The receptionist is silently sighing inside her heart, she's getting a headache because of this single boy. He's either confident or stupid that he readily challenge a training instructor in the hunter association. Did he really think level 5 is high? Well, for his age, it's considered high, maybe that's the reason for his confidence.

After being guided by the receptionist, Ryu is now inside the training area of the building. Its space is much bigger compared to the arena that the school can provide, maybe it can fit ten thousand people inside it.

"So, where is he?"

"There he is."

To the end of her finger, there's a man with a bulky build and a thin black hair, based on his looks, it's a man who's in his forties. Noticing someone been looking at him, he's slowly approaching Ryu.

"Oh, what happens, Mia? Is there someone who needs training?"

'So her name is Mia', thought Ryu inside his head.

Shaking her head left and right, Mia continued to talk.

"Ah, it's not like that Rogue, this kid wants to take the test to get a card."

"Hmm? Are you sure about that kid?"

"Yes, sir."

Rogue's rubbing his chin, inspecting the kid with details.

"How old are you?"

"It's fourteen."

"As I expected, you're still too young, I bet you're a level five."

"Yes, but I need to get into the dungeon quickly, so please let me be assessed by you."

Considering what he should do, Rogue directed his head to Mia.

"Hmm, what do you think?"

"Why don't you agree with him? After all, it's your duty as a training instructor. Also, you can seal your strength, matching it with him."

"Well, I got the point..."

Thinking for a while, Rogue finally nods his head firmly.

"Okay! let's spar, kid."

Hearing that his request at last getting accepted, Ryu wears a smile on his face and replied firmly;

"Yes!"

After that, Rogue cast a spell to limit his level, and then the three of them go to the center of one arena to commence the testing.

"In this arena, you don't need to worry about death, we already cast magic in here. Every physical damage you take here will be transformed into mental damage, so you won't die, but you will get unconscious."

"I understand."

"Then..."

Giving a pause, Rogue gives out a smirk.

"Let's start the duel, shall we?"

When the duel officially begins, Ryu and Rogue didn't attack each other immediately. They're busy observing the other party with their eyes first. Charging without a plan or a knowledge about its enemies is pure stupidity that can cost your life.

Ryu is observing his enemies carefully, he's fighting against a swordsman, it's a class that he's really familiar with. The styles of swordsman actually differ on each individual. There's someone that prefers to use one-sword, or there's someone who uses a sword and a shield. Rogue has belonged to the former and also did Ryu in the past.

A one-sword swordsman is usually specialized in Strength and Agility points, they're fast, but because of that, they're not that tough compared to the swordsman who uses both sword and shield.

Looking at each other silently, Rogue decided to initiate a talk.

"Hoho, you're not going to attack?"

"Why? Charging at enemies who's far stronger than me, isn't that courting death."

Rogue already gives a point for Ryu after hearing this reply.

"I see, but don't forget that right now, I'm more or less equals to you, of course, in terms of stats."

"Hmm, okay, then!"

After finishing his talk, Ryu suddenly leaps and charges his way to Rogue. Seeing this, Rogue quickly readied his sword to counter Ryu's attack.

But expecting this kind of movement, just before the sword reaches Ryu, He suddenly spun around the sword, grabbing his dagger with a reversed grip and thrusting it to Rogue torso.

Not getting panicked over that, Rogue quickly kicks the ground with his foot, making the dagger can only scratch a little bit of his chest.

Looking at the graze at his clothes, Rogue readied his sword again.

"Fortunately, I didn't underestimate you. You're clearly not an ordinary Novice. Interesting!"

Giving a smirk, Rogue then dashes forward to Ryu. Now it's his turn to attack, he didn't hold back at all. Closing the distance, Rogue's instantly use one of his sword techniques.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Take this, Cross Slash!"

Rogue instantly swung his sword twice, forming an X-shape arc. This makes the attack to be hard to block his attack, and at the same time, making it impossible for Ryu to counter him.

Analyzing the situation, Ryu decided to not tackle this head-on and just quickly steps back to dodge Rogue's attack. He's familiar with his opponent style, so avoiding his offense is a simple matter. Still, he can't find an opening to attack at all. Rogue is really putting his guard against him.

"I'm not done, you can't escape from me!"

In an instant, Rogue, once again, closes his distance and executes another Cross Slash.

"Kuh, knock it out already, will ya!"

"You want me to lose my momentum? Like hell, I'll never let you do that!"

The match is really in Rogue's favor, Ryu's only capable of dodging his attack continuously. But, even while evading, he didn't lose his focus to look for an opening that he can make use to change the tide of the match.

The clash is really in its stagnant point. Although Rogue keeps attacking, the attack remains being dodged by Ryu swiftly. Of course, the energy needed to keep attacking is more significant than the energy required to keep evading. This difference makes Rogue's slowly but surely getting cornered.

Rogue's moves are slowly getting sluggish, and his attack is not as fierce and fast as before. Seeing this, Ryu focused face finally turns to a smirking one.

"Heh, finally, the moment I'm waiting for!"

Ryu slowly retracts his dagger from its place, waiting for an opening to be created. Before long, Ryu finally lets out a faint laugh.

"Sorry, I will win this one!"

Rogue's, at last, leaves an opening, not leaving this chance, Ryu then quickly charges forward while dodging the next attack that's much slower compared to the first attack. Ryu was griping his dagger with both of his hands, concentrating all of his strength for this one thrust.

Rogue can only curse himself toward this action.

"Shit! As I thought!"

Not being able to react in time, a clear sound of a dagger stabbed into Rogue's torso, and a loud scream can be heard. But, he's not unconscious yet, he tries to retreat first.

