"Did you hear that only one kid passed the Hunter Exam last year?"

"Yeah, the first challenge was to beat five opponents and steal their ID tags. He took out every single one of them and turned in all of their ID tags."

"What kind of monster of a kid can do that?"

"I heard that he made it to the final stage of the Hunter Exam two years ago."

"So if he didn't pass but he annihilated the entire group of applicants easily, what level are the other Hunters on?"

"I don't know, but that would explain the drop in applicants this year."

"Yeah, it went from over a thousand last year to only three hundred and sixty five applicants this year!"

I stopped listening to the conversation at that point. The two applicants standing to the right of me kept on chatting about previous Hunter Exams. "#96 and #265. No need to worry about them in the Exam's phases". I silently crossed them off from my potential list of rivals while I sat down on a log in an open air chamber.

My name is Zern Zalkalns. I'm fifteen years old. Although I come from a clan of samurai, children are not trained in the samurai ways until they are seventeen years old. Thus I haven't started my official grueling training yet. "However, I am still confident in my ability to take down mostly everyone else here." Contrary to most samurai, I was wearing a black hooded-cloak in addition to a black shirt and black jeans.

"Hey, buddy. How's it going? I haven't seen you around here before. My name is Tonpa. What's yours?" A chubby man looked at me with a broad smile on his face. I looked up into his eyes.

"I'm Zern."

"Nice to meet you!" Tonpa exclaimed with a annoyingly happy expression, "How about a little drink to celebrate out acquaintance?" He asked while holding out an orange can of juice.

"Sorry, but I'm a soloist. I don't take any help or favors from others so I will have no incentive to help them in the future." I glared at him while slowly taking out a switchblade until he uncomfortably turned around and walked away. I made a mental note to watch out for any future deception from him. "#36 on the watch list. Now there are 17 members as potential rivals." Just before I was about to review the seventeen rivals, a side door in the chamber opened up.

"Prepare for the first phase of the Hunter Exam!" A little girl exclaimed as she stepped into the room. "My name is Biscuit Krueger. I'm not big on formalities, so you can call me Bisky. I am your first phase proctor!"

"A little girl? I look older than she is! How can she be a proctor?" I exclaimed in my mind.

"Follow me outside for a journey to the start of phase 1!" she exclaimed happily.

"Wait, this isn't the first phase yet?" an athlete, #21, questioned.

"If it was, she wouldn't have said it, genius." I thought irritably. "How could someone that needs to ask that question possibly be on my list of rivals?"

"Well, we have quite a ways to go to get there, so let's set off!" she responded. She started out by jogging through the door. I waited until most of the applicants had made it through the door before I too set out to follow her.

After we'd been jogging for almost forty kilometers, a girl that looked to my age fell in with my jogging rhythm. "Seems she's taking us to that mountain in the distance." She mentioned aimlessly.

"Mhm."

"So….what's your name?" she inquired. I responded by accelerating until I was thirty paces ahead of her. "Hey!" she yelled angrily after she had caught up with me, "Don't you know that it's rude to walk away when someone is talking to you?"

"#232. She is on my rival list. Better if I stay away then." I thought before replying. "Don't you know that it's rude to ask someone's name before introducing yourself?"

"Well, I'm Alicia."

"Zern."

"Kern? What an odd name."

"Zern!"

"Oh. Well, that is still quite odd for a name."

"I think we're done here." I said with finality before jogging far past her. Thankfully, she did not move up with me and instead she kept her current pace. "She seems to have a fair amount of stamina, but she seems to waste some energy unnecessarily in her outbursts. She also seems to be quite strong, explains why she is on my rival list. Although, she seems to want to be friends rather than be enemies. That could complicate things. While I am fine with being enemies with everyone here, I wouldn't want to be allies with most of them. She would probably be an annoyance to me with constant talking. Although, her scarlet red eyes do seem to have more to them than what it seems at first. Her eyes gave me the feeling that she isn't all that talkative or shallow as she might let on. Plus, her brown red hair and red outfit are cute on her. Ugh! Why am I thinking of trivial things like that at a time like this?"

"Ugh. Sorry," I groaned as I bumped into the man walking in front of me. "Excuse me, but why have we stopped jogging?"

"It appears we have arrived after the seventy kilometer jog." The musician, #67 and also on my rival list, replied.

"I see that thirty six contestants have left the competition. Now let's see how many are left after the first phase is actually over." Bisky stated with a devilish grin.

"Ugh, not more!" the musician complained.

"Everyone take a shovel. You're objective is to…dig!"

"Wait, what?" I heard someone call out near the front of the pack.

"That's right. Dig." Bisky restated. "Each of you will take a shovel, and each of you will start digging in their own hole. Once you've dug deep enough, you will arrive in a large underground chamber, where the second phase of the Hunter Exam will begin. Now, everyone grab a shovel."

I proceeded to grab a shovel and return to a spot a few meters behind where I heard Bisky's announcement. Soon after, I saw that numbers #21, #67, and #232 prepared to dig near me.

"Hey you guys!" #21 said with a smile, "my name is Adam."

"Hi! I'm Alicia!" the peppy Alicia exclaimed.

"I guess introductions are a good start to a beautiful friendship. The name's Excallit." #67 stated with a huge emphasis on "beautiful".

"Zern." I whispered dully after a sigh while never looking up at the others.

"Sorry, he's not much of a people person," Alicia mocked. I responded by glaring at her while the others just laughed.

"Well, I'll look forward to seeing you guys on the other side!" Adam told us through a broad smile.

"I see that everyone has a shovel. That's great!" Bisky smirked, "Now, get ready to dig. You can start…Now!"