Today was the day Liz had been waiting for so long. It had been two months since the announcement of the hunter’s exam, and, once again, the night before, Liz hadn’t been able to sleep. She had been thinking about it for so many years, and this night, especially, she couldn’t get hold of her thoughts. She kept jumping out of bed to check whether she had packed everything she needed, then went back to bed, only to repeat the whole process an hour later. That was how she spent the last night instead of sleeping and saving her energy for the day.

  This morning, instead of cooking everyone breakfast like last time, she got up and trained in the yard with the sword Shin had given her. Soon after, Mother woke up and yelled at her to go back inside, wash herself, and eat her breakfast.

  Mother was making noise in the kitchen, Father was reading his morning newspaper, and Zywa had already left for the guild without Liz even noticing.

  She came out of the steaming bathroom feeling like she had been born again, then went to the kitchen to munch on her breakfast. It was the same food as always, but this time without shells in the eggs and without burned kasha (porridge).

  “Are you ready for today?” Mother asked worriedly.

  “Totally. I've been waiting for it for so long!”

  Mother just kept nervously cleaning the kitchen, but much louder than usual. Father, on the other hand, didn’t seem bothered at all, just reading his newspaper and sipping his black coffee. Liz got up and went to her room to check, for the last time, that she had prepared everything she needed, then waited in the living room for the time to go.

  The closer it came to the time to leave, the more nervous she became. She looked at the clock on the wall, and her hands were shaking so hard she had to rub her arms as if she were cold. It felt like the clock’s hands were moving more slowly the longer she stared at them.

  Why am I so nervous? I’ve been waiting for this for years.

  All of a sudden, Father loudly folded his newspaper, laid it on the table, then came into the living room and sat on the couch beside Liz.

  “Don’t worry, I saw them give a hunter’s license to a seven-year-old boy one time. You got it!”

  She thought it wasn’t a good time to joke, but she appreciated that he was trying to make her feel better.

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  When the time came, Liz got up, took her hunter bag, checked her returning letter from the guild, looked at the description of the location she had to go to, and walked to the door, where she put on her shoes. When she was ready to leave, her worried parents were standing behind her, anticipating her departure.

  “Good luck,” Mother said softly, cheering for Liz, while Father just nodded.

  “Fingers crossed!” said Liz as she stepped out the door, terrified of what the future had in store for her.

  The location was on the opposite side of the suburbs, in the guild quarter, but nowhere near the hunter’s guild. She had to find a tall tower close to the forest. The letter said she would recognize it immediately the moment she saw it. The problem was that, despite having a hunter in her close circle, she had somehow never been to the guild quarter.

  After wandering around the streets for some time, she began to doubt herself and panic a little. But the letter wasn’t lying. When she crossed from one street to another and walked for a bit, she turned her head, and there it was. The moment she saw it, she immediately realized she was in the right place.

  The building wasn’t just some big tower; it was a giant head-frame of a mine, a timber monster constructed directly above an underground mine shaft. It supported the hoisting sheaves used to lower and raise cages for personnel or materials, and buckets for ore. The closer she got, the bigger it seemed. This monumental building stood there casually, completely blending into the massive wall separating the city and the forest.

  How can such a big thing be so unnoticeable? Liz thought.

  The tower was surrounded by a vast crowd of people, all waiting for further instructions, while the guild personnel ran around preparing everything. Liz felt jealous when she saw participants seemingly younger than her.

  Why did Zywa make me wait for so long? she began to think, but then she bumped into a man clearly in the late stage of his life, also patiently waiting for the exam to begin.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

  “No, no, no, it's okay. I’m the one who shouldn't be standing here like an uninvited guest.” He sighed. “There are so many young people these days. Ugh. Once, I was also this young and ambitious. But this time it will be the last time for me.”

  “It isn’t your first time?” Liz was curious.

  The older man turned his head and looked her in the eyes. He smiled, showing all the wrinkles he had collected like trophies over the years.

  “No, it will be my fortieth time.”

  She was stunned. She hadn’t known you could take the exam multiple times, let alone forty. No one had told her, but the man she had just met was the famous Tenacious Tim, or as everyone called him, just TT. He had been trying to become a hunter since he was a young boy, but had never managed to get through. Still, he was the most stubborn human in history, and even though he promised every year that he would quit, he never did.

  Liz and TT introduced themselves and then went their separate ways. She wanted to get a good look at everything while she still had time before the exam started. She noticed that some people had small plates with numbers clipped to their clothes. She asked one of the participants, and he pointed her to the big table where guild clerks were working themselves to exhaustion.