"Alright then, hop in—uh…" Kevin suddenly noticed something off.
The fat man was simply too large. With the limited space inside the jeep, he took up the entire back seat on his own.
"No worries, I'll just sit up here," the girl said nonchalantly, waving her hand. She looked like she was already used to it.
She gave a light hop and landed on the roof of the car, casually swinging her legs over the edge.
The large man clambered into the backseat, filling it completely.
"I'm grabbing a delivery real quick," Kevin said as he hopped out. Moments later, he returned from the nearby security post carrying several packages.
"More materials?" Begel asked.
Kevin nodded. Aside from ordering supplies, there wasn't really anything else he needed to buy.
The vehicle started up again and made its way deeper into the nature reserve.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Begel Raghort, a Conservation Hunter."
"I know! You're the famous 1-Star Hunter who helped 1,361 endangered species recover their populations," Buhara said with a cheerful grin. "Menqi talks about you all the time. I'm Buhara, a Gourmet Hunter and Menqi's partner."
Kevin glanced over at Begel in surprise and nudged him with his elbow. "Damn, you're pretty accomplished. I had no idea."
Begel simply smiled, not making a big deal out of it.
Kevin turned back and said, "I'm Kevin. Kevin Carpenberg. A Hunter-to-be."
"What do you mean, 'Hunter-to-be'?" asked Menqi, who leaned over from the rooftop, hanging halfway into the car.
Buhara also leaned in, curious.
Only Begel, still driving, sighed in exasperation.
"I mean, someone who will be a Hunter in the future," Kevin said.
Silence filled the car.
"You're such a weirdo!" Menqi shouted, pulling her head back up with a grumble. She felt annoyed at having been tricked into caring.
"You haven't taken the exam yet?" Buhara asked, intrigued.
Kevin shook his head. "Not yet. Planning to take it this year."
"That's no joke. You think you've got what it takes?" Menqi asked again, poking her head in from the top.
"I'll give it my best," Kevin replied, waving his hand casually. "I think I've got a pretty good shot."
After all, if he failed the exam, he didn't even want to imagine how loudly Biscuit would scold him—something about shaming her name.
He had asked Zhong Wen before.
The Hunter Exam is designed to test exceptional people. Most participants don't even know Ten.
If someone already knows Nen, the difficulty drops significantly—unless they're sabotaged by the examiner or something unexpected happens, failure is rare.
Begel nodded. So long as nothing went wrong, Kevin should have no problem passing.
"I'm Menqi, Gourmet Hunter," she said, reaching down a hand.
Kevin reached up to shake it.
It seemed that Begel and Menqi were the only ones familiar with each other.
"I trained under Begel for a while after becoming a Hunter," Menqi added.
"Oh, that must be the mentorship program I heard about," Kevin said, glancing at Begel. He'd heard of it from Zhong Wen.
Begel nodded. "The Association assigned me to teach her Nen."
That comment seemed to trigger something in Menqi. She glared down at him and ground her teeth.
Without even needing to look, Begel continued, "At the time, I was working in a nature reserve in the Kakin Empire. She was caught poaching in another reserve."
"Lies! I wasn't poaching! I had a license! I was only hunting a dangerous rare species—not an endangered one!"
In many wild regions, there are highly dangerous creatures. Their numbers are naturally limited, and new species emerge constantly. It's often hard to classify how rare they are.
Hunters are authorized to eliminate threats, and many governments even commission them to do so.
This world is filled with massive natural zones, with cities nestled at the center. Whether it's due to the climate or the Dark Continent, strange and dangerous creatures are everywhere.
"As a Gourmet Hunter, I hunt to eat. It's part of the natural law. I don't kill without reason," Menqi said firmly.
Hunting for food, not sport—after all, a person's stomach can only hold so much. It was part of the food chain.
Begel didn't argue. He just muttered, "Gourmet Hunters… always the same."
Clearly, she wasn't the first one he'd encountered like that.
Gourmet Hunters seemed to be fairly common among Hunters in general.
"You know Nen?" Buhara asked Kevin, raising an eyebrow. From what he could sense, Kevin's aura was leaking upward like that of a regular civilian.
"I do," Kevin replied. Realizing what Buhara meant, he reached up and waved his hand through the air.
"You mean this?" With a flick, he dissolved the illusion, and the upward-floating aura vanished, revealing a tightly wrapped Ten around his body.
"That's so sneaky!" Menqi yelled, sticking her head back into the car.
Buhara looked confused. "Wouldn't maintaining that illusion all the time cause energy drain?"
The essence of Ten is to prevent aura from leaking out. It keeps the body strong, illness at bay, and even prolongs life. Constantly leaking aura, like a civilian, is dangerous for any Nen user.
What would be the point of learning Nen if you couldn't maintain Ten?
You'd barely gain anything from it.
"It's just an illusion," Kevin explained. "I keep Ten active and simply manipulate the aura above my head to look like it's leaking."
"Whoa?!" the two exclaimed in shock.
Neither of them had considered such a possibility.
Begel kept driving. He, too, had been surprised by Kevin's control the first time he saw it.
Even now, Begel himself couldn't maintain such a technique with Kevin's ease. It required incredible focus and concentration.
To do it all the time, and turn it into second nature—that took talent.
No wonder Jin Freecss took notice of him.
"You can really do that?" Menqi exclaimed. She had never seen anyone manipulate Nen with such ease.
"It's simple," Kevin said, extending both index fingers. Between them, his aura formed into all sorts of shapes.
A heart. A bear. A house. Even a blimp.
Menqi, who'd only been a Hunter for less than a year, was left speechless.
Buhara, who had only been one year ahead, couldn't do that either.
Begel understood well. Compared to Kevin's earlier illusion, this was relatively simple. With a bit of practice, anyone could learn it.
"Begel! Why didn't you teach me that!" Menqi shouted, her head popping back in by the driver's seat.
"You dummy! He's not my student!" Begel said, laughing.
"Huh? He's not?"
"Of course not. He's under Biscuit."
"Wait, you mean that Biscuit? The 2-Star Gem Hunter?" Buhara asked. Having been a Hunter longer, he was more familiar with the Association's members.
Begel nodded.
"She's famous?" Kevin asked curiously.
"Of course she is!" Menqi said, once again leaning over Kevin's shoulder.
"Are you a somersaulting mole rat or something?" Kevin muttered.
"They say tons of Hunters have learned from her. She's like a mother figure to many."
Kevin nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that's exactly what she's like."
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