Xinjia-kor Island Province, The Imperial Descendants Hall of Research Complex
The Island province of Xinjia-kor could be described with one thing: clean.
For so long the land was highly associated with illegal activities, piracy, human trafficking, contraband super high-way, and much much shadier things. Slums and shanties littered the land, people would defecate on the streets, and when they got too drunk at night they would fall asleep on that same street.
All of these began to change when the Imperial Descendants decided to come in and plant their roots. Many warlords were occupying the lawless island at the time, but with Imperial Descendants' centuries of heritage and deep coffers, they were able to gain the service of many experts for the "clean up".
The battle was swift and fierce and before everyone noticed the island had been taken over by the Imperial Descendants.
Since then they enforced strict policies in governing their territory, they would do anything to purge the old image of Xinjia-kor and change it into a better new one. Punishments were harsh and impartial, even a simple crime such as littering would cost you a lot. Conversely, achievements and merits that would benefit Xinjia-kor in general or the Imperial Descendants' public image would be rewarded accordingly.
Thus the once dirty and lawless slum no goody two shoes would ever set foot on became one of the most desirable places to live in in the Fourth Era.
On this particular morning, the crisp and clear morning air still lingered but the bustle of activities could already be seen in the Hall of Research. People were walking in long strides and fast pace, they looked both nervous yet expectant. Today would be the day they finally got to test the new Verdant Steel processing conduit they had been developing.
An old man with a head of white hair and a beard could be seen walking briskly inside a huge building. He had round glasses that made him look sharp despite his age. people would respectfully greet him whenever he passed by them.
This man was Master Erfam, the head of the Hall of Research and Mulah's boss.
Erfam walked toward the center of the building where he found a raised platform for observation and control. Looking down from this platform one could see that the lower floor was one large open space.
There was a giant structure in the shape of a dome in the middle of this space and a thick layer of security glass could be seen on the structure. Looking through the glass one could see a big slab of metal that shined with a blue and purplish glow.
Outside the dome, hung something that looked like sets of crystals arranged inside a revolving mechanism, and the whole thing was supported by giant arches that came down in four directions.
As soon as Efram got to the observation platform he found Mulah, standing by himself watching the technicians making their preparation on the lower level.
"You looked more nervous than when I left you last night. Did you even get to sleep?" Erfam asked Mulah.
Mulah was startled by the sudden question that came from behind him, moreover, he had been on edge since yesterday.
"Ah, yes, I slept a little," Mulah answered.
"Don't worry, we have worked out all the kinks and imperfections, it's going to be fine."
"...I know, I'm just a little nervous is all."
"To be a little nervous is fine, but you are as pale as a sheet of paper."
"Am I?" Mulah cupped his hands over his face.
"You are. At least try to be less pale when the Grand Master gets here."
"Speak of the devil."
Efram turned around to see Mulah's line of vision and he saw an entourage approaching them. The man on the lead was stocky and muscular, he wore modern style men's wear but his thick facial hair and long curly hair that he tied into a bun painted a different picture.
Walking next to this man was one of Efram's subordinates and spokesperson for the Hall of Research, he was speaking to the leader as they walked toward the observation platform. The muscular man didn't seem to listen to what was said to him, instead he walked faster once he caught his eye on Efram.
"Gentlemen, I thought I was too early but turned out you are even more dedicated than I thought." The stocky man spoke to Efram and Mulah as he reached out to shake their hands. His hands were large, with short muscular fingers and gnarly knuckles.
"We are just too excited to wait, Grand Master," Efram said as he shook the man's hands.
"We are honored to have you here, Grand Master," Mulah said.
The man gave Efram and Mulah a smile and turned his gaze toward the lower level.
"You are about to make a breakthrough in Verdant Steel processing method, of course, I have to be here. This could shape the whole future of my nation!"
Mulah and Efram couldn't help but smile at each other when they heard this. Praises from a Grand Master level expert came rarely and they meant a lot to them.
The Grand Master attentively observed the revolving mechanism hanging over the dome structure.
"I see that you have made changes to the original design that you brought to consult me. Are you perhaps going to make it oscillate?"
"Yes, Grand Master, we believe that making it oscillate will improve smoothness in its mechanical movements and reduce overall stress on the structure," Efram explained.
"That's true. I gotta say, you are a really interesting fella, Efram. Full of ideas. That idea about introducing vibration was inspired too."
"I'm honored by your praise Grand Master, but the idea about the vibration wasn't mine..it was Mulah's."
The Grand Master was surprised, he thought the idea came from Efram, the head of the Hall of Research. This was his first time hearing this.
"Really? It came from you?" The Grand Master asked Mulah.
Mulah smiled at the Grand Master and answered, "I'm just the messenger, it came from my brother."
—
There are hundreds of residents living inside the palace museum. They were all either working on preserving the ancient records of the royal kingdom or working on research that required data from those records. Either way, each of these residents would spend quite a bit of time living inside the palace museum complex
To cater to the need of these residents a cafeteria was built. Unless they wanted to eat something different, the residents would eat at this cafeteria most of the time. Over time the workers and cooks became an inseparable part of the academia residents and became familiar with many of them.
Satoshi was at the cafeteria at this moment, eating on his own. There was a plate with a half-eaten sandwich on the table, the cooks especially made the sandwich for him because he heard Satoshi absolutely loved sandwiches. In front of him, there were also four books with increasing difficulty, Satoshi was reading them as he ate.
An old lady with a kind face came out from inside the kitchen toward Satoshi, in her hands she was carrying a stack of papers.
"Satoshi, my daughter really loves the wrappings that you made before and she asked me for more. Do you have time to make me more?" the old lady asked Satoshi while putting the stacks of paper on his table.
"Sure, I can make you more. Do you want to go with the previous design?"
"Ah, my daughter asked me to make it like this" the old lady handed a piece of paper with drawings on it.
Satoshi looked at the drawing, "Okay, I can make this."
"Here's money for the payment, there are 200 Cuivres in there. Tell me if it's not enough I'll ask my daughter for more." The old lady handed over the small bag of money to Satoshi.
"Whoa, that is too much, 100 Cuivres is more than enough. Here, I'll give you your change."
Satoshi took out 100 Cuivres from the bag and gave it back to the old lady.
"I'll let you know when I'm done, it shouldn't take long"
"Thank you, Satoshi, I'll wait for it then."
The old lady took her leave and returned to the kitchen. Satoshi looked at the stack of paper on the table and was instantly reminded of home, of his father and mother. He used to help them do this kind of work.
Satoshi wasn't doing this for the money. In his previous job, Satoshi got paid 10 Gaels a month, excluding commission and bonuses. That equaled 12.600 Cuivres. He still had quite a lot saved up, so he really wasn't lacking in terms of money.
He was just doing this to help and to not forget where he came from amidst his struggle toward his goal.
Satoshi finished his sandwich and packed his books and the paper the old lady gave him. His session with Tellrog would start soon but he was going to visit Unsui first to check the progress of his request. The Academia Scholastic Trial would start in a week, so he must make some time to be familiarized with the thing Unsui was making too.
Satoshi opened the door of Unsui's study with his elbow since his hands were full. He directly entered the room since Unsui wouldn't even answer if he were to knock. When he entered he saw Unsui was brooding over his desk, his face looked upset.
Satoshi put down his books and paper on the table.
"What's wrong with you?" Satoshi asked.
"Don't talk to me, I'm pissed with you."
"Awww, why? What did I do?"
"Not telling."
"Come on… don't be like that…tell me, what did I do?"
"Still not speaking"
"Will you tell me if I tell you a funny joke?"
"...maybe, depends on the joke."
"Okay, get this, why are some parts of the ocean dirty, disgusting, and smelly?"
"...why?"
"Because baby sharks do dodo in them."
"...are you stupid? how is that funny?"
"No, think about it, they eat a lot so they shit, at the very least, three times a day!"
"...so?"
"Soooo…baby shark dodo dodo dodo…"
"..."
"dodo dodo dodo"
"Hehe.."
"dodo dodo dodo"
"Hehe hehe…"
"dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo…"
"Hueheheheh! Hahahahaha! You stupid bastard! You maniac! Hahaha!!" Unsui's laughter finally exploded. He was happily smacking the table as he laughed, scattered little pieces of mechanical parts flew here and there.
Satoshi was glad that he got Unsui to laugh, but to this day he still had no clue what Unsui found funny or not. It went without rhyme or reason, Satoshi was just lucky he got it right this time.
"Hahaha, funny right? Now tell me, why are you mopping?"
"Hahaha, yes yes it is funny so I let you off this one time, it's the hand wraps, they are not working."
"They don't work? have you tried it?"
"Of course I have tried it, they can't do what they are supposed to do, I tried, many times."
"...and by 'what they are supposed to do' you meaaaannn…"
"To grasp hefty things of course, did you forget?"
"...ah yes of course. But do they work for the other purpose I was telling you though?"
"yeah they do, I guess, but not perfectly…"
"Alright! That should be fine for the first prototype right?"
"What do you mean fine, it can't even do its main purpose! Are you dumb?!"
"No no no, I mean, I can use it, never mind, how many elements were you able to get into it?"
"Forty nine, the rest were either too dangerous to put in there, I don't have them on me, redundant, or just simply impossible."
"Alright! Forty nine is plenty, I can work with Forty Nine. Can I have them? I'm going to try them out."
"Yes yes take them, I can't use them anyway…"
"Thanks, man, I'll let you know how it goes."
"You don't need to tell me, now go, I need to get back to my raccoon automaton."
Satoshi took the two hand wraps from Unsui's table, he had asked Unsui to make this and had been waiting for it ever since. He planned to begin his training with them to prepare for the Academia Scholastic Trials. With the hand wraps in his hand, he rushed out of Unsui's study.
"Wait! You forgot your things!" Unsui shouted.
"Oh right." Satoshi turned back to pick up his books and paper.
"Why are you carrying paper, you paper merchant or something?"
"No, the old lady from the cafeteria needs some printed packaging for his daughter. Im just helping her out."
"You know imprinting magic?"
"Huh? No, I just know some water-print technique."
"Can you do enchantment inscriptions?"
—
Tellrog had been waiting for Satoshi in the underground bunker where they had weapon training before. Today they were supposed to go over the technique for the curved blade that Satoshi found lying on the weapon rack. Tellrog had spent some time researching the proper technique for it and was excited to teach them to Satoshi, but Satoshi was running late.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry…Unsui got me caught up in some…things" Satoshi finally arrived, he was out of breath because he had to run.
"...It's fine. Are you taking classes from him again?"
"No, I just had him help me with something, then he had something else to tell me. Anyway, we are going to train the blade technique today, right?"
"Yes, I have found some techniques that can be used with this blade and I'm going to teach them to you. But before that, are you sure you are going to use that for your trial?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
"...Well, since you are sure, make sure you learn well since we only have less than a week left."
"Right, do you think it would be possible to allocate some time to train on something else? I prepared something."
"What is it?"
Satoshi took out the two hand wraps he got from Unsui and showed them to Tellrog.
"I asked Unsui to make this."
Tellrog was confused when he saw what Satoshi took out, "Hand wraps?"
"Not just regular hand wraps, take a look at this."
Satoshi flipped the hand wraps and showed them to Tellrog. There were lines of inscription patterns imprinted on the hand wraps. There are two hand wraps, and each one had 27 nodes scattered within the complex inscription patterns, 22 of them were unique from each other, and the ones on the other hand wrap. It made a total of 54 nodes.
Tellrog took a closer look at the nodes on the hand wraps, "Are those trace elements?"
"Right, I asked Unsui to put them on there."
"I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve with that, but I can make a good guess, and let me tell you it won't work like that," Tellrog warned Satoshi.
"To manipulate the elements required understanding and comprehension more than anything. Even if you have them with you at all times it won't work if you don't have the required comprehension."
"...I know, but I have something I want to confirm, so please let me at least try that." Satoshi requested.
"Alright, but don't let it mess up your main training."
"Alright, it won't."
"Good, now let us start."
