It was early the next morning when Ave, Shango, and Rolla met up with Thorn in the training hall after parting ways with each other the previous day. The training hall was a reasonably large, plain room with no decorations. It was about half the size of a football field. In the center of it was a large black stone circle with runes written all over it.

After spending nearly three hours trying to find a way to remove the gauntlets from Shango’s hands, they decided to save the days problem for the next day and put it off till the morning.

Shango let out a loud yawn while extending his arms towards the ceiling.

“Looks like you did not get a good night rest,” Ave said, looking at Shango who looked a bit tired.

Taking a glance at her, he pointed to his eyes, “Do you see these bags underneath my eyes? Not one wink, not one. How could I sleep with these things on my hands, I nearly put my eye out three damn times? Even eating a snack was difficult.” he said as he looked at the gauntlets.

The only good thing about them was that they felt oddly enjoyable when I held my little hero, he thought to himself.

“Well, after asking around, I found out that it was quite a normal thing for people with bonding Artifact Weapons to not be able to remove their Artifact weapon for two or three days. They should completely merge with your body after a while, so please bear with them till then.” Ave said, looking at the gauntlets on Shango’s hands.

“I guess that’s something to be happy about.” he said while letting out another yawn.

“That’s all fine and dandy, but please tell me why I’m here?” Thorn asked, looking peeved.

“Sir Thorn, I explained it to you yesterday. Since Shango’s Artifact Weapon is unknown, you, as the Weapons Master, must document its abilities for future use.”

“Future use? We do not even know how he got it on in the first place. For all we know the thing might eat him. Hell, some of these Artifact weapons are just twisted tools with no rhyme or reason. You all should remember that one long sword that only women could use and any man who tried to use it would have his balls explode?”

“What!” Almost instantly, all the sleepiness left Shango’s body.

“Why did no one tell me that? Isn’t that something you should tell people first?” Shango said as he turned his attention towards Ave, looking at her like she was a villain.

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Shooting a glance at Thorn, her eyes signaling for him to shut the hell up, Ave then spoke. “Calm down Shango. There is only a small chance of an artifact weapon having an ill effect on its user. It’s a rarity, and only in extreme cases can one to cause any bodily harm.”

Shango did not say anything, he just looked at Ave for a moment. Deep down he knew she was not a bad person, but sometimes the lack of common courtesy to inform him of certain things did not set right with him. In the future, he would be sure to correct that part of her personality.

Letting out a deep breath, he said, “It’s fine this time, but in the future, do not hide things like that from me, or there will be hell to pay.” he said, crossing his arms and looking at her. He felt like he had said something similar before.

“Alright, now that that’s out the way, let’s get down to business,” she said as she moved towards Shango and grabbed one of his hands—or the gauntlet, to be precise.

“First, we will be getting you used to your element and help you build up a good foundation for your training as a Knight. On top of that, we will be getting you familiar with your Artifact Weapon while also doing some testing to try to find out its abilities. Secondly, I will introduce you to the person who will be overseeing your basic training.”

“That sounds simple enough, but wouldn’t it be better to meet with the person who is supposed to be training me first?”

Letting out a sigh, she said, “That was supposed to be the case, but I received a letter saying he was going to be a little late, so we are going to start without him.”

“So which one of those old monsters is going to train this guy? I’m sure it won’t be anyone normal.” Thorn said.

“Captain Raon will be overseeing his training.”

“Ohh, that guy. He is pretty good,” Thorn said, nodding his head. “With that guy training you, you will have no choice but to become an excellent knight.”

“Is he that good?” Shango asked.

“Yes, most definitely. Over the last 30 years, Captain Raon has personally trained several high-level individuals, some of them who will go down in history as great knights.”

“That’s good to hear, at least I’m going to be in the hands of an expert. I’m ready to get started, so where do we begin,” Shango said, knocking his fists together.

“Since Captain Raon will not be here for a while, let’s get you familiar with using the basics of your element,” Ave said as she moved towards the center of the room towards the large black stone. As soon as she stepped on it, she vanished.

A look of shock appeared on Shango’s face. Turning towards Rolla and Thorn, he could see that they were not surprised by her disappearance. Putting two and two together, he realized that it was something normal for them.

I don’t know why I keep getting surprised by what I see, Shango thought to himself.

With a massive smile on his face, he then proceeded to follow Ave’s example and walked towards the black stone with giant strides before jumping on it and vanishing as well with a grin on his face.

“Young bucks are so annoying,” Thorn said, shaking his head and following behind Shango.

Putting a smile on her face, Rolla did not say anything as she followed them.