Ari was pretty tall for a girl, taller than the average man at least. Her hair was a dark brown with flecks of blue at the ends, another subtle sign of her water affinity. Having picked up mana manipulation at a young age, she was more physically strong than most of her peers. This didn’t necessarily show in her muscle size, but was evident in their tone and density. If a fight were to break out right now between Redd and Ari, you could say with certainty that Redd would lose.

He didn’t have to worry about that, though. Ari had always had a gentle temperament; it was in her nature to be kind and caring to everyone—she even disliked the idea of killing monsters to some extent.

Redd had fond memories of Ari coming to sit with him while he ate alone, back when he first moved to Sector 9.2 as a young boy. He didn’t speak to her for a while, and they would sit and eat in silence. Each day she would return and sit a little closer to him until, eventually, she struck up the courage to ask him his name.

“Gran calls me Reddforth, but I like to be called Redd.”

“Hello, Redd. My name is Ari. It is very nice to meet you finally. Would you like one of my apricots?” The young girl reached into her bag and pulled out a fruit Redd had never seen before. It looked like a plum but was a strange off-yellow color.

“What’s that?” he said with a confused look on his face.

“It’s an apricot, silly. You don’t have these where you come from?”

The more he thought about it, the more he realized he didn’t know very much about his new home. In fact, he didn’t know anything.

“What’s it taste like? Is it like raisins? I don’t like raisins. Gran says they are just like grapes, but she’s wrong. You can’t trust her with food—she’ll say anything to get you to eat something!”

Ari started to chuckle, and before long, it evolved into a full-on laughing fit. “It’s nothing like raisins, Redd. It’s sweet and tangy and oh so yummy. Would you like to try a piece? I promise you will like it!”

This was the start of their friendship. Each day, they would eat lunch together, Ari would show Redd more about his new home, and in return, she would get a good laugh out of him for being an unintentional goofball. Eventually, lunch turned into after school, and then before school, until it got to the point where they were never separated.

Ari’s parents didn’t seem to mind. It was clear to them that Redd was a lonely boy who didn’t have anyone else, and Agnes loved her.

“Always wanted a little girl, I did, Ari. Never had one, you mind, but a woman can dream.”

“Gran, please, you’re embarrassing me.”

Turning bright red in the face, he dragged Ari out of his house for the hundredth time after being embarrassed by Agnes.

To this very day, Ari and Redd were still joined at the hip. For a long time now, a worry sat in the back of Redd’s mind: that maybe Ari would be selected to go to Central, or maybe he wouldn’t be good enough to join her as a hunter or craftsman. Since having this thought, he had dedicated extra time to training, going over the basics again and again. He would train until his fingers blistered and he collapsed from exhaustion, day in and day out. He would spend at least one hour each day trying to manifest his affinity, but neither Earth nor Water responded to him.

Every free moment was dedicated to training. It wasn’t like he had much else to do.

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As of late, Ari had become a lot busier. Both of her parents were well-respected imbuement specialists within the Craftsman Guild. Since showing her water affinity a few years back, they had taken extra time with her to give her additional training. It was expected that she would develop a water affinity, as both of her parents were water affinity holders. Her mother had already reached Low D core, which for a bronze gate dungeon was an impressive feat of its own. It wasn’t impossible that she could have ended up with another affinity, just very unlikely.

Her paternal grandfather held an especially strong earth element, so there was some disappointment when her father took on a water affinity. However, this was immediately dismissed when it came to his core assessment, and it was discovered that his core was a high F grade at 17.

Due to her parents' prowess and her strong bloodline, it was to be expected that they would try to nurture her skills to give her the best start in life, as well as as many opportunities as they could.

As they walked towards the meeting point for their physical test, Redd finally plucked up the courage to bring up his worry to Ari. He had planned to show her how much he had improved physically today, but something at the back of his mind was forcing him to do it sooner.

“Hey, Ari. I, erm, wanted to ask, what are your plans after the assessment? Once we are assigned our core types and density, what do you want to do?”

Ari slowed down her pace and turned to look at Redd. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but it looked like she was examining him thoroughly.

“Well, to be honest, I don’t know yet. My parents both want me to come and work with them in the imbuement house, and I’m sure being a hunter would be fun as well. I just haven’t decided yet.”

They continued to walk in silence for a moment before she continued.

“I’m not really sure I’d like to go to Central either. I know people say that it’s a different world full of riches and luxury, but I’d trade all that happily to be with the people I care about.”

A selfish smile came across Redd’s face, as at least his biggest worry was put to rest. Ari noticed this and immediately flipped the script on him.

“And what about you, Reddforth? What do you plan to do? Will you go to Central if they pick you?”

While at first he thought this was a joke, it quickly became clear that she was being very serious and expected him to answer.

“They won’t pick me, Ari, come on. I don’t even know what my affinity is yet. Let’s not even start to talk about the fact that I can’t manipulate mana yet, even after all the lessons we’ve had.” He proceeded to kick a stone while staring at the ground, unable to look Ari in the face as he continued. “Listen, I’m not even sure if I have an affinity at this point. I don’t know what affinity my parents had, and Gran won’t tell me. Don’t get me started on Gran. With my luck, I’ll end up with her pure affinity and have to spend the next ten years trying to manipulate mana.”

It was well known throughout the sectors and Central that pure affinity took a lot of work to do even the most basic things. The Guilds were actually happy that it wasn’t a bloodline affinity being passed on.

“I’m not trying to make you feel sorry for me here, Ari. It’s just, everyone I know has an affinity now. We haven’t even done the test, and everyone in the class except me knows their affinity—even the class below us all know. It’s basically a formality at this point, and the real test is the core density.”

Redd wasn’t exactly wrong in his statement. It was very uncommon for someone to not know their affinity by now, especially at his age. There were rare cases where someone was born without an affinity. This was seen as a relic of their forefathers from the surface, who didn’t develop cores at all.

“Come on, Redd. You know you have an affinity. You can feel the mana around us just like everyone else. You are actually probably the best person I know at sensing mana in the atmosphere, so you must have an affinity. We will find out at the end of the week anyway!”

She was right, and he knew it. She was always right.

“Okay, okay, fair enough. I’ll stop complaining. And to answer your original question, I want to become a hunter. I’ll have you know that I’ve been training very hard while you’ve been off gallivanting with your parents!”

“HEY!” Ari slapped Redd on the shoulder while going slightly pink in the face. “I am not gallivanting, thank you very much! My family has a specialization in imbuement, and if I didn’t give it a try, it would be unfair to my parents. It doesn’t mean I’m going to continue in the family business.”

This was probably the best answer he was going to get from her. It was clear she hadn’t made up her mind yet.

“Regardless of what happens, Redd, you aren’t getting rid of me.” She let out a short laugh before linking arms with him and pushing forward towards the meet-up point for the exam in front of them.