Chương 200: Armour Evolution

When we reached the surface, I stopped off at the blacksmith shop first thing, with my entire squad behind me. Although Drywsone was busy, Shatter met us at the counter. I deposited the Imperial Steel chunks we'd gathered, then asked, "What's the progress on our armour?"

"If you can keep up this rate of gaining Imperial Steel, we should be able to finish off your sets in time, and have plenty to spare," Shatter said.

"You should focus on finding enchanted items. I'll get Drysone to leave slots open for you to fit in your enchanted ornaments, so long as you actually get them."

"What should we be looking for?" I asked.

"Anything with a Skill that we can melt down and use to improve your armour," he provided.

"And, aside from that…Imperial Steel is good, but in the forging process, we can temper it. Lots of the monsters on the lower level provide mineral dusts. When put in the armour, they'll improve the stats the armour grants you even more. Try and get something that will benefit the entire squad." I nodded.

"Understood."" On top of all that," Shatter continued, "You should start thinking about a main Skill that you want your armour—each piece—to grant you. That would be a massive boon to your advancement. Some of these will be Journeyman-tier, if you enhance the armour with the right minerals during the forging process." I nodded.

"I'll provide you a list of Skills we're looking for, then. One for every member of the squad." I paused.

"What benefit is there to using the same mineral for all of our armours?"

"You only have to go after one gold-tier enemy, for one thing. Other is squad cohesion. It will change how the armour looks. You want to be able to recognize each other with ease." I snorted.

"Alright, point taken."

"And don't forget your plumes," he added.

"If he's custom-forging helmets for you three, I suppose you do need to get those sooner than later," Sage said.

"What do the plumes do?" Anchor asked.

"They will help give your helmets a stat boost," Shatter said.

"As long as you go quickly, of course."

"Of course," I said.

"Thanks."

"Any time." As we walked away, I turned to Sage and whispered, "Do you have any idea how you might repair damaged leys?"

"Why?" She scowled.

"Have you done something to yours, dustbrain?"

"For Shatter," I whispered.

"He's helped us so much." She sighed.

"I think I might have an idea. But it will take a while to work out, and I don't know if it would work. It will take weeks to plan, and we will have to acquire the right resources from the Labyrinth…there is a monster down there which might help us."

"The right resources?"

"It will require Labyrinth Keepers."

"I knew we'd need them." ~ ~ ~ When I returned to my room, I checked my attributes with my reading Slate. I hadn't had a chance to check all throughout Vaelheall Week, and I didn't know what to expect. The slate read: Vitality: 128 Agility: 136(+4) Strength: 124(+10) Perception: 61(+1) Focus: 142 Presence: 149 Five hundred and ninety-one regular attribute points. A far cry from the ten I'd struggled to get in the early days. My heart soared, and I glanced out the window with a grin.

Even if there was no one to share in the celebration, that had to be a good sign. I was well over halfway to seven hundred, and that meant Gold was within my reach. As long as I could keep increasing my Presence. The income from Lord Ceonwin was going to run out soon—he just didn't have enough to spare with the deteriorating situation on the front lines. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I'd have to hope the monsters we were about to challenge in the coming weeks would drop enough Presence to keep me going. But hope alone wasn't really an ideal plan. There had to be some other way of getting Presence, right? A way that didn't take years of direct focus, killing monsters on my own? Well, that was obvious: men like Lord Ceonwin had people to hunt for them. That was why he had a supply of Presence to give to me.

I was about to hang my head, thinking that I'd never be able to match that, but I was a thegn, now. I had people working for me. That was a problem for future me— Well, not too far in the future, this time. More like in the evening. But first, I had to check my Skills.

The reading slate detected: Native Skills: Evolved Spearmanship (Journeyman), Quick-Witted Crossbow Use (Journeyman), Art: Mass Hammer (Advanced), Memory Modification (Apprentice), External Squad Synergy (Apprentice), Lancework (Apprentice), Needle of Theve (Apprentice), Rope Weaving (Novice), Internal Squad Management (Apprentice), Internal Squad Synergy (Novice), Haftchester (Apprentice), Spear-Crossbow Synergy (Novice), Falling Leaf Style (Apprentice), Illman's Lancea (Novice) Armour Skills: Weighscale Use (Novice), Mortar Setting (Apprentice), Canal Gondola Steering (Novice) [Haftchester], [Falling Leaf Style], and [Illman's Lancea] were all spear styles I'd made myself learn over the past few weeks.

As for [Weighscale Use], [Mortar Setting], and [Canal Gondola Steering], those came from the treasures I'd imbued into my mostly completed pauldron. I'd gotten a new section at the end of my status, indicating the different sources of the Skills. I wouldn't bind the pauldron yet, because Shatter still had to finish tempering it, and he had to finish the rest of the armour, too.

