A Shield For Her to Wield
The next few weeks were spent primarily in preparation for the upcoming battle. For Hina, Cielle, and basically everyone else, that ant 2 weeks worth of nonstop training and stat enhancents. Even the non combatants were subjected to this training. After all, though they were not planning on fighting the Dungeon Boss, it did not hurt for them to get even just a little bit stronger.
For though, that ti was spent sowhat differently. Being the only one capable of crafting, it was only natural that I’d be put in charge of the armor and weaponry. Aside from the various other matters I dealt with during this ti fra, I mainly spent my ti inside the workshop, doing the monotonous task of creating equipnt.
Today was one of those days.
It had been a 4 days since we arrived at the East building, and right now I was glaring harshly at a piece of Gila exoskeleton that laid strewn across my cluttered work table. Truth be told, the Gila Corpses were ideal for weapon production. This especially holds true for their night-clad exoskeleton.
A Gila carapace had texture and properties reminiscent of actual tal, so I was able to treat it in a fairly similar way as to how a seasoned blacksmith treated a raw piece of iron ore. It also had other advantages, like its general light weightedness - which made it an ideal material for armor - as well as its acid resistance. Considering the fact that Gilas in general were the type of monster to create their own biological acid, I did not find this surprising. What ca as a pleasant shock though was the discovery that the Gila exoskeleton could resist Cielle’s newly acquired [Acid Clad].
Of course, the resistance was not absolute. Over exposure to [Acid Clad] led to eventual degradation, but all the sa, the Gila exoskeleton had worth as a crafting material.
Due to the Gila’s original humanoid shape, a large majority of the exoskeleton was already fitted for human use. This ant my primary job was adjustnt and modification in order to turn the already human shaped exoskeleton into sothing actual humans could use.
Mainly, I had to do sothing about the size difference - since the average Gila, while rather lithe and skinny, was still much larger than a regular sized human.
Now, Gila exoskeleton was sturdy, which made it perfect for crafting. But it was because of this sturdiness that I could not use my usual thod of crafting. The exoskeletons blade resistance made it almost impossible to utilize my [Dissection] skill properly. I could not shave off the excess and shape the exoskeleton like I did with the Cyclops clubs. In the first place, the exoskeleton was practically a tal, so using a dagger to mold it wasn’t all that efficient.
In the end, in order to properly shape and mold the exoskeleton into armor I had to rely on Hina’s assistance. Her magic, especially her control over fire was ideal for crafting, so much so that it would have been impossible otherwise for to create the exoskeleton armor without her help.
I had Hina use her pyrokinesis to directly heat up the exoskeleton. While the carapace had a naturally high resistance to fire, all the sa, like almost all tals, once it was heated to a sufficient temperature, the material beca malleable and easier to shape. Reaching this temperature was no easy work. At first, just covering the material in flas wasn’t enough, and even then, this thod consud Hina’s mana at an incredible rate.
It was after several sessions of trial and error before Hina managed to learn a new sub skill of [Full Elent] called [Heat Projection]. Like the na implies, [Heat Projection] was an ability that generated heat. Unlike [Pyrokinesis] which controlled fire, this new skill only dealt with the heat portion. In a sense, it was similar to the difference between a microwave and an open fla.
While there was no direct combat usage for [Heat Projection], in terms of crafting and armor creation, it was much more cost effective than when she used [Pyrokinesis]. This allowed her to finally reach high enough temperatures to the point where the exoskeleton’s night clad surface glowed in a fiery red tinge and beca malleable enough to manipulate.
With the carapace heated and softened, all that was left to do was to properly mold it. This was a considerably simple task. Using the various tools lying around in the workshop - such as the hamr and chisel, I “sculpted” the carapace into proper armor - or at least sothing that vaguely resembled armor.
After so modification and a bit of elbow grease, I managed to make the main torso piece out of the original chest section of the exoskeleton. Now, since the original chest section was so much more larger than what I actually needed, I had to cut and separate the material into parts. Afterwards, for the sections around the abdon, I reattached so of the material by drilling a hole through them using my [Dissect] skill’s [Pierce]. The only reason why I was able to successfully create a hole through the exoskeleton was due to its malleability from the heat.
