Sister Aisha's visage turned serious upon hearing my question.

"Why do you need an awakening license, Brother Raj?" she asked.

"I-I'm just curious, as I would need it sooner or later," I said, averting my eyes.

"Really?" she inquired further, glaring at me.

I nodded, a bead of sweat forming on my temple as I tried to hide my true intentions.

"To get a Hunter's license, you need to graduate from the National Awakener Academy."

"Academy? Do I have to join a college again?"

"It's something like that. Awakeners are rare and necessary assets of a country, so to avoid their senseless deaths, all nations created academies specifically for awakeners, where they train them on how to use their powers properly."

"Did you also train in that academy?" I asked, curious.

She chuckled at my foolish question before replying, "Blessed awakeners were directly given their licenses, as at that time there wasn't anyone capable of testing the abilities of blessed awakeners."

"Lucky for you," I stated with a sigh before asking, "and how many years does it take to graduate from there?"

"It all depends on the individual. There are awakeners who have been in the academy for the last four years since it was created, and there are also people who graduated within a week."

"A week!?" I exclaimed in shock.

"Are you curious about who it is?" she asked with a faint smile. "You know that person."

"I know them? Who is it?"

"It's your crush, Saya. But nowadays, she is called Shadow Monarch!"

Her revelation confused me even more than how she knew that Saya was my crush.

"But isn't she one of the blessed awakeners?"

"Yes, she is, but she didn't reveal her powers until a year had passed, and when she finally decided to reveal them, the academy was already fully functional. So she had no choice but to join the academy. However, she beat all the high-ranked instructors there and became the first awakener to graduate within a week."

"Whoa! That lady keeps on surprising me," I exclaimed inwardly before replying, "Thanks for the information, Sister Aisha."

"It's no big deal."

She turned and left the gym while I stayed behind to complete my workout.

---

"I have completed the first four tasks, but there's no way to do the fifth one," I sighed as I walked out of the bathroom after showering.

"Still, I can't give up!" I announced firmly. "This quest series is helping me a lot, and moreover, I want that attribute-based skill as well."

While I was planning how to enter a gate, a message window—too convenient to be true—suddenly popped up.

Ding…

"Vivi has detected an energy fluctuation ten kilometers toward the northeast. An E-Rank gate is about to appear within one hour!

Note: Show the map of the area to Vivi so the system can feed it into its memory and display the exact location."

"Is-is this some kind of joke or what!?" I mumbled, utterly dumbfounded.

From what I knew, only high-ranked gates—from C to A—could be detected by radar after they were formed. As for low-ranked gates, there was no way to detect them whatsoever.

Only when these gates were on the verge of collapse did their energy readings appear on radar. Because of this, besides the national guilds, many regional guilds were formed and kept on permanent patrol to search for low-rank gates and clear them as quickly as possible.

But now, Vivi was not only informing me that it could detect an E-Rank gate, but that it could do so even before it had appeared.

"Vivi, you are the best assistant ever," I exclaimed and immediately opened the map on my phone.

"How am I supposed to show it to you?" I asked.

"Keep your eyes locked on the map. The system will scan it itself."

I did as Vivi instructed, and another window appeared.

"Uploading the map of the area into the system..."

"Upload successful!"

A blue-colored holographic window with a detailed map of the city popped up before me.

There were two marks on the map—one green-colored and the other light blue. The green mark showed my location, while the blue one must be where the gate was about to appear.

At the header of the screen, there was a filter option which I decided to check later, as I was in a hurry to reach the place.

In hurried steps, I went outside the room and reached the hall where Maa was watching her serial.

"Maa, do we have a car at home?"

"You are going somewhere?" she asked, her eyes locked on the TV.

"Yeah, I'm getting bored, so I wanna look around the city," I said, avoiding meeting her eyes.

"Go to the basement and pick whatever you like. Drive slowly and come back before dinner."

"I'm sorry for lying, Maa, but there's no way you will let me go if I tell you where I'm actually going."

As I was about to move, her motherly instincts suddenly kicked in and she ordered, "Stop."

"Wh-what is it, Maa?" I asked, nervous.

"You mustn't go alone. Let me ask your brother for a driver."

"Maa, I'm already an adult," I whined. "I can take care of myself."

"What happened last time when you—" She stopped herself from speaking further and ordered firmly, "You will go with a driver or stay at home."

Sighs… "Fine, fine, do as you wish."

After a call to Aryan, within thirty minutes, the same Mercedes-Benz appeared again at the entrance of the mansion, with the same lady driver inside.

"Hey, Jasmine. Sorry for troubling you again," I said, quickly getting into the car.

"I'm not troubled at all, Mr. Raj. It's nice to meet you again," she replied with her usual formal smile.

"Take care of this kid, Jasmine!" Maa shouted from the hall, her eyes still locked on the TV serial.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Siya! I will return your son unscathed!" Jasmine shouted back to make her voice reach the hall.

"Agh! It's embarrassing," I screamed inwardly, my cheeks burning red.

"Do you have a destination in mind, Mr. Raj?" Jasmine asked, a smile tugging at her face.

"I have updated the location on the map. I need to reach there within fifteen minutes."

"St. Mary School, ten kilometers, fifteen minutes," she murmured, looking at the marked location.

"Are you meeting someone at the school, Mr. Raj?"

"I just wanna have the nostalgic feeling of school," I said, feeling embarrassed by my own words.

"Alright then," she chuckled, unable to keep a straight face.

"Fasten your seat belt! I will make sure that you reach the destination within the time frame!"

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