An hour later, Niko woke from her recovery coma, letting out a muffled grunt through the fabric of her bandages. Jaden quickly rushed to her side, tearing open the bandages on her face. Though her face was restored to its former cherubic beauty, it was clear the bandages hadn’t restored her eye.

“Mmmhhh.” She moaned, doing her best to stretch without damaging the bandage wrapping.

“How do you feel?” Jaden asked, hand lingering on her face affectionately.

“I need eyepatch. Maybe become pirate class.” Niko replied, followed by a large yawn.

Jaden couldn’t help himself, he burst into relieved laughter, letting his head drop onto her, as a physical support as he laughed. Niko said nothing about his head on her stomach, only smiling warmly.

“We are safe?” Niko asked after a moment.

Jaden shrugged. “For now. We’re still going to have to go through the boss enemy, and make it to the nexus in the next twelve hours. At least if you still want to do that, rather than waiting out the timer.

Niko shook her head. “I still want to be strong.”

Jaden smiled, and trailed his hand along her cheek. “I think you’re plenty strong.”

Niko shook her head. “If I was, I would have two eyes.”

Jaden laughed. “You don’t think the one-eyed barbarian thing makes you look even more badass?”

Niko stuck out her tongue, smiling playfully at Jaden. Smiling back, Jaden summoned a knife from raw imagination, and moved to saw through enough of her bandages to make her mobile. He paused as he saw an intricate design along the blade that made it look like a metallic feather.

“Cool.” Jaden muttered. After admiring the blade for a moment, he returned to sawing bandages. Over the course of a minute, Niko’s arms and legs were freed; the skin he could see now unmarred by wounds. Pulling her to her feet, Jaden looked at his knife again, and sighed.

“It’s just too pretty, there’s no way I’m gonna let this fade away.” Jaden thought about what he wanted, and remembered the idea of evolving weapons from video games he had played. Pulling a Plains card out of his deck, Jaden cast it, and linked the card to his knife while holding that concept in his mind. A moment later, multiple notifications pinged into existence in the corner of his vision. Ignoring them, he closed his eyes, instinctually feeling the arcane energy flowing through the blade. It was like holding a live wire charged with mental energy. Jaden could feel his mind sharpening slightly as the energy flowed through him. A moment later, Jaden opened his eyes and brought up the notifications.

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Title Earned: Creator Level 2

By creating a weapon with a true soul, you have taken another step along the path of creation. Continue walking this path to find the true wonders of the world.

Reward: The creator has given your new weapon access to his personal system of weapon evolution. This means many possibilities that would normally have to be discovered or created yourself are already made available to you. At the same time, if you add new options of your own they will become part of the overall system the same as if the creator had added them. For more information, check the help section of your weapon upgrade system.

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System Announcement:

Jaden Harris of Earth Shard 526 has just created a weapon of power. As per regulations, anyone who defeats him in a recognized duel may claim this weapon for themself. Weapon qualities include:

-user controlled evolution

Remember to inform the nearest arbiter when you wish to challenge him. Jaden Harris has a 7 day grace period according to his time measurement scale before duels may begin. The arbiters have been granted right of refusal in this instance to prevent overwhelming matchups, but they will not save those who are weaker than Jaden. Jaden has not been granted right of refusal.

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When Jaden finally pulled himself out of reading, and rereading the notification in horror, he found Niko staring at him. Lois appeared from the woods a moment later, and gently smacked him in the back of the head.

“What did you do?” She hissed at him.

“I just thought this knife looked cool. There’s no way I could’ve expected this.” He whined, waving his hand at the air as if the notification was written on the sky.

Lois sighed. “Fair enough. So what does this knife do that makes it worth all this fanfare?”

“I don’t know yet, let me look.” Concentrating, Jaden managed to bring up the system the creator had attached to his new weapon.

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Welcome to Weapon Evolution System 5.7

My name is WES, I am your personal weapon assistant. How may I help you?

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“Ooook. I guess, I need the tutorial on all this.” Jaden replied uncertainly.

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The system is simple. Your weapon will absorb 10% of the souls of creatures you kill. This absorption is not taken from your allotted percentage of the given soul, but in fact is taken from what would normally go to the local arbiter. As the weapon’s innate mana increases, its effectiveness will rise similar to regular weapon summons with different amounts of mana. At certain mana thresholds, you will be given weapon upgrade points which you may use to add features, or make drastic changes to the weapon. You may also channel your own mana to “buy” progress toward the next point. Since you have already passed the first threshold, your weapon has started out with a single upgrade point so I recommend browsing the upgrade list.

