Chapter 5, Inventory

The next few days passed uneventfully. Alex did his best to stay awake as the level of exhaustion kept making him nod off despite all the rest he had gotten.

As Alex was taking a nap on and off Markos was in the cot next to him polishing his battle axe. Alex remembered how Markos had drawn it from thin air during the fight.

"How do you summon your axe?"

"Summon? What do you mean, I just keep it in my inventory" Markos shrugged as if this was common knowledge.

"Dude I never had an artifact or claim to one until the last two weeks of highschool. I have no idea how to look at my inventory"

"Oh that's easy, you just need to reach out like you are actually about to grab something. Then boom, your inventory appears. If you memorize where you keep some things in it then you can grab it without looking, which is what I did with my axe" Markos explained, "I thought everyone knew how to do it, but I guess not. That explains why I saw people carrying stuff around school when they could have just put it in their inventories.

Alex looked at Markos in shock, "You mean I could have been keeping everything in my inventory all this time?"

"I mean yeah, I guess but I honestly thought you already were."

Alex tried to access his inventory, reaching out as if to grab something as Markos explained, but nothing happened.

"Let me guess, it didn't work?" Markos asked, seeing Alex's face.

"No, why did it not work?"

"It takes practice, keep trying and sooner or later it will work. You just have to keep a clear head while you do it, while also feeling like you are actually about to grab something" Markos explained further.

"Easier said than done" Alex said, reaching out again, and failing again. Alex tried again and again with no success. On his fifth try it finally worked, opening a 3 by 3 grid of squares all with an empty black interior.

"I did it!" Alex shouted bolting up which also caused the inventory to close.

"You have to stay calm if you want to keep it open. Inventories are sensitive and close if you aren't calm" Markos explained.

"How did you open your inventory in combat then?" Alex asked, trying and failing to open the inventory again.

"Lots and lots of practice, it took me months to open it reliably and even longer to open it in a fight" Markos punctuated this by lifting his axe and placing it in his inventory. It disappeared as if it turned to dust as he let go of it.

Alex managed to open it again and this time was able to keep it open. He held up Excalibuter to put it in and managed to put it in the bottom right corner, it disintegrated as Markos' axe had only a moment ago. It immediately closed after this as Alex's excitement flared.

"Nice job, keep practicing and you won't have to worry about ever carrying much. Each slot in your inventory can only handle a certain amount of weight, though getting stronger increases the weight each can hold. Mine can hold 20 pounds each thanks to these guns" Markos flexed his biceps. "But you could probably hold just as much, probably thanks to all the heavy lifting you did for your mom" Markos pointed out Alex's muscles.

"Yeah, it totally wasn't because I was training to go on adventures in secret" Alex joked though he had done that and it probably had helped. Markos laughed at the joke before he got up and left, probably to help some of the sailors above. Alex spent the rest of the day practicing opening his inventory.

The rest of the trip went smoothly without any more incidents or attacks and soon enough a shoreline came into view.

"Finally we're here!" Markos shouted from the rigging along the side of the ship. Alex smiled back at him, unable to hold in his excitement, he had been able to open his inventory almost every time he tried now, and Excalibutter was in it already as well as the bag full of clothing and supplies Alex had taken with him. This land was strange and full of people going about their day, it seemed strange but familiar to him in a way he couldn't explain. Everyone was speaking a different language which Alex couldn't understand.

"Welcome to Qin Yamato, land of the sun" Markos said, patting Alex on the back disembarking from the ship as it drew into the port.

Alex followed, asking, "So where should we start, where do we find adventures?"

"First things first, we need to find a hotel to stay at, we may stay in the wilderness on occasion but while in the city I want a place to relax."