B4 Chapter 27 - Hack (Patreon)

For her first night in the smithy, Vivi actually crafted what she was supposed to.

Well, that wasn’t exactly correct. Vivi had no idea how she would craft something to launch a god to the sun, if that was even possible at all. But Shilman didn’t know either, and Vivi knew a lot of jargon. She could definitely create a showcase to “prove” she was making progress, just in case Shilman showed up unannounced to see what she was doing.

The end result was a pretty-looking barrel for a slingshot launcher lined with runes, including some strife runes that would heat up if ether was added in. That was about all it did so far.

She woke up after two hours of rest, stretched a little, and asked, Lucius, could you turn into measuring tape for me?

“What, hasn’t Lortel already measured you?” he asked.

She did, and she definitely knows all of my measurements, Vivi thought. But she didn’t tell me the exact numbers. Not that I would remember them anyway.

“You really need to come up with more important uses for your spirit, Vivi,” Lucius said with a pout. “But you’re right. Measurements are probably needed for armor. Let’s see… Measuring tape…”

His form switched as he turned into a red translucent string, though he didn’t include any markings for measurements. The form was closer to a ribbon string instead of measuring tape.

“You do know how long an inch is, right?” Vivi asked. “Ythar came up with them. They’re standardised.”

“Uhh,” Lucius said. “I can come up with my own measurement system if you want.”

Vivi sighed at him.

“I don’t have access to Ythar’s encyclopedia down here!” Lucius said, turning back to a cat. “My personal memory is a sacred place. Everything I store in there has to be valuable. I won’t waste space for measuring tapes!”

“What if you take the measurement and memorize the exact shape?” Vivi asked. “Then, when I need to see the measurements, you can take the same shape later and show me.”

Lucius snorted, crossing his paws. “Yes, that was what I was going to do anyway. Stand still.”

He turned back into a ribbon and wrapped around Vivi’s waist, along with every other part of her body she wanted measured. He placed that into memory, which seemed to work very similarly to Drean’s permanent memory. By recalling it, he could return to the same shape he’d measured whenever he wanted with perfect precision.

Vivi still didn’t have any numbers, but this would work just as well. She began theorizing a design that would protect her from Shilman’s instant zap spell, and from discharges of ether.

She had never crafted armor before, but she had watched Grandpa create a full plate armor as a test to see if it worked. It had only been a single-runed design, and had required almost a full week to complete, but inside-carved armor was very much a thing, and just as much of an upgrade as inside-carved swords were to their outside-carved variants.

As was expected, none of the hunters had been interested in Grandpa’s armor. He’d made it only out of steel to save ether cost on the metal, and the ether roots hadn’t shone through the metal. Grandpa kept it on a stand for a few months, proud to have completed it, until he decided it was just on the way, and it had rotted in the basement since.

Vivi had been eleven when he made it, but she recalled the crafting process clearly, along with all the curses Grandpa couldn’t keep in after a few failed attempts. Inside-carved armor was probably the most arduous thing to craft next to a full house of inside-carved walls. But all inside-carved equipment followed the same theory. The ether within the armor had to flow cleanly, guided by the ether roots, without any spots of conflict where ether could clog and rip the metal apart.

She summoned her crochet hook and tied an asmite root onto the vise Shilman had provided. She added ether to the emberstones of her forge just for heat, and for once, it felt good to work in a good and utterly cramped cell-like smithy, so hot that the temperature alone would soon make her sweat.

Armor had to be made in multiple pieces. That much was obvious. Even the breastplate would be separated into two, with openings for ether roots on each part of the plate, which would also make forging it much easier.

The most difficult pieces that Vivi knew would create trouble would be the helmet and the gauntlets. She still wasn’t sure how she’d get those done. For now, she got straight to work on the right arm, starting from the shoulder-guard.

Lucius, initiate the root, she thought.

The root sparked to life. Right away Vivi found herself fully focused, not because the pathways were tight, but because the shape of a shoulder-guard was entirely new. She had to follow the measurements for the armor to fit her shoulder specifically, while also making sure the ether root’s shape didn’t break the ether’s flow. As familiar as she was with the fundamentals, each move she made required thinking.

She’d decided that this would only be a single-runed project. With the time restraint, a two-runed plate armor would take far too long. Not to mention, this was her first time ever creating armor.

