Leo tried to sober himself up from the feat he had just achieved, he knew how comfort was a recipe for disaster. "Don't get excited about getting a measly one artifact, maybe people have dozens of this thing in there arsenal. I have to remember that the gap between us is still too far."
As he spoke to himself his steps grew shorter and shorter till he stopped right next to a huge tree that looked ancient with dark brown bark and massive branches that supported bright purple fruits that were a rare delicacy around Glory base.
He wondered if he should procure some for his sister on his way back.
But another thought occupied his mind as he continued to walk forward. Back when he was much weaker his dream was simply to survive and make living a luxury for his already struggling family and while that had been realistic enough he felt that now he had to be logical about that goal.
After all it was not till he had embarked it that he had experienced many life threatened events from the always intrusive Clint Larring to the many beasts that wanted nothing more than to rip his flesh apart. He almost died many times in this past year and was okay with that but after talking to Cassandra something had begun shifting within him.
She had built a name for herself and he was sure she had so much money that she did not know what to do with it. Leo had always known that the rich were born privileged but people like Cassandra proved that the strong could build the privilege by their own hands and that was true power.
She was living hope that he could achieve something, he had not thought much about their relationship until recently. He felt like he wanted to stand next to her and if possible surpass her.
He pulled out the map he had taken from the corpse of the young man whose life he had ended so cruelty and looked at it. He had not had time to look at it before, but now he could see the clear image of a part of the forest surrounding the Glory base and a part of an unexplored region marked with a red circle. And underneath it the words, "The Blood Warlock."
Leo's eyes dimmed slightly, "What's this? Was that fool actually looking for something out there, I wonder if it's a beast." But to think that a person would be cynical to go find trouble alone and end up getting killed.
"There's no harm in checking it out at least, might be worth my time." He told himself and decided to think about his shortcomings for a bit.
He knew he lacked power that anyone wanting to survive would need but he also knew that he lacked one thing, and that was the training in the arts of battle. He did have the basic of defense techniques from the academy he had attended before being called by Hellscape, but tha was it.
Everyone other person in Hellscape had more than a decent amount of training than he had, and due to the fact that they joined groups like the Hands Of War or the Surge Military Group. In this groups they would run training or drills to hold organised large hunting parties.
And being weak and proving no idea to any group Leo had been left without any of these privileges. For now he would have to rely on his choppy survival skills till he returned.
He wondered if he would ever get stronger in future and if her did would he still remain the same as the "peerless loser" or would he want to be known.
He shook these thoughts away, "That's a problem for another day. Now let's see what I got from that cursed creature."
He had taken the life of a wounded animal who someone had dealt most of the damage to and he had taken the beast cores. "They must be really pissed."
He also had to know if the beast core would also increase his rank.
But the artifact came first.
He conjoured his information from the sphere to have a look.
Name: Leonardo.
Title: Awakened.
Pack: —.
Lunar Core: Awakened.
Soul Fragments: 6/100.
He raised his fingers and pretended to count the amount of soul fragments he would need to acquire before reaching it's climax and sighed regrettably.
It was still too early to think about reaping the rewards of his labour.
He proceeded over to the next page.
Stats—
Strength: 2
Agility: 4
Endurance: 5
Vitality: 1
Lunar Points: 1
He was a little interested on this part of his skill set but that was not the main agenda of this moment. He willed the third screen to appear.
Legacy: The Cursed Dire Wolf.
Legacy Rank: Primordial.
Legacy Rank: Omega.
Legacy Abilities: (Moon born).
Legacy Ability Description: Born on the night of a full moon, you have gained partial control over the abilities of the cursed dire wolf.
Inheritance Ability: Wolf Bond.
Artifacts: [Red Needle].
Companion: —
Almost all of Leo's excitement left him as he saw the name of the artifact he had gotten from killing the red eyed hyena. Surely it had to be much better than it sounded.
He willed for more information to appear for the articat that caused another screen to appear before him.
Artifact Name: Red Needle.
Artifact Type: Weapon.
Artifact Rank: Awakened.
Artifact Description: A needle can be many things but it strikes true when wielded by one of clarity.
Artifact Enchantments:
—Weeping Tears- Wounds inflicted by the needle will not heal for five seconds.
—True Thirst- The more blood the blade drinks the hungrier it gets.
Leo slowly came to a stop and sat down to rest by the stump of a tree to relax and try to understand all the things he had just read. His first weapon being an awakened one was a good thing, but there was also one huge catch about artifacts.
It was impossible to know just which type of artifact one would get, Leo had always been more used to wielding smaller weapons like knives and daggers mostly so if he ended up getting a sword, and axe or perhaps an arrow it would greatly impact his style of compact. And affect the way he hunted.
Getting a weapon was good but utilizing it to its fullest potential was the real pickle. But if he wanted to avoided risking his life getting close and personal with the opponents he might encounter in future, whether man or beast he would have no choice but to learn a totally new weapon within the time frame he had set for himself.
Learning and mastering a certain weapon type depended on two things, the first was preference and the other was luck. If someone preferred long ranged attacks he would most likely favour a bow and arrows, but if it came down to pick whatever weapon the person first acquired would determine their future.
Leo read the enchantments well to get a grasp of the advantages of his weapon. Since enchantments were the special attributes a weapon was capable of doing. There were rumours that no two enchantments were the same, they could only outdo the other or perform much poorer.
Not wanting to waste anymore time Leo stretched out his hand and summoned the red needle.