"This morning, both you and Lucas will watch each other when they fight against the training gauntlet." Xerxes said, once everyone had gathered that morning. Owen had been overjoyed to finally see the proof for himself that Lucas and Briar were both okay. Lucas exchanged a grin with him before they both turned their attention back to Xerxes. "Lucas, you should start today and show off your progress. I think some competition between the two of you would be healthy for the short training period we have ahead of us."
"You better watch out Owen, I'm already way better than I was before." Lucas said as he moved inside the perimeter of the training gauntlet. Several seconds passed as Lucas began fighting through each of the different monsters. By the time he made it up against the kobold that Owen had struggled against the night before, Owen found himself wanting to move closer, but Xerxes placed a hand on his shoulder. "It is not advised to get to close while it is already running." He whispered, while Lucas fought against the monster.
Owen watched intently as Lucas stabbed forward slightly off center of the kobolds body. The lizard monster then went to trap his spear, but Lucas pivoted with his spear still stabbed forward. The tip of his spear caught on the backside of the shield. He mirrored the movements the kobold did to try and remove the spear from behind its guard, but as soon as it tried to use one of its hands, Lucas took a strong step forward, pivoting once more, his spear swinging like a bat against the head of the kobold. Before it could recover, he pulled his spear back several centimeters, before putting his whole body behind the spear thrust that easily tore through the skull of the kobold.
Owen almost immediately stopped paying attention to the next fights other than cursory glances. While he had awakened a competitive spirit, he still wanted to experience each monster himself the first time. But it didn't take much to pull his attention away from the fight, the way he saw Lucas using his spear was something Owen hadn't ever considered movement wise and he began thinking of all of the ways you could use other polearm type weapons and how he could bring that into his spear fighting.
He had seen videos on earth before of someone using a similar maneuver to what Lucas had pulled off against the kobold. However in each of those videos, the person was usually using a quarter staff. He began moving through his own set of movements trying to get his grip comfortable with the spear again. It was already faintly more obvious how uncomfortable his hold was after raising both his dexterity and perception, but not enough.
He stopped feeling dissatisfied, but turned to Briar who was sitting there intently watching Lucas. "How have things been going for you so far? Did you already ask Xerxes how to release a familiar contract?" Briar nodded once, twitched and turned to Owen with a confused expression on its face. "I didn't think it would be okay to ask without you being present, since you might've changed your mind." Briar said warily. Owen grinned, "Nope, I wouldn't have minded finding out you had found a way to cancel the contract, but we can ask him after Lucas finishes up." Owen said as he turned his attention back to Lucas who seemed to be struggling for the first time.
He was on round seven against a monster Owen didn't have anything to compare it to. It had horns, but the horns grew out of its arm and legs. Each of its movements were quick and it would spin incredibly quickly while performing inhuman acrobatics. Each time it attacked, Lucas would have to run rather than defend. A small word from Xerxes let him know that one of the reasons was that Lucas had tried defending the attack and the horns across its body shredded his spear, before shredding through the rest of his body. Lucas hesitated for a moment too long and a thrust of his spear was dodged effortlessly by the monster, before it dashed within his range and exploded.
When the dust cleared a moment later, Owen realized that it hadn't exploded, but had launched all of the horns that had been in its arm outwards like missiles. Owen had to keep himself from shivering as one peek at the monsters arm caused his trypophobia to send him into high alert. Giving himself a second to calm down, he gave Lucas a high five as he exited the arena, before quickly entering himself.
He wasn't as focused on making it further this time, but what he wanted to do was get a better feel for what he was trying to accomplish with the spear. As the goblin formed, he braced himself and focused on the feel of his spear. As he thought he also tried to consider why he had chosen the spear in the first place. He had originally thought it would give him the best survival chance, though a dagger probably would've been better if they had actually been in the wilderness when he first made the choice.
