Project Seraphina [LitRPG, Magitech, GL]
3.10 Wyvernscale Armor II

I wake up bright and early the next morning, enjoying the first lights of dawn with Chloe in my arms. Her light brunette hair cascades down my face and chest, and like it always does, it smells so damn good. And, with us being home, away from the stench of expeditions, in a place where she has access to her favorite vanilla-lavender shampoo, it smells nothing short of… I was thinking divine at first, but I think saintly suits my [Saintess] a little better.

I still can’t help but feel a little bad for her. Yesterday was supposed to be a day of rest and relaxation. We were supposed to take it easy and actually relax for a day. Get away from the fighting, take it easy, have a nice, calm date, and spend some time together as a new couple. But then, a damn wyvern had to fly into town, reminding me exactly why I can’t get nice things. We saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.

But it’s equally a reminder of the consequences of relaxing too much. As enjoyable— as necessary, from time to time— it is to step back and enjoy quieter moments like these, danger still lurks just beyond our bedroom walls. It is all too easy for relaxation to slip into complacency, and complacency in this System-governed world is the surest path to an early grave. That, and overconfidence. At least the wyvern showed me full well that I have nothing for my overconfidence to stand on. Over 2,600 damage in a single strike, through 25% Wind resistance and my 121 [Magic Defense] stat.

I have to get stronger. And figure out what to do about this black market for Ethertech and how to stop the next dragon that pops into town and… ugh.

“Sera,” Chloe mumbles in her half-sleeping state. “Hold me closer?”

I have to set those concerns aside. For a little bit longer, at least. Healer’s Orders.

After the better part of half an hour spent cuddling and whispering sweet nothings to one another, the two of us finally get dressed and ready to begin our day. A day of crafting for me, and a day of relaxation and decompression for Chloe, just like she should have gotten yesterday. Although, as I sit down after breakfast and start trying to manipulate these wyvern scales, I realize that I’m not going to have a relaxing day in the slightest.

My goal is to completely cover my breastplate in scales. My method is to carve the large scale into hundreds of small scales and weld them onto my armor with the same riveting method I used yesterday. The problem is that, even with my [Intermediate Ether Manipulation] ranking up yet again, it’s still hard as sin to try to cut these scales with my [Ether]. And conventional weaponry? Yeah, not even a snowball’s chance in the hottest hell.

Although… I could try a roundabout approach. I grab a pair of kitchen shears, having decided that enchanting them with a [Durability], an [Sharpness], and a [Slashing] glyph might just make them sharp and tough enough to actually work. And, to my shock, it… sort of actually works? It’s still an absolute pain, and I have to be extremely precise with my cuts to avoid chipping and creating more waste, but I’m actually making progress.

Now that I have a method of working these scales that doesn’t require me to burn the [Ether] channels in my fingers and necessitate constant healing from my very concerned girlfriend, I’m able to proceed. I’m able to draw up a fairly good pattern of cuts to make, forming hundreds of kiwifruit-sized, shield-shaped miniature scalelets with which I can further reinforce my current [Brigandine].

The challenge is in bonding the materials together. I don’t want to use the riveting method I used for our shields. Even with glyph-reinforced steel, the number of rivets and amount of exposure that would require is… simply too much. It would destroy the structural integrity of the scales even further, weakening both them and the overall piece of armor. But there might just be a way around this little snag.

And sure enough, buried on the inside of the armor, along the back, is an array of glyphs I know very well. It’s faint, almost invisible even to my eyes, and would have been so easy to overlook had I not known exactly what I was looking for. But it’s there, a series of glyphs that correspond to an Ether absorption array.

It’s a bit more complex of an arrangement than the ones on the [Rings of Regeneration] that I crafted some time back. Notably, there’s an additional glyph that I think represents [Balance] or maybe [Equilibrium]. I think this is the glyph that modulates the rate of absorption of ambient Ether, in order to prevent the armor from absorbing too much and overheating… Yeah, I hadn’t known to do that, but now that I do, I’m one step closer to building full Etheric gear from scratch that won’t drain its wearer’s [Ether] with every step. I go ahead and jot the glyph down in my sketchbook as well, along with its proposed function and name.

The method I want to employ is to use the same [Lock] glyph configuration I currently am using on my cybernetic arm. Specifically, I think there should be a three-dimensional variant of the glyph that will allow me to draw Ether from the armor’s glyph array and use that to hold the scales in place. I’m… not sure if that’s better or worse than trying to go with some physical fastener, but considering that my arm has never fallen off without my expressly releasing the lock, I’m actually willing to trust the mechanism. As strange as that sounds to the lingering bit of my brain that tries to adhere to the common sense of the old, pre-System world.

I go ahead and try it, drawing sluice lines all around the armor. Unlike with the scales, the iron plating is etched almost too easily. Almost as though the armor was designed specifically to be modified at some later point, and in this exact way. Considering that other equipment we’ve found in the dungeons has been tailored specifically for us— including Lindsey and Kristil in the Sky Island Dungeon— I wouldn’t be surprised if it were.

