Chapter 245: Flame Armor
However, Alex quickly shook his head.
The spell was good, but it wasn’t good enough for Alex. He wanted a better application than a plain, boring shield because a shield like this would need to be controlled by him to move around and block attacks.
Alex took his Will back from the construct, allowing him to change its shape again. He started weaving the Fire-Mana Cables together to form a glove around his hand, then lined the inside with a thin layer of mana to protect his hand from the heat of the Fire Element Mana.
Obviously, twelve mana cables weren’t enough to properly cover his hands and arms, so he created more. He eventually reached his limit at sixteen Fire-Mana Cables, which was a huge improvement over his previous limit and was only possible because he wasn’t compressing the mana inside them to its absolute limit.
Alex wove the cables together to form gloves around his hands and then extended them farther up his arms until the construct reached his elbows. Afterward, he merged the mana cables together, carefully making sure that the seams created by the weaving were no longer visible.
Finally, Alex used his Will to harden the entire construct. He also hardened the thin layer of mana underneath it, making sure that the protective layer would remain strong enough to protect his arms from the Fire Element Mana.
Alex looked at his hands as the Fire Element Mana flowing through the construct caused it to glow red. Since there were no visible seams anymore, the armor almost looked like medieval metal armor, although its red color made it look much more dangerous than anything Alex had seen before.
He tried moving his fingers, but found it difficult to do so. Because he had hardened the entire construct, the joints had become rigid as well, which meant he couldn’t properly move his fingers even though the armor itself was strong.
Alex needed to make changes to the entire spell. He removed the normal mana from the joints and replaced it with elastic mana, then connected the elastic mana to the surrounding Fire-Mana Cables before using his Will to fix the elastic mana into the shape he wanted.
Using Will on elastic mana was something Alex had only learned because of the knowledge he had gained from the Elastic Trap Spell. Even so, removing the normal mana from the joints without damaging the structure and then fusing the elastic mana with the cut threads was extremely difficult.
Sweat dripped down Alex’s forehead as he continued working. His entire focus was on the spell, and he carefully adjusted every joint while making sure the rest of the armor remained stable.
After several minutes, Alex finally finished. He moved his fingers again, and this time the movement was much easier because the elastic mana allowed the joints to bend while the rest of the construct remained hardened.
Alex raised his hand and fired a Mana Bullet at the armor. The bullet struck his arm and ricocheted away without being able to breach the construct, making Alex grin. He then placed his armored hand against the ground.
The ground immediately began to sizzle from the heat.
Alex grin widened when he saw the result. He had created partial armor made from solid Fire Element Mana, and with this spell, he could defend against attacks while using his armored hands to attack his enemies at the same time.
With the spell completed, Alex finally dialed down the Advanced Battle Instinct Spell and took several deep breaths. Only after calming his mind did he notice the notifications that had appeared before him.
[Partial Fire Armor Spell detected.]
[Would you like to learn Partial Fire Armor Spell?]
[Yes/No.]
Alex was happy to see his spell. It was very good. The shock absorption needed to be improved though. Additionally, his current mana pool wasn’t enough cover his entire body in armor. He needed to work on those shortcomings.
[Fire-Mana Weaving Spell has leveled up. Level 1 → Level 3.]
[Sustained Breathing Spell has leveled up. Level 3 → Level 4.]
’Nice!’
Alex couldn’t help but feel happy about the level-ups. He must have forgotten to breathe properly while concentrating on the spell, so the improvement to Sustained Breathing was a welcome surprise.
More importantly, he had obtained the spell for the armor he had just created. Unfortunately, all his spell slots were currently filled, so he couldn’t accept it, although that wasn’t a serious problem because he could still use the spell without putting it on his Status.
’I still want to learn this spell so I can evolve it later. I’ll need to fuse some of my other spells to create space.’
Alex looked at his Status and went through his spells. He quickly found two pairs that could potentially be fused, with the first being Lightning Reflex Spell and Advanced Battle Instinct Spell, while the second was Mana Disruption Blade Spell and Mana Shuriken Spell.
The first combination was appealing because Alex was certain that using Lightning Element Mana to stimulate his brain would be much more effective than using normal mana. Unfortunately, Advanced Battle Instinct seemed to have hit some sort of wall, as it hadn’t leveled up no matter how much Alex used it or what he did with it.
Alex felt that there was some problem with his usage method, but figuring it out would require deep thinking and research. He didn’t have time for something like that right now, so he decided to focus on the second pair instead.
Mana Disruption Blade Spell and Mana Shuriken Spell were spells he had learned only recently, but Alex was confident that he could level them up quickly. Fusing the two would also give him a free spell slot, allowing him to properly learn Partial Fire Armor.
Now the question was how he should train the two spells to get the best possible evolution out of them. Alex thought about it for a while before an idea came to him.
He kept using the Partial Fire Armor around his hands and turned toward the rest of his group. They had already recovered enough to continue, so there was no reason to waste more time resting.
He saw several of them staring at his partial fire armor with surprised and awe-filled eyes.
"How are you all feeling?" Alex asked.
"Good. We can move now," Frank said. His gaze seemed to have improved after Alex had given him another goal to focus on, although the sadness in his eyes hadn’t disappeared.
Frank still looked troubled, but he no longer seemed aimless or as though he was about to break down. The others had also spent some time talking with him, which seemed to have helped him regain some of his focus.
"Let’s move, then," Alex said as he looked toward the tunnels ahead. They had already spent enough time in this area.
Emma looked ahead and noticed the three tunnels leading deeper into the dungeon. She turned toward Alex and asked, "Which tunnel should we enter first?"
Alex looked at the three tunnels without answering immediately. They still had no idea where the Boss Monster was hiding, and choosing the wrong path could waste valuable time, especially when he found it weird that the Boss Monster hadn’t come out to help the other badgers while his group was fighting them.
..
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