You decide that this will be your chance, and silently hope that your skills won't be as rusty as you might think. While Edgar and Kevier are tugging over the canteen, you turn around to face them, and edge out the axe out from your bag very slowly. It rubs against the leather with a tiny scrub, and the weight gives away. You try to catch it as it falls, but it nearly slips away from your fingertips. Fortunately, your reflex takes over and you catch it in time before it hits the ground.

The guard manages to pull off the canteen from Kevier rather clumsily, cursing angrily. "You lousy thing! You'll better regret asking stuff from me!"

Before you can attempt to cut your bonds, you notice that the guard starts to eyeball at you, "What're you doing there?"

As swiftly as lightning, you swing your body around, holding out the sharp edge of the axe towards him. He is too surprised to react and got hit in the side, dropping whatever he is holding. Moaning in pain, he tries to return a punch. You dodge away from his blow and swing your axe again. He receives another painful hit, and tumbles to the floor. Clearly he looks terribly wounded, and he struggles to keep himself up.

"You traitor... you are a shame to our kind... This... will not end until...."

Before he can finish, Kevier lunges himself towards Edgar and tackles his face. He falls unconscious, and his eyes close.

"Now that's for torturing me with dehydration!" Kevier squeaks, "Uh, I hope he's not dead already."

You saw off the ropes tying you up for a minute, and then Kevier's. After you're done, the elevator is already reaching its destination soon. You tell Kevier of your plan disguising as the guard. "Sure thing, that makes everything so much easier. You're such a genius! But that unconscious guard here... will be "you" then? You can't leave him alone, or else other guards will discover his whereabouts, and our undercover plan will be busted. You should bring him along too, and just pretend that you knocked him out. But don't tie me up please, the rope is giving me itches."

[Continue at next post]

A will be it then.

(Don't worry about the next chapter, it will not take you hours to read anymore, seriously. I promise.

Reminder: Daily posting requires daily answers. Better grab hold of your chances before it's too late!

As soon as you step into the junk yard, you are amazed by the sheer size of scrap metals and old machinery piled into hills. Hundreds of workers are busy collecting the endless metal junks and dropping them off into another station. The station alone does all the sorting to separate the recyclable metals from the scorched and shattered ones. The unused junk are disposed off into huge furnace. Still, burning someone alive doesn't seem to be a good option.

You look around and discover that there is an enormous heap of metal untouched by the workers around. It seems like a perfect place to hide the guard long enough and trap him for good. After digging through greasy gears and bolts, you lay the guard down into the tiny pit you made. You manage to cover him up with the heaviest metal you can find around the junk yard, and pile up all the scrap metals back in place. Feeling satisfied that the threat is gone, you walk off and proceed to your next destination.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

The archives library is indeed very quiet (excluding the background clockwork noise), and it is simply way too large for you to search blindly without a hint. You try to ask for assistance from someone in charge, but you fail to find any "librarians" here... in fact there isn't any. Despite of that, you do observe a lot of gremlins heading in and out of the archives, looking through notes and books and holograms, even the historical parchment scrolls. Amidst the busy gremlins, you spot a technician picking a selection of draft papers behind a shelf, and you decide to consult him.

"Oh, my good sir," the technician almost jump at your approach, "umm, do you need anything from me? I hope I'm not being condemned for any technical failures again."

You tell him you are not arresting him, but you simply need some help. "Oh, you nearly gave me a heart attack earlier." He sighs in relief and gives you a polite grin, "Very well, it's a pleasure to meet you here. I'm Mr. Elliot. How may I serve you?"

Again, you forgotten to think of something to ask, so better make up a question real quick. What will you inquire about?

A- Ask about where you can find the list of all the latest construction projects.
B- Ask him to direct you to the important historical documentations.
C- Get help from him to find the map of the entire Grand Arsenal.
D- Pretend to be interested in the draft papers and blueprints Elliot is holding.

A very Merry Christmas to you, Hawxin!

"You want to take a look at these too?" Elliot chuckles, "Fancy that! If it's for inspection, I can't say no. Hold on, maybe we could take a seat, there is a lot I have to show you."

He lays down the bundles of blueprints on a table and spreads them out, one by one. "I'm currently trying to find some references here for the construction projects, so I thought these are pretty useful. There, these blueprints I'm holding right here, all the past construction schematics."

