Wuxia - Mtl
CH.224 Let’s get our armor
CH.224 Let’s get our armor
“Good morning, Lua.”
“Good morning.”
As usual, I jumped into the factory in the morning. And I met Lua there. But today, something was a bit different. Someone else was present, who usually wasn’t when Lua was here.
“... so, I guess you can be here at the same time as Lua, right Mia?” I asked the lady who looked like a fusion made of multiple vampire monsters.
“Yes. It is possible now that I was upgraded from basic to standard.” Mia confirmed.
“I can also see things better.” Lua added. “Thought not a lot. The change was bigger when your skill leveled up.”
“Well, it is still nice that both of you can now be here at the same time.” I told them. Honestly, I felt a bit bad for Mia. She was basically just a processor for Lua whenever she came to the factory. … I guess I could say the same about Laura. We really don’t deserve our system supports.
“Yes. I suppose it has its uses.” Mia agreed.
“... so you did it?” I confirmed with Laura.
“Yes. An insulated space where time moves at the regular speed. Where the space is just like anywhere else, outside the factory. And most importantly, items from your storage can be taken out and operated with. After Fantasia leveled up to level 3, it turned out quite a bit easier than we expected.” Laura told me. “We put the forge there and Kotetsu has already gotten to work. However, there are a few things of note. One, because the space follows the rules of the outside world, that includes summoning times. So the monsters can only be there for two hours at a time. And they will still experience regular cooldowns, so you won’t be able to summon them during that time either.”
“Well, of course, right?”
“Yes. Also, Tahlia, Fantasia or I cannot enter that space, as we cannot get summoned like that. I doubt even you can enter it. All we can do is have the monsters summoned there.”
“Can’t Cosmo Queen teleport me there?”
“That might be possible, but we will have to try that.” Laura answered.
“Yeah. Let’s. But it’s not like I really have to enter that space and I really don’t want to be stuck there.” I told her. “So, anything we need for there?”
“Materials. We have the silver we found while mining, and we can also smelt gold and silver coins for those materials. But we don’t have any iron, unless we make it with the dungeon, and that will consume all of your generation points quickly.” Laura said. “Steel, iron, copper, bronze. Possibly other metals, if they are available. Steel and iron are the most important for now, so Kotetsu and the vampires can convert it into blood iron and vampiric steel. I believe it was your plan to have Rhianna’s armor turned from bronze to either blood iron or vampiric steel.”
“Yeah. Sure was. What about the iron weapons Paulina got from the dungeon? I do have them in the storage.”
“How long do you think they will last? Not for long. We just need more. And as money is the less limited resource for us, I’d prefer if you bought some outside.” Laura said.
“Yeah. I’ll do that. I’ll just ask where I can buy steel and iron at wholesale prices. Pick up a few hundred kilos of steel and iron, if I can. How badly do we actually need stuff like bronze and copper, actually?” I confirmed.
“It is necessary.” Laura answered. “While not for the blades, the guards, grips and pommels of swords are often made from copper or bronze. Or other similar materials. Honestly, some high quality wood wouldn’t be bad to have either. We do have the trees from the forest, but they are on the softer side, and might not work for things like sword handles.”
“Well, more to add to the shopping list.” I said, before turning to Lua. “Do you want to come shop with me? Or should I go shopping first and pick you up after?”
“... let’s shop together, if that is fine.” Lua said.
“Yeah. That’s fine. I’ll have to drop by one store with Ria first, then drop her off back at the manor, and then I’ll come pick you up. Also, I know where we can pick up the metals we need. Well, I guess I need it in this case. But you can ask for anything you want. I’ll pay.”
“... then maybe some new clothes? I want something … a bit less colorful.” Lua requested.
“Sure. We can do that.” I agreed. “Even though I like what you have now.”
After breakfast, I left the manor with Ria. We had a meeting at an armor store. After that, I would drop her off at the manor, so she could do stuff with the maids or something. And I had to do that, because of where I was planning on heading with Lua.
I can’t officially bring Ria into another town, because she isn’t deemed stable yet. Her temporary papers are only for Sawyer city. And Yuva was the best place to pick up metal, as it is a mining town. So I was going to go shopping with her, then we would go our separate ways. She’d go back to the manor, and I would be heading over to pick up Lua.
… don’t say it. I know what you want to say. ‘But that will break the rules, just like taking her to Yuva, won’t it? She isn’t allowed to walk on her own, or be separated from you.’
