- Additional Adjustments

"So umm.. can I have another go, my hands slipped, it's due to my attribute," Ashur spoke to Patricia who was watching the battle intensely. She responds "No that won't be necessary, you passed with flying colors and we won't mind accepting someone of your potential." She began walking away from the battlegrounds, making a gesturing motion for me to follow her. She moves her head to the side and looks at Joseph. "Dismissed."

Ashur was quite surprised that he had still been allowed in despite his clumsiness, which others would have no doubt turned him away for. 'What good is someone who cannot even carry their sword?', 'Perhaps she is only joking with me..' his mood started to turn sour as he continues walking along the border of the camp with Patricia, the tents having their own LED red tinted lights to draw attention in the periphery.

Patricia can easily sense the emotion on his face, "Is it that unbelievable for you to have passed the test? You went toe to toe with one of my more advanced disciples despite from the looks of it, you have never touched a sword before. I've never seen someone clumsily drop their sword in a simple spar. Something Tells me that your apparent mutant attribute would be extremely precise handling of weapons." We stop walking as she stares and reads my emotions.

At one point he considered trying to obfuscate the truth and write it off as another attribute, but decided against it, as one would find out about someone else's attribute sooner or later.

"Yes, it's my mutant attribute." He says truthfully. Patricia nods, accepting his answer. "This problem isn't very hard to fix, we will customize the hilt of your wooden sword to have a grip along the side to avoid your clumsiness problem, and with this, you can continue your training with the style you have chosen." She points to my feet. "First of all you need to work perfecting your form for the next month, this will determine if you survive or not. Normally the disciples who join use common styles that I would be able to teach. Naturally, this is not the case with your sword style that is effectively focused on counter-attacking, I will only be able to teach you some rudimentary basics and give you some tips to help your growth."

'She can determine my sword style so easily, no wonder she is recognized as the headmaster of the Highlanders.'

They wrapped up their conversation and he bid her farewell, he was advised to customize his sword at the second biggest tent in the encampment. When he arrived he heard the loud clanging sound of metal being ground and assumed that this was the right place. As he entered and closed the tent flap behind him he heard the voice of a large man, somewhat frustrated. "DON'T INTERRUPT ME, WAIT OUTSIDE!" Booms the man and nearly scares Ashur out of his wits as he scurries out of the tent. He sits down for a while and becomes rather bored, checking his pocket he finds the holographic book still there but slightly faded but still readable.

***

Many hours later Ashur finishes his practice of the forms and black marks show up on the concrete from repetition. He manages to memorize the basic formations but his execution is still rather lacking, noting that he still has to retrieve a copy again once he advances. As he continues practicing and dropping his sword occasionally he hears the sound of clanging metal stop and silence throughout the area. Hopeful he begins into the tent before the blacksmith can adopt some other work again.

As he enters the tent the interior has gone almost completely dark beside a few LED lights, walking through the room he manages to identify a hulking mass on top of a chair, dampening his brow with a towel. "Sir...?"

"It's Isaac boy. Now tell me what is you wanted, for you to have waited so long." Isaac said with a slur, sweat dripping down his face. "Headmaster Patricia sent me here to get my training sword modified to have a grip," Ashur spoke out almost robotically to Isaac as he passed his sword to him.

"Hmph, an odd thing to add to a blade but if it was something this simple you could have just told me earlier. No matter, it will take just a moment." Ashur watched him move to a workshop table and begin chiseling a brass-knuckled shape grip out of the handle, looking thick along the edges Isaac smoothed them out with sandpaper and polish before passing them back to Ashur within minutes.

"There you are, now run off right quick, I'm closing up for the day."

Ashur was surprised, "Aren't you closing a bit early for today? There's still a lot of time left." he spoke inquisitively.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. Can't work too long or the training of the regular members will be interrupted, same reason I can't work at night either to avoid disruptions. And before you ask, the chance of your items being stolen is a much higher risk when your tent is farther away from the rest of the group."

"Now look what you've done, you got me monologuing!" He gives a hearty laugh.

"But I'm sure you already knew that the laws were lax around here. If not it's best if you listen up. Now, normally you cannot be punished easily except for denying the command to go topside. Crimes such as stealing, fighting, and threatening, are allowed. This is because it is expected that the groups here will enforce the majority of the laws while the observers only need to check the vital signs to avoid any deaths."

"What about clashing between groups, will they turn a blind eye to crime?" Ashur spoke suddenly.

"No not really, there are clashes between certain members as well as in our group but the Ruins' Manager is expected to observe and resolve conflicts between the groups to give more opportunities to you and your fellow entrants. You don't need to know much about this for now as you have just joined."

Ashur nods, "Got it, thank you for your help, Isaac." he puts his training blade to the side and shakes his clammy hand.

"Don't mention it, kid, now I've got to finish up here, come back tomorrow if you have any more questions."

Understanding, he leaves the tent and heads towards the training grounds once again and familiarizes himself with the newly fashioned grip of the sword. After many swings he is quite satisfied with the grip of the blade, not once has he dropped it. Although the grip constantly feels like it wants to be taken off he began un-subconsciously ignoring the feeling and vigorously returned to performing the formations. The main pet peeve he had currently was the fact that he needed someone to spar with constantly if he was to learn the essence of a proper counterattack.

With this thought on his mind, he began looking for disciples to spar with.