He stayed in the blackness for what felt like an age, and then, images of a time long past flashed past his eyes. Scenes of war, and scenes of peace played a highlight reel across his eyes at dizzying speeds. The images slowly came to a halt and Noah heard voices.

“No! do not hold it like that, shift your grip apart. Use your back hand to control the swing” an aged voice called out sharply.

“Yes Master.” A younger voice replied, an image swimming into view of an old being showing his student the best way to hold the Guandao type weapon. The beings were humanoid in shape but had digitigrade legs and were covered in iridescent scales.

“The Glavenius is a powerful weapon, and as son of the emperor yours is better than most. This means that no matter how long it takes, I will train you in using this weapon effectively.”

The student sighed and set his stance.

“Well we best get started if I want to get done before I’m your age”

“Now, now, don’t be cheeky” the older being replied affectionately.

“Now, channel your mana into your weapon and swing at that target over there”

The student did as he was bade, and a striking iridescent light flew from the edge of the blade and struck the target, shattering it.

“That is one of the abilities that has been engraved onto your weapon. Over time you will learn them all”

“Thank you, Master, I will not let you down.”

“No, I expect you won’t.”

Pain exploded into Noah’s mind as the images sped up again, showing a highlight reel of training, years passing. The old being growing bent and weary in an instant.

In the next moment the Emperor’s son was standing in front of a monument holding the Glavenius.

“Though you may have gone to the world beyond, your teachings will stay with me. Enjoy your second life Master.”

With that, Noah snapped back into consciousness finding that he was holding the Glavenius in the correct stance that the young man was taught.

“I thought you were going to [Identify] things before you touched them!” ACAS demanded.

“How am I meant to keep you alive if you refuse to do things sensibly”

“Yeah, you are right, sorry ACAS, I think greed must have overtook me. I’ll try not to do it again.”

Noah stared at his hands holding the Glavenius, images of basic combat uses flowing through the back of his mind.

“ACAS, I think I was shown the past of this weapon. I think I’ve been taught how to use it, though it seems like only the basic stances”

“Well at least the side effect doesn’t seem too bad this time, but please be more careful in the future.” ACAS griped.

“I’ll do my best, trust me, I don’t want to get killed for being stupid.”

A shriek echoed behind him and instinctively he whirled slicing the Glavenius through the air and channelling his anger out of the well that stayed deep in his chest, down his arm and into the weapon. As he saw in the vision, a blade of light flew through the air. Unlike the vision however, this light was a deep furious red, sparking madly.

It sliced through two Tesopus worms that had tried to crawl through the hole in the wall. Expecting them to start regenerating, Noah prepared to swing again, but then relaxed as he saw that the worms were split in two. The corpses were not moving at all and he couldn’t see any signs of healing.

“Your mana blade must have the element of fire attached to it, that’s the only thing that stops these from healing”

“Damn that’s awesome, Its different from the vision though. In there when the being made the blade, it was an iridescent light. I guess maybe its based on a type of mana or something?”

“I can only surmise that because you have started to use your anger as fuel for your attacks, you have a different Mana type than whatever those beings were” ACAS explained

Quickly Noah saw that he had another couple of levels and a few points to spend. He plunked his points into Strength and Dexterity. Feeling the usual tingling surge of power. But notably less than his previous levels.

Looking around the room, Noah saw enough treasure there to make his fortune back on earth. Unfortunately for him, he had to pick and choose what he could take, and then it wouldn’t even be much as space in his rucksack was limited.

Wrapping his hand in a bit of cloth, Noah wrapped a few small items up that wouldn’t show him anything when he tried to use [Identify].

“Maybe someone out there will be able to tell me what these are.”

“Undoubtably. The universe is full of individuals that have specialised into identifying unique items that adventurers find.” ACAS explained.

“Ok, I think I’m set, I wish I could take more, but I don’t have the room. One last thing to do before we set off. I’m gonna try to use identify on this Glavenius before we go.”

Identify succeeded

[Legendary item]

Emperor’s Glavenius

Weapon owned by the emperor of a long dead species. It has been engraved with abilities that will be revealed to you over time

“Goddamn this thing is amazing. Hey ACAS, why did [Identify] work on this and not those items?”

“I checked the System Database when the [Identify] came back positive. It seems other integrated subjects have had similar visions when finding a legendary item. It seems that the act of seeing these visions bind the item to you, thus as you are its owner you can [Identify] it with ease.”

“Ok, sure that makes as much sense as anything else here.”

With one last look around the room, Noah stood at the hole in the wall and prepared himself to delve deeper into the ruins, to try and find a way out.

“Let’s get going.”