Leo had never held his very own artifact in his hand before, this was something he wanted to remember more than anything.
He had one of his hands outstretched before him and his palms opened to summon the awakened artifact.
All he had to do was think and will it into formation, how hard could that be? For the first few seconds nothing visibly happened, no rain of sparks. There was not even a single spark, just cold empty silence.
Leo did not want to be denied the virtue of summoning his very first artifact so he put more effort into it. Since he did not have a solid image in his mind to conjour up all he did was repeat the name of the artifact in his head till something happened.
It started as a small cool breeze flowing within the tips of his fingers and at the base of his palm. He focused on this feeling and repeated the process, not wanting losing sight of it he doubled his effort and felt beads of sweat emerging from the cracks of his skin.
His heart almost leapt for joy when he saw sparks of light shimmering into thin air right before him and taking the shape of a long pole as they grew slightly larger.
It felt like holding bubbles in his hand and made him feel slightly relaxed and cool, a second later he could feel something cold and metal in his touching the palm of his hand.
The visible image of a long weapon was taking shape as the sparks were dissipating, he felt the weapon begin to fall prey to gravity and grabbed it with startled precision.
To his surprise he did not feel the weight of the weapon at first, it felt like he was holding up a long needle that weighed as much as a stick.
A part of Leo that has been used to holding weapons that had at least some weight frowned but the bigger part of him smiled and jumped for joy.
He was at least grateful that his first weapon was a rapier.
"I did it! I got my first artifact!" There was pure unadulterated joy emanating from him but he did not let it overwhelm him completely.
He decided to observe the artifact a bit more and carefully too. It dark crimson almost a similar shade to blood which Leo greatly admired, but the one thing he did find a little bit troubling was the fact that it several feet long giving him more range and also rounded and so thin that he was certain it would break if it took a direct hit to the side.
He knew for a fact that such a weapon was only good for thrusting. This meant that he would have to implement such a big change into his battle style, he had never tried thrusting or considered it but what choice did he have.
It was either that of a bare handed brute with violent tendencies.
But he did admire the craftsmanship of the red needle, it's hilt had the most detail of all. It had a soft cushion made of fur that held his grip and prevented blisters. It also had a long thin shaft running down from the shaft of the hilt to the base of the hilt forming a handle.
The shaft of the red needle was a beautiful grey shade that contrasted with the dark red of the long blade, it looked mostly simple but in Leo's eyes the design and workmanship was top tier.
Leo used the rest of the day running practice drills with his new artifact, he practiced his footwork and synced it up with his thrusts and parries.
It proved to be more hectic than he thought initially, re-integrating his battle style was hard. Now with the red needle he had to focus on more quick controlled thrusts to inflict as many wounds as he could on his opponent. That would mean he would need the speed and strength to both manuever and thrust, he wondered if there was a way he could improve these skills in such a short time.
That was when he had a light bulb moment.
He paused to catch his breath after several hours of relentless practice, his clothes were half soaked in sweat. He took a big sip of water before summoning the stats he had seen from before.
[Stats]
Strength: 2.
Agility: 4.
Endurance: 5.
Vitality: 1.
Lunar Points: 1.
For a few seconds of silence he spoke while stroking his chin, "If I took this thing serious then that would mean that my strength is actually low. I guess I need to be stronger like Goliath or Cassie."
Another screen popped up before the previous.
[Stats]
Strength: 2
Do you wish to add the 1 lunar point to this stat?
This time Leo did not even look surprised, he simply shrugged it off and said. "Yes?"
And he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath waiting for the rush of adrenaline, several seconds passed but there was no change in his body or posture.
He stared at the screen with cold eyes, "What a joke, I've been scammed."
To shrug of the disappointment he went back to his training and practiced to become more acquainted with his weapon, till nightfall this was all he did. In the end he did not feel any change in his body and that made his mood more low for some reason.
He chewed down on the tasteless carb of the boiled potato and prepared for the next day. According to the map there was supposed to be a pack of dormant wild beasts on his way to the area marked red.
He would test out everything he had learned there he still had a week and half to go before he would return. His longest expedition outside the base had been threw days, back then he had been stalking a dormant beast and waiting for it to sleep before proceeding to kill it in its sleep.
Now he was an awakened with an artifact, and beastly instincts. As he was about going to sleep he remembered the beast cores he had in his bag, he had decided not to use them just yet.
He feared he would waste good awakened beast cores if it failed to aid his growth, the next day he would find dormant beast cores to consume instead.