Ignition Broker: Chapter 40 Emptor Caveat

Chapter 40

Emptor Caveat

“Always read the fine print, if there is no fine print assume there is one and that it always favors the seller. Then, learn how to become the seller. Remember this, and you can go into any transaction with a healthy mind.” -Marcon on transactions

The settlement was an odd assortment of old versus new trash. Almost as if a spaceship had crashed into the planet, forcing the inhabitants to exit the vessel eventually, at which point they exited the craft leaving behind concentric rings of trash.

Yet, even though the trash had been clearly left unattended, its placement still seemed to have some deeper meaning. This along with the fact that the items all but reeked of curse magic, something that was evident by the way no life seemed to grow in between the carefully abandoned objects, and how the ground itself seemed to rot and mold underfoot.

Looking around, it was clear that no one was nearby. Or at least no one was directly visible, but that didn’t negate the fact that both of them had their senses screaming that something was about to happen.

“Where is everyone?” Rayalta asked, a note of fear laced into her words.

“They’re around,” Arla responded, glancing about.

“Do you think they would notice if someone came by and took some of these items?” Rayalta asked, clearly confused by why so many seemingly expensive items were left strewn about.

“You don’t see the lines of death and erosion that are laced on each item?” Arla asked, pointing out the corrupted ground that existed between each item. Even walkways were made, each with enough erosion that caused all life to be eroded away. “The reason you don’t see anyone here, is that they don’t need to watch, as anyone who takes these items beyond a certain line will die.”

With that Arla began looking around.

“Die?”

“Well, most likely, unless you know how to avoid alien rot spells.” Arla mused, then seemed to realize that the patch of woods they were in was the last safe line. Moving forward to where the dead husks of trees resided would have to be the line where the curse magic would activate.

It was also in the section ahead that Arla noticed wooden placards dangling from each tree in a sort of ritualistic way.

Looking ahead, Rayalta saw the dangling signs and instantly knew what they were. Without even thinking about her actions, Rayalta’s right hand went up to cover her mouth as she stared ahead at the obvious warning sign ahead.

“What, what is that?” Rayalta stammered out, fear gripping her as she inadvertently tensed up.

Arla just looked at her subordinate for a moment. Taking in her composure, despite clearly being frightened by the sight before her.

“That is our chance to see why exactly these lands look cursed,” Arla stated as she moved forward. With her first step, she could feel the sudden change of texture below her feet. Going from a lush grass that bent under her step, to a less forgiving mass that would half-crumple half-bend beneath her weight. Then finally crumble to dust under her step as she made her way forward to see that her eyes were not wrong.

As she got closer, she could start to make out faintly carved markings into the light wooden signs that swayed gently in the wind. At one point it was clear that there had been bright colors and paints used to highlight the carved letterings, but now that had faded, leaving behind only faint flecks of blues, reds, and the occasional white paints that made up the signs.

Each sign, while showing instances of rot, all clearly held markings indicative of a language. Another aspect that could not be dismissed was the fact that there were clearly scratches etched into the dangling placards, an ominous sign, and one that Rayalta no doubt would have warned against. Yet, there was something about the characters that seemed to call out to her in a way she had never experienced before. Then before she realized what she was doing, she had moved forward and grabbed hold of the wooden plaques with her gloved hand.

Crackle.

At the touch, a surge of electricity traversed from the sign to her hand, almost in the way a static jolt would spark. Yet rather than feeling a sharp sting of electricity, she felt something different. She felt her mind awaken, as suddenly the quest marker that brought her here suddenly lit up with an update.

Cerusian Specific Class Quest Updated: Tinkerer Needed: You have stumbled upon a lost colony of sentient beings who have made a desperate plea for a Tinkerer. Before you is the broken-down graveyard of parts and components from your home universe, created by Master Tinkerers. Repair the works of your predecessors and learn of the ancient ways. Rewards: Enhanced Cerusian System advantages.

Current Award Received: Tinkerer’s Sight (Passive)

That was all the odd alien system gave to her. Just that she now had something called Tinkerer’s Sight for just coming here and inspecting the region that had called out to her. There was more to this, but this was all that happened at first. Then looking at the odd symbols that seemed to be both familiar and entirely alien to anything she had ever seen, even Cerusian, something odd happened.

The symbols began to swirl, before the markings on the sign in her hand began to unfold into something that the system helped to auto translate for her.

Special Regional Reward identified: Three for one. The lost tribe is nearing a breaking point and has offered a three for one ratio of exchange for items repaired. For every three items repaired, the Tinkerer will be able to get one of the same size or smaller of the smallest item fixed.

The system translated the odd markings on the dangling placards, acting as an intermediary for the needed transaction. This was sort of nice in a way, as the system from the first universe seemed to understand that there would be different languages that might get in the way of transactions.

