"Luci, appear!"
David's wrist started glowing red. The room was lighted up by the red lights. Pieces come through David's wrist and form a red human-like entity. When the red glow disappeared, there was a man standing before him.
"You should have called me before. I thought that you were gonna die from a heart attack." Luci's eyes were glowing red. "Also I'm gonna kick some ass after this. So let's finish it fast."
"What are you talking about?"
"That little man. You should've destroyed him… You know that's better I can destroy him since you didn't."
"You weren't in that mood in the morning. Why are you acting like this? Chill out, dude."
"We are in this situation because you are so chill!"
"That's incredible!! I have never seen such a skill before. He can talk!!" Turner was right beside Luci. She tried to touch him, but Luci acted fast and hid behind David.
"Keep your hands to yourself." Luci stared at her with a grumpy face. "Don't push my limits."
David realized the awkward air surrounding him.
"Oh, sorry. I need to meet you guys up. This is my summon Luci. He's normally calm, but he's acting weird for some reason."
"You know why."
"No, we're not gonna beat up that guy. Just let it go."
"Fine."
Carter was staring directly at Luci.
"How much are you gonna keep doing that? You watched my master all day, now it's my turn?"
Carter was fascinated by the things happening before him.
Just a second ago the creature was filled up with rage and killing intent. But it all disappeared after David's words. It's called David 'master', so David has control over him. Enough to control its thoughts and actions. He thought. "Sorry. I never saw summon intelligent as you. I was…"
"Trying to determine if I'm S-class or not. You did the same thing yesterday too. I wonder if you really have a skill that allows you to see classes, or it's just a lucky guess… Or maybe it's the experience speaking." Luci replied.
David smiled awkwardly. "Luci is an S-class too. I can see my summons's current classes. He's also the monster who's attacked me in the crack. I said that I defeated the monster but it was not completely true. I used my Summoner skill on him and it worked. I shared my knowledge with him using the skill, so he has his own separate personality and free will."
"How free is he?" It was the young woman. She walked closer. "Can he kill anyone he wants? Can destroy buildings for fun? Or maybe try to kill you in your sleep?"
Luci stared her with an emotionless face. He wanted to answer but he couldn't pick the right words.
"See… Luci is…"
David's sentence cut in half by Carter. "Let him answer."
Carter was watching Luci's reaction.
Luci let out a deep sigh. "I won't lie, I tried it but realized I can't hurt anyone weaker than me. As long as he didn't tell me to." He looked at David. "He's not kind of a person. So answer is no."
Others were amazed by Luci's response.
"So Luci, tell me about your skills." Turner said while taking notes.
Luci stared at David. "Like we planned. Hide the glitched ones. Also speaking from the link… Kinda cool right?" David had a large smile on his face.
"You look dumb with that expression." Luci replied. David's smile disappeared.
"Okay, here I go." Luci's right arm gloved red and a fireball appeared on his hand. "I have S-class fire control skill. Also, I have resistance to the S-rank or lower curses and mind-control spells. Those are the passive skills I have. As my active ones…"
"Can you tell names of the skills too? We need them since we're recording all of that information to the database."
"Born From Fire is the one that allows me to control fire. No Place in My Mind gives me curse resistance. Both of them are S-class skills. Tell me, you underdog is one of my active skills. Also an S-class skill. I emit black smoke while using it. It scares off beings around me. And I have the chains…"
"The chains? Is that the name of the skill? I mean names of the other skills were more interesting." Turner looked confused.
"It's called Destiny's Chains." David broke his silence. "Luci thinks that's a cringe name so he probably didn't want to say it loud." David smiled awkwardly. "Hey Luci, can you make your chains weaker? Just enough to fool Carter." David spoke through the link.
"It's bothersome… Here you go"
Luci focused his gaze on the ground and it started to glow red. 3 black colored chains with a pointy red end came out the ground. He guided them with his hand and stabbed them to the wall behind David.
"That's all. I'm hungry, buy me burgers." Luci walked behind David and he leaned his back to David's. Let out a deep sight. "This is bothersome."
"Here it is. That's all we have for now." David forced a smile.
Others were noting stuff to their papers. Carter came closer to David "I saw you using 'Tell me, you underdog' yesterday. Are you sure that you need to level up your summons, to use their abilities?"
"I… The thing is… I can use them without unlocking them but it costs 10 times more mana. Yesterday, I wasn't in my right mind so I used it without thinking further." David smiled awkwardly.
Carter put both of his hands on David's shoulders. "Don't do that again. Ever. Mana is the most important thing that awakeners have. If it drops below zero you die immediately." His eyes were filled with anger. But his anger wasn't towards David. He was mad at himself.
He calmed down when he saw David's confused face, his rage disappeared. "Let's not add that to the records. You can't use them without leveling up your summon, okay?"
"Okay… Can we go now?"
"Looks like we recorded everything. Sorry, we asked too much and tired you." Turner lifted her hand to shake David's.
David grabbed her hand and shook it. "I'm not gonna lie; I'm glad that it didn't take any longer. The guy behind me is about to eat me… It's a joke of course. Ha... ha... yeah..."
After a handshake, Turner and other staff members left the room.
"I will lead you." Carter walked past David and opened the room's door. David followed him.
"Normally we give a little education about cracks and stuff. The main reason for this is to protect lower-class hunters. Since you are an S-class I will send you the guidebook to your phone and pass the education part. I don't want to bore you with that."
"Thank you, sir."
They stopped in front of the elevator. Carter guided David and Luci to the private elevator.
"My room is on the second floor. I'm showing it to you, so…"
The elevator's door opened. When they left the elevator Carter turned his back.
