“Hey, you guys, Gus wants to see you,” Valerax called through the door.
Kain, Ythane, and Luna all took a moment to stand up and put what they were doing down. Kain, placing a medium sized book down, replied, “Alright, give us a minute,” he called out in response, “Alright, let’s get everything in the amulet before we leave,” he said to Luna and Ythane. They nodded and gave him the books they were reading, a biology textbook from Luna and an Ether theory study from Ythane, and headed out the door.
Entering the common room, they found Zlea and Buck watching the television on the couch, Valerax settling into her chair with a book, and Gus standing by the hallway that led to the ladder. Seeing them, he nodded, “Alright,” he said, “I was able to confirm with G&G; you all will be leaving in about a week. They were able to push the date up in light of recent events, but there might be some… unforeseen events that will push the time back or forwards. Anyway, I have to open up shop for the day and I could use your help —if you want to, of course,” he clarified.
Luna and Kain nodded, “We’ll do it; I still want to learn about this whole ‘store’ thing anyway,” Luna said, “What about you, Yth? What’re you going to do?”
Ythane looked down at her for a moment and made a shrugging motion with her serpent body, “I’ll follow you two. You sewed pockets into the fabric, correct?” she asked Kain.
“I did,” he responded, “Your soul gem should fit in the cloaks quite well.”
Gus sighed and shook his head, “Actually… you’re going to have to change out of… that,” he said.
“Yeah,” Buck said from the couch, “You two honestly look like you came out of a sci-fi movie about the dangers of conformity or something,” he laughed.
Kain rolled his eyes, “It’s not our fault. Luna didn’t even have anything for her human form and the only thing I have is not very suited to being in a city. Nor is it very good clothing, to be honest,” admitted.
Valerax looked up from her book and looked at their outfits, “Come on, it can’t be much worse than the fashion-deaf outfit you have on now, can it? Kain sighed and rummaged through his amulet for a moment, pulling out the torn, bloodied, and ragged outfit he had worn during the rainstorm that brought him away from Earth. Looking at the clothes that resembled bloodied rags more than clothes, Valerax sighed, “Nevermind. I suppose it is worse.”
Buck looked at the outfit, his four eyes widening, “What in the void did you go through to have that happen to your outfit!?” he shouted.
Kain shrugged, “Drank some weird water. I don’t know if it was the best of choices, but whatever,”
Buck looked at him for a moment and turned back to the television, muttering something unintelligible. As Buck looked away, Gus spoke, “Well, either way, you need new clothes and I happen to have some. Here,” he said as he threw them a pile of clothes. In it, there were two pairs of sweatpants, two shirts, and two jackets, each sized appropriately for Kain and Luna. “I tried to eyeball the sizes for each of you two. I hope I did a decent job,” he said, “Anyway, go and get changed, I’ll have to show you the ropes before any customers come to the store.” As he finished speaking, he turned and climbed up the ladder.
Kain and Luna returned to their room and quickly changed. Kain’s jacket was dark blue, his shirt black, and his pants black with dark blue accents. On the other hand, Luna’s jacket was a deep red, but the rest of her outfit was similarly colored to Kain’s, with a black shirt and red accented black sweatpants.
After changing, Luna put Ythane’s soul gem into her pocket and followed Kain up the ladder. Emerging from the basement into Gus’ reading room, they walked out of the room, down the stairs, and into the back of the store where Gus was waiting. “Alright, good. You two look like actual residents of Olsvania! Now, the first order of business is to give you two different names, backstories, and homelands,” Gus reasoned.
Luna gave him a questioning look, “Why would we need that?”
“Because,” he said, “The enforcers know your names, the fact that you’re both extradimensionals, and that you don’t have any background connected to this world. If you have a solid backstory, then you’ll have no problems dealing with an enforcer if they happen to stop by. So, what’ll be your names? I would personally suggest something from the warring kingdoms.”
Kain and Luna considered it for a moment before Kain asked a question, “Why there? Actually, what would be a good name from there? No, actually, what are the warring kingdoms?” he asked.
Gus sighed for a moment, but sat down to write something while he answered, “In order, you should because of your skin color, a good name from there would be something like Harold, Clemont, or Janith, and the warring kingdoms are a series of rapidly changing kingdoms that have persisted in their fighting in the last hundred years or so. Does that answer your questions?”
They nodded, “That’s good. I’ll take the name Harold.”
“I’ll take Janith! So, what do we do now?” Luna asked.
