With that thought solidified, Klaus walked down the worn wooden stairs of his small inn.
The common room was relatively busy for the time of day, filled with adventurers and merchants. He didn’t bother to look around at the people milling about.
It wasn’t because he was actively trying to avoid eye contact, but more akin to an innate lack of interest.
Would a dragon truly bother to look at ants if they were scurrying around its feet?
His Aura of Contempt was subtly active, but his focused, unyielding stride prevented it from outwardly manifesting too strongly.
He came to the counter with a perfectly poker face, a neutral expression that bordered on annoyance.
He could make it completely devoid of emotion, a blank mask that betrayed nothing of his inner thoughts.
The innkeeper, a portly man with a perpetually worried expression, saw him approach and immediately thought,
"Why is he making that annoyed face? Will he now ask for a discount on the pretext of bad service? He’s a powerful one, but so demanding."
The innkeeper had grown accustomed to Klaus’s occasional strange expressions, though he misinterpreted them as general disdain for his establishment.
Klaus came to the counter and said, in a very controlled, low voice, "Checkout."
He spoke the single word with utmost precision, carefully enunciating it to avoid any unintended inflections that might betray his thoughts.
"Oh!" the shopkeeper exclaimed, realizing his misunderstanding.
He quickly took the keys Klaus had placed on the counter and, after a quick calculation, gave him the reserved money for the rest of the month, deducting the days Klaus had stayed.
"Found a house, young man?" the innkeeper asked with a practiced smile, now fully composed, getting used to Klaus’s seemingly disdain-filled expression.
He still thought it was just the arrogance of a powerful young hunter.
"None of your business, mortal," Klaus said, the words slipping out despite his best efforts to hold himself back.
The Aura of Contempt and Universal Narcissism traits had made it incredibly difficult to maintain civility towards someone he perceived as so far beneath him.
He immediately bit his tongue, literally, a sharp pain in his mouth, to prevent himself from speaking another word, lest he utter something far more damning.
He turned around sharply and left, his movements swift and silent, leaving the innkeeper standing utterly stunned behind his counter, staring at the empty doorway.
The innkeeper blinked, then slowly processed the words. "Mortal?" he whispered, a chill running down his spine. This was no ordinary arrogant hunter. He was the god of them all.
--- a few minutes later ---
Klaus stepped out of the taxi, the vehicle pulling away from the curb.
He looked up at the towering, modern facade of the hunter’s Association building, its sleek lines and polished surfaces reflecting the morning sun.
He then stepped inside, the automatic doors hissing open to reveal a bustling lobby filled with hunters of various ranks.
He navigated through the crowd with practiced ease, heading directly to the designated office for assessment-related cases.
He entered the office, a spacious room with several partitioned cubicles, and immediately saw Ria. She was the hunter who had earlier assisted him in his initial awakening assessment.
She looked up from her desk as he approached, her expression initially one of polite professionalism, but her eyes held a subtle, curious glint as she took in his appearance.
She looked at him as if he were a complete newbie.
"Hello, sir, how may I assist you?" she asked, her voice calm and measured.
Klaus, mindful of his newly awakened Draconic Pride trait, consciously controlled his expression and tone.
It was a constant, internal struggle to prevent the trait’s Aura of Contempt from manifesting too strongly.
"I want a reassessment," he stated, his voice flat but firm, devoid of any unnecessary inflection.
Ria, accustomed to the varied personalities of hunters, ignored his cold expression.
She maintained her professional demeanor and addressed him politely.
Her respectful tone made it slightly easier for Klaus to control his own voice and avoid any unintended condescension.
"May I see your card, sir?" she requested.
Klaus quietly handed her his D-rank hunter identification card.
Ria took it, her gaze falling upon the card’s details. Her expression subtly changed.
She remembered this face, this name this was the man she had assisted a few weeks ago, the one who had disappeared after his D-rank evaluation.
She then looked up at the man in front of her, scrutinizing his features.
His eyes, his hair, and his overall build had all undergone significant changes since their last encounter. His form was now distinctly V-shaped, his shoulders broad, and his waist narrow, indicative of powerful musculature.
His jaw was sharply chiseled, giving his face a striking, almost severe appearance. His hair, which had been dark, was now almost completely white, with only a few lingering locks of black, giving him an ethereal, almost otherworldly look.
It was not unheard of for a hunter’s appearance to change after a significant increase in rank and the addition of new skills or traits.
Mana circulation, physical conditioning, and elemental influences could subtly alter one’s physique. But still, this was too much of a transformation in such a short period.
Ria didn’t wait for any speculation to form in her mind. She simply gestured for him to move to a nearby table, where specialized equipment was set up.
Then, she drew out the biometric and DNA scanner.
The technology in this era was quite advanced, allowing for a full DNA scan and biometric analysis in a matter of seconds. It was not a magical process, but a scientific one.
