1 Chapter 1, Weird Artifact

Chapter 1

Alex sat in the back seat of his friend's car. It's not like they could have had the room for him to sit up front, he normally would, but today Markos' girlfriend was the one in the passenger seat. Ava, Alex thought her name was. Markos tends to get a new girlfriend every few weeks or so.

"Hey Markos, you get that artifact from your family yet?" Alex asked.

"Yeah! It's the Nemean Lion's pelt" Markos bragged.

"Wow, really!" Ava, or maybe Layla, said.

"It was from Hercules' first trial" Markos continued.

"His first Labor" Alex corrected under his breath.

"As the oldest of my siblings I got the first artifact my family owns"

"Do they have one for every trial?" she asked (Alex had given up trying to remember her name).

"No, there is only one from his trials, but Hercules had many other adventures" Markos Explained.

"I wish I got an artifact" Alex muttered.

"I wish you did too Alex, there is no one I would rather have by my side on my adventures" Markos replied, then noticing the glare from his girlfriend continued, "Except for you Ava"

Well I guess her name is Ava.

"That's sweet" Ava said, leaning on his shoulder. Alex made a gagging gesture he was sure Markos could see in the rear view mirror to which Markos checked the brakes causing Alex to hit his head on the back of the passenger seat.

"Well this is your stop" Markos said looking back at Alex.

"Aw come on I was only teasing" Alex was still a few blocks from home.

"Well maybe you'll think about that next time I give you a ride home" Markos said in a very deep tone like he was trying to sound like a stern parent. Alex rolled his eyes and stepped out of the car.

"See you at school tomorrow" he said. Markos replied with the same and drove off.

Walking the last few blocks wasn't that bad but it was far from pleasant. Alex was never fond of walking through the dense city population. Being an introvert sometimes had that effect.

Coming to a stop at the front door, Alex read the sign there.

"Bread and Butter, a proud member of the Chef's Guild" He always smiled reading the name of his family's restaurant. The line following that though always tempered his mood. Though they were members of the Chef's guild, which started long before the gods walked the earth, it was more of a burden then it should have been. Sure the guild was able to supply us with great ingredients, but the monthly dues were hard to keep up with.

Alex entered the restaurant, which almost always seemed to be empty nowadays. His mom was working behind the counter.

"Hi mom" Alex said walking to the back of the restaurant where the staircase leading to their apartment was.

"Hey sweetie, there's a box of utensils upstairs that I need you to appraise. We have to sell them to keep up with payments this month" she said leaning on the display case for the bread.

"Sure" he shouted back already halfway up the stairs.

Their apartment wasn't big by any means but it was enough room for him and his mom. The box she mentioned was on the kitchen counter, it was filled with an assortment of spoons, forks, and butter knives. This was going to take a while. He separated them into piles by the type of utensil, spoons in one pile and forks in another and so on. Alex grabbed a sheet of paper from his room with the Identify spell and with it in hand began the ritual. Twenty two minutes later the forks and spoons were Identified.

"Now to start with the knives" Alex rolled out his shoulders and began the ritual, as he chanted, circling his arms over the knives, a glowing set of runes formed under the pile of knives. After eleven minutes had passed the ritual finished with no results.

"Noooo" Alex whined, there must have been a knife that was different enough from the others that the identification failed.

Alex sorted through the pile pulling out all the ones that looked slightly different from the rest, either with more design or with signs of rust or bends. He Identified the pile that remained, with the same ritual. A blue screen popped up as the ritual finished.

Butter knife

-

Damage: 1

Value: 2 Cp.

"Darn that's not much" Alex muttered. Gathering the rusted and bent knives together he performed the ritual again.

Butter knife (damaged)

-

Damage: 1

Value: 0 Cp.

Alex gathered those knives together and threw them away, they wouldn't get anything from those on the market. That left the knife with a fancy design on the handle. He performed the ritual once more and after having spent a little more than an hour identifying all the utensils Alex sat back in shock as the final screen popped up.

Unnamed Artifact

Features: Magic Resistance

Customization

Damage: 1

Value: 750 Pp.

Alex was holding an artifact, he had no idea what to even do with that information, not to mention how he should react. He could actually go on adventures now, make his mother happy and even provide for her. They could pay off their debt to the guild even!

Running downstairs Alex waved the knife in the air in front of his mother.

"Did you finish with the appraising?" She asked, confused.

"No, well yeah but that was probably only worth 24 silver all together. This is what I want to show you!" Alex said, waving the knife again.

"A butter knife…"

"Mom! This is an artifact!"

"Really?" She asked, the doubt plain in her voice.

"Well if it is then we should be able to pay back the guild with it" his mother said going back to cleaning the counter.

"No mom, I could go on an adventure!" Alex pointed out excitedly.

"Absolutely not!" she responded quickly.

"Wait, why not?" Alex paused, his heart skipping a beat.

"I am not going to let you go galivanting off into the wilds just to get killed. I lost you grandmother the same way" she finished cleaning the counter and threw the towel into a bucket.

"But mom, I have wanted to do this my whole life…" Alex muttered, hope faltering.

"Look there is just too much to be done here, I can't keep this place afloat without you"

Alex looked around, he couldn't see much to do but he understood that this place was expensive to keep running, especially without that many customers.

"Mom I will send back most of the money I earn out there and I can tell you that I will be safe, I'll be going with Markos! And you can always hire someone else to help out here"

His mother stood for a long while before answering. "You promise to stay with Markos?"

"Yes"

"And work really hard here until graduation?"

"Of course"

"If you do that for me then I'll let you keep that artifact and go on an adventure"

Alex leaped forward hugging his mom over the counter, "Thanks mom! I promise I'll be safe!"

"Okay, okay, just help me mop the restaurant before I changed my mind" Even though Alex could tell his mom was worried she still had a smile on her face. Alex got to work mopping the floor.