after, the second part of the exam: the physical test, started immediately. Having finished early, the examiners brought Jace into a white room, where he was greeted by the sight of an orb and two other workers standing at the end of the room.

Unlike the exam's name, the test wasn't to evaluate the fitness level of the hunter. Rather, the purpose of the exam was to rank one's stats via the usage of an "Awakener's Analysis Orb", obtained from an S-ranked Gate clear.

The orb was a convenient tool to gauge and see the ranks of one's stats just by touching the item. As such, the physical exam was a simple test. It only took about 30 seconds to a minute per participant. By the time Jace wrapped up with this portion of the exam, the written test was still ongoing.

...

"Phew... That was easy." Jace stretched his arms, yawning as he exited the exam hall. "The practical exam should be next. So, I'll just head to the battle simulation room and..." As Jace was about to head towards his next destination, he was stopped by a man in black.

"...hmm? Where are you going? The waiting room is this way," the hunter associate called out to Jace.

"Huh? Waiting room?" Caught off guard by the man, Jace turned to look at him in confusion. "Aren't we supposed to go to the battle simulation room after finishing up with the physical test?"

The final segment of the License Exam was known as the practical combat examination. It was an exam where the examiners would put the hunter into a specialized battle simulation depending on their class, and they would then be tested on their combative abilities and combat sense based on the given scenario in the simulation.

"...battle simulation room?" The man raised his brow. "Did you not hear the news? That part of the exam is no more."

"...what?" Jace blinked at the man's words, confused.

"There have been some slight changes to the format of the practical combat examination," the man explained. "Rather than the usual simulation battle, the association unanimously decided on having you all spar against each other, in a tournament-style setting instead."

"...????" As soon as Jace heard the words coming out of the man's mouth, he was left utterly speechless. "But, I'm a Synergist though??"