Yeah. I know. And I don’t care, as I have the knight commander's permission to do so.
… technically I don’t, but I’ve done it before and he hasn't said anything, so it's fine.
“Welcome. I’ve been waiting for you.” The female dwarf, Atrea, welcomed us to the store.
“Hi. Are they really ready?” I asked, as this was two days earlier than I was expecting the armors.
“Yes, they are.” She answered. “Let’s have you try them on and if nothing is wrong, you can take them with you.” As she said that, she opened the closet behind the counter and revealed two leather jackets. Well, they were actually leather armor, with metal plates, but they looked like jackets at a quick glance.
The white snakeskin with the red streaks in it looked wonderful. It really came out a lot better than I was expecting.
“Don’t just stare, try it on.” She said, as she handed me my new armor.
I tried it on and it fit perfectly. With my hoodie under it, it was just a bit tight, but without, it was perfect. My armor was one with larger plates. One in the front, one in the back, two smaller ones on each side and then bent ones to cover the outside of my arms. It wasn’t perfect, as it would lead you to be vulnerable at close range, but it was the best for long range fighters, as it wasn’t as heavy as ones that covered more area, while still being able to protect the wearer from most long ranged attacks.
Of course Ria’s was different. Hers had smaller plates, partially attached together and covering almost every part of her upper body. But to keep the weight down, the plates had to be thinner, making the overall protection arguably worse. But honestly, the major difference comes from the materials. Mithril just is that much better than Ria’s bronze. But don’t worry, I’ll turn it into vampiric steel soon.
“Thanks. These are perfect.” I said to Atrea
“Of course. We only make the best.” She answered. “Now for the features. Yours is enchanted to resist ranged attacks, like arrows and magic. It was also lightened, as per your request. Both of them are also naturally fire resistant, because of the crimson boa skin used for them.
Hers is enchanted with extra toughness to make it more durable. But still, the bronze will eventually give away, so you need to keep an eye on it. It can be mended, if it doesn’t break too badly. Other than that, we also added a lightening enchantment, so it won’t slow her down as much.”
“Thanks. For reference, is the metal inside the part that holds the enchantment, or is it the boa skin? Just in case I ask someone else to make replacement metal parts for her armor.” I asked. Of course that was the reason, but I also really wanted to know.
“The boa hide holds the lightening enchantment for both of them, and the metal holds the second enchantment.” Was the answer.
In total, I paid 210 gold coins for them today. And that combined with the 230 I paid earlier, the total cost for our armor was 440 gold coins. A bit less than estimated, which was 462, but still expensive. … well, depends on how you classify expensive.
I signed off on the order form, so that the papers said I had received my armor. I then took Ria’s armor into my storage for … safe keeping, as well as the remaining snake skin and we left the store. There wasn’t much of the snake skin left, but it could be used for patch jobs in the future, so I was happy to have it. Not that I think I’ll need to patch up my stuff as storage will keep it in perfect condition.
And I totally didn’t take Ria’s armor so that I could upgrade it, okay? At least Ria doesn’t need to know that.
I summoned Overdrive, dropped Ria at the manor’s gates and headed for the west gate leading out of the city. Because I was going to be bringing someone in, I left the city the usual way. Aka. I actually went out from one of the gates, instead of just flying over the outer walls. After getting outside the city in Overdrive, I summoned Gradius and flew over to the village.
“Hi, Lua.” I said to Lua after I landed.
“Hello. I love the new jacket. It's from that snake skin Ria gave you, right?” She commented.
“Sure is, we just got them today.” I said. “Ria also has one. Well, it is with me at the moment, but still.”
“Yes, I heard you got Ria one as well. … can you make one for me?” She asked.
“Sorry, but there isn’t enough. But I think we can use the sword-horn bull hide for something.”
“... I guess that will suffice. But honestly, I’m kind of glad that you are wearing something more flashy like that. It will hopefully take some attention away from me.” Lua muttered.
“Or we will get even more stares.” I commented. I guess worth noting is that Lua was dressed in her Grimson dress.
“So, are you ready to go? Anything else you need to pack, or do?” I brought us back on topic.
“No, I already prepared yesterday, so I’m ready to go.” Lua answered. “But we should go say bye to everyone.”
“This isn’t a farewell you know. We’ll come again the day after tomorrow to deliver blood, won’t we?”
“Oh. Yes. I guess we will. But I still feel like we should say something.”