As he slowly moved through the rounds against monsters, he made sure each of his moves was deliberate and even if it didn't feel right, he forced himself to follow the movements through. Before he had even realized how much time had passed, he realized why he hadn't enjoyed using the spear so far. It felt limiting and he faced off against the spear and shield kobold. He enjoyed stabbing, thrusting and access to a wider variety of attacks. As he tried to fight past the defenses of the kobold, he got a feeling he could follow the movements that Lucas had pulled off.
He knew to him it wouldn't feel like his victory though, even if he won the next several rounds afterwards. Despite his skills and all of his work feeling like he was about to waste it, he decided he would move away from the spear. He might still use it more compared to other weapons, but something made him feel like he had made the right choice.
Placing his spear back inside of the storage bracelet, Owen prepared himself to fight without a weapon. He managed to dance around several attacks, before his low agility caught up with him. He wasn't able to dodge one of the faster stabs and after a follow up, he opened his eyes as he moved out of the training area.
Owen couldn't keep a satisfied smiled from his face and he walked up directly to Xerxes, ignoring the looks of confusion on both Lucas and Briar's faces. "I think I need to start trying more weapons." Owen said confidently and Xerxes nodded his agreement. "Yes, you do." He turned to guide Owen somewhere, but Briar's voice cut through the silence. "Is there a way to cancel a contract between familiar and master?" Xerxes just turned, smiled and nodded. "We can take care of that at the end of this month before you all return."
"Lucas, go through your normal training regimen and I will catch up with you after I show Owen the armory." Lucas nodded, flashed Owen a grin, then ran off in the opposite direction Owen had gone for training the day before. Xerxes walked them through the grounds quickly as they reached a large pagoda-like structure that Owen hadn't noticed the first time they had walked through. Opening the doors, Owen gaped. The building that had barely been bigger than a trailer home from the states, stretched out for several hundred meters on the inside.
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Weapons of all kinds decorated the walls and Xerxes turned to Owen. "Do you know what the class Polymath's apprentice is about?" It was said as almost a whisper but that sound stretched out an echoed through the weapons room. Before Owen could answer, Xerxes answered his own question. "It is about trying to master everything. The Polymath was interested in trying to find out what the boundaries of the system were and spent their entire mortal life trying to master all aspects of the system."
He turned to Owen, "If this path isn't one you think you can walk, choosing another might be for the best." Looking back over the weapon he smiled. "I had to change my path from the polymath inheritance class eventually. I couldn't master everything, nor did I even want to try." His face took on a bittersweet expression as he stared back over the racks of weapons. "Weapons are just one side of the die as well."
Owen was confused by Xerxes ramblings and when there was a pause, couldn't help himself. "Why bring this up, is it related to me choosing to practice something other than the spear? Or is there something wrong?" Xerxes shook his head as he turned to Owen. "I bring it up since I can already see you chasing the path, but I am warning you just how far that path reaches. It is just something I want you to keep in mind when you create your second class."
Moving inside the armory, Xerxes waved a hand and the room both shrunk down and changed in less than a second. Owen almost missed the change, but he knew for sure now there there was more to these grounds than what met the eye. The room had shifted from an enormous weapons storage room, to a small room that had only a dozen or so items that were locked inside of chests. Xerxes seemed to fiddle around with one of the boxes for a second before he handed Owen a set of bracers.
Taking them gently he could feel the power radiating off of them as he did a quick scan of them with keen eye while checking them out. They were a simple metal material that locked in place around his forearms, before becoming more intricate as it extended to cover over both his palm and the backs of his hands. They felt comfortable, but he didn't see the purpose behind them until he looked at the system screen.
