Chapter 247 - Preparing with Silver

"Emilia would you come with me to visit Ashley? since it seems like you both already know each other," Grace asked as we made our way out of the dining hall.

"Sure but to be honest I basically met him the same time you guys did, it's just Paul for some odd embarrassing reason told them about me way before I came here." I chuckled.

"Ahh yep, we've been there." Helen chuckled.

"Should the rest of us look for Sven and Yuna?" Helen suggested.

"Well, I was going to maybe walk around try to identify the same students I see in the evening and maybe attach a spore to keep track of their movements over the day," Morgana suggested.

"It lasts a whole day?" I asked in shock.

"Well, currently it's roughly eight or so hours but generally should be long enough." She smiled.

"I'll join you, Morgana," Daisy smiled quickly as it seemed like Helen and Jay wasn't interested in joining her.

"So let's meet back here after thirty minutes and we'll finish up whatever needs to be done," Grace suggested.

"Sounds great." The rest replied and with a wave goodbye we all went out separate ways.

"So can you do your thing and contact Ashley?" Grace questioned,

"Sure." I smiled, "Umm Ashley?" I questioned activating my badge.

"Eyyy wassup?" Ashley greeted me joyfully.

"Umm Paul asked us to stop around your office to pick up some silvered arrow and weapons," I explained to him.

"Sure, come around the R&D building, I'll meet ya at the entrance." He agreed.

"Okay, we'll be there soon." I smiled.

"Oh who else is coming?" He asked curiously.

"Ohh Grace would be with me as well, is that gonna be a problem?" I questioned a little worried.

"Ohh no it's completely fine, just some paperwork that's all." He smiled.

"He said it will all be fine, let's get going," I explained to Grace.

"Sure." She smiled.

"Woah..... I've never been to this building before there's no door....." Grace looked in shock as we arrived.

"Hold on here, apparently there's some defence system that triggers if we get too close," I instructed her to stop her in place back when Scarlet warned me.

"What is this building for?" She looked in wonder.

"So from what I understand Engineering or R&D building, apparently this is where most the research and the maintenance and monitoring of the Atlantis happens," I explained to her as we patiently waited for Ashley to arrive.

Like before, suddenly a door appeared as Ashley stepped out and disappearing the moment the door closed, "Hello hello," Ashely smiled passing us two small coins, "These will grant you temporary access, they'll disappear once you leave the building so don't worry about returning them." He smiled and issued us to follow him.

As we stepped into the building, Ashely gave a nod to the Students on guard at the entrance wielding futuristic armour and guns, "Woah....." Grace uttered in complete wonder looking around.

"Ohh, you've only seen my office right?" Ashely smiled as we made our way through the busy building towards his office.

"It's bigger on the inside then the outside, is this some sort of plane magic?" Grace questioned.

"Yes very similar to how most the buildings in Atlantis work, whoever first made this place made the interior of every building have in its own pocket plane," Ashley answered.

"Woah who could have such amazing skill and power in manipulating magic," Grace uttered in awe.

"Unknown to most, we didn't actually make Atlantis, it was first discovered as an abandoned floating castle, we kinda just took it as our own it learning more as we go on," Ashley explained.

"So there is no mention of its creator?" Grace questioned.

"Well, there are very few records of its creator, there are more doc.u.mentations of his exploits and adventures than the creator himself. All we know is that he went by the name King Solomon,

I gasped a little at the mention of the name remembering distinctly being called a daughter of Soloman, "You okay there Emilia?" Ashley questioned.

"Yeah, it's nothing..." I answered planning to mention it to Paul wondering if there's a correlation.

"Why do you guys have a black and white uniform?" Grace questioned.

"Well normally you won't see us outside this building but it's so senior students can identify engineering students in case an emergency occurs," Ashely answered.

"There are literally as many students here as normal students if not more." Grace looked in awe.

"Actually there are more, one of the popular career choices students can choose is to join Atlantis R&D and engineering department, it pays well and you get to work here." He smiled.

"So what happens here?" Grace questioned extremely fascinated.

"Well we are split into many different groups, but generally we monitor everything within Atlantis making sure everything is working fine, Sadly most of Atlantis is Ancient Technology and Magic so if something does go wrong we need many brains on the problem, but we've somehow managed to keep a status quo on everything. We also have research and development, more or less artificing and trying to improve the world with artificing. And lastly potentially the most dangerous would be exploring Atlantis, currently, we've only really discovered the surface of Atlantis, we don't know what lies deep below Atlantis and what whacky weird magic happens down there." Ashley smiled opening the door to his office.

"Thanks." We thanked him and walked in.

"Lights on!" Ashley shouted illuminating his office that seemed to have somehow grown larger. "Take a seat, my helpers to get what you need." He smiled gesturing us to take a seat. "Fetch the silver weapons and arrows" Ashley instructed something and with those instructions, the sounds of whirling gears and moving metal began to spring to life.

"Woah! Is that a golem that follows your voice commands?!" Grace asked in shock as two golems arrived with two large boxes filled with silvered things.

