NOVEL NEXT 45 – New Equipment(s)
“There, lass. How’s the fit feel like now?” asked Master Utgarth, the [Royal Grandmaster Armorer] with a cheerful tone. The old man clearly showed the pride he likely felt when the armor he made for the [Heroes] returned from the expedition in almost perfect condition despite the wear and tear they were subjected to.
Ethan’s armor had a few slightly bent plates where he took hard hits, and tears on the fabric coating of his brigandine, but was otherwise in perfect shape, only needing minor repairs at most. Alissa’s was a different case. Her armor itself survived the fighting in perfect condition, other than her gambeson needing some very thorough cleaning before it could be worn again.
Joshua’s robes were destroyed beyond salvation when he died, and was from Magus Drummond to begin with. Apparently the skillset for creating armor suitable for use by mages differed from that the old master armorer used to create the armors that Alissa and Ethan wore. Considering the wildly different materials and needs of the wearers, it made sense, honestly.
Apparently while [Respawn] caused her body to dissipate upon death, it did nothing about whatever parts of her already spilled out before that exact moment. As such, the inside of Alissa’s gambeson had been thoroughly soaked with her own blood and other unmentionables in the brief moment before she perished from having her body squished between her own armor plates.
That said, the fact that the armor itself remained unblemished was a testament to its quality. The situation she had been in was a classic case of the wielder being too weak to make full use of the quality equipment they had. Had she been stronger, she would have been able to withstand the forces involved and survived the situation just fine.
At the moment Alissa was in Master Utgarth’s workshop, where she was wearing her newly cleaned and refitted armor once more. As her stats grew, Alissa felt her body change somewhat. She was not any taller, or any broader. It was more like… her body slightly restructured itself for more ideal shape, compared to what she had brought over.
Instead, she felt more… solid, as if her whole body had somehow grown denser overall without any actual increase in size. A change in quality rather than quantity, something she had noticed during training while she waited for her armor to be cleaned and refitted. It was a rather drastic change, too, at that, as the stats had not lied.
Where before Alissa had been fit and athletic, with more than enough stamina to run around actively during games for nearly an hour straight, she recently found that she could keep up that same pace for hours on end now, without feeling the slightest bit tired. If she were to push herself for speed instead, she found herself able to run faster than even the best sprinters she knew could.
Similarly, where before she barely managed to bench her weight, these days she found herself capable of lifting weights three times as heavy with relative ease. The way that all these changes took place with no real visible change to their bodies was something surprising, and rather eerie at times. During the dungeon, she had not truly noticed it, as she was too busy fighting for her life at the time and had no convenient thing to use for comparison, so it was only after they returned that she noticed.
Apparently the old [Royal Grandmaster Armorer] was refitting her armor for that reason. The work he had done on them the first time was intended to accommodate Alissa’s and Ethan’s stats at the time, but he apparently used only the most basic enchantment runes to achieve those effects. Now that their stats had grown, Master Utgarth expanded the runes to more advanced ones to better suit their current capabilities.
“Feels… It almost feels like it moved itself to go along with my movements,” Alissa replied at last. She was somewhat used to the sensation of her armor boosting her physical capabilities, but the improvement seemed to have taken it to the next level. Despite the added weight and mass of the armor, she could actually move faster with it on rather than without it. “There’s a more noticeable mana drain though, enough that I could feel it.”
“That’s intended, lass. Still didn’t take up your whole regeneration though, no?” asked the old master back with a grin on his face. “Your old one also had some, but it used only a miniscule amount to power itself that you likely never even felt the drain. Now that you got more stats to go along with it, no reason not to improve on what it could do. Naturally, it’d take more mana to fuel itself now.”
“Makes sense. Thanks for the work, Master,” replied Alissa with a nod. She looked over to the other side of the workshop where Ethan was latching the belts of his brigandine. Since their armor was worn over clothes anyway, there was no reason to go to a changing room just to put them on. “Yours getting an upgrade too, Ethan?”
“Yep! Like you said, can feel it right away. It drains a good bit more, or maybe I just felt it more since I got less Mind than you, but not like my skills eat a lot of mana anyway so it ain’t gonna be an issue,” replied Ethan to her question as he flexed his left arm to test the armor’s flexibility after the repairs. The worst damage he took during the dungeon was primarily to that arm.
Their little chat was disturbed by a knock on the workshop’s door. One of Master Utgarth’s assistants opened the door to reveal that it was Moira, who came bearing several long bundles in her hands, visibly needing some effort to hold them up. Though nobody said a thing, Alissa already had an idea what the contents of those bundles were.
