Assessment and Foundation

Evris exited the stage as tournament organizers began directing contestants to exits on either side of the room.

As his row was called, he followed behind Jade as they exited through the alley.

"I wonder what amazing foundation I will get?" Jade spoke aloud to herself.

"Maybe you'll be able to transform into a gorilla," Kaden joked.

Jade glanced behind her and gave Kaden the stink eye.

"Well, it will make it easier to bash your skull in next time I see you." Jade mumbled.

Picking up on Jade's remark, Kaden scoffed.

"We'll see about that."

 He felt pretty confident that he would get a foundation that would be helpful to him. It was an odd feeling of premonition, like knowing that you're going to hit big at the roulette table before the ball stops rolling, or knowing a loot box in a game will give you the item you want before opening it.

He had also seen a certain pattern observing others who had participated in the tournament. Their foundations seemed to be in line with their personalities in some way or matched an attribute that had been with them before it had been formed. Therefore, even though he was joking, he was only half-joking at the possibility of Jade receiving something like a gorilla transformation. With her already brazen character, Kaden was almost certain that she would form a foundation that was somewhat combat-related.

As for himself, well, he had some ideas. He was thinking something like superhuman perception or the ability to analyze situations with inhuman speed. He wasn't really a fighter at heart like Jade or a silver-tongued arbitrator like Trevor, so he hoped it was something that fit his ideal self.

As Kaden walked out of the ceremony hall, he found himself in another narrow passage where people were being lined up into rooms that opened on either side.

Ahead of him, Jade ruffled her hair and cursed out loud.

"How many more goddamn lines are we going to have to go through. Ugh..."

Kaden looked ahead of Jade and sighed.

'Something we actually agree on for once.'

Through the grumblings and ramblings of the crazy woman in front of him, Kaden finally found himself separated from his seat neighbors. He was the next up for assessment and was facing a door flanked by an organizer who was ushering each of the contestants in. 

Kaden looked at him and chuckled to himself.

'He's like the lifeguard at the top of a waterslide.'

Noticing this, the organizer gave him a weird look, then looked at his watch, which had some sort of display. He looked back up at Kaden and opened the door.

"You're up, kid."

***

Kaden sighed as he left the assessment room. Looking back, he now felt it had been more of an interrogation than an assessment.

A very scary woman had asked all these weird questions, like: "Have you ever felt compelled to murder someone?" or "If you had the ability to do so, would you try to overthrow the government?"

The organizer asked these questions all the while peering at him accusatorially, as if he was already guilty of said actions.

Kaden rambled through the questions with half-answers and tried to keep as honest as possible, but the demeanor of the organizer did not change throughout the whole ordeal.

He found himself stammering and sweating under her pressure. 

'What a scary woman!'

Kaden shuddered as he walked down yet another hallway of doors towards his room that was assigned to him.

Trying to shrug off the previous ordeal, his eyes lit up with excitement, anticipating what would be waiting for him in his room.

Finally, he would be able to receive his foundation.

The doors in the hallway were embellished with different numbers, increasing in value as he continued down the path. He saw others placing their palms on some sort of panel and entering their rooms. Fascinated, Kaden picked up the pace until he found a door with his assigned number: 4777.

He couldn't help but grin to himself as the panel on the side prompted him to place his hand on an illuminated outline of a palm.

'Something out of a sci-fi movie.'

Not that superhuman powers were no less science fiction than a hand identification device. For him, though, everything here was a novelty, so Kaden continued to ooh and ahh at every new piece of technology he came across.

The door slid open and Kaden walked into a rather bleak room made out of the same material that every other part of the building was made of: the weird marble-like rock.

The room was decorated with a small desk and a chair, with what he assumed was the rulebook that Evris had mentioned during her speech.

Across from the desk was a simple-looking cot. 

'Could be worse.'

And finally, what Kaden saw the moment that he walked through the door was a stand at the back of the room that held a vial of bright orange liquid.

Eagerly, he walked up to the stand and took the vial into his hand. He also noticed a note next to the vial that read:

Here is the ambrosia of life.

A gift from the gods for humans to transcend.

We bestow you the chance to become greater than human: superhuman.

May your foundation be strong and your fortune favorable.

Kaden pondered for a moment and then glanced at the vial.

It was surprisingly dense. The liquid swirled in place, glowing with golden light. His mouth ran dry as he gingerly opened the cork of the vial, being careful not to spill a drop.

Staring at the now open vial, he steeled himself and then held it to his lips.

'Well, here goes nothing.'

