Chapter 10: CHAPTER X
"See you later, Old man!"
They bid him farewell at the city's gate. The duo of girls and a flying sprite in tow went to the upper districts, reporting their findings to the Knight Captain.
Still, he found it odd what basically amounted to a martial leader leading the city and still called it a land of freedom… He guessed that's what happens when the top is competent and heartfelt in their efforts.
His thoughts drifted back to his old world but ultimately he had to move on as he stood there awkwardly at the front gate. He sheepishly apologized to the passing travelers.
Money is not a problem. His foremost thing to do on his list is to contact the [Longinuslanze Testament] that and acquire a firearm. The [Unlimited Blade Works] unfortunately doesn't contain a blueprint pertaining to one.
Sigh. His step leads him to the only blacksmith in town. The man can be seen tampering with a piece of steel using his mallet, the clang repeating as he goes.
"Is there anything you need?" The man asked.
"Do you know anything about Ruin guard?"
"Ruin guard?" The man didn't pause, he hammered the metal once and twice, "What do you need from them?"
"Truthfully, I and a few little misses from the knight defeated one not long ago in the eastern ruin. I have a personal interest in it, and wonder if there's a specialized tool to extract their parts."
"There's none. You either smash them apart or bring a geo-user to smash them again for sure. You're better off in the library or a chemist abode learning from them. Now if there's nothing else, I'm busy."
Rin stared for a minute at the smith before shrugging off and turning his back, "Thanks."
"Wait a minute." Rin stopped his track, the smith called.
"You're an adventurer, right? If you come with an ore deposit and mine from them, be sure to stop by, we need each of them."
"I'll keep that in mind." Rin nodded and walked off the smithery.
He doesn't know an alchemist in the town, if he remembers correctly there's one setting up a stall in the town center next to the general shop. Still, it wouldn't hurt to visit the library first, just so he doesn't look like clueless country bum.
Thinking so, Rin headed to the library. He knows from the guard that the library is located inside the knight headquarters.
Rin gave the guard his ID and was let in inside the building.
Let's see, right door. Right door. He always thought the layout of the building was a little bit weird, who would place the most important post in the town right beside the door anyway.
Opening the door, he was greeted by the usual sight of what he would expect most from a library. There's an unorthodox choice that, rather than expanding upward, is the opposite instead. He can see the other sections down below.
Next to the door is a desk that he inferred as the librarian or whoever manages this place. His thoughts were correct as there was a woman sitting there, her back against the desk as she immersed herself in a book.
"Is there something you need?"
The woman asked, not bothering to turn around. Her face is covered with the large witch hat she wore so Rin couldn't make the face she was making, probably didn't care of his presence.
"I need a few books about the nature of ruin guard. Is there anything like that?"
"Ah I see. You can go to that section; it covers materials about ancient civilization." She said while pointing in a specific direction.
"Thank you for that."
He didn't receive his reply but Rin couldn't careless, he'd already get what he came for. He took the stairs below to get to the book section.
Let's see here.
Most of the book pertains to the ancient civilization and the ruin they left. Still, he wonders if there's a specific bestiary or something. Ah, here it is, the study of ancient automaton.
Rin took a few books on the shelves and headed to the available desk to read them. The day is still far from being over, so he could afford to read some.
.
.
.
Rin let out a sigh, feeling that his back would give in at any moment. How long he'd sit there anyway.
The books are certainly interesting, at some point, he'd somehow taken a historical book that he thought was irrelevant at first, but curiosity got him. The fact that God is real, and there's even some hypothesis that they've been actively destroying civilization in cycle across the history. Although some claim desists this hypothesis as untrue or unfounded with very few facts of evidence.
I mean sure he heard the worship of the seven archons, but he always thought that is just some ordinary religion and myth. Oh right, a world of magic and swords. He'd forgotten about the fact that he possessed a weapon that could kill one… not to mention the way he brought to this world.
Still he didn't give it too much of thinking, but if he recalls, in gnostic belief, archon in his old world is referred to the servant of the imperfect god, Demiurge, who is responsible of the creation of the universe for their personal greed. The number is also exactly seven. Living beings, or specifically humans, are just cattle for them.
Not to mention the name of Paimon, that flying sprite. No one would comment on Paimon's nature or what race she is. Is it just coincidence? He's not exactly religious but he often heard or knew a little bit of tidbits from the media he consumes on a daily basis.
He shook his head. He reads too much and it must give his head weirder thought. It still gives him a bad premonition however. Let's hope they're not a bunch of malicious entities.
Ah for fuck's sake, he was drifting to a totally different subject than he originally chased in the first place. Information on the ruin guard!
Right. Right. There are three crucial parts that can be dismantled from a ruin guard. There's chaos device which basically the skeleton and joint of the ruin guard. There's then a circuit on their head that functions as a processor would to a computer, then lastly, of course a core that powers the whole system.
The alloy on their armor is simply too bulky to be used as armor or weapon, though that's not the problem, no one knows how to re-forge them as the material is unknown, the same with the circuit or the core which no one can make any sense of.
The only reason they're so precious is the fact that there's only so much of it that it inflates the prices, coupled with its titanic strength and firepower the ruin guard has that would give any sensible adventurer a pause in hunting them down.
Some account that there's a functioning facility somewhere that still produces these things to be distributed amongst the land as there's evidence that a new ruin guard would sometimes appear after one was defeated in a ruin, but this is only a theory.
He tried to search for more materials to read them but he realized it's the only book in library that gives a fuck about these things. Everything else is basically covered in alchemical and some magic bullshit technique. Rin is slightly fuming inside.
Alchemists and mages wanted them because simply they perform well as catalysts in their craft. That's all. This is asinine because studying them is proven to be futile, and instead it's best to use them as ingredients.
FUCKING INGREDIENTS! The core could as well be a perpetual motion engine with so much power it took to move all of that mass for BLOODY FUCKING HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF YEARS! Without any sort of maintenance. Rin fumed.
Ugh. He guessed this is just how medieval the world is, information exchange is ninety-nine-percent slower than modern infrastructure with global network, and peer-to-peer study exchange is fairly rare and seldom to do as no one would willing to share their findings.
To counter this lack of information, Rin did as best as he could.
He sighed with a long face, not aware of the stare that lingered on him.
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