With everything I know, the process isn’t particularly difficult, and my [Angelic Insight] guides me whenever my rational brain isn’t quite sure what to do. In fact, it’s rather relaxing, sketching my vision for my new suit of armor, then undertaking the steps to effect that vision into reality. Cutting scales and etching sluices, bonding and locking scales into place.

I’m not able to make a three-dimensional locking as I’d hoped. However, making two mirrored glyphs and then overlaying them upon one another ends up performing the same function. And the bond is strong. As in, strong enough that it’s a real pain in the ass to try to adjust the scales once they’ve been properly slotted in place. I can do so by disrupting the sluices holding them together, but it’ll be pretty difficult once the whole suit is properly formed and all of the armor is properly covered.

Or at least, it would be the case, if not for the other problem I have. I simply don’t have enough scales to coat the entire surface. I do, however, have just enough to cover my shoulders, my front, and my back, so I do as much as I can. It does require that I reroute some of the sluice channels, though, to avoid the relatively more exposed areas on my sides and the inside of my arms. Not impossible, just a little time consuming.

It’s half-past eleven by the time I’ve finished sketching out the final design specification and etching the sluices into the project. All the while, Chloe has been sitting on the couch, alternating between asking me questions as my very cute rubber duck, and scrolling through social media feeds, trawling the internet for the latest happenings throughout the world.

Unfortunately, it seems the sorts of attacks from wyverns and other dragonoids isn’t as uncommon as I wish it would be. And not every city had theirs dealt with quite so easily. At least two Springfields across the country got ravaged really heavily over the past week, with economic damage from each attack currently estimated in the billions.

At the same time, there are just as many reports of heroic adventurers who rose to the challenge and defended their hometowns from these vicious beasts. Lindsey and Stefan were featured prominently in one such article that Chloe showed me. I swear, for being a special operative and a former member of the Rangers, Lindsey sure has taken to the relative spotlight with poise and… well, I’m just glad I’m not in her position. I am, however, glad to see that the two of them are happy and seemingly happy together. I know it’s not even been half a week yet, but I do desire to fly over and see how they’re doing for myself.

Even more interestingly— and I’m not sure if this is a good or a bad thing— I’ve become something of a celebrity in certain circles. Mostly academic ones. The work I’ve done documenting glyphs and the basic principles on Ethertech has spread far and wide. Which, I actually think, might be a good thing in the long run. That information was going to get out sooner or later, and I’d rather it be available to the general public than locked away in the hands of governments. That doesn’t mean I feel no responsibility for what ne’er-do-wells like the folks from that pawnshop are trying to do with that technology.

What I do worry about, though, is that Ethertech currently enhances, rather than mitigates, the divide between people. Even the best sword or most enhanced gun is nothing but a hunk of metal if its wielder lacks skill. It is, in a sense, the exact opposite of how ordinary guns functioned in pre-System society once they became more widespread. I think there was a marketing slogan to the effect of ‘God made men, and guns made men equal’ or something along those lines.

But the same isn’t true for Ethertech. And that is… a path full of unfortunate implications for how society and politics will develop going forward.

At least, that was true for the first generation of Ethertech. Devices that relied on a person’s own [Ether] reservoir to power themselves. Devices that only functioned for a person strong enough to wield them. But now, things are a lot different. Ethertech is about to be revolutionized and democratized. At least to an extent. I doubt many people will have armor made of wyvern scales or wings that allow them to soar through the skies under their own power. But now, in time, maybe they will.

It’s a brand new world awaiting us, and I think, after everything, it’s right to go ahead and reveal this big revelation to the people more broadly. Right after I finish my new suit of armor.

It’s tedious, but not difficult, to lock all the hundreds of scales into place. I’m not sure if it looks good or if it looks as tacky as my [Bandana of Swiftness], but I can feel the protective power it offers as the scales glisten in the light coming off the ceiling bulbs.

Putting it on proves a bit tricky, since I have to first take my wings off, then put my armor on, then put my wings back on over the breastplate. But… yeah. This is good. This is a big step in the right direction. I feel a lot sturdier now. A lot more able to withstand the challenges which lie ahead of me. And the numbers I see on the System notification confirm that I did at least something right.

[You have equipped a [Wyvernscale Brigandine]. Defense +75, Magic Defense +20, Magic Attack +10. This simple piece of chest armor is further reinforced by a coating of wyvern scales coating its front, back, and top. Although the crafting process has stripped the scales of their elemental resistivity, trace amounts of magical energy are still contained within. The properties of these scales help the wearer resist attacks of both physical and magical nature, and can be channeled by a spellcaster to slightly improve the damage of their magical attacks. (Armor Type: Medium Armor)]

Yeah. This is good. This is really good. Now to send some e-mails and set some plans into motion.