A/N: Noticed when I was writing this, how important the first phase was. SO I decided to keep the first phase in. However, The second phase was not important so I will be changing that. I am splitting this phase into two parts.

Enjoy! :)

Chapter 4: Confidence x and x Dauntless. (Dusk)

We entered a room with a table to fit all five of us. However, when our navigator left, the room moved.

"So it's an elevator." Kurapika said. I hold back my snarky comment I was about to make. That's when Leorio went on in a rant about how much money makes the world go round and blah blah blah. Kurapika all the sudden got angry and said that a Hunter should have honor and stuff. I really wasn't paying attention because all I could think about was how excited I was getting. Plus, I could feel all the Hunter candidates down there. They were intimidating, but I wasn't going to show I was scared. Dawn noticed the people too. Once we stopped and the door opened we were greeting by a whole bunch of eyes. Gon, being the very interesting person he is, decided to say hello to everyone. "Everyone," just snickered or ignored him. This guy who was dressed up, came up to us and gave us this tokens with numbers on it. He gave Kurapika, Leorio, and Gon, 403, 404, and 405 (in that order.) Dawn was given 406 and I was given 407.

"Are you guys' rookies?" Number 16 came up to us. Later he introduced himself as Tonpa.

"How could you tell?" Gon asked him.

"Well I've taken the test a lot and I haven't seen you guys before. Here," He offers us a drink, "Celebration for making it here!" He hands the drink to Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio. When he offers it to us, I take it and smell it.

"Don't drink it. He put laxatives in it." I say to them. Tonpa, who couldn't hide his anger at first, glares down at me. I stick my tongue out. "You can't fool my nose." Tonpa then looked the other three and tried to apologize but they weren't having it and left him. Dawn went to walk around but I stayed with Tonpa. "Forgive me but, I had to say something. I'd rather not have the people I made friends with and would like to fight someday not be able to take the Exam. If you can give me the details on the regulars, I'd be grateful." Tonpa, who was still mad, understood my reasoning. He told me about all the regular people. He also told me to stay away from number 44. His name was Hisoka… I'll take that into account. As I walked away, I noticed a kid Gon's age walk to Tonpa and grab a soda. He was number 99. When the kid moved away, I walked up to him. "You know it's poisoned right?"

"Yep! But I've been trained to resist poison. How could you tell it was poisoned?" He asked me. I pointed at my nose.

"I trained myself to smell odorless things. The names Dusk. My sister, who right now is talking to number 246, is Dawn. What's your name?"

"Killua. Nice to meet you!" He holds out his hand and we shook. I could feel how strong he was. I'd talk to him later. I go over to Dawn, who is super ecstatic about meeting Ponzu, number 246. They bonded pretty quickly since they seemed to be the only females taking the exam. While they were talking, some guy screamed. All of us went to go check out the situation and there the guy was losing his arms. Number 44, aka Hisoka, just said that the man should have said excuse me. Hisoka just eliminated one competitor, moments before the exam was about to start too. The space we were enclosed in expanded as we were greeted by the examiner. Satotz, the examiner, said that the first phase was starting now and to follow him to the second phase. Seemed easy enough… We all were keeping up the pace till Satotz sped it up. That's when we started losing people. Killua comes past me riding his skateboard. When he comes up to Leorio and Gon, Leorio says that Killua was cheating. Gon tells Leorio it wasn't an endurance test so Killua was allowed to do that. Killua, however, started to run. He decided to listen to Leorio and it looked like he wanted to talk to Gon. Dawn and Ponzu were running together and I was left running alone. Leorio lost his speed however and looked like he was going to give up. Gon, Killua, and I stopped and stared at him.

"Come on Gon, Dusk, let's just let him go." Killua says. However we stood our ground. After a while, Leorio zooms past us. Gon retrieves Leorio's suitcase and all three of us made our way to the end. Killua issued a race between us three. Loser had to pay for lunch.

"You're on!" Gon and I exclaimed. We reached a portion of stairs, Satotz decided to speed up even more. As we all adjusted the pace more and more people dropped out. I was glad to see Dawn and Ponzu still running together. They were able to run and talk at the same time, same as Leorio and Kurapika. When Gon, Killua, and I saw the end. We sped up our pace and when Satotz had stopped, all three of us crossed in front of him. We fought on who crossed first till Satotz told us that we crossed simultaneously. When the people who didn't give up arrived, the exit to the sewery place closed and Satotz explained where we were. The Numere Wetlands, better known as Swindlers' Swamp. We had to follow close to him or else we would die. Most of the creatures here hunt their prey through deceit.

"We'd be safe with Satotz." Someone said.

"He's lying!" Someone said from behind exit. A guy who looked a bit rough around the edges claimed that he was the examiner and Satotz was a Man-faced ape. He then pulled a man ape from near him that looked like Satotz… except it had a mouth. While Listening, I see Hisoka playing with his deck of cards. He was planning on throwing the cards… I could tell. I ready one of my knives. When I see Hisoka flick three cards at Satotz, I threw my knife at man and the Satotz impostor. I have deadly accuracy and the two fell in an instant. Satotz caught Hisoka's cards easily.

"A real examiner would have deflected or caught the kid's knives. Satotz here is a skilled hunter." Hisoka says. Satotz drops the cards.

"I'll take that as a compliment. But, if you attack me again for any reason, I'll have you disqualified for attacking an examiner. Understand?" Satotz says to Hisoka.

"Sure." Hisoka said. Satotz then allowed us to rest because we had more running involved. When I went to retrieve my knives from the apes, my eyes met Hisoka's…

Let's just say we both had the same smirk on our faces, and he knew it too.