Dallion stared at the empty spot where Vela had been several seconds more. It was difficult to say whether he’d impressed her or not. The woman was masterful in hiding her emotions to the extent that even Dallion’s music skills weren’t able to see beneath her surface. Clearly, she wasn’t the leader of the province’s hunters for nothing.

“Just so you know, she went easy on you.” The other Dallion shifted appearance, morphing into the woman. “I’ve seen her have hunters retake the trial for less.”

“Did I make any mistakes?” Dallion asked.

The creature smirked. In the real world, it was a large building, home to all the hunters in the region. In this realm, though, the guardian maintained its true form and abilities—those of a copyette. Ages ago, the race had attempted to take over the world, but for some unknown reason had failed, ending up becoming banished as a result. Now, the only way they kept on existing was in the form of item and area guardians.

“Did I?” Dallion repeated.

“I could have cut off your arm,” the copyette said, tapping Dallion several times on the shoulder. “If I’d done that, you wouldn’t be able to heal or even shoot.”

“If you had, I’d have chosen another instance.”

“True. But you wouldn’t have won.” The copyette winked. “I didn’t say you lost. I just said that Vela would have had you go through the fight again. Anyway, get out of here and enjoy your victory.”

The copyette’s encouragement wasn’t the best. Then again, hunters weren’t the type that spent time encouraging others. In their line of work, only one thing mattered: was one strong enough to survive or not. Apparently, Vela had deemed that Dallion was.

A moment later, the vast open realm was gone and Dallion was back in the real world, the large hall of the hunter’s den around him. Vela was standing a step away, her hand on his shoulder. Several more hunters were there as well, fixing their armor, eating, or even snoozing.

“‘ow did it go?” a female dwarf asked, looking up from her stone anvil.

“Good enough.” Vela moved her hand away. “Go ahead and make his emblem. You’ll have to bless it yourself.” She turned to Dallion.

He nodded.

“Get some food, get some rest, then you can go through the request scrolls. There’s been some nasties out north. Pay’s not that good, but it’s enough to cut your teeth as a hunter.”

Normally, Dallion would be pleased. High level requests were almost always made by nobles or large trade organizations, earning tens or even hundreds more than the standard tasks Dallion was dealing with. It wasn’t uncommon for an established hunter to live well on three or four hunts per year. Dallion’s goal, though, wasn’t that, at least not right away. His profile was already much higher than he would have liked and even after spending three months being as quiet as possible, there were quite a few nobles keeping an eye on him.

“Maybe next time,” he said. “I’ve already got something going on.”

“Suit yourself.” Vela walked off without a shrug. “Just remember, you’re registered now. If someone requests you personally, you have to go.”

Dallion frowned. That was the price of becoming a full hunter—it earned him a lot of privileges in every town and city in the real world, but he couldn’t refuse direct requests, especially from the Tamin Empire.

“’ey, don’t worry about it,” the female dwarf said. “No one ‘as made a personal request in years. You’re more likely to fight a dragon.”

“Yeah.” Dallion forced a smile. In the last year he had fought a dragon twice, more if dragonlets were to be counted. “Where’s Eury? I’d like to return my apprentice emblem.”

“Off to the west. A big creature was sighted there, so she’s off to kill it and increase her rank.”

Euryale was a gorgon who also was Dallion’s fiancé. They had become engaged three months ago. Sadly, each of them had a different path to follow. Eury had gone to the hunter’s den in Linatol, while Dallion had returned to Nerosal. Since then they’d kept a long distance relationship through letters, but had never seen each other. Dallion had sent her a ring with an echo of him once, only to get it back a week later with an explanation that Eury didn’t like echoes. Strictly speaking, he was hoping to see her during his hunter’s test; she had promised to be there. Sadly, she was also very eager to increase her rank for some reason.

“I can give it to ‘er if you like?” The dwarf offered.

“Thanks.”

The fashion in which dwarves forged metal was very different from any other race. For one, they were the only ones granted the natural ability to shape metal with their bare hands. Instead of using tongs and a hammer, the dwarf put an ingot of sun gold on the stone anvil, rolled it to a cone, then gently flattened it to a thin sheet with her hands. After that was done, the dwarf gently folded the sheet like an origami. Her fingers moved so fast that they were one large blur. Several seconds later, the dwarf stopped, the emblem laying in the middle of the anvil.

“That’s unusual,” Dallion said.

“A thornflower,” the dwarf explained. “Very much like you. Beautiful to observe, but ‘old it too tightly and it makes you bleed.”

“Looks like it’ll make me bleed just wearing it.”

“Nonsense,” the dwarf laughed. “No emblem ‘urts its owner. Once you bless it, you’ll be a full ‘unter.”

Carefully, Dallion picked it up. On closer examination, it really looked like a bloomed rose only with every petal being a thorn.

Thornflower, he thought. Maybe he was that. Quite a lot of people close to him had gotten hurt. However, so had many who had underestimated him.

A thin layer of green light surrounded the emblem. The Moons—the Green Moon in particular—had acknowledged Dallion’s blessing, filling the emblem with divine power. From this moment on, he was a full hunter.