Here it was, that these glowing placards clearly held enough energy to call out for any Tinkerer who was traveling nearby. Though the call was either very weak, or had diminished over the years as Arla remembered that she had to already be on her approach to the planet before she felt the system message reach out to her.

Looking at the dangling sign, it was also clear that while seeming to have some similarities to Cerusian this was a completely independent language. One that she could only read now thanks to its translation from the system.

With the system’s aid, she also understood why there were characters being marked out. As originally, the wording was for a ten to one exchange, meaning as a Tinkerer she would need to repair ten items for one to take back. Then seven to one, then five, and finally three to one. Apparently three to one was a relatively recent change, as most of the color used for highlighting this exchange rate still remained, at least in the sign she held in her hand.

“You touched it?” Rayalta cried out, all but chastising Arla for making such a reckless move. Thinking about it, Rayalta wasn’t wrong, they were on an alien planet, entering what was clearly a contamination zone, and the number of spare gloves and items available would be at a minimal. Meaning if some type of rot managed to burn its way through her glove, she would be in danger, and risk possible alien infections.

“Yes, I will go on ahead and see if there is anything I can do with the devices ahead, but you need to stay back here.” Arla declared.

“What? Wait, that isn’t protocol, we need to stick to teams.” Rayalta declared.

At that Arla smiled, appreciating the fact that Rayalta took survival seriously. That or maybe she felt she would have a hard time getting back without Arla? Either way, her thinking seemed to highlight the fact that she was ready to stay with Arla. Realizing that Rayalta needed something to do to help focus her mind and keep her from letting her thoughts go wild, Arla came up with a plan.

“I am going to go beyond the boundary here. I need you to stay right here and provide overwatch, while I attempt to see if we can get valuable alien resources.” Arla declared.

For a moment it looked like Rayalta was going to protest, it wasn’t until the comment about alien resources was brought up that Rayalta remembered the grading criteria for why they were here to begin with. Also, there was the clear fact that they did not have enough energy to get back, without getting more materials that could be converted. At least, that was what the briefing had noted. Arla had of course fixed this problem by improving fuel usage, and energy distribution, but that was not something that needed to be noted now. That was going to be a gift for the team when they went back, without her.

“Fine,” Rayalta declared, pulling out her blaster and adding the components needed to instantly change the single hand held blaster into an extended rifle, capable of delivering much more powerful shots at greater distances.

While Rayalta was working on piecing together her rifle, Arla nodded and began making her way forward.

Tingle.

The minute she passed the boundary line, that seemed to mark the line where all items would activate with a rotting curse, Arla felt the magic kick in. This was an old magic that was powerful, and clearly maintained constantly. Meaning the person, or likely people who created this field of energy to begin with were still around, and reapplying the layers upon layers of curses to each item.

At first, Arla just walked forward down the clearly defined walking paths. As she did, she could see the footprints of the curse maintainers. She followed them, seeing how their feet continued to make fresh indentations every so often. Realizing that the curse maintainers could walk along the pathway without repercussions, Arla chose to do the same.

Arla took in the condition of the discarded and cursed items as she went. Her eyes all but highlighting what parts still worked by outlining in blue, then green for parts that could be improved slightly, then gray for parts that were completely dead. Seeing these colors, let Arla realize the complexity of the Tinkerer class, no doubt this was what was offered by her arrival, the so called Tinkerer’s Sight (Passive). No action needed, just a chance to look at previously made items by other Tinkerers, and see what still worked, and what parts needed to be repaired.

As she moved, she saw the number of green and gray parts gradually increase, with only a few having functioning blue parts. Inwardly she itched to just try to break apart some of these devices to see how this alien technology worked. And it was alien, completely different than anything the Empire or Cerusians had ever made.

Even different than the crafts the Harbingers used to get around in. Just looking at the shapes and designs, her mind lit up with the possibilities of power and future capabilities that could be unlocked by some of these items.

Her engineering mind also let her easily distinguish between system regulators, organic food processors, and of course what had to be alien weaponry. Looking at the items and realizing the ones she could take had to be the smallest, her eyes began focusing on larger items first, but this would be troublesome as most were too complex, at least for her first time understanding the methodologies used by the engineers of this unique race of sentient space faring species.

The more she looked, the more it was clear that there were differences in what each color meant. As the parts that were blue were the most pristine parts.

Whereas those that shown in gray had broken parts or were otherwise torn open due to violent forces. While even worse gray devices looked like someone tried to work the items, but clearly didn’t know what they were doing and ended up ripping apart more internal pathways of the different devices.

Then finally at the back end of the junkyard, close to what had to be the base of the mountain top, that’s where Arla saw something that seemed to glow mostly blue, but there were clearly gray parts that required a Tinkerer’s discerning eye. At least that was what she thought needed to be done.

As she was staring at the odd device before her, her quest marker lit up, letting her know that thing had changed, in a hurry.

Cerusian Specific Class Quest Updated (Emergency Update): Tinkerer Needed: You have stumbled upon. . .