Frank had polished off a whole pot of pasta, 2 more full servings of chicken, and about half the pot of sweet and sour meatballs before he was physically too full to continue. Whatever the System was doing to him, it was horrifying, though it did look funny to his mom. After he sat down on the couch, he tried to digest the food as he went and searched up the experiences of others on Lincoln's forum, Fat Buck Ranch. He searched up keywords like food, metabolism, core creation, and others.

The info he finally gathered amounted to: When an awakened first creates their core they become incredibly hungry because their metabolism isn't just doing its normal functions, it also has to sustain the influx of spiritual energy the core draws in and the new senses an Awakened has at their disposal. This imbalance will supposedly even out as the body adjusts.

However a common problem among late awakeners, particularly those who were gamers or fans of LitRPG novels before their awakening, was that they tended to use their stat points all at once. With too many bodily systems changing at once, this put a big strain on the body and caused some people to become even more ravenous while their body used up energy, or in some cases they could straight up pass out for hours.

Frank wiped away sweat from his forehead, feeling lucky that he ended up only being painfully hungry for a bit. He told himself to be sure to eat a little extra over the next couple days just in case he started to feel faint.

He was so engrossed in his research that Lauren had to smack him on the head with one of her textbooks before he paid her any mind.

"FRANK! Are you listening? Wait... that looks bad, did I hit you too hard?" She went a little pale as Frank felt a little bit of blood trickle down from the side of his head. He had barely felt the impact, even though she hit him with the corner of the book and drew blood.

"Oh, uh I'm fine actually. You didn't have to hit me so hard on the first swing though"

"That was the fifth"

Frank coughed audibly, completely unaware he had been hit four additional times. So much for increased perception. On the other hand, his vitality stat seemed to be doing wonders.

"Sorry, so what did you want? I was busy researching stuff on the forum"

"Oh perfect! I was actually just having a conversation with one of my friends on the forum and she thinks she's found the identity of the monster Lincoln fought at the end of his goblin raid. She wasn't sure at first, but she figured out that it must be a drake"

"A fucking dragon? Come on, how the hell am I supposed to even think about getting near a dragon?"

"No! Not a dragon! A drake! It's different!" She smacked her textbook, impatient as ever. Frank wasn't sure how a math textbook was related to the little details on monster classification, but he knew his sister enough to know he had to ride this one out or he'd never hear the end of it.

"Sounds similar enough to me" However his natural inclination was to tease her anyway

"Come on, take this more seriously! You're the one who has to know about these things!" She sat beside him on the couch after taking a look at his head where she cut him, "Wow, I guess I didn't get you too deep. I don't even know where the cut is..."

"Oh, I didn't tell you yet! I have stats now, like in a game. I put some points into a stat called vitality. Did it really make me heal up faster?" He scratched his chin, trying to think back to how hard Lauren had actually hit him.

"Hey, back on track, freakazoid. So the theory in dragon lore was that there are a bunch of different types of dragon-like creatures that are not actually dragons. One of those are wyverns, who are like smaller dragons that aren't as intelligent, and don't use the same sort of magic that a dragon would. Then we have-"

"Wait, wait, dragons are intelligent?" Frank raised an eyebrow

"Well duh, haven't you seen enough stories where there's an evil dragon guarding a hoard of treasure, or stirring up trouble by plotting against the heroes? Dragons are usually depicted as intelligent and capable of performing magic in some form or another. Not to mention they're uniquely capable of speech"

"Okay, so dragons are definitely a hard pass if I ever see one. Doesn't change my plan at all, which is to run far away"

"Yeah, no kidding. Now the one Lincoln probably saw was a drake, which is much, much larger than a wyvern, and much tougher to kill. While a drake can't fly due to a lack of wings, it is still huge, strong, and territorial. They aren't intelligent, and there is some lore that claims they can breathe fire and other elements like dragons can. We didn't see whether or not that was the case, but we absolutely saw how it took out those goblins like they were nothing"

"So don't fight drakes either, got it. I don't think that was an option anyway. I'd like to see the guy crazy enough to tangle with one of those things"

Frank thought back to Granspier's dojo and where the pale old scars he got came from. Was Sir Granspier the sort of badass that could take on a drake? or even a dragon? Frank didn't doubt it. He'd have to ask him next time they got a chance to train.

Lauren snuggled up beside her brother, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Listen... I'm... I'm glad you're okay. We didn't talk much when you came home last night. The fight must have taken a lot out of you, huh?"

"Well yeah, but the real problem was the System. It was trying to force me to sleep so I could form a core in my body. Think of it like a place to hold spiritual energy"

"So what, you have some kind of freaky new organ?"

