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nThirty minutes later, Keith was still moving around the rune circle and not a single puppet could touch him. In the end, he managed to clash all the puppets together by repeatedly appearing in the right spot.

nPlop! Plop!

nAfter thirty minutes the puppets dropped on the floor and the rune formation was deactivated. Keith leisurely walked outside of the formation.

n“I passed the test, right?” Keith asked.

n“According to the rules, yes. But you didn’t stay at a single place and used your strength, so the rune formation couldn’t calculate your absolute strength.” Miss. Shaw said with a shrug.

n“I’m fine with that. I didn’t want to display my full power here anyway. So what is my absolute score?” Keith eagerly asked.

nMiss. Shaw took out her rune card and it displayed a three-character sign. She read the report and sighed. It was a great performance, but she didn’t get the chance to witness Keith’s limit.

nHe only showed the surface of his powers.

n“Adjusting all the variables, your final absolute strength is 132. This combines your speed, physical power, amount of blood-qi, and a dozen other variables to come to this number. This score generally means the student is a viscount.

n“Your blood-qi level is the most useful thing you revealed during the test. So the runes calculated the score based on that. You are estimated to be at the early stage viscount. Barely passed the threshold.” Miss. Shaw observed Keith’s reaction.

nKeith’s response was normal as he didn’t show any surprise. He shrugged and moved on to the next part.

n“So when am I going to get the license? I need it as quickly as possible.” Keith looked at Miss. Shaw.

n“I will give you your license right now, but you have to answer some of my questions?” Miss. Shaw looked at Keith curiously and said.

n“Uh… Is that supposed to be part of the test?”

nKeith was confused because he never heard of a verbal test for the hunter’s license. It measured the vampire’s strength and not the communication skills.

n“No, it’s not. You could say, it’s my personal curiosity. Don’t you want to curry favor with the person in charge of the hunter affairs, hmm?” Miss. Shaw asked Keith with raised eyebrows.

n“Your personal curiosity? What is that to do with me? Forget it, ask whatever you want, but let me remind you, I can’t say any important information regarding my family and the blood-qi techniques.” Keith warned.

n“I was going to ask about your family, but it’s not about the secrets. I want to know if you know someone. Brad Ennes, do you know him?” Miss. Shaw asked.

n“Uncle Brad! How do you know him?” Keith was surprised to hear that name here.

n“Naturally, we were friends when we attended the academy together. Your moves reminded me of him, so I had to clear the doubt, turns out you are his nephew.” Miss. Shaw smiled in response.

n“So that’s how it is, You two were friends back in the day. How come uncle is so weak compared to you?” Keith asked bluntly.

nHe remembered his uncle’s strength was at the final stage of Viscount when he was fighting his uncle. He was holding back considerably against Keith, but to the current Keith, his strength was nothing special.

nKeith felt he could defeat his uncle now.

n“Brad is weak? Who told you that?” Miss. Shaw looked at Keith strangely.

n“I used to fight with him at the family arena. He was only a final stage viscount, whereas you are an early stage marquis.” Keith said.

nHearing him say this, Miss. Shaw’s eyes twitched.

n“That can’t possibly be true. The last time we parted ways, he was already at the count level. I don’t think his blood core just reverted back to the viscount level. He was not a freak like you, but he did get into the esper department. We met each other in the second year when his isolated training finished.” She started reminiscing about the past as she explained the events.

n“But that was decades ago, I’m sure he is at an equal level as me or even higher. If you fought him, you know he could use blood esper techniques.”

n“He did show me a demonstration, but never really used it in a fight. He was really skillful in the technique though.” Keith said remembering the explanations his uncle used to make.

n“Maybe he was suppressing his strength, or you couldn’t detect his blood core because of your lower blood core level. I assure you were below viscount then.”

n“Yes, I was at the early stage of baron,” Keith replied, nodding his head.

n“That explains it. But I don’t understand why he would keep his strength a secret from the family. He said his brother disappeared and the position of the leader is empty. Is he the leader of your family now?”

nKeith stared blankly in response.

n“Uh… he is not the leader of my family. In fact, my grandpa who was the previous leader took the spot temporarily and I was selected to take that spot later.” Keith answered.

n“You are the next leader of the family, hmm… I wonder what he’s up to?”

nMiss. Shaw was immersed in her own thoughts but a question from Keith snapped her out.

n“Miss, he never shows himself at the family gatherings but always trains in the family arena. My grandpa also never talks about him.”

n“I remember him as a cheerful guy who got along with everyone, except his enemies. He would spare no effort to get rid of them. At least we are in the same position albeit I rarely visit my family.”

n“Same position?” Keith looked at her with a confused expression.

nSeeing him like that, Miss. Shaw sighed and explained it to him.

n“I am the strongest in my family, and my father wanted me to be the leader. It would elevate the status of the family as I am the first descendant to ever reach the marquis layer. But I rejected him and left my family to pursue higher strength. At least my brother is talented enough so I don’t have to worry about my family’s future.”

nKeith now understood what he meant to say. Both his uncle and Miss. Shaw were the strongest vampires in their respective families, but both of them didn’t take the position of leader. In the case of Miss Shaw, she didn’t stay with her family and left to look for better opportunities.

n“Here, take this. Let’s keep in touch. I have something important to attend to, so stay alive till we meet again.” Miss. Shaw handed Keith a shining red card which was slightly shorter than the student identity card.

nAs he tried to take the card from her hand, she flicked it.

n“Give me your rune card.” She asked Keith for his student identity card.

nBeing clueless, he showed her the rune card. Then she tapped the hunter license card on top of the student id card and it assimilated inside it.

n“There you go, now whenever someone asks for the hunter license, show him this and think about the hunter license. The shape will change and it will turn into the license. Got it.” Miss. Shaw said sharply.

nKeith nodded and the next moment, her figure vanished in front of him. Only the young receptionist, who was watching this from the sides, stood there as if nothing happened.

n“Do you want to take a mission right away or later?” The young man asked.

n“What time is it?” Keith checked the time through his rune card and it was barely noon, so he had plenty of time.

n“I want to see what kind of missions are there before deciding,” Kieth replied.

n“Come with me.”

nKeith came out of the test chamber with him and the doors automatically closed and many extra layers of protection were activated as they got out. Keith took note of the rune formations and where they were placed. It will come in handy if he decides to come here again.

nThey made their way to the reception hall. On the opposite side of the counter, there was another short corridor that led to a different door. The young vampire pointed to the door and said to Keith.

n“That is the waiting room for the hunters. When hunters are waiting for a re-evaluation or payment for your missions, they stay there for some time. You will find all the active missions on the four boards in the middle of the room. I have all the copies of the missions so you don’t have to find them yourself.”

nThe young man took out a large book, twice the size of his elbow and placed it on the table.

nThud!

n“This book right here, stores all the missions of the past and also the new missions granted by the academy and vampire council. There is also a master record in Miss Shaw’s office that is even more detailed but we’ll talk about that some other time.”

nHe opened the book in the middle and the bend in the middle turned flat. It showed the missions in the order of difficulty and how many hunters were required for the job.

n“The missions are divided into three categories. Easy, medium, and hard. You might think the hard missions must be really dangerous, and you would be right. But all of these missions are for students who are below Marquis level. The hunters at the marquis level or higher are transferred to the vampire council as they manage their missions.

n“Well, originally hunters were employed by the vampire council so we are just a branch of the main hunter’s division of the council.” The young man explained.

n“At the end of the day, everything traces back to the council,” Keith mumbled.

n“Pardon me?” The young receptionist was confused by his response.

n“Nothing.” Keith skimmed through all the missions to find something suitable for him.

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