Chapter 306: Marketing (2/2)
”Crap, crap, crap, crap…” He muttered as he raced to catch up with her, already imagining the kinds of destruction she could cause with Asani weaponry at her disposal.
The door into the depository was a few meters off of the ground in the manner of the buildings on this island, but that was little impediment to him, as he was able to easily clear the distance in a single leap.
Inside, he found a sort of checkpoint that would have prevented unauthorized visitors from traveling further inside if it had actually been manned. Instead, the heavy door that led further into the compound was left hanging ajar. Without a second thought, he ran on through.
Mike passed by several chambers which housed a vast array of weaponry. There were racks of the spears and polearms he'd seen the Asani warriors carrying, as well a variety of more esoteric armaments whose exact purpose was unclear. He finally caught up to Lily in one such room that appeared to be solely dedicated to complex looking crossbows.
While there were still long rows of bolts lying in stacks on a nearby table, she was carefully examining something a bit more complicated. For all intents and purposes, it looked a bit like a long, thin glass tube with fletching on one end, and a sort of smooth rounded point on the other. Inside were two compartments separated by another layer of glass. Each of these were filled with a different colored liquid. One was a transparent grey, while the other was distinctly yellow and practically opaque. There were hundreds more slotted into a kind of storage device on the wall behind her.
Guessing that it was probably some type of explosive, and any accident now would likely trigger a chain reaction, Mike tried his best to remain calm. ”Lily, I know that looks pretty interesting, but you shouldn't be in here. The Asani probably wouldn't like you messing with their weapons like that.”
Without looking up, she muttered. ”This would work…”
”Maybe you could set that down for the time being. I'm sure we can figure out what's going-” He asked while slowly approaching her, trying to avoid making any sudden motions, but cut off when she casually dropped the tube, as if it didn't contain a highly volatile substance.
A quick application of Air Magic kept it from becoming a tragic event, but it was a near thing.
”I need to go back.” She announced while he was gently slotted the explosive back with its fellows.
”Go back to the ship? Can it wait? There are still a few things I want to do here.”
Lily gave him a blank stare for a few seconds, then shook her head. ”No, cabin. I have something I need to look into.”
”I see…” He replied uncertainly.
[Did she get an idea from those weapons? If so, I'm not sure if it is a good idea for her to pursue it. If she has a tendency to create havoc unintentionally when working on normal alchemical products, I can only imagine what it would be like if she actually tried to make explosives.]
That being said, he'd known Lily long enough to be aware of her stubbornness, or rather her lack of common sense when she was focused on something. He doubted that he could really convince her to drop the matter until she's tried it at least once. Even then, it would be difficult.
”For now, let's get back to the others. It would be a bit awkward to explain what we're doing here if any of the Asani show up. We can talk more about it later.”
Surprisingly, she didn't protest, and allowed herself to be taken back to the rest of the party, who'd gone as far as the entry hall. After a brief exchange, they left and headed towards the region of the city referred to as Traders Square.
Sahel had told him that, although there won't be much up and running yet, the more enterprising members of his kind would likely already be selling their wares, no doubt hoping to capitalize on the destruction left behind by the crash.
Mike was initially a little skeptical, since it seemed like the civilian Asani would have enough troubles repairing all of their houses, but apparently, the entire island was riddled with underground chambers where the majority of the populace had their primary homes.
Thanks to millennia of reinforcement and maintenance, the actual structure of the Asan was quite durable, making it the ideal location to store important or valuable belongings. The same could not be said of the surface, where periodic attacks from Invaders meant that anything built there would have to be impermanent by nature.
As a result, most of the island's inhabitants ended up having two homes. An underground one meant for security, and an above ground one meant for comfort.
[That reminds me. I never did get a chance to talk to ask Sahel about that. If they've had thousands of years of experience fighting these things, why was the damage so bad this time?]
He was distracted from his thoughts when the market district came into view. Up until this point they'd been walking in deserted streets, with no sign of any life, but that changed radically once they arrived.
”Meat pies for sale! In support of the reconstruction efforts, we are having a one time deal. Buy three and get the fourth for free! Come on in and build up your strength before you start working.”
”Rubble got you down? Then try our new automatic shovels! You'll be done rebuilding and sitting back with a glass of Spring Wine while your neighbors are still trying to dig out their front door.”
”We know that you've suffered a terrible loss since the most recent invasion. That's why the Mason Brothers are here for you. Act now, and enjoy a one-time, fifty percent discount on your new surface home. Don't wait! We can only take on so many orders, and slots are running out quickly!”
After the quiet thoroughfares they'd been using, the chaotic market seemed like another world entirely. There were hundreds, if not thousands of the Asani occupying the square and the airspace above it.
[This...is not quite what I anticipated.]
While he was in the middle of staring upwards at the flock of avian humanoids, Morris nudged his elbow and pointed. Following his finger, Mike noticed that there was a fairly large pocket of people to one side of the area. At first, he wasn't sure what his friend was trying to let him know, but then he realized that most of the members of the crowd weren't Asani. In fact, quite a few of them were human.