Chapter 4: Kaleidoscope;Kinesthetic

“Please change into this,” Estelle said as she gave Avis Walker a blue tracksuit. Some of the staff often referred to him as Subject Q.

“Alright.” He took the tracksuit and had a feel of it before he started taking off his clothes.

Estelle was slightly flustered as she recalled their previous hookup. “Excuse me,” she said and left the room in a hurry.

“It's all part of the job,” she told herself as she regained her composure. This wasn't the first time she used her charm to extract information. Her eyes have an ability to affect the mentality of a person. She never had the chance to use it on him, though. There was no need. She just didn't expect him to be so straightforward.

Q opened the door and went out of the room. He looked back for a moment and chuckled. They will be moving him to another room after today. One that would be more suited as living quarters.

“No stuff to pack. How convenient,” he said. “Well, there is one fond memory, at least.”

“Let's go.” Estelle hurried him, ignoring his last remark.

She led him out of the medical facility. A small car was already waiting to drive them to the assessment area.

“You'll be joining other candidates. The clothes you're wearing have sensors installed on the lining. It should give a rough measurement of your parameters,” she explained on the way. She noticed that he was looking outside the window a lot. She sighed. “You really seem like someone out of time, huh?”

“Isn't that what I told you?” He referred to the time they asked his age. He didn't even turn to look at her. Estelle saw this as an opportunity. One of her abilities was to determine if the other party was lying or not. But it's obvious when she uses her ability. The whites of her eyes—her sclera—turns a dark midnight blue.

“What do you mean?” She used her ability while he wasn't looking.

“Before I woke up, I had experienced more than a million years of being alive,” he said.

His words floated up as red texts that only Estelle could see. It meant that he was telling the truth. But…

“How cheeky…” She muttered.

“Hm? Did you say something?” He asked and turned around. She had already deactivated her ability then.

“We're almost here.” She shifted the topic. His statement only made it likely that his weigh-in took that long. But for some reason, she wasn't satisfied with that. There was something in how he said it. As if he told the truth but hid most of it.

“We'll be monitoring you from afar. Best of luck, Q.” The car stopped in front of a large building. The windows were tinted so it was difficult to see through them. There were other taller buildings behind it. Q can only guess they were related to training and assessment.

“Thanks, Estelle,” he said as he got out of the car.

As Q headed for the entrance, the driver turned towards Estelle and laughed. “So when are you going to start calling each other with pet names?”

“Shut it, Sven,” she snapped at him. “I need him to be more comfortable around me.”

“Right. Sure,” he said sarcastically.

“Do you want to go bald?” She furrowed her brow. Some of his hair suddenly sparked and fell off.

“N-no, ma'am.”

---

Q registered at the lobby and was led into a gathering hall. The employees have been informed of the candidates beforehand so there was no issue. It was just a matter of adding Q to the current roster.

He was the last one to arrive. The other candidates were also wearing the same tracksuit as him. Though, some had different colors. As soon as he entered, one of the staff members checked his list before clapping his hands to get everyone's attention.

“Alright,” the man said. He was a middle-aged man with glasses. “Looks like everyone is here. Let's get started.”

All the candidates turned towards him.

“I'm James Emil and I'll brief you on the assessment process,” he said.

“As you can see, some of you are wearing different colors. The white category is for non-combatants. Kindly make your way to the second hall for a different assessment.”

Those wearing white tracksuits were guided by staff members. They had a different kind of evaluation. Healers and medics are top priority in securing. There are also scouts and trackers. Those classes lean towards utility and not direct combat. It doesn't necessarily mean they are not combat capable. They are mostly known to specialize in other areas.

“Those in the black category have no specialty yet.” James marked the candidates that had left the hall as he continued. “Don't worry. It means you have the freedom to choose your class. We'll have you attend an orientation about this. Please proceed to the third hall.”

People that started off without a class can get classes later on. There are people who did not like the classes they received. In a way, the freedom to choose was a big advantage at the start.

