Bab 183: CHAPTER 183(The Toy Box)
Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
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CHAPTER START---
"Ok, so whatcha got for us?" Yang asks as he enters the forge.
Seeing both Welf and Thalie standing in front of three chests, each with their personal symbols, he walks over to join them.
"You're late," Welf says.
"Hephaestus said Freya needed to get to her familia so I had to carry her," he explains.
"Alright, with everyone here, you two can open the boxes now," Welf says.
"Finally," Thalie says as she quickly crouches down to open the chest.
Both men look over to her instead of opening their own, they immediately recognize the shape of the yellow armor within as she pulls out the helmet. What Yang would recognize as a stylized roman helmet with matching full plate armor. Dozens, if not hundreds on interlocking plates colored with black and gold. The top of the helmet is a distinct bright red. As she puts it aside and takes out the breastplate they notice the armor itself has no gaps, not even eye holes.
"Wow," Thalie says in amazement, running her hand along her new armor.
"Thank you," Welf gives her a proud smirk. "I made these based on some designs Yang gave in his book. The sketches were called the 'Arkham Knight Armor,' whatever that means. But I took inspiration from all the smaller interlocking plates over an inner layer. Plus the other types of armor he described from his world are all thinner but more effective than iron."
"That's not all," Thalie says as she lifts the helmet. "This thing is probably what, eight pounds by itself, well over double even the thickest adventuring helmet but standard size.
"And probably way more durable, right?" Yang asks.
"That's something I noticed recently actually," Welf says. "See the thing with the Switch-Axe is only Yang can use it because you need to be able to anchor yourself to the ground or a spot in the air, it's an exclusive weapon because of that alone much less the magic properties, just the 240-pound weight of it is too much."
"Uh-huh, my weapon doesn't make sense we've been over this," Yang says.
"Exactly my point," he opens his own chest to take out a sleek black helmet with two red accents on the solid face of it and hands it to Yang, "see it's way to heavy for anyone else right, but we're high-level adventurers. A ten-pound helmet isn't really anything for us, just like adventuring greatswords are way too heavy for normal people, we're just as far beyond regular adventurers as they are to normal people."
"So we can just make the impossible work for us," Thalie says. "It makes sense, if we wore two hundred pounds of armor Yang and I can easily fight all day in that, Welf can probably handle a standard day in the dungeon in it too."
"Exactly," Welf says. "Smiths and adventurers alike still think of themselves as some kind of human, but just like Yang says. We're freaks so we really aren't like them. We can punch dragons and swim in lava, we're pretty far from being normal. The fact is that besides the three of us other people aren't extreme enough because they can't afford to be. But we can, so let's do just that."
"Agreed," Yang says before gesturing back to Thalie's armor. "So what do these do exactly?" he kneels down to open his own chest.
Within is a set of jet black armor, a faceless helmet with no eye holes, and much less metal plating than both Thalie's and Welf's. While Welf had red accents and Thalie had gold he'd expected his to have blue only to be disappointed.
"Well obviously they provide protection far above the norm," Welf says. "They also have a lot of enchantments, see each plate can be removed individually so they were all enchanted separately then put together. That way if some break it doesn't just stop working. They protect from hot and cold so we shouldn't have much of a problem getting back to the Xixecal, well aside from Yang's."
"Of course," Yang groans. "So what about mine makes it difficult this time?"
"Nothing actually. I couldn't layer the environmental and elemental enchantments on top of each other. One fights the other. If I used the environmental enchantments your Mage Armor skill would destroy it in any big fight so I made your armor at least able to let your elemental magic flow through it to get out, it'll also match the color," Welf says.
Holding up the helmet Yang uses his fire magic, the grooves of the black helmet glow a bright blue for a moment before he stops it. "Ok, that's pretty awesome. Anything else?"
"Yeah, the helmets act as Message Rings to each other and Hephaestus, that's a problem we kinda had against the Xixecal so I went ahead and dealt with it," Welf says.
"That's perfect, no more snowstorm issues," Thalie says. "But what about seeing, these things don't have a way to see out."
"Just put it on, trust me," Welf says with a cocky smirk.
Sharing a cautious look with each other both Thalie and Yang put on their helmets.
Thalie's immediately glows with a soft gold light where the color is and before her eyes, the black visor seemingly disappears. "Wow, what the hell," she tries to touch her face only to feel the metal on her hand. As if there was an invisible wall in front of her face.
"It's transparent?" Yang asks.