But can single-runed armor withstand Shilman’s spells?

She could easily protect herself against the zap spell. Its effect wouldn’t be able to pierce ether-enhanced plate armor. Vivi was confident that armor could protect her from a mage’s usual move of an ether discharge. But on top of those, Shilman could have had many more skills.

Still, full coverage armor gave her the best chances of surviving against whatever unexpected attacks Shilman could still have.

So you’re absolutely sure that Shilman can’t manipulate my core through armor? Vivi thought.

“Any skills like that need to get through your coating of ether,” Lucius said. “You’re the one that told me armor will give you the strongest coating of ether around yourself.”

Armor is essentially just that, is it not? Vivi thought. A piece of metal that contains ether, stopping my aura from leaking out?

Lucius had to think of his answer. Usually, if he didn’t know what to say, he just got upset and argued, but right now, their life was on the line. “I think that would make sense, yes. Your coating without armor is already passable. If we ascend to ten thousand ether, Shilman will struggle. In his eyes, getting through our aura is like walking through a storm.”

But my aura still leaks a lot, Vivi thought. Armor will instead concentrate it all to the metal protecting me. With your analogy, it should be like walking through a solid wall.

“Yes, that sounds right,” Lucius said. “As long as he doesn’t chain you down with some sort of snare skill, we’ll be fine. We’ll need a surprise attack.”

Vivi bit her lip at that. If Shilman also had a skill to stop her from moving, armor wouldn’t exactly help in combat. He wouldn’t be able to stop her muscles from moving—that would require getting through to her core—but he could try to physically restrain her.

Well, we can probably just kill him before he harms us, Vivi thought. Hopefully.

Before anything, she still needed to complete the armor. Even the first piece was still only on its first step.

Vivi was minutes away from cauterizing the ether root when the door behind her grinded open. Lucius retreated to her core and took a defensive stance, as Shilman’s unmistakable aura entered the room.

Don’t stop! Vivi ordered. Keep adding ether. It’s almost done!

She felt two people standing behind her, watching her work. As expected, Shilman had showed up unannounced. But he wasn’t a runesmith, and none of the runesmiths here knew about inside-carving. If Vivi tried to hide her work in a panic now, the situation would be much worse.

“This will be done in a minute,” Vivi said. “Let me focus.”

“What is this?” Shilman asked.

“Give me a minute,” Vivi said again and focused on shaping the final branch of the shoulder guard, before finally cauterizing the root. What she had was five separated stalks of an asmite root shaped to the curve of her shoulder. The “hilt” poked out from the underside of the shoulder guard, as if giving it a handle.

That handle would poke out from the finished shoulder guard. If the ether roots were fully submerged in the metal, there would be no way of pushing ether inside. As always, all inside-carved projects required the ether root to be outside the metal in at least one contact point. With the shoulder guard, Vivi intended the ether root to touch the shoulder, where she would create the rune.

Vivi cut the stalk from the root and grabbed the handle as if she was holding a tiny pickaxe. “This is the framework for the enhancement string. I’m going to cut this into pieces and turn it into what powers the metal. And here is the barrel, though still unfinished.” Vivi showed her barrel to Shilman.

He observed both items for a moment before turning to the slim man with an assertive expression that had entered with him. He looked to be an ordinary demon with barely any ether in his aura. He wore a nice tunic with a lightly scorched face and smooth hands, with small horns. He was the most human-like demon in Norfolm she’d seen. His fingers had light calluses especially on his thumb and index finger. An outside-carving runesmith?

“This is Liaf Nevermoore,” Shilman said. “The only man in Norfolm to have crafted a four-runed sword. He is here to examine your work.”

“May I ask, why?” Vivi asked.

“I trust you,” Shilman said. “But I don’t know nearly enough about runesmithing to confirm whether you’re crafting what you’re saying you’re crafting.”

“So you brought an expert?” Vivi asked. She wasn't worried. Liaf was clearly an outside-carver. He’d be just as clueless about the project as Shilman himself. “What do you think?”

Liaf’s frown seemed confident enough. “From the information provided, I can only assume she is a hack. An enhancement string is not a concept I have ever heard associated with runesmithing.”

Right, Vivi thought, and prepared herself for another one of these arguments.