After another night of fine tuning his shadow power he finally found out a way to use it to attack. It's kind of strange but Alex thought it would still work. The shadow that he creates seem to have a different property then the other natural made shadows. He can control them in a much more... Explosive manner. He stood there with a single, small orb of shadow and slowly started spinning it once more. The orb didn't seem to change much but it still seemed to interact with the surroundings. The air around the small marble shaped orb started to stir. It was a strange phenomenon almost like the orb was pulling everything into it slightly.
Though the strain was getting heavier on Alex's mind the more he continued he did so anyway. The orb increased to an intense speed and then Alex finally did it. He stopped the orbs spin. By doing this the air that was being rapidly circulating the strange ball stopped and seemingly exploded outward, no longer being pulled by the shadow orb. The air shot out like needles and dealt damage to the small portion of floor it was by. Not much damage but still more than before.
Though it gave Alex a roaring headache it was worth it. He quickly went to bed and there started the last week of the first mission. He woke up and checked the leader board to see something that was... worrisome. Someone named Artifact Wielder #13 had managed to gain 3 points overnight. Effectively forcing a tie between him and Alex.
'This bastard got an uncommon artifact normally? What the hell is his luck?' Alex thought angrily. 'I need to find another Artifact so I can gain more power.'
Alex felt like this Race was a life changing event. Something that could turn him from a young boy on the streets to someone with powers to change the elements. Alex looked at the small portion of damage he dealt to the floor the night before and subconsciously smiled. If he can get an artifact he will become stronger and gain more. He wanted to get stronger, it was intoxicating knowing that he could now do things he could never do before.
Alex quickly got dressed and headed down stairs to find John and Sarah talking worriedly. "John you need to tell him." Sarah said sadly. "I don't know if he would even want to know Sarah. Who would want to know that there only relative died two years ago and they didn't even know. I don't want to put him through that." Said John with a conflicted expression on his face. "Well the only other place for him to go is into foster care. I mean there is really no other option." Sarah said with tears in her eyes.
John looked at her for a moment before slowly shaking his head "No Sarah. There is another place he can go." he said slowly. Sarah looked at him with a strange look of hope and asked "What do you mean?" He slowly looked around before saying "We can... try and get him to stay here. I don't know if your okay with it but i'm fine with it. He is a great kid Sarah. You must have been able to tell from the last month he has stayed with us."
Sarah looked at John with a look of strange happiness and said "I thought you said you didn't want kids John? What changed. I would love to but... I can't really decide on that. It's really up to him." John broke up in tears as he hugged Sarah closely. "Though there will be some legal hiccups we should be able to figure it out as long as he is willing." John said happily. Alex stood there at the top of the stairs listening to them intently. Well it's not a surprise that his relatives are dead. I mean they had always been dead to him before either way and he wasn't really that into going back to people who abandoned him. But... Getting adopted was something he really didn't expect.
He had been told on the streets since he was young that he should never get caught being out on the streets. They said they would send him to places he would hate and he really did believe them. They were the people that would really help him out when he was in his rough spots with food and money. Though they were too they didn't ever think twice when helping him out. So I ran from cops and stayed in places that they wouldn't go. Alex didn't know about adoption but if he could stay with John and Sarah it would be amazing. His life these past few weeks had felt like a dream, and that was a dream he wanted to stay in. Alex looked at them for a few seconds before deciding to speak up. "I would love to." he said in a voice that sounded on the verge of tears. It felt strange. He wasn't used to feeling this.... emotional.
John and Sarah snapped there heads to the small Alex standing on the stairs. The tears in there eyes and joy were very apparent. After a few moments they laughed and took Alex into there arms. Afterwards John said "I need to get this all figured out and it will take quite a bit of time." Alex looked at John and nodded before slowly saying " That would be great."
After a few hours Alex was finally alone in the house. It felt strange being alone after what had just happened. He slowly looked around the house once more. Looking for anything that could be an artifact and after finding nothing went outside. He looked around before he was surprised by a sound. A small ringing bell sound. He looked down at his watch and saw that he had a new notification.
Your skill "Selective Vision" has leveled up to level 2. This means you can now specify more and gain more information from it. You can also have a general direction of were an object similar to the one you are looking for is.
Alex started to laugh at it for a second before jumping in joy. Finally something that could help him with finding artifacts. After settling down he quickly activated the skill again before being very disappointing. He felt a gentle buzz fill his ears as he looked around a white landscape. After a few minutes he finally realized that this ability would be very difficult to use. The buzzing constantly changed in pitch and volume. Whenever his eyes turned this buzzing turned. After some practice it seemed that the items that would be considered artifacts were in the height of these changes, a higher pitch meant he was closer to an artifact, the louder the closer. It was strange but the bad thing was that the sound was too similar all around and he couldn't pin point directions well.
It was an improvement but one that was pretty useless now. He then remembered the first artifact he found. The Flames of History. He was saving the strange ability on it for when he was truly lost and now.... he was utterly lost. After conjuring a small flame in the tip of his thumb he looked into the small amount of smoke coming off of it and slowly said "Seer of Flames... Activate" and then he felt his mind and body become completely absorbed in the smoke.
It was like walking through a field of ash. The smoke around him curling and changing, it was hard to breathe with this invasive smoke. But slowly and surely he found something. He found that the smoke would form pictures all around them. All of them indicating different things. After awhile he finally managed to piece the picture all around him together and finally found out what it was. It was a large cathedral.