“Good that you two are still here. I was worried I’d have to lug these around the castle while looking for you,” said Moira, who was one of the party members that Alissa eventually managed to get to address them without excessive honorifics. The young royal guard placed the bundles on one of the tables in the workshop with an audible thud.
“Those are new weapons, I take it?” asked Alissa with some curiosity. From the noise they made, the bundles clearly had some considerable weight to them. Which such heavy weapons might have been impractical in her previous world, here it was only appropriate to make full use of her strengthened physique after the notable rise of her stats.
“Yes, indeed. We picked them out from the armory based on what would be usable enough for you in your current condition while also good enough to remain useful until the third tier, at least,” replied Moira with a smile. Alissa and Ethan had broken most of their weapons in the last fight against the [Winged Scavenger Alpha Matriarch] so they needed new ones.
“Huh. This is rather… different than I expected,” said Alissa when she opened the longest bundle and lifted the new spear that had been chosen for her perusal.
The new spear was a bit longer than her old one, around eight feet long from one tip to another. Unlike her previous one, the new weapon was entirely made out of metal, the shaft a shiny dark gray, with the sharp tips a lighter gunmetal gray color. It was also much heavier than her previous one. If her previous spear was around four pounds or so, this new one was at least fifteen if not twenty pounds in weight.
It also has a different kind of spearhead compared to the previous spear. Her new weapon had a broader spearhead that flared out as if someone had chopped off the last foot or so of a sword’s blade and stuck it at the tip of a long shaft. The edges were sharpened until it was likely sharp enough to shave with, and the spearhead itself was clearly designed to be able to deliver hewing cuts on top of thrusts. The addition of a solid metal bar set perpendicular to the shaft that separated the spearhead from the rest of the shaft further reinforced the impression.
On the other end of the shaft was a more conventional spearhead, one that looked more like the metal shaft simply tapered into a needle-sharp point. It was roughly two-thirds the length of the bladed spearhead, with a square cross-section to the structure, making it far more solid than what its size would have suggested.
The intention of the design was obvious at a glance. The bladed spearhead was meant to be used against smaller enemies where the length of the spearhead was enough to reach something vital, either through a thrust or a hewing cut. The opposite end was to be used when she needed penetration above all else, as its design allowed it to not only go through sturdier materials, but also to a far greater depth.
Other than the spear, the new shield she received also differed with the previous one by quite a bit. Shape-wise, the new shield was in the shape of a diamond, with the upper wedge only around a quarter as tall as the lower one. It was shaped out of solid wood, but where the previous shield only had a leather covering with metal on the rims, the new shield had a sheet of metal that completely covered its face and sides. It was notably smaller than her previous kite shield, more like someone had shrunk a kite shield to the size of a long and rather narrow heater shield, all considered.
In fact, the metal that covered the rim of the shield formed a solid wedge as well. Clearly whoever designed the shield had taken notice on how often Alissa hit someone using the edge of her shield during the dungeon expedition. Like her spear, it was notably heavier than her previous shield, but the weight felt just right for her current physique.
Her falchion had been replaced by a blade that had the same profile and shape but was heavier by around threefold as well. With her newfound strength Alissa found the new blade just as easy to swing as the old one had been, though that feeling was deceptive in a way. She was just stronger and no longer noticed the weight that would have normally made the blade too heavy to even be wielded properly by a person.
Similarly, the pack of Jarids she used were replaced by a new set. The quiver for the new set held a dozen of the short throwing spears, all constructed entirely of metal. Their design was still the same, simplistic ones as before, a simple slender cylinder that tapered to a needle point near one end. Alissa rather looked forward to seeing what she could do with those new throwing spears, given her newfound strength.
Ethan received an identical set of a dozen Jarids as well. The increased amount was partly because they were now strong enough to not feel burdened at all while carrying the weight on their back, their weapons, and wearing their armor at the same time. Ethan’s shield also received a similar change as hers, though his remained the same size, just with an extra metal plating that covered its face.
Normally, a major issue with weapons that were heavier was that their weight would cause their wielders to get dragged along by their momentum. Alissa knew that higher tier people like Sir Inolet partly solved that issue by wearing heavier armor which helped anchor them to the spot, nullifying that particular problem while granting themselves greater protection.
Alissa and Ethan weren’t quite that strong yet, however, so instead, Master Utgarth worked an extra enchantment into their armor to dimensionally anchor them. The effect helped achieve the same result as heavier armor, though without the added weight. It was mostly meant as a stopgap measure until they grew strong enough to wear heavier and more protective armors instead.