"You think I will let you!?"

Of course, seeing this, Ryu quickly shuts the distance between them and swiftly thrust his dagger at the exact same point as before.

"Gah, wh-what an extraordinary kid."

Grinding his teeth from the mental damage he took, Rogue's finally lost his consciousness. Meanwhile, Mia's who silently spectating the match between those two is confused by the scene unfolded before her. She clearly thinks that the momentum is still in Rogue, but a mere ten seconds is enough to make the tide turned upside down.

"W-what just happen exactly?"

Gasping for breath, Ryu then looks at the direction of the voice.

"Did I get the card now?"

"Ah, yes, but let me take care of Rogue first."

"Go ahead, I will wait for you guys in the hall of the association."

"Okay, we will go there immediately as soon as we have done with the treatment."

Getting permission from Ryu, Mia then ducks down in Rogue's side to tend to his fatigue. At the same time, Ryu also takes his foot toward the arena exit.

***

Ryu is now in the hall of the association, siting while continuing to sightsee the atmosphere of the association. Not too long after that, finally, two people can be seen coming out of the training area, moving toward his direction. Noticing those two figures, Ryu slowly rises from his seat and slowly approaching them.

"Did you feel better, Mr. Rogue?"

"Ah yeah, it's not that fatal when the restriction is removed."

Rogue waves his hand, shrugging off his concern.

"I see, that's good."

"Boy, what's your name?"

"Me? I'm Takazaki Ryu."

"I see, I'll remember that name."

Rogue nods his face to up and down, apparently noting Ryu's name inside his brain.

"Ah, yes..."

Ryu can only give a short reply in response to that statement. The air between them suddenly went awkward, can't stand this awkwardness, Mia decided to bring a new topic.

"I surely thought you gonna win, why did you suddenly lose so fast like that?"

Ryu then just smirks in response to the question while Rogue began to laugh so hard.

"I'm already lost in the midway of the fight."

Hearing this, Mia gets more confused instead.

"What? Didn't you the one who hold the advantages until that last ten seconds?"

Rogue then gives out a dry cough, out of embarrassment.

"Ahem, I already lost my momentum even before that. I've fallen into that boy trap, foolishly."

"Trap?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?"

Rogue points his finger toward the boy.

"What trap does he mean, Mr. Ryu?"

Catching something off, Ryu suddenly wears a shocked expression.

"What the hell with that sudden honorifics!?"

Mia sheepishly rubs her cheeks with her little finger.

"Well, you're considered a formal member of the association, after all, as the receptionist of the association, I should address you respectfully."

"I see, well, what He means by trap is that I let him have the upper hand in the battle."

Mia tilts her head after hearing the statements.

"Letting him have the upper hand?"

Giving a chuckle, Ryu then continued to explain his tactics.

"Yeah, the more he had his momentum, the deeper the trap becomes."

"So, the trap is the momentum itself?"

Cutting the conversation in, Rogue then replied;

"Well, you can call it like that."

"But why? Isn't that a good thing? I mean, to have momentum."

"Yeah, it's not bad at first, but to keep a momentum also means to keep attacking. Which will cost me a lot of energy compared to Ryu, who's just dodging."

"Then why don't you just stop your attacks?"

"It will leave me an opening for him to attack. Just like before."

"Why can you be so sure about that?"

Being asked so, Rogue starts to scratch his head with his hand.

"The moment I backed out, a bad thing will happen, my instinct told me so."

"I see..."

After fully understand what was exactly going on, Mia then slowly retracted her eyes from Rogue and took a glance at Ryu. Noticing her glance, Ryu stares back at her.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, Wait for a second."

Mia slowly taking her hands into her pocket and take out a card. The card is double-sided with a black as a base color followed by a few white stripes. Its design is simple yet elegant.

On the front side of the card is the name and class of the cardholder. There's also a chip in the rear side of the card with a function to identify he is the card owner or not, while the backside of the card is the Hunter rank written in a white letter. The Hunter's Ranks in the association differ from G, F, E, D, C, B, A, S, and finally SS rank.

A person can have its rank's upgraded by accumulating contribution points. It can be gained by exchanging a dungeon material through the association or also by participating in the association raid or event. The better the rank is, the more benefit and privilege can be gained from the hunter association.

After explaining all of this, Mia then points her finger toward the card.

"Now, press your thumb to this chip."

"Got it."

As Ryu pressing his thumb against the golden chip, it suddenly emits a faint glow before dimming out again.

"Now the owner of this card becomes yours. Every Hunter starts from G rank, so please climb your way up until the SS rank."

Completing the procedure, finally, Mia gives Ryu its card. Taking it into his pocket, Ryu then gives out a confident smile.

"Okay, you can count on me."

Hearing the bold reply coming from Ryu, Mia suddenly wears an awkward face.

"... That was a joke though, why can you be that confident..."

"Well, we don't know what gonna happen in the future, right? Cya."

Bidding them goodbye, Ryu finally leaves the hunter association building and heads toward the forest city dungeon. Meanwhile, small talk between Mia and Rogue has still occurred inside the association building.

"By the way, did you restrict yourself to level 5 too?"

"Of course not, It's level 1."

After listening to Rogue's reply, Mia lets out a deep sigh.

"I see, of course, you will lose, you give him too much handicap. Even if you have a great technique beating level 5 novice with level 1 novice is still hard."

Seems to be misunderstood, Rogue's then makes another statement while clearing his throat up.

"It's level 1 veteran..."

"..."

The silence continued for a bit, and suddenly a loud "Ehhhh" can be heard coming from the hunter association building.