It took a while for Lan's laughing to die down. "Damn," he said, stifling another chuckle. "Looks like you're stuck with Meatball there."

"What, you mean I can't make another Artifact?"

Lan shook his head, and I groaned. But then I remembered the guy that chased me. "Then how come that guy had two?"

"Like I said, you'll see. In fact, I'll show you; I need to run you through the basics. Let's go."

I was starting to feel tired as we walked out of his room and then out of the apartment, then down into the parking lot. I chalked it up to the crazy events of the day.

"Now, lesson number one," he held up a finger. "When you have your Artifact unveiled, only other arters can see you. Arters are what we call other people with artifacts by the way, in case that wasn't obvious."

He drew a rod from his sleeve. "This is my Artifact, Acharon." The small, thirty-centimeter long rod suddenly extruded out at both ends, and then a wicked looking green flame burst out from each tip. He spun the staff, green flames making a circle before slamming one end into the ground. A scythe shaped blade sprung out from the end, while simultaneously covering Lan in a shroud of shadow. The shadow solidified, and Lan now looked like a grim reaper with armor. From underneath his hood, two green flames burst out from where his eyes were. They were all that were visible under his hood.

"Damn," I said.

"Acharon gives me incognito, thanks to the hood." Even his voice was a slightly deeper, hoarser pitch. "Yours won't, not straight away. I'd advise wearing a mask or something at first, similar to what that asshole was wearing."

Just as fast as Lan had gone all grim reaper mode, did it fade off into wisps of shadow as the scythe – Acharon – folded back up into a rod. Lan gave it a little twirl and then it just… disappeared. Must have put it back up his sleeve.

"Second lesson!" He held up another finger now. "That was called unveiling. I can be holding the rod, but it won't turn me invisible to the average person. When you focus your will into your Artifact, you can either unveil or cloak it. You may not have realized it, but your Meatball there is currently unveiled."

I nodded, and then… I tried, but I didn't know what he meant by 'focusing my will' on it. Lan shook his head as I looked at the gauntlet, catching my attention again.

"Don't worry, you'll get it eventually. For now, just focus all your attention on it and try saying 'cloak.'"

I looked back at the gauntlet. "Cloak."

That seemed to do the trick, and for some reason, my body felt… lighter. The steel plates twisted and retracted, and before I knew it, I was just wearing a normal, leather glove. It was kinda weird as it was just one glove, so I started to take it off.

"Hold up," Lan said, holding up his hand. "Now it's time for lesson number three." His empty palm folded two fingers as he spread out three of his digits. He smirked before saying, "Always be prepared."

Lan didn't even pull out his rod this time. He suddenly rushed at me and crossed the distance faster than what I thought would be possible. The blade of his Acharon was coming towards my neck before I could even think to do anything, and instinct took over.

Or in other words, I shat myself. Not literally. Okay fine, maybe a little.

My arms came up uselessly, but Acharon stopped short before actually cutting into me. He changed back into normal Lan as he stepped back. "Unless you can put that gauntlet on real fast like, I'd recommend keeping it on. Now, Unveil."

I was shaking as Lan continued walking away from me, but I looked at the gauntlet. He stopped about thirty feet away. I focused on the glove and then said, "Unveil."

The sense of heaviness returned as plating extended around my knuckles, and both my arms slumped. Lan noticed. "You'll be starting to feel the fatigue now. At first, you won't be able to have your Artifact unveiled for too long, but as you level up, your transformation time will increase. Now, square up."

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Lan pulled his rod out again, except this time instead of it turning into a scythe, it unfolded into more a sickle. He didn't go grim reaper mode this time either, but green flames still erupted from his eyes.

"Partial unveil," he said simply. He held up the sickle, and looked at it appreciatively. "Artifacts are always changing as you level up, and sometimes they'll even extend to other parts. Mine gives me armor. Some give extra offense in the form of new weapons or skills.

"Moving on. While you have your Artifact out, it's boosting your overall physical and mental capabilities. This, in turn, will eventually make you burn out. You can go at max effort until then, but once you gas out, your transformation will fail and your Artifact will automatically Cloak, becoming useless. Do not gas out, ever, or you're dead.

"Now, without further adieu…" Lan suddenly threw his sickle at me. I jumped out of the way, and it missed me by a good distance. Lan was still holding his hand out, however. "Might want to keep an eye on that," he said.

The sickle suddenly cut me through the side as it returned to Lan, and I twinged with pain as blood suddenly poured out of my hip to splatter on the ground. [You lost 7 hit points] I heard in my head, but honestly I was just trying not to puke as I watched my blood slowly stop leaking out onto the parking lot.

"What the hell man!" I croaked out, looking up at Lan. I could still feel the blood soaking into my clothes, the pain of the cut sending fresh spikes throughout my side, though it was rapidly subsiding.

"Inspect your wound," Lan said.

I did just that, lifting up the shirt and seeing a deep gash across my side. It was bad, but… I swear, didn't it cut me like, way deeper than that? Just as I was looking at it, the cut was closing before my eyes which subsequently widened.

"When you get hit by an Artifact, you're not taking a wound in the traditional sense. I've heard that you're taking damage on a more core level, which I feel is accurate. The pain is sudden, but quickly abates, though the damage is still there. You'll get used to it – well. You'll have to, really."

"So I took a little damage… I heard it in my head, but didn't quite catch it. What exactly was damaged? Is it repairable?"

Lan scoffed. "If it didn't regenerate, I never would've even considered cutting you. Think of it as an initiation, really. If you reacted like this when you got cut by someone actually trying to kill you, you'd be dead. Now? You know what to expect. Next time, you have to keep moving, no matter how bad the pain is."

I nodded.

"How many hit points do you have left? I don't want to overdo it, but I'd prefer to get you a little bit more used to taking hits, if I can."

I just stared at Lan, a rising sickness coming up in my gut. I'm sure it showed on my face, because he smiled. Then, he drew his arm back. Well, shit. He knew full well how many hit points I had left, the bastard.

I was ready, and I moved out of the way when the sickle came flying at me this time. I kept my eyes on the weapon this time as it circled around and came back at me. I dodged just in time.

Then Lan kicked me.

The kick itself didn't hurt – well, not much anyway – but it put me right back into the path of the sickle. I hadn't even seen him get near me… he was just there. The sickle slashed clean through my collarbone this time and I fell to the ground, my arm inoperable. [You lost 5 hit points] I screamed out in pain, but this time, I got back up. I launched off the ground with Meatball, bringing it up as I turned to Lan.

He was already in my face.

"Good," he said with a smile, leaning in close. I swung at him in anger, but he easily leaned back from the strike, still with a smug-ass smile.

"That fucking hurt, you know," I said, panting.

"Believe me; I know. So, hit points?"

I rolled my shoulder a few times as the pain abated. "How do I check?"

"Oh right, of course! I'm an idiot. You need to bring up your stats. It's simple. You can just say 'Attributes' while focusing inwards. When I first started, it helped to close my eyes."

"Attributes."

I immediately noticed as a hologram burst out in front of me, right from my gauntlet – from the spot my Core Die was embedded in, to be exact.

The hologram showed an outline of myself with the Artifact around my wrist. A half filled bar was displayed above my head, with the words "HP" next to it. Another bar was in the top right, "FP," and another to the left, "SP."

I assumed HP would be hit points, but had no idea what FP (which was notably depleting) and SP were.

HP: 13 / 25

FP: 10 / 25

SP: 17 / 23

I relayed the information to Lan and he smiled. Not good.

"Well then, looks like you can go for one more!"

Acharon was hurled at me unmercilessly.