“Yeah, thanks for that,” he continued as he walked toward the body of the dead Inferno Felis, he looked at the corpse as though he was admiring it, “But yeah, I owe you one.”

Zen stared at Damien with a face of disbelief, a quick look at the leaderboard let her know that the person in front of her had just taken over the competition’s number one spot. Despite his tired appearance and slight burns all over his body, he looked relatively fine, “You were fighting that thing…?”

Damien turned back to look at the ranger, he looked back and forth between the newcomer and the downed Felis, “Ohhh, you mean this thing? Yeah, it actually was pretty crazy,” noticing the strange look the archer was giving him his brain processed a possible reason, “Ah but that doesn’t mean I’m crazy, I also don’t think fighting something like this is wise, but it attacked me first so I had little choice in the matter. If I can be honest, if you hadn’t shown up when you did, it probably would have killed me soon enough. So again, thanks.”

“Right…”

Damien, feeling a rush of strength surge into his body, was distracted by numerous System Prompts. One after the other, they populated his point of view.

Killed Inferno Felis (F+): +125 Points. You have slain an Inferno Felis (F+): EXP has been awarded. Lvl up!

Lvl up!

Lvl up!

Class: Starter Rogue

Name: Damien

Rank: F+

Species: Human

Title: Bold

Lvl: 7

Passive Skills:

N/A

Active Skills:

Shadow Strike Lvl 3 (10 SP) Shadow Step Lvl 3 (5 SP)

Assassinate Lvl 2 (15 SP & MP)

Bond:

N/A

HP: 46/85

MP: 23/57

SP: 22/75

Skill Points: 6

STR: 33

EDR: 11

VIT: 11

AGI: 31

PER: 12

DEX: 13

INT: 19

WIS: 11

FAI: 0

Status Effects:

N/A

Blessings:

N/A

EXP: 84%

Fighting Style: Quick Strike

I leveled up three times, I really need more of an explanation as to how these stats work, I understand most of these, but things like INT, WIS, and FAI are tricky.

But those thoughts could be postponed, what mattered most to Damien at the moment was the current score, last time he had checked, there was less than half the time left and he did not have a single point to his name. With this victory, he hoped that he had taken the number one spot.

Monster Hunter Leaderboard!

1. Damien: 125 Points

2. Jane: 116 Points

3. Donovan 112

4. Matthew 57

5. Felix 54

6. Zen: 39 Points

7. Wilson: 36 Points

8. Eiji: 35

[...]

Time: 0:08

Right in the nick of time, it was closer than what I thought it would be too. I shouldn’t get careless.

“Looks like we made it, guess we got lucky,” he spoke to the elf archer who was still standing in front of him, he was only able to tell her class was archer due to her large bow on her back, the thought of being able to her status floated across his mind, but as far as he was aware there was no innate way to do so. Perhaps there might be a skill or class that might allow for something like that to happen, he decided to add it to the list of things he needed to research.

The countdown reached zero and the usual white light that appears when the System takes people somewhere covered the area that they occupied. While it was initially a jarring experience, Damien had started to grow more and more accustomed to it.

One word invaded his mind as he opened his eyes in the new surroundings he found himself in; modern.

Everything around him reminded him of that word, a contrast to the city he had just come from. The material of walls, floor, ceiling, furniture, and even the ventilation system, everything was best described as the word modern in his head. Unlike the irregularity he felt as he walked through the city, in this new hall, he felt at ease.

But just as this mental comfort settled in him, it was violently ripped from his mind. Another sense of a memory was destroyed, the substance of being something was separated from him, and left him feeling hollow. The indignation that was a product of the violations he perceived the System to be guilty of grew exponentially larger.

He found solace in the fact that even though memory and ideals escaped him more and more each day, something within him remained. It was hard for him to pinpoint what that was, but it was something. A small comfort for now, but it held potential to himself.

“Welcome to you all!”

