Noah and Mia made their way to the hunters association very early in the morning. The rest of their party was going to meet them there, but the new couple was going together.

 

The person who was bringing them to the association was Noah’s older sister, Liliana, a B rank hunter and college freshmen.

 

“Thank you for bringing us here, Lili.” Mia said to her when they got to the building.

 

“Of course. It's my role as a hunter to help out newbies like you two. But I have to say I’m surprised. I thought you would wait for Zenith to turn 16 and the three of you would do this together” Liliana said.

 

Liliana did go to their school last year, but never found out about her brother bullying Zenith.

 

After her comment about him, Mia looked away from her, and Noah looked annoyed. She still has confusing feelings towards Zenith and Noah wanted to distance Zenith from Mia.

 

“Well, anyway. The test is pretty easy. I will go up to the front desk with you and after you get your license I will take you to a dungeon and you guys can try it out.” Liliana says.

 

“Thanks, sis. And you're good doing that for our whole party?” Noah asked.

 

“Yeah, sure. You told me it's 8 of you right. A pretty big party”

 

“We already planned for that. We intend to have some of us take support roles like a crafter or inventory management. And if we get lucky a healer”

 

“A healer huh. You guys either have to drop a lot of money or get unbelievably lucky” Liliana said. “For starters I would try to get someone with alchemy to make potions for a start”

 

“You say that like you're in a party.”

 

“You know, I could just leave you both here and go home”

 

“He was only kidding Lili” Mia said, interrupting the two of them.

 

And she led the two of them to the desk where they signed up for the test. After giving an ID that proved they were 16, the two of them were brought to a room that tests for magical aptitude.

 

This was pretty basic. It would fill the person with magic and if they could handle it, meaning they were awakened, then their status would open. Going first was Noah. He put his hand on the crystal and he felt the power enter him. Then an opec screen opened in front of him.

 

Name:Noah

Gender:Male

HP:100/100

MP:10/10

Level:1

Title:[None]

Strength:1 - (1)

Defense:1 - (1)

Speed:1 - (1)

Intelligence:1 - (1)

Luck:1 - (1)

SP:0

Intrinsic Skill:

Magic Swordsmanship Lv.1

Skill:

[None]

 

A person's stats all start at 1, meaning the average strength of a person. Any awakened that has a status screen is stronger than anyone that hasn’t so no matter what, this is what it starts at. The number after each stat is how much it will increase with a level up.

 

When the people administering the test saw his skill was magic swordsmanship, they were quite surprised. Magic swordsmen were rare. It was a very rare upgrade of the normal swordsmanship skill.

 

Next Mia went and did the test as well.

 

Name:Mia

Gender:Female

HP:100/100

MP:10/10

Level:1

Title:[None]

Strength:1 - (1)

Defense:1 - (1)

Speed:1 - (1)

Intelligence:1 - (1)

Luck:1 - (1)

SP:0

Intrinsic Skill:

Healing Magic Lv.1

Skill:

[None]

 

This created an even bigger uproar. An intrinsic skill was common, but for the most part, they had common skill there. Magic Swordsmanship was rare, but Healing Magic was one of the most rare skills. Only a few national level hunters have ever had it as an intrinsic skill. The most powerful hunter in the world, awakened healing magic during the first outbreak, and since then every hunter who has had it as an intrinsic skill becomes one of the most valuable hunters to a guild or an association.

 

From here, the two of them were brought to the room where the exam would be given. They both passed very easily.

 

From there, the rest of the party got to the association and did the same thing. They all awoke a status and all even had intrinsic skills, though none as rare as either Mia or Noah.

 

But before they could leave so Liliana could show them around a dungeon, the association talked to them.

 

Because of Mia having healing magic, they wanted to give them all a private orientation from a few of the S rankers that work for the association.

 

“So, you guys drag me here super early and then don’t even need me anymore.”

 

“I wouldn’t put it like that.” Noah said.

 

“Fine, fine. But let me ask you something. Are you dating Mia?” She asked.

 

“Ha, couldn’t hide it from you, could I. Yes, Mia and I started dating”

 

“So, dating the person who your best friend has a crush on. I expected more from you”

 

“Ok, two things. Zenith proved he doesn't like Mia, and he isn’t my best friend” he said, quite annoyed with his sister, and he walked away before she could say anything else.

 

“You liar” Liliana says with a dark look in her eyes.

 

Cutting back to the party, the group is talking about the roles that they will each take.

 

Support was really easy. Rachel, one of the friends has the intrinsic skill of Item box so she was put in charge of the inventory management, as a porter. Her boyfriend was given crafting which meant that he would be their item maker. And lastly, the strongest support role was given to Mia as the healer. They already were planning what other skills each of them should get, and at base level, Mia could get the buffing skill, and Isiah could get potion making. Rachel was just going to upgrade her skill for a while.

 

Now the others were all placed into attacking roles. Their main forward would be Noah with his powerful sword skill. They had an easy defender for the two rear guards with David's Shield Bearer. David was the boyfriend of the girl who told Zenith to leave them alone, Katie. Kaite had fire magic, which was a powerful offensive magic. And lastly Hunter obtained Mp cost Reduction, which made magic easier to cast. He was the only one of them who needed to obtain another skill quickly, which they had planned for. Hunter was already looking for a place to learn magic from a skill book owner, preferably one other than fire.

 

Then there was their mixed member, Abby. Abby is the most nondescript member of the group, not really standing out. She also obtained a skill related to that in stealth. This would make her a perfect scout for the group.

 

Soon, the people giving them their orientation would show up, and several issues would come up.