I then reconnected the separate pieces and held them in place with so steel bolts I found lying around the workshop. This created a sort of hinge that allowed the wearer to actually move and twist their torso along with the armor.
As opposed to just one rigid piece of tal that, while covering the whole body of the person, limited their movent at the sa ti, crafting the armor this way allowed for more mobility while still maintaining its original defensive capabilities.
I used the leftover parts from the chest piece to create shoulder guards. anwhile, I separately crafted the back portion of the armor using other pieces of carapace before later connecting it to the front piece using leather straps I scavenged off various furniture, and jackets lying around the east building.
I created arm guards and elbow pads using the sa thod I used to create the torso armor. I could not due the sa with the leg guards though, mostly because they limited the wearer’s mobility to the point where running and other movents were next to impossible to pull off. Considering the fact that almost everyone relied on rapid movent in battle, this was a fatal flaw in design, and at my current level, I had no ans of overcoming it. In the end, I had to limit myself to creating knee braces for the lower half of the body.
After the completion of my first set of armor, I gained the sub skill, [Armor Crafting].
Armor Crafting - Allows for the crafting of armor with innate attributes (i.e. stats, damage, durability, etc.)
On the other hand, the finished set of armor turned out pretty good.
Gila Armor
An armor set crafted out of the exoskeleton from a Black Plated Gila. The crafter’s inexperience has weakened so of the piece’s original potential.
Set Bonus: 16
25 (50)(16) Defense
5 (50) Physical Resistance
12 (50) Magic Resistance
Durability: 60/60
[Equip] Skill Bonus
5 Strength
10 Agility
Familiarity: 50
Level Requirent: 20 [Crafter Exempted]
The set bonus was a new feature that I had not encountered up until now, although honestly speaking, that wasn’t all that surprising, considering I’ve never truly made anything nor had I encountered anything that truly classified as a “set”. Going by what I could infer, the Set bonus increased the Armor’s main stat, which, in this case, just so happened to be [Defense].
In addition, thanks to this new piece of equipnt, I now had access to the stats, [Physical Resistance], and [Magic Resistance], which would undoubtedly increase my battle potential in the near future.
While the armor itself did indeed turn out well, due to its level requirents, not everyone could properly benefit from it. After securing the East Building, everyone’s level had grown, but not everyone had made it past level 20.
After using [Identify] on everyone after the battle, this was what their current levels looked like:
Hina: Level 33
Cielle: Level 32
Cher: Level 21
The President: Level 28
Kido: Level 26
Emiko: Level 21
The Teacher: Level 18
The surviving twin: Level 17
Kido’s Childhood Friend: Level 15
The Transfer student: Level 15
Wizard Hat: Level 13
The rest of the noncombatants ranged from level 1 to level 4.
The one who experienced the most growth would undoubtedly be Kido, who once again, jumped a total of 9 levels. Everyone else experienced various levels of growth based on how many kills they acquired during battle. Unfortunately, Cher was still stuck at level 21, mostly because she was unconscious throughout the whole ti everyone else cleared out the East Building.
Now, out of everyone present, 5 people, two from the president’s group, and 3 from Kido’s group, could not benefit from the effects of the new armor set. For those level 16 and above, I could always give them the [Cyclops Replica Torso Armor], which I had crafted earlier, but that still left 3 others who were too underleveled to benefit from the armor.
Thinking about it, the Wizard Hat girl and the Surviving Twin were both inherently ranged fighters, thus defense wasn’t really their main priority. Despite that though, that still left two people with insufficient equipnt.
“....”
In order to overco this, I decided to create makeshift spears out of the remaining Gila exoskeletons. Spears were an ideal weapon for people with almost no combat experience. Hopefully, the versatility and convenience of the spear can overco whatever shortages those two from Kido’s group have.
Now, I had sothing special in mind for the spears I was going to make.
First off, I needed to make sothing I’ve been itching to make ever since I read up on it back in the library. In fact, I’ve been reading up a lot about crafting ever since I first got access to the books at the library. The things I’ve learned so far, such as the malleability of tal, or the basic structure of a slingshot, were all things I’ve either recently learned at the library or from my prior knowledge before the apocalypse.
