Chapter 568: Upgrades
"Haaa... a brand-new set of Spirit Armour, reduced to scrap after just 6 days... that has to be a new record," Braxton Levitt grumbled, sounding half exasperated, half impressed.
Although it was far from the finest masterpiece he had ever crafted, Christina’s new armour was hardly a shoddy product.
While it had several new, and even experimental aspects to it, it was a legitimate Low-Rank Grade 1 Spirit Armour that should have been more than sufficient for Christina to use for a few years without issue, yet after a single deployment, it had come back to the Balfour Family forge in pieces.
The beast leather and triple-woven cloth under-layers had been torn in multiple places, and the Spirit Iron chestplate, pants, gauntlets, and pauldrons had all either been seriously dented or outright cracked.
Worse-yet, every single engraved Spirit Array had been severed or burned out.
Only the armour’s boots were still fully intact, scuffed up a bit, but intact none-the-less.
However, knowing that the princess had fought half-a-dozen Sea Establishment Realm Practitioners and suffered attacks from not one but two Complete Mid-Rank Initiates, Braxton could understand how this armour had wound up in such a pitiful state.
He wasn’t angry. Far from it.
The point of armour was to protect someone from harm, and seeing how Christina was alive and well, the old Spirit Smith figured both he, and this Spirit Armour, had done its job.
Christina’s weapons were in somewhat better shape, only needing some minor repair work; but regarding this armour, it would probably be better for him to break it down for raw materials, scrap whatever couldn’t be saved, and start fresh.
It would be a lot of work, but Braxton was actually looking forward to this task as it would give him more opportunities to experiment.
Ever since he had met his little friend, Lucas, a kindred spirit in every sense, the old man’s eyes had been opened to a whole new world, no, a whole new universe of possibilities!
New alloys, new forging methods, new machine tools, new smithing techniques, it seemed like the boy was a limitless source of inspiration and ideas.
Even when it came to Spirit Arrays, Lucas had a wildly different way of looking at them that had sparked no small number of innovations over the past few months.
Braxton hadn’t had this much fun in the forge in over 100 years!
What’s more, the lathes, milling machines, metal presses, and other ’power-equipment’ as Lucas liked to call it, had made life for every blacksmith in the Balfour Family’s Misty City forge 10 times easier, especially when it came to producing copies of already existing parts.
Christina’s Spirit Armour had actually benefited greatly from these as well. Even Braxton could hardly believe how quick it was to forge a qualified product once all the new equipment was properly employed in the process.
That being said, it was obvious now that Low Grade 1 Spirit Armour wasn’t going to cut it.
Whether this was due to Christina being reckless, or simply her being unlucky, it seemed her near future was destined to not be peaceful.
As for her distant future, Braxton didn’t even want to think about that. All he knew was that he needed to improve his own skills and strength as a Spirit Blacksmith if he wanted to continue forging equipment for her.
Setting aside the future, Braxton moved over to a rather messy shelf in his office stacked with various books, scrolls, and papers.
After rifling through things for a bit, he soon found the original design for Christina’s armour. He then pulled out some fresh paper from nearby and began sketching.
Regarding the armour’s fit and functionality, Christina had reported to him that it had basically been perfect, allowing her full-range of motion and excellent protection while not feeling heavy or cumbersome.
This meant he could keep the same dimensions and roughly the same design.
The materials, however, would need to be upgraded.
Instead of using a mix of Peak-Rank Mortal Grade Tier 4 and Low-Rank Spirit Grade Tier 1, everything would need to at least be Low and Mid-Rank Spirit Grade Tier 1 this time.
Tapping his charcoal pencil, another of Lucas’ innovations, against the paper, Braxton mulled over what leathers and metals of that Grade he had in stock before jotting down a few possible combinations he thought would be suitable.
He then focused primarily on how to forge and shape the metal pieces while passing most of the tailoring and leatherworking off to a colleague of his.
Unfortunately, there were no Spirit Tailors in Misty City, so there was no way to integrate Spirit Arrays into the cloth or leather pieces of the armour. The only way to do that would be to head to Rockwell City or Amherst and ask the tailors there.
While this would certainly improve the quality of the finished armour, it would also greatly delay its creation. As such, the old Spirit Smith decided to skip it for now.
In any case, Christina would be heading to Amherst in the near future, so as long as he provided the appropriate specifications, the Spirit Tailor working for the Roth Family would surely be able to weave in the necessary Spirit Arrays.
Speaking of Spirit Arrays, since he was upgrading the metals he was going to be using, Braxton figured he could also upgrade the engraved Spirit Arrays. He might even be able to add a third Array, on top of the Solidification and Temperature Control Arrays.
Doing so would require a large amount of Spirit Qi to operate, but even if Christina’s reserves as a Fourth Step Sea Establishment Practitioner weren’t big enough, that could be made up for with some additional Spirit Crystals.
It wasn’t like the princess or her Master were poor, after all.
As for which Array to add, Braxton was at a loss. There were plenty of protection-type Arrays which might be useful, but none of them was really as good as the Solidification Array which dramatically improved the metal’s resistance to damage for a short period of time.
Some nobles liked having self-cleaning or rust-proofing Arrays applied to their armours, but Braxton considered that to be a waste as regular maintenance could replace them fairly easily.
"Little Tina said she had to fight hand-to-hand quite a bit during the last incident," Braxton muttered to himself, "Maybe some kind of offensive Array would be best?"
With the appropriate materials, like an Elemental Attributed Gemstone or certain types of metals infused with Elemental World Qi, things like throwing fireballs, blades of wind, or even icicles were possible, but not only did that tend to consume a ridiculous amount of Spirit Qi, it often wasn’t as effective as just throwing a dagger or punching with your fist.
Again, it was just a waste.
He wanted to add something that increased Christina combat capabilities, not detracted from them.
Wait, elemental metals, stopping power? Braxton suddenly had a wild idea, one that a year ago he would never even have considered.
Now, however, thanks to a certain eccentric young boy, Braxton’s world-view had expanded greatly, as had his knowledge of certain offensive abilities.
As the idea came together in his head, and he went over and over it again to evaluate if it was both possible and practical, a maniacal grin began forming on Braxton’s lips, one that if anyone else was there to see it, they would know meant trouble.
Grabbing a small rubber knob from this desk, Braxton began erasing whole sections of the armour as he began a substantial re-design.
If he wanted this new idea to work, it would require much more than just engraving a new Spirit Array, he would need to replace several pieces of Christina’s armour with new ones, then find a way to compensate for the extra weight and bulk so as not to affect its overall performance.
It would also require quite a bit more effort on his behalf to make sure the Spirit Array lines were properly oriented and conditioned so that when activated, the flow of Qi was both smooth and sufficient to deliver the desired effect.
Even Christina’s weapons would need some upgrades in order to be compatible with the new armour effect.
This would be an enormous challenge, but Braxton was confident he could pull it off.
"I should bring Lucas and the others in on this," Braxton muttered, "I’m sure they’ll be more than happy the help."
And so, the eccentric old man began plotting how to integrate a new, dangerous ability into the young princess’ armour.
No one had asked him to do anything remotely like this; in fact, the only ask Christina had made was for her original armour to be repaired, but now that Braxton had gotten started, he sure as hell wasn’t going to stop!
Christina would surely appreciate his genius!
And on the off-chance that she didn’t, he could just blame it all on Lucas!
The boy liked getting beaten up by her anyways!
What could go wrong?!