Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Ever since he arrived in this world, he had been having a hard time telling what its level of technology was. He would compare the level of magic, but he had no standard to compare it with as the gifts didn't seem to run on mana.

'Wait, they did talk about something called Aether… is that perhaps what fuels the gifts? There should be a cost to using a gift.' Lucius realized.

If there was a cost to using the gifts, then it would be more balanced to Lucius. He would still be able to apply a few of the theories from his past life. Lucius knew that the law of physics could change from different worlds, or would become skewed in certain cases.

But there were some laws that were next to impossible to change, such as that of conservation of energy and mass. Energy could not be produced out of nothing and needed a source, similarly something could not be created out of nothing.

'If the gifts show their effect by the consumption of this 'Aether' then it should be present in the air around. I haven't seen them use any other resources to replenish their source of aether then that's the likely option.' Lucius thought.

Lucius moved his eyes and peeked out of the window, and saw a rather large building complex. The most eye-catching thing was none other than the symbol that was embroidered on a large tapestry that hung from the top of the building.

'The Artificers Guild…' Lucius recognized.

There was no way he would not recognize a symbol that was so unique. Not to mention the crowd of people that were coming in and out of the buildings. From the angle that Lucius was passing, he could see about six buildings in the entire complex.

All of them had the same symbol hanging from them, but just their sizes were different. Before Lucius could see more though, the carriage had already passed the road. Kiana noticed his interested gaze and guessed what he must have been seeing.

"Don't worry, we will be coming back to the artificers guild after this. We need to commission a better wheelchair for you anyway." Kiana assured.

Lucius blinked twice in a row to show his agreement, which made a smile appear on Kiana's face.

~Screech~

The sound of metal grinding against metal was heard coming from the outside, which made Lucius look out again. He had gotten rather good at alternating between his vision and hearing and was now habituated. One second he would use his hearing and the next second he would use his vision.

This was the way he was perceiving the world when he did not have to focus on anything. Another good thing was that the previous healer had already informed Kiana and Asher's family that he may be deaf in one ear, and thus it would be better to tap him before talking to him so that he would pay attention.

This made it easier for Lucius, as he could continually use his vision while he was with Kiana as she would tap him before she spoke to him.

Looking outside, Lucius saw a bunch of shops that dealt with metal work. There were blacksmiths, cobblers, toolsmiths, carriage makers, craftsmen, and many other similar shops. Lucius's eyes went wide as he carefully scanned over the shops.

These shops were very important to him, as he would be able to estimate the level of technology by observing their equipment and skills. At first, Lucius found them to match the description of how the medieval world was described in his past world, but then he saw a few advanced things that didn't match.

Lucius saw that the type of furnace they were using was way more modern than it should have been. They had automated bellows that moved with the power of the wind. A windmill was attached to the top of the building and gears were located at the back of it.

The blades of the windmill would move, which would turn the gears, which would then turn the belts that were attached to them. These belts would move another set of gears that then moved the bellows up and down. Lucius could imagine the flaws in the design rather easily, but then noticed that there was a way to make it move manually as well.

Five more minutes passed, and they reached their intended location.

This was a large building that had a symbol carved at the top of it. The symbol was that of an open book over which a plain white sphere floated.

~neigh~

The horses stopped moving, and the guards halted around the carriage too.

"We're here Asher, the Appraisal hall!" Kiana spoke in a joyous tone.

Lucius moved his eyes up and down to show his agreement as one of the guards opened the door for them and another one pulled out the wheelchair. Kiana picked up Lucius and stepped out of the carriage, putting him back in the wheelchair.

She adjusted his clothes and hair one time, making sure he looked proper before nodding her head.

"Ah, this is perfect. Let's head inside now," Kiana said.

Lucius's eyes darted around as he saw the faces of everybody that was currently surrounding the building. There were around a hundred people here, around half of which were adults. They were accompanied by children that varied in age.

There was a wide range of kids, all the way from babies that looked less than six months old to teenagers that were probably seventeen or older. Some of them had excited expression on their face while the others had a saddened expression on their face.

Lucius could correlate their age with whether they would be happy or not. From his initial observation, Lucius could tell that the younger one was, the happier they were. While the older they were, the more likely to be sad they were.

In fact, Lucius even saw a couple of people that looked to be in their twenties and were here alone, not accompanied by anyone nor accompanying anyone.