Owen stared at the words floating before his eyes.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]
He blinked several times, then turned his head toward the window. The message followed his gaze, remaining perfectly clear even when he looked directly at the afternoon sunlight falling across his bedroom floor.
"What?"
He raised a hand and reached toward the text. His fingers passed through it without resistance, but the moment he touched the center of the message, it disappeared and a larger window opened in its place.
[INFINITE ARSENAL SYSTEM]
Host: Owen Ferrers
Armament: Empty Arsenal
Armament Core: Kindled
Weapon Evolution: Unlocked
Available Arsenal: Empty
Owen read the information twice before lowering his hand.
He had heard of awakened armaments communicating with their wielders through sensations, particularly during the first few days after an awakening, but he had never heard of anyone receiving a window filled with written information. The examiner certainly hadn’t mentioned anything like this.
More importantly, the window had identified his armament.
"Empty Arsenal," Owen murmured.
It wasn’t an encouraging name, considering how his awakening had gone, but it was considerably more useful than being told that nobody knew what he had received.
He glanced toward the door. Gareth would want to hear about this, and his father had spent the entire journey home discussing how to arrange another examination. If he showed them the window, perhaps they could work out what his armament was supposed to do.
Then Owen remembered that the message had appeared directly before his eyes. He could see the bedroom through it, and his hand had passed through the writing without touching anything.
Could anyone else see it?
He had no way of knowing, and he wasn’t eager to invite his entire family into his room until he understood what was happening.
For now, he continued reading.
Beneath the information about his Armament Core was another line.
[Compatible materials are required to create your first weapon.]
A small information symbol appeared beside it.
Owen pressed the symbol with his finger. A second window opened, displaying an explanation.
[COMPATIBLE MATERIALS]
A compatible monster core is required to initialize the creation of your first weapon. Monster cores contain supernatural properties that can be used to create and evolve weapon forms.
[Available Arsenal: Empty]
Owen leaned forward.
"A monster core?"
He looked at the practice sword resting beside his training equipment, then back at the window.
The Ferrers family had spent generations using monster cores in the development of living armaments. Owen had seen them often enough during his childhood, although he had never been permitted to handle the more valuable ones without supervision.
Until this morning, he had expected to awaken a sword through the same ceremony everyone else attended. He hadn’t imagined that he would need to provide his own material afterward.
Still, the instruction was clear enough to give him something to try.
He pressed the information symbol again, hoping it might tell him what sort of monster core he needed. The same explanation appeared, with no additional instructions.
"That’s all you’re going to tell me?"
The window remained unchanged.
Owen tried concentrating on the empty arsenal entry, but that only returned him to the main dashboard. There was no weapon to summon, and nothing indicated where he was supposed to obtain a core.
At least he knew someone who could help him with that.
He dismissed the window, picked up his formal coat from the chair, and left his bedroom.
Owen found Gareth in the sitting room overlooking the family training grounds.
The windows had been left open to let in the afternoon breeze, although the room still carried the faint scent of the tea Gareth had been drinking. Two long sofas faced one another across a low table, and a collection of worn training manuals occupied the shelves beside the fireplace. Owen recognized several of them. Gareth had made him read the same Chapters on footwork so many times that he could probably recite them without opening the books.
Through the windows, he could hear the occasional crack of practice swords striking against wooden posts. A few members of the family’s training staff were still working outside, their voices carrying across the grounds whenever someone made a mistake.
Gareth sat at the smaller table near the windows, having changed out of his ceremonial coat. His sword rested against the wall within easy reach, and a training report lay open beside his teacup.
He glanced up when Owen entered.
"That was quick. I thought you wanted to spend the afternoon examining your armament."
"I did examine it."
"And?"
"I think I need a monster core."
Gareth lowered the report.
"A monster core?"
"Yes. Do you know where I can get one?"
"I know where we keep them," Gareth replied. "That doesn’t explain why you need one."
Owen pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down.