"Yeah," Welf says. "I'm calling this armor the Faceless Series, I figured out the enchantment Fels used on the Occulus. The visual part at least, not the part that transmits it to something else, still working on that."
"So it becomes see-through when we put it on? That's good, no more snow freezing my face," Thalie says.
"Not see-through, it's a one-way enchantment," Welf explains. "You can see out but nobody can see in, they just see the blank face of the helmet."
"That's awesome," Yang says as he takes off the helmet. "Anything else?"
"For defense, no. But I've been making some pretty fun weapons since I don't need things to be as 'standard' anymore," Welf says with a manic grin as he leads them over to his other project. Walking over to a large metal table he leans on the massive metal cube resting on it. Two feet in every measurement with a small square hole and a sword slit on the top. "This is the converter I was working on," he says proudly.
Both Yang and Thalie share confused looks for a moment before looking back at him.
"Oh, right, I never explained," Welf says sheepishly. "Well basically, I copied the guns from your world into this, kinda."
"Kinda," Yang quirks a brow as he looks at the metal cube.
"Well this isn't the gun more like, something to reload it," Welf reaches to the side of the table and pulls out a standard silver Katana. "Specially made sword goes here," he touches the Katana to the top of the cube, "the key goes here," he shows them the ornate sword-shaped key with runes of every color along it before sliding it into the slot at the top of the cube. "Then a little magic to activate it, "with a moment of intense focus his magic activates the cube, it glows bright white for a moment before transitioning into red and flowing into the blade of the Katana. "And done."
Removing the Katana and the key he shows them the newly made magic sword, "I made reusable magic swords for us, they don't break when they run out of magic and you can recharge them. Kinda like batteries and a gun I guess but you know what I mean, still working on a way to make it smaller...."
As he rambles on and on both his teammates only stare in wide-eyed surprise at what they just saw, another miracle of smithing in less than a year. Even Yang could see how big of a breakthrough this was.
"How did you even do this?" Yang asks.
"Oh, with this," Welf turns back to the cube as Thalie inspects the red Katana. Activating the enchantment at the square hole at the top of it a two-inch metal cube is ejected, glowing with white light that only fills a few millimeters at best. "This is the main battery, it's safe at least since it only responds to me so only I can use this thing. Neutral magic goes into this, I drop this in the main converter, use the key to activate the whole thing, then I can make whatever element sword we need," he says.
"How many of these have you made?" Thalie asks.
"Just a handful, it takes about two days of me pouring magic into the battery just to have enough magic for one sword so I've been focusing on regular weapons with crazy designs," he admits.
"Is that two days of magic?" Yang asks, gesturing to the cube which looks like it barely has any magic in it.
"Yeah," Welf holds the cube out to him, "mind filling it?"
"Sure," Yang holds the cube in his hand and pours neutral magic into it. Before their very eyes, the glow rises from two millimeters to fill the entire two-inch cube. "Damn, definitely felt that," Yang says as he shakes his head to focus.
"Holy crap," Welf says in disbelief as he drops the core back into the converter, "you're still standing after that?"
"Yeah that was only about, maybe a third of my magic at worst," Yang says.
"Yeah well your magic stat is at least 7800 so that makes sense, you might as well be a level nine after all your skills with it," Thalie says as she hands the katana back to Welf. "How effective are these things?"
"Making disposable swords is easier but these save us a lot on resources and can be used as regular melee and full-on magic swords, even if they take a lot longer to make if that's what you're asking."
"It was, what about the regular weapons you made?" Thalie asks.
"Ahh, follow me," Welf says as he turns to lead them toward the Vault.
Entering the main Expedition Planning room they walk over to the massive Orichalcum door of the vault. With a simple touch the Enchantment recognizes Welf and the door silently slides open for them to enter.
Within the vault was as large as any of their bedrooms, with chests of ingots, shaped from all the drop items they've kept. Durandal weapons on the walls as well as Welf's experiments. Books containing his more dangerous designs as well as drawers and shelves of smaller magic swords, the type that became obsolete after their last expedition. After every expedition the scale of the firepower needed to remain relevant in the dungeon increases, and thus Welf replaces all their magic swords, housing the outdated items here.
Between the armor, weapons, magic weapons, drop items, and other items, the value of this Vault was incalculable. Much of these items have never and will never be on any market. The world still had no idea roks exist nor do they know the absurd properties of their talons. Much like many of the other items in their possession.