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Jaden shrugged, and did as suggested. The upgrade list was incomprehensibly large, with all but the most powerful upgrades costing a single point. Sighing at the sheer number of options, Jaden shrugged, and picked “Charging Sheath” Which billed itself as a sheath that was actually considered part of the weapon. It would hasten the innate mana regeneration of the weapon, and repair it in the event of damage. The moment the selection was confirmed, a cylinder made of smoothed crystal manifested around the knife. Jaden secured the sheath to his belt, and looked at the pair of girls who were staring at him as if he was crazy. “Alright, well let’s get moving then.” Jaden told them.

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Miles from the main party, Four was leading a team to scout the supposed domain of the boss monster. “Alright, do your best to keep out of sight.” He told his squad. They looked at each other in confusion. “Shouldn’t we try to eliminate the threat now?” One of them suggested.

“That’s right, we should kill it now, that way things will be easier for Jaden.” Another said excitedly.

Four sighed. “If we can kill it by ourselves, then it was never a threat to him in the first place. If it’s strong enough to threaten him, it’ll definitely kill us. So we’re better off just staying out of sight, and passing him information ok?”

“Wow you’re like so smart.” A third Jeff said.

Four smiled wryly, and clapped this squad member on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, wisdom will come with age.” Under his breath, Four muttered “I hope.”

“That’s true, you are like super old.” The same Jeff said obliviously.

Four shook his head. “In his case it may take a while.” Four muttered as he turned his attention back to scouting.

Four’s ears popped as he moved forward.

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You have entered the domain of the green dragon. Prepare yourself/selves for battle.

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Read a popup that appeared as Four shook his head to clear the sensation. A few seconds later, a roar could be heard in the distance. “Crap. Alright, everyone back off, we need to leave now.” Four commanded.

“Why?” One of his soldiers asked.

“Not now. Get running!” Four could hear trees cracking audibly, as if with the passage of something very large. The cracking sounds were getting closer at an alarming rate as the Jeffs begrudgingly followed behind Four. Thanks to his body not truly needing air, Four was able to grunt in annoyance as his squad failed to keep up with him. Due to the fact that most of the current generation had almost twice as much mana as Four held, he knew that it was likely a lack of motivation for fleeing rather than natural ability that held them back. It was only two minutes later that he began hearing the screams. Some were screams of animalistic rage; loud bellows that he could tell came from the dragon. Others were screams of pain from the Jeffs, spurring Four to move faster; actively burning his mana in order to gain more speed.

It was due to his terror and speed that Four was unable to avoid crossing paths with a panther that was prowling closer to a creature that looked like a rabbit with three velociraptor talons on the front part of its claws. The rabbit, happily munching on a tuft of grass, was spooked by Four’s passage, disappearing into the brush. The panther, sensing a larger meal, chose to pursue Four. Groaning in frustration, he sped up even faster; burning his mana at an even greater rate. Now he was emitting the occasional pained grunt from the exertion as he stayed only feet ahead of the enraged panther.

The chase continued like this for ten minutes as Four watched his dwindling mana reserves apprehensively. Finally, the panther let out an irritated snort, and put on a final, extra burst of speed. Before Four could react, the panther had tackled him to the ground. He screamed in fear, stabbing out awkwardly with his spear. The spearhead glanced off the panther’s thick coat as it set to chewing casually on Four’s leg. He screamed in pain as a chunk of the limb was torn off. The panther looked around in confusion when the chunk of meat evaporated into mist. Cocking its head, it removed another chunk of meat, sniffing in disdain as the piece of leg evaporated once again. Four stared at the panther apprehensively as it turned its head to look him in the eyes with an expression of moral outrage at the concept of evaporating meat.

Four stabbed at it weakly again, failing to penetrate the panther’s hide. With a disdainful snort, it raked his hand with its claws, causing Four to drop his spear in pain, before ambling away. Moaning in pain, Four watched as the wounds on his leg regenerated; consuming the last of his mana. Within seconds, Four fell unconscious from the mix of pain, and drained mana.