All you can make up from those blueprints are scribble lines and messy handwritings. "Do they look confusing to you? I'm dreadfully sorry sir," he picks it up and points to another blueprint, "there, these are the final drafts, and extremely detailed too. No, wait, don't look at this one, it's Project R, a shameful failure. Total scrap. Let me put it away. There, now this, is a real beauty. The Battlepod prototype, though it has never been built."

You can see multiple diagrams showing the complex mechanism from different angles, and it resembles a dome with a huge eyepiece at the front. You can even make out the inner structures very clearly. However, you've never seen such a machine being built before anywhere.

"Well, Seerus is planning to build the very first Battlepods in the Grand Arsenal, pretty useful to fend off unwanted intruders. I've seen everything in it, really dangerous I say. We're planning to build a dozen of these around here. Now, back to the blueprints... Now where are my schematics? Ah, here it is. Here are some of the projects I'm supposed to assign to the workers."

Elliot stretches out another bundle of blueprints, "These are military bunkers, really tough and long-lasting, only destructible from the inside, just in case they need a self-destruction command. And here, I've personally constructed a special cloaking device meant for certain special agents we have here. Well, I didn't exactly invent it, I sort of peeked at the knights' intelligence and worked out the mechanism by myself. Rebuilt it from scrap. A fine work it is. Now, um... this one is problematic..."

He points at the last draft paper, "I'm trying to reconstruct the lasers cannons to fire twice as deadly as the ones in Project R, but its almost impossible to make it work without overheating the particle accelerators... Oh, sorry if I'm speaking gibberish to you sir. Basically, Seerus wants lasers in his Arsenal, but more powerful ones. I can't do it, it's too difficult to accomplish. Right now, he's giving me a hard time, and wants a final draft by tomorrow. If I don't, I'll be fired, either working in the junk yard, or grounded in prison." Elliot sighs in great dismay, wrinkling his forehead in frustration.

"I hope you won't mind, but can I ask you a favour? I know this sounds stupid, but you're the only one I can depend on right now. I was worrying so much, then I decided to come to this quiet place to calm myself down. And the next thing I knew was when you appeared. I've never seen a guard so kind as to spend some time to take a look at my work, and hear me chat like an old fool. You're the only one I can trust now. Please sir, can you be merciful to this old gremlin just for once? I'll do anything to stay away from that mad warmaster!"

Elliot seems really serious and desperate. But you still have an undercover mission going on, after getting some intel on the construction blueprints. What will you do now?"

A- Offer your help to Elliot.
B- Ignore him and continue on to the construction site.
C- Ignore him and continue on to the weaponry.
D- ignore him and continue on to the exit from the Arsenal.

All votes for A! Look who's got the Christmas spirit going on! :)

(Sorry for the delay, I apologize if I left you waiting for long.)

After entering the laboratory, you can see all sorts of experiments going on, but that is not your concern. All you need to learn about is the minerals. You approach one of the scientists to ask about the minerals.

"Good day sir. Ah yes, you've found the perfect one here. I'm a mineral specialist around here, you can count on me for sure. Now where shall we begin? The power to generate destructive laser beams? How fascinating! Hmph, I wonder why that technician won't come to ask me by himself. Nevermind that, first of all you will definitely need Crimsonite, that's the main power source of all things destructive. Secondly you will need..."

Just before he can continue, another scientist interrupts the conversation and whispers to his ear. "WHAT?! Which fool left that kleptolisk feeding on that Moonstone? He deserves to be... oh just bring me to the cage!!" Both of them storms off without saying another word.

While you are left wondering what happened, the scientist rushes back, holding a spreadsheet. "Sorry sir, it seems that I need to pardon myself for now. There is a terrible accident in another lab. Hope this will help. Now would you excuse me..." Once again, he storms off to the exit, yelling about stupid assistants and mischiefs.

It seems like the spreadsheet has some brief information on each different minerals.
(You can read the sheet here: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Mineral#Mineral_Types )

Which mineral will you pick to pair with the Crimsonite? You are only allowed to choose one.
A- Moonstone
B- Valestone
C- Luminite
D- Dark Matter

Most votes go to A!
Unfortunately, A isn't a great choice, and Geoknight Wegner would like to see you after this. /shrug