Miki could barely contain her excitement as Smokescreen--she didn't know why the old man would choose such a name--explained what they would be doing for the first test. Finding water? This should be a cinch! She had intended to do that anyways as she really was quite thirsty after all that walking through the desert. She didn't understand why he would even give the option to give up for an easy task like this! She certainly would never do that after all the things she had to do to get here!

So imagine her surprise when she saw fourteen of the other applicants gave up, not following Smokescreen into Roontah. Due to her naivety, she didn't know that some, if not most of the applicants couldn't use qi at all, so they didn't have the qi-enhanced stamina that she had. Even though her mastery of qi was only on the level of a basic user, it already gave her quite an edge over non-qi users.

As the test began, some of the remaining applicants rushed forward into the city, as if it was a race to see who would find water first, even though Smokescreen already said there would be enough water for all of them. Maybe they were just that thirsty, she thought. She was thirsty too, of course, but not that much that she would rush in to find water as fast as she could. Besides, she knew better than to spend her energy wastefully. She figured this would be less of a speed contest and more of an endurance contest. She just had to endure searching for some water all through this large ruined city.

...On second thought, maybe this test wasn't so easy after all.

Miki shook her head, throwing away the negative thought from her head. Her grandfather would scold her if she thought a simple task like this was hard. It was simply a searching mission. It wasn't anything combat related. Even an ordinary person could do it.

She started her search by jumping roofs to roofs towards the highest point of the city. She could jump really, really well so might as well use it. She could at least gauge just how big this city really was.