 

✾

 

After finishing up at the dinner, I start to walk towards the places in town I like to go to. Aria and Anthem often go with me to places because they like to pay for things for me, which is good since I don’t have a way to make money, yet.

 

The main places I go are book stores and tech stores. I am really good with technology so looking at new things is fun for me. Bookstores as well are one of my hobbies, since I do like to read.

 

My day is pretty uneventful though, since I didn’t see anything that catches my eye.

 

While I was wandering around town, I noticed something familiar.

 

When I turn around I find a familiar person close behind me. Walking over to her, she notices that I have seen her and she starts to freak out.

 

But she is not able to get away before I get close to her.

 

“Willow?” I ask, even though I know it was her.

 

“Um, Hi Zenith” she said, hiding her face behind her phone, in a very cute fashion.

 

“What are you doing?” I ask her.

 

“Just walking around town. I don’t have much to do today because Mia is doing things” she explains to me.

 

Willow is Mia’s younger sister, about one year younger than her. Because of when our birthdays are, we are the same age right now, though not for much longer. She is in the grade below me at school.

 

“Oh, cool,” I said back to her. “Well Hi, have a good one” I tell her then walk away. I have talked with Willow on occasion but I wouldn’t say we were friends.

 

“Wait!” she yelled as I was walking away. I turn to look at her again after that. “Could we hang out today?”

 

I was confused by her question. This would be the first time that we hung out like this.

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“Yes. I want to hang out with you” she said with a weird determination on her face.

 

“Oh, sure, OK” I responded.

 

And thus, I started to hang out with Willow for the day.

 

✾

 

The air was heavy in the association building. Liliana was watching as Aria and Anthem entered. Not knowing who they were, she was interested in the rank S hunters.

 

But Aria quickly got mad when she saw the group she was brought in to teach. She had found out each and every person who had been bullying Zenith. And all of them were in front of her right now.

 

She knew that she couldn’t actually hurt them, but she really wanted to. And now, they were interrupting her day with him.

 

Anthem, noticing this, decides to take the lead in the orientation.

 

Thankfully, only Mia and Noah have ever met Aria and Anthem, so no one else in the group knows about their relationship to Zenith, and not even Noah and Mia know how much the two of them dislike them.

 

“Um, hi. I’m Anthem, and this is my sister Aria. We are here to give you an orientation in hunting.”

 

Outside of Noah and Mia, who knew who both Aria and Anthem were because of there relationships with Zenith, two other members of the group had a reaction to the change of who would be teaching them. Abby and Hunter.

 

Hunter had fallen in love with Liliana since he started highschool. This was the initial reason why he had sought out Noah to be friends with. He was looking forward to being able to form a relationship with Liliana today and was annoyed with the change, though he did think that Aria was hot, and that was all that mattered to him.

 

Abby on the other hand was super excited at the change. She didn’t have anything against Liliana, but she had actually met Anthem once before. Abby was always a shy girl, but recently she was trying to get more confidence. One thing she did was sneak into a host bar and try to use that to get over her shyness. But she was not able to talk to anyone, until someone came up to her. That was Anthem. She fell in love instantly. He was kind to her and made her feel special. So seeing him here and getting a chance to get close to him was all she wanted.

 

Seeing the two new people the group decided to talk about whether they should do the orientation with them. They already have the license so they don’t really need it.

 

And since Mia and Noah didn’t want to bring up the two of them being Zeniths siblings, they didn’t have a reason behind not wanting to do it. Hunter also didn’t want to admit that he had a crush on Liliana, so the group agreed to go through with the orientation.

 

While the group talked over the situation, Liliana went over to talk to the two S ranks, but found them bickering about something.

 

“He didn’t go home. What if he is doing something bad? What if something happens?” Aria was saying to Anthem

 

“Ok, you need to calm down. He has our cards. He is probably just doing some shopping. In all honesty we should probably ask him to pick up some groceries.” Anthem responded.

 

“You think I am just going to forget that you didn’t do that. When we are done here, you're going to the store. I’m not letting you outsource the one chore you do to Zenith.”

 

“Fine, but you need to stop worrying about him. He seemed fine this morning. Whatever happened last night seems to be over.”

 

Accidentally hearing the conversation, Liliana heard a name she didn’t expect.

 

“Um, excuse me, but are the two of you talking about Zenith Black?” Liliana asked the two of them.

 

And she was met with the dark stars from both of them.

 

Sinking back under the pressure put out by both Aria and Anthem, she didn’t know what to do.

 

Until Aria spoke up, “How do you know our brother?”

 

“He, He used to be friends with my brother I think?” Liliana replied.

 

“Oh, your Noah’s sister then.” Aria said, calming down a lot. “Zenith always said you were nice”. The second comment was a lie. Zenith very rarely brought up other people at home, but Liliana had often texted Zenith and they were always pretty nice, even after the change happened from Noah.

 

“Oh, he said that. Well, I just wanted to thank you two for taking care of the group. Then I heard you say Zenith's name and was confused. I don’t think I knew he had siblings”

 

For one more second, Aria was angry again, but she quickly got herself under control.

 

“Well, you're welcome” Anthem told her, and their conversation ended. After Liliana left the two of them waiting for the group to finish up, Anthem leaned over to Aria. “Your going to by him a “I have a Older sister” shirt, aren’t you”

 

“I might tattoo it on his head. I mean, he didn’t tell her he had siblings.”

 

“As far as we know, he didn’t think of her as that close. I mean, most of the things we know about we have because you are crazy and stalk him”

 

From there, the group finishes their discussion and goes with Aria and Anthem to learn about the benefits of joining association and to learn about the dungeons.

 

And Liliana decides to go do something she has been thinking of since she first met Zenith.