Although these types of comprehensive scans weren’t typically conducted for F-rankers, due to the sheer number of F-rank hunters and the prohibitive cost of such analyses for the association,
they were standard for D-rank and above. This was precisely why Klaus had been able to start a new life initially, his F-rank status meant he slipped under the radar.
Klaus understood the procedure. He had to provide a blood sample for the DNA analysis.
The politeness Ria continued to show made it easier for him to control his Draconic Pride and comply with her instructions.
He bit his finger, allowing a drop of his blood to fall onto the designated plate of the scanner.
Ria watched the screen as the DNA results processed. They showed a 100% match, confirming that the person in front of her was indeed the same Klaus who had undergone the D-rank evaluation weeks ago.
But looking at his demeanor and attitude now, so cold and detached, she felt that his personality had undergone a complete change.
And since he was acting as if he was meeting her for the first time, she decided to play along, maintaining her professional facade.
She professionally stood up and told him to follow her.
They walked through a series of sterile corridors, past other testing chambers, until they reached the same testing room where his previous evaluation had been conducted.
He quietly lay down in the VR pod, the familiar hum of the machinery surrounding him.
He closed his eyes, preparing himself. It took Ria a few minutes to adjust the VR machine’s parameters, inputting his new D-rank status and setting up the advanced diagnostics, before the test officially started.
Klaus appeared inside the virtual realm.
The familiar, grassy plain stretched before him, and a translucent panel floated directly in front of him, indicating that he needed to make his choice of weapon.
Unlike before, when he had chosen daggers, Klaus now confidently chose a sword. A gleaming, perfectly balanced virtual sword materialized in his hand.
Klaus then stood on the ground, feeling the simulated breeze, as the weapon selection screen disappeared.
Ria’s voice sounded in the realm from the monitoring room.
"Mr. Klaus, do you want to restart the whole trial from the F-rank level, or should we start directly from the C-rank trial itself, given your previous D-rank achievement?"
"Will it make a difference?" Klaus asked, his voice flat, a subtle, annoyed expression on his face.
He was trying to convey, without explicitly saying it, "Isn’t it obvious? Why would I start from a lower rank?"
His Draconic Pride was making it difficult to hide his disdain for such a trivial question.
Ria saw his expression and felt a flicker of irritation, but she stuck to her professionalism.
"Sir, during the Guardian Academy entrance, your full assessment history will be reviewed. If you start from new in this assessment, then just this one is evaluated for your final score. But if you continue from your previous D-rank, then both the previous assessment and this one are evaluated together to give a comprehensive score."
Klaus thought, Well, that wouldn’t be needed, since I will undoubtedly score SSS-rank anyway.
The extra points from lower ranks were unnecessary for simply passing. But he did not say it out loud.
He just nodded and said, "From the start." He decided to maximize his score.
"Okay," Ria said, her voice crisp. "The trial starts in 5 seconds after you say ’start’." She gave him one last instruction before cutting the channel.
She slumped onto her chair in the monitoring room, a sigh escaping her lips. "I wonder what happened to this guy," she muttered to herself, rubbing her temples.
"Did his girlfriend cheat on him, or did he just have a really bad week?" She then looked towards the main screen, where Klaus had just declared ’start’.
A small, green goblin, the lowest-ranked virtual monster, appeared in front of him.
Klaus, without any wasted movement, simply made a straight, powerful slash with his sword.
The goblin was instantly decimated, dissolving into pixels before it could even complete its charge. This pattern continued for a few minutes.
Monsters of increasing rank appeared more goblins, then weak wolves, then low-ranked trolls and each one was effortlessly decimated with a single, precise slash from Klaus’s sword, offering no resistance whatsoever.
His physical strength, combined with his Apex Velocity and Natural Hunter traits, made these early encounters utterly trivial.
Ria, on the other hand, was now trembling slightly as she watched the display.
It was the turn of an A-rank monster to appear just after a few minutes of start. She had rarely seen such a rapid ascent in assessments.
In those rare cases, a person in their second assessment had usually managed to cross the S Rank.
Was she witnessing the birth of another monster, another legendary hunter? she asked herself, her professional detachment cracking.
An A-rank orc, a hulking, green-skinned brute, appeared in front of Klaus, its virtual axe raised, aiming to crush his head in one powerful strike.
But before its axe could even begin its descent, Klaus had already moved.
The orc was instantly cut in half, its body dissolving into pixels.
It had been too easy for Klaus, who felt like he was merely chopping meat in his kitchen, utterly bored by the lack of challenge.
A trembling voice, clearly Ria’s, sounded in his ears.
"Congratulations for reaching A-rank, Mr. Klaus! Will you like to proceed, sir?" Her voice was filled with a mixture of awe and disbelief.