With tags worth 33 points at hand, Rhen rested with his back against the corpse of a C-rank ape, his daggers stabbed into it at arm's length.
He smiled as he looked at the blood-red fur.
"That was bloody."
He then chuckled at his own joke.
The joke wasn't that funny, but laughter was better than silence after so much bloodshed.
"Cold Touch is now this strong, huh. I wonder what else I can obtain from my Talent… and the other one."
The cold seeping from the ground made him wonder about his Talent's true scale.
"I would like to start cultivating my Talent as soon as possible," he stood up, holding his daggers, then scratched his hair lazily, "but I'm busy with these guys."
At that very moment, an arrow cut through the air where Rhen's head had just been.
"Ten of you? Wouldn't it be better if you had hunted instead? Surely I'm not worth this stress."
"An opportunity is an opportunity."
One of the examinees, offered a deal by Jack, replied.
"Understandable."
Rhen bolted out of their midst, catching them by surprise.
"He's fast!"
"Don't underestimate him."
While they chased Rhen, they all silently wondered how he was still this agile after facing those packs of apes.
His stamina felt endless, his steps too precise–like he had faced escapes many times before this.
This slowly made them realize why the assignment they found easy earlier was in exchange for entering the Union.
Zena's voice brushed against Rhen's thoughts, sharp and clinical.
[Two arrows are being shot. Someone is using their Talent, I'm guessing C-rank. They can't catch up.]
She fed her observations to Rhen as he focused on running alone.
The terrain was a mix of ruins and forest lurking with beasts that could reach B-rank, so he needed to not make a mistake.
'Thankfully, there doesn't seem to be any B-rank. That's not too shocking.
'Not only are B-ranks not that much, they won't take a task like this unless they absolutely trust viper bro, B-ranks and above are basically almost guaranteed to come out successful in the exams.'
This was why Rhen was not worried about Oscar, Nina, and Lilac.
Talents are rare, and Talents above C-rank were rarer.
Most of the Union applicants today were actually just mana-users, like Einar, and would have been better off at the Adventurer's Guild.
After running for nearly two minutes, Rhen found himself in front of a tall cream-plastered wall.
The sides of this wall were broken, but tall trees had grown around this wall, forming some kind of semi circle barrier.
This was a dead end for Rhen.
And his ten chasers soon caught up, covering all the paths he could have used to escape.
Turning to face them, he hid any hint of concern with a smile.
There were two archers, one with a Talent, aiming at him.
The rest were melee users with C-rank or lower Talents, or people who relied only on mana for weapon arts.
"You–"
"You're cornered." Rhen cut the leader of the group's words. "You wanted to say something similar, no?"
The leader frowned a bit.
"I actually wanted to say you're quite strong."
Rhen's eye twitched slightly.
He decided to change the topic.
"Why are you doing this?
"If you do beat the little chance you have and knock me out–or whatever you were asked to do–do you really think all ten of you would be accepted into the 'reputable' Explorer's Union just like that?"
"Are you scared?"
"Hah! He's trying to throw us off at the last minute!"
The group of ten began mocking his last minute of struggle.
"So none of you are ready to back down? Last chance I'm giving you," Rhen said, his eyes landing on all ten one by one.
The leader remained stoic as he said, "Whether we get accepted or not, that's our business, not yours."
At that moment, a dark blue bird with a sharp beak flapped to the middle of the gathering, covering the leader's sight of Rhen.
Rhen hadn't been running alone.
Using Oscar's crows to pass his orders, he had been orchestrating the chase from the very start, every turn and retreat designed to herd them here.
His team had been circling in the shadows, waiting for his signal.
The last thing he heard clearly was Rhen's mocking voice.
"You can't survive with those instincts of yours."
Crow's Eye Talent – Hexing Cry.
With a mind-piercing caw, the bird burst into feathers that birthed crows, and a chain of cries and a canopy of darkness began surrounding the ten chasers.
After a crow landed on his shoulder, Rhen looked at it and said, "Great work as usual, Oscar."
The beak of the bird opened. "It's your call, boss. What's the strategy?"
In the midst of the ten who were slashing at the semi-corporeal crows, a lady with black and blue hair stood as if unseen.
Lilac looked straight through the canopy, her eyes reflecting Rhen's figure.
She waited patiently until she saw his hand direct her towards who to attack.
At the same time, Nina, standing on one tree, saw Rhen's hand point at her before pointing elsewhere.
Einar, at the moment the crows thinned, also leapt into the fray at a mere gesture from Rhen's arm.
And Oscar manifested from the crow that was perched on Rhen's shoulders.
Without moving an inch, Rhen orchestrated his chasers' downfall.
This was his skilled team and he had just shown the world that he led them.
To Rhen, the Union exam wasn't just about survival—it was about proving dominance.
- - -
Inside the cathedral, tension simmered among the Union's leaders.
Aside from Fangless Nilo, the other four Fangs—the heads of the Union—with intrigued expressions, were ordering their underlings to conduct deep research on Rhen and the rest immediately.
The scramble to gather information had already begun, whispers passing like wildfire among the ranks.
The five Fangs had recently agreed to expand the exclusive five-member party of the Union to ten, with two teams under each Fang.
If a Fang managed to recruit a team this young, with such natural coordination and skill, the balance among the heads would definitely tilt.
None of the Fangs would allow another to gain such an advantage uncontested.
Even outsiders—business owners and nobles alike—had begun to grow interested in Rhen and the others.
While this was happening, Fangless Nilo remained in one of the five grand seats before the screens, with Jack standing at his right.
He wore a disdainful look as he watched the screen showing Rhen, though beneath it lay a clear spark of interest in the boy.
Unlike the others, Nilo knew more than he let on.
Rhen—the boy who survived a secret ambush in Mazweald on the same day a mana surge erupted—harbored a secret Nilo was determined to uncover.
He was willing to expend every resource to reel the boy in.
Though called Fangless, the weakest Fang, his presence alone weighed heavier than the others' authority combined, though it remained subtle.
To achieve his goals, he would begin by deceiving the very one he had groomed for the past year.
Boy, that plan of yours–why not let me make it better?" he whispered to Jack.