This should be at least a regularly-sized chapter. Sorry for that xD

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-The next day-

It was currently morning and everyone was packing their things to go to the rank-up test. Dan was staying in the apartment with Akina, but everyone else was leaving with Rose. Apparently she's done this three times now, although this will be her first time going as the representative instead of Akina. Everyone was taking suitcases and bags to hold their things because Rose had told everyone that rank-up tests are usually three weeks long, which leaves time for people to go back and celebrate Christmas or just to relax in general.

"Alright everyone, you ready?"

""Yea!""

After everyone was ready, they all got into a van and drove off. Rose was obviously the one driving, although Kyte and Shadow could've driven. But, since Rose is the temporary leader this time, she decided it would be best for her to drive. It would take a couple of hours to reach the destination, so she might switch out with someone else.

"So, you guys, how many of these have you gone to?" Kyte, who called shotgun, turned around and asked.

"We've all gone to two." Shadow was the one that answered. The four of them had been together for years and Shadow naturally came out as the 'leader' of the four. Mostly because the other three are too lazy and don't care.

"Hmm, so what's the test like?"

"It's kind of random. My first year the test was surviving the assault of as many Guardians as possible. The second time the test was a stealth mission. It could be anything this year."

"I see...it seems pretty straight forward."

After that, they talked about various things on the way there.

The rank-up test was taking place at the location of the hosting family - the Wux family. The Wux family, according to Rose, is the family that controls Sector 31. Their two eldest sons are within the main branch of Sector 31, and a few of their other children are within other branches. The head of the Wux family, David Wux, is the leader of Sector 31 and is currently the highest authority within Sector 31. This gives the Wux family a large amount of power not only in Sector 31 but also in other Sectors. Although other Sectors are lead by other families, each leading family has a lot of prestige and power. Of course, the Core League families like the White family and the Dawn family are exponentially more powerful. They're only able to keep their power because their descendants are too powerful.

Anyway, there are other minor families within Sector 31 as well. The family directly under the Wux family is the Tael family. They have actually been in a long struggle for power in Sector 31 but the Wux family has always come out on top. The family under the Tael family is the Cot family. And then other families are underneath them, and the authority just keeps diminishing.

Rose also said that the Wux family has always taken first and second place in the tournament. Their family power is to create small needles that can paralyze, numb, and destroy the body. Apparently, the strongest children with the hereditary power have been able to create various kinds of poisons within their needles, which is very versatile.

Shadow and the others also commented saying that the Wux and Tael family are both merciless when dealing with people that threaten their power as the top families, so be careful not to provoke them. Although Kyte turned a blind eye to that last part because he's not the same person months ago. He will not just sit there and do nothing while he's being beaten and cursed at. Plus, he doesn't a family anyway.

After a few hours of driving, and switching between drivers, they finally arrived at their location. It was actually a little ways off from the real rank-up test location because of security reasons regarding Guardians.

So, everyone got out of the van and walked into a regular grocery store. Rose walked up to the counter and showed a small golden badge to the cashier. The cashier immediately understood and silently passed a key to Rose before pressing a messaging button underneath the counter, signifying the arrival of another group of participating Gifted. Rose signaled to the others to follow her and they walked past the rows of products to a door. Rose used the key on the door and walked inside.

Inside the room were two people that had stopped talking when Rose and the others entered the room. One of them stood up and asked for Rose's badge, to which Rose showed it to him. He nodded and asked for the keys which Rose gave him. On the other side of the room was an elevator, and everyone walked inside. Rose pressed the down arrow and the doors closed.

After ten seconds the elevator doors opened and there were two more people stationed outside of it. Rose showed her badge once more, and one of the guards opened the door for them to pass through. Once through the door, Kyte saw a small subway train with the head of the train pointing to the left of Kyte. It had a steel-color which oddly didn't reflect any light that passed onto it.

As Kyte looked around he found a few other groups of people waiting in their own areas. All of them turned to look at Rose's group, and a few expressed faces of disgust while others simply indifferently looked away. Kyte could see a few of them wearing shortswords and longswords across their backs, but he doesn't know why and where they got them.

Maybe some of them have powers pertaining to swords? Is that possible?

"Hey, Rose, why did some of those people look at us like that?" Kyte obviously noticed those rude stares and he felt like doing something. However, he knows that that would not be the right thing to do. He silently reminded himself to only attack if he's blatantly provoked.

"Don't worry about it, everyone that attends the rank-up tournament will naturally create a few enemies. Of course, we have as well. Shadow and Light are pretty lethal in their attacks so most of those stares are probably toward them."

Kyte didn't notice until now but everyone was wearing a sort of badge on their chest. There were different colors pertaining to each rank. For example, one person would be wearing a silver B badge while another would have a gold C badge. Kyte looked at Rose and the others to find that they too were wearing their own badges.

I feel kinda left out...

