The next morning, Khourhatin practised his Inferno Sword Form. He pivoted to the left, letting Sorisana's blade thrust a few inches past his nape. He spun to the right and slashed at her. She wrenched her head back. It hissed through the air in front of her nose. He continued to spin. He slammed his foot on the ground. He kicked down and jumped up. He continued to spin mid-air. He forced that momentum into another spinning strike. His sword blurred as it spun at her left. She yanked her sword up to block. But the strike was too strong. Her entire body wobbled when their blades crashed together. Her fingers spasmed. She winced. Her sword flew from her grasp, spun above them, and stabbed into the grass.

  Sorisana whistled in admiration as she walked over to her sword. "I really need to learn that Sword Form."

  "After you've learnt that one, I think you would've mastered all of the Novice Sword Forms," Khourhatin said .

  She nodded as she grabbed the hilt of her sword. "That was the same for you, until now that you've mastered them all. You gonna try some Adept Sword Forms now?"

  He chuckled. "Emphasis on the word try."

  She snorted. "Finally I'll get a chance to land a hit on you."

  They faced each other, preparing to spar once again. He bent his knees, raised his sword over his shoulder, and pointed it at her, readying his beginning stance for the Inferno Decimation Sword Form, an Adept Sword Form.

  She ran at him. He jumped, letting her blade slash at the air below him. He flipped over her blurring sword. He landed on the grass, slipped, staggered, and then tumbled onto the ground. He fell on his face. Frustration boiled in his stomach.

  Sorisana tapped her sword against his back and giggled. He blushed, sighed, and dragged himself up to his feet. She tried to force down her chuckle. "Sorry, I know that it's a difficult sword form but…" Another chuckle escaped from her forced frown. "Seeing you fall on your face like that was pretty funny."

  He shrugged. "Well I guess someone can find entertainment in my mistakes," he said. falling back into his stance. "You should be thrilled because unfortunately for me, you're gonna get a lot more."

  "I can't wait," she said before falling into her own stance.

  They continued sparring for six more hours. Each time Khourhatin attempted the Inferno Decimation Sword Form. But he failed to complete the first step, a front flip over the opponent's sword, each time. There were four more steps in the Sword Form left to master so failing to master that step after a whole six hours worried him.

  He wanted to keep practising it more and go beyond six hours, but that's all the sparring he scheduled for himself that day. He had eight hours of meditation to do. The first four hours would be relaxing. He looked forward to that. The four hours after that however oozed dread through his stomach.

  After practising their Sword Forms, they both walked to the Monster Hunter Sect's F-rank residential area to eat their daily rations of aumanas seeds and their daily lunch. All the F-rankers had were small and ramshackle wooden shacks shoved next to and stacked on top of eachother. Each conglomeration of shacks had their own hole in the ground to shit and piss in. But just like everything else in the F-rank residential area, no one bothered to clean it or maintain it, so each hole in the ground smelled up the entire place.

  But despite how cramped his own shack was, how small the pile of straw was that acted as his bed, at least it kept him sheltered from the rain and was within the boundary of the Monster Hunter Sect so there was no chance of a monster attacking him in the middle of the night. Before joining the sect he spent most of his time sleeping in forests and caves when he couldn't sneak into an Inn. So his living circumstances now were amazing in comparison.

  But it was hard to be grateful when he'd glance ahead of the F-rank residential area and see where the E-rankers lived and slept. It'd be a dream come true if he could live like them. But he didn't. So he shoved down his aumanas seeds and lunch of a single loaf of bread down his throat, and brusquely marched out of the training ground and to the Mission Hall. He met up with Sorisana beside the archway. They both entered together.

  With hope in his heart, both of them checked the job boards, wishing for some F-rankers to have signed up for a mission. They pushed open the double doors. They marched inside. They looked at the job board across the hall, both of their eyes sweeping across the F-ranked job adverts.

  His eyes landed on one. Four slots. Two F-ranked monster hunters filled them. Another monster hunter walked towards it. Khourhatin kicked off of the floor and ran across the hall. Sorisana followed with haste.

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  The man who walked towards it turned and noticed them. Khourhatin recognized him. Blonde wavy hair, sparkling green eyes, and a fury fuelling constantly smirking mouth. His name was Almon if he remembered correctly. His fists clenched, ready to punch the bastard at the sight of him. He vividly remembered Almon chuckling off from a mission with all of the Hunting Tokens available for a mission Khourhatin and Sorisana went on a couple of months ago. Cocky scumbag. He refused to let him snipe this mission as well.