He had spent the walk downstairs deciding what to say. Telling Gareth that a mysterious window had appeared in his bedroom might have been the simplest explanation, but Owen didn’t understand the system well enough to explain it to anyone else. He could hardly expect his brother to understand something he had only discovered a few minutes ago.
"I have a feeling that my armament needs one before I can manifest a weapon," he said.
Gareth studied him.
"What sort of feeling?"
"It’s difficult to explain. When I tried to summon it earlier, I could sense the connection to my core, but I couldn’t produce anything. Now I think there’s something missing."
"And you think that something is a monster core?"
"I want to find out."
Gareth set the report aside.
"Owen, if you’re asking because you want to try anything that might get you a sword, I understand. But monster cores aren’t exactly practice equipment."
"I know that."
"Then tell me why this particular idea is worth trying."
Owen considered the question. He couldn’t give Gareth the system’s instructions without revealing the system itself, but his brother was right to ask for more than an unexplained feeling.
"Monster cores are used to create living armaments," Owen said. "Whatever I awakened, it didn’t produce a weapon at the altar. If my armament is incomplete in some way, isn’t it worth finding out whether a core can help?"
Gareth looked toward the sword beside the wall.
"That isn’t a terrible argument."
"Thank you. I think."
"It also isn’t proof that it’ll work."
"I never said it was."
Gareth picked up his teacup, then put it down again without drinking.
"Did something happen after you went upstairs?"
Owen hesitated.
"I noticed something about the connection to my core. I can’t explain it properly yet, but I’m more certain about the core than I was when we left the hall."
Gareth watched him for another moment.
"All right. We can ask Father."
Owen straightened. "Really?"
"Don’t look so surprised. I’m not the one you need to convince."
He stood and retrieved his sword.
"Come on. If we wait until after dinner, you’ll spend the entire meal asking me about monster cores."
"I wasn’t going to do that."
"You were going to start before we reached the dining room."
Owen followed him out, resisting the temptation to point out that Gareth had been talking about sword training throughout breakfast.
His brother was helping him. That was what mattered.
Edmund was in his study when they arrived.
The room stood at the quieter end of the residence, away from the passages the family used most often. Owen had visited it many times with Gareth to report on their training, although he had rarely entered without knowing what his father intended to discuss.
A broad wooden desk stood opposite the door, its surface occupied by neatly arranged correspondence and several reports bearing the Ferrers family crest. A wall-mounted sword hung behind Edmund’s chair, while the shelves to his left held books on military history and weapon cultivation. The windows were open just enough to admit a cool breeze that stirred the corner of a paper beneath Edmund’s hand.
His father was reviewing a document when Gareth knocked and opened the door. Edmund finished reading the line in front of him before setting down his pen and looking toward them.
"Have you discovered something?"
"Possibly, Father."
Gareth remained by the door while Owen approached the desk.
"I’d like permission to use a monster core," Owen said. "I think my armament might need one before it can produce a weapon."
Edmund set down his pen.
"What makes you think that?"
Owen explained the connection he could feel through his awakened Armament Core and his suspicion that a monster core might allow him to manifest something. He kept the explanation focused on what he wanted to test rather than the window only he could see.
Edmund listened without interrupting.
"You know that monster cores are used to develop living armaments," Edmund said. "But those methods require an awakened weapon. Yours hasn’t manifested."
"I know, Father. That’s why I want to try it. I have a feeling my armament needs a core before it can produce a weapon."
"And you’re certain you’re not attempting to absorb the core’s energy into your own body?"
"No. I want to see whether my armament responds to it."
Edmund considered the request. Monster cores had granted countless awakened warriors abilities beyond those they possessed at their initial awakening, but Owen’s situation was different. There was no visible weapon to develop, and neither the examiner nor the Ferrers family had identified what he had awakened.
"It might work," Edmund said at last. "I won’t promise that it will, but we can try a basic core. If you feel its energy entering your body rather than responding through your armament, you stop immediately."
Owen had been trying to keep his expectations under control since entering the study, but he couldn’t prevent himself from smiling.
"Thank you, Father."
