Chapter 7: Overwhelming;Obfuscation

The last part of the assessment had the groups gather into a single large hall. They were lectured on the other basics of being a breaker. They were taught basic skills of a breaker. Inventory skills, especially, are very useful. The orientation also included the responsibilities, privileges, and the prospects of recruitment. It had the purpose of motivating new breakers to strive to get stronger.

While it was happening, the assessment team was swamped with analysis tasks. It wouldn't be this busy usually. But a certain individual has been adding workload to the assessment team over and over. Even now, they are examining the relic from the level zero field.

“The results show that it's a replica-type,” one of the analysts said. “There's nothing abnormal about it. At first glance, that is.”

“At first glance? What do you mean?” Estelle asked. In a sense, she was responsible for Q. He was more trouble than she initially thought.

“You said this is a [Kotetsu]?”

“Yes. That's what Q—Subject Q called it.”

“[Kotetsu] swords are many in existence. They are often faked. Even the original maker was unable to tell the difference,” the analyst elaborated. “Relics tend to refer to their lore one way or the other. It's a low chance but it's possible that this is a true relic masquerading as a fake.”

Estelle groaned and rubbed her temple. “Fine. We'll contact an exploration team to check the farther areas of the field.”

Thankfully, they can shift the workload to the archway exploration team. It was troublesome but there was some good news in all this. As far as it's known, only replicas should exist within level zero archways. Even in higher level archways, it's rare to find true relics.

One of the reasons why breakers aim for high level archways is to get equipment. True relics can sell for very high. A normal person can live off of selling one for a lifetime.

Estelle's main concern is the breaker in question. Q was an anomaly on his own. She was getting stressed. She has no idea what insight she can provide to the heads of the association.

It can only go down in two ways. One, their evaluation of him is favorable and promising. In that case, she would definitely be tasked with roping him into the association. Or two, they would see him as a threat and would try to remove him.

But she was uneasy. Something nagged at her. She felt that both of those options would end in failure. Q didn't seem to be someone they could tie down. Whenever she had the opportunity, she used her eyes on him. It felt like staring into an endless abyss. As the [Witch of R'lyeh], she was someone who had peered into the depths of insanity. But she couldn't comprehend him at all.

“For now, let's focus on the upcoming field orientation.” Estelle decided to set aside that issue for now. At this point, she was preparing for yet another outrageous incident. As with anything involving Subject Q.

---

“A-rank. I'm off to a good start.” Zeke was examining his license. After the last orientation for the day, they completed their registration. They were also given their licenses. Some of the candidates landed in F-rank. They had to undergo more training before they could be fully fledged breakers.

“You're really happy about that, aren't you?” A voice called out from behind him.

Zeke turned around and saw his childhood friend. He smiled and nodded. “Of course! I'm an A-rank breaker now. But that makes two of us, huh, Cait?”

“Well, I can't really leave you alone,” she said with a chuckle. “You'll probably get in trouble the moment I take my eyes off you.”

“What? I'm not that bad, am I?”

“You say that but you threw [Mjolnir] at someone, right?”

“Ah… t-that was, uh…” He fumbled his words and scratched the back of his head. “It's fine. That guy's pretty strong.”

“Eh? Are you sick or something?” She walked up to him and placed a hand on his forehead. She was a good head shorter than him. It was a cute and playful gesture, pretending to check for a fever.

“What?” He brushed her hand away and stepped back.

“You kept going on about being the best upcoming rookie, you know. You even blabbed about your class and title to the staff when we were applying.”

“W-well, yeah. I can recognize when people are stronger than me,” he admitted.

“Is he that strong?”

“Yeah. That's why I wanted to spar with him, you know?”

Zeke didn't realize this but there was a bright expression on his face. Caitlin smiled warmly. Healthy competition is good for growth.

“So you challenged him to a fight and threw a relic at him. Won't he think that you were being hostile or something?”

“Oh… Oh! Shit! I wasn't thinking about that!”

Caitlin giggled. From what she saw in the level zero field, it didn't seem to be that way. But she just couldn't help but tease Zeke. He has always been rash and headstrong. He was a battle junkie for sure. It was his competitive spirit in full throttle.

“It should be fine. You should clear things up when you get the chance,” she said.

“Yeah, well… uh… can you help me with that, Cait?” He pleaded.

“Hm… maybe~” She teased.

“I'll buy you cake!”

“Two cakes.”

“I'll buy you two cakes!”

“Fine, fine. I'll help you out.”

“Thanks, Cait! You're a lifesaver.”

---

“We apologize for the hassle. We found nothing abnormal with the relic. Here you go.” Estelle personally handed the [Kotetsu] to Q.

“Don't worry about it,” he said. He took [Kotetsu] and placed it in his inventory. “Thank you for your hard work. I'm sure you must have been busy.”

“Whose fault do you think that is?”

Q laughed. “Sorry about that. I'm still getting used to it.”

“Getting used to what, exactly?”

“Being human.”

“Is this about the whole million years thing again? Just what kind of weigh-in did you experience?” She sighed and shook her head. She was too tired to think about what he was saying. Was he being serious? Was he messing with her? She felt like it was both, which was more annoying.

“Something like that.” Q decided to leave it at that.

“Well, whatever.” Estelle's tone with him became less formal. “Tomorrow will be a field orientation. Make sure to get enough rest.”

“Ah… thanks. I'll keep that in mind.”

“You sound disappointed.” She noticed the lack of enthusiasm from him.

“I was going to ask you out for dinner but I figured now wasn't the best time.”

Estelle wanted to punch him then and there. She was blushing but she didn't feel like dealing with his mischief right now. She would have passed on the work to someone else but she wanted to deal with it on her own. She couldn't just trust anyone with his evaluation.

“I still have work to do thanks to a certain someone. I'll be taking my leave, Mister Q. Good day,” she bid farewell in a more formal manner. There was something about him that she couldn't figure out. It was frustrating.

---

“Everything is going as planned.”

Mysterious figures gathered near the area of an archway. It was the designated level one archway for field orientation. It was for new breakers to get used to actual combat with little risk to their lives. The enemies were considered weak enough for new breakers to deal with.

“Mutations are rare but not impossible, after all. It would be very unfortunate for a newbie to suddenly encounter one.” The leader of the group grasped a dark crystal in his hand. It glowed an eerie black light.

“What if we fail?” One of them voiced their concern. According to their informant, the target was a summoner. It was a class known for being the bottom of the barrel. Unfortunately, they couldn't get much more information. The [Witch of R'lyeh] was involved.

“We won't.”

That wasn't enough to assure them of the plan's success. Their previous attempt was supposed to be foolproof. After all, a civilian does not stand a chance against monsters. Even more so when that person was gravely injured. Yet, their target was somehow able to survive that ordeal.

“If the mutated monsters can't finish the job, we'll move in ourselves. We can't fail again this time.”

The other figures nodded. If they cannot afford to botch this mission. If they did, they wouldn't have much long to live. They don't have a choice.

They had people from the inside. It would be easy to blend in with the other staff members. All that's left is to isolate their target and finish the job. At worst, they would have to deal with the other newbie breakers.

But that didn't matter. They would just be collateral damage. They weren't afraid to get other civilians involved during the rift incident. They couldn't care less about the other newbies.

“This time, we'll make sure he's dead. We'll bring his corpse back if we have to.”