One of the things that really caught my interest was a foundry. Foundry’s were things that produced tal castings. They did this by lting the tal, and then either pouring the liquid tal into a mold or casting the tal after it has solidified.
Dealing with tal was an inevitability for soone like , whose path has been basically laid out due to the sotis inconvenient [Equip] skill of mine. Sooner or later, I was bound to construct objects with tal as my base. In fact, I’ve done sothing similar with the tal-like exoskeleton of the Gila.
The plan was to make a makeshift foundry using the materials around the East building, and Hina’s convenient skill set.
To start off, I needed a tal container as the base of my foundry. I found a few empty oil barrels by the generator in the bomb shelter, which was perfect for the things I had in mind. Not only was the barrell made out of tal, it was also large enough to where even individual pieces of the bulky Gila carapace could fit comfortably inside.
After procuring the tal container, I had Hina help with creating the inner lining of the foundry. An inner lining was necessary so that the heat generated within the foundry could properly circulate and reach high enough levels to lt tal. To do this, I needed the inner lining to be sothing similar to cent.
Now at first, I hoped that there would be so leftover cent near the unfinished classrooms down below, but as luck would have it, there were none. Only a couple of paint buckets, a tool box, and so spare bolts and pieces.
To improvise, I used the soil from the passageway in the Bomb shelter and so destroyed cent and rubble from the explosion site as my base. Hina was the one responsible for mixing and lding the materials together into sothing that hopefully had similar consistency to cent.
At first, Hina had a difficult ti with the whole process. The earth elent was her weakest speciality, and as if to raise the hurdle even higher, the substance we were aiming to create wasn’t just simple earth and soil, but rather cent (or at least sothing similar).
Seeing Hina’s troubled expression and obvious frustration, I proposed that we abandon our current thod, and instead switch to making use of Hina’s [Hydrokinesis] and [Pyrokinesis] in order to create a wet mixture of dirt, rubble, and water as our pseudo-cent. The plan was to accelerate the natural drying process using [Pyrokinesis] while making sure the substance did not dry out too fast with [Hydrokinesis].
Doing it this way would create a weaker and more vulnerable inner lining, but seeing the wall we had co across, I was prepared to make so sacrifices.
“No, that won’t do. We shouldn’t give up so easily.”
In the end though, Hina herself was adamant at sticking to her earth spells. Her enthusiasm and unexpected determination caught off guard at first. I an, I had no idea she was so determined and so equally obstinate about the foundry…
It was only later that I finally figured out that Hina didn’t really care about my foundry. Rather, it was her weakness that she hated. After Cher had awakened, Hina beca much more determined in strengthening and increasing both her skill levels and stats. If I were to make a comparison, then Hina was probably only second to Kido in terms of determination and growth.
To her, the creation of the foundry- no, even helping out in general with my crafting was just another part of her training. And the wall that was called earth creation was just another trial in Hina’s training.
After so intensive practicing within the Passageway (the only real place with actual ground and soil, within the whole school), Hina finally managed to learn [Lesser Terrakinesis], which finally completed the quadrumvirate of elents that composed of Hina’s [Full Elent]. After acquiring [Lesser Terrakinesis], Hina’s [Full Elent] skill also jumped by leaps and bounds, increasing her skill level to beginner level 9, one level away from interdiate.
Now, as for the cent… in the end, we fused both thods together in order to create the inner lining of the barrel. First, Hina acted as a cent mixer, and mixed a combination of water, soil, and rubble in order to make our cent. Her [Terrakinesis] allowed her to purge out and separate the impurities from the mixture, while effectively mixing the components until there was no longer a clear distinction between the original ingredients.
Next, we packed the bottom and the inner walls of the empty oil barrel with cent. Again, Hina’s [Terrakinesis] was used in conjunction with her [Pyrokinesis] and [Hydrokinesis] to compress and pack the walls more tightly than ever, while at the sa ti accelerating the drying process. By repeatedly wetting with [Hydrokinesis], then compacting with [Terrakinesis], and finally drying with [Pyrokinesis], we were able to create a sturdy inner lining that was almost indistinguishable from the school’s regular concrete walls.
