B4 – Chapter 46: New armament

They arrived at the base of the Queen’s Wood, and Felicity immediately flew off of Tristan’s head, chasing down another fairy dragon. He headed over to the crafting area, gesturing for Eloise to follow. “We should ensure that your gear is optimized.” He reached the mannequins and began moving his armor and weapons over to them, with several gnomes coming over to help him.

Eloise traced her finger along the fuller of a nearby sword. “You have changed a bit. Your eyes aren’t blue anymore.”

“I didn’t notice,” Tristan replied. “Must be part of the fused bloodline.” A gnome produced a mirror from their pocket, and he saw what Eloise was talking about. His normally icy-blue eyes were slowly shifting hues between all different colors representative of the dragon crucibles he had consumed. “Huh. Neat.”

Dorni came over, holding a large pair of tongs that a smith would use. “Lord Tristan! Welcome back.” He eyed the armor. “Ah, that looks quite messy.” He then saw Eloise behind Tristan and dipped his head. “Lady Serre.”

“Dorni, I believe I recall,” Eloise said as she curtsied.

“Aye, that’s me.” Dorni looked at Tristan. “Lord Tristan, you know how I told you we would revise and improve upon your armor as we practiced?” Tristan nodded, and Dorni continued. “Well, we have developed the next iteration of your arms and armor.” He gestured for Tristan to follow him. “Oh, and Lady Serre; we have also made some wonderful upgrades to equipment that you seem to favor. You can find them over in the marketplace.”

Tristan added. “Take whatever you want. A gift from a friend.”

Eloise smiled. “You are too kind.” She turned on her heel and excitedly headed over to peruse the various wares.

Dorni chuckled as he led Tristan to the forge. To Tristan’s slight surprise, the bowyer spriggan; thinner and more lithe than Krik’s more bulky variant, was present in the same area. “Our next iteration blends the prowess of the gnomes with the ingenuity of the spriggan.”

That spriggan bowed. “Indeed, Lord Tristan. Working with Dorni and his kin has been a pleasure and delight.” He gestured behind him, and Tristan felt his heart skip a beat.

On an armor stand was the most resplendent suit of armor he had ever seen. Half-plate design like the prior one, but the scales in between the larger plates were even smaller, and woven together with Adamant Wood laced with goldwood. A dual-support structure of whatever lay underneath and the hard-as-steel living substance. Dorni quickly explained. “We wanted to blend living wood with the metal, that way you could repair it on the go with a flora spell.”

The spriggan handed Tristan a slip of parchment. “This has the spell for the blended flora and metal elementalism. Fourth Order. As long as you can use flora, then you can use the spell.”

Tristan grinned. “I actually just consumed a metal dragon’s crucible. I can use that spell type now.” He kept taking in the suit of armor. There was not a helmet. Instead, the gorget sloped up and would hug his neck and protect it from injury. A small, scale coif could be pulled up from behind – and he presumed Scales of our Foe would be able to integrate that into the design. The pauldrons were form-fitting and not as bulky as prior versions; with intricate draconic features blended into the metal. He inspected it more closely, and saw that the scale structure was layered on top of the metal beneath it. The breastplate was embossed with the image of a tree; the Queen’s Wood. The couters, vambraces, and gauntlets were all covered with the same layer of tiny, metal scales, but the underlying metal went from more Elvish themes of trees and shifted towards more draconic; with the fingers of the articulated gauntlets sharpened points like a dragon’s claws. The fauld and tasset, likewise, slowly shifted from the central torso Elvish themes and into more draconic design, with the cuisses, greaves, and sabatons becoming more and more bestial in design.

Dorni spoke. “We kept the multi-layer design with varying metals from different realms; but were able to make them even thinner with the help of the spriggan.”

The spriggan smith spoke. “Quite literally taking shavings of the trees and layering them on top of each other until they hit that perfect inflection point of flexibility and hardness.”

“Except for the Aegisium layer, which has that flexible quality until struck,” Dorni added. “But the rods in the gauntlets? We were able to figure out an ingenious setup.” He lifted one of the gauntlets and tapped the finger, which Tristan noted was slightly raised. “Slid the rods along the backs of the fingers, and were able to use that same tree-shaving technique to not inhibit flexibility. Five rods apiece. That, with the extra layers? Five rods per hand, and ten spells in the armor itself.”

“It’s perfect,” Tristan said. He spun his crucible, pushed it into his amulet holding Pocket Dimension II, and then pulled out his Omnitome. “Grab my cloak, and a bunch of scales. We have artificing to do.”

“That’s not all,” Dorni said as he chuckled. “We have more.” He led Tristan over to a few chests and opened them. Inside were weapons. The sword was the most prominent, and Tristan accepted it reverently from Dorni’s grip. “We were able to improve the alloying process with our spriggan friends. That meant even more metals stacked and forged together; even hybridized trees grown into brand new metals. We call it Scalesteel. Unlike your prior sword, five spells can be artificed into this – blade, hilt, cross guard, inner core, and pommel. However, this new sword will have better balance, slightly longer reach, and an extended hilt to help with the new gauntlets’ bulk.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

He offered Tristan the sheath, and Tristan slid the blade home. The design of the sheath was fully Elvish, and nicely offset the draconic blade. The pommel stone was sapphire, held in a dragon’s claw. A matching dagger was pulled out of the chest, and a brand new bow that was just like the Adamant Wood Bow in design and function – except this one was made of that hybrid metal-wood. The spriggan quickly added, “It can hold five spells thanks to the way I designed it.”

“How about the maul?” Tristan asked.

Dorni tapped his forehead. “Now Lord Tristan, give us some credit.” He chuckled, and the spriggan smith opened another chest and pulled out a large war hammer. The shaft was covered with textured leather that Tristan instantly knew was dragon hide. Vine designs were forged into the shaft, and the head of the hammer had a pointed tip shaped like an icicle for piercing, and a flat, square end for devastating crushing blows. A blade was affixed to the bottom of the shaft, but with a quick motion, the spriggan slid the blade into the shaft and rotated it; locking the blade in place. “And here is the best part,” Dorni said.

The spriggan put his hand on the bottom of the shaft and pressed down. To Tristan’s surprise, the entire shaft collapsed down, until it was a little nub underneath the massive hammer head. “For storage purposes. Oh, it also can hold five spells.”

“You both outdid yourselves. I never even knew that so much could be artificed into singular items. I don’t think anyone in the Mortal Realm does this type of stuff.”