"So, I want to be a person you can trust. I know how many thoughts are in your head right now. I want to help you. Just consider it at least. Having a person who's backing you is important in the world of hunters."
David didn't reply. Carter started walking and Luci followed him. David was standing still at the same spot.
"Hey, you told me to walk beside you. If you left behind how am I able to walk beside you?"
David smiled a little and started walking.
Carter opened the door with his name on it. Inside the room, the first thing that caught the eye was the shelf full of honorary plaques and numberless medals. There was also a box full of medals on the ground. He showed the seats beside his desk and sat on his desk. David and Luci sat in the seat he showed.
"Ahem… There are a few things that I want to say in private. First is, I want you to register every summon of yours as an awakener."
"You mean that Luci will be an official S-class too?"
"Yes."
"You are aware that I'm still a monster in my core, aren't you?" Luci replied.
"Yes. Look, I gave the last 10 years of my life to this association. We built this society from zero and wrote the rules to keep it together. I saw numberless awakeners, I fought beside hundreds of them. And you are more human than 85% of them. That's enough for me.
Also, it will be better this way. Normally, a crack raid needs to include at least 3 hunters and summons do not count as a hunter. This puts summoner-type hunters in a tight spot since finding more people for raids needs more paperwork. You will get more summons over time so, if we register them as hunters you can clear cracks just by yourself. Since you need to level up your summons to tame more monsters, you need to be in more raids than normal hunters."
"This would be useful. Also entering more cracks means more suitable summon options for the team. That's good thinking." Luci seems to be into this idea.
"Second thing is how I put it… It's about the New World Association. They are collecting high-rank hunters under their roof more than any other association. The way they do it is by offering them benefits that they cannot reject.
When cracks don't get cleared in time, monsters become aware of it and start passing to our dimension. We call this phenomenon a 'break'. When a break happens it causes big destruction, and worst of all it causes human lives to fade away. Normally a hunter needs to perform in 5 raids minimum each month to get a paycheck. In the last years, crack numbers have increased. Even 5 cracks in a month are not enough to keep creaks in check. But the New World Association hunters only clean 2 or 3 each month. Lots of hunters find this as a win so they join them instead of other associations."
"So, hunters are slacking off under their roof while people are in great danger." David's voice was cold. "I always find hunters amazing, thinking they are putting their lives on the line for the weak people. But in the last years, not only the number of breaks increased, hunters have become more like celebrities. The New World Association is the one who corrupted them huh; I should've realized it by now."
"I can't argue with this. It's true."
"They left us to die in that crack."
"About that…"
"I'm not a kid, Mr. Carter. I can understand things going on behind the curtains. I know that the S-class hunter never arrived at the scene. I didn't feel any S-class aura even after defeating Luci in the crack."
David took a deep breath and looked into Luci. Luci's faint smile turned into a grin. "You already know my answer"
"We won't be joining any other association. We will be staying as part of the Crack Hunter Association. And clear all the cracks until the people of this city sleep without fear."
David's promise wasn't an empty one. How many years have been since he felt like this? Carter felt his increasing heartbeat. This kid, he can be the one who's gonna bring him down… While he's thinking this, the door knocks.
"Enter."
It was one of the registration staff. "I've brought Hunter David Blake and Summon Luci Blake's hunter licenses."
"Thank you. Give them here."
After giving licenses the staff member left the room.
"I will give information about the rest of the procedure. You need to join 3 crack hunts and collect signatures on this license. Your summons do not need signatures since they are unique cases. After that, you will be an official S-class hunter. Since you have been in one crack and cleared it, I will sign the first box for you. You only need to perform in 2 more crack raids."
Carter signed David's license and extended both of the licenses to David. David took a little look at the licenses.
[Summon: Luci Blake*
[Rank: S-Rank
[Affiliation: Crack Hunter Association
[*Summon of Hunter David Blake
"Luci Blake huh, my surname fits you for sure." David extended it to Luci.
Luci took the license and looked at it for a while. "When did you guys take my picture?
"Everything that happened in the training room gets recorded. They probably take your picture from there.
[Hunter: David Blake
[Rank: Non-Official S-Rank
[Affiliation: Crack Hunter Association
David was looking at the license for a while.
"Ahem… There was one last thing that I needed to talk with you two. Acceptation Council. After you get 2 more signatures on this license, you guys will show up in the Council which includes S-class hunters and the minister. So if I were you I would start to determine my speech starting from today. Acceptation Council never rejects a promising S-class but still, I want you guys to succeed. Especially…"
"My father will be there. You already knew that minister is my father right? He and I don't have a normal father-and-son relationship. Our relationship is more like 2 foreigners stuck under the same roof. He probably wouldn't even care if I wasn't an S-class so, you don't need to worry."
Are we speaking about the same person? Doesn't he know how much the minister works just to keep him away from all this? Carter thought.
David stood up. "Anyways, we will be going."
Carter stood up as well. "Okay, thank you for your time." He took one of the cards from his desk and extended it to David. "You can call me if something goes wrong. I will do anything I can."
"Thank you for everything, Mr. Carter"
"We will be seeing each other more than enough so, see you around." Luci left the room before David did.
"That guy is still in the building isn't it?" David asked.
Carter had a confused look on his face. And then he realized. "You mean that awakener…"
"No need to panic, I will go and grab Luci before something happens. Have a nice day." David left the room in a rush.
Carter sat on his chair again. His eyes caught up to the photo of him and various hunters.
"I guess only his looks are similar to the minister."
He picked up the phone on his desk and called a number. "I need to talk to the minister. I know his current occupation is really important but, we have a Code 000 situation. Also, the one who's awakened is... Just tell him to call me when he's free. Carter out."
He took an empty form from the drawer and started to fill it. "I have a good feeling about this."
…