chapter 21 - Registering... again

When Ashe arrived back home it was already 7 in the morning. He quietly entered the house and headed toward his room

Luckily his mom and brother were both asleep in the living room so he wouldn't get caught with a blood-soaked shirt.

'Did they stay up late? I hope they weren't worried about me.'

Without wasting time, Ashe grabbed some new clothes and took a long shower. When he finished and got dressed his mom was already awake.

The two of them exchanged a hug and talked while eating breakfast together. Before long, Ashe was already outside and walking towards the train station.

He was planning on signing up at MAT today but an unexpected task came up. When Ashe checked his phone this morning he got an unexpected text.

<We've got your cut, message me when you'll come to pick it up.>

This text was from the boss he worked with on scavenger runs. They must have finally sold the beast eggs they got a couple of days ago.

'I guess I don't have to pick it up today, but the money would make for a good goodbye gift for mom so I'll pick it up tomorrow.'

With this task "complete" Ashe could focus on registering at MAT.

______

"Hello! I'd like to register as a part-time employee." Said Ashe, who was already at the reception.

The receptionist looked Ashe up and down before asking for his mutant ID which Ashe promptly gave.

Signing up as a part-time employee at MAT was incredibly easy. The only requirement was to be a stage 2 mutant, and the only thing the receptionist had to do was type out Ashe's ID number into their system.

After a few seconds, all the data from Ashe's government ID, including his trail records, would be transferred over to the MAT server and made into an account.

The receptionist handed back Ashe's ID and asked for Ashe's phone which he also quickly gave.

When he got his phone back everything was done. He said thank you before quickly leaving the reception and taking a seat near a cafe that was on the first floor of the MAT building.

On his phone was the MAT app which he was quite familiar with as his dad had shown him how it works.

From the app, Ashe could look at and apply for commissions from his city. Then if he applied for a commission the original poster would get his auto-generated resume and a choice of hiring him or not.

The only problem was that his current resume was only consisting of the abilities he showed at his original trial with FMR, which were lackluster at best.

Ashe opened the app and looked through the available commissions, and there weren't more than a dozen of them. Most of them consisted of bodyguard requests, private expeditions to the wild, or search parties

It didn't take long before he found what he was looking for.

< Rescue mission, looking for 3 lost MAT employees. >

< 3 Full-time MAT employees were lost during an expedition. We know their approximate location, your task will be locating them or finding proof of death. >

< 200$ per day >

'Is this it? There's no other mission regarding missing employees so it must be it. Let's see how many people already signed up… only 5.'

As Ashe looked through the list of names none of them seemed familiar. He had seen some of his dad's coworkers but none of their names were on the list.

'Is this typical for this type of work? Whatever! I'll find him myself.'

With a slight agitation, Ashe sent a request with a note.

"Give me a chance, my resume isn't up to date."

He had hoped that this would at least allow him to talk with the recruiters, but he was instantly rejected.

< You don't qualify for this mission's requirements >

'What!? Where are the requirements?'

Ashe checked the mission description again but found nothing. Only when he tried applying a second time did he notice a small print which once pressed revealed the simple requirements.

< the applicant must have a score of either:

35 combat,

20 strength,

20 agility,

20 protection,

25 utility,

20 expedition utility,

Or experience with traversing the area. >

'Oh, I remember this! I always liked when dad would show me these statistics. Let's see… from the look of it the criteria aren't that high. I would only need to prove that I can reach one of those requirements.'

Every MAT employee had their statistics taken from their mutant ID and could be updated at any time. The statistics are made up of 3 groups: Combat, Utility, and Experience.

For example, the combat group has 4 categories: Strength, Agility, Protection, and Special.

Strength measures purely the damage a person can output. A 10 would be equal to a professional athlete, and a 20 would be equal to 2 of them.

The rule of 10 applies to every category, meaning a stat of 10 could be reached by a person, and a stat of 20 could be reached by 2 people.

This rule doesn't apply to scores above 100, but those cases get handled personally since they are quite rare.

'I guess I have to get an appraisal.'

Ashe got up from his seat and walked back to the reception.

"Hello again." Said the same receptionist that registered Ashe previously.

"Hello, could you help me with getting my statistics updated? I'm not sure how that would work." Ashe replied.

"Of course. If you want to update your statistics you'll have to schedule a test. Then you will take a small test led by an employee who will grade your performance." Explained the receptionist.

"Can I schedule a test here?" Ashe asked.

"Yes, would you like to update your experience statistics or your combat and utility?"

"Just the Combat and utility."

"There's a couple of slots available now, would you like to take the test now or another day?" The receptionist asked.

"Now would be great." Ashe quickly added.

