Rank Zero
Hannes glared at Luthra. "Let's move on before you bankrupt the entire Association. Next test is speed."
He pointed toward a twenty-meter track on the floor, with glowing blue sensors at the start and finish lines.
"The rules are simple. Run from one end to the other. The machine measures your time and calculates a score. You understand? Good. Varian, you're up again. Try not to break this one, it's new."
Varian scoffed, though he shot a nervous glance at Luthra. "Hmph. Speed is the essence of a noble house. Observe."
A pale yellow light enveloped Varian's feet. He shot forward like an arrow, crossing the distance in a respectable blur.
The sensor at the end beeped.
[SCORE: 610]
Hannes wrote it down. "Acceptable for an E-3. Next."
The other applicants took their turns, their scores ranging from a miserable 120 to a decent 350. It was all very uninteresting.
"Nora Lurius."
Nora walked to the starting line, her expression unchanging. She took a low stance, and a condensed aura of pure silver light flared around her body.
"Lurius Secret Art: Silver Flash."
She did not run. She simply vanished.
A split second later, she was standing perfectly still at the finish line, not a single hair out of place. The sensor let out a high-pitched chime.
[SCORE: 1,350]
A wave of astonished murmurs filled the room. Varian's face was pale.
"Impossible… That's E-9 speed… She's a monster."
Hannes nodded, a hint of approval in his eyes. He wrote down the score. "Exceptional. A true Lurius prodigy."
Nora ignored the praise and the stares, walking back to her spot on the wall. Her eyes, however, were locked on Luthra.
'He broke the strength machine. But speed is different. It requires precise mana control. This is where his lack of a mana circle will be exposed. He can't possibly…'
Hannes looked at his clipboard. "And last again. Luthra. Try to just run, okay? No weird tricks."
Luthra walked to the starting line.
'Okay, the system quest says I need to get at least E-10. That means I need a score. I can't break another machine. I'll just run normally. Not too fast, not too slow. Just enough to get a score.'
He took a breath and ran.
To him, it felt like a casual jog. He was consciously holding back, trying to moderate his speed.
To everyone else in the room, it was as if reality itself flickered for a moment. He was at the start, and then, without any sound or flash of light, he was at the finish.
The speed sensor at the finish line let out a strangled, glitching sound.
Bzzzt… crrrkkk… pop.
A thin wisp of acrid smoke curled up from its internal wiring. The display screen went blank.
Silence.
Hannes stared at the dead machine, then at Luthra.
His eye was twitching.
"...You have got to be kidding me."
He walked over and poked the sensor with his pen. It was completely unresponsive.
"Congratulations," Hannes said, his voice dangerously flat. "Your score is zero. Again. Let's just get to the final test so I can go to lunch and possibly rethink my career choices."
He gestured to the final piece of equipment in the room. It was a simple crystal orb, about the size of a human head, resting on a pedestal.
"This is a mana conductor. It measures the purity and volume of your mana output. Place your hand on it, pour in your mana. The crystal glows, you get a score. Varian."
Varian, who now looked thoroughly defeated, placed his hand on the orb. It lit up with a solid, if unremarkable, yellow light.
[SCORE: 550]
"E-2 rank mana," Hannes mumbled, writing it down. "Next."
The other applicants produced weak, flickering lights. One of them only managed a score of 45, barely enough to qualify as an F-rank.
"Nora Lurius."
Nora approached the crystal. This was her domain. She placed a single, delicate hand on its surface. She did not need to try hard. She just let her power flow.
The crystal erupted in a torrent of brilliant, blinding silver light. The entire room was washed out in its radiance, and the orb itself began to tremble, thin hairline fractures appearing on its surface from the sheer pressure.
[SCORE: 1,288]
"An E-8 rank output… a new record for a sixteen-year-old registrant," Hannes noted, looking genuinely impressed for the first time.
Nora removed her hand, and the light subsided. She gave her older brother a look that was a mixture of pity and triumph. 'This is it. This is the difference between a true Lurius and… whatever you are. You cannot fake this.'
