A few minutes after Skylar ended his shopping on the crystal glass tablet- a shopping that involves other things in addition to the ship or ships he came to buy.
Its time i left.
Making up his mind to exit the tower as he awaits Shallbell who is in the building behind them; he softly held the shoulders of Seri' vaika who is sleeping on his chest- with her butt and legs laid beside him on the large sun lounger, and carefully positioned her upper body that was on his chest on the back rest of the sun lounger, making her continue her uninterrupted sleep on it comfortably.
Look at her face. I bet she is only cute when sleeping. Grinning, Skylar pinched her cheek. "Whoa!" Very soft and fleshy...
"I am really running late."
Suddenly he muttered and slowly get off the sun lounger- feet first with his arms supporting his rise.
When is she coming. Stretching his body, he looked beside him at the cathedral-like building expectantly.
"Helen!" As he called, he turned around, catching the sight of helen on the other sun lounger, and he starts walking slowly towards the space behind her.
When he reached behind the sun lounger she reclines in, he bent over- his face aligning with hers but oppositely, and his green eyes lock onto her golden eyes that has been staring blankly at the sky.
"You have been moody and awfully quiet since the time i woke up. Why?"
Skylar voice demanded, his green eyes piercingly staring at hers and expressing his obstinate desire to obtain a satisfactory answer. But Helen like she didn't hear him or see him, continue to stare as she has been doing- like she is looking beyond him at the sky.
"Seriously."
Skylar smiles at her, finding her action amusing. Then like he experience an epiphany, he froze for a second then grinned suddenly... But before he could complete the action his intrusive thought instructed, Helen who anticipated it reacted by converging her focus on Skylar's face.
"Sky, what do you want."
"Eh!" Flabbergasted by her warm and gentle voice she supplemented with an affectionate dazzling smile, Skylar eyes and mouth widened in reaction.
Is this the person i thought was giving me the silent treatment. Was she moody or acting moody...
"Young lord."
Shallbell's voice coming from beside him released him from the enchantment of Helen dazzling smile and the allure of her celestial eyes that has been unwaveringly staring at his spirit.
She might be of the same kind as them.
Skylar responding to Shabell's call after he smiled back at Helen, straightened his body and turn in her direction.
As he turned, Shallbell who stands next to a contraption she probably brought by wheeling it, moved closer to him, closing the gap between them.
"Lord, this are the communicators."
She brought out two objects- a pair of ring earrings that has inverted conical purple cryatal that matches Skylar's eye color attached to each of them.
She is really tall and big. Skylar marvels at her towering figure in front of him; and as he cotinue to do so, his figure with a flaming white cloud under it levitates gradually and reached the same eye level as her.
Shallbell smiles seeing this. Then with delicacy and gentleness in her manner, she attaches the earrings on his ear as he floats with the help of the flaming white cloud in front of her and while he also continue to marvel at her voluptuous figure and slowly succumb to the intoxicating gentleness of her presence, manner, smile and touch.
"Young lord, Hel has a gift for you."
"..."
Shallbell's angelic and seductive voice tingled Skylar's spirit, bringing him back from a realm beyond consciousness.
"Ahh..." Gently opening his eyes and inhaling deeply; the flaming white cloud below him lower to the ground, bringing him along, and it vanished into nothingness the moment it touched the ground.
That felt great. I should be getting enchanted often.
Relishing her intoxicating breath and touch, he moved closer to her as she stands next to the about 2.5 meter tall rectanglular contraption she brought. A contraption made of golden wood and which has a square block lower part which a square frame of the same dimension is attached on top of it with a fitting black wheel suspended inside the square frame to form the upper part.
"Shall what's this thing."
He scrutinizes the contraption a bit taller than him, his eyes specifically on the large wheel made of black crystal glass block.