Afterwards, I created a little hole near the bottom of the barrel. This would act as the air supply tube of the foundry. As the na implies, an air supply tube was ant to deliver air inside the barrel, with the purpose of increasing circulation and subsequently increasing the temperature of the foundry.
As for the crucible or container that holds the liquified tal while inside the foundry, I decided to use a twelve and a half quart stainless steel bucket that I had found inside the workshop. For the lid of the foundry, I had Hina create a simple cent lid made with the sa mixture as the inner lining of the barrel, before I drilled a 3 inch diater hole through its center. The lid helps to retain the heat of the foundry, while the hole was designed to prevent the pressure inside from building up.
After assembling everything together, we finally managed to make a make shift foundry, one that I was rather satisfied with.
All that was left was the coal needed in order to sustain the fire inside the foundry. Unfortunately, there was nothing similar inside the Bomb shelter. Fortunately though, compared to creating the foundry, making coal was a lot easier.
I took another empty oil barrel, filled the container with as much scavenged wood as I could find, before I set it afla and left it overnight. The next day, the “coal” was ready for use.
*****
Starting up the foundry, I placed a few pieces of coal inside the barrel, just enough to fill one layer full of coal. Next, I placed the crucible (the steel bucket) inside the barrel, before I filled the rest of the foundry with coal, and placed the lid on top. I then started the fire, while Hina acted as the air supply and funnelled air into the barrel through the tube.
Sweat dripped down Hina’s brow as the wind around us fluctuated and flowed directly into the tube. At the sa ti, the temperatures grew higher and higher within the container. It did not take 15 minutes before the foundry had blazed in a orange hue, while a slight tinge of red coated the stainless steel bucket inside.
As the heat intensified, Hina’s face contorted in consternation. Fueling the air into the bucket was taking quite a toll on her and slowly but surely her mana was steadily decreasing. She shot a determined glance before silently nodding in approval.
While wearing welding gloves, I opened the lid, and began placing pieces of Gila exoskeleton inside the steel bucket. Obviously, due to size constraints, I could not place any of the larger pieces of carapace, like the chest or back pieces because they simply would not fit inside the bucket. But luckily, the carapace covered the entirety of a Gila, so there were smaller, more size suitable pieces to choose from, like the leg guard, or an elbow piece.
The bucket filled to the brim with assorted pieces before I once again closed the lid. Hina and I then waited for the foundry to do its work and turn the exoskeleton into liquified tal.
“Will you be okay?” I asked Hina as she continually funneled air into the foundry.
Going by her current facial expression, one marred in sweat and contorted in fatigue, I could easily tell that continually using her magic was taking a toll on her mind.
“I’m… hah… I’m fine.” In response, she nodded bitterly. “At first, it was hard- maintaining the air like this, but over ti… hah… it’s getting easier.”
She explained that helping out was actually good training for her. Like with her [Pyrokinesis] and earth control, which had grown while we were building the foundry, her [Aerokinesis] and control over air had increased as she continually supplied wind into the foundry. Primarily, this was apparently a good thod of increasing not only Hina’s control over air, but also increasing her [Magic Endurance] stat.
“Also, I discovered that, while simply funneling air into the barrel took up a considerable amount of my mana, revolving the air currently inside the container was much more effective.” She additionally explained. “Not only did it cause the temperature inside to rise at a faster pace, it also improved my control by leaps and bounds while cutting my mana consumption into almost two thirds of what it was originally…
...And this actually gave an idea for a new thod of attack… so I’m more than satisfied.”
Hina smiled knowingly as she turned back to stare at the foundry with sowhat tired, yet satisfied eyes.
I did not say anything further afterwards, and simply waited for the exoskeleton to lt. And lt it did.
As ti passed by, the exoskeleton lted like liquified aluminum and filled the bottom of the steel container with boiling hot, yet sowhat glossy liquid. And as the carapace lted, I continually added more and more new pieces, slowly increasing the amount of liquid tal in the bucket until it was filled almost four fifths of the way to the top.
