FORTY-ONE
“Exiting the lane,” Benny’s voice was clear in the helt as Kon breathed deeply of the recycled air of his suit’s rebreather system. The final checks were being run by Bob in the armory and from the pleased look on the armorer’s face, it looked like he was good to go.
“Now rember. If you run out of cores to power the suit’s external functions, the leech runes will draw upon your own strength. From what I’ve been told you have a lot more than most, but a suit will drain you,” Bob warned as he tugged hard on a few pieces and smiled when they didn’t budge.
Kon nodded and thought over the runes Bob was talking about. The suit wasn’t so much armor as a well armored set of arrays that could be utilized to increase his lethality. The sleeve that his inner suit would eventually go in was the thick armor that could shrug off most anything, but it was this inner suit that gave him the majority of his offensive power.
“Rember, clench the thumb and flex the forearm at the sa ti,” Bob cut off as Kon did so, letting a fifty centiter blade spring from his bracer. It was made of treasure alloy but looked like crystal jade, runes perfectly etched along it. Bob smiled and clapped Kon on the shoulder as Kon gave a sharp twist while turning his pinky and the blade retracted.
“Blade in both bracers, spikes on the spine if anything gets you that way. Boots are magnetic but currently voice activated. Five hours of clean air, after that the air gets a little stale but still functional for another hour. Curved blades along the forearms that are good for raking your foes,” Bob showcased this by throwing a close aim punch.
“Of course there’s targeting arrays in the helt, along with multiple different visions, thermal, low-light, UV, and so others that you’ll have to explore. I even got a semi-functional rift energy detector in it. Where was I?” Bob said as he fought the urge to stray off into talking about his invention. Kon smiled from the anonymity of his opaque faceplate.
“Self-healing armor, if given enough ti and cores. Similar to Knight Roose’s crystalline shield, the tal can heal back into place as long as the runic frawork isn’t destroyed. Which would require the destruction of both the physical and the taphysical frawork. Knights, cultivator techniques, and mageworks is about all that can do it. Or overwhelming strength like a capital ship’s cannons. Don’t stand in front of those,” Bob said with a laugh.
“All of these are close range weapons for personal defense. Will every Knight’s armor be like this?” Kon asked as he flexed his neck and hunched his shoulders. He could hardly feel the spines deploying but the mirror showed twenty long conical spikes had just erupted from his back.
“Yes and no. Most Knights are in their exo suits, which are better equipped to deal with close range threats with their enhanced strength and defense. Inner suits like this are all about keeping the Knight alive. The best way to defend yourself from long range attacks like heavy weaponry, artillery, or even powerful wide ranging cultivation techniques is by being unseen and knowing the attack is coming. Your suit has an active camouflage ability that reflects light. It’s not perfect, but from a distance you’ll fool most people. There are also several stealth features that will cloak you from technology and a few runes that help you against weaker cultivators or Knights. As always, the stronger one becos the harder it is to deceive them. I borrowed several of Benny’s personal designs in your suit since you’re a close range brawler.”
“Benny’s suit is designed for stealth, right?” Kon asked. The battered and dented suit that Benny wore around everywhere was obviously an inner suit, but Kon had yet to see his sleeve.
“Don’t put in uncomfortable positions. Armorers do not talk about personal suits they make. But you have eyes and a brain. Benny has helped with so of the designs, both technological and runic, that help you move unseen. When the full suite is active, no one is going to see you until you are upon them. Works well for a close range fighter like you,” Bob said and Kon took the rebuke without another word.
“There’s plenty of storage areas for you to personalize your kit along with hard point attachnts for things like the grenade launcher and spare ammo packs.” Bob stopped to point at the shoulder mounted grenade launcher. The conical tube would go to his right shoulder blade and be slaved to his HUD to fire on what he fixed his gaze on. The grenades had a feeder system that was in the armored pack that would be on his back. Kon had to make sure he didn't accidentally trigger the spikes on his spine and cause an accidental explosion.
“I was able to do so work on Ignacio’s and your idea. Mostly with Alexandros’s help. The exo suit will be better suited for it long term, but the first iteration of Mage Armor is in your suit. Mage rigs are treasure alloy that act like a lighting rod for the excess energy of channeling rift energy. This keeps the feedback mages suffer to a more acceptable level. As a Knight you can’t draw rift energy in, your runes will gobble it up instantly.” Bob paused as he looked for Kon’s confirmation.