“Red, Green, and Blue categories are all geared towards combat specialties. These are close quarter classes, ranged classes, and magic classes respectively. These are based either on your declared parameters or classes. We're here to assist and guide you into becoming a full-fledged combat breaker. We will be gathering data during the assessment and make the proper recommendations.”

Some people declare the wrong kind of parameter or class when applying to be a breaker. But, that would only cause trouble for the newbie breaker. Especially, if they encounter an enemy beyond their capability. This is one way of protecting new breakers and making sure they survive.

“We'll have you fight against the training dolls. We'll start at level one and we can keep increasing the difficulty up to fifteen if you wish.” He finished tinkering with his data pad after confirming everyone's presence. “Right. Let's go.”

He led them into another hall that had a sparring area in the middle. A training dummy was standing in the center.

“There are all kinds of training weapons available here.” James pointed to the side. There were swords, spears, knuckles and all sorts of weapons. There were even bows, crossbows, throwing knives and guns too. “For mages, we have wands, tomes, talismans, and all kinds of catalysts. But they can only cast a basic magic emission spell like [Magic Missile] or [Soul Strike].”

James laughed when he saw some people react to the spell names. “What's important in spells and skills is visualization. Referring to games, movies, books, and other media is common. Some names just stuck around, though.”

He turned to Q for a moment before he resumed. “Right. For summoner and golem related classes, we can provide you with a spirit doll. It's a small golem designed to act as a temporary summon or golem. You pour your magic power into it to form a temporary contract.”

“Damn. Someone got a summoner class? How unlucky,” one of the candidates remarked. It was a young blond man wearing a red tracksuit. He turned towards Q, seeing as the instructor did so beforehand.

“Is it that bad?” Q asked, amused at the template of the situation. The protagonist with a lowly class. It was one of those.

“It's true that summoners aren't popular,” James said. “Golem users need extra resources but their builds are permanent. High ranking golem users also have regenerating golems. Those are as strong as several high ranking breakers. Meanwhile, summoners need to summon their units every single time. There are high ranking summoners but rare.”

“Anyway, that aside.” James decided to drop the topic. “We will make sure to support you as much as we can. That is, as long as you become a breaker for the sake of humanity.”

---

They moved on to the combat assessment. Each difficulty added one more training dummy. The dummy's movements also get refined per level. Most of the candidates lasted up to level three or four. Melee fighters get overwhelmed with numbers. Ranged and magic users tend to rely on keeping distance. They lose out on stamina on higher levels and get closed up on.

[Zeke Arnold: Level seven cleared!]

The young man from before pumped his fists in the air.

“Fuck yeah!” He shouted before turning to Q and smirking. That was the highest level cleared so far. He was using a two-handed sword but his ability clad his body in electricity. It dealt damage on contact and buffed his speed as well.

The next candidates got fired up but they still couldn't reach or clear that level.

“Last up, uh…” James furrowed his brow as he was reading the name on the pad.

“Q,” he said as he walked up to the sparring area.

“Right. Mister, uh, Q.” James scratched his head. The name said Avis Walker but there was an important note that the person responds to the name ‘Q’. “It says here you're a summoner class. Do you want to use one of the spirit dolls?”

“That's fine. This is the best way to test things out, after all.” Q went into the area without even bringing a weapon. He did a couple of stretches while waiting for the assessment to begin. The training dummy stood around ten meters in front of him. It took a boxing stance.

The level one dummy was not weak by any means. It had its parameters set at C. In that sense, it was comparable to a starting average breaker. Its fighting skills were basic hand to hand combat. It is also very sturdy. It can take several hits before it registers the damage as enough to bring it down.

[Q: Level one starting in…]

[Five!]

[Four!]

[Three!]

[Two!]

[One!]

[Begin!]

At that moment, Q had closed the distance and leaped forward. His knee crashed against the dummy's jaw… and sent its head flying.

[Q: Level one cleared!]