Now, in order to make a mold for the spears I was making, I was planning on using steel pipes that were originally used as part of the school’s water system. The pipes I was planning on using were 3 inches in diater and were 72 inches in height. Obviously, using sothing this large as a mold would result in a gigantic weapon, a spear that would rival the height and thickness of the pole arm that dropped from the Ipotani Elite, but in a way, this also had its advantages.
After the carapace fully lted, I poured the tal liquid into the galvanized steel pipe. I made sure to cover the end of the pipe so that the liquid would not flow out of the pipe. Doing so allowed the tal liquid to fill the pipe and mold to its shape.
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We waited for about 30 minutes for the liquid inside the pipe to harden. Afterwards, I sliced open the pipe using [Dissection], revealing the tal pole that had taken its shape.
This was the foundation of spear. For now, it was a pole that was slightly smaller than its original mold. asuring around 2.5 inches in diater, and about 69 inches in height, its asurents already towered over its intended owner. What was surprising though was that, despite its overwhelming size, the pole was rather light, asuring only a little bit more than my Customized Cyclops club.
Right now, the pole could hardly be called a spear. It was more like a staff, or a pole arm. In order for it to be called a proper spear, it needed a sharpened edge. In order to achieve this, I welded the tip of a Gila tail to one end of the pole.
With the parts connected, the spear was coming along really well, but I was concerned that due to the original nature of the exoskeleton and its weakness to blunt impact, the resulting weapon would be weak against tanking hits. In order to enforce the pole, I welded a few more additional pieces of carapace onto the pole, and told Hina to use [Heat Projection] onto the pole before I compressed the new pieces down by hamring the new additions firmly into place.
The end result was a spear that strangely resembled a rigid Gila tail.
Gila Spear
A spear slted and crafted out of the exoskeleton from a Black Plated Gila. The crafter’s inexperience has weakened so of the piece’s original potential.
Damage: 60- 75
20 (50) Attack
5 (50) Vitality
Durability: 45/45
[Equip] Skill Bonus
25 Strength
5 Defense
Familiarity: 50
Level Requirent: 15 [Crafter Exempted]
Luckily, the end result was a good weapon that was barely within the level requirents for the two people who needed this weapon.
As I wiped away a frantic cold sweat, I also noticed that much like my ti crafting the armor, I also gained another sub-skill to my [All Purpose Crafting].
Blacksmithing - The beginning foundations to mastering the forge.
With a satisfied smile, I gently placed the newly crafted spear on my work table, along side the finished pieces of armor I had previously created.
****
A few more days had passed, and it was already the 5th day before the Dungeon Boss fight. Throughout this whole ti, I continued to create more armor and spears . Hina worked along side with throughout all the whole process, all the while training her skills and steadily increasing her stats.
In the end, I ended up making seven sets of armor and three spears. Obviously, the armor went to those who could actually equip it, while the ones who couldn’t were given the old Cyclops replica torso armor to use. In addition, the spears went to Kido’s childhood friend, the transfer student, and the teacher from the President’s group, whom I noticed a while ago was pretty bad at handling the sword.
Now, while I finally managed to successfully create new armor and weapons for the others, there was still sothing I needed to do.
As Hina walked into the workshop early in the morning the next day, she quickly noticed that I was already preparing the foundry for use.
“Weren’t we already done?” Hina asked curiously. She had been with throughout the whole process, and knew full well that in terms of armor and weapons, I had no further plans of creating anymore anyti soon.
“Not yet,” I shook my head as I filled the bottom layer of the barrel with fresh coal. “This ti… I’m planning on creating a shield.”
Upon hearing this, Hina’s eyes montarily widened in a daze before realization dawned upon her. This new shield was obviously ant for Cher. Due to the battle with Satou, both of Cher’s shields were badly damaged beyond repair. Up until now, she never had a proper replacent, and had been using an impromptu shield that had been hastily created with the surface of an old desk as her replacent while she practiced and trained with everybody else.
While this makeshift shield of hers was good for practice, and perfect for getting her used to her missing arm, in a real battle, it would be useless. Much less the Dungeon Boss, it wouldn’t even last a fraction of a second against a regular Minotaur.
