Jay punched Res and thanks to that Res was forced to kneel down.

The difference in power was quite clear so there wasn't much to say. But one this was for sure, Jay had become extremely powerful.

He knew that and that became evident after taking a look at his punch, however, he had no idea why the crystal didn't work.

Indeed, a few cases similar to this had been notified earlier but in all of those cases, the crystals would show at least some sort of reaction.

For example, the crystal would either vibrate a bit or at least emit a tiny bit of light. Jay was probably the first one to experience such a situation.

In any case, he was happy enough to revive the rank-up just by punching Res since it would waste less amount of time.

Also, he would be able to skip all the unwanted tests that were designed. He had no objections to that because all he wanted was the rank-up advance money that was given as a congratulatory gift by the government.

The higher the rank, the more would be the money. The greater the jumping gap, the greater money would be given.

The initial and usual price was set at 5 million dollars for each rank-up. So if one ranked up from E to D, he would receive 5 million USD!

Similarly, if one were to rank up from E to C, then the person would be awarded 10 million USD and so on.

Also, there were special instances to lend out extra money for those who were deemed to be rising stars or extremely talented. Though, it would require quite a lot of time to assess the information.

"Damn..."

"I am already injured!"

"Shouldn't you go easy on me?", Res asked.

"..."

"I did hold back...", was what Jay said.

He wasn't completely wrong, although he did use entire of his physical strength, he didn't use any magical power or skill to cause greater damage.

No doubt, he was capable of causing much greater damage, of course, that was possible from the two destructive weapons that he had.

Since he didn't use them, one could indeed say that he went easy on Res.

Regardless, Res was not defeated and that was the bottom line. Now all he had to do was officially give Jay a rank up.

However, he had no idea of what actual rank he was. Well, he didn't have any other instrument to measure his power in the first place.

Of course, he wanted to try with the same crystal again, but he had already promised so he couldn't back off now could he?

Therefore he kept his word and promoted Jay to a higher rank.

"Alright Jay, from now on you are an A rank hunter...", was what Res said while stamping the official paper of rank promotion.

"Wait for two minutes, I'll generate your new guild card.", after saying this Res went to another room.

'Wait...'

'I am rank A?', Jay was indeed happy about that but more than that he was confused.

Just a while ago he outdid Res who was an S Rank, so wasn't it common sense to get a higher rank than him or at least get a similar ranking? Of course, it was and probably that was why Jay was confused.

He waited in the room while looking here and there.

There was nothing interesting in the room other than a table and chair to sit on and work and a ridiculously large crystal attacked to some sort of machine.

The machine was attached to the Crytal's bottom end while the crystal seemed to float on it.

Regardless, Jay too had the question about the crystal.

'It's this crystal right that they use to analyze the rank?'

'Why didn't it show any sign of change for me?', he asked himself.

Indeed, it was a crystal that was retrieved from the very first gate that had appeared many years ago!

Well, in reality, that was the same crystal that was present here. Other than that, many other such crystals were discovered now and then so it wasn't much hard to get hands on them.

Despite that, their prices were ridiculously high, probably because not all of them were of high quality.

Of course, there were crystals of different quality, some could only measure up to level B while others till level A.

However the one with the finest quality that was ever discovered, actually three of them, could measure ranks higher than A rank, up till rank S!

That was how S rank hunters were discovered or basically titled with that.

And the crystal that was present in the room was one of those three crystals. Probably Res had brought it to confirm if Jay was indeed an S rank, after all, he had seen Jay's immense power.

He had his doubts so he thought about using that crystal which hadn't been used for months together, but to his disappointment, it didn't even react.

"Hmm, I wonder what it will do if I try emitting mana inside it..." while saying this he touched the crystal gently.

'Zoom'

All of a sudden a weird aura got generated in supersonic speed. The aura spread throughout the Room and continued to spread.

It was inappropriate to call it an aura, well, it was kind of like some sort of energy that got liberated all of a sudden like a shock wave.

The only difference was that, it cause no destruction, in fact, it spread like wildfire throughout the country.

Jay felt that since he was the closest person to it.

So he was about to remove his right hand from the crystal when suddenly his eyes started glowing.

'Zwooop'

Another wave of shock wave-like energy was released right after which Jay started to hear some strange voices.

'Help...'

'Please...'

'Help us O' Great Dark Overlord...'

The voice belonged to a female for sure since it was quite soft and resembles many females who were in their teens probably.

Regardless, the voice seemed to have been filled with agony, pain, and suffering.

It was so powerful that Jay could feel the pain from the voice.

The crystal started to glow all of a sudden which was quite weird. Of course, the light that was emitted from the crystal was blinding.

The white light spread throughout the Room. Res entered the room at exactly that moment only to force his eyes shut.

"What the-", he was taken by surprise.

'Please O' Great King...'

'Ruler Of Darkness...'

'Help us...'

'Protect us...'

The voice kept echoing in Jay's ears while his eyes continued to shine with the same bright white light.

The shock wave was generated once again. Res had felt the weird wave of energy earlier due to which he rushed while coming to the Room.

And now he felt it again, he was completely sure that something was definitely wrong with the crystal that was placed in the Room.

Well, no one knew much about those crystals in the first place. Regardless, Res was completely sure that it was the crystal that was causing the shockwave of energy.

'Help us...'

And that was the last thing Jay heard right after which the Diamond-shaped Crystal cracked and shattered into pieces.

All the light then suddenly vanished as if they weren't being emitted in the first place.

"What..."

"Just What was that?", Res asked while looking at Jay whose hand was still posed as if he was grabbing the crystal.

Jay didn't reply. He was standing like a statue while staring at the blank space.

His eyeballs were shaking as if he had seen something horrible when in reality he heard something that moved his heart for reasons unknown.

But he had no idea whom the voice belonged to nor did he have any idea about the source of the voice.

Though he knew one thing for sure, someone was calling for help and specifically him since he could hear 'The Dark Overlord'.

"Jay...?", Res walked towards Jay when he found that Jay wasn't responding to anything that he was asked about.

"Jay! Are you alright?", Res asked after shaking his shoulders vigorously.

"Huh?"

"Ya..."

"I'm fine...", he said in a low voice while lowering his gazes.

*gulp*

"I am completely fine...", he repeated himself.

"I'm not sure about that..."

"After all..."

"You are sweating profusely!", Res said.

He then took a look at where the crystal was placed and then turned back towards Jay and asked, "Are you worried about the crystal?"

Jay didn't say anything and due to that Res took it as a 'Yes' thus he started to console Jay.

But little did he know the real matter.

.

.

.

Somewhere in the USA...

'Crack'

'Bam'

And somewhere in Russia...

'Creak'

'Crack'

'Boom'

Two other crystals of similar caliber as the one which exploded earlier while Jay was taking the test, exploded too.

No one had any idea that they had exploded, at least not till they witnessed the shattered pieces!

No one had any idea what event was going to take place soon. It was a sign of the start of some horror!

To be continued...