Divinity

--- [Alex’s perspective]

There’s only five minutes left of the exam.

After beating Leon, we tended to his most serious wounds, then hid him somewhere he wouldn’t get found.

If he died while unconscious, we would fail the exam.

After that, we met up with Lett and the others.

Dan was the only one of us who wasn’t injured.

We were all fine with our performance, so we decided to bunker down for the rest of the exam.

Dan had his doubts, but he didn’t want to go out alone, so he stayed with us.

We treated our most serious injuries and stopped all bleeding; we’ll all survive as long as we take it easy.

It still hurts like hell though…

Me and Rin got some pretty serious injuries, but…

Lett got it worse than the rest of us; she got her whole arm blown off…

Poor girl.

I understand now why mom didn’t want me to become a hunter…

--- [Leon’s perspective]

Ughhh…

My whole body aches…

Where am I?

Wait.

SHIT!

I lost to those little fuckers…

How could I lose when they don’t even know SDM?

This is ridiculous!

They’ll pay for this…

Suddenly I hear a voice, it’s Leanne.

“There’s only one minute left of the exam now. If anyone hurts anyone after the exam ends, you will fail no matter what.” – Leanne

ONE MINUTE?

I still need three more kills!

Most people are probably just hiding now, waiting for the exam to end.

I’ll never find that many people in just a minute if I have to check each and every building…

I can only think of one way to find and kill that many people in that short of a time…

There is no guarantee it will work, but it’s the best I can do.

I’ll destroy as many buildings, along with everything inside it, as I can…

Hopefully there are some weaklings hiding in some of them.

Luckily, my injuries makes it much easier to destroy that many buildings.

There’s only around 50 seconds left now!

I run out of the house as quickly as possible.

I’m stronger than I thought.

A single hit is enough to completely pulverize multiple buildings at once.

However, this colosseum is massive, and there probably aren’t many people left.

I have to accept the reality that there is no guarantee that I’ll be able to join The Reapers…

I’m sprinting at top speed through the city, destroying as many buildings as I can.

“There are 30 seconds left of the exam.” – Leanne

Shit, I need to destroy even more!

More, more, more!

MORE!

“Only ten seconds remain.” – Leanne

I’ll prepare a huge attack, and launch it right before the exam is over.

“Five.” – Leanne

Not yet.

“Four.” – Leanne

Not yet!

“Three.” – Leanne

This attack will be massive…

“Two.” – Leanne

But not massive enough!

“One.” – Leanne

Come on…!

I can feel it, I’m almost there!

“Z-” – Leanne

NOW!

I launch the attack, completely vaporizing the building it hit.

A massive shockwave shoots out, ripping apart hundreds of buildings behind the one I physically hit.

“-ero. The exam is now over. I repeat, the exam is now over. If anyone attacks anyone else now, they will be disqualified, and I’ll deal with them personally… It’s now safe to leave. Please return to the entrance.” – Leanne

…

I really fucking hope I did it…

--- [Alex’s perspective]

“It’s finally over…” – Rin

“We did it, Rin!” – Lett

Lett jumps over to Rin and hugs her.

“It’s all thanks to those two…” – Dan

He points at me and Shin.

“Thank you!” – Dan

“It’s no biggie.” – Shin

He says smugly…

“Let’s get out of here.” – Alex

“Yeah!” – Lett

We get out of our hiding spot, and start walking over to the gate.

Leon is there, right in front of us…

He looks angry.

If it was anyone else, I’d try to make up with them.

But not with him…

Leon is actually a psycho, I don’t want to associate with him in any way.

I don’t think he’s in a mood to talk right now anyways…

We walk out the gate, and wait a few minutes for the rest to come.

Not many people returned alive…

Only one full group, two people alone, and one group of two people.

We went from a large group of hundreds and hundreds of people down to only fourteen…

That’s so sad…

“Congratulations to everyone that survived! As a reward, we will heal all your injuries for free.” – Leanne

Someone steps forward.

“This man is a talented healer from The Red Knights Guild. You’re all in good hands.” – Leanne

The Red Knights…

I really hope they invite me…

He walks up to each of us, and with a single touch, all our injuries are healed.

Lett’s arm even grew back…!

“Now then… First of all, I will call out the people who did not pass the exam due to their teammates not making it. William Canis, Laura Cultro, Joseph Annuum, and Kite Dolor… All of you have failed the exam.” – Leanne

“That’s bullshit! We went through hell, just to get denied because some random people I’ve never met before died?! It’s not fair!” – Kite

“Like it or not, those were the rules.” – Leanne

“But!” – Kite

“No ‘but.’… You fail, end of story. You may leave.” – Leanne

He looks frustrated, but he doesn’t continue to argue.

He can tell by the look in Leanne’s eyes that she’s not someone he should mess with…

“To the nine people remaining, you all passed the exam! Congratulations, that is by no means an easy task. That being said, there were some of you who did not get invited by any guilds. Passing the exam is irrelevant if nobody invites you. Benjamin Lutum, Tiki Caelum, and Nora Glacies. You may all leave.” – Leanne

“But why?! We passed the exam! Why didn’t anyone invite us?!” – Tiki

Leanne sighs, she’s probably tired of people arguing with her.