Rose saw Kyte's slightly disturbed gaze as he looked around. She slightly smiled as she stopped a laugh from escaping her mouth. She walked up next to Kyte and patted his shoulder, saying:

"Don't worry, you'll get your rank soon. Besides, I highly doubt you'll get a low rank."

"Yea, I guess so. I just don't know how strong the other participants will be. I don't even know what the test will be like."

"Hahaha, don't worry about it. Everything will be explained in detail once we get there."

"Right, so when do we go?"

"There's still one more group that has yet to arrive. The last branch is from Lailer city-"

Just then, the door opened once again. Several people walked through the door and the person in front was a tall, muscular man. He had blonde hair and eyes that looked like gold. He wore regular jeans and shoes but he coupled that with an expensive-looking hoodie. His hair was short but it was long enough to for him to create a normal fo-hawk. It looked a bit weird at first, but the more Kyte looked at him the more it suited him. The man also looked to be in his twenties, not much younger than Rose.

The people behind him all looked at Rose's group with disdain. One or two of them didn't even bother looking at them.

"Hahaha, we're here. Hm? Where's Akina and Dan?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Aww, is that how you treat me? We used to be best friends back in the day, Rose."

"Yea, right. If you think harassment is friendship, then yea."

"Don't put it that way. I was just trying to have some fun!"

"Trying to kidnap me isn't a form of fun, Seeker!"

"Oi, stop trying to antagonize me. You're the one that came after me first, slut." Seeker stepped toward Rose but Kyte quickly moved in-front of her.

"Hm? Who's this kid?"

"I should be the one asking that question." Kyte stared directly into Seeker's eyes without a hint of fear.

"What'd you say? Do you even know who you're talking to?"

"I have no idea. And actually, I don't want to know. I can already tell that you're an asshole."

Seeker's eyes shown a dangerous light that quickly disappeared. He knew that any fighting within the transportation area would be immediate expulsion out of the rank-up test. With the benefits that come with ranking up, he definitely did not want to waste the opportunity for his subordinates to rank up.

"Hmph. Keep talking. That mouth of yours will be bashed in after you get beaten to the ground."

"I'd like to see you try."

"No can do, kid. Fighting in here means expulsion. Being too eager to fight can only be seen as a sign of immaturity."

"I'd like to hear you say that again when I stomp you under my feet."

Seeker emitted a terrifyingly strong aura that shot toward Kyte. He immediately felt pressure the size of a mountain crash down on his shoulders. He used all of his strength to stay standing and not fall to his knees. Rose put her hand on his shoulder and a faint red energy covered his body. Slight traces of a black light appeared among the countless particles of red, though they were too little to be noticed unless one was intensely focused.

The pressure on Kyte suddenly felt a lot lighter. He could feel the warm, red energy smoothly cover his entire body. He also felt that similar energy from his black light within it. It was only natural that it was there, considering how much energy Rose absorbs from Kyte on a daily basis. Due to that, Rose's energy greatly increased over the last month. The Rose now could easily defeat the Rose from back then. The strength of her energy increased that much, but on a broad scale its increase was quite small.

When Seeker saw that red energy and the fact that Kyte was no longer feeling any pressure, he retracted his aura. He was actually surprised when he saw that Rose actually defended against him. He knew that Rose was a regular Gifted and that her energy never did increase over the time that he knew her. However, what he doesn't know is that Rose is actually a Special Gifted. Due to absorbing all of the energy from people when she was younger, she accumulated a lot of power beforehand. That's why she was at bronze A rank when she joined Akina's group. What he didn't know is that the energy from Kyte's black light began to change Rose's energy.

But now, due to absorbing the incredibly strong energy from Kyte, Rose went up to silver A rank in power. She would have to attend the leader rank-up test in order to get her actual silver A badge though.

Although Seeker had only used about half of his actual power, he was still surprised. He himself has a silver S badge, but in terms of power he should be a gold S rank. He had retracted his aura right when he felt it being blocked off by Rose's energy, mainly out of pure surprise. Comparing Rose's power from back then to now caused Seeker to be amazed. He thought that there might be a way to increase a regular Gifted's power, but then he quickly threw that thought away.

"Oh? That's interesting...Hahahahaha, you've shown me something good, Rose. One surprise after another. I can't wait to see what else you have, if you have anything at all. It's always been so boring in the past, so weak. Hopefully there's finally someone good in your group."

Seeker and his group walked past Rose and Kyte. Rose had nothing to say because it was the truth. Besides, Seeker's branch always came out on top within these few branches during the rank-up tournament. Kyte had never even experienced the rank-up tests so he didn't have anything to say back at all. Plus, he has no experience with that sort of talking in the first place so he wasn't confident at all.

What he was confident in doing was stealing first place. He knew from the battles with Dan that he was in the A rank of power, just not which section. So, during this rank-up test, Kyte will definitely witness how much power he actually has. He also wishes to finally use his full power, along with using the mysterious black light.