"Huh, thought there'd be more people," I remarked, looking around.
"Actually, this is a pretty high number, comparatively speaking. There are usually a lot more dropouts and failures," Ariella informed me.
It's the 31st of December, 2168, and today's the day of our graduation from the Hunters Academy. We got our results yesterday, and of course, I passed.
Ariella was the top-scoring student for the year, and I came in close behind at second place. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.
The graduation ceremony was conducted to issue our Hunters Licenses, and there were also going to be speeches given by the instructors and a representative from the Hunters Union.
After we get our Hunters Licenses, we'll be officially registered with the Hunters Union and our details entered into an accessible database known as the Register of Hunters, through which the Guilds can look us up and make offers to recruit us.
But realistically, I'm highly unlikely to get such an offer.
Regardless of my results, my registered Power Level and Potential means that my starting rank will be J-Rank, and the Guilds tend to ignore J-Ranks.
After all, the specific details of the student raids aren't public information. The deaths during the last raid, as well as the appearance of a Greater Demon in a Mid Level Dungeon, was publicly reported, but no details beyond that.
The Guilds will be able to see each graduating students' exam results through the Union's Registry of Hunters, but that's all.
The Hunters who supervised the exams are unlikely to leak any info either. They aren't affiliated with any of the Guilds, instead working directly for the Union as Freelance Hunters.
While the Guilds pay a lot more, working as a Freelance Hunter gives you a lot more freedom.
But it also means less access to higher level raids, since the Union rarely handles anything higher than Mid Level Dungeons, with High Level and above generally tackled by the Guilds, unless there's an excess beyond what they can handle.
I don't really have a problem with that though, I figured I might as well ease into working as an official Hunter with a few easy freelance raids through the Union, boost my stats as much as possible, and then decide on my next course of action afterwards.
Anyway, it was currently around midday, all the graduating students were gathered in a large auditorium, though a smaller room would've been more than enough.
Only twenty-three students were graduating, even though there had been around sixty at the start of the year.
Nearly two-thirds had either dropped out, failed to graduate or got killed, and after that last raid, I wouldn't be surprised if at least a few of my soon-to-be-former classmates choose not to work as Hunters.
There was a podium at the front of the auditorium, a man stepping up to it and introducing himself as the Director of the Sanctuary Theta branch of the Hunters Academy.
He gave a generic speech about, I don't know, something or other, I wasn't really paying attention. He dragged his speech on for a while, before eventually getting to the main reason why we were here, the Licenses.
He called each student up one-by-one, congratulating us and scanning our I-Watches with a device, which uploaded a digital copy of the License into the I-Watches.
Physical ID isn't a thing in this era, and that applies to Hunters Licenses too, our I-Watches just double as the Licenses.
Once that was settled, a few of the instructors stepped up to the podium and gave speeches too, including Glenn.
I just tuned them out though, they weren't really saying anything worth remembering.
Then, as the instructors wrapped up their speeches, a middle-aged woman stepped forward, clearing her throat as she looked around at the students.
She appeared to be in her sixties or so, she had short gray hair combed across to the left, dark red eyes with a pair of black glasses with rectangular lenses, a fair complexion, and she was pretty tall, with a strong build.
She was dressed all in black, formal attire, with a blazer, knee-length skirt and heels.
"Good afternoon, young Hunters. Let me start by congratulating you on your graduation. My name is Charlotte Bryns, the Chairwoman of the Sanctuary Theta branch of the Hunters Union," She introduced herself.
Oh, I've heard about her, I think she's a retired Ace Hunter, if I remember right. Hm, let's have a look...Appraisal:
Personal Details:
Name: Charlotte Bryns
Age: 92
Gender: Female
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 82 KG
Hunter Details:
Type: Combatant
Class: Lancer
Attribute: Wind
Spells: N/A
Skills: Taunt, Strike, Double Strike, Triple...
Stats:
HP: 797
MP: 408
Strength: 824
Agility: 625
Vitality: 770
Perception: 905
Power Level: 721,500
Potential: 870,200
Woah, her stats are still that high?!
If I remember right, she retired nearly thirty years ago. And she's a lot older than I thought, not to mention way older than she looks...I know higher ranked Hunters are supposed to have longer lifespans, but this is pretty crazy.
I think Ace Hunters are estimated to potentially live till they're around two hundred, but despite that, their bodies struggle to handle combat by around the age of seventy to seventy-five.
The exact life expectancy of high level Hunters is still unknown because, well, it hasn't even been two hundred years since the Dungeons and Monsters first appeared, there hasn't yet been a case of an Ace or X-Ace Hunter dying of natural causes.
As for the other ranks, it's estimated that K-Ranks could live upto a hundred and seventy five, Q-Ranks one fifty, and J-Ranks around one twenty five.
Oh, and X-Aces are estimated to have lifespans pushing two hundred and fifty years.
And as for normal humans in this era, they regularly live past a hundred years, thanks to the advanced medical technology of this era, not to mention Healing Magic.
Even with all that factored in, this lady's stats are insane, she's more powerful than that Greater Demon. And the hell's up with her Perception, it's crazy high, well-above her other stats.
Hm?
Weird...for a second there, I could've sworn she was staring at me.
"This year sure went by fast, huh? It's hard to believe it's over," Ariella sighed wistfully.
"Mhm, things felt slow at times, but now that it's over, it feels like it ended in a flash," I nodded in response, before glancing at her.
Oh, yeah, come to think of it, I guess I'll be seeing a lot less of her after this. That kinda bums me out...