After Blue applied an armor plate to its smaller skeleton's arm, Red ca over and inspected, though it seed more curiously inquisitive than impressed.
Jay watched silently, as he didn't see the skeletons interact like this very often. He didn't realize he why he wanted to understand them, or that these were slowly becoming more like his family than his loyal minions of the death.
Red glanced at Blue, then at the dug up dirt mold, back to Blue and nodded. It checked the armor plate one more ti and then glanced at Blue again. Blue titled its head to the side as it gazed back at Red.
One of Red's skeletons ca over and lifted its arm up. Both Blue and Red grabbed its arm and inspected it. Red's guardian skeleton had slightly thicker bones compared to Blue's and was slightly taller.
Blue pointed at the dirt mold, then back at Red's sub-skeleton.
Jay simply watched them in amazent. If not for their bones and voiceless communication, they seed almost human. However, it was hard to tell if they were arguing, encouraging, or giving each other advice. For a mont, Jay thought that Blue may have simply been imitating him.
After nodding, Red went away, and began tearing apart so moss, digging its own hole. It took the bone plate Jay had crafted and began compacting the dirt into another curved bone plate shape, except it was slightly wider.
"It must be making a thicker version for its guardian skeletons." Jay guessed.
Blue and Red both went back to crafting, each of them lting bones and making bone plates.
Jay waited patiently for them to bone-forge as more exp notifications appeared, which was a promising sign as they were all less than 10 exp, aning there wasn't anything too dangerous out there.
[8 Exp] [5 Exp] [5 Exp] [5 Exp] [8 Exp]
"Seems like it's safe enough, but I'll at least wait until Blue covers it skeleton in armor plates. I want to know just how much it can add to the skeleton's body." He thought, and also didn't want Asra realizing that he was stalling so he could let the skeletons craft and scout so more.
(Don't co out of the fog until I'm ready for you to return.) Jay ordered Lamp and Handy, after getting so more exp notifications.
[8 Exp] [10 Exp] [20 Exp] [8 Exp]
"Seems like there are so stronger things out there, but twenty exp will an it's only level one or two, and the skeletons slayed it so it can't be that bad… But there's a problem with my reasoning - if they co across sothing too strong to kill, they will either die or flee, aning there will be no exp notification… Hmm… Thankfully, there are no death notifications yet."
Jay casually picked up their armor plates, which they were stacking up into separate piles. There were a few imperfections, little nodules and bumps caused by the dirt molds, and he knew he could make a better product, however he wouldn't be able to keep up with two skeletons crafting, and on a larger scale it would be a waste of his ti. At least until they ran out of mana, which wasn't too long after.
As a guardian, Red had 11 mana, while as a skeletal sergeant Blue had 14, though Blue had used so of its mana already.
Blue crafted three more plates, while Red had crafted five, which told Jay that with this dirt-mold technique, they were only using two mana for each piece.
"So efficient" Jay nodded.
After they ran out of mana, they waited a mont for so to regenerate and applied the plates to their smaller skeletons.
Blue's skeleton got a plate welded onto each of its forearm and another on each of its upper arms.
"Maybe I should rethink the entire way I design skeleton armor. Perhaps my thinking has been too human-centered…? I've been making it for myself as much as I have for them, but I could have just been bolting or welding plating directly into their bones. Perhaps they are considered spectral when they are designed solely for skeletons; maybe that's why the barbute bone helts aren't spectral and don't give bonus health?" he guessed.
"Perhaps I should have the skeletons craft them so head armor and see what they make, then I can improve the design… I doubt welding their current helts to their skulls would make them spectral, though." He thought, glancing at their bone barbute helts.
"But it's good to see that when their class reached level five, their armor changed slightly, making it look different."
Jay also noticed that Blue's body armor seed more angular and pointed, while Red's had beco slightly thicker with a thicker trim around the outside.
Yet this was only true of their vambraces and greaves, as that was the only body armor they had.
"I wonder how much Heavy's armor will change." He thought, glancing at the heavy bone chest piece he made for it. "It seems that the longer they have the armor, the more it changes to suit themselves? Maybe? If that's so, then the earlier they get armor, the better… Well, it's just a guess, anyway. I'll have to see how much more it changes now that they've received their class. I'm sure I could raise a kind of armorer skeleton later, but for now, I have what I have."
Red added a plate to each upper forearm of its two guardian skeletons, and another to the upper leg of one of them.
"Hmm… no plating on the forearms or low legs?" Jay raised a brow, wondering if it did this on purpose or because it ran out of armor plating.
"I suppose I'll have to see when its mana cos back."
Jay checked around to see what the other skeletons had crafted. Dark, yet apart from the defensive spikes Sweeper was making, there wasn't much else.
(Alright, let's get ready to move again.) Jay said, adding all the bones back to his gauntlet.
Sweeper collected its defensive spikes, not wanting to let Jay take them this ti. However, it had no way to carry them, and to the skeleton's chagrin, Jay ended up stashing them, anyway.
(I'll save them for you, Sweeper.) Jay added, winking at his displeased skeleton.
The scouts, which were Lamp, Handy, and four of Blue's sub-skeletons, had not returned, so Jay had Sweeper and Blue carry Asra while he stayed on foot.
Jay approached the wrapped up noon-leather blanket and whispered into it.
"We're about to enter the fog, but it's moving and shifting. The sun may peek through, so I would wait a little longer while we walk deeper into it before coming out."
"Mm." Asra mumbled back, sounding a little frustrated.
Jay ordered Handy to co back, but left Lamp out there, hunting and scouting as it pleased.
(Blue, send your two sub-skeletons following Handy out to kill whatever they find.)
He left Lamp out as he wanted to see how big the fur patch on its back would get, and a part of him felt bad for letting Lamp lose its human skin suit in the dungeon.
Jay sensed Handy coming back, so he gave an order to Blue.
(Blue, get us into travel formation.)
Blue nodded back as it arranged the skeletons in a defensive marching formation.
Behind Jay, Blue and Sweeper carried Asra.
In front of Jay, Red took the lead with its tal shield and squire armor ready to face off against any threat, and its two guardian skeletons stood on either side of it.
Archers and Heavy stood at Jay's back-right side while Dark stood at the other.
Finally, Blue had its armor-plated sub-construct standing at the very back of the party.
"Good." Jay nodded approvingly, seeing that they defended him from every side, and with Lamp and four sub-skeletons out scouting and hunting, he was sure they would find most of the lurking hidden threats before they could even mount an assault. And just before Jay was about to step into the fog, Handy stepped out, causing Jay to pause for a mont.
"Handy… what happened to it…" he thought, seeing his champion skeleton looking… not so heroic.
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