The First Legendary Beast Master

Karl decided not to use tools, but to use a careful application of [Rend] on a pencil to carve the runes, in honour of Hawk's first skill. Somehow, it just felt right for Rend to make the first weapon that was imbued with Hawk's fire.

Hawk had chosen deep red fire element stones for the two spells, which should go well with the Runes when Karl was finished. The amount he wanted to add would stretch his skills to focus on all the effects at once. But with the gems completed separately, at least it lightened his load somewhat.

This might actually be why so many ancient weapons had enchanted gems. Purely practical reasons for the enchanters.

With one long stroke, Karl wrote the runes across the entirety of the axe head, never once lifting the pencil, while continuously imbuing power and intent into them.

Then, with the last rune carved, he began to increase the energy level until he felt the two gems link at Commander Rank.

After that, it was smooth progress as the runes turned purple, before becoming a deep and rich ruby red.

The weapon gave off a sense of foreboding, as if simply looking at it threatened the life of the viewer. Most of the room was in hiding, only sneaking glances. But Blue Dragon Clerics weren't afraid of new knowledge, even if it did get them killed, and the Forgemaster was never going to be intimidated by his own weapon.

"Should we test this?" Granite asked reverently.

Karl shook his head. "If I do, it will bond, and I don't think that I will be able to break the link to give it away again. We need to call a Berserker Class Overlord in here, or bring the weapon to them."

Granite nodded decisively, and walked to the stairs, where a phone was mounted on one of the railings.

{Base Commander. We urgently need a Berserker Class Asset here at the Overlord Rank. We have a finalized product that needs to be bonded immediately.} He declared.
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{Three minutes.} The voice replied simply.

Sure enough, three minutes later, a portal opened, revealing a massive Overlord that Karl suspected might be part Orc, with the strong jaw and the way that his lower teeth dented his upper lip, but didn't quite extend to tusks.

The face was wrong to be part Troll, but Karl supposed that he had only seen a small sample of Trolls, so it might be one of them as well.

"Garrick here." The burly Overlord announced as he stepped through the Portal.

"Thank you for your prompt response. I want you to pick up that axe and bond with it for testing. It will be yours if it survives the tests." Karl announced.

The Berserker's eyes flashed green with magic as he smiled and stomped to the weapon.

At first, it flared with fire when he tried to pick it up. But the Berserker simply growled at it and grabbed it by the handle to hold it up and smile at it.

"Oh, we will be good friends, you and me." Garrick insisted, talking to his new weapon.

The portal was still open, and Karl gestured through it.

"Is there somewhere on the other side that we can test this? I don't think that the barriers in the room will hold up."

Overlord Garrick laughed. "Oh? You're that confident, are you?"

Karl and Granite both nodded silently.

"Alright, there is an empty valley by my house. We can test it there."

Karl motioned for the Acolytes to follow them, and Cara brought Fizzspark to watch the action from the back of the procession.

Karl wasn't sure where it had dropped them, but there were two more Overlord Ranked Warriors present, plus a Mage Karl didn't know, and a Royal Rank High Priest that he vaguely remembered seeing around the Capital.

"This is my team. We won the lottery to be first, apparently." Overlord Garrick explained.

Karl smiled. "Well, then I will make weapons for them all next. Just write down your wish list and I will see what I can do."

The mage chuckled. "Oh, we all get custom, but poor gentle Garrick gets what he's given."

The Berserker laughed and held up the axe.

"Don't underestimate the power of random gifts. This one is feisty. Can you believe that it actually tried to resist being bonded?"

It wasn't a matter of free will. The spells were in balance as they were, so it took an exceptional amount of willpower or magic to force them to bend to the point that the weapon would bond with the System.

The mage set up a series of barriers and target Golems for Garrick to test on, but the Overlord immediately went all out, buffing himself, then pouring power into the weapon, which activated the [Brutality] effect and increased his size.

He swung the axe down hard into the ground using [Earth Splitting], an Epic Grade version of Sunder that split the earth for two hundred metres in front of him and sent out a shockwave that shattered Overlord Rank barriers and Golems like crystal statues.

Shards of earth, golem and plant life flew into the sky, hiding the area for a few seconds while the Mage stared at Garrick in shock.

"What the hell is that thing?" He finally stammered.

"Bloody good axe, it is. It's even got Life Leech. I got a nice little trickle from the things hidden underground." Overlord Garrick declared proudly.

Karl and Granite stepped forward to examine the axe, ensuring that it didn't show any signs of damage, overload from being used by an Overlord, or magical stress from an improper rune.

Everything looked good, and the Axe's power felt more stable now as it adjusted to its new owner.

"It looks like there are no flaws. You will have to test it in battle to be certain, so don't discard your old weapon. But I would say congratulations on your new weapon." Karl insisted.

Garrick smiled as he returned to normal size, then tweaked his power a little and grew again, then shrunk. He had already learned to use the gem separately from the rest of the effects, and he was a very happy Berserker.

Who could grow into a nearly four-metre tall, very, very happy Berserker.