Art's Experiments

The next day came in a flash. Well, that was what he would love to say, but he had barely gotten any sleep last night.

He was just too excited to check out his system skills, features, and his true weapon.

After freshening up and changing the bandages on his wounds, he had a hearty breakfast made by Rachel. Now, he was locked up in his room.

“Where do I start?” he muttered.

“Umm… alright. Come forth.” His hand glowed before revealing the silver orb, which he now held—his true weapon.

He decided to do the weapon-sealing ritual first. Using his F-rank dagger, he created a cut on his palm and let a few drops of blood fall onto his true weapon, which absorbed the blood. Shortly after, it began glowing.

He could feel his bond with the orb deepen, and after the glow vanished, the orb was no longer silver but now black and gold.

He tried to control the weapon telepathically but failed, as it seemed to be something accessible only when he grew stronger.

Even though a weapon might be S-ranked, the amount of power that could be drawn from it depended on its user. So, right now, the power of his true weapon was at most E-rank.

Come to think of it, he didn’t know its actual rank, so for the first time, he decided to use his inspect skill on an object, as he had tried it out on Rachel and found that it didn’t seem to work on humans.

As usual, everything worked with just a thought, so the details of his true weapon appeared in front of him.

[Name: ???]

[Rank: Unranked]

Art waited for more info, but nothing happened.

“Wait, that’s it?”

‘You obviously need to level the skill up to get more information. And despite that, what you’re inspecting is a true weapon—it isn’t ordinary. What’s very surprising is that it’s an unranked weapon.’ Her voice was serious, unlike its usual playful tone.

“And is there a problem with that?” His eyebrows furrowed slightly.

‘No, not at all. On the contrary, it’s a very good thing. As it says, your true weapon is unranked, which means it doesn’t have a limit. Its power depends entirely on its wielder, and the stronger you get, the stronger it becomes. I’m just surprised that you got something like this.’

Art’s eyes widened after listening to her. He had never expected to receive something so valuable. This was even better than an S-rank true weapon.

He tried shaping it once more, and after some difficulty, it took the form of a sword.

The sword was black with gold edges, but it was short and irregular, and the hilt was plain. In other words, there was nothing stylish about it.

He let out a sigh, as this was obviously going to take some time to master. Some of his mana got drained, and since he was preparing for tomorrow—the annual contest—he didn’t want to exhaust himself even today.

So, he put his true weapon away, back into his core, before proceeding with his tests. He picked up his dagger and used his inspect skill.

[Name: Life Steal Dagger]

[Rank: F-rank]

[Host wielding capability: 300/50]

He could see more information, and by the name, he had an idea of what it meant. He probably couldn’t use weapons higher than his wielding capability.

Normally, his true weapon’s handling capability requirement would far exceed what he currently had, but since it belonged to him, he could use it despite that.

If he tried to use another person’s true weapon, it would end in failure. But this didn’t mean that anyone with enough wielding capability could use his true weapon, as it could still reject whoever it felt wasn’t worthy. And as long as it had a bond with someone, no other person would be able to use its power.

After inspecting a few more things, he moved on to the next: his inventory.

He brought out some items and placed them on his bed. Among them were several glowing orbs—mana cores.

He first tried with a book. He stared at it, thinking of it going into his inventory, but nothing happened. It was only after he placed his hand on the book with the same thought that it vanished into thin air.

“Well, that’s one weakness,” he muttered. With another thought focused on the book, it reappeared in his hand.

He put it down before doing the same for the mana cores, which also produced the same result.

He had saved some of his breakfast to test something else. He placed his hand on the plate of food, hoping that what he had in mind was true. The plate of food also vanished like the others, and after some minutes of idling, he brought it out. Much to his relief, it hadn’t gotten any colder, which meant that things put into his inventory would remain in the same state.

As for whether it had a time limit or a space limit, those were things he’d find out in time.

He moved on to his system skills. Picking up one of the F-rank mana cores, he let out a sigh before activating his mana drain skill.

[Mana drain activated]

He suddenly felt mana flowing into his body from the orb, and after 30 seconds, there was no glow left in the orb—it was now transparent.

He opened his stats to see that his AMP had increased from 100 to 110. After doing the same with the remaining F-rank mana cores, it increased to 157. He concluded that an F-rank core gave him 8 to 10 mana points.

He picked up the E-rank mana core, and after doing the same thing, his EMP increased by 100. He knew that he still had a long way to go, as even most Silvers here had more mana points than he did.

A base mage is described as a mage of 8 to 10 years. So, it had been over six years since they had about 30 points in their mana stat, using the system format.

He would surely need a way to get enough mana cores, and this place wasn’t convenient, so he couldn’t wait to leave—of course, not without settling some business first.

What was left was his energy drain, which had to be used on living things with decent intelligence. Something like the E-rank sonic mantis he had fought would’ve been nice, or even better, one of the Silvers here.

After giving it some thought, he decided to leave them be for now. He would surely get the opportunity to test things out later on.

There was also something else he was interested in: mana cultivation. This was the way mages used to raise their mana and magic potential. It was a simple yet complicated procedure consisting of two major steps.

The mage had to absorb the mana around them into their body and core, purify it, and repeat the process over and over until a breakthrough occurred.

It was similar to breathing, and as easy as this might sound, it was very difficult—and it got worse as the mage grew more powerful, especially the purification part.

The purer and more concentrated a person’s mana core was, the more powerful they became, which led to an increase in rank.

His guide had told him that he didn’t need futile things like that, but he still wanted to know if he could.

“Soooo…?”

‘The system has its way of making you stronger, but if you want to, you can still cultivate,’ she responded.

He just wanted to know how it felt, and besides, he couldn’t depend entirely on his system. So, he put away everything on his bed and sat cross-legged.

He didn’t need to be tutored on how to do it because of his obtained memories.

He started the process, which wasn’t easy, and went on with it for hours. The rest of the day passed quickly, and finally, the day of the annual contest arrived. Art woke up the next morning with a smirk on his face.