Drive

Warden's lodging was in the middle of the village—the village head's house, to be specific. Unfortunately, the village head had died in the attack, leaving his young son, who always seemed to be busy with one thing or another. Currently, the lad was sharpening his many tools, from daggers, machetes, swords to arrowheads, stroking them on a whetstone.

Warden didn't alert him and went into the house. A few minutes later, he was back in his attire, the sword strapped to his back, the undamaged light armour hidden beneath the cloak. With everything in order, he forgot to check their specs. In the beginning, he didn't even consider them to be magical items, but it was only right to think of them as artifacts, given that they didn't catch a single dent in the fight.

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[Name: Maya's Protection

Rank: Legendary

Type: Light Armor

Description: The armor is created with ethereal celestial fabric woven with light essence, granting it extraordinary durability and flexibility. The exceptional materials provide damage-proof, shock absorption, and defense against most magical and physical attacks.

- Enchantments:

 - Light of Dawn: Grants the wearer increased evasion and agility, shimmering with a faint celestial glow when activated, enhancing dodging capabilities. + 100% Agility

 - Light Resilience: Absorbs and mitigates a percentage of incoming magical damage, providing additional defense against spells and enchantments. +100% Defense

 - Radiant Empowerment: Amplifies the user's innate abilities, offering a boost to attributes that align with the light element. +50% Light Element.

 - Celestial Wings: Cannot be executed with the user's current capabilities. Requires Cloak of Void Radiance and Maya's Protection together.

Note: Maya's Protection is soul-bound to the user; unnecessary tampering or destruction of it may cause permanent soul trauma.]

[Name: Cloak of Void Radiance

Rank: Legendary

Item: Cloak, Magical

Description: The Cloak of Void Radiance comes with Maya's Protection and is similarly built with celestial thread and feathers. Other than being damage-proof and shock-proof, the cloak makes the wearer look better.

Enchantment:

- Ethereal Veil: Allows the wearer to change the build of the cloak, which is limited to color, shape, length, and physical manifestation.

- Void Shroud: Creates a dark shroud of void energy around the wearer, using the aperture of Toil. 

- Mystic Ward: Casts a protective barrier that absorbs incoming magical attacks, and replenish the wearer's energy by 10% of the absorbed damage.

 - Celestial Wings: Cannot execute with the user's current capabilities. Requires Cloak of Void Radiance and Maya's Protection together. 

Cloak of Resistance: +50% Physical Resistance. +50% Arcane Resistance. +100% Spirit Resistance. +50% Misfortune Resistance. The resistance is only active to the fullest with the other enchantments.

Note: Cloak of Void Radiance is soul-bound to the user, unnecessarily tampering or destruction of it may cause permanent soul trauma.] 

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"Holy hell!" Warden was stunned. The light armor and cloak were actually way greater than the sword and were similarly made for him. In all honesty, the sword felt like a far cry, but then again, it was a Growth item; at its peak, The Divider would match the light armor and cloak. However, what irked him was he didn't know how to use all the features of these items. Maybe I need to put more thought into their abilities.

As he waited for Xiv to finish his work, Warden managed to change the color of his cloak into different colors, though none of them fitted him as well as the dark. In the end, he changed it to white, matching his hair. The change made him stick out in the crowd, but he felt with the white cloak he was more approachable now.

"Sir," Xiv called after finishing sharpening. He had been looking at him when Warden was shifting the look of the cloak wantonly, but fearful to ask. "Do you need anything?"

"Hmm, walk with me," he said, turning toward the way out of the village. He thought for a moment to add, "Take your preferred weapons and follow me." Xiv was startled for a moment but didn't waste a moment to follow his instructions. The boy was barely fifteen years old, not even the first sign of facial hair was apparent on his face, yet he was stout as a soldier.

"You can relax a little," Warden said, feeling pity for the orphaned boy. "We are just going to scout a little."

"Yes, Sir."

"And don't call me sir. Warden is fine, or cut it to War—hmm, War certainly had a certain ring to it. But Warden is better."

Warden was in the wilderness again, the young lad in tow, equipped with a spear, bow, and quiver. Even with that, he didn't cut much of a threatening figure in contrast to Warden, who was easily over a head taller.

"Um, s-sir. I mean, Warden," Xiv asked after half an hour of walking into the wilderness. "How did you become so strong?"

"Strong?" Warden sighed. "I honestly don't feel strong." In retrospect, he felt weak, sick, and lost. He knew most of the feeling stemmed from the loss of his memory, the loss of who he was.

"What, I mean—"

"I know what you mean," Warden said, patting the boy on the shoulder. "I guess the most important thing is a drive; no amount of monster hunting or training can enable you to have that. Find something that drives you to become stronger, then it all depends on other elements like hard work, talent, training, luck, etc."

"Drive?" Xiv mumbled. "If it isn't too presumptuous to ask, but what is your drive? Sir?"

Warden glared up at him.

"Sorry, Warden."

"My drive?" Warden stopped in his tracks. "Hell if I have a clue what it is. I just feel wrong being weak."

Xiv frowned.

"No, it's not complicated," Warden said. "It is as simple as it sounds. Anger can be a driving force, and so can loss, helplessness, or the drive to prove yourself to others."

Xiv nodded, understanding coming to the teenager.

"For how long have you been training?"

"A few years, though not seriously," Xiv replied. "Father taught me spearmanship, but I didn't take it seriously until he injured himself a few months ago. Then a couple of weeks ago, I awakened my class, just in time to save my life."

"Class?" Warden perked his eyebrows.

"Yes, I received a common Spearman class on awakening."

"What does it do?" Warden frowned.

Xiv joined in frowning. "I'm not so certain," he said. "Now killing monsters makes me stronger, I guess. I don't have magic like others, but my body is tougher. Oh, I have the spear mastery skill."

Warden couldn't gauge how deep this Spear mastery would be, but he figured it wouldn't be too bad if he received a class on it.

"I guess I can check on your skills soon," Warden said, gesturing towards the east. "Some low-ranked wolves are coming from this way. Can you deal with them?"

Before Warden could even finish, the creatures were on them, growling fiercely. There were six of them, only one bigger than the others, equivalent to a copper ranker.

Warden took a step back instinctively. "You said it's just scouting."

"It is, but you gotta be prepared for a fight. Always."