The Duel (part 1)

Appearing back in the sealed room, Joseph took a good long look at the nearly threadbare pair of boots in his hands.

They were mostly leather with a few protective plates on the toe, ankle, and shin. Small metallic threads could be seen woven throughout the boots as the leather was peeling in places. The metal plates were tarnished and dented, all in all the boots looked like junk. But Joseph knew better than to believe appearances especially after what he went through with his sword.

Taking a glance at the stat sheet he noticed that it still said F grade in the item description. Slightly confused he turned to the system to get clarification.

"System," He began slightly trepidatious. "Why are my boots still F grade, even though I manifested them while I was at E?"

"Simple," the system responded almost immediately, a slightly condescending tone could be heard in its voice, but that was just his imagination...right? "Due to the enormous amount of time since the artifacts have been saturated with divine energy, they have suffered degradation and will require full saturation in order to regain their previous power."

"Of course!" Joseph thought to himself exasperated, it made perfect sense. It did cause him to wonder why he could see their fully upgraded stat sheets while in the skill space, but he didn't really want to deal with the smart mouth system at the moment so he decided to leave it alone.

Sitting cross legged on the floor while placing the boots in his lap, Joseph began to channel his energy into the boots to improve them just as he had done his weapon. It took several minutes and depleted most of his mana pool but the upgrade was worth it.

"Lightning Greaves: Grade E

All attributes: +20%

Damage reduction: +10%

Flash steps: upon activation increase movement speed by 20% for 30 seconds. 150mana/cooldown 5mins.

Lightning flash: Instantly teleport as a bolt of holy lightning to any location within 20 meters. Upon landing release a thunder clap causing 20% magical lightning damage. 50% chance to stun the enemy for 2sec. 200mana/cooldown 1min."

He couldn't help himself, Joseph began to laugh hysterically as he digested the full implications of his new artifact. It was beyond good, and would certainly come in handy not only in battle situations, but in escape ones too. There was no mention of being unable to move through walls or ceilings with the lightning flash ability, so he should be able to escape from almost anything as long as they didn't have some kind of magical lock on the surrounding space.

"And now," Joseph thought, nearly foaming at the mouth due to his mounting excitement. "Its time for me to equip and see what kind of set bonus I get!"

The effect was immediate, once Joseph placed the boots on his feet he felt a reciprocal connection between the boots and his blade. Like pulses of lightning were flowing from his toes to his hands and back, each circulation getting faster and stronger until it finally synchronized with his heartbeat.

Once that was done he pulled up his status sheet to take a look, he closed his eyes for a few moments to steady himself, taking deep breaths and saying. "I don't care what it is so long as its useful, and there are no useless abilities only useless delvers."

This was the mantra he spoke to himself when he was preparing to awaken, before he got the catalyst that is. He had no idea what his parents awakened grades were so he assumed the worst. Had he known they were both A grades he might have had a different saying, but this one served him well in managing expectations.

Opening his eyes he fixated on a new section that appeared just after his equipment was listed.

"Set bonus: 2 items held- Mana cost for all abilities reduced by 10% Holy and Lightning based skills have their damage increased by 10% per grade."

Grinning from ear to ear joseph knew this set bonus, while the lowest one, would be immensely helpful in the near future. He had noticed that his mana costs were rising rapidly. It seemed like to balance his wildly strong capabilities the corresponding mana costs were exponentially increased. It seemed like someone out there wanted him to struggle just a bit. {;)}

"Well what now?" Joseph pondered for several minutes about his next course of action. The delvers duel was only 5 days away, normally this time would be used preparing for whomever the opponent was. The only difference this time was Joseph knew perfectly well that Olsen could never bridge the gap in that amount of time. So he tried to think of what the better use of his time would be.

Eventually after spending about 30 minutes thinking about it, he decided that he would simply run the Goblin tower a few times each day to grind some EXP. Despite the fact that his Exp gains would be cut in half or more it would still afford him the chance to get familiar with his new abilities. Not to mention the extra attribute points he would gain putting him even further out of reach.

5 days passed quickly for Joseph, he spent his days in the tower running it over and over. At night he would return to Aden to get some additional sparing practice. He never managed to win against Aden but he could tell he was improving.

By the time the duel was scheduled Joseph had managed to reach level 7 of E grade, Boosting his stats by almost an additional 20+ points. At 56 in each stat plus the 20% bonus from his sword he sat at 67.2 per stat. Which by itself is beyond stupid. But now that the 20% from before had become 40%, and his stats each went up to 64. The bonus attributes put him at a staggering 89.6 across the board. This meant that he was nearly 18 times stronger, faster, smarter, and more resilient that he was before the awakening, and probably 5-7 times stronger than Olsen. The only thing he felt he could do was shake his head, this wouldn't be a duel...it was an execution.

The hours ticked by slowly on that day, each second passing by feeling like minutes of time. It didn't matter that Joseph was strong enough to win this duel blindfolded and handicapped, he still dreaded what he was about to have to do.

No one could say that Olsen didn't deserve it, he had made so many mistakes in his life that he deserved far worse in some peoples opinion. But the thing that made it hard for Joseph was the fact that Doren loved Olsen so. He couldn't help but wish that his parents were still here, and he pitied Olsen for losing his mother just as he himself had. But it was all together to late for regrets now, he had to deal with the consequences. And hope that in the end, it wasn't going to be as bad as he thought.

Finally the clock struck high noon and the participants had gathered in the dueling hall within the Guild. There were a few sporadic spectators but no more than 10 additional people had arrived aside from Doren and Aden. Probably due to the fact that Doren didn't want this going public, but could legally do nothing about it if anyone decided to come.

These duels were under the purview of the system itself, no one was above its laws, and no one dared flout them lest they be erased. (Story for another time)

Standing on the dueling platform were Joseph and Olsen, while behind each of them were the individuals they were representing. Doren could be seen visibly trembling at the prospect of what was about to happen. He stood there wringing his hands together incessantly, perhaps attempting to keep some kind of control over himself.

Mean while Aden stood stoically, no visible expression could be seen upon his weathered face. If you didn't know any better you would assume it was some kind of statue made in his likeness.

Joseph and Olsen simply stood still, staring at one another. Olsen's face was twisted in an ugly grimace. He had spent the past several days grinding like a mad man, and had even successfully promoted to E grade. While not as shocking as Joseph's feat of doing it in one day, it was still a record setting achievement.

The problem Olsen was having was that he could feel the vast difference between himself and Joseph. The thick waves of mana rolling off of him made Olsen shiver, he knew even before this began that he would not succeed but it didn't matter. He was bound by the rules the same as all of them.

"How did he do it?!" Olsen raged internally, "How did this piece of filth get so strong so fast!? It shouldn't be possible!!" But despite his rage and disbelief the facts didn't care. Staring him coldly in the face was his impending doom...and he knew it.