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“That sounds about right,” Kon said. Every ti he pushed his body cultivation they had needed to flood and overwhelm his runes with energy to begin working on his body and that had been before Condense had settled. With the monstrous greater rune in his body, Kon didn’t think that thod would work any longer, but he had so good theoretical leads on what could be done.
“How do we get around this problem? Your body needs to interact with the rift energy, but at the sa ti it can't touch it to do the magework. You are currently getting around it with the absorb rune, which is limited by a single type of energy you can draw upon at a ti. Can’t draw thermal energy to you using a formula that affects space now, can you?” Bob said with a laugh.
“I don’t actually know. I don’t see why not? Probably would be very energy inefficient,” Kon said as his mind started to think of the mathematics formula that Alexandros had been training him with. That sothing as esoteric as a field called mage craft could be broken down by complex mathematics was disappointing, but knowing them would allow him better control in the future. Bob licked his lips as he frowned a bit, keen mind already running over problems that would cause.
“I don’t think that changes much right now. Instead I had to adapt your rig a bit by enchanting dozens of runes along the fra before installing it into your suit. There’s a secondary display inside of your HUD that shows its integrity. Unlike your armor it doesn’t have a self-repair function and it can be easily damaged by physical ans. On the other hand, almost any type of rift energy attack will hit it and be absorbed up through D-grade. After that, ehhh,” Bob waggled his hand side to side and Kon knew he was going to be doing his best to stay out of any attack range.
“Insert the cores you want to use in the armor sockets and the rig will have direct access to them. You should be able to manually activate the absorb runes inside of the rigs. Here is where it gets tricky, the rig will hold the energy instead of passing it to you. This limits what you can do for formulas, but I worked with Alexandros to figure out which are the most common runes for the formula you currently use. No energy will enter you from the rig, instead you’ll have a series of runes that you’ll activate as you redirect it into formula. There are many drawbacks to this system,” Bob said and Kon nodded along already thinking about what they were.
“There’s no intent drawn into them, is there? I’ll have to try to force the intent on pre-cut runes while directing energy currents that are outside of my body,” Kon hazarded a guess and Bob nodded.
“That and the lack of flexibility. At best this rig is a crutch for you while we design a better thod for you to properly use your mage abilities. It’ll be a strain on your willpower along with being energy inefficient. It is a mark one design though,” Bob said with a shrug.
“Your suit has plenty of interior monitoring systems for your body and health, radioactivity sensors, and a whole slew of other tricks. Have you read the manual I made?” Bob asked and Kon bobbed his head. The six hundred page manuscript had been enough to make his head spin but he’d read it front to back three tis and had taken notes.
“Good. I will want feedback on how your suit handles Condense. Can’t have the damn armor condensing as you move around. Not unless you want to be a paste?” Bob said, a wide smile on his face through his bushy beard.
“Not exactly high on my priority list,” Kon said and Bob laughed and patted his arm as he went off to go check on Alice who had been suiting up one room over. Kon let him go as he turned to look himself over in the mirror. It had been a battle the entire ti not to stare at himself, but now without Bob’s judging gaze, he let himself admire the sleek appearance.
It wasn’t the bulky heavy armor that Titan’s Resolve had used. Those monstrous tanks had used Regrowth and Resonance to stand in front of waves of fire and death and co out of it unscarred. Nor was it as sleek and utilitarian as Benny’s suit was; ant for discreet works in the dark. Kon’s was sothing in between that honored both of the heritages that had ford him.
Mottled gray armor with black trim that gave his outline a sinister look, a full faceplate of blood-red crystal that was impossible to look through. There was a heft around the shoulders, chest, and fists. A reinforced layer that was ant to take attacks and repulse them. Runes were carved on the interior of his fists, ant to strengthen and enhance the montum of his strikes while his chest and shoulders had runes ant for strength and durability.
His ribs and stomach were wrapped around in sleek plates, shifting and undulating with his every movent to allow him complete flexibility. His legs were so of the least armored with reinforced panels on his shins and top of his feet and the interior of his thighs where there were arteries.
With how thick the boots were he stood an extra ten centiters taller than normal, looked broader through the chest and shoulders than his build could possibly handle. There was an intimidating air to being encased in the layer of armor, lethality manifest as Kon preened to himself.
“Wow, he’s all grown up,” Alice's voice ca from behind and Kon had to force himself not to jump as Alice strutted into the room and Kon caught his breath at the sight of the juggernaut in front of him.
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