Cher needed a new shield, and she needed one soon.
Realizing this, a sort of bitter micro expression contorted Hina’s face for a fraction of a second before it instantly shifted, replaced by a resolute glare. With eyes blazing with determination, Hina unexpectedly grasped my hands, causing to jump in surprise, before she stated with as much conviction as she could muster.
“Let help- No, please let help you.”
I was caught off guard by her sudden change in attitude, and for a mont I did not know how to respond. Looking into her eyes, I knew full well what had been bothering her throughout all this ti, but at this mont, it was only now that I realized exactly how deep she had drowned herself in self loathing. I knew for a fact that Cher had not blad Hina for what had happened back then, but I never truly realized just how much Hina had blad herself.
I response to her determination, I slowly nodded, and gestured towards the foundry, before stating, “... then, if I can get your help….”
****
The first thing we needed was a mold.
For the mold, I used the bottom six inches of another empty oil barrel. It was an ideal mold, mostly because the barrel itself had a wide enough diater for a proper shield, and that its circular shape was also perfect for Cher’s current fighting style.
After acquiring the mold, I kept myself busy by digging out a shallow pit inside the workshop. I lined the pit up with so coal before I set it ablaze and placed a tal lid over the pit.
While I was busy creating the pit, the foundry was working at full capacity thanks to Hina’s efforts, and soon, the carapace had lted into liquid tal.
With quick, yet careful movents, I poured the tal directly into the mold, and watched as it slowly took on its circular shape, and solidified into place. This was to be the base of Cher’s new shield, and after the slab of tal had completely cooled, I quickly removed it from the mold, and placed it into the ensuing flas and chaotic embers of the pit.
With Hina’s help, the fire within the pit intensified, and the circular base of Cher’s new shield glowed with a tinge of nacing red.
Once the tal had heated up to a point where it glowed bright red, I quickly took the slab out with a pair of industrial tongs and placed it onto the concrete floor below.
With no ti to waste, I took a hamr, and began hamring down on the piece of tal beneath . Sparks flew, and my face was assaulted with heated air that had enough power to completely evaporate the sweat on my brow even before they had the chance to form.
I hamred away onto the piece of tal, ignoring the numbing sensation that was quickly overtaking my arm. I did this to get rid of the impurities within the shield, as well as to compress it down and make it thinner than it already was.
I continued to hamr away until the tal had began to cool. By this point, the base was less than a fourth of an inch thick, and it was considerably wider than it had been before. Before the tal could completely cool, I placed it back into the pit, while I added new pieces of exoskeleton into the foundry.
Hina operated the foundry at the sa ti she operated the pit. This took a considerable toll on her, but even when I insisted that she rest, she was adamant, and kept working, all the while the resolute expression on her face persisted.
Her determined voice that constantly repeated, “I’m fine, I’m fine,” and “I can still keep going” were both unconvincing yet trustworthy.
After the tal slab inside the pit was once again burning with a bright red glow, I took it out and hamred it down once more. This ti, I folded the tal, before hamring it, and shaping it into what it had originally looked like.
After this was done, instead of putting it back into the pit, I dropped the slab into a liquid solution so that it could cool.
anwhile, a fresh batch of carapace had successfully turned into liquid tal. I placed the cooled original slab of tal - the base of the shield - back into the mold, before I poured in the fresh batch of liquid tal over it.
When it finished cooling, the new batch and the original base had lded together to form one sole slab of black circular tal. I removed this piece of tal before placing it into the pit.
And once again, I repeated the process of waiting for it to heat up before removing it and hamring it down into shape. Unlike before though, I did not fold the tal, but rather, chose to compress it down as much as I could without increasing the diater of the tal.
Afterwards I cooled it once more, as another batch of carapace lted inside the foundry.
Before pouring the new batch of liquid tal into the mold, I placed the original slab of tal back inside, this ti with the newly added layer on the bottom of the mold.
Again, I repeated the process of pouring, cooling, heating, and hamring.
