Chapter 7: Awaken innate talent? I have something better

Joe slept under that tree past the early hours of the morning and awoke at about 8:30 in the morning under the sun that shone through the tree's canopy. After some looking around he saw the frigid landscape of the outside and was glad that he had used his dome of protection. Using his new radar he saw no one was within a 300-meter radius, as at this time people would either be getting their innate talents awakened or prepping to move to the alternate realm main stage, not taking a walk outside where it's currently just above freezing.

Joe looked and saw that all his mana reserves were full and that his first mana cell was already at 25,000/100,000 the charge rate only being so high because apart from the 20% split and some minor uses from the passive abilities and weapons array about 65% mana coming in was being directly discharged into it.

Using spectator Joe sat happily if not a bit hungry by this point under his little tree he found, getting used to moving the spectator around only having to will the movement and speed. He moved it to above the canopy to see a large expanse of heavily and lightly forested areas with intermittent clearings with paths weaving between all the different areas still covered in the frost from the night before, and beyond the 2.5 km wide conservation area/park he is in, surrounded by the tall modern futuristic-looking buildings that dominate the landscape. with both manned and unmanned drones zipping about either enforcement drones from the Ministry of Shifter Compliance, personal transport drones or drones with packages attached to them sparsely populating the skyline.

Checking the atomic database he set up last night he saw that most of the common elements were there, with some interesting combinations and isotopes that his world wasn't used to, or not to his knowledge at least. Seeing that Joe smiled as those would mostly be what he will be confronted with or should be confronted with providing physics remained mostly similar here and whatever effects mana could have on something.

moving the spectator closer to the edge of the park he could see that the streets were quite lively with the kids going to school to have their innate talent awakened and other folks just going about their daily life.

'mental command: activate telescopic vision' Joe thought as he was then able to zoom in on the shops and buildings that presented themselves to the conservation area, with a few catching his eye, weapon shops, although not common still needed enough to have a range of equipment in for the shifters of this world to uses, train, and defend in their world, Joe wasn't interested in the abilities these weapons would inevitably have as he could make better versions of them, what he was interested in was the base weapons themselves as they would be what would populate his weapons database and what he could summon, and these stores were collections of those items all in one place making it very easy for him to copy their schematics all in one go rather than overtime.

keeping a distance of no less than 100 meters from the edge of the park he zoomed in and started inspecting the design properties of the weapons that were in sight. Out of those 3 stores he managed to collect construction data on most if not all the common weapon types, somewhat surprisingly no cross-bows and not the type of store that would sell firearms as those are more heavily regulated in this world as well as less common in general as even the energy-based weapons they have here have limited effect against those above level 120 and there is a lot of abilities here that do significantly more damage.

Now that he had the weapon schematics he moved the spectator back to above him looking down so he could see his surroundings, a thought that he had while looking at the city earlier was that technically he shouldn't exist in this world, so he should keep hidden for as long as he can, so he started to code an invisibility spell. but unlike others who had to camo themselves or use magic to bend light around them, he had one better.

Invisibility - link to BMS, set user transparency 100%, disable environmentally control features, contain energy and mana emotions, enforce visual input link.

Unlike any other concealment method, this one can't be detected physically or otherwise as unlike the other ones that bend the environment around them to conceal them or interact with the environment to try and fool other people, this method however is the opposite, you stop interacting with the environment turning you invisible. So now he had this, he felt at least a bit more comfortable that he could escape a situation if needs be.

Now the question was what should he do now, he still had 2 and a half hours left to go before he could enter the alternate realm and solve his food problem by using his inventory to bring food over. Although the alternate realm system inventory couldn't be accessed here as found by his research, his could be accessed in either place so he wouldn't have to worry about food and water, but in the meantime, there was nothing that he needed to do, there was a slight thought for a moment of getting his innate talent awoken, but that idea was shot dead where it stood as why do that when you have something way better.

Joe finally decided, why not just go and take a stroll around the park where he is as you don't generally get the chance to just walk around with no worry about anything else.

'mental command: display mask of the many'

'mental command: dismiss dome of protection'

And with that, the barrier that kept him safe and sealed from the outside was dropped, and he could feel the cold winter air brush past his skin as the hot air escaped, is what he would have felt if he didn't have his environmental control ability that he made last night. Remaining warm as the cold air around clashed with the sphere of influence of his ability, flowing around rather than through as the mana distribution protocol immediately picked up the slack and redistributed the required mana, although not the full radius of the ability the field, the centre remained controlled regardless.

Putting on his coat, although technically not needed, he set off and enjoyed the scenery that he found himself in. Walking through the woodlands, still ever diligent using his spectator, Joe found himself reminiscing of another thing that happened in a universe of his that used similar circumstances, so was on the lookout to find a suitable area for it if he decided to go forth with that here.

Joe walked around for about 30 minutes, finding what would be a perfect spot for what he would be looking for, quickly marking down the location on his map, he continued on his way enjoying the scenery for another 15 minutes or so before noticing something on his spectator that he wouldn't quite expect for the day that is currently was.

Joe saw a whole load of people, with some wearing armour with the symbol for the Ministry of Shifter Compliance, with the vast majority seeming to be teens, all slowly making their way towards a nearby clearing, using his radar and some assumptions on his end, there were 107 compliance officers there, 50 teachers and 431 students, giving various school uniforms and lanyards on the teachers as a giveaway. Joe moved his spectator closer, trying to keep it as hidden as possible aware that the spectator could be giving off a mana signature that someone with the spell 'detect magic' could see.

