Chapter 6: Kid, You're Hired

While Alex and Kate were discussing outside, Aamon was already inside the small room. He looked, looked and looked again. He couldn't help but feel amazed in his heart.

The room wasn't very big, but it had a large window on the southernmost wall. It had ordinary flooring and ceiling; the walls were also nothing special. There was a shelf on the exact opposite side of the door. It had various chemicals and potions that are also very common in an antique shop. There were 7 large tables on the side of the walls that took most of the space of the room. But Aamon was stunned when he saw what was on those tables.

As a young boy in this age, he was fascinated with the concept of Relics, just like the others of his age. But the relic itself was out of the reach of general public, only Elementalists and Antique shops having access to them. There wasn't any knowledge about high grade relics that civilians could learn, only some basic information about some machinery used to identify them and some other stuff. But he was flabbergasted to see many complex machines in there, most of which he never even heard about before.

"This is actually a Spectrum Scale! It's used to deduce the Elemental affinity of a relic. And this big box should be an Infuser, it infuses the relic with corresponding Elemental energy so that it can be used again. Hahaha…. Wow, I never thought I would see them both at once, my luck is very good today."

As Aamon was rejoicing from seeing two machines he only read about before, he was very excited. He also wanted to check out other machines, but before he could do that, he halted in front of a black box like thing. It was small in size and had a handle, just like a drawer. He got curious and pulled the drawer, but instead of an inner compartment, all he saw was darkness. In the darkness, there was also a subtle pull that seemed to pull his very soul out.

Aamon hurriedly stepped back and pushed the drawer close, a shocking premonition building inside of him. He once again went to the black box and carefully flipped it over. And proving his suspicion right, the box didn't have a flat surface on its bottom. Rather it was filled with a complex combination of numerous gears of different sizes and some other ancient drawings.

Aamon felt as if he was stuck by lightning, 'how can something like this appear here of all places!' He almost dropped the box into the ground, but as it wasn't that heavy, only half a kilogram, he held onto it somehow. After slowly and carefully placing it onto the table, he breathed out a sigh of relief. As he turned around, he was once again startled by the sudden appearance of the shopkeeper duo who were watching him with a smiling face.

"It seems like you already saw my most prized possession, huh? And from your looks, you seem to also know what it is. How did you learn about it though, Aamon? As far as I know, General Academy doesn't teach things about this one," Alex asked in his signature playful tone.

"Of course, I know about it," Aamon exclaimed. "I learned about it from reading books about Relics. The books about Relics are very rare, and I only got one because my father's office had one for some reason. After seeing my interest in Relics, my father borrowed the book for me to read."

Aamon continued, "As for this thing, I remember about it very clearly. A box that has a very intricate and complex machinery below it, a chamber that can be used to insert other relics, and that signature black color, symbolizing it belongs to the grade 0 of the Relic variants, It's the only manipulation type special grade Relic, the "Synthesizer". I recognize it very clearly."

Kate was surprised once again, a boy from the civilian family shouldn't be able to learn these things. Alex, on the other hand, looked even bright. "Ha-ha, good job, Aamon. You really know your Relics, huh!" he complemented.

 Aamon was very excited after seeing a special grade one for the first time, but then he remembered something. "Grandpa Alex, isn't this thing very rare. I thought only the 7 Headquarters and 3 largest families in the world have it. Where did you get one?"

There was a visible flinch in Kate's body. She looked at Aamon with a somewhat complicated gaze. But Alex just smiled and said, "I got it from a Fragment when I was young. We went there as a team, but only me and one of my friends could return alive. We just collected the Relics inside before we were suddenly ambushed by the Lava Trolls. *Sigh*, We barely managed to come out, but had to leave my best friend inside. There was just the two of us so I took this one and my friend took the other Relics. "

Though he was smiling, there was a visible sadness in his eyes that was impossible to cover. Aamon realized that he said something he shouldn't have said, so he hurriedly spoke, "I am sorry, Grandpa. You remembered something painful because of me. I didn't know it was like this."

Alex broke out of his reminiscence and shook his head, "No, Aamon. It is not your fault. We were young, thought we could defeat anything and formed the raid team. We were seven good friends from the time of our academy. *Sigh*, now I am the only one alive. The friend I talked about just now also passed away about 6 years ago."

Aamon didn't know what to say in this situation and just stood there with his head hung low. Alex noticed it and once again returned to his playful nature.

"Alright, enough talking about sad things. We are here for your interview, right. Are you prepared, little Aamon?" he asked.

Aamon took a big breath and exhaled. Then he nodded his head seriously and spoke, "I am ready, Grandpa. You can ask any questions."

"Ha-ha, there are no questions," he laughed and spoke, "You are here for the post of a curator, right? Then why would I ask boring questions, when you can just curate something for me. See, this Relic was delivered to the shop yesterday and wasn't appraised. Why don't you appraise it in front of us?" he said as he handed Aamon the bracelet he randomly picked up from the hall room.

Aamon took the bracelet and looked at it carefully. The bracelet was wrapped in a translucent film that was covering it like a cocoon, obstructing any Elemental energy from it. This cocoon is the proof that it is a Relic that was freshly collected from a Fragment. It is also a protective layer that prevents any unwanted energy to come in contacts with it. Once the layer is removed, it must be stored in a specialized box before an Elementalist bonds with them. After a Relic is bonded with the soul of an Elementalist, the only way for another Elementalist to use it is to remove the soul imprint as well as the Elemental energy of the previous owner.