Leading them to a specific section he gestures to the weapons on the wall. Swords and daggers on one end and larger weapons such as spears and greatswords on the other. Some of the weapons had strange angles and curves that would throw regular people off balance. Some were shaped like one massive blade that happened to have a handhold shaped into it. Others looked like elemental art projects to say the very least, Welf was clearly trying out any idea that sprung to mind.
"I made these for when you don't want to be unarmed but don't feel like carrying around a spear on your back Thalie. Figured Yang wouldn't want a sword since he doesn't really need one," Welf says.
"Thanks, these all Durandal?" Thalie asks.
"Yeah."
"What about those?" She gestures to a rack of weapons on the other end of the room, a few swords glowing different colors.
"First drafts, magical and can be refilled, but not Durandal and not as strong as disposables," he says.
"Right, well I'll take this," she takes a sword off the rack. A double-edged longsword but the middle of the blade had a metal weave that seemed to fit together beautifully. "It's pretty and easier to carry than a spear for everyday life," she says.
"And it splits into two swords," Welf says as he takes it and separates them with a negligible amount of magic. "Only reacts to the three of us and Hephaestus naturally, just like anything else that needs a special enchantment and the refillable swords."
"Perfect," Yang says as he looks around the Vault, "I'll take the fire Katana," he points to the glowing blue refillable Katana on the wall."
"No," Welf immediately says. "First, fire is red for anyone and anything that isn't named Yang Shen, so that's an Ice Katana, and secondly. If it isn't at least Durandal you aren't touching it, you have a weird habit of breaking weapons. Also, why do you even need a sword?"
"Because swords are cool, my weapon is literally taller than me if you count the handle so not like I can just walk around with it. And Can you really blame me for things breaking? Honestly, if it's not your handiwork everything feels so weak," Yang says with a sweet smile.
"You can't sweet-talk your way this time, pick one of the black swords," Welf gestures to the weapons in front of them.
"Ugh fine, just...that one," he picks up a single edge industrial-looking longsword with hard angles and the blade running all the way down to the handguard and extending down to defend the metal handle.
"There, that wasn't so hard," Welf says.
"Well it's no fire sword but---"
"Stop being a baby, you can literally fly and breath fire," Thalie says with an eye roll.
"It's just not the same, you wouldn't get it."
As they finish discussing their equipment they finally come to the end of their little morning meeting.
"So that's it for our projects on the surface for now?" Yang asks as they walk out of the Vault, Thalie with her sword at her side as he had his in the same manner.
"Yeah I don't have any more big projects, I just need to do one last check with a supplier later today to make sure I'll have what I need waiting here when we get back from the dungeon," Welf says.
"Right," Thalie says. "The construction on the Home is going well, should be done in about a month at this rate. The kids should be in there in five weeks with the matrons from all the orphanages and homes around Orario."
"That's good, any problems at all?" Yang asks.
"No, but they'd feel better if they saw you at the opening you know, still not planning to go?"
"Hey, you asked to take over this project so it's all on you, besides best they don't get attached to me, remember?"
"Right...I remember," she says.
"Alright," Yang shuts the Vault door as they conclude their meeting, "we'll start this expedition tomorrow, and in a few weeks, we'll be calling Hephaestus from the next safe zone. Let's---"
Before he can continue a panicked Freya calls out from the ring on his hand.
"YANG! Where are you?"
"Freya?" he immediately answers, "what's wrong?"
"It's Ottar, he's gone crazy, he's gonna get himself killed. I'm almost at Babel meet me in the plaza please," she immediately cuts the call.
"Ottar?" Welf asks with a perplexed look, "what can he be doing to have her worried like that?"
"No idea, I'll go check it out and give you guys a call," Yang says.
"We'll come with you," Thalie says.
"Yeah," Welf joins in, "I don't have anything to do until this afternoon anyway, might as well kill some time," he shrugs.
"Alright, let's go see how my girlfriend's adventurers are making my life tedious... I can't believe that's a real sentence I just said..."
"Yeah well, you know how it is," Thalie says with a mischievous glint in her eyes, "gotta take the good with the bad when dating a woman with kids..."
END CHAPTER---
Didn't give pics of the new armor her because well...they didn't try them on :/
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
keanu_eugene
keanu_eugene Have some idea about my story? Comment it and let me know.
---All about the new gear which I've actually been hinting at for a few chapters...
---Yang is sad he can't get a magic sword...
---He and Thalie choose placeholders since their main weapons are a bit clunky for everyday life...
---The home is already under construction and Thalie volunteered to take over that project...
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone