"No way! Are you crazy? You want me to sign your death sentence? You already narrowly escaped it by a hair once; there's no point in going back to the Association if you don't have to."

He eyes me and Ember up and down.

"Plus, are you guys even ranked up? One of the requirements for entering that exam is hitting level 500. Based on the near non-existent mana readings I feel coming off you, I think you'd be killed off in the first combat round of the exams."

He shakes his head with disapproval, but I reply with a shrug.

"I didn't ask if you thought I was strong enough. I just want you to get me into the exams."

He looks at me again and hesitates before responding.

"No, there's still no way. Even if you have a death wish, don't drag me into it. They'd most definitely recognize you and see through any appraisal-blocking items you own. The instant they realize who you are, and I'm the one who recommended you, my head is on the line here too. There will be multiple A-Rank proctors, it's impossible—"

He stops mid-sentence as I use my conceal skill along with my cloak to change my outfit, face, and even allow a small aura of mana similar to that of a level 500 hunter to make the disguise even better.

"Nothing is impossible..."

His mouth is left open as his aura goes through me, trying to piece together what just happened and see through my disguise while Bri lets out a chuckle.

She interjects.

"I can get them new Hunter IDs this week. I'm sure there are a few C-Class Association workers that went missing over the last few weeks out in one of the other regions. It won't be too hard to borrow a few identities for the exams."

Rodrigo nods and murmurs to himself.

"You're right... It's possible."

He continues looking at Ember and me for a few seconds, sending wave after wave of mana through us, but his expression only gets more confused.

"What is this? I can't see through it. What kind of concealment item is this? It even suppressed your mana control before..."

He pauses, then shakes his head, snapping himself out of confusion.

"No way, it's still a no. Just because you've managed to block my eyes with some A-Grade item doesn't mean you'll be able to fool all the proctors."

He shakes his head again, and I believe him this time.

It's true.

I may be able to conceal myself from those at a lower level than me and those that do not use any Qi-based power, but the holder of this Sun God's Curse mark will be able to see my true form... I'm almost sure of it.

A telepathy link opens between Ember and me as I continue to ponder this point. Even more so than me, if he were to come to the exams with me, a dragon in human form would stick out far more than just a hunter with Soul Energy.

He speaks through the link.

"If you're worried about our presence being seen by other Soul Energy users, I believe I am strong enough now to make an artifact capable of hiding us from those wandering eyes... However, it will take time. A lot of it."

I raise an eyebrow, wondering what kind of artifact Ember has in mind that can block a Soul Energy user's perception.

"Will the month leading up to the exam be enough?"

"I'm not sure, but if this is the only chance we have, I will make it work."

I smirk and nod, cutting the link and speaking out loud again to Rodrigo.

"Fine. If you don't believe me, how about we spar? If I win, you'll get us a spot in the upcoming B-Class exams. If I lose, we'll get out of your hair and stop causing you any trouble."

He grins on the spot and starts to laugh out loud.

"Now we're talking. This is all it'll take to get you to give up on this? Deal. How about I take both of you on, just to give you a fighting chance? If either one of you can manage to stay upright for a full minute while fighting me, I'll get you both into the exams. How about that?"

I smirk and stand to my feet, putting out a hand for him to shake.

"Let's do it, right now. There's a dungeon right downstairs in the black market."

He shakes my hand and turns his head to the clock on the wall.

"Sounds good to me. I have to get leaving soon anyway, might as well show you what the true power of an A-Ranked Association Hunter looks like before I go."

All four of us stand from the couches and walk toward the spiral stairs, heading down into the black market to walk toward the small underground dungeon hub.

To not be recognized, Bri hands out small concealment rings and we don't talk much on the way over, but the moment we hop into one of the less crowded lower-grade dungeons and find a flat untouched area of grassland in the back of one of them, the rings come off.

On our way through the dungeon, we agree to the terms of our fight. A 60-second sparring match. If either Ember or I are still standing by the end of it, we win. If anyone surrenders, the other party wins. Either party is allowed to use any gear or weapons they wish.

Rodrigo decides not to use any, so Ember and I decide to hold off on weapons too but I mention that I'll most likely be testing out a sword later in this battle.

Bri stands far away on top of a steep hill to watch, holding a small digital stopwatch.

"The fight will begin once the first punch is thrown."

Rodrigo faces off against myself and Ember, speaking up while placing his fists in front of him.

"Don't hold back. I want you to aim to kill. I have a unique skill that allows me to respawn in the exact same form and place I last slept twice per waking cycle. Not that you'll land a finger on me, but I thought I might as well let you know because I don't want you to limit yourselves."

At these words, I do remember him sharing an item with a similar effect during the C-Class exams. He gave out a charm for everyone to wear that allowed them to respawn after death with their body and memory intact.

It is a very overpowered skill... With something like this, the fearlessness he has going into battle is exactly what an A-Ranked fighter needs. No wonder he rose the ranks in the Association so far, and it makes sense why someone would want a tight leash on him.

However, just like all mana-based skills, if a hunter does not have access to the system, or their MP is too low, it cannot be activated. So, his offer to go all out would make sense for the perception of the weak hunter I'm showing him, but if I really went all out, it wouldn't end well, I'm sure of it.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Ember looks at me, and I shrug, putting my hands up and speaking to him through our link.

"Go easy, and not just instantly send him back to his respawn. Let's win this, but at least do it by surviving the full minute to run some tests and see what kind of fighter he is."

Ember laughs out loud, severing the link and putting his fists up too.

"I'll try my best."

We both lunge forward and the clock in Bri's hand starts to count down from 60.

Rodrigo runs forward too, with bright white glowing fists and blinding speed.

I see the air ripple behind him as he doesn't wait at all to activate his first ranked-up buff [Hand of the Illusionist].

Dozens of copies of him start to trail behind his original body and spread out as we get closer to each other, creating a mirage-like effect of us being surrounded by lifelike images of him.

It would be very confusing, if I couldn't see straight through it with the Soul Energy floating through my eyes.

Both Ember and I still play along and dodge and weave through all of the punches of the illusions until we make our way close enough to his real body.

Rodrigo doesn't hold back at all.

His fully charged light magic fist comes rocketing toward me, and I move my right arm in the way to block.

An echoing crack sounds through the dungeon as my forearm stops his fist in place.

The shockwave dissipates all of his illusions and he jumps backward with wide eyes and a smile.

"You blocked my punch. Not too bad actually... I underestimated you. How about your friend?"

He runs at Ember to my right side and throws a similar punch, only to have the same echoing shockwave of rippling light magic flow through the dungeon.

He comes at us with even more speed and power next, throwing multiple punches and kicks per second while we block them effortlessly and follow his patterns while the 1-minute clock ticks down.

Bri's voice calls out from high up on the hill.

"Fifty seconds left!"

At this, Rodrigo's punches and kicks get faster and the mana imbued into them are far more extreme.

His power is impressive, and his baseline mana control is on par, if not even higher, than Fisher and Lydia's.

He's a legit fighter that could take out 39th-floor labyrinth monsters with mana alone.

The demon cores significantly increase his stats, but the items he wears could be optimized more.

Ember and I increase our own power output the further he pushes his.

"Forty Seconds!" Bri yells.

His speed and power reach heights that are nearing his max, and he starts to get agitated.

"Impossible! How are you keeping up with me still? Your speed, power, your mana control, it's rising..."

He starts activating his [Hand of the Illusionist] mid-stride, sending out dozens of copies as we're about to attack again, and we ignore them, weaving through the copies to finally land hits of our own on Rodrigo.

The punch I throw would easily have broken through the hard outer shell of the sand worms on the 38th floor and possibly even killed an Elite Minotaur on the 39th.

However, he takes it head-on and is pushed backward by the blast of his mana shielding breaking.

"Thirty More Seconds, halfway there!" Bri calls out as the dust and debris clear.

"Fine, I'll show you my ranked-up form. You two are strong, stronger than I assumed. You would actually stand a good chance in surviving the B-Class exams, but I won't risk my own life on that gamble."

His body glows white and grows about 2.5x in size into an armored warrior made of pure light magic. It holds two long white blades of light in each hand and gives off a pure white aura. It is definitely his second ranked-up buff [Ultimate Attack Form of the Light Warrior], but I don't intend for him to use this for long.

We run forward at its form and I coat my arms in far denser mana than I was using before.

Ember does the same and we begin trading blows back and forth with the enourmous white knight.

Its energy blades collide with our shielded arms and we punch back, sending the light magic user backward to his utter surprise.

"Only twenty seconds remain!" Bri's voice echoes through the battlefield.

At this warning, Rodrigo gets serious and takes a moment to step back and combines the white light magic swords into one thick blade.

He holds an enormous glowing white sword in the air that hums with mana and makes everything around us ripple and wave. The air itself looks like it's about to melt.

It twists and turns and the figure is surrounded by a flash of blinding white light.

At the same time, nearly a hundred more blinding flashes of light fill the dungeon as the illusion of more knights fills my vision.

I stop in my tracks and turn to Ember while pulling my new [Dark Emperor's Blade] out from my inventory.

"Let me handle this one. I believe the fight will be over shortly. I want to test out my new weapon... There's more than enough targets to try it on here."

It feels extremely heavy in my hands. It's mass is still equal to the 100m long Lich King's scythe it was crafted from. Black waves of dark magic ooze out from the sword meant for war.