Removing the protective cocoon is a very hard and delicate job. Not only one has to have a vast amount of knowledge about the structures and patterns on the Relic, one also has to have steady hands. Aamon had the former, but not the later.

He asked about it's source and learned that it came from a fire elemental Fragment. He then walked to the shelf full of potions and took out a red bottle. It said "Flame Polish" and was used to polish flame related Relics, to make them look glittering and shiny. But it was also used to soften the cocoon of the relics found in a fire elemental Fragment. He then searched for a few moments before he took out a pair of tongs, a scalpel and a pair of glasses and went to the only table in the room that didn't have a huge machine on it.

The table had a few petri dishes of various sizes. Aamon took one with the diameter of five inches and put the bracelet in there. Then he took the dropper withing the bottle, scooped some potions and dropped precisely three drops on the bracelet with slightly shaking hands.

'Three drops should be okay, hmm… The layer seems to have softened a bit, now for the cutting...' He muttered inwardly and put on the special glasses that gives the curators a better vision and held the tongs with his right hand, pressing the bracelet in place. While his left hand held the scalpel. He lowered it and made a small cut into the translucent membrane.

It was as if he was cutting through butter with hot knife. There was no resistance whatsoever. He then made small cuts over and over again as the layer was peeled off of the bracelet.

After removing the layer, the slightly orange looking rhombus shaped beads within the bracelet shone with a brilliant sheen. A black thread made of unknown materials was connecting the beads together and the two ends of the threads were tied up together, making a circle.

Even though the beads were glowing orangish, they are not the natal Elements of the bracelet, rather the residual fire energy left behind on it's surface as it was found inside a fire elemental Fragment. But these types of residual energy will be removed as soon as its affinity is checked.

Aamon went to the next table where the Spectrum Scale was and directly placed the bracelet on its base. The machine looked somewhat like a microscope, but sized about four feet and also was without an eyepiece. It didn't have objective lenses either, rather had a round metal plate inlaid with twelve stones of various colors, just like the 12 elements. The stones were facing downwards, in the direction of the base. It had a lever on its right side as well as an arm holding everything in place.

Aamon adjusted the direction of the stones before pushing the lever. As soon as the lever was pushed, with a slight buzzing sound, the 12 stones simultaneously released Elemental energies towards the bracelet. All 12 rays of energy hit the Relic, passed through it and disappeared around the base. But if one looks closely, it will be visible that only 11 rays passed through it, while the bright golden ray representing the Light Element was broken down to a mist and scattered instead. The residual fire energy present on it's surface was also gone, making it transparent.

Aamon looked at the phenomenon with a satisfied expression as he switched off the lever. The transparent color was the color that represents a new Relic. It will take on golden color only after a Light Elementalist bonds with it. The appraising is halfway done, two tests finished and two tests remained. He then brought it to another table that had the machine to measure its grade.

It was a rather simple machine that looks like a pyramid with a total of 8 layers and a hollow tip. There was a compartment with a knob attached to it. Aamon placed the bracelet into the hollow space on top of the pyramid as he rotated the knob. 'Hahaha! I am actually using the Marker to mark the rank of a Relic, I simply can't believe it.' His inner thoughts were the complete opposite to his outer calmness. He rotated the knob and set it on the Light Element stone before pressing the nearby button. He felt his heart will come out of his mouth. He felt his heartbeats fasten as he saw the topmost layer of the Marker light up with a golden light.

Aamon thought he was lucky to be able to do it with his own hands and felt very happy. But when he went to retrieve the bracelet, he nearly fainted from the shock.

Just as he was about to touch the thing, the second topmost layer of the pyramid also lit up, followed by the third …, and the fourth one.

He stood there, dumbstruck. He never saw a grade one Relic, even those junk types, or commodity types that are used in the households. The first time he saw one is today, and it somehow turned out to be a mid-rank one. And the funny thing is, he appraised it himself.

There was two other people who were even more dumbstruck than himself. Those were precisely Alex and Kate, the owner and the maid of the store.

Alex stood there, speechlessly, no words coming out of his mouth. He never saw someone of this age doing the appraising, let alone doing it so perfectly. His granddaughter, his one and only pride and a genius of the millennia also fell short in front of this talent. There was obvious hesitations and shaking on his eyes and hands, so he must've done it for the first time, but the rest, he has done it perfectly. Even if someone reads books about it every day, there will be some errors while practically doing it. But he did it perfectly. Though it was messy and nowhere near professional, there was no way to deny that he actually succeeded. He can only say that Aamon was also a monstrous genius who was born to be an appraiser.

Kate was even more shocked. She looked at Aamon and thought to herself, 'I was also very fanatic about Relics when I was at his age, but could I do what he just did? Yeah, there is no way I could've done that at his age,' she thought and sighed.

Just as they were thinking and lamenting about their own lack of talent, Aamon said in a somewhat weak and shaky voice, "Grandpa Alex, I am sorry. I think I can't do the last test right now; my mind is a bit shaken"

Alex and Kate were also shaken out of their thoughts. And they looked at him as if he was a ghost. Alex then took a deep breath, steadies himself, pressed down on Aamon's shoulders with both hands as he spoke seriously,

"Kid, you're hired."