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Chapter 106: Time for the Test

Leaving the training facility with a satisfied smile, Keith headed to the registration office. He needed to register for the evaluation of the bronze class hunter license.

‘The changed warrior frame is stable enough.’ 

[ We have to monitor the progress for one month before changing your frame.]

‘I am really surprised that even small changes can easily solve the problems. I thought we have to change the entire structure to fit the martial art.’

[It was a small change, so I didn’t have to exert extra effort. Maybe modifying the frame with primary joints and other important structural changes will be harder.]

‘Let’s not get into that now. We don’t have a better warrior frame right now. Hopefully, the mission to steal the warrior frame from the Lennar family goes well. I can finally evolve my warrior frame to duke level.’ Keith thought.

The registration office was empty as usual. Apart from the annual student registration, there was not much going on the rest of the year. There was the occasional hunter license registration that happened once a week.

Keith strolled into the hallway of the registration office and looked for the hunter affairs counter. He found a sign to a corridor on his left. He followed the route and found a counter for hunter registration.

“How may I help you?” The receptionist asked Keith in a polite tone.

It was a young man in his mid-twenties with red eyes and white hair. From the aura he was giving off, someone could mistakenly think he was a baron, but Keith could sense the blood core, which was an early stage viscount.

“I’m here to register for the bronze class hunter’s license,” Keith said.

The receptionist paused for a second and took out a paper and slid it on the table.

“You are still a baron. Applying for the license requires a viscount level blood core at the minimum. Also, which year are you?” He asked.

“This is my first year, I joined the academy last week,” Keith replied calmly.

“Seems like you are still unaware of all the rules, Here read this… it will answer all of your questions.” 

Keith sighed and shook his head. As he was just a baron, the receptionist rejected him outright.

“Can I see Miss. Jylee. I have. Referral and she might’ve got it.” Keith said directly.

“A referral? Why didn’t you say so from the start? Alright, I will ask her about it. Also, don’t call her Miss. Jylee. It’s her first name, call her Miss. Shaw.” The receptionist leaned in and spoke in a hushed voice.

Keith shrugged and nodded his head. As the man used his rune card to message his boss, Keith sat on the nearby chair. The furniture was well maintained and felt almost new. The chairs were arranged in a row with a two feet gap in between.

Soon a girl who looked to be in her late teens came from the opposite corridor leading to a dark place. She glanced at Keith and squinted her eyes. Looked like she was scanning Kieth’s body with her senses.

“You’re that kid who wants to get a hunter’s license?” She stared at Keith suspiciously.

“Yes, Miss. Mr. Visit told me to come and find you.” Keith got up from his seat.

When the girl entered the reception hall, Keith also scanned her body and blood core. Surprisingly, she was an early-stage Marquis. Her aura barely leaked outside and nobody could tell her blood-qi level from that.

“What is that old man thinking? Sending a baron to his death. Listen, I don’t know why you want to get the hunter license, but the blood forest isn’t your playground. If you are not careful enough, you will die.” She said in a grave voice.

“I know what I’m doing, and you are going to evaluate me anyway. The thing I don’t have is the two years of class completion, which frankly doesn’t make sense for entering the blood forest. You might as well, put a strength limit.” Keith replied.

“The rules are made specifically for students who leveled up their blood core to the viscount stage and haven’t learned or mastered any blood-qi technique. So two years is enough buffer period for them to get good. As for the ones who take two years to reach Viscount level, even after receiving all the resources from the academy, they are trash anyway. So we don’t stop them from entering the blood forest.” She said with a shrug.

“Just test me, no need to say all these.” Keith didn’t say anything and stood there silently.

There was a brief awkward silence for a moment but Miss. Shaw walked to the counter a moment later.

“Let’s get this over with. Gard, open the test chamber. I want to see how strong this baron is.” 

‘I think she doesn’t know about the orientation ceremony. Or maybe she heard about it but forgot about me.’ Keith followed her and the receptionist to the test chamber.

Creak!

The large doors of the test chamber opened after the receptionist touched his card on the front. Inside the test chamber, a circular rune formation stretched across the floor. There were puppets of all different sizes scattered across the chamber.

” Go stand in the middle of the rune formation. I will start the ritual and you have to fend off the puppets for half an hour. If you can successfully complete the task, the hunter license is yours.” Miss. Shaw explained the rules of the test.

“Seems easy. What does that rune do? Will it restrict my strength?” Keith asked nonchalantly.

“No, the rune is there to measure your blood-qi level and assess your strength level in absolutes. This is a new model the hunter branch came up with. The council postponed it for like a decade… those old geezers don’t want an absolute unit to measure strength.” She spat angrily.

“Does it show your strength irrespective of the blood core stage? I mean if a final-stage baron is stronger than an early stage viscount, then does it show that the baron is stronger?” Keith asked.

“Precisely. It doesn’t matter your blood core level. The thing that matters is your overall strength. The culmination of your blood-qi techniques, blood core, and fighting experience. It evaluates based on your display of power, so you can lower your strength and get a lower score.

“It’s already widely accepted that the blood core level doesn’t necessarily show the actual strength of the individual, so the top blood ritualists have been working for centuries to create a method to properly measure the absolute power level of the vampires.

“They refined the early rune formations and now in recent years came up with this. But as usual, the council doesn’t want to approve the project for widespread use. They want everyone to think that a higher blood core and nobility is an accurate measure of power.” Miss. Shaw heaved a sigh with a frustrated expression.

“Top blood ritualists? Did Mr. Visit also work on this rune formation?”  Kieth asked curiously.

“Obviously, he is one of the oldest and most knowledgeable rune-masters among the blood ritualists. He specializes in rune making and not so in actual rituals. That is to say, his level of mastery in blood rituals is also quite high.” 

Kieth thought of something and looked at Miss. Shaw hesitantly.

“What is it?”  She saw Keith’s expression and asked.

“I have a question regarding the blood ritualists? I wonder if Miss. Shaw has any insight on this?” 

“Just ask?”

“Do you know how proficient the director is compared to Mr. Visit?” Keith spat out his question.

“Kid, be thankful that none of the staff are here, and I don’t like to associate too much into the academy politics, or this question would put you in deep trouble.

“Seeing that you are related to Mr. Visit, he must’ve mentioned the director once. That’s probably why you know his main discipline. The Director is definitely overall a better blood ritualist, but in terms of runes, he lacks slightly from Mr. Visit. His blood rituals are the strongest in the continent, and he has an artifact that can take him to any place on the continent with a single thought.”

Keith gulped as he heard this. An artifact that has the power to teleport someone at will. What an absurdly powerful artifact.

“Isn’t that supposed to be a secret? Why are you telling me this?” Keith asked with a frown.

“It’s not like nobody knows about it. Almost all the staff and students above the viscount stage know it too. This is an artifact the director himself showed as a demonstration seventy years ago. Over time it circulated everywhere, but no one has seen it, so it is treated as a myth nowadays.

Maybe the deans and the elders of the council might’ve seen it.” Miss. Shaw entered into contemplation as she described this.

“He must have other artifacts more powerful than this if he showed it publicly,”  Keith mumbled.

“Naturally. He is considered one of the strongest vampires on the continent right now, so he has a big arsenal of artifacts waiting to be unleashed.

Now, enough chit-chat. Get inside the rune formation and stay there for half an hour.”

She snapped back and saw the time on her rune card.

Kieth wanted to get more information out of her but it looked like she didn’t want to continue. 

‘She has more things to take care of than just talk to me all day.’

Walking inside the rune formation, Keith cracked his fingers.