- Evaluation and Fine-tuning

He wakes up quite peacefully after taking a long rest, he stretches his arms long and wide before peeling off the warm swaddling comfort of the blankets. He's in a gratuitous mood after having such a long rest that he couldn't help but feel suspicious…

He walks with a renewed and vigorous gait as the fog starts to lift off of his mind, his hand draws the curtain of the window and instantly he is able to see that the previous low activity state of last night had been flipped on its head. He was once unable to see the complete area due to the lowered brightness, but now he was able to take in all of its splendor.

Vast ruinous buildings presumably used for familiarization could be seen occupying a large portion of the Northern climate, while other areas such as restored libraries, clinics, and restaurants that could be seen as if some giant pick them up individually and dropped meticulously upon the gray concrete. Beyond that his eyesight could barely catch a glimpse of training equipment and some sort of pole in the ground near a bin of sand.

He draws his eyes away from the window and decides to freshen up, all in all he was a bit ashamed about his bathing compared to normal bunkers faculty members and quickly took a look inside. He was already familiar with bathrooms and their functions but had not truly enjoyed clean water before, he nearly tears off his clothes in order to get in the shower and turns the knob on.

"COLD! GOD IT'S COLD!"

He jumps back from the spray of watering while his teeth start chattering, he examines the knob once again and sees that he had turned into the cold side, he corrects this and begins to relax.

'Damn, at least no one saw that.."

He finishes shower in about fifteen minutes after examining all the various soaps and gadgets at his disposal, grinning from ear to ear he changes back into a jumpsuit he spots in the closet, perfectly fitting.

'My room should have been predetermined then…" He thinks before once again looking at the door

'Is this the lavish lifestyle the citizens here enjoy daily?"

"I could get used to this." He smiles.

Deciding that he himself would find his talent, to prove to others he wasn't just a push-over was his main goal now, his blood starts boiling as he exits the room and heads for the stairs.

***

As he arrives in the lobby of the building he sees a couple people in the hallway chatting, but otherwise nothing much of interest, the handle of the building open and he widens his eyes, thousands of people are distributed amongst their own grid squares easily identified by the gear they carried, some arrogantly showcasing their skills in duels and challenges while others boasted or simply presented themselves in order to draw attention to themselves.

He himself was fascinated by the large guns used by the gun-specialists who were clearly identified by the way they armed themselves to the teeth and the heavy weaponry they carried with the assistance of exoskeletons, no doubt providing a substantial boost to their mobility. Ashur personally wanted to align himself to this group immediately, but instead he decided to look around more considering the amount of possible groups out there.

Although he wasn't interested in joining certain groups such as the Scouts, Pack Managers, or Medic he was still intrigued by their portrayal of their skills such as the Pack managers showing their balancing skills, wearing 50 pound weights and managing to balance bottles on both arms. The medics practice their skills by quickly showing how fast they can sew skins of creatures back into place seamlessly. Scouts can be seen doing mind-boggling stunts such as what he saw earlier(Pole near the sand) that he had come to discover as pole-vaulting, summersaults, and many whose agility could allow them easily escape the pursuit of any normal person. He had witnessed quite the display of skill and he could imagine the vital role that even such a mundane task could be.

Of course the enhanced abilities of these people weren't all normal, despite not being able to awaken a Mutant Ability talent these people still had their Mutant human inheritance. This inheritance is derived from the mutation received by the bacterium so long ago; The mutation targets specific aptitudes of a human and makes them stronger, but as a drawback the weakness also accumulate. For example a person who is agile would have extremely brittle bones that break easily, or someone who has has excellent control of their body would have barely any functions with a pistol or sword as an extension of their body.

Ashur believed he already understood his aptitude, he experienced too many blunders with his hands, fumbling even the heavies or smallest of objects, he'd barely be able to control himself. He remembers the constant beratement of the trading merchant as he would continuously drop items on the ground, never given breakable objects, not that he would have been trusted in the first place mind you.

'Alas It's only natural I should use a gun or a melee weapon to maximize my gains...'

But due to his clumsiness it also meant that if he were to use weapon he would need to equip some type of grip or chain so that it would not be accidentally dropped during battle, to which he feared greatly, but even so some peoples' Mutation Aptitudes had more terrible trade off for not even a quarter of the same value. Ashur once remembers a gun once or twice in his youth in order to run off bandits, but in those cases he had not truly tried aimed for anything in particular.

While walking through the crowd he believes he sees Davis for a moment but his face quickly reveals to be another person, disappointing him greatly.

'I truly wish I knew what group Davis was joining.. maybe he could help me find the most suitable place for my talents..."

He observed the Survivalists and a couple of other sub-groups, but all in all there are only around a thousand people in the Grid at once, leaving him only with the sword faction left to examine. At the site he sees people hitting dummies with swords or dueling each other with wooden sticks occasionally with varying styles. He is rather bored after a while of watching them fight and inwardly puts the sword group just at the 2nd of the list before he sees an intricately complex style used by a black haired woman, accurately dodging any of her opponents strikes and counter-attacking at the nearest opportunity.

'This fits my style perfectly!'

'I must join this group!'

He runs over to the entrance of the grid as he sees the woman return inside a tent, as he approaches he's quickly stopped by two guards blocking the entrance.

"None may enter without pre-approval."

'....'

He slinks away from the tent slowly and begins walking to the gun group disappointed.

"Damn, I was so close to meeting with her!"

He complains inwardly all the way to the building before he sees a familiar building again. Suddenly he realizes something, he can visit the library!

He sprints as fast as he can in its general direction

"Guess i've got some catching up to do!"