Ice Spear.

  That single skill took most of my time for the next few days.

  And before I knew it, we were on the way to the hunter examination center once again.

  “Do you think you can do this?”

  “Of course,” I stepped out of the car and faced the building while replying to Seraphina. The same place where I thought that everything would end, suddenly became the first step to start everything else for me from now on.

  I was honestly a little excited.

  A hand fell on my shoulder. I looked to the side to see Seraphina standing there. It seemed she was going to follow me through it.

  “We have tried our best,” she said as we started walking into the Hunter Association’s office. A lot of people turned toward us, giving us all kinds of looks while we passed through the place.

  Was it necessary to attract so much attention, Seraphina? I wanted to ask, but I could tell from her ice-cold face that she was quite nervous too. We neared the tedstingt zone when she continued speaking. The giant arena that we looked down on today seemed a bit more intimidating than usual.

  “I have brought you up to an acceptable level, Elara. It is still less, but you are a good student, you will manage this well.”

  “Right. Can’t you be a little more encouraging?”

  She sure was a strict teacher. These last two days, every single time we had been learning, Seraphina was almost like a different person.

  And it was showing even right now. She was less of the usual ice queen and more of a mother bird looking after a chick right now.

  I sighed and nodded. Heading in for the test. Yes, I was still not at an acceptable level according to my teachers’ standards, and I was slowly starting to believe that with my own mind as well.

  I stepped through the entrance of the arena and made my way into the testing area. Once again, the same scar-lipped bastard stood there. From the viewing area above, Seraphina was still watching.

  “You’ve come with quite the person today, Hunter Elara.”

  I shrugged at him. What could I even say? There were a few other F-Ranked Hutners. The F-Ranked Hutners always ended up making a bit of a coalition, but I had remained out of it due to my sudden shift into the field. None of them approached me, usually, nor did they today.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Not long after my turn to give the test came around as well.

  “Will you finally try something other than that skill today?” asked the B-Ranked exam proctor. I nodded at him.

  “I am going to try something else.”

  Alright.

  I took in deep breaths. The gray of the testing room was all around me once again.

  Not again. I was not going to fail again. My success rate had been close to enough with Seraphina, too. Even though she was not completely impressed and didn’t think it was up to the mark, I was going to do well.

  “Alright. Hunter Elara, your re-evaluation test starts now.”

  I closed my eyes and stretched my hands out. Mana started to flow out of my palm. Exactly as I had learned. I just had to reproduce it.

  First comes the element and the shape.. I had to focus on the visualisation first and foremost.

  I started to feel a ball of mana forming in front of me, and a cold wind started to blow.

  That was the second step to forming an ice spear, as per my mentor. I had to add a spin.

  The wind took shape into a small gust. Cold breeze hit my cheeks and brushed against my skin as I started adding the second step into the spear.

  Then the third was acceleration. Finally. The spell was ready.

  The layer of mana coating the spear was the final step.

  [Ice Spear]

  ***

  [Ice Spear]

  Those words echoed in the testing arena as a monstrosity in the name of an ice spear from an F-Ranked Hunte flew out into the arena. In the blink of an eye, as fast as the proctor could keep an eye on it, the spare smashed straight into the doll standing upright.

  It blew into shreds.

  That was the only way to describe it. Even for a C-ranked Hunter, breaking the doll would have taken some effort.

  The proctor kept his eyes open. Not once had he seen in his time as an examiner for the lower-ranked hunters a sight like this.

  He gulped.

  “An F-Ranked Hutner…?”

  His words spilled out on their own. Every single other hunter in the area looked on in complete shock. Silence remained in the room as Elara’s crazy attack’s afterglow settled into the area.

  Small bits of the doll mixed with snowflakes as they fell around in the space where it had burst, some bits even finding their way to where the other hunters stood in wait.

  Elara didn’t open her eyes yet as she sighed.

  “The mana wavered at the end again…”

  She opened one eye, then the other, and looked onward to where the doll should have been.

  Her eyes fell to the ground.

  “Oh…?” she muttered.”How did that happen? Was it bad quality equipment?”

  This crazy…

  The exam proctor could only watch on. It was an unbelievable sight to think that the doll could be destroyed that easily, and then for the person who did that to blame the quality of the doll.

  “Don’t tell me…” Elara muttered. “Does this pose a problem in my result?”

  “No…” The lip-scarred man finally managed to eke out a reply as the shock and surprise settled in. He realised what might have happened, and that scared him a little more.

  If she came with Seraphina here, then she must have learned from her directly. That was obvious, even more so since they were both from Ashen Gryphon. At first, he thought it was a cheap intimidation tactic and was about to treat Elara with a bit more rudeness than before.

  But clearly.

  There was another reason why an S-Ranked Hunter had taken such interest in an F-Ranked Hunter and had even taught her own magic to her.

  A genius…

  “Hunter Elara… I am announcing the results of your practical reevaluation.”

  Elara looked on, hopefully.

  “You have passed, and your license has been recommended for processing into a higher rank.”

  “Ih…”

  “I am recommending D-Rank for now…”

  The man looked at Elara and smiled softly. It was a proud smile, a smile only someone who had seen someone else work hard over and over finally achieve results could make. One of deep empathy.

  “Congratulations. You are a hunter again.”