Above The Sky
Chapter 1020 - 1020 111 The Deep Waters of the Terra Universe 5400 asking for monthly pass at month's end!

1020: Chapter 111: The Deep Waters of the Terra Universe (5400, asking for monthly pass at month’s end!) 1020: Chapter 111: The Deep Waters of the Terra Universe (5400, asking for monthly pass at month’s end!) “When it comes to Aether Armament, I’ll leave it entirely to you.”

Viscount Grant trusted Ian deeply in this field.

After all, Ian’s armor suit design had managed to win accolades in the Imperial Capital—how could someone like him, essentially a lackluster student, even think to question its merits?

Although Ian’s work didn’t make it to the top rankings due to various reasons, this was largely because he hadn’t spent much time on the conceptualization, resulting in slightly less versatility.

Nowadays, Ian was highly renowned within the armor design field, his reputation reaching heights he himself hadn’t anticipated.

As for the necessity of dismantling the Aether Armament—truth be told, it wasn’t really a big deal.

Aether Armaments required frequent disassembly for maintenance in the first place.

It was just unfortunate that while Viscount Grant showed some talent in the Sublimation Path, in the areas of alchemical inscriptions and Aether Armament construction, he was utterly clueless.

For these matters, he’d always relied on Elder Pude—but now, he would simply turn to Ian, who had far stronger expertise.

“Then I’ll get started.”

Ian made no effort to hold back with Viscount Grant.

He directly instructed him to bring the ‘Conquest Ripple’ over to the warehouse district in the city’s eastern section.

Here, Ian had fully set up the armor repair equipment he’d brought from Xiawei Territory.

Although somewhat rudimentary compared to the requirements of the Aether Armament, Ian wasn’t intending to build a whole new Aether Armament.

He merely aimed to repair a few core components.

What’s more, Ian already had the complete design schematics for the particular core module that needed fixing.

In other words, maintaining the Conquest Ripple was simply child’s play for Ian.

His true goal was to observe the Conquest Ripple firsthand—or, more specifically, to study its design philosophy.

Though he’d received the cutting-edge prototype Aether Armament, the ‘Dead River Armament,’ from the Duke of Solin, its designs were so advanced that many of the concepts and methodologies couldn’t be directly applied.

It was akin to a country that had just learned to build thermal power plants attempting to learn wind or hydroelectric energy systems—those might pose no significant challenge.

With enough effort, they could even master nuclear fission power stations.

But if handed the technology for a nuclear fusion station outright…

even if they somehow grasped the theoretical knowledge, they’d lack the technical strength to manufacture the materials and equipment for such a facility.

Ian’s research into the Dead River Armament had reached a similar bottleneck: his foundation in Aether Armament was insufficiently solid, and too many of the underlying principles remained only partially understood by him.

More study was needed.

And Viscount Grant’s semi-damaged Aether Armament presented itself as an ideal learning material.

Calling it ‘semi-damaged’ wasn’t entirely accurate, as the Conquest Ripple was actually in quite good condition overall.

On the repair station, Ian scrutinized the full metal armor in front of him without blinking.

The Conquest Ripple featured a streamlined outer armor design, with layered armor plates resembling Dragon Scales.

This structure not only offered formidable defensive capabilities and shock absorption but also allowed high-temperature steam to eject from the gaps, enabling acceleration and maneuvering at astonishing angles, achieving ghostly mobility akin to inertia-free movement.

“So, it’s essentially a body covered in vector thrusters?

Integrating Sublimation Skills with scientific technology—a strong synergy that eliminates weaknesses,” the young man murmured to himself.

It was truly a clever concept, and he quickly ‘freeloaded’ by noting it down.

Additionally, the primary shell surface of the Conquest Ripple was etched with numerous intricate patterns—these were extremely refined inscription structures.

Their functionalities included ‘controlling water currents,’ ‘vortex compression,’ ‘water vapor atomization,’ ‘steam explosion shock absorption,’ and ‘ice armor formation,’ among other Water Series Sublimation Skills.

All of these Sublimation abilities could be traced back to the Abyssal Whale Bloodline.

That was no coincidence; Aether Armament was inherently designed to replicate the bloodline abilities of Sublimated Nobles, enabling them to explore their internal Sublimation Organs using mechanical methods for optimal enhancement.

The earliest Aether Armament prototypes were essentially research tools resembling anatomical models.

However, people later discovered that with minor modifications, these tools could work in harmony with Sublimators of the same bloodline to achieve a combat effectiveness far greater than the sum of its parts.

Especially when equipped with Ether Furnace Cores, which bypassed the Origin Quality reserves, Sublimator combat capabilities could skyrocket.

Thus, the true core of an Aether Armament lay in its Ether Furnace Core.

And the point of failure in the Conquest Ripple was precisely its Ether Furnace Core.

“Time to begin detailed analysis.”

Although Viscount Grant couldn’t understand a single aspect of Ian’s study on those inscriptions, he could at least comprehend some of the mechanical structures and the various modules of his own armored system.

The Sublimated Noble was acutely aware that Ian’s meticulous workflow was far superior—even more refined than Elder Pude, who’d spent over ten years repairing this armor.

Thus, he felt entirely at ease letting Ian proceed with the disassembly.

The disassembly of the Aether Armament began from its back, opening the skeletal frame along the ‘spinal’ section for inspection.

Around the Ether Furnace Core were numerous Sublimation module functionalities that Ian was quite familiar with.

The core abilities—’Call Wind Summon Rain,’ ‘Triple State Transition,’ and ‘Water System Natural Essence Control’—formed the foundation, while the ‘Water Mist Field’ and ‘Abyssal Sea Pressure,’ unique modules tied to the Abyssal Whale Bloodline, were positioned near the Ether Furnace Core to benefit from direct power supply.

Looking at these Sublimation modules, Ian couldn’t help but feel a sense of wonder.

If humans wanted to form internal Sublimation Organs capable of such functionalities, who knows how long the process would take—or how much of a toll it would exact on their lifespans.

It’s no wonder Sublimators generally weren’t particularly long-lived.

To say nothing of the Abyssal Whale Bloodline itself, which would transform human blood into a pure liquid Origin Quality.

This substance, essentially akin to rocket fuel, existed purely to deliver potent energy to each Sublimation Organ—though Sublimators possessed bodies of remarkable robustness, even they couldn’t withstand the stress of weaponizing their own anatomy to such an extent.