I continually repeated this set of actions for a total of 20 tis. That ant that the original base- the foundation of the shield was surrounded by 10 layers of new tal on both sides. Throughout the whole process I probably burned through 2 and a half worth of exoskeletons.
This was probably the most work intensive crafting I’ve ever committed myself to. Not only was I constantly moving around, from pit to foundry, then back again, but also the hamring itself, which only continually and progressively increased in difficulty as more and more new layers were stacked on top of the original, was quite stamina draining. I ended up devouring 2 stamina potions in order to maintain my uninterrupted work. By the end of it all, both my arms were numb and red with exhaustion. My mouth was dry, and so was my skin, and my mind was covered in a thick haze of exhaustion.
Despite that though, Hina was probably working the hardest out of both of us. Even while she continually funneled air into the foundry, at the sa ti, she went out of her way to increase the flas within the pit. Although her face cramped and her back was drenched in sweat, she did not complain even once.
Even when she reached her limit, and almost ran out of mana halfway through the whole process, Hina still continued and instead used a bellows - one that we had found earlier inside the supply closet of the workshop - to continually keep the foundry at a steady temperature. After she recovered her enough mana, she once again used magic with no hesitation whatsoever.
Throughout all this, the determined expression on Hina’s face did not falter. Rather, that sa expression only envigored as the shield drew closer and closer to its completion.
Due to the excessive hamring, the shield did not end up being excessively bulky, rather, it was less than an inch in thickness, but it did beco way heavier than expected. This was probably due to all the nurous layers that were stacked onto the small surface area available. Because of all these layers, the exoskeletons weakness to blunt impact was negated. While this was indeed a good thing, as expected, the shield had an imnse superiority against bladed weaponry.
With the shield nearing its completion, Hina, who had accomplished 150% of what her body could handle, collapsed onto the workshop floor. Her hair was matted to her face, and her chest continually heaved heavily, up and down, greedily sucking in the heated air around her.
Even while being fully aware of the consequences, Hina had knowingly pushed herself beyond her limits, before finally succumbing to all three, [Physical Exhaustion], [Mana Exhaustion], and [ntal Strain].
Her eyes were barely open, and her skin was red and dry. Despite all this, Hina had on a satisfied smile the whole ti. In a raspy, weakened voice, yet sohow enthusiastic voice, she said, “I’ll leave the rest to you Hide…”
“...” Instead of complaining or asking for help, in her current situation, Hina had instead given words of encouragent. No, they weren’t words of encouragent, but rather words that continually urged towards the completion of the shield. They were selfish, unassuming words that cared not for my own physical well being.
I could not help but smile at this realization. “Good job today, Hina.” I responded, not caring that Hina had just passed out a few seconds ago and probably couldn’t hear , “You can rest easy now, I’ll be sure to handle the rest.”
****
After the completion of the main body of the shield, the next step was to attach a handle. Compared to the almost 10 hour straight hamring session from earlier, this wasn’t that particularly hard of a task to accomplish.
I welded a tal arm brace and a tal handle on one side of the shield. Afterwards, I lined up the insides of the brace and handle with so leather. This was to prevent any chaffing when Cher used the shield, as well as to provide so form of resistance in case the shield got struck by fire or sothing similar.
With the shield handle created, and with its surface smoothed down and sanded, I took a step back to admire it. Unfortunately, the more I looked, the more and more dissatisfied I beca. Sothing was missing.
The shield itself was wide, almost 3 and a half feet in diater. It was indeed a perfect tool for defending, but in the end that was all it was good for. With its circular shape, it had no ans of attack.
Back when Cher had both her arms, she had dual wielded two shields, one which focused on defense, and one which focused on attack. Taking all this into consideration, for her new shield, I needed to fuse both these interconnecting elents of offense and defense into one single shield.
With that idea in mind, I thought about it, and ultimately decided to add a protrusion to the shield.
I took one of the black long swords that the others had acquired and removed the hilt and handle, exposing the sword in all its tal glory, before placing it into the pit to heat up. Due to the constant use it recently went through, the pit was still hot enough to operate, even without Hina’s cooperation.