I bet this happens every year…

“After witnessing how brutal the exam was with your own eyes, you hid yourself for the remaining 23 hours and 55 minutes…” – Leanne

“…” – Tiki

“Like I said, you’re all free to leave now.” – Leanne

They might not have become hunters, but at least they survived…

“Now for the rest of you, you have all passed the exam, AND at least one guild has invited you. I will call out your names, and you can step forward. I’ll list out the guilds that invited you. For those of you who got invited by multiple guilds, you may still only join one. Other than that, you can accept whichever one you like the most. You can also deny all of them if you so choose, but due to the special rule I implemented this year, you will not be able to partake in the F-rank hunter exam ever again. So if you deny every invitation, that’s it.” – Leanne

It's just the six of us left…

That means all of us passed!

That’s awesome!

“Rin Nox, please step forward. The following guild has invited you; The Dwarfs. Do you wish to join The Dwarfs, Rin?” – Leanne

“Yes!” – Rin

“Alright, go wait over there. A representative from The Dwarfs will soon come and get you. Now, onto the next person. Dan Terra, please step forward.” – Leanne

He may try to hide it, but I can tell he’s nervous.

Lett leans over to him and whispers something I can hardly make out.

“Good luck!” – Lett

“The following guild has invited you; The Dwarfs. Do you wish to join The Dwarfs, Dan?” – Leanne

“Yes, I do.” – Dan

“Yay!” – Lett

I’m so happy for him, that’s the guild he wanted to join!

“Alright, go wait over there with Rin. Now for the last person of this team… Lett Lepus, please step forward. The following guilds has invited you; The Dwarfs and The Red Knights. Which guild do you wish to join, Lett?” – Leanne

The Red Knights…!

That’s awesome!

“I would like to join The Red Knights, Ma’am.” – Lett

“Very well, go wait over there. A representative from The Red Knights will soon come and get you.” – Leanne

She did it, she joined The Red Knights…

Just like her brother!

“Now onto the next team. Shin Magnum, please step forward. The following guilds have invited you; The Dwarfs, The Red Knights, The Venomous Snakes, Mercury, Atlas, The Dragons, White-Point Star, The Beast Hearts, and last, but certainly not least, Demon Egg.” – Leanne

Wow…

That’s a lot of guilds…

Rin and Dan were only invited by The Dwarfs.

Dan told me that The Dwarfs is one of the largest guilds.

He said it’s because they invite almost anyone who passes the exams.

The reason they want so many people to join their guild is because they care more about quantity than quality.

With higher numbers, they can clear many more lower ranked dungeons than other guilds can.

Even low ranked dungeons give good rewards, The Dwarfs Guild is earning lots of money doing this.

“Which guild do you wish to join, Shin?” – Leanne

“Hmm. I guess I’ll join The Red Knights.” – Shin

“Alright, go wait over there with Lett.” – Leanne

Both Lett and Shin joined The Red Knights…

If I get invited too then, we can all stay together!

“Next is Alexander Minima. Please step forward.” – Leanne

Here we go…

“You got this, Alex!” – Lett

“The following guilds have invited you; The Dwarfs, The Red Knights-”

“YES!” – Alex

“…” – Leanne

“Sorry, continue…” – Alex

They invited me!

Whew…

That’s a relief…

“- The Venomous Snakes, Mercury, Atlas, The Dragons, White-Point Star, The Beast Hearts, and lastly, Demon Egg.” Leanne

It’s cool that I got invited by so many guilds too, but I already knew which one I would want to join.

“Which guild do you wish to join, Alexander?” – Leanne

“The Red Knights!” – Alex

“Alright, go-” – Leanne

Before she even gets to finish her sentence, I run over to Shin and Lett.

“Heh, I suppose I didn’t need to say it again. Well, anyways. On to the last person. Leon Adamas, please step forward.” – Leanne

Leon still looks angry, but more than that, he looks nervous…

Why?

“The following guilds have invited you; The Dwarfs, The Venomous Snakes, Mercury, Atlas, The Dragons, White-Point Star, The Beast Hearts, Demon Egg, and finally, The Reapers…” – Leanne

As soon as she said ‘The Reapers’, Leon’s nervousness instantly faded away and another psychotic grin covered his face instead.

“The Reapers…!” – Shin

“Something wrong?” – Alex

“It’s nothing… Don’t worry about it.” – Shin

Weird…

There’s something he’s not telling me.

I’ll ask him about it later, now is not the time.

“Which guild do yo-” – Leanne

“The Reapers.” – Leon

Leanne looks a bit surprised after he cut her off like that.

“Alright… Go wait over there, a representative from The Reapers will soon come and get you.” – Leanne

Shin is clenching his fists and looks pissed off.

He then takes a deep breath and calms down.

Something must have happened to him in the past, something to do with The Reapers…