"Its a variation of a roulette, young lord... We call it the coin wheel and It is one of the three major attraction on every floor of the tower that are made available to both users and players." Shallbell as she speaks touched a specific part of the coin wheel, and as a result, the contraption lights up. "Its essentially a game of chance... One will set it to what one wants and feed it gold, the bigger the amount of gold the bigger the chance of getting what was requested..."
Shallbell paused, she touched another specific part of the coin wheel and golden characters as a result appeared on the surface of its black crystal glass wheel.
"Young lord, try it."
She made space for Skylar who has been watching and listening attentively at one side.
"Okay." Skylar moved closer to the coin wheel. He set his eyes on the familiar characters displayed on the wheel.
"Hmm... Let's see..." Enchanted clothes, enchanted weapons, enchanted armor. Why is everything enchanted...
"Shallbell, what's this enchanted thing about?"
"Young lord, to enchant is to reinforce with cosmic codes..."
Shallbell moved closer to Skylar, standing beside him with her eyes on the characters on the wheel.
"You mean adding things like ruins, glyphs and the likes to stuffs?"
"Yes young lord. And this enchanted creations come in tiers and grades. The tier representing the caliber of the wielder and the grade representing their quality." She showed Skylar her outstretched hands that holds two identical sharp knifes with ornamented handles made of golden wood. "Young lord, this one on my left is of the same grade as this one, both are gold grade. But this one is tier 1 unlike the one on my right which is tier 2."
As she explains with examples, Skylar nods his head in understanding.
"What's the tier about?"
He looked from the knife to Shallbell, making eye contact with her as he questioned her. Then in reply, Shallbell smiles at him.
"Young lord, a tier marks the range of who the creation is made for. A Tier 1 weapon or creation simply means its a creation made for creatures with an intelligence stat range between F and D. And a tier 2 is from C to A..." The black blade of one of the knife in her hand gave off a cool golden light. "If a creature of intelligence beyond the stipulated range tries to wield the creation. This will happen..."
As she finished her last words, Skylar saw as the golden light suddenly dimmed drastically, and how the blade crumbles after instantly.
The energy superiority clearly overloads it. "Hmm.." That means her energy in both quantity and quality is way superior to what the knife can bear...
"And If its the other way round." Interrupting his internal monologue, she passed Skylar the other knife and another one she brought out from who knows where like a performing magician. "Young lord, channel your energy into both of them."
"Okay." Skylar look at the knifes in his hand. Then he channel his energy into them which in turn made them vibrate and hum accordingly, but not glow as can be seen with the naked eye since the natural energy he wields is strictly spiritual in nature.
I see, i feel like this one on my right can easily slice a diamond, and nothing about this one on my left has changed a bit. Its just vibrating and making useless noise.
He chuckled at his own thought. Then he withdrew his energy from them and passed them to Shallbell who as been watching him and his actions keenly.
"The one on my left did not work... Nothing about it changed."
"Its not supposed to work young lord." She replied as she keeps away the knife that seems to have vanished from her hands. "Its a tier 3 weapon. And only creatures with an intelligence stat beyond A can wield it. There are exceptions though."
"I see... Then what about the guys on my ears and the one on my wrist? What are they?"
Saying this, Skylar return his focus to the characters on the screen on the wheel of the coin wheel. And Shallbell about to reply him glanced at the bangle on his left wrist.
"Young lord, though they might have enchantments attached to them, they are not referred to as enchanted tools but are called simple tools or programmed creations."
"Instead of a creature or a group of creatures channeling energy into them before they can perform their enchanted functions, they extract energy on their own from energy sources hidden inside them or from outside sources..."
"You are saying for enchanted tool, a creature that wields it is like its battery unlike the unenchanted one." Skylar interrupted.
"Something like that young lord. Your analogy is spot on. But sometimes distinguishing between what is enchanted and not might spark controversies. Take for example, some battle ships that have enchanted cannons installed on them instead of the automatic ones..."
"Do we channel energy into ships when we drive them?"
Interrupting her again, Skylar asked. Then he tap a set of characters on the screen and the content of the screen changed in response.
