Chapter 2: Chapter 2, What's It Do?
Alex mopped that floor until he could almost see his reflection in it. He fell asleep clutching that butter knife in hand dreaming of adventures to come.
The next day at school.
"Markos! Markos!" Alex shouted at his friend as he ran through the hall, only slowing when one of the teachers shouted at him to stop running.
"Markos you'll never guess what happened! I got an artifact!"
"Hey Alex. You got an artifact?" Markos questioned, "Where did you get an artifact?"
"I found it in a box of utensils at home!"
"A box of utensils…"
"I know it sounds crazy, it is but this is it" Alex said, taking out the butter knife.
"That's an artifact?"
"Yeah it gives me magic resistance isn't that cool!"
"Hmm, that would be powerful, but that's the weirdest artifact I have ever seen" Markos said, examining the butter knife. "Want to take it out back after school to see it in action? My girlfriend Dianna is a mage so she can test it."
"Wait, isn't Ava your girlfriend?" Alex asked, confused.
"Unfortunately Ava and I didn't work out" Markos didn't seem too broken up about it so Alex just shrugged.
"Anyways, sure that sounds fun"
**
Behind the school Alex sat waiting for Markos and his girlfriend.
Twirling the knife between his fingers looking up at the sky. Alex was laying on one of those green boxes covered in graffiti and warning labels telling you not to sit or lay on them.
Markos' face came into view above him looking down.
"Alright ready to be destroyed?" he said, smiling.
"Not today, maybe next week though" Alex replied. Alex looked at the girl next to Markos, she had dark skin with freckles across the bridge of her nose, her hair was crazy curly too.
"You must be Dianna," Alex said, standing up. He brushed himself off, "Markos told me you're a mage?"
"Sorceress, descendant of Circe"
"The daughter of Helios right?" Alex asked.
"Yup, that's the one" She smiled, "Who did you descend from?"
"No mythical ancestry that I know of" Alex said stretching, he twirled the butter knife in his hands again. "You ready to do this"
"Oh I sure am" Markos replied sitting where Alex had been laying down.
"Sure you are, all you have to do is watch. I'm ready when you are" Dianna said.
Alex braced himself and nodded. Dianna opened her palm and a ball of fire appeared, holding it up to her face she blew on it and it launched at Alex. Flinching the firebolt hit him square in the chest, he felt the fire wash over him and the heat began to blister his skin. Alex quickly beat out the fire on his clothes.
"Ouch that stings" Alex looked through the hole the fire had burned in his shirt, the skin was red and showed signs of blisters forming.
"Hmm I guess it didn't work, Maybe it's not an artifact?" Markos shrugged.
"No I think it worked, that was a pretty intense flame though only a cantrip" Dianna said.
"Yeah but I still got burned" Alex complained.
"It was resistance right? Not immunity" she contorted.
Alex was about to grab his thing and walk home before another firebolt hit him. This time the flames washed over him and he didn't feel a thing.
"Hey why did you do that!" Alex shouted.
"Just to show you that you can resist the magic completely sometimes" Dianna winked and grabbed her things.
"Hey I can give you a ride home" Markos said after her but she just waved and walked off.
"I like her" Markos whispered.
"She does seem to be your type" Alex agreed, "My mom's going to kill me when she sees this" Alex said gesturing to the hole in his shirt.
"Oh, no worries" Markos took off his shirt and gave it to Alex.
"You know just because you are ripped doesn't mean you need to show off" Alex gestured for Markos to put the shirt back on.
"No worries, it's nice out and I got to work on my tan" he said, throwing the shirt at Alex.
Giving up, Alex put on the shirt and walked with Markos to his car.
**
The next few weeks Alex spent a lot of time working at the restaurant restocking, cleaning, and serving the odd customer to come by.
"I understand the magic resistance, that makes sense, it's a typical enchantment. What I can't understand is the Customization" Alex said to Markos who was sitting at one of the restaurant tables while Alex served a gentleman that had come in to eat. The man muttered 'thank you' and Alex responded with a practiced 'no problem' before returning to Markos' table.
"Yeah I don't think I have ever heard of something like that before"
Alex spun the knife on the table, "Maybe I need to focus on it real hard" Alex said, holding it up and glaring at it.
Markos smiled, "That is definitely going to work" the sarcasm was dripping off his voice, "How about we take it to an appraiser?"
"Dude that would cost a ton of money" Alex said resting his head on the table.
"No sweat, I can pay" He offered.
"No I can't let you do that"
"I insist, I'll also have to take you shopping for some gear. If you want to go on adventures you will need some armor" Markos got a far off look as he began thinking. Alex knew that Markos was too far gone now, no point in arguing.
"Okay just let me finish my shift then we can go"
**
After work Markos took Alex to an appraiser.
"This one is good, My dad took me here to get the Nemean Lion pelt appraised, sure we knew what it was but my dad wanted me to know more about it and how important it is to the family. The guy here should be able to tell us more about your butter knife.
They entered the shop which seemed to double as a magic item store. The man behind the counter was in his mid forties balding and had a wispy mustache.
"Ah master Markos, how have you been treating the Nemean Lion pelt?"
"Like a family heirloom, Camelius"
"Good to hear it. Who might this be?"
"A friend from school, he has an artifact that we want to appraise" Markos gestured to Alex who took out the butter knife. Camelius raised an eyebrow but didn't question.
"The price is ten Gold pieces" Camelius held out a hand. Markos paid him and Alex handed over the knife.
Camelius began the ritual, it was the same one that Alex had done himself. After eleven minutes the ritual completed and the man looked to be reading the blue screen which Alex had seen after identifying the knife. Though Alex couldn't see the screen he remembered what it said.
"This is an unnamed artifact, its features are Magic Resistance and Customization, it deals one damage and has a worth of 750 platinum pieces" Camelius said.
"Really? That's cheap for an artifact" Markos said.
"What does your artifact cost then?" Alex asked.
"6,250 Platinum" Markos said, matter of factly. If there were water in Alex's mouth he would have spat it out in shock.
"Indeed," Camleius said, "and the pelt is on the low end for artifacts as well"
"Okay but I already knew all that" Alex complained.
"Well if you want to know the history of your artifact then that will be six platinum and four gold" Camelius said holding out his hand.
Before Alex could refuse such an expensive price, Markos had already handed him the money.
"Markos!" Alex exclaimed.
"Do you want to know or not" Markos said, shutting Alex up.
Camelius pocketed the coins and began another ritual, it was similar to the Identify spell but the chant was slightly different and the runes that appeared looked far more complex.
Camelius finished the ritual and began to read a screen that Alex and Markos couldn't see.
"This piece is one of seven reforged shards of the holy blade Excalibur, made by the pale lady, enchanted by the fiend Merlin, and wielded by the True King Arthur. Invulnerable to the magics of Morgana and the strikes of men. This weapon grows with the wielder who speaks Caledfwlch and understands the meaning of it"
"Caledf##k?" Markos questioned.
"Caledfwlch, it's the welsh word for hardship" Camelius corrected.
"It was once part of the blade Excalibur?" Alex asked.
"So this says but the blade itself has been lost for a couple decades now, it was last wielded by Hazel the Great"
"Hazel was the name of my grandma!" Alex nearly shouted.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone