Jester’s Paradise - Chapter 3 Weaponry
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Cas, waking up from a deep slumber on the lawn chair, couldn’t help cursing under his breath. He’d been told to come back a week later, and given a ticket that can be used as a replacement for a Weapon Permit for 1 weapon of choice. Of course, he was going to use it. Just.. he’s anxious.
Cas, walking back and forth, crosses his fingers due to anxiety, with his facial muscles twitching and head pulsing with migraines. ‘Damnit’.. deciding to push his decision, and that if this doesn’t work out he can change it later, he heads outside with trying to find a reason for his choice.
Grass manipulation, as he’ll call it right now, has made small progress. So, to help speed it up, he looked around the house for books, and found none. Then, before coming home, went to the Library. There, a book called ‘General Knowledge’ really explained everything. Turns out, when you kill a Monster you receive a reward. Money? ‘I like Money’ he thought…
Except there’s no money. A natural energy from the corpse will be ‘inherited’ if you kill a creature, strengthening your ability, allowing you to push past your TRAINING potential, like a cheat. Cass loved that idea.
Thinking while walking, Cass approaches a building made of bricks and a little bit of some unknown material, shaped like a resort home with weapons spread all over visible through the windows and a second story balcony.
Opening a large metal door, no spatial magic is used to expand the inside, giving it a sort of authenticity that the Registry was missing. The walls, lined with hundreds of weapon variants. Looking around and picking up a pamphlet at the door, I can identify most of the weapons.
Spears, Halberds, Staffs, Swords, One and Two Sided Axes, hell, even a Steel Deck of Cards.
On the second floor, the Modern Weapons. Magically infused Sniper Rifles, Assault Rifles, Pistols, Launchers, and a few Batons..
Looking around, Cas feels his wallet and looks at the cash hes got and the funds he received for Registering. 600 Credits. Through the Government Building, and being an orphan of a veteran, he’s exempt from rent until his first expedition.
Searching through and through for a Bow, he approaches a tomboyish looking lady behind the counter, wearing a leather jacket and black jeans, she still avoids the edgy vibe shed give off by only wearing subtle accessories like a nice, sliver necklace.
“Hello, need anything?” She asks, eyeing me subtly to beat around the bush.
Responding, he cuts to the chase with “Ah, yeah. I’m looking for a cheap bow under 600 Credits.”
“Follow me..”
Getting up from a stool he couldn’t see from the opposite side of the counter, she walks with strangely light steps; ones that aren’t touching the ground.
“Are you a beginner?” She asks.
“Yeah, I just registered and I’d like to get a start on something. Figured I’d like to fight at a range.”
“Well, that’s fine. Its just you’ll have to rely on someone else to assist you during hunting at all times early. Expeditions only happen so often.”
“How come?” Cas asks, looking at her clearly floating feet as she stops that facade of having to walk.
“Well, as you know, once you sign up for a Team, you are obligated to participate in those expeditions. Yet, they can choose whether you become friends, rivals, hell, even enemies. Prove yourself and your team of 3 or 4 will be a team. Flunk it, and you’ll be a group of 3 to 4 individual people.” She says, flicking her fingers, as if telling 4 objects to come over.
Nodding his head with a sagely look that didn’t quite fit, he understood. People won’t like you just because you’re there. In fact, there’s a reason during basic schooling, groups are made either consciously or subconsciously.
Looking towards the objects, instead of the expected bows, they were labeled in an italic font, Recurve Bow, Traditional Bow, Crossbow, and Compound Bows. Thinking of what he’d read on my phone about bows before coming here, he noticed the small passage of information on the paper.
Recurve Bow: Used for Field Archery (Sport) and Bowhunting. For Bowhunting, a higher Draw Weight is recommended.
Traditional Bow: Used for Target Archery (Practice/Sport), Field Archery, and Bowhunting (also at higher Draw Weights).
Compound Bow: Used in Field Archery and Bowhunting. Likewise common in Target Archery.
Crossbow: A modified Bow, used in Field Archery and Bowhunting but lacks in versatility exchanged for a longer Shooting Range.
Looking at them, he couldn’t help but feel a little weird. Practice/Sport? Target Archery? Can’t I target practice with everything?
Shaking my head slightly and moving to make eye contact with her while she waits for me to give an answer, he ask on a little impulse, “I can use any bow at the Practice Range, yes?”
Looking at him like he’s stupid, she still doesn’t skip a beat responding. “Yes. That target practice thing is a really, really old sport. Depending on how good you are it could help you in the field. Though, you shouldn’t pick off the paper indicators. For a starter, to set up a good foundation you should choose a Recurve Bow. After getting everything down and a few successful hunts, you could move to something like Traditional, and increasing the Draw Weight while you’re at it.”
