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HE = Hunter Exam
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As the voice sounded from the speakers in the room, everyone began to get a bit more nervous. It was like being called up to speak during a presentation.
Oftentimes, the walk up to the podium was worse than the actual speech itself, simply due to the negative self-beliefs that some people tended to hold of themselves.
Whispers began to grow into wispy murmurs, spreading through the room as tension built.
'Ah~~ what sort of situation have I gotten myself into? Jeez...' Sin said in his mind, shaking his head inwardly.
Suddenly, he felt a hand touch the top of his head. 'Huh!?' He looked up, 'Did he catch me?' His eyes opened wider with shock.
A large, fat face looked down at him. From Sin's angle, it looked like a ball of clay with a small face drawn in the middle.
An obese woman was caressing his hair, smiling out of nowhere, "I didn't know you fancied me... but this is a weird way of introducing yourself. You could have just said you liked me instead of leaning into me. But... I like shy men too." The fat woman, who was likely in her late thirties, gave a cute smirk—or at least attempted to...
In that moment, Sin nearly passed out. However, with an iron will of resolve, he forced his mind to not give up.
Time seemed to slow down as he screamed, "Nooo!" and backed up as fast as possible, thinking in his head at lightning speeds: 'Because of my fear of getting caught by the douche on my right, I forgot there was another person on my left and leaned into them like some sort of fucking weirdo!'
He leaned back so fast with horror-fueled chills crawling up his back that the back of his head swung at Dreli's face with full force.
The speed was too immense, and despite Dreli's eyes widening with shock and dismay, Sin's head slammed into his nose, crushing it again and knocking him out on the spot.
Sin turned, "Ah--fuck!"
Others in the room turned to look at what was going on. It all happened out of nowhere and it was so out of place that everyone glanced at Sin.
"What was that for!?" The fat lady on his left exclaimed, leaning toward Sin.
"Get away from me!" Sin screamed, standing up and walking backward away from both Dreli and the fat woman.
"Everyone! Please enter through this door." A lady opened a door that was located opposite the entrance, "This is the way to the Hunter exam."
Hearing this, Sin immediately turned and beelined towards the door.
Everyone else shortly followed after him, but the golden-haired guy was the one who happened to be right behind him.
"Hahaha." A small peal of chuckling came from behind Sin's back.
Sin turned, noticing the golden-haired guy. 'What does this guy want now?'
"That was funny..." Golden-hair said under his breath, walking forward with his hands in his pocket and his strides long and confident.
Sin had been so distracted by what had happened that he hadn't even paid attention to where he was walking.
The door the lady in the waiting room directed everyone towards led to what looked like a dark basement made of stone bricks.
There was no light except for a single lantern on a pillar in the middle of the chamber.
Everyone made their way inside. Dreli was carried by none other than the fat woman, as she felt his injuries were somewhat her fault and couldn't help but feel bad.
'Poor guy got hurt due to my blinding, and sometimes even shocking beauty, it seems. Tsk... I can't believe that guy attempted to flirt with me first and then run away. Playing hard to get, I see...' She thought to herself, smiling.
For some reason, Sin felt chills crawl up his back again. Shrugging that off, he carefully surveyed the room around him. It truly looked completely empty. Apart from dusty barrels and broken crates, there wasn't anything inside.
The only thing of note was a large door at the back of the room.
The lady from the waiting room had also entered the chamber, and after everyone else arrived inside, she began to speak:
"If you all look behind you at this moment," Before she could even finish, everyone already turned, "You will see that we just came through a portal."
Behind everyone, the door they had just passed through looked like a TV screen floating in mid-air. It had a white outline, and inside was the bright waiting room in contrast to this dark dungeon they were in.
The portal slowly closed, leaving nothing but the lantern to create light.
"Usually, our exams would be held in the guild building itself. However, due to differing circumstances," The lady's eyes glanced near Sin. Specifically, slightly behind him, "We have moved this exam to another location."
The lady continued, walking toward the large door in the back as everyone followed her.
"This is the Center Ring. Solstar's coliseum, some may call it. Although, it's not really a coliseum. It's a small arena, where fight venues are quite common. At the center of the city, it is the town's main attraction. Today, the Hunter Exam will be held here."
'Hmm...' Sin mused, 'The Hunter Exam itself, at least from what I've heard, never changes. It's a series of tests conducted on examinees to see what they are capable of and graded accordingly. However, I've never heard of a location swap.'
The lady opened the massive door. It creaked loudly as warm winds rushed through and brushed against everyone's faces.
"Please... enter through here." The lady stood to the side, gesturing for everyone to go in.
'I guess that's where she stops.' Sin mused for a second as he led the way into a long, dark, and extended corridor.
At the end was a bright light that cascaded about 20 feet into the tunnel. However, the tunnel itself was about 100 feet long, so most of it was still dark.
There was nothing but silent footsteps on dry stone bricks for several seconds.
Before, finally, Sin walked into a large opening. It was a large, flat area. Probably close to 200 feet in size and width, and shaped like a complete hexagon.
The floor was made of tiled stone bricks in hexagonal patterns, clean, unlike the ones inside of the corridor they were just in.
The sides of the hexagonal arena were long walls extending 20 feet up. At the top edge was a barrier, a railing of sorts.
Surrounding the railings were already a few dozen people. Walking around and talking amongst themselves while some viewed the arena down below.
There would usually be many more people here, but since it was a Hunter Exam, only a select few individuals were allowed to attend.
Sin had no clue who these people were, but since they were here, he imagined they played a part in something.
After all, usual Hunter Exams would have no crowd or anything like that. So the 'differing circumstances' the Hunter Guild lady was talking about, the reason why the exam was moved to this arena, and all of these exam observers were connected somehow.
Paying not much more mind to that, Sin looked at a tall man wearing green robes walking back and forth in the center of the arena.
"Finally! You rascals have arrived... argh... making me wait a lifetime, damn guild workers. Ya' don't think I want to spend my free time doing other things!" He roared into the air.