Abyssal Awakening

Leaving the store, Allura brought out a cigarette and smiled in satisfaction.

"You really like that don't you?" Alice asked while waving her hands, trying to push away the smoke.

"Yep. Helps me out a tad." Allura chuckled.

"Now then, we're off to find Gin. He's an old friend of mine that handles all sorts of things that goes on in different cities. He's a retired Hunter and used to be pretty high up in the ranks of the Hunter's Guild. He eventually gave up and made a name for himself underground. Now he's just an old man that looks out for his granddaughter while also helping me out."

Hearing this, Alice blinked her eyes in surprise since that's quite the lineup of achievements. While she wasn't sure what the Hunter's Guild was, the fact that he's a retired Hunter and someone supposedly made a name for himself underground spoke volumes of his capabilities.

She still remembers what they said about Hunters when she was a young girl. They all died young. But for an old man to be around after being a Hunter… he was either lucky or had the strength to back it up.

"And speak of the devil, here he is." Allura smiled while pointing at a figure approaching them from the distance.

Seeing the man in a large trench coat, swept back hair and a pair of fierce eyes, Alice felt a shiver down her spine. Even though he wasn't radiating any sort of malice, just being in his presence caused her palms to sweat and itched for a weapon out of her fight or flight instincts. The scar over the bridge of his nose and his beard only amplified this feeling.

"Oi Gin! Might want to relax yourself a bit. You're scaring the poor girl." Allura called out as the invisible pressure relaxed itself.

"Sorry, a little on edge after meeting Theron. You should be surprised that I'm even here unscathed after what you told me to tell him." Gin sighed in annoyance while massaging his neck.

"I mean, he knows he shouldn't take you out since you're important to a lot of places after all. Doing so is just welcoming destruction to his doorstep." Allura reassured with a grin.

"So is this the girl? Here's the card. All you need now is her name, age and a picture. I've already filled out the rest and had her registered as your extended family member." Glancing at Alice briefly, Gin focused back on Allura and handed her a card.

"Alright, I'll get that done tonight then. Is the carriage prepared? We'll leave for the other city tonight." Allura asked while placing the card into her pocket.

"It's prepared. You can find it outside the city gates when you're done with the documents. My granddaughter will meet you on the way there while I still have some things I need to sort out before I leave. I'll meet you in Zadash." Gin patted Allura's shoulder before walking away.

"Seems like he's quite busy if he's not sticking around. Well whatever. Want to get some food while I fill in your ID?" Allura asked as Alice nodded her head.

"Now then… Name is naturally Alice. You got a surname?" Allura asked as Alice shook her head.

She no longer wanted to be associated with the Zenia family.

"In that case I'll give you my surname. Agnelia. From now you'll be called Alice Agnelia." Allura smiled as she patted Alice on the head. Age… you mentioned 20 so I'll put that as your age. Birthday… Do you know your birthday? If not, how did you track it?"

"Don't know. Tracked using winter." Alice shook her head.

"Don't know huh? Alright I'll make your birthday in the middle of winter then. Every winter we'll celebrate your birthday, though winter doesn't really come to the Abyss." Allura chuckled.

"All that's left is for you to take a picture. Follow me."

The process for taking the picture was rather simple as it was done quickly. Once they were done with picture, they made their way to a restaurant.

After ordering a few dishes, Allura turned to Alice.

"So let's continue with the lessons. How much do you know about the Abyss? It can be anything, just give me a rundown of what you know." Allura asked, wanting to see the depths of Alice's knowledge. With everything she's demonstrated so far, it was clear that she was ignorant when it came to the outside world.

Therefore Allura wanted to see what she was working with before planning out her lessons.

"Hmm… I know a lot about Abyss Blood, their side effects and some Abyss Beasts. Oh and what you taught me about Sigils." Alice muttered while counting with her fingers.

"Only that much? Hm alright. I'll give a quick lesson for now then tell you a little more about your Sigil. First, there are four key things you need to know about the Abyss. First, the Abyss itself. Second, the Beasts.

Third, the Blood and lastly, the Sigils. These four are the corner stones of life in the Abyss.

"The cycle of the Abyss is as such. You kill beasts, you get their blood, you use that blood to help you with bounty hunts. You get Sigils and repeat. This is the cycle that every Hunter abides by. With this in mind, every Hunter makes it a habit to memorise as much of the Abyss Bestiary as possible. That way when you're out in the field, you know what you're up against.

Naturally it's not the be all end all since new beasts are being found every so often but it certainly helps." Allura smiled.

"Unfortunately, I don't have a copy on hand so we'll have to buy one later. But with this in mind, we'll use what we know so far to determine the abilities of your first Sigil. After all, I don't think you quite understand what you killed for the Sigil since it wasn't a Twilight Hunter that you killed."

Hearing this, Alice paused in surprise. While the armour was indeed different from what she remembered, everything else was the same. She chalked it up to being a unique variant nothing more.

"I thought it was just a unique Twilight Hunter, is it not?" Alice asked as she glanced at her forearm.

"Well it was. Until it shed its skin and ascended to the next stage. It had advanced from being a special Twilight Hunter to a Spectral Hunter. The difference between these two is that the longer it fights, the stronger it becomes. So long as it doesn't sustain any damage. Give it enough time to stalk a prey and it has the power to kill a 5 Sigil user in just one hit.

From the strength you demonstrated, I'd say you got the same Sigil ability." Allura smiled while tapping the table.

"Your passive ability seems to be one that controls the enemy while your active ability is something that boosts your own strength. Honestly, I can't tell if your Sigil is Anti Hunter or Anti Monster."

Shrugging her shoulders, Allura leaned back on her seat.

"Anti Hunter? Anti Monster?"

"Yep. Sigils are separated into 3 types of focus broadly speaking. There are the Anti Hunter Sigils, powers you use to kill other Hunters. So powers that enhance your one on one combat ability is Anti Hunter. Anti Monster abilities focus on killing Beasts. So things like making the Beast weaker or making yourself tougher to contest against them.

Good examples will be that Lars brat you saw on the first day and the Assassin who died." Allura explained while holding up two fingers.

"Lars would be classed as a Anti Monster user since his Sigils focus on making him fight against Abyss Beasts in a head on collision. While the Assassin would be Anti Hunter since all of his skills are good against Humans but less effective against Abyss Beasts. With that in mind, can you see why your Sigil is a little weird? Since it's a mix of both.

"There is a third type of focus but you don't need to worry about that for now."

Nodding her head, Alice digested all of this information as she wondered about her own Sigil.

'Allura's words make sense. My active ability enhances my physical abilities but also makes my wounds worse. If I don't wound myself or let others wound me, my physical abilities will only keep increasing until my body can't take it anymore. Or so I assume.

But once I sustain a wound, I'll have to rely on the passive ability of disorientating my enemies to escape… It sounds like an Anti Hunter ability with properties of Anti Monster due to its passive effect.'

Seeing Alice thinking to herself with a serious expression, Allura couldn't help but chuckle to herself. She was glad to see Alice working through the questions with the information she'd been given and figuring out the answers herself.

To her, Alice's first Sigil was strictly an Anti Hunter Sigil since the passive ability was weak against beasts. While she could augment this effect later with Sigils, the core of the Sigil was still building up towards the one hit kill.

Either way, Allura could see Alice having an affinity towards being a Hunter with the way she thinks and considers the information she's been given.

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