Runebound Reverse Tower of The Dead

"It lacks spirit," Andre grumbled as he looked away.

"That still isn’t a denial. You would have done exactly the same thing and then spent the next decade explaining why your version was proper dwarven efficiency."

Andre muttered something in Dwarven that Kael could not understand. The tone told him enough.

He had won the argument, and Andre knew it.

More importantly, Kael had not skipped the learning that made the shortcut possible. Using Brokk’s Hammer from the beginning would only have produced an enormous amount of flawed mesh. He had needed the broken wires, repeated failures, and days spent discovering why energy traveled incorrectly. Without understanding what heating and working did to Malachor Jade, he could never have given the legendary tool the correct instructions.

Kael looked down at Brokk’s Hammer and began to understand why Andre considered it dangerous. It did not merely make crafting easier. The Hammer rewarded understanding far more aggressively than any ordinary tool could.

Ignorance allowed it to create perfect garbage. Proper knowledge collapsed the time required to reproduce a working result.

Kael held one hand toward Andre. "Give me the other ingots. Now that the base structure is solved, I can finish the mesh without spending the next three months trapped in your workshop."

Andre guarded the remaining material with one arm. "Yer enjoying this discovery far too much, which usually means I’m about to lose something expensive."

"I figured out how to use the Hammer without allowing it to replace the knowledge behind the craft," Kael said. "This is exactly the kind of progress you wanted me to make."

"That is when yer most dangerous," Andre replied, although he eventually shoved two Malachor Jade ingots across the table. "If ya destroy them, don’t expect me to replace anything from my personal stock."

Kael caught the ingots and raised an eyebrow. "You have Malachor Jade hidden somewhere in this workshop?"

"No, and that question has nothing to do with the work in front of ya."

"That sounded suspiciously defensive."

"Stop talking and use the discovery before ya forget it."

Kael laughed and returned to the anvil.

The process accelerated dramatically once the base pattern existed. Producing additional mesh became a matter of maintaining concentration and ensuring Brokk’s Hammer reproduced the correct internal structure every time.

Kael refused to become careless simply because the work moved faster. After every large section, he stopped and tested the result with both Fire and Frost. He passed internal energy through the weave, checked its tension, activated Living Memory, and compared the new strands against the original test piece. He only continued when every reaction matched.

The mesh grew one piece at a time. Kael created sections for the back, shoulders, sides, and partial sleeves, followed by long panels that would eventually protect the lower half of the coat.

The completed structure remained considerably heavier than the masterpiece described in Andre’s book. Kael’s wires were thicker, which made the weave denser and prevented it from moving with the same cloth-like softness as the original. It was still flexible and far lighter than plate armor, which was enough for a first attempt.

Refining the design could come later. For now, Kael had created something functional, and that mattered more than matching the work of an ancestor who had spent a lifetime mastering the craft.

When the final mesh section covered the table, Kael stepped back and studied everything he had made. "Now I need leather. The design recommends drake hide, so I assume you have some lying around beneath all the wine."

"Drake leather is not something ya find beneath a wine bottle," Andre replied without looking up. "It is what the original masterpiece uses, though, and I assume ya didn’t bring any."

"I don’t have drake leather," Kael admitted. "How difficult would it be to buy enough for the coat?"

Andre laughed as if Kael had asked whether the Tower sold immortality near the entrance. "Drakes aren’t wandering around Floor Two waiting for someone to skin them. Climbers strong enough to hunt them rarely return here, and those who do know exactly what their materials are worth."

"So it would be expensive."

"Expensive enough to make ya reconsider how attached ya are to having skin."

Kael considered that answer before shrugging. "Then I’ll use leather I already own."

He opened his inventory and removed the old Journeyman’s Leather Jacket. The Black Basilisk leather was worn, cut, and repaired in several places, yet much of the material remained usable.

Andre ran his fingers across one damaged section. "Black Basilisk isn’t the second-best material for this design, if that is what ya were hoping."

"It’s still the second-best option I currently own."

"That much is true," Andre conceded. "The hide is flexible, durable, and handles changes in temperature well. More importantly, ya already understand how it behaves."

