D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

The problem with that idea, was that ceremonial swords might be a lot more important in a magical world. If this was the sort of thing a king used to knight people, it could be worth a lot even if it was just a fancy looking stick that glowed slightly. Lily really wasn\'t sure she could calculate how that effected the price.

On the other side of things, she had a mace that seemed to ooze darkness. The connecting piece between the handle and the mace head was an iron skull that seemed to leak black gunk constantly. The wrapped leather handle had more than a few stains on it and the mace head looked like it still had dried blood on it.

*If that mace isn\'t cursed I\'ll… I\'ll eat some of my summon paper. I might not have any experience with this sort of thing… but yeah. Gotta be cursed. So… does that drive the price down or up? I assume that you wouldn\'t want to use something cursed… but something so obviously cursed has to have SOME use right? Nobody would bother to curse it if it\'s worthless. Wait no that\'s dumb. People would curse shit all the time just to cause problems if they hate the world. So… it might not be cursed for a good reason then? Hmm… is it possible that the curse is part of the \'power\' of the mace? What\'s the standard reaction to using cursed weaponry anyway? Do adventures walk around with this sort of shit? Nobody who\'s come to the tournaments like this have ever used one… but that might just be because this is a high profile event. Then again, using cursed weaponry probably isn\'t a sign of intelligence.*

Lily clicked her tongue. *Right. Let\'s not get too into the weeds here. What I need to do is work out what questions. I\'ve got three so… it shouldn\'t be too hard? I guess… first question would be \'Is the sword used in official ceremonies\'? If the answer is yes I should be most the way there. If no… I guess I\'ll ask how hard it is to remove curses from items in general, then I\'d ask… wait can I just ask what they both DO? I don\'t remember any rules against it… but I\'m not sure how specific Thyme will get with that sort of question. So I could ask… can I ask \'What do these weapons do\' and have it be one question? I\'m guessing probably not. Still, I should test it just in case.* "What do these weapons do?" asked Lily.

"If you want information on the item\'s abilities, it will be one question for each item. Do you still want to know?" asked Thyme. Lily shook her head in the negative.

*Right glad that got cleared up early. So I don\'t waste time with it. Guess I\'ll go back to the original plans. I don\'t want to waste too much time overthinking things. I don\'t know how expensive the stuff in the shop will be, and we\'re sort of close to the edge of the net. So I might need to get moving soon.* "Would this sword be used in official ceremonies?" asked Lily.

"Yes," answered Thyme quickly.

Lily frowned at the lack of details in the answer but moved onto her second question. "Do people often used obviously cursed items?"

"No," answered Thyme just as quickly.

Lily rolled her eyes and asked her final question, "How easy is it to remove the curse from the mace?"

"Essentially impossible," said Thyme.

"In that case I believe the sword is worth more," said Lily.

"You would be correct! This is a ceremonial knighting sword, or at least a good replica of one. It\'s technically for the ruler of a nation but most nations allow other nobility to officially knight people these days. That makes it rare enough to still make them fancy, but common enough for people to by them.

"On the other hand, as you guessed, the mace is cursed. It sucks in the blood of downed foes to increase its power… but it\'s not that picky. It\'ll happily take your blood to essentially no effect and it will try to addict the wielder to killing things. At least, the original would. These are both just very fancy replicas but I don\'t expect you to recognise that. It\'s just for safety reasons, now onto the next set of items!" said Thyme.

This time, Thyme pulled out two similar objects. The first was a torch that looked like the flame was made out of glass, while the second was a miner\'s lantern. To Lily\'s eyes, the lantern looked like it was more of a heavy duty piece for actual use in the field, while the torch was more of a showpiece. Perhaps something for a noble to use as lighting in a basement or a dungeon.

*The question is… how much does that skew the price? The torch looks to be of much higher quality make. The glasswork looks spectacular, so many little details and the way it catches the light, even off looks wonderful. On the other hand, I\'m pretty sure I could beat a man to death with that lantern and the only cracks I\'d find would be on said man\'s skull. So… what sort of questions should I be asking?

I suppose the first could be… if the torches come as a set? Like, if I\'m right and they\'re wall fixture then it\'s possible that you by them in batches and the individual unit price is on the lower side. Of course, the fact that the lantern is obviously for practical use means that it can\'t be too expensive either. So… should I just confirm what they both are?

Then again… with adventurers around is it possible for the lantern to be marketed for them instead of for miners? I imagine adventurers make better money, so that could up the price as well. Hmm… this is certainly a harder puzzle then the first one. Which I suppose makes sense. Just… not sure how I\'m going to work out which is worth more. Didn\'t think things would ramp up so much. Dammit, if I was a native would I recognise these things? A whole bunch of people are either nobility or related to it so they might recognise both.*

Lily sighed as she rested her hands on the table… then she got an idea. Reaching over to try turning them on, Lily found her hand smacked away. "What gives?" asked Lily.

"I am not counting that as a question, but I shall answer. You are not allowed to touch the items before you, merely ask three questions of me to determine their value," said Thyme.

Lily glared back. It wasn\'t very effective. *That\'s not what I wanted to hear, and asking something like \'can you turn it on\' will just get a \'yes\' I bet. Dammit I know how these look but I just… I guess I just don\'t know enough about them to know how to work out their price. I guess I can ask the few questions I have and then guess?* n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Does the torch item come in sets?" asked Lily.

"Yes" answered Thyme. *Well… nice to know I suppose but perhaps I should\'ve asked how many comes in a set. That\'s my bad. So um… what do I ask next?*

"Do the lanterns also come in sets?" asked Lily.

"Yes" answered Thyme.

*And like that. I suddenly have no idea what anything is worth once again. How am I meant to figure these out if they BOTH come in sets! The best thing I can think of is to ask what one of them does… but I don\'t know which one to ask about. I could ask something like \'If I was an adventurer which would I rather have\' but that just tells you how much an adventurer would want them, not what they\'d pay for one. Everyone NEEDS a way to store water but they aren\'t all expensive. So that feels like a dead end as well. Fuck it I can just ask. I already said I don\'t want to waste time here.*

"Which item would an adventurer prefer to have?" asked Lily.

"Most would rather have this one," Thyme said as they pointed to the lantern.

"In that case, I\'m going to say that the lantern you\'re pointing at is the more expensive one!" announced Lily.

Thyme let out a sigh and said, "I\'m afraid you\'ve got that wrong. That means you\'ve lost all of your store points and are barred from participating in this game, and any copies of it there might be. Good day," said Thyme.

Lily let out a groan but didn\'t complain too much. She didn\'t need this stupid game anyway.

In case it wasn\'t obvious? We sped up because March and Blue got back into the arena.

Vongrak