One of the most interesting traits of dark magic is its ability to negate all mana-based attacks. I imbue more dark magic into the blade using my superior dark summoning skill and it gushes more and more with the black energy.

Mana from the dungeon floor beneath my feet is being ripped away and sucked into the blade the longer I hold it.

I lunge forward as Ember steps back.

Every illusion of the Light Warrior I pass is engulfed by the darkness of my sword.

One by one, they're all swallowed away into a void of darkness as I creep closer to the real body of my attacker.

He swings his sword my way, and all I do is raise my black blade to block; I don't even attempt to swing this weapon.

The instant the light sword gets within rage of mine, I feel its attack power growing weaker.

Mana is being drained from my own body to power this special effect, but it is negligible compared to the amount I can plunder from the dungeon below me.

Rodrigo is caught in my trap.

His weakening white blade against my mana-eating black sword stands no chance.

"Ten seconds! Ten seconds left!" Bri yells as the entire white manifested sword is sucked away into my blade, and the outer shell of the white armor starts to fall into it too.

My eyes widen as I feel the black blade's hunger for power and energy grow by the second.

It drains more mana from me the longer I hold it, and eats away all of the mana fueling Rodrigo's attacks the longer he's near the blade.

All I did was block his strike, and these are the catastrophic aftereffects.

Excitement grows inside me as I watch the entire white suit of armor sink into my weapon and disappear, dismantling his ranked up buff in seconds and leaving Rodrigo without a drop of MP remaining, standing right next to the black sword.

Without any magic to take, the blade turns its attention to the dungeon itself, and continues using power being channeled through my body.

The floor around me indents as dungeon mass begins to drain away from the orb of darkness that starts to surround me.

I feel the immense power growing more and more, and realize this is just the beginning. If I gave it enough energy, this entire dungeon could be negated and collapsed...

At this realization of its true power, I open my item storage and try to let go of the sword to let it fall inside.

However, my hands stay tightly grasped around the handle, like an invisible wave of gravity is holding them in place to siphon more power through me into the sword.

I don't hesitate to slice both of my hands off at the wrists right above my gauntlets using a string of dense mana and let the blade fall into my item storage.

It is an eerie power. The longer I hold that blade, I have a feeling the harder it will be to let go of it. Its sentient nature feels similar to my Flame Emperor's Sword the first time I tried to control it but wasn't strong enough to do so yet. This time it feels a bit more ominous.

The growing black aura dissipates the moment my sword disappears, and I regenerate my hands while retrieving my rings and gauntlets back from my item storage.

Rodrigo jumps backward while absorbing mana in the atmosphere while putting his shielding back up and stares at me with a dazed expression.

"W-What the hell was that?"

It's clear I legitimately caught him off guard for a moment. He knows it too. If I was really aiming to kill, that would have been the time to do so.

I shrug and a voice rings out from the hilltop, "Five more seconds!"

Before I can respond, it's as if a serious switch has been turned on and the air pressure in the battlefield changes...

Rodrigo's mana has almost fully restored itself now after that unexpected event and a golden glow shimmers in his eyes.

"You got lucky, but lost your chance. It doesn't matter. Whatever that was, no fancy enchanted items will save you from this. I didn't want to use this, but it's my only hope at taking both of you out before the time is up."

The golden Soul Energy around his neck begins to expand and his eyes glow golden as the power spreads over his whole body and he lunges forward at me.

His eyes dart back and forth from me to Ember, already calculating his next move to end the battle here and now.

I smile and let dark red tendrils of energy flood out from my core to cover my arms and block his incoming golden shimmering punch.

The impact of his fist on my forearm sends both of our Soul Energies flying through the air in an explosive collision.

I'm thoroughly surprised by the power of his blow.

Even when using a fairly dense level of Soul Energy, I'm thrown backward through the air.

However, so is he at about the same speed. Both of our faces show expressions of mild shock.

I assumed his power would be similar to the 6th or 5th ranked Dark Guards.

However, there are small fragments of golden light left behind in my Soul Energy even 30 meters away after being blown back from that blast. It eats away at my Qi and mana stores, but there isn't much residue left on me so I overpower it quickly.

The same goes for Rodrigo, dark red Soul Energy is left behind in his aura after he's hit by the blast, and even though it's strong, the overwhelming amount of golden energy that floods out from him manages to disintegrate the residue I left behind.

If I were to gauge his strength now just based on our first exchange of punches, his Soul Energy is similar to the 2nd Ranked Dark Guard. Maybe even stronger...

We both look down at the contact points in awe at the other's strength, then a final yell comes from on top of the hill watching over the battle.

"That's it. Time is up! The winners by timeout are Jay and Ember! No more fighting you three, the spar is over!"