Infinite Mana in the Mage Academy

Many hunters were walking inside the hall. Some were buying skills, some were selling the monster core, and some walked to the second floor.

A long queue was at the receptionist's desk where a beautiful girl handled these hunters. I queued in line and waited for my turn.

After some minutes, I faced the girl.

"How can I help you, sir?"

She asked me politely.

"I want to get a hunter's license."

She nodded and took out a form. She took me inside the room which was behind the desk. A white room was there. I was taken to the chair and desk and asked to complete the form.

The girl left me there after explaining.

I filled in my details such as my name, age, awakened duration, bank information, and skill with its rank. After filling in the information, I rang the bell on the table.

Another girl walked toward me and took the form. She guided me to the center of the white room, where one could see the whole thing from the glass window above the white walls.

Two scientists watched me. The girl left the room, and I was asked to cast my spell.

Without wasting my breath, I cast an eclectic ball. When I launched my spell, and it hit the wall, the number displayed on the wall opposite to glass window increased.

1.

That was displayed, and I cast my spell again.

I acted like I struggled to cast further and made my breathing ragged so they would think it was limited. It is not like that I don't want to show my infinite mana, but I don't want the government to make me into their fighter and waste my whole life serving them.

The government here is made up of the strongest hunter, so no ordinary citizen nor many hunters could offend them.

After I stopped casting my spell, the number displaying wall flickered and F-rank was displayed below the number 2.

"Peak F, huh." The scientist had a neutral face as it looked like they had seen skill casting countless times.

"But it is amazing, as he awakened D-rank skill. Those people who start from D-rank skill rare."

I was given green light after they had written something in their notepad. I left the room and met the receptionist girl. She already had a card in her hand. I took the card and left the building. After exiting the building, I hurriedly looked at the card.

My photo, name, age, and rank were on the card. The card was made up of bronze, and as my rank will increase so will the card plating.

Gold, diamond, etc aren't that valuable. With skills, one even has the skill to turn metal into valuable metals. And the government had many employees with this skill.

I took out my cell phone, which was a touch phone. There were still signals, net, and other things. Well, the feature hadn't disappeared and the internet has become faster than before. There is no need for cell towers as technologies had advanced.

I just took it to look at the time. I don't have many friends, and I don't talk with many people. So, I have no one to call or chat with. I rarely use the internet and don't waste my time playing games. My life is as boring as one could imagine.

Strong hunters are rare in this remote city. There are countless small cities like this. The United Government had stated this whole world where human lives as a single country. 100 cities, two major cities, and one great city called Empire.

In small cities, B-rank hunters are the maximum one could find, and in major A-rank are common. And in a great city, which is Empire, all major government people and top hunters live there.

Rising hunter rank isn't hard. One could just increase their rank by collecting skill and absorbing cores that drops from the monster's body.

Monster corpse disappears in the dungeon and leaves cores, items, or skill books like in games. There is a limit of cores one could absorb. But there isn't a limit to the skill book. One could learn any rank skill, one only needs the required mana and they are good.

As higher the rank of skill they learn, the more cores they could absorb.

Cores don't come in variety though. From the information released on the web, when one absorbs core, they get points that can raise their stats.

I opened my status window.

[Allen]

[Strength: 10]

[Vitality: 10]

[Mana: ∞]

[Skill(s): (D- Electric Ball |5|)]

Hmm?

My eyes got attracted to the number in skill.

"I didn't realize, I raised my skill proficiency to level 5."

Raising skill proficiency isn't hard. Just by casting skill, the proficiency of skill will increase. But not all hunters had the luxury to increase their skill proficiency. Since they had a limited cast, they could barely raise their skill proficiency to level 2 in a whole week.

But, I raised it to level 5 in a day whereas it takes a month for others.

My lips curved slightly.

"Now, I should go to the dungeon. The F-rank dungeon nearest to me is Ape Habitat."

The Dungeon has 15 floors, with each floor filled with big brown apes 2 meters in size. On the last floor, a great ape 4 meters in size live. This dungeon is cleared regularly by parties of F-rank and E-rank hunters. There are rarely some casualties as this is the weakest dungeon. But news of hunters dying in this dungeon is common too. Life of a hunter isn't fixed and one could die at any time.

Party consists of mages, warriors, tanks, and healers. They all are different people having specific skills. Mages have skills like a fireball, warriors have put their cores on strength, and their skill is strength related, tanks put their cores in vitality and have skills related to defense, and healers have healing skills. Healing skills may sound normal, but it is one of the rarest skills. And a party having a healer always has mostly no casualties.

Every person has a specific task like tankers block the monster attack, warrior battle head one, mages support from behind and healers heal the person who is injured. If every one of them cooperates properly, there won't be any casualties in the dungeon.

Hunters except for mages have trouble with weapons. One won't just barge inside the dungeon bare-handed and buying equipment isn't cheap. A sword costs thousands of UG credits. UG credits are the currency of this world and stand for United Government Credits. So, newbies have to make it with an iron rod, pipe, kitchen knife, etc.

Even after clearing a dungeon, one couldn't expect skill books and items as they rarely drop. Only cores drop commonly.

The government buys all the cores, items, and skills from hunters if they want to sell them. Usually, hunters sell the cores after it has reached the limit. And they sell most of the items which aren't useful to them.

The government buys all of these in bulk and they have whole storage of skills, items, and cores. Military hunters that work for the government get to choose skills and items if they contribute to the government.

If you become a military hunter, you won't get to keep skill books and items obtained from the dungeon. But you can keep all the cores of your share.

If your cores reached the limit, you can exchange cores with skill books and items. That's the system of government that had attracted many independent hunters.

Hunter is a risky yet profitable job that has been the dream of many normal people.

**********

I reached my house and lay on the bed. I looked at the time, it was 11 am. I decided to go dungeon on 12. I hadn't eaten breakfast, so I cook my breakfast.

I watched videos related to dungeons on youtube. While eating, I got to know much information such as the weak points of apes, and where mostly apes respawn.

After a dungeon is cleared, the monster respawned after some minutes. And once the dungeon is cleared, the chances of dungeon outbreaks decrease by a ton.

After eating, I border a bus to the dungeon. Well, the bus directly won't go to the dungeon but it at least leaves near the dungeon.

I reached the dungeon.

My heart was pounding heavily thinking of the rewards I will obtain after clearing the dungeon. Since hunters enter the dungeon with parties, they had to share the profit, but I am alone, so I don't have to share my profit.

I would have all the cores, and I would get to keep skill books and items if they drop. Just thinking this, made my heart excited.

Hehe...

My face bloomed with a smile. I was excited to go to the dungeon while I was also nervous to face the monster as it was going to be my first battle. With excitement and nervousness, I reached the dungeon gate.