After getting it closer and hidden behind a tree right next to the clearing and overlaying the radar, he could see that the group split into 3, the officers facing the rest of the group, with the teachers standing behind the students, all facing the officers present. Chatter was rife among the students, confused as to why they are coming out to the forest when they should be getting their innate abilities awakened, and frankly, Joe wanted to know as well as it is currently compromising his safety in that there could be hundreds of people dispersing through the woods that he is hiding in increasing the chances that he is found. Although he is not in hiding for anything he would prefer that no one knows about him for now at least as that would allow him to operate totally off the radar rather than be known and monitored by any and every guild and agency, especially with the fact that he is not from this world.

One of the officers walked forward to address the students, he was a particularly burly man wearing red intricate and ordained armour carrying a great sword and shield on his back.

"I am Cleveland Lancaster the chief recruitment officer and captain of the rough shifter response alpha unit for the Ministry of Shifter Compliance. You are all here as you are the best that the Allbroke region has to offer, with exceptional tactical skills and superb teamwork. We are here today to offer 80 of you acceptance into the Ministry of Shifter Compliance, regardless of the innate talent that you receive"

As soon as he said that a huge murmur erupted in the crowd as this was the opportunity of a lifetime as they would have access to the ministry resources and knowledge right from the start, giving them a huge advantage over everyone else. The sound of drones were suddenly heard overhead as more than 150 drones passed over and started distributing themselves above the woodlands. Joe knew that these drones were coming as soon as they entered the park as new markers were continually appearing on his hud drawing his attention.

'mental command: cast invisibility' Joe thought seeing all the drones entering the forest and guessing their intent.

The other students were still confused however as the recruitment officers began to approach the students and awaken their innate talents in a quick but orderly fashion. Then the 80 officers in red armour began to quickly filter out into the forest.

It was at this point that Cleveland spoke up again, " To be accepted all you will need to do is tag the recruitment officer in red armour excluding me, if you tag an officer that hasn't already been tagged then you will be automatically accepted into the Ministries shifter training program, if not then you will need to find another officer, you will be monitored by the drones and guild recruitment agents for potential contract opportunities, so don't be discouraged if you don't find an officer in time, the rules are simple, no foul play and no injuring other contestants as you will be immediately disqualified and may face criminal charges depending on severity, other than that use your strategies and tactics to find any of the officers hidden in the forest, and good luck to you all."

As soon as he said that, the students rushed of in the directions that they saw the officers going off in, thankfully no one came in the direction that his spectator was in. However that was not the case for the other direction that he did not want people to go in. Espeshaly not ones that are trying to track other people down, the direction of his hiddy hole from last night as although it was 1km away, that distance could be covered quick, and with the frost still being mostly on the ground that still hadn't melted yet a perfectly circular area that would still be mostly above 16°c compared to the surroundings of about 6°c would stick out like a sore thumb. And as he has been the only person in the woods so far today that would leave a faint but distinct trail to him.

So after only a few of the teachers were left and a few of the guild recruitment agents were left, Joe menovered his spectator around the clearing and imeadiatly started heading to that spot so he would know if anyone found it and who that was. In the mean time Joe quickly made his way up a nearby tree and jumped up of of a branch towards the trunk of the tree around the side a bit, and just before his back hit the tree, 'mental command: staticly link user and environment, so as soon as his back hit the tree instead of falling down, he remained there attached to the tree so that now he shouldn't have to worry about being ran into by acident.

With about a 2 minute head start the officers quickly dispersed into the woods and started finding good spots to either hide in or that are hard to get to, with the students being sett off, all trying to gain the lead in finding a officer to tag. However Joe was only worried about those that he could see getting closer to last nights reasting spot as he quickly menouvered his spectator to hover around the area and kept a close eye on his radar to watch those who got close.

Luckaly the 8 officers that came past the area failed to notice it as they were still moving at quite high speeds and the fact that he chose last nights hiddy hole quite nicely, the students on the other hand he was more worried about as they were actively looking for clues and tracking the officers and they would be more likely to notice. After around 8 minutes the students were getting thoroughly distributed in the woods, still on the officers trail with guild recruitment agents behind them and the ones that he was worried about some dropped off to follow other officers however there were still 11 students with 3 guild agents in tow, who were actually quite adept at staying hidden, probably having a class from the rouge tree. Joe relying on his radar to know that they were there, were getting quite close to hiddy hole, to within 30 meters.

Unfortunately, one of the students stopped in the area, the others not knowing or caring about his sudden absence. He stopped and turned back to check something that he saw that the others glimsed over. And he was right, he did see something, footprints that lead perpendicular to the direction that all the other officers footprints were going. And upon looking around he saw that from the direction that the footprints come from came from under a tree. This individual that was quite good at spotting the odd thing out, thought that now he has stoped he should check this anomily out as it could be a clue or other hint, upon closer inspection the frost that was characteristic of the forest so far was completely missing from this area in about a 3 meter radius of a point over one of the roots just in front of the tree, not only was the frost missing the ground and tree trunk in where the sphere were was warm to the touch about 15-16°c or so and the fact that the soil around wasn't wet from frost melt, the student could tell that this wasn't a flash and run and no foot prints leading up to the place all leading him to conclude that whoever was here was here over night, and this new mystery intreaged the student as those footprint looked fresh and as far as he knew the park was cordened off at 4 in the morning for this so no one else would be here.

Not only him but one of the guild agents was interested in this as well, as he always kept his detect magic skill on as it had saved him from many things in the past. As because when the students were set off he saw a skill or spell that he had never seen before rush around the outside of the clearing immediately come over to this place and hovering around this site seemingly observing anyone that passed by and now this student that stopped to check out this hidden area. And now following the student after checking that no one else is in the area. The guild agent continued to follow the student partly for the students safety and partly to see what he would do in this situation.