Gus took a moment to finish writing on the piece of paper, folding it, and putting it in an envelope. He sealed it and turned to Kain and Luna, “Sorry, I am just running out of stock right now so I’m sending word to a supplier. Anyway, if you’ll just follow me, I’ll show you,” he said as he walked out to the front of the store with Kain and Luna following behind.
*=====*
“Urgh… what the hell happened…?” Mary asked. Sitting up from the floor, she looked around the room, remembering the familiar surroundings, “Did I just… dream it all up…?”
[Nope,] Abe laughed, startling Mary, [Everything did happen. Though, it is a bit hurtful for you to think I’m not real.]
“Ah, sorry about that. My mind is just wandering a bit. How long was I out for?”
[Not long. A few hours at most. I spent most of the time absorbing the archived texts I have. I thought it was a few thousand pages of data, but the text is so small on every page that it’s more like tens of thousands of pages. Anyway, we’re almost done with the gun, so let’s get going.]
Mary worked a few kinks out of her back and stood, looking at the gun, “Damn! That’s… very mana-dense! How the hell…” she trailed off as she looked at the rifle’s bolt, which had multiple spirals etched into the tip of it, all of which had purple purple paint filling it, “I’ve never seen something like that… how much mana did that take?”
Abe’s mana flowed into her body, making her feel warm, [A lot. You went from full to three percent in barely a minute. The worst part is that the mana gem you got from D changed to replicate that specific mana type, so you can’t use it for anything else,] he lamented.
Instead of becoming saddened, she giggled, “Abe, that’s what I was going to do with it anyway. It looks like everything’s coming together well. Alright, I’m going to get started. Can you keep an eye on my mana and make sure I’m not going to go into shock or something?”
He sighed, [Yeah, I can. Just be careful and you won’t need me to remind you.]
“And where’s the fun in that? Thanks though,” she said as she got to work. The rest of the gun was simple, as she simply had to paint a few runes while imagining a mana socket in the wall. After the large dots at the end of the lines were painted greenish blue, she reassembled the gun and etched two new lines from the batteries to the latches at the end of the handguard, where the sword was meant to be, but cutting off the connection at the beginning. Painting them with runic paint and enchanting the paint with the mana movement, she took strips of thin metal from the gun-tinkering kit and peeled off a film from their bottoms. She then placed the strips of metal along the etched lines, covering them nearly seamlessly.
Mary felt Abe’s attention focus on the strips of metal, [What are those?] he asked.
As she finished placing the last strip, she spoke, “These are rune covers. Runic paint is, pretty much, waterproof, but that doesn’t mean that it’s immune to normal wear and tear. Gunsmiths and enchanters use these covers as a way to protect the enchantment from the elements. It’s more used when something was made without enchanting it because you can just build the enchantments into something if it’s designed that way,” she explained. As she finished the gun, she moved on to the sword. Taking a few moments to figure out how the latches worked, she learned that they extended from the gun and clamped onto any sword placed in the clamps. The standard issue elite enforcer blades were straight sabers, with only one side having an edge, but the blade she stole from the enforcers was made of stronger material than she expected.
Trying to etch runes on it was difficult, so she spent a long time etching mana transfer runes, and runes for the blade. After painting the transfer runes, she looked at the blade and scratched her head, “Okay, what should I do here?” she asked the air.
[I dunno,] Abe replied, [My guess would be something unexpected, but powerful. Maybe try to boost the sharpness of the blade?]
Mary considered it and shrugged, “Sure, that’s a decent idea. It’s not unexpected, but it’ll definitely be effective.” She took a few minutes to enchant the paint and fill the etches with it, making the blade enchanted, “Alright, we’re done for now. Honestly, I kind of feel great. Did you do anything, Abe?”
He mentally nodded, [Yeah, I’ve been running mana through your blood for a while now. I’m at about half empty right now and you’re nearly full. While we take a break, we should come up with some ideas for the mace while we wait.]
“Agreed,” Mary said as she leaned the finished gun against her bed frame, “I feel so strange right now; I feel like I could stay awake for another few days even though the last few hours of sleep were the best I’ve had in a month.”
[Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Mary. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.]
Mary tilted her head, “What’s a horse?”
[Are you…] he trailed off, [Okay, sit down for a bit, because I want to compare a few things.]
“Alright, I’ll let you ask about it if you come up with some good ideas, okay?” Mary asked.
[Sure, I’ll try.]