Suddenly he was acutely aware that he was not the only person in the room, he was surrounded by several people. Each one he recognized as someone from the group of Climbers that he had come with, all but one; the person who now welcomed them with open arms.

Said person was a woman who seemed to be more dead than alive. But rather than looking dead, it was more akin to her never being alive in the first place. Everything about her lacked personality, her eyes held no mirth or woe, the faint smile on her pink lips was not unlike one you would force yourself to wear, her posture was too perfect. She was more like a doll than a human.

As if to reflect that, her clothing was plain. A black pencil skirt with a white long-sleeved button shirt was all she wore, no jewelry, no ounce of personal touch to anything. Her porcelain skin was unmarred and her long pitch-black hair was done in a flawless half-crown braid, it was like everything about her was done with perfection in mind.

“I congratulate you all in passing Phase One of this test,” she began once everyone had snapped out of being teleported, many of them were fairly beaten up and wounded, they seemed to be relieved to have been taken away from wherever they had been, “Allow me to introduce myself, I have no name, but you may feel free to call me Admin.”

Damien and a majority of the people in the room looked at her with confusion, “Some of you who are Descendants or the others who were brought from within the Levels of Anathum, might have already heard about me, but to those who aren’t aware of me, allow me to properly explain.”

The same fake smile on her face didn’t drop as she began, “I am Admin, I was created by the System to facilitate the process of test-taking. I was granted the role of Overseer and I will act as a representative for the System to ensure its will is carried out without exception. That includes making sure all tests are carried out with integrity, although the possibility of cheating is insignificantly small, it is not zero. That means that if anyone is caught cheating, or even attempting to cheat the System, I will delete you.”

Delete?

There was unsettling confidence to the way Admin spoke, as though the punishment for cheating was handled in absolutes. If you were dishonest with the test, there would be no way to escape your fate. The threat lingering in the air caused an uncomfortable silence to overtake the massive room.

“That being said, I am also here to help Climbers achieve their goals, so please feel free to speak to me if you have any concerns, I will do my best to advise and guide you to a resolution,” although her words were kind they held a synthetic quality to them, it was impossible for Damien to place any trust in Admin, as she was the embodiment of the System. Everything that had happened to him and everyone else up until now was likely caused by said System, the prime culprit of their situation.

“Who is Damien?”

The tense conversation was cut by the sudden question, turning his gaze to his side revealed the form of a red-haired woman, her face was filled with irritation and a simmering fury, a few seconds passed with no response to her question, “Huh!? I’m asking you a question you bastard, aren’t you man enough to answer?”

Damien simply looked on, he hadn’t the faintest idea as to why she was calling him out, he felt that if he answered her call he would get dragged into a conflict that he was not willing to partake in. Something about the girl cursing him out told him that she was more dangerous than she appeared.

It also didn’t help that the armor she wore was unlike the other warriors, he hadn’t seen her in the Mercenary Guild, so it was somewhat a given that she had received her gear from a different source. His deductions pointed to someone who had gone down Levels to be allowed to Climb, although he had been told that these people held an advantage over regular Climbers, it was implied that said advantage was mainly in regards to information.

Everyone is born with level one, even if you were born in Level 70, the monsters would be too strong for you to kill any of them, equivalent EXP sharing only existed with teams inside the testing arenas, not outside them. So this eliminated the possibility for someone to level up in the upper Levels and then coming down to breeze through the initial tests. He was also told that Climbers were not allowed to receive items with a higher rank than themselves to use within tests.

All that being said, the form-fitting red armor with white accents was clearly better than the regular steel plate armor that the warriors had. It was unlikely Admin would let her be using gear outside of her rank so openly, so the only other possibility was that she was using the best gear available to her at her current rank. But the biggest sign of danger in his eyes, was that unlike every other Climber in this hall, she had no visible weapons on her.