“Of course. And even after we leave the village, we can just fly back whenever we feel like it. It won’t take that long.”
“Speaking of, I see you used the small ship today. Why?” Lua asked.
“Because Gradius is just a bit more fun to fly than Big Core. It’s also faster, as I can go supersonic with it, unlike with Big Core.”
“... I see. But what is supersonic?”
“It means flying faster than the speed of sound. If you do that, it normally causes a sonic boom. But Gradius has ways of mitigating the sonic booms, whereas Big Core doesn’t.”
“... I’m not sure if I got it, but alright.”
“I’ll show you later. It is easier to show you an example than trying to really explain it.” I said. “And we’ll have to go to the town of Yuva for some of the stuff I need, so I wanted the faster ship.”
“Oh, okay. Then let’s go say ‘see you later’ so we can leave.” Lua said.
“Please take care of our Lua.” Rosemary said, as we were saying bye.
“Of course. I promise.”
“Take care.”
“Come visit us again.” The others added.
“Yes. We will.” Lua promised everyone.
We got into Gradius, and I took us up to the sky.
“Wow… I had no idea it could be that fast…” Lua muttered as we landed a little over a kilometer away from the walls surrounding Yuva. I didn’t know this town, so I’m not going to fly straight in or something like that.
“Yeah. Amazing, isn’t it?” Gradius might not be the strongest in combat, but it is nearly unrivaled in mobility.
“Yes. Usually it would take two days on a carriage to reach this town from Sawyer city, but we got here in minutes.”
“Have you visited before?” I asked.
“Yes. A few times. We would come here as adventurer escorts when metal was picked up.”
“I see. Well, let’s head in and see if we can find our stuff.” I said, as I took Lua’s hand and began to walk towards the town.
“... yes.” Lua said, and came after me, tightening her grip on my hand a bit.
For the rest of the way, we talked about Lua’s unique skill. Mainly what was different with it now that it was level 2. It came with a few perks. One, she could now put only parts of her princess dresses away, like her weapon or mantle. She did tell me about that part earlier, as she could do it in the factory even before the skill was level 2, but now she can do it outside as well. She could also mix and match her outfits now. So she could wear her black dress and take the crimson mantle out with it if she wanted to. Her Dhampir Order and Thrall Creation are also now more powerful, so that is a nice addition.
The one new part was Blood Familiar. It allowed her to use only blood, either her own or any other blood, to create a bat shaped familiar. She could communicate with the bats, but she couldn’t do something like vision sharing. At least not yet. Oh, and the communication is short ranged only. No system support voice messaging for that. But she could still make a few bats, have them scout an area and return to her to report their findings.
Sadly, the bats wouldn’t last for that long, and would break apart quickly. Well, depending on the blood used. Something like goblin blood bat would last only for little over 10 minutes, whereas the blood from a D-rank monster would let it stay for about 45 minutes. But that was all Lua knew for now, as she didn’t have time to experiment with the skill that much.
“Did you walk all the way here?” The gate guard asked us as we were getting in. I hadn’t brought out the medal I got from the Earl or anything, we were just getting in as a pair of adventurers.
“Yes.” I simply answered. I had actually come up with a lie about being on some carriage which would have kept going south, but Lua shot it down, saying that for a carriage to not stop here would be more strange than adventurers just walking.
“Alright. Well, welcome to Yuva. Do you need directions to anywhere?” He asked. I have to say, these gate guards are always extremely polite. At least in my experience.
“Yes. We are looking for the metal wholesale store owned by the Hill family. Could you tell us where it is?” I asked.
“Eh. Sir, that store only sells to nobles and high ranking merchants. Are you sure that is where you are going?” He asked, probably looking at us as if we were two morons who were trying to get to a store we had no business getting into.
“Yes. That is where we are going.” I said. “I do have a letter of introduction from Earl Sawyer and I also have this, so I think it will be fine.” As I said that, I revealed my Founder’s terminal that was usually hidden by my sleeve. Of course revealing it from under my new armored jacket was a bit different, but thanks to the slit added to the left sleeve, it could be done.
“I… I apologize, Sir. Of course. It is…” The guard quickly told us which way to head, and let us through.
Come on, I’m not a noble yet. You don’t need to get that scared. And even if I was, I wouldn’t try to get you in trouble. You gave us first class service. Well, at least good quality service. What would I complain about?
With my hand in Lua’s, we walked into the town.
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