The Flying Emporium

Severin’s initial thought hearing Magda’s accounts of what could at best be described as vigilante justice was one word: barbaric.

Even more so since something in his gut told him that this was one of the less cruel methods used to deal with offenders like these.

He had to remind himself that he quite literally came from a different world. His own morals and values that were developed and shaped living a mostly carefree life in a so-called civilized country during peaceful times simply did not apply. Hesitating and showing unwarranted forgiveness or compassion might spell death for these people. No matter how much their talk of dungeons, spells, and stats reminded him of the games from his past, this was different from sitting behind the safety of one’s screen.

Considering the alternatives, for a moment Severin was almost glad that he was stuck on a floating piece of rock.

Em, on the other hand, seemed more accepting of this reality. Probably because she had personally experienced it, if on a smaller scale. So while it made sense for her, a child of this world, to react this way, her boss was still taken aback when he heard the girl’s small voice say, “Serves them right.”

Understanding the rationale behind the words didn’t mean Severin was comfortable with them; especially not when spoken by a little girl.

He turned his head away from Emily and looked at Magda. Her smile somehow seemed even brighter than usual, and he was sure he could make out a nearly imperceptible nod of approval.

Seeing this Severin suddenly, if maybe a bit late, realized that the woman almost certainly was an ex-adventurer herself. Not only judging by the golden badge she was still holding in her hand, but also based on Samuel’s and Krey’s past explanations about the Society’s general workings and their internal structure.

So, not only was it quite possible that the woman would harbour a greater sympathy for adventurers and their struggles than the average non-adventurer would have, but it was also increased the odds that she herself had seen similar things.

Magda might have claimed those things didn’t happen all too often, but what exactly did this mean? Was it the one-in-a-million kind of ‘not often’, or the one-in-a-hundred kind?

Severin more and more tended to assume the latter.

The other thing that made Severin assume that the woman wasn’t quite as innocent as she appeared on a first glance, was the color of her badge.

Disregarding Samuel, who, in Severin’s mind, was probably in a league of his own, the people he had the most contact with were Andreas and his group. And though these people had spent a large amount of their time on his mountain, he knew how busy these people usually were and the risks they had to take on a regular basis. And to the best of his knowledge, those were only silvers. Meaning whatever they had experienced-including the death of one of their officers, even if he was revived-Magda had probably seen many times over.

Thinking about these things and the matter-of-factness with which they were stated, Severin decided he didn’t want to dwell on it any longer. Neither was he in the mood to stay in this cellar any longer either, but since he couldn’t just turn around and leave without being rude, he decided to instead move things forward a bit.

Ahem

“So what’s with all this other stuff?” he vaguely gestured towards the devices around them.

Hearing the unrelated question, a blank expression momentarily appeared on the woman’s face, before she quickly caught herself.

“Well. This one here should be obvious. Though I have to admit it’s not on par with the specimens outside, this is actually one of the best models out there. Luckily, it only has to withstand the attacks of a single person at a time, so it doesn’t need to be as durable, anyway. The dispel effect in here also helps.” She turned away from the thing that looked much like a mannequin and faced the girl. “With this thing, we let the test person go all out to display their raw destructive power without the need to hold back or to worry about someone retaliating. Sadly, it doesn’t come with those fancy displays like yours,” she said to Severin, “but someone experienced can still easily judge the damage done quite accurately. Maybe we could get one of your models in the future,” she added only half-jokingly.

Not really expecting an answer, she continued. “In case you wonder. Yes, even the damage of tanks and support-oriented classes has to be evaluated like this. Only the most specialized healers get a pass. In a prolonged fight, every bit of damage counts and can mean the difference between a successful raid and the death of half your group.”

Something in the way she said the last part only confirmed Severin’s opinion that the woman had seen some shit.

He also noticed that the dummy’s pristine condition, which together with her comment about its durability, suggested to him that it was a new model, especially made to equip this newly established branch.

This suspicion was pretty much confirmed when in the following minutes several other tools in similar condition were also introduced. Though only after talking briefly about the most obvious object. The ring, in the middle of the room.

Apparently it really was enchanted, though not in a way that required Severin to carefully sneak around it, like he did earlier. One reason being that it only was defensive protection magic ensuring nothing outside would accidentally get damaged. The other was that the enchant would only be activated once it was needed, and only manually at that; mostly because of its high energy consumption.

Other than that, Severin wasn’t too interested in the ring. He thought its use was quite obvious to begin with, and Magda revealed nothing exciting that changed this opinion.

He was more interested in the magic devices.

Such as the orb that, to his untrained eyes, seemed to be made out of the same material as the Ball near the entrance.

This orb, Magda revealed, was able to roughly judge the type and potency of applied negative status effects.

For demonstration purposes, she put her right hand on the orb.

Not a second later, it came to life with a blueish flicker of light. Apparently, this indicated a medium slow effect of medium strength. Magda herself, however, had to admit that the lack of specification as to what kind of slow it was exactly was a big flaw.

“That being said, if used correctly, a movement-speed slow can be just as deadly as a mind or a thought slow. The more annoying thing is that it doesn’t work with all skills. I won’t reveal too much if I tell you that I was lucky enough to have read a Stun Bolt skill-scroll. Due to the skills requirements, however, it has no effect when aimed at this thing. Might as well throw a rock at it,” she shook her head in regret. “You can’t imagine the headaches and hours of complaining we have to endure whenever such a case pops up and the examinee ends up failing.”

Hearing this, Severin couldn’t help but ask why the examiners didn’t simply test it on themselves. After all, they already went so far as to spar with the other person, with neither crowd control nor other debuffs being banned.

The answer he received was that this was exactly how things were handled up until a decade or so ago, when one examinee used the opportunity of a knocked out examiner to attack and kill him.

To Severin, this answer was more than unsatisfactory.

In his mind, if someone wanted to ambush the examiner, an adventurer could still do so anyway. It was all the more ridiculous to him when he realized that the person to be tested, on the other hand, was basically always exposed in some way or the other and, therefore, pretty much at the other party’s mercy.

It took him a good amount of self-control to keep his opinion regarding the matter to himself. Instead, he simply nodded in feigned understanding.

Not long after, Severin’s self-control was tested once again. This time to an even larger degree. He and Emily were led towards a huge metal box that almost reached the ceiling. Learning that this box somehow tested the basic resistances of the person inside, it reminded him of a famous, but mostly fictions torture device from his home planet.

But before he got a chance to comment on the device, Emily had already noticed something else. She only realized she was shouting excitedly, mid-sentence.

“Ah! Custo…”