Chapter 257
All four of the student duel winning team - Aimee, Thomas, Caroline and Jason started walking around the shelves and examining the items along the way.
“Let me remind you, that the use of appraisal and inspection spells are allowed, but please make sure your spells won’t be damaging to the items. Otherwise you’ll need to take it or be charged with the repairs.” Michael said: “So please feel free to use your spells to help you decide.”
“Thank you.” Thomas nodded, and a small ball of fire lit up between his palms, an inspection spell with the most basic inspecting power was readied and could be cast at any time.
“What is the history of this pair of binoculars?” Caroline stopped her footsteps and asked.
“It has no name. They are the work of Pratt Patterson while he was still a student at the academy. He gifted them to the academy when he graduated and they were eventually collected by the Martin House.” Michael answered: “Mr. Patterson was a talent with whom none could compete, but he’s always had a hard time naming his works. Call it a humble brag, he said that he has too many nice things to name and he ran out of names a long time ago.”
“What about this vest?” Jason had his eyes on a thin vest that looked like it was made of some kind of thick paper.
“That’s a protective vest made of the bark and branches from a Dragon Beard Willow.” Cristian answered: “It was a simple experimental work. Because in most cases Dragon Beard Willow materials are used for crafting tools and even sturdy clothes for physical laborers like miners and blacksmiths.”
“Hmm.” Jason focused his Xuanli on his eyes and stared at the vest for a short while, his facial expression seemed to have made Michael and Cristian uncomfortable: “I like this one, if there’s nothing else like this vest, I’m gonna take it.”
“Really? What made you feel this way?” Cristian asked.
“It has some kind of energy absorbing property, looks like it’s able to take a beating.” Jason smiled and said: “Even if I’m wrong, it still looks like it could be an interesting example. Something I can learn from.”
“What about this one?” Caroline pointed at a fancy looking metal crown with a light golden shine.
“That is a Crown of Wisdom and Peace.” Cristian immediately answered: “It’s slightly different from the standard-issued ones that could be purchased from the major artifact shops. It was made by one of the top students from around a decade ago, it was the product of a final thesis.”
“Hmm, interesting.” Caroline walked around the crown, then moved on to another item.
“Geez, do you guys have some sort of obscuration spells on it?” Thomas released his inspection spell on a pair of metal gloves, the energy from his spell slid to the side like water on an oily surface.
“We don’t have those. But we do have multiple layers of protection spells placed on the artifacts to ensure that they don’t get rusted or damaged due to long time storage.” Cristian answered with a hint of delight and gloat: “Some of those protections may also have spell-repelling properties.”
“How thoughtful.” Caroline stared at a pair of white and red gloves with light silver threads interwoven into the fabric and leather, with her eyes glowing in orange and red light: “These look nice. What are they made of?”
“They’re made of the belly and chest wool of Prancing Llamas.” Michael said: “It’s masterfully made and cared for. Once a pretty sought after artifact due to its tender texture. They were donated to the academy as a ceremonial gift and collected by our house.”
“Prancing Llamas, you say.” Jason raised his head with a frown, “Why does that sound so familiar? Caroline, have we heard it somewhere?”
“I… I’m not sure what you meant?”
“It does sound kinda familiar. I think I’ve definitely heard of the name before… ” Caroline thought for a while: “What … don’t they have a nickname ‘Shadow Boxer-Spitter’? They’re rivals of the Thunderfoot Kangaroos right?”
“Well… uh… it might be so.” Michael stammered and looked at Cristian.
“Yeah, but we prefer to call them Prancing Llamas, because this name’s more intuitive.” Cristian immediately said.
“I’ve heard of ‘Shadow Boxer-Spitter’ .” Thomas scratched his jaw and said: “They’re quite ferocious right? I heard from Ash that they could knock out a trained fighter if the fighter’s not prepared and careful.”
“So their belly and chest wool, might just be a sturdy and durable material for crafting personal items.” Aimee looked at Michael and Cristian with a smile.
“Yeah! Yeah, that would be… quite a reasonable conclusion.” Cristian forced a smile on his face.
“Hey, what’s this?” just this moment, Thomas found himself standing in front of a shelf at the most inner corner of the room, which unlike other shelves, had two items on it.
One of the items was a glowing and color changing crystal shard on a small pedestal, and the other was a small metal box with a strange symbol engraved on it.
“Are they a set?” Jason walked up to Thomas and asked.
“No, they’re not a set. It’s a” Cristian frowned: “The box … weird, I don’t remember seeing it.”
“Okay.” Jason’s eyes glowed in silver light as he set his eyes on the metal box, but something immediately pushed back at his probing attempt, as a small wave of energy exploded from it almost completely breaking his spell.
“Woah, are you already?” Thomas held Jason’s shoulders as he stepped back from the collision of energy.
“Now I’m taking it.” Jason laughed out loud.
“Nonono, that thing - we don’t recognize that item. That may belong to someone else of the Martin House.” Cristian immediately said.
“What, is this not something from this warehouse? Are you storing things that are not second tier artifacts in this warehouse? If this is the case, how can I trust that the items here are all of the second tier as you claimed?” Jason grabbed the silver box and held it in his hand and wouldn’t let go.
“It might have been misplaced. Please give it back to us so we could inspect it.” Cristian tried to walk up to Jason, but Caroline stepped in front of Jason and blocked his path.
“Hold on there Cristian. How about we keep this for now, and you tell us when you schedule a time to inspect it when we have faculty on our side helping us out?” Caroline asked.
“Ms. Baker, I assure you that you can trust us...”
“To be fair, you’ve been purposefully withholding information regarding these artifacts ever since we came in here.” Thomas said: “How about you give us a little trust, huh?”
“Mr. Chaver, this is not - ”
“This is not what?” just this moment, the sound of Glenda Grimes came through the door.
“This is not that we don’t trust you. But we don’t recognize this thing.” Cristian said.
“How often do you check your inventories again?” Glenda Grimes asked.
“Every month...” Michael answered hesitantly.
“And if I’m correct, you’re still less than one week till your next sweep right?” Glenda Grimes said: “Maybe someone put it here without documenting it or handing in the notice. Maybe they can have it for now, and you can check your books to see what it is later. ”
“Okay.” Cristian sighed and relented: “Okay, okay, fair enough. You can take it away, for now. But please don’t damage it before we find out, okay? It could have been someone else’s personal item that got misplaced.”
“How about we wait one week? Until such time that you finish your sweep?” Glenda Grimes asked.
“Fine.” Cristian shook his head: “Fine. One week, and you can do whatever you want with it.”
“Thanks.” Glenda Grimes came into the room and asked Thomas and Aimee: “How’s your choosing? Feeling overwhelmed?”
“A little bit yeah.” Aimee chuckled: “Thank you for coming this fast.”
“Well, I could’ve come here with you if you told me sooner.” Glenda Grimes said while pointing at Aimee with an approving smile: “But quick thinking with the text.”
“We thought we could not ask faculty for help, so...” Thomas sighed: “Thank you for coming anyway. Aimee when did you text Ms. Grimes here?”
“The Llama Gloves.” Aimee smiled: “I figured we’d need someone to help us with basic, rule-conforming information, since we might get misleading info.”