I'd woken up early this morning – well, for me anyway. 10am is early, right? It's still morning, after all. I picked up the dirty bowl I'd left on my desk last night, to take it out into the kitchen. Dad wouldn't be around this "late" in the morning… probably gone to work.
Before I left my room however, the photo on my mirror of me with my older brother Raph caught my eye. I pulled it from the frame, and just stared at it for a moment. At him.
Damnit.
Memories of my last conversation with him were coming back, of Raph smiling. I blinked; I had to shake them away. I put the picture back in the frame before leaving my room.
I saw Lyndis sitting outside, reading a book. Nice weather to do that, I guess. I discarded my bowl in the sink, then pulled out my phone. Lan had told me the night before that the reason he'd used – what he called – partial unveil was so he could limit the amount of damage he did while attacking.
He explained further, saying that the actual reason you'd want to do something like this is to conserve FP. "While using a weaker state of your Artifact, your consumption can decrease greatly," he had said. "Of course, you just have to deal with decreased damage. Which is mostly useful when training." I read over the text again now, and I think I was starting to get it…
Just kidding, I'm hopeless with this shit.
Like why would you want to do less damage to an opponent? You should totally go all out 100% of the time! Surely nothing bad could happen. I mean, I'm no expert but…
Ding!
Oh, he texted me just as I was about to text him.
"I'm outside."
. . .
What!?
"Dude I'm not even dressed yet! Why did you come over without warning?" I furiously messaged back.
"Okay, hurry up and get ready then. I'm waiting."
I huffed. "It'll take me some time to get ready. You should've warned me bro, this is on you. You can wait."
I threw the phone onto the bed and rushed into the bathroom to clean up, before throwing my bed clothes off and getting some fresh ones.
When I was all ready, I left through the front door. Lan was standing there… no car.
"You... walked here?" I asked, incredulous.
He grinned. "I can travel faster with Acharon than I can drive, so I use it for shorter distances."
"Right. So um… why are you here?"
He raised an eyebrow. "To train, of course. You can't relax until you're at least 5th level. I reckon we could get you halfway through 3rd by the end of today."
I wilted at that. So he had a long day planned for me… Damn. This is gonna suck.
I sighed. "Alright, come in then. I haven't eaten yet."
—————
When we finished eating (a regrettably light meal), Lan said we should go for a jog to somewhere more secluded since Lyndis was around. She didn't even notice us, entranced by her book as she was, but I agreed. It'd be weird if she suddenly saw us both just disappear from existence.
Before we left, I grabbed a hooded jacket and covered my face with a scarf, taking up Lan's advice the previous day to find something to hide my identity. I tied my hair up underneath the hood, and then we were off.
My house was secluded as it was, so it didn't take long to find an area amongst the trees that would prevent us from being seen. Upside to wearing the scarf around my face was my nose and lips didn't get cold, but my eyes still stung as we ran through frigid air.
After this, we both unveiled… and my training began anew.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Lan decided to extend the training outside of just being unveiled, however, and I wanted to die. Lan really wasn't a good teacher. He kinda just made me fight, but didn't actually teach me anything. Get back up, keep going, unveil, dodge... etcetera.
It was roughly an hour when my FP was recharged, so we went back into unveil mode. I charged as soon as my gauntlet's steel sprung out, swerved as the sickle came flying at me. Midway through the first fight, I'd learned to rely more on my hearing to dodge Acharon as it came back, while I kept my eyes on Lan. It obviously wasn't the best plan, as it failed a few times.
This time however, I successfully weaved under it when I heard it getting closer. Lan's grin faltered as he caught the sickle, and I rushed forward, scoring a hook right in his surprised-pikachu face (hey, I might not have much money, but I know my memes) that made the dice in my gauntlet jitter around.
[You did 8 damage]
Nice!
The victory was short-lived.
