Chapter 37 - Final Product?

With everything taken care of, the day was nearly over and Daron headed on his way back to his dorm room.

Opening the door, Julian glanced over at Daron and sat up on his bed. "My, you've been busy."

"You have no idea," Daron sank down onto his bed.

"The last time I saw you today was when you fought Noctus, no, sorry, the first time you fought Noctus," Julian said.

"Fight is a strong word for what happened. Especially for the second one."

Julian laughed at his comment. "Yes. Especially with how you fought him. It seemed quite familiar. Almost like my ability."

"That's because it is," Daron said looking at him.

"What?" Julian said.

"It's not entirely accurate to say I just have a Physique, as while I don't have an Ability Domain, I have awakened a special power."

"Is that so?"

"I awakened a type of system, at the time of the competition, it didn't provide much help to me, aside from providing some advice for me, and helping me slightly with my comprehension. Though the technique Mr. Gail gave me, it couldn't help with the comprehension of as it was too low level. It only got to level two just about an hour ago, so I'm not sure if it can now. After I won the competition, I was provided with a combat skill based off the ability domains of the people I defeated. So, you and Rylen."

"Well, from what I heard about your display in the gym, I don't think anyone is going to be messing with you anytime soon," Julian said.

Daron shook his head. "Unfortunately, Noctus is a special case. His ability didn't work on me due to my system. It's safety protocols prevented it from affecting me. Of course, you know I can win against people who have Ability Domains anyway, so, I'm not really worried."

"You are a surprisingly scary man, Daron."

A knock came on the door of their dorm room, as they both looked at each other with a raised eyebrow.

Getting up, Daron opened the door to find Professor Senara standing there with a package in her arms.

"Professor, how can I help you?" Daron asked.

"You are a whole lot of trouble, you know that?" Professor Senara, smiled. "Anyways, I came here to give you this. Express delivery from... somewhere. You can probably understand what that means."

Daron stared at the package as he took it into his hand. "Director Aaron. I see. I can assume that's the old friend you owed a favor to, then?"

Professor Senara only gave a smile. "I hope you both have a good night."

Shutting the door, Daron sat back down on his bed, now with a package in his hands.

"That is?" Julian asked.

"A power artifact," Daron said.

Julian sat up straighter at the mention. "Well open it up. Shouldn't you try and get an Ability Domain?"

Daron let a puff of air out of his nose, and he started opening the package. "I can tell what a power artifact has by scanning it. I shouldn't get my hopes up."

Reaching into the package, he took the statue out, and held in his hands. Daron shook his head with a slight smile. "Well, it looks like luck is more on your side this time, Julian."

"What do you mean?"

Daron looked at Julian for a moment before realizing. "Oh, right. I'd probably know more about the archeology side of power artifacts than you. Even without scanning it, this is one hundred percent an artifact for a physique."

Julian's eyes spark with light as he heard Daron. "You'd really give that to me."

"I don't really have much use for it. You're also the only one I know here currently, why wouldn't I? It also depends on if you can activate the artifact as well. Though, I do wonder if I can see the activation requirements with my skill."

"You didn't before?"

"No, but I only put in the bare minimum amount of Energy to see what the artifact was before I gave it to Mr. Gail as it was useless to me."

Julian nodded before he waited to see Daron scan the artifact.

Activating his Scan skill, Daron started to input Energy into the statue. It soon reached, fifty, then seventy, and then one hundred, without a notification appearing. He kept injecting Energy with the total reaching two hundred before a notification appeared in front of him.

[Physique: Divine Body Cultivation]

[Description: The pinnacle of physiques. When becoming injured, when the body heals, it will be stronger than before. This progress never halts, unless the individual cannot be injured any longer.]

Daron nearly choked at he looked at the description of the physique that was acquired. But he realized such a thing would probably have a very harsh activation requirement.

Continuing to inject his Energy, another two hundred went into the statue before another notification appeared.

[Activation Requirement: Extreme pain over the entirety of the body for thirty minutes.]

[Transcribed Audio Note from Creator of Artifact: I... sigh... if there is truly someone who can activate this in the future, it's most likely from someone with one our final products as well. I hope to the two creators that you have a better fate than us.]

Daron narrowed his eyes at the ending note. 'System, are you a final product of the Maken?'

[I'm sorry, but I don't know that either. I gained access to more information when I became level two, but that is not part of the information I obtained. However, I'd say it's a high likelihood that I am, given what you were told by Mr. Gail, and now what this note has told us. I cannot confirm it, though.]

Nodding his head, Daron looked toward Julian. "Well, you'll be happy to know that this is probably the literal best physique artifact that was created."

"Are you being serious?" Julian had a skeptical look on his face.

Daron nodded. "But, that comes with a harsh activation requirement. Which you can technically fulfill pretty easily, if you can handle it, at least."

"If I can handle it?"

"You need to experience extreme pain over your entire body for thirty minutes for the artifact to be activated."

Julian's face had a bit of light drain from his face at that requirement.

"Alright, well, I might not be able to be able to do that now, but at least I know the requirement. I can at least practice, however wrong that sounds," Julian said.

The events of the day finally over, both of them settled into their beds and drifted off to wait for the next day.