Me and the three other candidates were on a plane making our way to the final phase of the Gourmet Hunter exams. I had thought that since we all seemed to be about the same age that we should all at least try to get to know each other or something like that. However, none of them seemed to be interested in talking to me. They all seemed to be preparing themselves for the final exams. I couldn't blame them, after all, considering how lucky I'd been in passing through so far I knew that I needed to do whatever I could to make a good impression in this final phase.
After a few hours of flying we reached our destination. It was Biotope 8, the IGO had several of these Biotopes around the Human World. They were islands owned by the IGO where they kept different species of monsters and used them mostly for research purposes.
Before we disembarked, we were briefed by the new proctor as to our instructions for the final phase of the exam. Unfortunately the proctor this time around wasn't a character that in knew from the show like it was last time.
"Alright gentlemen, this is the practical portion of the exam. We have fenced off a section of the Biotope and placed some monsters with low capture levels. Your instructions are quite simple; in order to pass you must score 5 points. Points will be awarded based on the capture level of the monsters that you hunt. For this exam we've only brought in monsters with a capture level of 3 or lower. Be careful, monsters with a capture level of 3 can give trouble to even some professional Gourmet Hunters." The proctor said.
"And that's exactly why we raised the bar for the Gourmet Hunter Exam this year." President Ichiryu thought to himself as he watched the proceedings on a video monitor.
"We will give you this flare gun in case you find yourself in trouble, firing it will set up a flare and professional Gourmet Hunters will come and rescue you. However, doing so will obviously result in an automatic failure. Keep in mind, if you don't fire a flare we will not intervene in any way and any injuries or death that occurs as a result is not our responsibility. Of course that's not all, your goal is to get 5 points, but you can't exceed the point limit either so you need to get 5 points exactly. Any point total above or under 5 will result in a failure." The proctor continued as we all disembarked and made our way to the gates that separated the hunting zone from the rest of the Biotope.
I'd been hunting in my village basically since I could walk. This was the part of the exam that I was most confident in. At least I WAS confident, but there was a big hurdle I had to overcome now. This would be an easy task except I didn't know any of the monsters capture levels. So there was no way of knowing what my score would be if I killed any of them.
"Alright gentlemen, you'll have 1 hour to complete the exam. Good luck." The proctor said as he pressed a button that opened the gates in front of us and started a timer that began to count down the hour time limit.
As the exam started I ended up wondering around aimlessly in the hunting zone. I was obviously able to track down several monsters but I wasn't sure about their capture levels so I was nervous about taking a shot at any of them. Time kept ticking away and I hadn't taken down a single monster yet, I was starting to panic of what to do.
Meanwhile, the big shots at the IGO were observing the candidates in the final phase.
"It's been over 45 minutes and he hasn't hunted a single monster. He's clearly hesitating because he doesn't know their capture levels. Maybe he's too raw of a talent after all." Ichiryu thought as he watched me.
"It seems your long shot isn't paying off Ichiryu, two of the others had already finished within the first 15 minutes and they both captured a level 3 monster as well. And it seems the other candidate just got his fifth level 1 monster meaning he just passed as well. That means everyone but the country bumpkin passed." An IGO bigwig said smugly as he laughed.
Ichiryu just continued to watch the monitor to see what would happen next, when suddenly a man frantically burst into the room.
"S-Sir! We have a big problem!" He shouted clearly out of breath from running as fast as he could.
"What is it?" Ichiryu asked.
"Turn the monitor to camera 8." He said as he struggled to catch his breath.
When they did as he asked the monitor showed the giant fence surrounding the hunting zone had a massive hole ripped in it.
"This is bad! We fenced off this section to keep higher level monsters away from the exam site. What are we going to do?" An IGO member asked.
"We obviously have to cancel the exam and get the candidates out of there." Another replied. "Who knows what kind of monster could get in there, they're in grave danger."
"Don't be ridiculous! We can't just stop the exam like that. These exams aren't cheap to put on. It'd be a complete waste of money to stop it now. Plus, if they want to be Gourmet Hunters they need to learn to adapt to unpredictable situations like this." the smug IGO member from earlier said.
"He has a bit of a point, at least about the unpredictable situations part." Ichiryu said as he observed the situation calmly. "So what are the hunters on site doing?"
"Of course they quickly moved to clear the area of monsters and they currently have a perimeter set up that should keep anymore monsters from getting in, but-"
"You see everything is completely under control. There was no reason to panic to begin with." The smug man interrupted.
He was about to continue on until Ichiryu put a finger up to shush the man. "But?" He said as he urged the messenger to continue.
"Like I was saying, we'll be able to keep any more from getting in, but there's still the monster that made that hole in the fence in. The first place. It made it through before the hunters on standby could intercept it."
"What kind of monster was it anyway?" An IGO member asked.
"It was, a Heavy Deer."
"A Heavy Deer? Those have a capture level of 31! Those rookies don't stand a chance! President Ichiryu what are you going to do about this?"
"Get Chief Mansom on site, he's probably the only person in Biotope 8 that can handle a monster of that caliber. In the meantime, we'll just wait and see how the rookies handle a situation like this." Ichiryu said as he watched on.