There was no point in binding it before he'd imprinted a specific, targeted Skill on it (alongside the smaller Skills we could earn from the treasures we picked up in the Labyrinth). That meant I couldn't merge them yet. I'd taken those ones for myself, because they would apply to gravity and balance, which I figured would help me. (How did [Mortar Setting] apply? Mostly because a bricklayer would've had to scoop the mortal in just the right way so that gravity couldn't pull it off the edge. Too much, and it would leak over. Too little, and the entire wall would come crumbling down. The entire wall had to stand firm.) But, when it came to the rest of my abilities, I had a choice to make: did I keep my crossbow Skill as a secondary weapon Skill? Or did I merge it into my spear Skill, crafting my own combat art that applied to both weapons? Something completely unique to me. If I did it before I advanced, I would be able to use the combination to guide my Class evolution.

The merge would help tell the System what I was up to, and it would give me a new Class better suited to the combined resonance Skills. But if I left them separate, they would each become stronger on their own, and my Class evolution would be something more… personal, as opposed to Skill-related. I couldn't choose right now, anyway. First, I needed more Journeyman-tier Skills to blend in. At least one more. Since I had time, I drew myself into my Nodespace and got started.

I gathered up my combat-style Skills, which manifested as orbs inside my crowded Nodespace. [Haftchester], [Falling Leaf Style], and [Illman's Lancea]. Next, I pulled over [Internal Squad Management] and [Internal Squad Synergy]. Those two were the best suited to merge into a weapon skill. They helped me use my weapons in coordination with a squad. All in all, it gave me three Apprentice-tier Skills and two Novice-tier Skills, which would be more than enough to make the advancement go smoothly.

Sure, I could've taken [Spear-Crossbow Synergy], but I wanted that to get a bit stronger so I could use it as the core of a Skill. It would have to wait. I used [Haftchester] as the core of the Skill. It was a style native to Gate, and it literally described a fortress made by the haft of a spear. It was a highly defensive style. Next, I added the two other combat styles one at a time. Although I may have wanted to keep a little bit of them, I was making my own style by drawing on everything.

Falling Leaf Style was just one part of my repertoire, no matter how rare it was to learn. Lastly, to finish off the merge, I pushed in [Internal Squad Management] and [Internal Squad Synergy]. They fit into the merged Skill with a pop, creating a new Skill. I washed my attention over it. [Squad-Based Defensive Blend (Journeyman)]. I didn't notice any immediate changes, but then again, I never did. This one was just a stepping stone along the way. ~ ~ ~ That evening, I made a call to Cuthward and Hardric.

It took a few minutes, but eventually, they picked up.

"An unusual time for a call, Sir Levi," Cuthward said, voice hesitant.

"Is something wrong?"

"Sorry, nothing's wrong. I had an idea." I knew they couldn't see me, but I couldn't help but smile.

"How difficult would it be to send the guards, now that they're better trained, on hunting missions?"

"Not terribly difficult…but I thought you wanted them around the city to protect it."

"Yeah. You can spare a few parties, right, though?"

"Where would we hunt? We're nowhere near the Bane-lands, and our home is, compared to the rest of Gate, unusually secure."

"The Labyrinth. Only the top levels will be cleared out, right? Tunmod's men weren't all that strong."

"And your guards are mortal men as well," Cuthward warned.

"They would not make it much deeper." He paused.

"You're looking for more Presences, aren't you?"

"Correct. Perhaps we could arrange it as a training mission?" I leaned closer to the plant so he could hear my voice better.

"If you sent them off with the squad of Dupes from the 294th we left behind, I'm sure we could give them some valuable training. The Dupes in the 294th have combat experience, and they'll be more than capable of delving a little deeper."

"Would they not be entitled to the Presences they collect?" I sighed.

"Well, yeah. But they would understand if I asked for a percentage to be saved. Say, in exchange for sceats and extra wages."

"I'm sure if you gave them enough incentives, you could get them to save all the Presence," he said.

"I'll put out the call tomorrow."

"Thanks."

"Now that you two are done with the logistics, you called for me as well?" Hardric asked.

"Just checking for a status update on those healing potions I requested."

"The Dun Altir Order has left some students behind with a teacher, and they've agreed to brew some powerful healing potions right here, as you requested. They are, of course, saying that you'll have to buy said potions."

"Of course." I nodded.

"Thanks for your help. That's all for now."

"You sound exhausted, Levi," Cuthward told me.

"It's late. Rest. We will handle things here. When you come back this way, you can pick up your extra Presences and buy your potions."