In one motion, he downed the full vial.

The texture was surprisingly viscous, reminding him of the vitamin drinks he used to take after being sick. The taste was pleasing, like sweet honey. Kaden had expected it to be orange-flavored, feeling slightly betrayed.

For a moment, Kaden stood in his room in silence, unchanged. 

After a few minutes, his stomach began feeling a bit odd, and something that felt almost like heartburn crept into his chest.

'My tummy kinda hu-'

As if some sort of switch had flipped, his body suddenly felt like it had been dunked in lava, his limbs ached, his heart pounded in his chest as if it was going to explode, and a migraine assaulted him, making him feel like his head was going to split open.

Kaden yelped, stifling a scream as he fell to the ground, convulsing.

As the pain became unbearable, he slowly slipped unconscious, his body began to remold itself to fit his foundation.

***

Kaden woke up with a start on the cold floor of his room. He caught his breath, shaking off the residual headache that was still subsiding.

"I feel like shit."

He felt like he had just woken up from a bender after running a marathon. His body ached, his mouth was extremely dry, and he was drenched in sweat.

Kaden didn't know how long he had been out, but it felt like a long time to him.

Slowly, he got up and slumped down on the chair next to his desk, leaning his head back.

"Heh..."

He smiled sardonically to himself. 

Again, for what felt like the umpteenth time that day — if it still was today — he wondered why he had gotten himself into this situation.

'Oh right the super powers.'

It was not time to grovel about decision making. He had already gotten himself in this mess; too deep in the hole, he was stuck here for the next month — at the least.

He reassessed his body for any changes and was rather disappointed.

"Still a string bean, huh?"

He studied himself, feeling almost weaker than he had been before he drank the vial.

However, there was something inside that had crept into his consciousness. A sort of intuition overtook him as he closed eyes, focusing on his mind's eye, as if it felt natural.

In the void, he suddenly started to see sparks illuminating the darkness, eventually forming themselves into glowing, golden words that he could recognize.

Finally, he found the foundation that was bestowed upon him, and Kaden was baffled.

'You have to be fucking kidding me...'

***

Name: Kaden Urden

Race: Human

Foundation: [Rock Bottom]

Foundation Description: It's only up from here!

Rank: Poor

Attunements: —

Attributes: [Lucky], [Problem Child], [Steady Learner]

***

'Am I dead? I'm dead aren't I?'

Kaden cried imagining his world getting rocked by one of Jade's fists.

The description of his aspect did nothing to improve his mood, making it feel like it was mocking him.

His eyes begrudgingly skipped over the rank and inspected the attunements.

He assumed they would be the extra powers he'd gain along the way to improve his foundation.

His eyes rested on his attributes, and he felt a mix of emotions.

He focused on the first attribute:

Attribute: [Lucky]

Description: [You are lucky]

'That's it?'

Kaden was disappointed at the lackluster description to an attribute that he felt could be really beneficial.

This attribute only affirmed his belief that powers tended to follow previous characteristics of a person, as he had always saw himself as rather lucky.

He had won raffle prizes by only entering one ticket. Gotten rare mount drops without too much farming in games. He was also currently in the green at the casino, though not by much.

Shrugging to himself, he focused on the second attribute, a little worried at what he would see:

Attribute: [Problem Child]

Description: [You have always been the problem child. People will find you off-putting at first.]

'...'

This attribute was a complete debuff. 

Not every attribute would be a boon — every person had their quirks. For Kaden, it seemed people would have a bad impression of him.

He began to recount all his previous encounters with others. 

Jade flashed in his mind.

Horrified of the realization that he may be not as perfect as he thought, he began to spiral into an identity crisis.

Stunlocked for a few moments, he tried to regain his grip on reality and move to the final attribute:

Attribute: [Steady Learner]

Description: [You are a gradual learner. Slow and steady wins the race.]

Kaden had always been pretty average in school, so he was not to surprised.

He sighed to himself as he opened up his eyes. 

'One good, one bad, and one... okay, I guess?'

It as a mixed bag, but he had to live with what he got.

Aside from his attributes, his foundation was not as flashy as he expected, but it seemed like his build favors growth.

Knowing that he would have many opportunities outside of combat to train his foundation made him hopeful.

The future was still uncertain, but Kaden tried to stay positive, knowing that anything could happen in the upcoming phase.

His stomach grumbled, reminding him that he was starving after all that thinking and sweating... and writhing on the ground.

He decided to put the thoughts of how he would use his new-found abilities to their potential to the side for now.

'Let's see where we can find some food around here.'