Change: New World

A Shield For Her to Wield

The next few weeks were spent primarily in preparation for the upcoming battle. For Hina, Cielle, and basically everyone else, that meant 2 weeks worth of nonstop training and stat enhancements. Even the non combatants were subjected to this training. After all, though they were not planning on fighting the Dungeon Boss, it did not hurt for them to get even just a little bit stronger.

For me though, that time was spent somewhat differently. Being the only one capable of crafting, it was only natural that I’d be put in charge of the armor and weaponry. Aside from the various other matters I dealt with during this time frame, I mainly spent my time inside the workshop, doing the monotonous task of creating equipment.

Today was one of those days.

It had been a 4 days since we arrived at the East building, and right now I was glaring harshly at a piece of Gila exoskeleton that laid strewn across my cluttered work table. Truth be told, the Gila Corpses were ideal for weapon production. This especially holds true for their night-clad exoskeleton.

A Gila carapace had texture and properties reminiscent of actual metal, so I was able to treat it in a fairly similar way as to how a seasoned blacksmith treated a raw piece of iron ore. It also had other advantages, like its general light weightedness - which made it an ideal material for armor - as well as its acid resistance. Considering the fact that Gilas in general were the type of monster to create their own biological acid, I did not find this surprising. What came as a pleasant shock though was the discovery that the Gila exoskeleton could resist Cielle’s newly acquired [Acid Clad].

Of course, the resistance was not absolute. Over exposure to [Acid Clad] led to eventual degradation, but all the same, the Gila exoskeleton had worth as a crafting material.

Due to the Gila’s original humanoid shape, a large majority of the exoskeleton was already fitted for human use. This meant my primary job was adjustment and modification in order to turn the already human shaped exoskeleton into something actual humans could use.

Mainly, I had to do something about the size difference - since the average Gila, while rather lithe and skinny, was still much larger than a regular sized human.

Now, Gila exoskeleton was sturdy, which made it perfect for crafting. But it was because of this sturdiness that I could not use my usual method of crafting. The exoskeletons blade resistance made it almost impossible to utilize my [Dissection] skill properly. I could not shave off the excess and shape the exoskeleton like I did with the Cyclops clubs. In the first place, the exoskeleton was practically a metal, so using a dagger to mold it wasn’t all that efficient.

In the end, in order to properly shape and mold the exoskeleton into armor I had to rely on Hina’s assistance. Her magic, especially her control over fire was ideal for crafting, so much so that it would have been impossible otherwise for me to create the exoskeleton armor without her help.

I had Hina use her pyrokinesis to directly heat up the exoskeleton. While the carapace had a naturally high resistance to fire, all the same, like almost all metals, once it was heated to a sufficient temperature, the material became malleable and easier to shape. Reaching this temperature was no easy work. At first, just covering the material in flames wasn’t enough, and even then, this method consumed Hina’s mana at an incredible rate.

It was after several sessions of trial and error before Hina managed to learn a new sub skill of [Full Element] called [Heat Projection]. Like the name implies, [Heat Projection] was an ability that generated heat. Unlike [Pyrokinesis] which controlled fire, this new skill only dealt with the heat portion. In a sense, it was similar to the difference between a microwave and an open flame.

While there was no direct combat usage for [Heat Projection], in terms of crafting and armor creation, it was much more cost effective than when she used [Pyrokinesis]. This allowed her to finally reach high enough temperatures to the point where the exoskeleton’s night clad surface glowed in a fiery red tinge and became malleable enough to manipulate.

With the carapace heated and softened, all that was left to do was to properly mold it. This was a considerably simple task. Using the various tools lying around in the workshop - such as the hammer and chisel, I “sculpted” the carapace into proper armor - or at least something that vaguely resembled armor.

After some modification and a bit of elbow grease, I managed to make the main torso piece out of the original chest section of the exoskeleton. Now, since the original chest section was so much more larger than what I actually needed, I had to cut and separate the material into parts. Afterwards, for the sections around the abdomen, I reattached some of the material by drilling a hole through them using my [Dissect] skill’s [Pierce]. The only reason why I was able to successfully create a hole through the exoskeleton was due to its malleability from the heat.

I then reconnected the separate pieces and held them in place with some steel bolts I found lying around the workshop. This created a sort of hinge that allowed the wearer to actually move and twist their torso along with the armor.

As opposed to just one rigid piece of metal that, while covering the whole body of the person, limited their movement at the same time, crafting the armor this way allowed for more mobility while still maintaining its original defensive capabilities.

I used the leftover parts from the chest piece to create shoulder guards. Meanwhile, I separately crafted the back portion of the armor using other pieces of carapace before later connecting it to the front piece using leather straps I scavenged off various furniture, and jackets lying around the east building.

I created arm guards and elbow pads using the same method I used to create the torso armor. I could not due the same with the leg guards though, mostly because they limited the wearer’s mobility to the point where running and other movements were next to impossible to pull off. Considering the fact that almost everyone relied on rapid movement in battle, this was a fatal flaw in design, and at my current level, I had no means of overcoming it. In the end, I had to limit myself to creating knee braces for the lower half of the body.

After the completion of my first set of armor, I gained the sub skill, [Armor Crafting].