  His head cocked with confusion initially, but then his eyes widened when he seemed to probably recognize Khourhatin and Sorisana and figure out what was going on. He ran for the job board.

  Other monster hunters in the hall chuckled at them as they plunged past them, amused by them fighting over an F-ranked job. But Khourhatin didn't care. He needed to sign his and Sorisana's name down on that job board at any cost. He gripped his sword, beginning to pull it out of its sheath. If he needed to fight for it, then he'd gladly do it. He wouldn't kill over it, but he'd gladly knock out a few fools.

  Unless Almon got weaker since they last met, he doubted he was strong enough to beat him in a fight, but as long as he could distract him long enough for Sorisana to sign her and hopefully his name down then it'd be fine.

  But an orange glow enveloped Almon's body. A thud echoed across the hall when he kicked down at the ground and launched himself towards the job board.

  Khourhatin kept running, but Sorisana slid to a halt. She had more sense than him. Outrunning him was hopeless. By the time he reached the job board, Almon already signed both spaces. Another person's name was in the fourth slot. Presumably a friend of his.

  Almon snickered at the sight of Khourhatin, grimacing at the fully signed job advertisement, and strolled away. Sorisana stepped up behind Khourhatin and gazed across the rest of the F-ranked job adverts. All of them were either too far away, fully signed, or signed by high ranking monster hunters. Ridiculous system.

  "Why don't we just stay in this hall all day?" Sorisana asked. "If we did, we could've signed up for that advert before Almon."

  "We can't spar, meditate, and camp here all day at the same time," Khourhatin said.

  "We could've got a decent amount of Hunting Tokens from that mission as we are now. Do we really need to train?"

  "Decent isn't enough," he walked towards the Mission Hall's exit. "At least not for me. Training is the biggest priority for me right now. Hunting Tokens is second."

  She shrugged and followed him. "If you say so. It would be pretty boring to stay here all day anyway."

  He snorted. "That as well." He pushed open the Mission Hall's doors and stepped into the lobby. "You gonna come to meditate with me?"

  "I'm gonna head down to Yeul's."

  "Really? Don't you want to get stronger?"

  "I don't want to burn myself out like you inevitably will."

  "No chance."

  "Besides, a lot of Monster Hunters go to Yeul's, especially F-rankers. I'm gonna try and make some friends there."

  "Becoming stronger is more important. Even if we did find another F-ranker and went on a job with them, they probably wouldn't be weaker than us." He walked towards the door that led to the White Meditation Hall. "They'd be just as strong as us. Unless we sabotage them during the mission, then they're still gonna get a third of the earnings from the mission."

  She shrugged. "Better than what we'd get from an E-ranker."

  "But don't you want something more than just F-ranker money?"

  "I do." She stopped following him and stood still. Her face hardened as she grimaced at the floor.

  "The only way to do that is to meditate and get stronger."

  "I do want more." Her face softened. She smiled and turned towards the lobby's exit. "But I don't want to do what I know is necessary to get more."

  He sighed as he stared at her walk away. "Fair enough, I guess."

  They both went their separate ways. Sorisana went down to Yeul's. Khourhatin, however, went straight into the White Meditation Hall. He was disappointed with her refusal to meditate, but he maintained hope. He saw her hesitation. She'd learn to focus eventually. He just needed to focus on himself.

  So he entered the meditation hall and began meditating.

  The first four hours of his meditation was relaxing as expected. But the closer the four hour sand timer got to finishing, the faster his heart raced. Beads of sweat formed on his temples. His body knew what was going to happen.

  His heart jumped when he looked down at the sand and saw that time was up. But his heart leapt and rattled when he flipped the sand timer over and restarted meditation. He thought he would eventually get used to the pain, but it was Hell, just like the last day.

  Everything around him moved as slow as a snail. He saw each individual grain of sand fall within the glass. One second felt like ten minutes. One hour felt like four. Four felt like sixteen. And after that excruciating experience, all of the sand fell. It was finally over.

  Relief like he never felt before flooded every inch of his body and mind. Layering on top of that euphoric feeling, he stared at the glowing mana that enveloped his body. It was different. It was bigger. It was heavier. It was brighter. He felt a bit stronger. His skin felt a bit harder. Distant sights seemed clearer. The world appeared more vibrant and detailed. But most importantly…

  … tiny sparks of yellow occasionally flashed between the strands of glowing white mana.

  Khourhatin smiled wider than he had in a while. He didn't truly have yellow mana yet, but it was only a matter of time.