“Please settle down Miss Jane, there is a time and place for everything,” she placated the now named Jane, she was the person who had claimed the number two spot in the leaderboard, “There will be plenty of time to mingle with your fellow Climbers in a minute, but first I must finalize the results of this Phase and explain the next one, please remain quiet for now.”

The words of Admin did not go without heavyweight, even the enraged Jane begrudgingly snarled at her question being swept to the side, but she relented anyway.

Seeing Jane back off, Admin continued, “Good, you might have noticed that your numbers have been cut by quite a margin, those that failed to meet the 25 point threshold and those that died, have failed the test. You 18 are the ones that passed and will participate in the next Phase.”

Damien had indeed noticed the lack of numbers, he realized that some people might have died in the test, after all, he himself had almost been separated from his life, it wasn’t particularly unreasonable for others to have perished. What did strike him odd was the 25 point minimum rule.

Why wasn't that announced? That could have caused some people to fail.

“But before I begin to explain how Phase Two will go about, there is still a reward that must be given, Mister Damien? Please step forward.”

Being called out again, Damien felt an unneeded amount of focus on himself, but unlike the previous time with the red-haired girl, he was not in a position to ignore Admin. Not that he would anyway, he was very interested in the System boon he would receive.

As he walked from the small crowd and headed for Admin, he felt the stares of every Climber bore into his back, especially Jane’s.

“How did he get 125 points? I was looking at the score and he was nowhere near the top in the last minute, he literally went from zero points to the top of the leaderboard in the last few seconds.”

“Hey isn’t he one of the rogues? Isn't it weird that only he and that other rogue showed up? What happened to the other ones?”

“A rogue getting that many points though? You don’t think he might have stolen someone’s kill at the last second?”

“What kind of reward do you think he’ll get?”

Ignoring the not so subtle whispers, he was soon in front of the smiling Admin.

She stretched out her arms and signaled for him to do the same, “Please hold out your hands like this.”

Doing as he was told, lines of light began to rise from Admin’s hands and swirled in her palms, they started to grow brighter and faster and with a sizzle in the air, a white circular mass was created. It was content to float harmlessly in her hand but with a small signal with her finger, it suddenly flew straight into Damien’s hand.

Palming the ball, he felt the hefty weight it held, after a moment of him admiring the shining sphere, it began to lose its luster. The resulting ball was identical in size and weight, but it was simply pitch black. If he stared closely he swore he could see something in the center. He was slightly entranced by the reward before a pulse from the ball shook him out of his stupor, a heart was beating from within.

What is this?

“Excellent question, this is a familiar core, designed personally by me, please feel honored,” she said with a rough similarity to pride in her voice, “It is currently bound to you, please keep it in your person until it hatches if you wish to have a friendly connection to it.”

Sensing that Admin was done, he turned on his heel and headed back for the crowd. It didn’t escape him that his mind was read, but it hardly surprised him. He kept his eye on the dark sphere, but from the corner of his eye, he spotted Jane giving him a death stare. It wasn’t like he didn’t understand where she was coming from.

From her side, she must have gone through the whole monster hunting test thinking her spot as number one was all but secured, but out of nowhere, an upstart that wasn’t even in the top three comes and takes the crown. It must have stung a bit.

“Now with that out of the way, let's talk about Phase Two. Phase One’s main purpose was to assign a value to each and every one of you, I will select two Climbers to lead teams and compete against each other in Phase Three. These teams will be organized by having each leader gain points throughout the week that Phase Two will take place in. With these points you will be able to purchase teammates, it goes without saying but people that performed better than others in Phase One will be worth more than others.”

Value... Does that mean that I’m the most expensive one?

“Each leader will be given tasks to complete during Phase Two for points, these tasks will only be known by each respected leader. Phase Two for the other Climbers will be mainly about specialization, in other words, evolving your starter classes into things more useful.”

Evolving our classes? I did have the Arcane Assassin reward for that quest, but I doubt I will be able to get that done now.

The Admin smiled at the Climbers, “Any volunteers for the leader positions?”