"I'd rather not think about it that way, that sounds way creepier than it really is. Actually, it's kind of comforting to focus on my core and just breath in sync with it"

Frank gently unfocused his eyes and started to slowly breath to the rhythm of his spinning core. He could feel it gently rotating near his stomach, he could tell even this little bit of attention was gathering energy to his core just like this morning.

"Uh what the hell... what is this feeling?" Lauren looked at Frank, unsure of what was going on, "The air feels kind of cold, but also charged with electricity. What are you doing?"

"Huh? I'm just... breathing. Well, in sync with my core more specifically. But I'm still just breathing. You felt a change in the air? That's so weird"

"You're fucking weird. You and your freaky powers!"

"Jealous, sis?"

"Maybe a little..."

Frank chuckled and brought up his status page, skipping over to his [Core Rank] tab. He saw he had twenty five spiritual energy inside his core right now. If he remembered right, Lauren's knife needed less than that for it to charge up all the way. The last time he gave it a scan with [psychometry] it had half a point of charge. He told Lauren to sleep with it by her bed or under her pillow. He wasn't sure, but he hoped that directing some intent towards the knife would contribute something towards charging it. The description of the knife mentioned something about needing to be close to its wielder, but he wasn't sure how effective it would be with a normal human.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Now that Frank had formed his core, he knew he could charge it directly. He just had to direct his energy the same way he did the wand in his dream. The hard part would be doing it properly while he was awake.

"Lauren, go get your knife. I wanna try something"

His sister sheepishly pulled the cheap looking red handled knife from her shirt, where it was secured in her bra. Frank's eyebrow twitched with annoyance.

"Lauren..." he started while slowly wiping the knife off on one of the couch pillows as if it were filthy, "Didn't I tell you not to take your knife to school? and I'm pretty sure dad reminds you every morning, as well"

"Hey, you never know what could happen. Besides, it's a magic knife. I can't just let it sit around, it's too cool not to have on me all the time!" She pouted in protest. Frank couldn't disagree with her unspoken logic. An invasion could happen any day. With that knowledge weighing on her, why shouldn't she be armed?

Frank took a good look at the knife, before he even thought to activate his [psychometry] skill he realized he could see, more like feel, a faint glow on the knife. He hadn't noticed it before. Was this part of his [supernatural sense] skill? This would make it a lot easier to identify magic items in the future if they all did this.

Activating [psychometry], Frank checked the status of the knife again.

'Psychometry skill activated

Object: Handmade Blessed Knife

A mundane knife at a glance, however the craftsman who created this knife imbued it with the intention that it protect its wielder from mortal danger, just as their grandfather's handmade knife did for them years ago. With passive proximity and focused intention, spiritual energy may charge the innate properties of this blade to cause it to activate.

Special Properties: Lesser Armor Penetration (Dormant)

Heart Seeking Strike (Dormant)

Lesser Mortal Wound (Dormant)

Durability 12/12

Charge: 1/10'

Keeping it on her at all times, Lauren apparently had been charging it. Though only by half a point. Frank was going to try to speed up the process.

"You might feel weird again. Let me know if anything else happens, I haven't exactly done this before"

Lauren nodded as Frank got comfortable and focused on his core again. This time instead of focusing and adding energy to his core, he pulled what he imagined to be strands of energy out. He mentally guided them up his body and towards the arm he held Lauren's knife in. He could feel heat in his hand, the strands diffusing into the strange barely perceptible glow on the knife. Frank could feel it, his will was being thrust upon the object and imbuing it with untapped energy. He wasn't sure what would happen once the knife was fully charged, but he saw no reason to stop now.

"Frank, my hair is starting to stand up, I don't like this" Lauren began to breathe heavier, a little panic in her voice as she backed away to the edge of the sofa. Nina came over from her spot at the kitchen table where she was reading a book. She felt the change in the air too, and knew exactly who was causing it.

"Frank, what are you doing?" the siblings' mother questioned.

"Shhh, concentrating" came Frank's response. He could feel the energy well up, the knife was almost ready. It started to feel a lot like the wand in Frank's dream, it almost felt like it had it's own will. Of course it wasn't actually moving, but Frank felt like if he let go now he would lose control over whatever he was doing to it.

Suddenly, the static feeling in the air intensified and sparks began to fly from the small red handled knife. Frank opened his eyes, the knife appeared in a bright brilliant white within his vision, he could barely stand to look at it, but his new senses were drawn to it like the chaos of a car crash. He couldn't make his inner senses look away.