*Protean Armaments: This bracers have no increased defensive capabilities. These bracers have the capability to form into any weapon the user imagines as long as they have a firm grasp and a familiarity with the weapon. This is an echo of an original Protean Armaments and has a reduced level of durability compared to the original.*
Owen stared at it, unable to say anything. He glanced up at Xerxes who nodded and Owen quickly tied the bracers to himself through an injection of mana. "I don't even know what to say other than thank you." Owen stammered and Xerxes just clapped him on the back. "This was the item I trained with when I was following the Polymath's Legacy. Hopefully, you gain a lot of use from it." The room quickly shifted back to its original cavernous weapons hall and Xerxes gestured for him to enter. "Take some time to familiarize yourself with the weapons I currently own. Practice shaping your new bracers into these weapons until you are able to do it with your eyes closed."
"Once you have enough that you feel comfortable trying it out while fighting, go back down the mountain and begin fighting at where you started yesterday. You are only allowed to come back after you have gained at least two levels." Xerxes tuned to leave the gaping Owen in the weapons hall, before he paused and turned back towards him. "Also, you are not allowed to use this weapon inside of the training gauntlet. You can borrow a single weapon a day from the hall and you will have to use that while training." Owen nodded his head as he stared out, before focusing up and giving Xerxes a firm nod. "Right, no using it inside of the training gauntlet."
The next several hours slipped by without Owen even noticing. He just continued to examine every weapon that looked interesting. He eventually decided to go with ten different forms he would practice. Several more hours passed with him marveling at the bracers shifting into a liquid form, before shaping itself into each of the different weapons he hac chosen. Once he felt satisfied with his practice, he rushed out of the weapons room, with the door closing after him. It took him less than a quarter of the time to reach the section of the mountain he had trained in before, though this time he entered the forest several hundred meters above where he had entered with Xerxes.
It took him less than ten minutes to find a monster that was slowly making its way down the mountain side forest. It had a similar build to a bear, but it had large raptor like claws on each of its paws. Owen did a quick keen eye and smiled.
*Ursine Raptor - Level 49
This monster is able to grow wings for a short time, before launching itself forwards at incredible speeds. *
Owen prepared to fight it as he began shifting the bracers into the first form he had practiced. The liquid metal quickly shifted into a large two handed war hammer. Now this was the first time Owen had even considered this type of weapon in a fight. The design of weapon he had chosen was one which had a large blunted section, but the aspect he had wanted to bring into the fight was the large spike that was on the opposite side of the weapon head.
As soon as the weapon finished forming, he threw himself towards the bear monster, swinging the war hammer with all of his strength. Mid swing he felt like his grip had grown uncomfortable and he immediately shifted it. His hand that had held close towards the head of the hammer was brought down to meet the other at the lower end of the shaft. As the downwards swing increased in speed. He could immediately feel the difference, but didn't let it disrupt his focus as the spike torn through the muscle of the monsters haunch.
A loud roar echoed through the forest as the monster screamed in pain. It spun around with wings forming on its back as it immediately swung a paw towards Owen. The raptor likes claws extended past what he thought was possible as each of them were immediately coated in an unfamiliar energy. Owen barely managed to dodge the first swing, before the second crashed into him, sending him flying down the mountainside. Owen began cursing to himself as he fell further and further until he crashed hard into a tree. Several dead branches fell from above crashing into the ground around him.
Owen pumped his HP through his whole body as pain wracked through him hard enough he couldn't tell where the damage actually started or ended. He forced himself to race back up the mountain, just thankful he had managed to pull the war hammer from the monsters back before being flung. He saw the bear like monster chasing towards him and its wings flashed a bright green, before changing to a white energy that floated around the monster wings like mist. Owen barely noticed what it was doing before he had to dodge and the monster jumped into the air and dove towards him.
It felt like all of the air nearby began to kick into high winds as it all helped to push the ursine raptor towards him. Changing the weapon into a large battle axe, he waited for the monster until the last second. As it tore towards him, he shifted his footing at the last second, swinging the axe like a baseball bat. It tore through flesh, meat and bones as the force of the monsters dive collided with the razor sharp edge of the battle axe. Owen couldn't help but grin as the experience came in. This was going to be fun and he hadn't even needed to use his boosting skill yet.