Raioyris gives the pool a lazy glance "I'm not giving the book back."
"That is not in your power to do," says the bloody face. Its features are slowly changing, some of them... vaguely familiar.
"Was. He's just a sad fellow now,"
Inspect the book, engage it's native spirits, does it have a function or power without its owner?
Also probe myself for any changes to my mage power capabilities.
Raioyris takes a closer look at the book; its pages are blank. Entirely blank. It doesn't seem all that special anymore now that his mystic episode passed--he no longer feels the intrusive frost aura. But the spirits are still alive in the surroundings. It's just that the nature of the foreign aura has changed.
That means the spirit must have left the book. That puddle...
The face in the ground eventually settles for mimicking the face of Raioyris himself. Out of the puddle comes a statue of running water, tinted red with blood, holding a spear in one hand and a familiar book in the other. His clothing is not a mirror of his real-world counterpart, however, and instead he wears an egyptian-style headress with long robes that flow like streams of water. Or blood, for that matter.
"I have decided to return to this earth, to discover what I have lost in my thousand-year slumber, and to form a contract with he who is willing. Show me the ways of this world, and I shall safeguard you till the end of your days.""It might've originally been a noble-grade good before I got it second-hand as pay from a fellow adventurer. It's no artifact, but it's been well-taken care of. You can trust that if it's in my hands, I won't let it deteriorate. I can give it an once-over right now before making a deal on it." Gilles was glad to be finally doing business after the initial distractions, exciting as they had been.
"Cynthia, you can return Solj to me. They're a bit too heavy to be carrying around unaugmented, don't you think?" The merchant's tone was friendly, though after paying a little of attention to the adventurer he ended up about her caste. He'd seen all manner of people during his years of menial labor and adventuring, and she seemed to err off the standard pattern. "And Raioyris, just what happened there?
Give the railgun a quick check for any problems that may be impacting its performance.
It seems that the railgun is operating at the rated performance, but more on that soon. First, a bit of history comes to mind. This rifle is from the Second Endwar, the last war that followed the collapse of Aurogen society--the Medieval Age of technology, as opposed to the present Dark Era. It did not bring about the downfall of the Aurogen themselves, but rather it defined the order of the world as it is today, much like the Peace of Westphalia defined ancient Terran nationstates prior to the digital age.
During that time, the sanctuaries that supported the Constitution thawed ancient philosophers, politicians, and affluent members of society to formulate a plan for a united nation-state that would encompass all the sanctuaries. They also brought back ancient weaponsmiths to design mass-production weapons, weapons like this rail rifle.
The Rebellion took great losses due to these new weapons of war. But since not all sanctuaries supported the Constitution, the rebellion found help reverse-engineering those weapons and building copies of weapons employed by the Constitutional powers.
This is where a keen sense of history would do a buyer quite a lot of good; this rail rifle is actually one of the copies built by the rebels' supporters. That is not to say it is of low quality--after all, it found its way into the house of a modern noble. Even the chopsticks of that era could be considered family heirlooms.
But the copies lacked the original design that made the weapons terrifying on the battlefield. The general concept and various design features were copied, but not the software controlling the discharge timing, nor the exact manufacturing process for the superconducting rails. The rifle is technically flawed.
Now... a follower of history would know this, and understand the lack of performance, but appreciate the fact that it is an ancient weapon from better days, and perhaps buy it on that alone. But an ignorant fellow might take the fact that it's a knock-off as a negative point, and refrain from buying it altogether if given the knowledge.
But on the other hand, someone unfamiliar with the history could simply be told that the weapon is damaged, but could be repaired by someone with the ability to manufacture superconducting rails (not Gilles). And for that he might pay a higher price, perhaps half a Copper's worth ((0.5 Artifact Tokens)).
It seems today is that day to make the choice of being an honest merchant.
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Topic: Exmortal (IC Thread) (Read 48772 times)