"Great! That would be 50$, but since it's your first test it's only 25$." The receptionist smiled.

…

'I have to pay for this?! I think I have enough saved up, but what a scam!'

Ashe put on a fake smile and paid with his debit card.

The receptionist pointed to an elevator before explaining further.

"On the elevator, go to the -3 floor, your instructor will be waiting for you."

Ashe just nodded and headed towards the elevator.

'This test better be worth 25€'

_____

One of the examiners, Jack, had just gotten a text on his phone.

< We're sending you a newbie, be sure to pick him up. >

'Ugh… I hate new recruits, you always have to explain everything to them.' Jack thought.

His small inner ranting would have to wait as he needed to pick up the examinee himself since new people wouldn't know their way around the training grounds.

'What a pain.'

As he made it to the elevator the doors opened and he saw a kid walk out.

'A kid? What a word we live in huh.'

Jack looked at his phone again and looked over the kid's stats.

'Fives across the board in combat… and only slightly higher in utility…'

He sighed before calling out to the kid.

"Ashe right? I'm your instructor for today."

"Hello," Ashe responded.

"Follow me," said Jack before turning around and walking off.

The room they were in was a small round room that had multiple different branching exits that led to different training areas that were only accessible to full-time employees, or premium members.

Jack walked down a hallway marked with the number 1. And as the two of them walked through it they got a view of the other testing areas in use. Multiple people sparred while others used machinery to train.

Finally, after a couple of minutes, Jack stopped in front of his training area, 1-23.

As he walked in he started leisurely talking with Ashe.

"So… do we start with utility or combat?"

The youngster didn't respond immediately and appeared to be in thought.

'Is he confused by this much?'

But right as Jack was about to say something the kid spoke.

"Utility…" Ashe said with uncertainty.

Ashe had trouble choosing because he didn't want to waste his demon energy reserves on the first test. In the end, he decided utility would use less energy than combat.

"Since we're starting with utility, why don't you show me what you've got." Said Jack

"Utility is an abstract score so just try to sell me on what you can add to a team"

Yet again the kid looked lost in thought but this time he spoke up much more quickly.

"I can carry extra weight." As Ashe said those words demon energy started seeping from him and slowly solidified, creating a levitating platform.

Ashe was focused on getting as high of a score in expedition utility, which was one of the sub-categories of the utility group.

"How much extra weight?" Jack asked while walking over to the platform.

"I'm not sure…" Ashe responded.

Upon hearing the disappointing answer Jack hopped onto the platform.

The platform fell onto the ground with a loud thud.

Jack sighed and an unamused face stared Ashe down. However, Ashe focused and infused his leftover energy into the platform while condensing its energy.

To Jack's surprise, the platform lifted from the floor, even if only a dozen centimeters off the floor.

"You just surprised me." Said Ashe with a smile.

Jack hopped off the platform and inspected the platform a second time.

"Can you make that into any shape you want?" He asked.

"Yes! I can even change its consistency to make it lighter or more elastic." Ashe responded with enthusiasm. Shortly after the platform turned into liquid and floated in the air.

The liquid turned into many different solid shapes like a shield, a sword, and a dozen floating arrows before returning to Ashe's palm.

"Is there a limit to how much you can make?" Asked Jack

"About this much," Ashe responded while producing an oddly shaped sphere that could fit an adult inside of it.

Ashe's demon energy reserves have increased drastically since entering the tunnels of Beruthiell again.

"Impressive," Said Jack.

'Creation is so annoying to grade…'

"Anything else?" He added.

"Oh! I can also set up traps." Ashe responded.

As the boy said those words he closed his eyes and, after a couple of seconds, placed a small weird shape on the ground. To Jack, it looked like no more than an odd-looking stain on the ground.

"So how does this work?" Jack asked.

"If anyone breaks that small sigil, it will release a liquid that follows them," Ashe said.

"does it matter if I touch it directly or not?" Jack asked.

"I'm... not sure," Ashe replied.

Jack sighed.

"Okay, you just turn around and don't peek." He ordered Ashe before walking to the side of the training arena.

On this side of the training arena was a storage area from which Jack took out a fist-sized metal ball and threw it directly at the symbol.

*Crack

A quiet sound of cracking glass that was followed by the loud sound of rushing water. crimson liquid poured out of the floor and took the rough shape of a human figure.

'What the hell! that's so creepy.' Jack thought

Shortly after taking shape, the figure started sprinting toward Jack.

'That's even creepier.'

The figure itself wasn't faster than your average athlete so Jack had ample time to tell Ashe to stop his trap which he promptly stopped and absorbed back into his palm.

"Do you have anything else? cause if not I'd like to move on to combat." Jack asked.

Ashe shook his head.

"Then let's start with combat."