"Thank me after we find out whether your idea works."
Edmund rose and led them out.
They crossed a covered passage connecting the residence to the family’s training facilities. The sound of wooden swords striking practice posts carried across the grounds, accompanied by an instructor correcting someone’s footwork. Owen had spent enough afternoons in those buildings to recognize the rhythm of an ordinary training session, and hearing it again made him eager to return with an awakened weapon of his own.
The storeroom adjoining the training hall was cooler than the passage outside. Shelves lined the walls, holding equipment for the family’s training sessions and small locked cases containing materials used in armament development.
Edmund selected one of the cases and opened it on a worktable.
Inside lay a single monster core.
It was small enough to fit comfortably in Owen’s palm, with a deep reddish color that became brighter near its center. Even through the case, he could make out a faint warmth rising from it.
"A fire-attributed core," Edmund said. "It was set aside for your early training. We had expected you to begin working with a sword after today’s ceremony."
Owen looked at the core.
He had imagined using the material to develop the sword he awakened, not to obtain the sword in the first place.
"Will it be enough?" Gareth asked.
"We’ll find out," Edmund replied.
He removed the core and placed it in Owen’s hand.
The warmth against Owen’s skin was mild but unmistakable. He closed his fingers around it, suddenly conscious of how much he wanted this experiment to succeed.
"Use it carefully," Edmund said. "If you discover that your armament reacts to the material, we can decide how to proceed from there."
"I will."
Gareth glanced toward the adjoining training hall.
"Want to try it here? There’s room."
Owen looked at the core in his hand.
The last thing he wanted was to open the system dashboard in front of his brother and father, particularly when he had no idea what would happen once he offered it the material.
"I’d like to examine it in my room first," he said. "I can concentrate better there, and if I find anything, I’ll call you."
Gareth raised an eyebrow.
"You’re asking me to let you disappear upstairs with a monster core after spending the morning telling me how badly you want a sword?"
"I won’t try anything dangerous."
"That isn’t quite the reassurance you think it is."
Edmund closed the empty case.
"Let him examine it. Owen knows where to find us if he needs help."
Gareth stepped aside.
"Fine. But don’t spend another hour trying to make something happen by staring at it."
Owen grinned. "I’ll do my best."
Back in his bedroom, Owen placed the core on his desk and shut the door.
He opened the system dashboard immediately.
The same information appeared before him, with his empty arsenal displayed beneath the material requirement. When he picked up the core, however, a new message appeared.
[COMPATIBLE MATERIAL DETECTED]
Material: Fire-attributed monster core
Use material to initialize first weapon creation?
[CONFIRM] [CANCEL]
Owen read the message carefully.
It had recognized the core, which was more progress than he had made during the entire ceremony. But recognizing a material wasn’t the same as producing a weapon, and he still didn’t know what would happen to the core once he confirmed.
He glanced toward the door.
If this failed, he would have to tell his father that the core had been wasted. Edmund had agreed to the experiment, but Owen would rather return with an explanation than an apology.
Then again, he had asked for the core precisely because he wanted to test the system’s requirement. There was little point in stopping now that it had responded.
Owen selected CONFIRM.
The core grew warmer in his hand.
He opened his fingers as its reddish surface brightened. A thin glow spread across it, and the solid object gradually lost its shape, breaking into small points of light that gathered above his palm.
Within seconds, the core had disappeared.
Owen looked at his empty hand, then at the dashboard.
[MATERIAL ACCEPTED]
[FIRST WEAPON UNLOCKED FOR SELECTION]
The empty arsenal entry vanished, and a new window opened.
[SELECT YOUR FIRST WEAPON CLASS]
Sword — Available
Spear — Locked
Shield — Locked
Bow — Locked
Axe — Locked
Additional weapon classes — Locked
[One weapon class may be unlocked. Select an available class to proceed.]
Owen stared at the list.
He had expected the system to create a sword after accepting the core. Instead, it was showing him an assortment of weapon classes, several of which belonged to the martial traditions of other Great Families.