"Yeah this is pretty simple, even Aspa would have these." Ashley beamed with joy and smugness.

"I've never seen one up close, only ever read about them." Grace looked at it intently.

"Ahh yes Artificing is forbidden in Elven society, we're even shunned." Ashely smiled.

"Yeah, some nonsense about being an utter disrespect to magic and Arcanum," Grace answered.

"Ahh, you don't have the same view?" Ashley questioned curiously.

"I don't, I see it no different to advance Archmages developing new spells or discovering new spells," Grace answered making Ashley giving her a very impressed nod of respect.

"So how many arrows can your quiver carry?" Ashley questioned bringing the topic back to focus.

"Umm around thirty." She answered.

"Okay here's thirty arrows." Ashley pulled out a bundle and handed it to her. "And now weaponry, take this short sword also, but its human design and shape if you don't mind." He slid a short sword to her.

"It will be more than fine, thank you." She thanked Ashley.

"And Emilia, you're not great with weapons right?" He questioned me.

"Sadly not very great as the others," I admitted to him.

"Okay well You and Jay can have a Dagger then, won't do much but at the very least it's some form of self-defence and it won't harm you if used wrongly." He smiled.

"And Helen I assume she's also received basic elven training?" He asked Grace.

"Yes." Grace nodded.

"Okay give her this short sword, and lastly give Morgana this mace, mix up the damage type a bit." He smiled.

"Does Daisy need one?" I questioned.

"Nah doubt it, she's a paladin I'm sure she will be fine." Ashley smiled.

"Thank you for all this." We thanked him, and with a snap of a finger and a wave, the robot took the boxes and disappeared deeper into his office.

"So let me take the chance to repeat what I'm sure Paul already did, don't go being heroes and getting yourselves killed okay? if it seems or feels too dangerous, retreat and inform us there's nothing heroic about death, we'll get whoever's on hand right on the situations." Ashley explained looking a little worried.

"We'll be sure to take care of ourselves." Grace smiled.

"Can I get you guys snacks?" Ashely offered generously.

"No thank you we just finished eating." I smiled.

"So how do you make these robots responded to you and things?" Grace questioned curiously.

"Ah, that is the beauty of Artificing, with enough practice and studying artificers can kinda input series of commands to make them work and do things," Ashley smiled.

"So they are like humans?" Grace questioned thoroughly fascinated.

"Umm far from humans, they don't really have a brain of their own, you can set them things to do if something happens and series of commands, but they will never have the intuitiveness and problem-solving skills of a human or living being with a bain." Ashley smiled.

"And I guess they are powered by Visium power cell thing?" Grace questioned looking deeper into a stationary robot lying dormant on the side of a wall.

"Well actually mine is a little special, my father was a specialist in creating mechanical devices, he taught me the beauty of complex mechanisms, mine are unique in that they use two forms of power when using Visium power it will store mechanical energy and when using mechanical energy also gather and store Arcanum into the Visium power cell, making them last much longer than any other golems before needing a replacement power cell," Ashley explained.

"So they last forever?" Grace looked t him in complete shock like it was utterly unbelievable.

"Sadly, I have tried to make them last forever, but I can't seem to nail it down, they will always produce less energy than they use, so they seem to last almost forever but ultimately they will need a replacement power cell." Ashley sighed

"That's still a pretty amazing idea." Grace smiled.

"I know," Ashley chuckled leaning back on his chair like it was no big deal but clearly loving all the praise he was getting,

"Do you have anything that tracks Demon influences? like a sword that glows in the presence of them?" I questioned remembering a movie I watched where a sword glowed in the presence of Orcs.

"Oh my God, that is actually a brilliant idea, I'm surprised we didn't think of it ourselves." Ashley looked extremely shocked, "We do have one, it's encased in Paul's armoury but he and Scarlet are the only one's who can freely access all the weapons so maybe you can ask when they are both free." He smiled giving me a very impressed nod.

"We should be heading back soon, we're scheduled to meet the other soon." Grace smiled.

"Hold on lemme give you guys something, 'just in case" He smiled, "Bring some potions and spell coins." He ordered the robots again making them bring in two large crates.

"Alrighty, as I remember correctly you have a bag of holding right?" He questioned me as he began shuffling through the crate,

"Yes I do," I nodded.

"So take seven healing potions and one greater healing potion for Daisy." He said pulling out seven smallish vials and one slightly larger one.

"Thanks." I smiled as one by one I watched my magical pouch swallow up the potions with ease despite being only slightly larger than one potion bottle, it was still was crazy to observe a small pouch being bigger on the inside than the outside.

"In terms of spell coins take a few blesses, and Aid spells. Try and get this off if anything gets dicey, it'll defiantly help out." Ashley smiled giving us a small pouch filled with coins, "These are one use only and won't recharge so they will evaporate on use." He explained.

"Thanks for everything." We smiled standing up ready to take our leave.

"No problems, stay safe and good luck." He smiled waving goodbye.