"It depends young lord, but all battleships are fuelled by etherium crystals..."
"Then its not an enchanted weapon!" Skylar concluded strongly. Then he tugged at her garment, making her move closer to him. "Shallbell, what should i do next? It says drop gold."
"My lord, you input the first three digit of your serial and your player name here."
Replying him, she pointed at a spot on the screen. Then Skylar as instructed typed in what's required and locked it in.
Let's do 1000 gold for starters.
His finger tapping on the screen, he typed again and locked it in.
"Shallbell What's next?"
"Young lord, tap the center and spin the wheel."
He did as Shabbell instructed. He tapped the center and in response the wheel that was firmly fixed in place seems to loosened tightly. And upon seeing this he put his hand on its edge and spin it.
Looking at the spinning wheel, Skylar briefly glanced behind him. He caught sight of Helen looking intently in their direction as she remained reclined on the sun lounger.
She definitely has...
(Ring...)
A loud ringing sound like coins falling on hard surface interrupted his thought. And Shallbell who saw the result of the spin before him looked at him.
"Young lord, what did you bet on."
"I bet on a black glove. What did i get?"
"Take a look young lord." Shallbell pointed at the character and picture on the screen- a flashing picture of a stylish white pair of glove. "Its a platinum grade tier 2 pair of gloves."
"Tch..." Skylar obviously disappointed clicked his tongue in annoyance. "1000 gold for a white glove. Who cares if its platinum or diamond."
"What a waste of time." He tapped on the flashing picture, and the screen resets. "All i want is a black glove."
"Young lord, a single platinum grade glove cost more than three million gold."
"Eh!" A little surprise, Skylar's eyes widened briefly.
"I have money though." He scoffed then turn to look at the towering Shallbell beside him. "I am leaving, where is Helen gift."
Shallbell, because of his nonchalant attitude towards his reward sighed. She tapped the surface of the wheel again which is the screen and the characters and symbols on it switched changed to ancient ones.
"Young lord, there are originally nine gifts prepared..." Shallbell as she taps this ancient characters on the screen gave a glance behind her, and her eyes met that of Helen's which seems to be glaring at her. "There are six gift to choose from, two of them are blanks and the other four gifts depending on one's fate can be absolutely useless or can propel one to the top of this continent."
That's not what she wanted to say, she must have changed it because of Helen.
Skylar contemplating as he watched Shallbell lecture and tap on the screen, turned around, and his green eyes landed on Helen smiling and peaceful divine face.
She is definitely a member of that family.
With his lips tightly shut, cheeks puffed and head nodding to the sides, he expresses his exasperation as he watches her smile sweetly at him.
"Young lord."
Skylar as he heard Shallbell's voice turned around again and set his focus on the wheel of the coin wheel in front of him.
"Lord, i forgot to mention. There is a jackpot among them. Something that can shake the balance of the continent."
Skylar with his eyes glued to the wheel and unexcited about her addition nodded in understanding, and his eyes squint as he process her words.
She has been talking about continent for a while now. What is she trying to say and what is this jackpot thing i might draw...
Casually, Skylar put his hand on the side of the wheel and set into motion, spinning.
From spinning very fast to spinning very slow, Shallbell with hope mixed with worry in her eyes, Helen behind them troubled and anxious, and Skylar expressionless with arms folded, all watch with anticipation as the spinning wheel slowly comes to a halt.
(Ring...) Then the sound of several coins falling broke the silence and multiply the tension in the air as three pairs of eyes reflects the picture and character forming on the wheel screen.
"Shall... be honest, is it trash?"
"Its trash, its something i carved when i visited an elder of mine."
Skylar turned around as the voice coming from behind him answered his question instead. Then the lethargic voice belonging to Helen continued.
"She called it a 'not so bad piece of art'... It has absolutely no use. Maybe you can use it to decorate a shrine or temple."
"...?..."