Sam took out a large metal sphere and placed it on the table.
It looked to be the size of a football.
The employee took a look at it and then turned to Sam.
“I found this in one of the underwater sea graveyards. From the runes I found, it is stated that this is a mechanical puzzle lock and inside it has a special blood essence of a mystical sea creature. I have tried my best to unlock it, but I was unable to find the right pattern.
I would like to avail your services to unlock this.”
“Are you willing to give out the details of the ruins?”
“Actually, I don’t know much about it. But I found some of the stone plaques there and here they are.”
Sam took out a bunch of stone plaques and gave them to the attendant.
The person looked through them and noted down every detail.
“Are you willing to leave these plaques along with the object? It would be better if you do so, since they might hold some knowledge that could help us in unlocking this.”
“Yes. I am willing to do so.”
“Then, that is perfect. What kind of package do you want to take?”
“I will take the highest package. A direct deal with the Smith.”
As soon as he heard those words, the employee stopped for a moment and looked at Sam.
“Are you sure you want that sir? This might be a really valuable item, but the cost for a direct deal with the Smith is not going to be small. You might even suffer some losses.”
“I don’t mind. It is not that I am doubting the credibility of your organization, but this is way too valuable for me, I can only take these measures so that nothing would happen to it.”
“Alright, sir. We will proceed with the rest of the transaction. You can keep your things for now and you will be able to meet with Smith this afternoon and finalize the deal.”
“Thank you so much.”
With that Sam left the room and didn’t even take a look at the rest of his friends.
The trio also didn’t go right after Sam came in, they let others go in and they went in middle occasionally to not to raise any suspicions. After all four of them registered their assignments, they waited for the deal to be signed by Smith and coincidentally all four of them along with a couple of other people were all gathered together to meet with Smith and close the deals.
They were all assigned to the same room as they waited.
Soon a man with long brown hair walked in. He is not tall and neither did he have some massive built. He is short and his hair is messy.
There is no sign of grace elegance and majesty assigned with the name of Smith in his body language or his dressing.
He is actually wearing a special apron that seemed to have been made with special leather. It is an apron black smiths wear at a furnace.
Sam was really intrigued by his appearance and sighed.
“Too bad you are on the wrong side. Otherwise, we might have gotten along.”
He muttered to himself.
Smith took his seat and looked at the list in his hands.
“Metal sphere with the blood essence of sea creatures.”
He said it out loud and everyone exchanged confused glances.
Sam raised his hands and the Smith spoke.
“Please come forward and finish the oath.”
Sam walked forward as he looked at the Gandharva attendant who came to be the overseer of the oath.
“Why do you guys not take any names and personal details?”
“Many people that come here often requested me to keep their identities and arrivals a secret. So, I figured I would reduce my hassle by not caring about them at all.
Since it a Gandharva Oath that we are following, as long as we directly agree, there is no need for some named contract.
Do you have any problem with that? I am sure we can work something out if you do so.”
“No, this works better for me actually. I am just curious.”
Smith nodded and went on the finish the oath. Sam felt a sense of pity. Just from the way he looked and the way he talked, he knew for sure that this guy is more concerned of his job and work than the title and fame.
He is a complete opposite of their previous target. The Saint.
But too bad, something worse is going to happen to this guy and it wouldn’t end well.
Sam and his friends left and went hunting once again. While waiting for things to happen.
Just like Sam, the other three also presented some kind of weird mechanisms. One of them had a cube that won’t open.
Another one has some kind of defensive artifact that looks like a metallic net and the lastly a metallic cylinder that is around two feet long with three inch diameter.
All of them are sent to respective departments based on the elemental energies they are giving off of. So, when Sam and his friends are hunting, a bunch of people are messing with these four mechanisms that Sam himself designed.
He even laid out some systematic but tricky puzzles in the plaques, scrolls, parchments and books along with these mechanisms.
They are keys to unlock it, but they are hard decode.
The four mechanisms started at the bottom level of the pyramid as they moved along the hierarchy of the organization.
Within three days all four objects ended up at Smith’s table.
He looked at the details and the attempts taken by all of the staff and was surprised.
“Interesting. Four objects of equal difficulty, all came at the same time. Are they perhaps related?”
He muttered to himself as he started making working on the sphere. He went through the stone plaques with the runes and then the notes of his staff.
He started tinkering with it.
As he messed around, his frown became deeper and deeper with time. It is almost like he is seeing something that shouldn’t exist.
He kept on using different tools and technique and made a bunch of calculations everywhere as he finally managed to open up the sphere a bit.
There is a small glass sphere inside with a very high level of water elemental energy along with a very venomous aura.
“The Blood essence of a mystical sea creature. It seems like it is indeed a valuable item. Good for him.”
He placed sphere on the table as he moved on to the cube.
Sam deliberately made sure that all of them are not made in the same style. They are completely different mechanisms and there is not a hint of similarity between them.
Smith didn’t suspect anything and just worked on it. After a few hours, the second also opened up.
He couldn’t help but note down a few points once again.
“These mechanisms are interesting. I need to study them a bit more. I should ask the attendants to buy these mechanisms from the customers. I can learn a lot from them.”
He muttered to himself constantly as he moved on to the third and the fourth.
When all four of the objects are out, he looked at them all together with a sense of achievement.
The first one is the glass sphere inside the metal sphere. The second one is a metal sphere inside the metal cube. The cylinder revealed some kind of metallic mechanism that sees it could open more and the final one is the mesh.
He looked at all four of them as he admired his handiwork, but at this moment, he sensed something. All four objects started glowing and shaking and before he knew it, the mesh opened up and covered him entirely. It acted like a cloak surrounding a person and while it was like that , the mechanism that came out of cylinder opened up.
It opened up into a long metallic centipede that is as tall as a person and attached to his spine. The mesh rolled over the centipede tightly as the legs started digging into the spine.
Smith came back to his senses and he started using his fire element. He didn’t feel any pain. Only surprise that something like this happened.
But as soon as the mesh and the centipede started heating up, the glass sphere and the metal sphere on the table started glowing. The glass ball was thrown at him as the water elemental energy seeped into his body along with the venomous energy it contained.
His fire elemental energy was slightly shaken for a moment as he wanted to try and resist. But finally the sphere exploded.
*BOOM*
The small metal sphere that came out of the cube exploded and a bunch of small energy pellets of ice elemental energy was targeted at him.
The pellets that are actually used in an energy cracker were used in this trap.
