The sunlight filtered through the curtains and illuminated the whole room. Xior twisted and woke up with a groan, his hair covering his face. The bed he lay on was small but he didn't mind that.
This feeling of sleeping on something soft, the memories he had of this room and the warmth of the morning, were somethings he wanted to feel again. The table on the side was full of open letters.
Becca and the kids kept writing letters and placed them all on his table, he read through every single one of them. A few days had passed since his return, it was weird at first but he was slowly adjusting.
It was Monday now, the day for his Hunter Evaluation test. Becca had stayed in the shelter as well as she took some days off.
He walked out and into the living room, the kids which were about six to nine when he was abandoned in the Abyss were now eleven to sixteen.
Some old enough to awaken, but he wasn't going to let them become hunters. He wanted them to have a normal life, not surrounded by danger.
"Good morning." He said in a low calm voice.
Xior was suddenly swarmed by all of them. But he didn't mind, he cared for them a lot, Becca came out of the room next to his. She wore black shorts and a t-shirt, he red hair was in an even bigger mess than his.
"Good morning Xior and everyone. I forgot how small this bed was. My back hurts." She said as she stretched her back.
"Elder sister, you're getting old. No one will marry you now." One of the kids said earning a chuckle from Xior.
"What? I'm not old. Who was it? Tell me." She pouted.
"It was me." Xior said as he pointed a finger at himself.
"You're not gonna stop teasing me ever, are you?
I thought you changed."
"I did but this is something I can't possible stop. Your annoyed face is cute." He replied.
'*Cute? WHAT?*' She thought, not knowing the slight rubor on her face.
"Don't tease her Xior, come it's time for breakfast. Let's eat." The old woman said with a big smile on her face.
*****
The Hunter Association building was the tallest one in the whole city. Despite seeing it once, Xior was still looking at it intently. He entered the building with Becca and they were moved to the waiting area.
There were a lot of people there for their evaluations. Becca sat on a bench with him and explained things to him.
"Understood? You have to channel your mana into the detector and then display your skills.
The theoretical part comes later, every hunter has to complete two weeks of hunter training after they've been assigned a rank." Becca calmly said.
"Okay, after this can you take me to somewhere that will buy runes? I have to sell some to get new gear."
"Huh? How many runes are we talking about?" She questioned.
"Let's not go there just yet." Xior said as the receptionist signaled him to enter.
Becca entered alongside Xior, this was the same room in which she had been evaluated. The operator told Xior what to do and he put his hand on the detector, ready to channel his mana.
But there was no change, despite his wrist glowing which indicated that he was indeed channeling mana, there was no reading through the detector.
"What? Why is there no reading?" The operator said in shock.
"What's the meaning of this Hunter Rebecca? You brought an unawakened and made us waste our time?" The superior roared.
"Do you realize the consequence of questioning my credibility?" Becca declared before Xior could say anything.
"Are you threatening an Association official inside the Association?" He shouted in response.
"Not a threat, just a question. Rather than to point fingers change the damn machine." She replied calmly which pissed the official more.
He quickly dialed a number on his phone and so did Becca and after five minutes the door to the room opened.
A man about the same height as Xior, with completely white hair, a pair of brown eyes and a short white beard entered the room. Despite his age the aura he brought in was on a different level than what Xior had felt.
He walked straight, not limping or hunched like most old people. His eyes studied the room and then he smiled.
"Mr. Chairman, why are you here?" The official questioned.
"Shouldn't I have come here as that would ruin your plan to use force against a hunter like Miss Rebecca." The old man said in a low voice, his words felt warm and his smile brightened the room.
"N-n-no, Mr. Chairman...I-"
The old man raised his hand and made him stop. He walked over to Becca who was now smiling and shook hands with her. He then forwarded his hand towards Xior who accepted it. As soon as their hands met a powerful pressure erupted from their hands.
The Chairman of the Hunter Association, Damian Shields runes glowed and so did Xior's. Their eyes shone before reverting back. Damian had a smile on his face the whole time, while Xior was confused.
"I have found the solution to the problem, Hunter Rebecca." Damian said.
"Really? That was fast."
"His mana for some reason is flowing anti-clockwise instead of flowing clockwise, that's why the machine didn't work.
Mr. Xior, could you show me your skills? I'd like to gauge your rank for now and we can do another official evaluation when we find a way to measure reverse flowing mana. In the meantime, will you be fine with an F-Rank?"
Xior looked at Becca and then back at Damian, he nodded and asked for a sword. They moved to a bigger room on the side with targets and other evaluation material.
He grabbed the sword in his right arm, the others stood away at a distance waiting to see what he would do with it.
He raised his left arm and then cut it off from the elbow below. Becca and the others gasped but Damian didn't, he kept smiling as he saw Xior's rune glow and his cut off arm grew back almost instantly.
Everyone was left shocked, there was no one with this kind of regeneration skill. Xior then showed his strength as he broke through several layers of concrete with a single punch. Damian was satisfied with all this.
Xior received his hunter card, he was an F-Rank hunter for now. It was evening now, Xior and Becca ate lunch first and now walked towards the main market of New Federation. As the sun set both talked and Becca smiled and teased him like old times.