After Damion, Ms. Teft and his parents finished the small party for Damion passing his licensing test, it had gotten late in the day. Ms. Teft headed home, while Damion took his sword and headed to his room to examine it more closely. After Damion was satisfied that he had memorized every inch of his new sword, Damion put it back in its box and opened his system menu to check on his own status.
[Magic System]
[Full System unlock in 2:354:8:20:30]
[System Level: 1]
[User: Damion Wells]
[Age: 15]
[Magic Talent: Locked]
[Magic Affinity: Locked]
[Mana: 240/320]
[Magic Power: Locked]
[Mana Recovery: Locked]
[Strength: 57]
[Dexterity: 70]
[Vitality: 95]
[Intelligence: 128]
[Experience: 100/1,000]
[Store Credits: 1]
Damion sighed when he saw the time left until his system unlocked. Just under three years was a short amount of time compared to the time he has already waited, but Damion still found himself wishing there was something he could do to shorten the time.
Luckily, his Vitality had nearly fully recovered, along with his mana pathways. From his conversations with Ms. Teft and the Magic System, Damion learned that just having magic in his body would slowly heal the body. Of course, someone with the proper magic affinity, like Holy or Light, could cast a spell and heal most injuries instantly. Damion's healing had taken time, but because of the mana in his body, and the mana he pulled in using Mana Absorption, he was able to not just heal, but also boost his Strength and Dexterity attributes as well.
Most of Damion's attributes had gone up a bit since he last checked. What disappointed him was that his mana had not gone up, even though he had used quite a bit of mana today. Over the last few years Damion had been using Mana Absorption to slowly increase his maximum mana. However, over the last few months, since he had surpassed 300, it had become increasingly difficult to increase his capacity.
According to Ms. Teft most mages his age would be lucky if they had more than 100 mana available to them. Even though Damion had used his skill to successfully boost his mana to three times what the average mage his age had, he was not content. The system had warned him it would become more and more difficult to increase his mana capacity, but Damion had hoped to get at least 500 mana before stagnation set in, after all, he had seen the mana cost of a number of tier 1 spells.
Damion had yet to tell Ms. Teft how much mana he had and while she had indicated several times she knew he had higher than average, she had not forced the issue.
The next morning when Damion awoke, he quickly ate breakfast and headed out to meet Ms. Teft. Since graduating from school, she had been continuing their lessons in her back garden. As Damion entered the garden he took out his new sword, eager to take his first mission and hopefully complete the quest from the system.
"Today, you will practice your sword work," Ms. Teft told Damion who had a disappointed look on his face.
"I thought I would get to do a mission, now that I'm licensed."
"A mission when you are not familiar with your weapon? Not on my watch. You need to familiarize yourself with it, how it feels in your hands. How it feels when you strike a target with it. And how to unleash your artifact's full potential."
"Okay, but will I get to do a mission tomorrow?" Damion asked, hopeful he would be able to leave the safety of the city for the first time in his life.
"It will depend on your performance. Now, tell me what separates normal items from artifacts?"
"Artifacts are made with magical materials," Damion answered as if the answer was obvious.
"Partially correct. Reusable artifacts are always made with magical materials, but one time use artifacts can be made of any type of material."
"Then the enchantments on them?" Damion offered another answer, unsure if he was right this time.
"Again, partially correct. Enchantments are what give artifacts their resilience, their strength and most importantly, their ability to perform magic."
"Wait, what?" Damion was confused now. "Artifacts can do magic?"
"There are many types of enchantments. Some make things stronger, some can make a pair of boots mask your footsteps. All enchantments are magic since enchantments, like spell circles are written in the ancient magical language, Nashto."
*Ding*
{New Quest Available}
[Quest: Learn a new language]
[Description: Magic is more than just an idea, it is a written and spoken language. It is time to learn the Nashto language and explore the forgotten depths of magic.]
[Reward: 100 Experience, 1 Store Credit]
Damion was surprised to have a new quest popup from the system. Especially, since he had seen enchantments and spells written in the ancient language quite a few times. Damion's best guess was that hearing the language's proper name had somehow triggered the quest, or perhaps this was the first time he had ever considered it a language and that was what did it. Either way, Damion did not really care, what he did care about was that if once he completed the quest he would fully understand the language like he had with Otash.
"Are you going to teach me Nashto?" Damion asked hopeful. He knew the best way to learn the language was to decipher a few words and hope the system took care of the rest.
"That is a task one can spend a lifetime on. Only spell smiths understand the ancient language, and even then, they only know small parts. If they truly knew the language there is no telling what types of enchantments and new spells would come from their work."
"So, there isn't like a Nashto to Otash dictionary?"
"As you learn spells, you will come to understand some of the language. It is impossible not to, since spell circles are written in it. But the meaning of the glyphs change depending on how they are arranged. It makes actually learning the language frustratingly difficult."
"I guess that is a lesson for another day then," Damion said.
If what Ms. Teft said was correct, then all he really needed to learn the ancient language was to learn a few more spells. Right now, the system had a number of magic seals memorized, but he only had one spell he could use. Damion hoped that if he failed to learn enough of the language on his own, then once he was able to learn spells the Magic System would work its magic.
"Indeed. Today we are talking about the enchantments on artifacts. Your practice sword had an enchantment for durability and surface conductivity. It allowed you to channel your magic over the blade without destroying the sword."
"Wouldn't that mean my practice sword was actually an artifact?"
"Correct. Technically that practice sword was a 0 Rank artifact. Usually, artifacts of that rank are one time use because they are destroyed by the magic that powers them. Because of that, they are not treated as true artifacts and you did not lose any points during your exam.
"Your new sword is different. As your parents told you, it is a D Rank artifact and as a true artifact, it has several enchantments on it."
"What kind of enchantments does it have?" Damion asked curiously.
"It has enchantments for durability and sharpness. The blade will never chip or become blunt from use, unless you don't channel your mana into the enchantments, if you don't use magic with it, your sword is only slightly stronger than a normal sword. And since it is made of red iron, also known as fire iron, it has an enchantment to turn your mana into a fire attack capable of striking your target from a distance."
"How do I channel my mana into the different enchantments?" Damion asked as he examined his sword to try and identify the different enchantments.
"The durability and sharpness enchantments will be activated automatically when you channel your mana into the blade. The attack enchantment will activate when you concentrate your mana into a specific glyph on the guard."
Ms. Teft then pointed to a glyph on the guard. Damion focused his mana on the glyph and a moment later a small burst of fire shot out from the blade igniting a nearby shrub. Damion instantly panicked, unsure of what to do to put the fire he just started out. Luckily, Ms. Teft stretched out her hand and a ball of water shot out from her palm and put the flames out before they could do much damage to the shrub.