Lan immediately retaliated. Naturally, I thought a hit like that would at least daze him for a bit – but he swung right around and spinning back-fisted my smug ass. I'm not gonna tell you how much damage it did…
After a few more hours of this, I pulled my hair tie out, letting hair fall loose around my shoulders as I panted hard. Cloaking helped, but my heart was still beating fast afterwards.
"The fatigue will affect you even while cloaked, after a while. It's a sign your FP is getting real low. Might've even waned a bit."
"Waned?" I was still panting. "What does that… even mean?"
"It means your max FP will have decreased a little bit. It happens after repeated Artifact use, but it's a good way to train your Endurance stat."
"...Wait, I can train my stats?" Lan had told me I got a point to spend every level, and a point for secondary stats every 4th level, but this was news to me.
So I guess that was the point of the extra training. I grimaced.
"Well, yeah. I mean… you should be close to gaining a point in constitution. Let's test it!"
"Wait! Unv-"
I raised my hand, but before I could say 'unveil' I was already being sliced in half by Acharon in sickle mode. It tore me right through, hip to hip, out my back. An explosion of blood splattered on the ground as Acharon landed back in Lan's grasp.
There was nothing I could do against that, even if I had the willpower of a fucking monk; I fell on my face a groaned in pain, feeling warmth under my cheek.
[Critical hit! You lost 13 hit points]
[CON has increased by 1 point]
Didn't take me long to realize that warmth was from lying in a pool of my own blood. Jesus fuck, dude…
And that damage! No wonder it hurt so much. I eventually sat up as my wound – and all the blood – dissipated.
"Ouch, that looked like it hurt…" Lan said.
"Yeah, it fucking did man."
"Sorry. You gain a point in constitution?"
Notifications had sounded off in my head that something had happened, but I was in so much pain that I obviously didn't catch them. There was obviously no question as to what they were, however, so I answered; "I think so."
I mean, I was sure, but I could've been wrong still, you know? I don't wanna sound like a dumbass.
I cloaked my Artifact and pulled out my phone. I hadn't closed the app since I'd last used it, so my stats were the first thing I saw after unlocking.
My CON had indeed increased by a single point. "It did. Oh! I have over 100 XP now, too."
I immediately put the point into STR to level up. Last time, an empty slot had appeared in the gauntlet when I leveled… but that was only while it was unveiled. While cloaked, the slots couldn't be seen.
More importantly, I landed my first hit on Lan! Granted, it took me like a few hours and he was only partially unveiled, but still! It was my first hit ever, and it felt good to finally get a little payback. Seeing the dice roll in my gauntlet and the notification in my head telling me the damage was just an added bonus.
[Learned Skill: Rippler]
Okay, forget everything I just said. This is way more important! My first skill!
I gasped – to which Lan raised an eyebrow – and switched to the Skills & Abilities tab and found the skill right there at the top.
* Rippler
Channel energy into Artifact, then disperse it.
. . .
THAT LITERALLY TELLS ME NOTHING!?
Okay, it tells me a little bit, but…
I sighed.
Lan picked up on it. "What's up?"
"Well, I got a skill, I guess? It's called Rippler, but it doesn't really say much else."
Lan rubbed his chin, thinking for a moment. Then he shrugged. "I actually can't help you. Every new skill I get usually works completely differently from all the others."
I sighed again. So I had a skill but couldn't use it. And like I thought, Lan is useless when it comes to actually teaching...
I mean sure, he was helping me level up, but that was all really. Not like I couldn't do that in my own time.
I wanted to know more. My life might have actually depended on it.
I noticed as Lan sprung Acharon into it's full form, going grim reaper mode. His voice came out deep and hoarse. "Anyway, let's go get something to eat, yeah?"
—————
Artifact: Meatball, 3rd Level
Slots: [4] [4] [+]
XP: 24 / 300
HP: 25 / 38
FP: 5 / 35
SP: 15 / 29
STR: 12 | AGI: 12 | ACC: 9
CON: 6 | END: 5 | VIT: 3