Understanding that a Foundation was what could make you a professional Bowman, or a kid at a 4th Grade Archery Contest, he nodded. Besides, looking at the photos, the Recurve Bow had something to hold the arrow in position a little bit, while the Traditional Bow is a blank slate. Well, in the photo it has a nice black handle, but that’s about it.
Deciding to be blunt, he asks “Do you have any Recurve Bows below 600 Credits?”
“Of course, follow me.”
Taking him over to a wall covered in Bows, some looking artificial, some looking bad ass, and a few have their own unique charm, gleaming with a silvery light across the surface… she flicks her finger and they come over. One their own.
Again.
Starting the introduction of the bows, she points to the first that was covered in a webbed pattern, giving off an ominous glint like a dark metal reflecting sunlight. “This is the Spyder Recurve Bow. Named after the Spider for the cobweb design, it has the unique ability to coat an Arrow in energy, branding it with a Spider image on the arrow, adding a piercing affect.”
Nodding like he knew how that’d work, Cas decide to not really care about her impression of him. “And how does that work?…”
“Well, some people have the ability to enchant. No one’s ability is unique, and those who have the Enchanter Ability are normally working with blacksmiths. They have hundreds of paths to follow due to there being so many predecessors before them. Some focus on learning the mysteries of enchanting an element onto an item, some increasing force, some agility, and even neutral enchantments that allow you to bind them to yourself and help with your ability.”
“That sounds great..”
“Yeah, and boring. They don’t just research for a day, or a night, or a week. Years on end studying the flow of different types of energies.”
“I could see that.” Cas said, imagining the dull repetitive lifestyle of someone with such a power.
Letting her continue the explanations of the other different types of bows, Cas took some mental notes to sum up its pros and cons. The first was obviously the Spyder Bow, which empowered an arrow at a cooldown of every 2 weeks, which after the representation she showed me was a little disappointing. She said it was already good, or even great for 500 Credits.
The second one was the Pressed Bow. A Recurve Bow that fit well with Cas’s body size, it had a Bowstring called Dragon’s Tendon, with a body made of Ash Wood, stained with something that helps strengthen it without messing with the flexibility. The bow itself has a Draw Weight of 110 lbs, but it has an enchantment to make it easier to shoot. In the future, you can undo the enchantment but it’d be expensive. Fitted with a dark brown body and beautiful patterns to make the handle stand out, it resembled a Maple Recurve Bow without enchantments.
The other two sorta suck. They’re great, useful even. Except he didn’t like them due to them having a fire affinity or an eroding effect, which really didn’t fit his idea of starting Archery. What’s with these bows giving an effect to the arrows? That sounds fucking weird.
Cas loving the idea that popped in his head, couldn’t wait to get strong enough to ‘unseal’ the Pressure Bow. As it’s the first time addressing her by name, he couldn’t find a name tag.
“Er, excuse me, I didn’t seem to catch your name?”
Cocking her head to the side, which seems to be a habit during this conversation, she replied smoothly, which he assume she was asked often. “Once you join an organization, on any official business it’s a formality to use a Call-sign or Nickname, whatever you’d like to call it, instead of real names. It helps protect privacy.”
“And for me, that would be Levie”
“For levitation?” He ask, a bit ignorantly.
While frowning as if deciding how to explain this, she has a small grimace flash across her face as she starts. “Names can never be copied. In an organization, there can only be one Levie. There can only be one Horus. Whatever name you think, you’d have to make a variant of it. Be it making it two words, separating the syllables and changing the spelling to just validate pronunciation. And, inheritance.”
Hearing her enunciate inheritance, Cas couldn’t help but cringe at the obvious enunciation of the word, such clear emotions sorta weird him out..
“You can have the Pressure Bow for 500 Credits, and I can add some stuff to help your performance, if you want to trust me. It’ll bring your purchase up to 1,000 and I can submit your debt to your account to the Registry.”
Cas, frowning a little and about to say that he didn’t have 1,000 Credits, catches something in her Left Hand floating.
“I can use your Registry Weapon Ticket to Sync to your account through the shop database. Though, whatever you earn on your first Expedition with come my way unless it’s more than the debt you build.”
His frown lessening, he fidgets his fingers and puts pressure on one leg while putting the other on his toes tapping the ground with his shoes..
“What were you thinking?”
She opens her hand, showing no more emotion on her face as she brought her other hand down.. ‘What’s she doing…?’ Cas grew confused.
As she tapped her fingers, hexagons, runes, and circles highlighted blue across her hand as if some sort of app was attached to her skin. Flashing a blue, dim glow, a pair of thin black gloves appears in her hands.
“Put these on.. “