Tellrog began explaining to Satoshi about the blade technique, starting from its origin and the philosophy behind it. This was very important because it would be very helpful in putting Satoshi in the right state of mind when wielding it. Each weapon was invented to be a solution to a certain problem, and the techniques were developed to complement the weapon, thus understanding the origin and philosophy was very crucial.
This particular kind of weapon was called Krambit and was highly utilized in tandem with close-quarter combat techniques. It was believed to have originated somewhere in the province of Istindi or the southernmost part of Sulus. There were many small clans and families in the westernmost part of Istindi and southernmost part of Sulus that still carried broken fragments of records and techniques for this weapon.
Since Tellrog had no access to those techniques he needed to come up with something else. With inspiration from several hand-to-hand techniques and weapon techniques such as daggers, he came up with a technique of his own. It mainly specialized in standing strikes, fast jabs and quick grappling, light throws, lots of slashing, and low to mid kicks.
Satoshi was quite surprised when Tellrog introduced the opening parts of this technique. For something that he developed in a very short time, it surely came with a lot of consideration to Satoshi's relatively small build and light body. This proved that Tellrog was really well-versed in many areas regarding combat.
For the purpose of training, Tellrog had made four wooden replicas of the krambit, two for each of them. Like his usual teaching method, Tellrog went with the show-and-repeat method. He would point out Satoshi's mistakes and correct them from time to time, not only that he also came with detailed explanations for each suggestion he made. This was designed to hone Satoshi's instinct and logic for combat.
Satoshi himself was really enjoying this process. This was his first time getting acquainted with this kind of training and he wasn't expecting that he would enjoy it. Although the case behind his training wasn't ideal and he skipped over many important parts within the traditional sense of training, he could really see himself continuing with this even after he was done with the trial.
Right now though, he must focus on learning as much as he could as fast as he could for the trial.
The training went on for hours and Tellrog was really good with his pacing. Even though it was tiring, Satoshi didn't realize that he had been at it for almost four hours.
"Halt!" Tellrog barked.
Satoshi stopped what he was doing and drew a deep breath. He shouted loud as he exhaled. He was soaked in sweat from top to bottom. It looked like he just took a bath in full clothing, but his eyes were bright. He rarely felt his mind to be this clear.
"That would be enough for today, tomorrow we will see how much you retain from today's session and pick up from there," Tellrog said.
"Alright. Thank you for today." Satoshi gave Tellrog a slight bow.
Tellrog was secretly quite happy to receive the bow. "Are you going to try the hand wraps now?"
"Yes, you don't have to stay, I'm sure you have better things to do. I'll close up when I'm done."
"No, I better stay, we don't know what will happen, so I better stay…just in case."
"... Don't make me nervous, I'm already nervous enough as it is."
"I'm just saying what is generally good practice."
"...Alright, I'm going to start."
Satoshi took out the hand wraps and began wrapping them on his hands. He felt something wasn't right so he took them off and redo them, but it didn't get better the second time around. He took them off again but now was even more unsure where he should begin.
"Do you want me to show you how to wear them?" Tellrog asked after he amusingly watched Satoshi fail a couple of times.
"Yes please," Satoshi said embarrassedly.
Tellrog applied the hand wraps for Satoshi while he explained how to do them properly. When he was done, Satoshi's both hands were wound snuggly and tightly.
The material Unsui used for the hand wraps was not as thick as regular hand wraps and Tellrog made sure not to wound it too tightly so Satoshi could still open and close his hands with no problem.
Right now he looked like he was wearing a pair of enchanted gloves. The inscription patterns were glowing faintly from his fist.
Satoshi recalled the conjecture he came to when he thought about making the hand wraps in the first place.
He got the idea from the water-light printing technique he developed years ago. He was curious why his father couldn't manipulate light as he did, and why practically everyone was surprised when he told them about the technique.
To him, it seemed like manipulating light shouldn't be as easy as he did it, at least for everyone else. Thus he came up with the idea for the hand wraps.
Satoshi tried to calm his mind and remembered the state he would be in whenever he was using his water-light printing technique. He touched his fists together and sent some mental energy to the inscriptions.
'Alright, let's start!'
—