The First Legendary Beast Master

The two volunteers were dragged out of the Elevators before the doors had even opened, then the Clerics realized that they needed Karl to let them into the training rooms, which were locked to all but the residents of the building, or those with passes.

Karl selected the first room, and had it bring out a pair of dummies, which were charged to his account, in case they were destroyed during training.

Then Karl realized that he didn't actually need the dummies, he could have his Guardian or one of the Lamia Bodyguards do the job instead.

But, it felt much more formal and controlled to just put an [Eternal Lightning] barrier over the dummies.

After all, the Bodyguards were intelligent creatures, and asking them to let someone hack at them with an axe was just rude.

"Let's start with the Royal Rank weapon. The barrier on the training dummy is Monarch Ranked, and I will refresh it between hits, so there is no need to hold back on your skills." Karl explained.

"You seem quite confident that I can't take it down in one strike." The warrior noted.

"I am. You will understand once you actually hit it. It's much more than a Guard skill or an introductory level Mage Barrier."

The warrior didn't look convinced, but the barrier was a challenge to his might as an Elite, so he put his all into a [Sunder] attack that sent out a glowing green arc of blade energy toward the dummy.

The signs on the wall of the training ground read the maximum energy peak, the same standard that the Nation used to judge advancements, though it wasn't really a great indicator of actual damage output.

It was a mid-Royal Rank energy signature, so there was no doubt about the effort. But the real question was whether the weapon would hold up to it.

Eternal Lightning had briefly flickered at the hit, but nothing close to failing, which made the warrior frown in annoyance.

There was a larger gap between his stage of Royal and the entry to Monarch than he had thought.

The clerics rushed over to examine the weapon, and noted that there was a tiny chip in the blade of the axe that they hadn't recorded earlier.

"Please do that again, repeatedly. Until either the barrier fails or the weapon does." They instructed.

Karl focused on keeping the barrier up, and the warrior began to hack at the dummy with all his might. He cycled through different attack skills, testing them for effectiveness.

But what he didn't see, but Karl could, was that every strike was chipping and cracking the weapon a bit more until a [Sunder] attack split the axe deep enough that it damaged a rune, and the weapon went dark.

"Dammit, I almost had the barrier down." The warrior panted, exhausted from the effort.

Karl nodded. "That was quite the effort. If I didn't have such a large mana reserve, the barrier certainly would have failed first.

Unfortunately for our tests, that still means that Royal Rank is beyond the capability of that alloy. It held up during enchantment, and for a few minutes of use. But a few minutes of use are not going to pass muster for military procurement, or even training use at the Academy.

Fortunately, we have a Commander Rank user, and he can go wild as soon as my energy level has recovered."

The clerics nodded, while the Commander frowned. "How long will that be? I can ask for a mage friend of mine to come over and assist."

Karl waved off his concern. "Give me two minutes and I will be good to go again. My barrier recovers stamina. Being two ranks above you, the draw on my barrier won't be as bad as it was for the last test."

The Commander nodded in understanding. Two Ranks was a nearly insurmountable advantage for most Elites, especially the Warrior Class, who didn't often get an overpowered cheat ability that would let them fight significantly stronger opponents one on one.

Karl nodded and gestured to the dummy once he was sure that he had enough mana again, and the Clerics double-checked all their recording equipment, then waited patiently with their pencils in hand for the test to start.

The warrior put all his might into a [Cleave] attack on the barrier, and then stepped back so that they could check the weapon for damages.

Even to Karl's eyes, there didn't appear to be any stress points, cracks or fractures in the gold inlaid weapon, and the power appeared undiminished.

"There are no flaws detected. Please do continue until you are exhausted, or there is a weapon failure." The lead cleric instructed.

Karl watched carefully as the warrior began to hack at the barrier, and noted something fascinating. The weapon absorbed a little bit of each attack's energy, refreshing itself. He couldn't say whether it was tempering itself with use, but it was certain that continued usage would prevent the Runes from discharging.

As long as a skill was passed through it on a regular basis, the weapon should remain empowered indefinitely. That was much better than having to send it to a specialist to reactivate it, or having to teach everyone who bought one the technique to bring the Runes to life.

The Commander was panting and sweating heavily after fifteen minutes of steady attacks, but he didn't give up until the half hour point, when his knees began to shake with exhaustion.

Once the clerics took the weapon away for examination, Karl cast [Eternal Lightning] on both volunteers, allowing the skill to refresh their stamina so they could at least make it safely home again once the clerics were done with them.

"Flawless. If anything, the weapon appears to be in even better condition than when we started. There are no signs of wear or damage, and the runes are fully empowered. They are also at a slightly higher standard than when you began using the weapon, so they have adjusted to your own peak power, not just where they were set."

Karl frowned. "So, it may be possible to overload the weapons if a more powerful user passes an incredibly powerful skill over them."

The Clerics looked up from their notes. "That is a possibility. If we had more samples, we could test that more thoroughly. The difference between where it started and where it is now is less than three percent, so there is a chance that it is a natural process, where the runes are finding equilibrium after use."