"What do you want?" I looked at the woman, and then the camera floating behind her.
"An interview with our top underdog contender," she smiled, "You've upset the entire ranking, and projected odds for the entire tournament."
"Why would I care?" I snorted.
"Our rankings, and projected odds have been spot on for years," the reported kept up the friendly smile, "Having someone destroy what we considered top twenty contenders so easily naturally makes us interested in you."
I just stared at her for a few seconds, "I still don't see why I should give a flying fuck."
Her face scrunched slightly at the swearing.
"Aren't you excited that you made it into the top twenty-five?" she tried to get me engaged in the conversation.
"I plan to make the top ten so Goliath will leave me alone," I pushed off the wall when Ethan came out of the prep room, "I really don't care to talk to you, and I don't like that you're trying to push me into a conversation."
I threw my beanie into her face as I turned around, and headed towards Ethan. Ethan smiled at me hesitantly as I approached him.
"Nice," I held my hand up for a high five, "You only took like fifteen minutes longer than me."
Ethan gave me a high five, and we left the stuttering reporter behind. She was fuming. We headed into the market to see if we could find some good armor to trade Ethan's current armor for. I didn't think we'd find much since the armor I'd already gotten him was pretty good. I felt someone coming up behind me, and pivoted to avoid them trying to grab my shoulder only to come face to face with someone I recognized.
"Wait," I squinted my eyes thoughtfully, "Gideon Smithson? What are you chasing me down for?"
"What did you do to my gear?" Gideon didn't look angry.
"Nothing," I looked at him funny, "I only used the active skill once."
"You altered them somehow," he was starting to look excited actually, "They now have two active skills, and they've completely repaired."
"You gave me damaged gear?" I felt my brows pull down, "Why don't we discuss this in your shop? Out of the middle of the walkway."
"Yeah," Gideon glanced around, realizing how load he'd just been, "Somewhere private."
Gideon grabbed my arm, and pulled me towards his shop with Ethan trailing awkwardly behind me. Then he yanked me into his shop. I was forced to sit down at the desktop that Gideon used to analyze, and detail his work.
"I mean," Gideon started chatting as he paced, "I thought the color change was odd when you put them on. I mean the resizing to fit you was normal so I thought the color change might be a by product. My dad gave them to me as a study material so I could improve my work so when they didn't change back like usual I decided to look them over again." Gideon paused, "When I analyzed them again. What did I find? A secondary active skill. One that uses a completely different element."
Gideon pulled the gloves on, and they resized to his hand size.
"Watch this," Gideon held out his hand.
Ice formed along the finger as an ice spike formed just past his outstretched fingers. Once the ice spike finished forming it shot out at the target he had up against the wall. Stabbing into the target a good ways.
"See what I mean?" Gideon looked at me with an expression that screamed excitement, "And the repairs. I have no idea how you did it. Mana weaponry can't usually be repaired."
"I didn't do anything," I looked at him funny.
"There's no way you didn't do something," Gideon took the gloves off, "Show me what you did."
I picked up the gloves, and looked at them funny. I didn't know if this was a good idea. I put the gloves on. They resized down to fit my hand. The silver line now went all the way down to the tip of my thumb like the others, and now there was a white line beginning to form next to the dark blue water line.
"Now what?" I looked at Gideon.
"Do everything you did last time?" Gideon pointed at the target.
I got off the bench, and looked at the target for a few seconds. I slashed through the air a few times. Then I set off the shock skill. Sending a lightning bolt into the target. My skin underneath the glove prickled.
Stinging slightly.
Would user like to enhance mana weapon?
(Yes) (No)
Didn't I already do that?
No. User's mana unlocked pre-existing mana pathways. Enhancing a mana weapons can create new mana pathways, or enhance the existing ones.
Do it. Electricity ran up my arms making me flinch.
"Holly shit," Gideon reached forward trying to take the gloves off me.
"Don't," I snapped as my eyes changed, "You'll get shocked, and this is a lot more juice than you can handle."
Gideon looked stunned. He looked up at my face only for his stunned expression to turn to horror.
"I may have accidentally done something to your mana weapon," I grimaced at the expression on his face, "I didn't know I was doing it. Honestly."
"What are you?" Gideon took another step back only to bump into Ethan.
"He's not a threat," Ethan slammed the shutters, and the doors shut with his telekinesis, "He doesn't want to hurt you."
"You knew about this?" Gideon glanced at Ethan before refocusing on me.
Ice started going up my arms. The cold wasn't enough to get through my skin, but it was alarming to look at.
"Are you sure you're ok Wyatt?" Ethan looked a little worried.
"I'm fine," I kept my eyes on Gideon, "I'm going through mana like crazy though. I'd like to know what I did to these gloves when I'm done though."
"You expect me to examine them without turning in the Archaic in front of me?" Gideon gave me a dirty look.
"The Archaic in front of you is less than a year old," I snapped, "I was born on earth, and I haven't killed anyone."