"How?" Tiff asked.

"Let's go to the library early tomorrow morning. They have computers there and we can search on how to become one." Joey said. "I'm sure someone figured it out by now."

Tiff nodded as she wiped her tears away. "Yeah, let's go."

Ever since then, they would go to the library to know more about hunters and aretisites.

They read as much research papers on aretisites as much as they could.

From what they all read, there were few things scientists agreed on about aretisites.

First, every aretisite have at least one star somewhere on its body. The max star an aretisite was ambiguous, but there was a hunter who had awakened to a 5-stars aretisites in America.

Thus, they concluded that the max was 5-stars.

The studies showed that aretisites with more stars have higher strength compared to the lesser one.

However, this was not always the case. There were aretisite with higher stars with little to no battle strength, but its ability was more bizarre.

Second, aretisites fall under certain categories depending on their abilities.

The research papers noted that many of the aretisite will fall under these categories such as debuffer, buffer, cleanser, immunity, utility, and more.

For example, Maina's aretisite, Howling Dog, induced fear would fall under the category, debuffer.

Or Terry's aretisite, Bellow Eye Blade, would belong to the armament category since the aretisite can change itself into a weapon.

Some aretisites can belong in more than 1 categories, but those were more common when aretisites have more than 2-stars on its body.

Then there were aretisite that did not fall in any of these categories. It was because of their uniqueness and strangeness of their ability.

There was very little to none information about this type of aretisites but there were rumored that they do exist.

The third conclusion was that aretisite needs a living host to survive. If not, they cease to exist and it was impossible to preserve the aretisite's remains thereafter.

The aretisite feeds on the nutrient of there host. Some aretisite feed on the host blood, while others feed on their fats. What it feeds on depends on the aretisite.

Hunters could obtain more than one, but they can easily overburden themselves and would be sucked dry from their aretisites and die if they were not careful.

There was also evidence that aretisite can affect people personality the more stars the aretisite had, but there were not enough studies involve in that area to reach a conclusion.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Joey, did you find anything in becoming a hunter, yet?"

"Nothing much, but a lot of information about aretisites. Also, it seems to be a lottery on who will have a sigil appear, thus, becoming a hunter. Even if someone normal like us do manage to get an aretisite, we will die after a few weeks..." Joey sighed.

There was a correlation between sigil and aretisite, but no one had figured it out yet. When the sigil on the hunter's body was inspected, it seems like an ordinary birthmark or tattoo. Although many knew that there were more it than that.

Frustrated, Tiff suggested an idea she read on a forum. "How about we prayed to god? I read it somewhere that if you pray every day, god can grant you one." Tiff pointed out.

"I also read you can sacrifice a goat to the devil to get one too." Joey rebutted sarcastically.

He did not believe in such an answer like that. But it was suspected that Tiff would say something along those lines.

The orphanage they were raised in was heavily religious and many were taught young.

"At least try it if nothing else works." She mumbled as she pouted at Joey.

"Ok, whatever, we try it tonight. What else we have to lose..."

"Yay!" She hugged Joey quickly.

Joey felt his face was heating up and was trying to push her away. "Ok, I got it. Let go"

"Hehe," Tiff made a wide smile.

Joey sighed once more before deciding to go home. Even after their research, they felt that it was impossible to become a hunter simply by wanting to become one.

Another week past, then months, then a whole year.

Many of the orphanage kids slowly forgot about Lyden. He was hardly ever mentioned again except about for a few. The two housemothers had forgotten about Lyden before anybody else.

Tiff and Joey still were not able to find any possible way to make a sigil appeared, so, they decided on a different approach.

Now that they were 18, they decided to join the Hunter Raid.

Although they were not hunters, the Hunter Raid would train civilians to become soldiers to enter the towers with the hunters if needed.

Joey and Tiff had recently graduated from high school and was ready to sign up to join the Hunter Raid.

"Joey, let's go to the recruitment center in town for the Hunter Raid," Tiff said.

Over the past several months, she exercises every day alongside with Joey. Her physique was more toned and tan than ever before.

Joey became muscular compared to his skinny self from last years. They both have trained hard to get into the Hunter Raid.

They were aiming to be soldiers that assist hunters inside the towers.

They heard that soldiers of the Hunter Raid do not use guns since it was not possible to carry one inside. So instead, soldiers rely on weapons made from monsters' parts.

It was the next best thing fighting against monsters beside aretisites.

The two arrived at the recruitment center that was built next to the tower.

There was a long line of young men and women wanting to join the Hunter Raid.

They had no choice but to wait under the smoldering heat.

"That is the tower that Lyden went to." Tiff stared at the tall black tower. She heard the news about this tower long ago.

It was considered safe for the most part yet mysterious.

A tower with no monsters.

Inside there, an endless amount of trees in the shade of purple and nothing more.

This tower was the only one of its kind so far. All the other towers had monsters roaming everywhere inside the tower.

For a year now, many hunters tried to reach the end of the forest yet none of them could.

Even more, quite a few hunters went too far and could not find there way back. All attempt to find them was a total failure.

No traces of them were ever found. In the end, they were presumed dead just like Lyden.

However, that did not stop the hunters from entering the tower.

Since the barrier was needed to be kept up at all time, hunters were sent in periodically.

Many 1-star hunters signed up for this tower since it was considered safe.

It was also the best place for recruits to experience what it was like inside the tower as long as they do not wander deep inside the forest without supervision.

"Yeah, The Quiet Purple Tower," Joey responded.

This was what the hunters called it due to the quiet nature of the purple forest.