Afterwards, I removed the arm brace and handle from earlier, and slted a thin layer of leftover liquid tal onto the inside of the shield. This ti, rather than pouring it directly onto the shield, I placed the heated long sword in between the shield and the new layer of liquid tal. This way, once the tal fully cooled, the sword would remain held in place.
I positioned the sword in such a way so that a good foot and a half of it stuck out from the shield’s main body.
When the new layer of tal finally cooled, I further welded the edges of the shield where it connected with the edges of the protruding sword together. This was to further make sure that the sword and the shield would not separate, but instead fuse into one sole object. Afterwards, I reattached the arm brace and handle over the new layer of tal.
The end result was my most well crafted item to date.
After its completion, unlike my previously crafted items, when I used [Identify] on it, a new window panel suddenly blinked into life in front of .
ding!
Please na your newly crafted weapon.
“...” I thought for a mont. While this was certainly new, I took it as a sort of evaluation by the system. This ant that the shield I created was at a level where even the system was forced to admit to the beauty of its design.
While this realization did sowhat stroke my ego, currently, that did not matter. I was faced with a new challenge of naming my new creation. I agonized over it for a few minutes before I ultimately ca to the realization that I was really bad at naming things. In the end, I went with sothing rather simple and easy to rember….
After naming it, a new panel popped up in front of .
ding!
Cher’s Shield
A well crafted shield made with carapace of a Black Plated Gila. It is an unusual shield in that it both emphasizes defense and attack. It can be classified as both a shield with a sword attached, and as a sword with a shield attached.
Damage: 50 - 85
45 (50) Defense
35 (50) Strength
15 (50) Agility
10 (50) Physical Resistance
15 (50) Magic Resistance
5 (50) Vitality
5 (50) Endurance
Durability: 120/120
[Equip] Skill Bonus
30 Strength
15 Defense
(???)
Familiarity: 50
Level Requirent: 45 [Crafter Exempted]
The na aside, without a doubt, this truly was my most well crafted item to date, and as if to prove my point, its level requirent was insanely high.
Unlike my previous shields, [Cher’s Shield] had a damage count, similar to how weapons had a damage count. Additionally, its boosts were insane, not only on a nurical value, but also by the sheer amount of stats it augnted. For , who had an imdiate 50 points added to whatever stats the shield augnted due to familiarity, this was probably the best weapon possible. And if that wasn’t enough, it also gave access to the new stat, [Endurance].
While this shield was indeed amazing, its level requirent was extrely harsh. A level requirent of 45… Without the crafter exemption, even I wouldn’t be able to equip this beast of a shield.
At Cher’s current level, there’s no way she was capable of equipping this. Well, normally that is…
After Cher’s experience with Satou, and after she woke up, Cher learned the new skill I gave her, [Fever Burst]. At the ti, after she successfully learned the skill, she checked her status window, only to find out that she had gained a new title.
And as luck would have it, it wasn’t just any title, but rather a class title. The sa type as Hina’s [Grand Magus], or Cielle’s [Healer]. Cher’s new title was nad [Guardian].
According to her, [Guardian] gave a 50% boost to defense, halved any physical and magical damage she received, doubled her stamina, and gave a 45% decrease in level requirent towards any shield or defensive equipnt. The title itself and its effects aside, the 45% decrease in level requirent ant that to wield this weapon, Cher needed to be at least level 25.
With Cher’s current level of 21, she could not properly benefit from the new weapon, and needed four additional levels.
“If that’s the case, then there’s only one thing to do…” I mumbled silently to myself as the fatigue from the day overtook . While thoughts and ideas of the day to co filled my head, I slumped down next to Hina before closing my eyes and falling asleep, embracing the ntal and physical exhaustion that had long since overtaken my body.
*****
Author's Note: This was a bit taxing to write, primarily because of all the things I had to look up for the crafting part. If there are readers with experience towards the things I've ntioned in the chapter (like with the foundry and stuff), please don't hesitate to point out any mistakes I might have made. While I did try my hand at research, it's still probable that I might have made a mistake.
Anyways, like usual, if you liked this chapter, or like this story in general, please rate and review. I'm not going to lie, CNW is about to hit 400 votes/total ratings and I'm sort of excited for that. >_
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