Hannes sighed. "Okay. Luthra. Last one. Just… try not to touch it too hard."
Luthra walked up to the pedestal.
'My quest is already failed, so this doesn't really matter. But that old god said my mana circle was negative. I wonder what will happen.'
He placed his hand on the crystal orb.
It did not glow.
Instead, the opposite happened. The crystal itself turned a deep, light-absorbing black. The ambient light in the room seemed to dim, as if it were being drawn into the orb. The faint glow from the ceiling panels and the other machines flickered and died. A low hum filled the air, the sound of energy being drained.
The crystal trembled violently. The hairline fractures from Nora's test began to spread, turning into deep, dark cracks.
Hannes's eyes went wide with panic.
"What are you doing?! Get your hand off it, now!"
Luthra pulled his hand back.
The humming stopped. The orb was no longer a crystal. It was just a dull, black, cracked rock. It had been completely drained of all its inherent magical properties.
Hannes stared at the third broken piece of equipment, his face showing utter despair.
"Three… he broke three machines. In a single assessment. This is unprecedented."
He walked back to his little desk, scribbling furiously on his clipboard. He did not even look at the applicants anymore. After a minute, he stood up.
"Alright, the assessment is over. I've tallied the scores."
He read off the list. Varian was officially ranked E-2. Most others were F-rank. Nora Lurius was given a provisional rank of E-8, a stunning achievement that would make headlines.
Then he got to the last name.
"And Luthra…" He paused, looking at the man in cheap clothes with a strange expression. "With a total score of zero, zero, and zero across all three tests, you have successfully achieved the lowest possible result in the history of the Hunter Association."
He threw a newly minted plastic license card onto the desk.
"You are unrankable. But regulations state that anyone who completes the assessment must be registered. Congratulations. You are officially a hunter."
Luthra picked up the card. It was blank where the rank should be. At the same moment, a blue window popped up in his vision.
[Quest 'Prove Your Worth' has failed.]
[Objective not met.]
[Penalty: 50,000 credit fine will be deducted from your account.]
He felt his cheap phone buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out and checked his bank balance. It was 50,000 credits lighter.
'Ah, shit.'
---
In a space of endless white, the old man who called himself God was calmly sipping his tea. The simple wooden table and two chairs were the only objects in the infinite void.
Suddenly, a second figure shimmered into existence and sat in the chair opposite him. The newcomer was a man who wore the elegant, flowing robes of a powerful cultivator from a different world.
The cultivator smiled. "So, old friend. I was just passing through and thought I would check in. How is that special little soul we built the system for? Is he adapting to his new toy well?"
The god set his teacup down on the table with a soft, deliberate click. He let out a long, weary sigh.
"That boy… that boy is going to be the end of this universe."
The cultivator burst into hearty laughter.
"Hahaha! You worry far too much! A so-called 'monster' in your quaint little world of hunters is nothing in the grand tapestry of creation! In my universe, he wouldn't even have reached the Foundation Establishment stage! He is nothing more than a Qi Condensation weakling, an ant that any of my disciples could crush without a thought!"
The god did not smile. He looked his friend directly in the eye, his own expression becoming intensely serious.
"You do not understand. You have absolutely no idea what is truly sealed inside that boy."
He leaned forward, his voice low and firm. "His soul is a paradox. A fundamental error that this reality is actively trying to reject. The only thing holding it together is the seal I placed on his negative core. The 'power' he has shown so far? That is just the leakage. A one-in-a-billionth fraction of his true potential seeping through the cracks."
The god picked up his teacup again, but he did not drink.
"That leakage was enough to put him in the same level as D-rank hunters."
He looked at the cultivator, whose laughter had long since died.
"That 'Qi Condensation' level of power you so easily dismiss? That is just the vapor escaping the pot. You have no idea what is going to happen when the seal finally breaks and the real thing starts to boil over."