Zeon has learned a lot today from his grandpa's explanation about how to use the proper runic force, a recommendation of a weapon that is suitable to use for him, and even an explanation about artifacts in different grades. He has already written all of the important things in his grandpa's experience on his little notes. It is always important to learn knowledge from the one who is really experienced, especially his grandpa who is a war hero.
Grandpa Auguste took more artifacts from his dimensional pocket and let Zeon try all of them.
"Little Zeon, here, try these artifacts. This medal is an epic artifact that can change into a sword, this ring is a legendary artifact that can change into a spear, and this sunglasses is an epic artifact that can change into a rapier. Try all of them, maybe your ability can only work on certain types of weapons."
"Alright grandpa, that looks cool! A legendary artifact."
Zeon tried the medal artifact first, he used his runic force and the hidden mechanism in the medal seemed to be activated and it changed the shape into a sword, it seems that it also works on this one. Zeon tried the second artifact which is the sunglasses and it changed into rapier. Finally Zeon's sight attracted to the last artifact on the table, a ring, his grandpa said that this one is a legendary artifact which means that it's on a higher rank than the artifact that Zeon tried previously.
Zeon put the ring on his finger and activated his runic force in the ring. Different from before, a subtle aura started emanating from the ring and it slowly changed its shape into a spear. The runic force in Zeon body's drained faster and faster. If the rare and epic artifact only needed an initial runic force for the transformation, then the legendary and higher ranked artifact would drain a lot more runic force to change shape. Before taking the shape of the spear, the transformation failed and it changed back into a ring on Zeon's finger. Zeon feels exhausted and a little dizzy after only the ring initial transformation emptying all the runic force in his body.
"Grandpa, I think it's not working on the legendary artifact, does it mean I'm not compatible with the spear?"
"No, little Zeon, it's working, as long as your runic force can flow into the artifact and activate its mechanism then it should be compatible with you, the only problem is that the legendary and higher grade artifact need a lot of runic force. If you already failed at the initial transformation then it means you cannot use that legendary rank artifact for now, maybe later when you are strong enough."
Zeon feels hungry all of a sudden. He's eating some of the cookies on the table and drinking his tea. He felt a little refreshed but still thought that he needed more food. He takes some bread from his dimensional pocket and eats all of them emptying his food reserve for a whole day.
"Little Zeon, this should be your first time out of fuel. How do you feel?"
"Exhausted, a little dizzy, and very hungry."
"Emptying your runic force will make your body automatically try harder to absorb the fragmented dark matter, it will naturally increase your runic force power. But there's some side effect that wasn't good for your body, what you experienced is only a mild symptom of running out of runic force in your body. The worst case can even make you paralyzed or unconscious. The good news is that there has never been a case of death from running out of runic force."
"What rank of artifact can you use grandpa?"
"You should rest for a moment while I continue my explanation on these complicated things, little Zeon."
Zeon lying on the sofa in a comfortable position eating bread while listening to his grandpa's explanation.
"Little Zeon, you should now already understand that to activate an artifact, you need compatibility with them and you need to have a stronger runic force and fuel regeneration. The higher the artifact grade, the higher runic force that needs to be channeled into them. Actually there's another way to hone your runic force beside the training room. The best way should be a real battle with another runic force user, better if they have stronger runic force than you. In my younger days, grandpa has been through a lot a real life and death battle, different from nowadays, some decade ago humanity need to defense themselves from the other races, war is also an everyday thing that grandpa has been through a lot, that's why my runic force can be one of the strongest in humanity domain."
Zeon listened to his grandpa's experience while grandpa Auguste reminisced about his younger days.
"Nowadays, our younger generation can grow their runic force by sparring with one another and don't need to endanger their life in war. A bit slower but more safe. Then our scientist also found another way to increase runic force power. As you know, in war there are some things that can help our humanity such as food, medicine, and runic engraving. So beside combat based occupation such as police, border defense, federation members, blacksmith, and many others, there are actually some prominent occupations that are respected by various circles, from the rich, people with a lot of influence, and strong and powerful figures. Those jobs are chef, pharmacist, and engraver."
Grandpa Auguste taking a little break while pouring more tea for himself and Zeon. A little bit after, he started to explain the details of those occupations.
"Chef is a professional cook that is proficient in all kinds of techniques to process a raw food ingredient into a delicious cuisine. In the old days those chefs usually specialized and focused on one particular cuisine from their own hometown. You need skill, qualification, and experience to become a qualified chef. But nowadays there are other important things that need to be added which is runic force. There is a food association headquarter in the central city and some branches on every location in the human domain that will hold lectures and competitions for those chefs. There are six ranks to differentiate a chef's power from a one star to six star, the higher the star the more proficient they are in incorporating the runic force in the food, and of course the more delicious and effective the food that they will make."
"Pharmacists are health professionals for every living creature and some of their knowledge also works for plants and animals. Nowadays, they are more focused on humans because in case something happens like war, they are ready to make more medicine that can save us. They are proficient in handling raw ingredients such as plants, fungus, blood, poison, and other things that can be made into medicine. They need to incorporate their runic power into the medicine. There is a pharmacist association headquarter in the central city and some branches on every location in the human domain that will hold lectures and competitions for those pharmacists. Their rank differentiation is also similar, which is from one star to six stars."
"Engravers are professional in engraving on things from building, weapons, and daily necessities. For example the lamp in this room has runic engraving on it, it will automatically absorb dark matter and can work like a normal lamp without any electricity. Their specialty also varies from attack, defense, and utility runic engraving. Their details such as association and rank are also similar to the chef and pharmacist."
After a long explanation, grandpa Auguste let Zeon process that important information.
"Then should I try all of them to enhance my versatility in battle and hone my runic force, what do you think grandpa?" asked Zeon after he's full and his appearance seems better than before.
"It's good to be young, little Zeon. I think you should try all of them and find out where your specialty belongs, maybe you will be good in one of them. Especially cooking, I think with your skill and love to create such delicacies, maybe one day you can become a four star chef."
"Hehe.. you are looking at me too high grandpa, no way right? I think being a two star chef is good enough. It's already enough as long as I can make you delicious cookies for your retirement days."
"Then why don't we test how long you can use the rare and epic artifact."
Zeon trying to activate the rare artifact and channeling his runic force for an hour.
"I think you can use the rare artifact for a long time. Then let's try the epic one."
Zeon channeled his runic force to the epic artifact and this time it didn't last for too long, in less than 5 minutes the runic force became a bit unstable and the automatic mechanism returned the thing to its former form. This time Zeon was more careful and didn't empty out all his runic force. The symptom of running out of fuel is so terrible that Zeon didn't want to experience it again for the day.