Lauren and her mother, who had no such senses, saw something far stranger. They could see the sparks arcing off of the knife, and watched in stunned silence as the knife began to warp its shape in front of them. It was like trying to look at something that was two different things at once, or like trying to describe a color you have never seen. They couldn't tell what it was. Frank was holding Lauren's knife one second, and infinite possibilities in it's place the next. It was like something was missing entirely from their vision, unable to be perceived but very clearly there and unhidden.

Once the mind numbing spectacle ended and the sparks began to die down, Frank held in his hand a completely different knife from the one he started with.

Where the old knife from Vinny's store was a cheap looking stainless steel blade with a red plastic handle covered by a layer of crimson colored epoxy resin, this one had a professional quality to it and far more character.

The blade, now a darker steel that contained hints of a deep purple, was razor sharp and almost seemed both hungry to draw blood and simultaneously patiently waiting to strike, like a predator in the dark waiting for the perfect moment to take it's prey. The handle was an elegant mix of a floral lavender purple and shadowy black, accented in a shiny gold colored metal. Frank wasn't entirely sure if it was pure gold, or just brass, but what perplexed him more was that it now featured a design. Some sort of strange looking flower in the same accented gold color with a deep purple highlighting the insides of the petals.

"What kind of flower is that?" Frank absentmindedly asked while the system began hammering in his head about an urgent notification.

"I think that's an iris. I'd have to double check somewhere" His mother responded, awestruck as her son was.

Frank checked out his System page, he had 3 new notifications. The first one was blinking rapidly in his vision until it knew he was giving his full attention.

'URGENT! Finalize your creation! Name the item!'

'What? Name the knife? I wouldn't even have a clue what to-' Frank snapped out of his haze, the perfect name already on his tongue. His lips moved before his brain could process what he was saying.

"Saving Grace" A rush of wind blew through the room and settled around the newly minted knife, which glinted in the light, as if pleased with its name.

"Frank... what just happened? What did you do to my knife?" Lauren asked

"I have no fucking clue, but I think I just gave it a name" Frank responded, pulling up another [psychometry] scan to see what changed.

'Psychometry skill activated

Enchanted Object: Saving Grace

An Enchanted knife imbued with the intention to protect its wielder from mortal danger. This blade was soaked in the fears and worries of a sister who worried deeply over an uncertain future. Her brother enchanted this knife, strengthening the resolve of the blade to defend its wielder and inflict pain on those who would harm her. Though the fate of the enchanter balanced upon a knife's edge, the enchantment in this blade resolved to defend its master until it shatters.

Special Properties: Armor Penetration

Heart Seeking Strike

Vicious Mortal Wound

Sharpened Heart

Durability 30/30'

"Fuck! Lauren, the knife got a hell of an upgrade! The armor penetration went up in rank, the 'Lesser Mortal Wound' property also got upgraded to 'Vicious Mortal Wound', and now it has something called 'Sharpened Heart'. Oh, and the durability more than doubled. Excellent!"

Frank was a little worried about how his skill described his fate as hanging "upon a knife's edge", but he'd just worry about it later. For now, he tapped his status screen to expand the [Sharpened Heart] property of the knife.

'As long as this knife is wielded by an accepted owner, it will never dull or rust'

"Oh perfect, the knife won't dull or rust as long as you specifically wield it! You don't even have to worry about maintaining this knife, that's insane!"

"What's even more insane is what you just did" Nina put her hand on Frank's shoulder as he handed the knife back to Lauren, who held it close with tears in her eyes, inspecting it closely over every inch. His sister was still speechless, but she was at least smiling now. Luckily the blade still folded, so she wouldn't have to buy a sheathe for it.

"Frank, I want to know, what did you just do?" Nina questioned.

Frank focused again on his System. A new notification appeared before him.

'Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill Amateur Enchantment, Rank C Level 1'

"I... I enchanted the knife. I think? But it already had some magic in it, I just juiced it up"

"Well whatever crazy magic experiment you try next, please warn me before you do it. That's twice in one day you've nearly given me a heart attack, and it certainly won't be the last time" Frank's mother hugged him tight, appreciating what he just did for his sister, even though she was nearly certain he didn't know it would turn out the way it had.

Lauren had mentioned before that Frank bought her a magic knife, but Nina was rightfully skeptical until she witnessed her son bend reality in front of her to create a knife out of the cheap one his sister had before.

"Sure thing, mom. I'll try! It's just one thing after another lately, it's tough to keep track of it all"

Frank returned his mother's hug, basking in the warm celebratory glow left by the creation of the knife. Until he began to read the third notification from the System.

'New Quest! Test of Courage: First Portal Raid'