Kael smiled as he looked between the jacket and the Malachor mesh. "Then I can dismantle it and use the surviving material as the foundation."

"Aye. It won’t reproduce the masterpiece, but it can become something suited to ya."

The decision felt stranger than Kael expected. The jacket had been one of the first proper pieces of equipment he ever created, and he remembered the Black Basilisk, the scales, and his crude experiments with Fire. He even remembered his surprise when the Tower classified the completed armor as Epic.

That jacket had carried him through more battles than it had any right to survive. Keeping it unchanged out of sentiment, however, sounded like a good way to get killed while wearing a pleasant memory.

Kael removed what remained of his damaged equipment and began taking the jacket apart. He opened the seams carefully, removed unusable sections, and separated the surviving Black Basilisk leather into panels rather than destroying the entire piece.

More preserved Basilisk hide came from his inventory. Kael had kept the material since the early Floors because throwing away useful monster parts caused him something close to physical pain.

Andre examined the growing collection and shook his head. "Ya have been carrying this much old hide through the Tower? Yer a hoarder."

"I’m prepared," Kael corrected. "There is a meaningful difference."

"Yer a hoarder who prepared an excuse in advance."

"That is still preparedness."

The reconstruction began with the old jacket serving as a foundation. Its general fit remained useful, although Kael extended the lower half until the new coat reached below his knees. That length would protect more of his legs without interfering too heavily with his movement.

He left much of the upper chest open. Part of that decision came from preferring freedom around his shoulders, while the rest concerned the wide arm movements required by the Demon Fist. A fully closed design might have offered more coverage, but armor that restricted his techniques would create its own vulnerability.

The Black Basilisk leather formed the outer structure, while the Malachor mesh rested beneath it. Kael used Brokk’s Hammer carefully, not to fuse the two materials into a single rigid object, but to establish the proper relationship between them.

The leather and mesh needed enough independence to preserve flexibility while still functioning as parts of the same completed structure.

CLANG!

Both materials settled into alignment beneath the Hammer. Kael pulled, twisted, and bent the connected section before sending energy through it. Nothing separated, and neither layer dragged against the other.

He continued adding leather and mesh as the days passed. Each completed section was tested before he moved to the next, until the coat began taking shape across the table.

The scales proved more difficult.

The masterpiece used thousands of meticulously shaped pieces arranged in specific overlapping directions. Kael lacked enough high-quality Basilisk scales to recreate that design, which forced him to improvise with whatever remained from his old armor.

He cut the surviving scales into smaller pieces and discarded those damaged beyond use. The best sections went over the areas most likely to receive direct attacks: the shoulders, ribs, upper back, and sides.

Andre watched him position one of the scales and frowned. "That piece is sitting too close to the next one. Move it before the overlap catches whenever ya rotate yer shoulder."

Kael stopped and looked toward him. "I thought you decided not to help."

"I’m saving myself from having to look at something ugly for the rest of the week," Andre replied. "Move the scale."

"That explanation still counts as helping."

"Call it whatever ya want after ya fix it."

Kael adjusted the placement and tested the shoulder again. The overlapping pieces moved without catching, and Andre responded with a satisfied grunt.

That was as close to praise as Kael expected.

The coat gradually became a complete piece of equipment. It was long, black, and heavy compared to ordinary clothing, yet surprisingly comfortable once its weight spread across his shoulders. The Malachor mesh moved beneath the leather instead of fighting against it.

Kael tested the sleeves by raising both arms, rotating his shoulders, and throwing several slow punches. Nothing caught against his body or restricted the movement. The lower panels also shifted naturally around his legs, allowing him to step and turn without becoming entangled.

Once the structure was complete, Andre brought out a thick black compound. Kael examined it suspiciously as the dwarf placed the container beside the coat.

"That looks like paint," Kael said. "Please tell me we didn’t spend all this time making armor just to finish it with paint."

"It stains, seals, and preserves the leather," Andre replied. "Calling it paint does not make ya clever."

"So it’s expensive paint with additional properties."

Andre ignored him and began working the treatment into one panel. Kael joined him before the dwarf could complain further.