After returning to the house to get the other three, we head back to the inn for the rest of the night. I get Silth a room for the night as he has nowhere to stay, and we all eat dinner and hangout like usual. Corvax’s family basically immediately adopted Silth as soon as they saw him and heard some of his story. I ask Corvax if he’s going to the ball thing tomorrow night, but he says he has no interest in anything like that, and will probably be at the training grounds all day.
In the morning Daniel, Silth, and I head back to the house we’re renting, specifically to the workshop for some testing on a prototype metal weave Daniel has been working on. I know he’s been working on it whenever he has any free time, and from the little bit I’ve been able to glean from him, it seems promising.
I feed mana into the battery that powers the workshop’s safety array, and turn on the protections. They hum to life after a few seconds, and I feel the barrier ready to solidify at a moment's notice, once it detects some kind of accident or explosion. From what I’ve been able to learn from the safety array is that it stays in a standby mode to save mana until the sensors detect some kind of issue, and then the barrier gets deployed around it, hopefully containing it.
In the meantime, Daniel pulls out a roughly one foot square sheet of densely weaved wires with a fairly strong mana signature coming from it. The wires aren't quite hair thin, but they are thinner than a standard copper wire on Earth would be, and weaved together in a way to leave barely any gaps between them. It almost looks like some kind of metal cloth, albeit much less flexible.
“So what do you want to test?” I ask as I walk back over from the array control panel.
“Durability mostly, and how fast I can repair it after. A few other small things, but we’ll get to those later.”
The first test is just to see how well it holds up to my mana sword, without the spatial edge, being swung with just my regular strength. Daniel sets up the weave in a metal frame that sits at about chest height and has two wires coming off of it on either side. These wires just let Daniel use his skill, [Metal Manipulation], on the weave from a distance.
I create a gladius-like blade and thrust it with all the strength of my body, failing to break through the weave. The tip of the sword finds one of the gaps and pokes through a little bit, but not enough to matter. Upon closer inspection I don't even find any scratches or grooves in the metal from my attack. Daniel looks pleased with himself and tells me to use mana boosting now.
I use a light mana boost for my next attack, a diagonal slash that slides across the metal weave, once again leaving no damage. Daniel has a smug look on his face, so I swing again, and again, and again, increasing my mana boost each time until finally, one of my swings manages to leave a scratch about three inches long. Before I can even finish examining the damage I left, I feel a pulse of mana run through the wires Daniel is holding and reach the weave, mending it in the blink of an eye.
“That’s handy,” I say as I ready myself for the next attack, where I will use the full strength of my mana boost.
I thrust my sword forward in a stab, using my entire body to transfer as much of the force as I can into the blade. The sword tip meets the weave with enough force to pierce even stone, and finally manages to get through, at least somewhat. The tip of my sword is about an inch and a half past the weave, and is locked in place by the wires, which are now wrapping around the sword. I reabsorb the mana from my sword and reform it in order to free it. The weave also reforms itself right in front of me, albeit slower this time as the severed wires mend back into shape.
“That held up pretty good. What kind of metal did you use for the weave?” I ask.
“It’s mostly mana enhanced steel, but with some gold wires in there too, for faster mana transfer. Once I work out the last few kinks with [Infusion], I’ll hopefully be able to take it a bit further. Let’s test it against one of your spatial edges, I want to see how it holds up under real pressure.”
I nod and create a spatial edge around the tip and edge of my blade, using [Concentration] and [Space Control] to make it deadly sharp. It lets out a barely noticeable high pitch whine as I give it a few test swings and get in position. I decide to do a full mana boost as well, might as well see just how strong this weave is.
Once Daniel gives the all clear, I swing my sword in another diagonal slash, aiming to connect with the weave right in the middle. I feel a small torrent of mana surge from Daniel to the weave just before my blade connects, and it resists the immense severing power of my spatial blades, at least for a bit. Daniel’s mana works to strengthen the wires, reinforcing them as my blade slowly cuts deeper and deeper, even as more and more mana works to resist it.
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I push my spatial edge further, making it thinner, and sharper, causing it to cut deeper and deeper into the weave. More mana surges into the weave, but it’s too little too late. My sword finally pierces through after about a second or so of clashing against Daniel’s mana, and stops only when the entire blade has passed through.
I reabsorb the mana from my sword as Daniel steps up to view the damage. If this was armor, whoever was wearing it would be dead right now. The center has a four inch long gash opened up in it, causing much of the weave to become loose.
“I was hoping it would hold up better against that.” Daniel says as he puts a hand to the weave and starts to repair it.
“It held up pretty well to be honest. Especially for a prototype. Maybe multiple layers could help, or a different weaving pattern?”
Daniel grunts and nods. “Yeah, I’ll need to do some more testing for sure.”
The rest of the day until early evening is spent working on more projects. Daniel makes a bunch of changes to his weave that he has me test occasionally while I work on enchanting the mana stones for my next sword hilt. Silth spends most of the time playing around with a training sword that Daniel made for him, slaying pretend monsters and occasionally getting floated around by me.
The furniture was delivered in a few shipments throughout the day, but we just left them alone to move it and get the house set up. It should all be done by the time we head to bed, so I’m not worried about it.
Once it hits about five o’clock we head back to the inn to drop Silth off with Corvax and his family while Daniel and I get ready for the ball. I take a bath and really scrub myself well using some of the nice smelling soap I bought earlier in preparation for the outfit Morah has prepared for me. I’ve kind of gotten used to not caring about my appearance at all during my time on Helot, so it feels nice to finally get to dress up for an event, especially since I don’t have to pay for it.
We both show up at the Baradia compound to meet our dates and get out outfits, apparently Daniel is getting his outfit from the same tailor as me, also arranged by his date, Doctor Hari. The gate guards let us pass without issue, and we knock on the door just before seven.
Halon opens the door and ushers us inside, his usual black cloak is gone, and replacing it is what looks like a dark gray modern three piece suit, but with several small baubles and trinkets hanging off of it, all clearly enchanted from the mana they’re giving off. Elsine is also nearby, wearing a slim fitting red dress that matches her hair and crimson eyes.
Halon quickly leads Daniel and I to separate rooms, and leaves us there. I give Daniel a firm nod and enter the room, finding Morah already inside, standing next to mirror.
Morah looks stunning. She’s in a black dress that only goes over one shoulder, and has a leg slit on the opposite side, in a very modern Earth fashion. Her pitch black hair is loose, falling down her back and over her shoulders. She has an expensive looking necklace with a green mana stone set into the center of it, clearly enchanted. As my eyes take her in, I start to feel nervous for the first time since accepting her invitation. I wipe my sweaty palms on my pants as I walk in the room.
“You look stunning, Morah.” I manage to get out. “Is that dress from Earth? It looks amazing on you.”
“Thank you, and yes, the style is from Earth. I thought it would be fitting.” She says as she walks over to a mannequin I did not notice earlier, with what I presume is my outfit on it.
It’s a black suit with a nice green overcoat, in a mostly Earth fashion, but the coat does hang and flap around, almost like a cloak or something. It’s definitely a cross between a modern suit and something more… wizardy. I absolutely love it, and Morah notices instantly.
“I’ll step out so you can get changed, let me know when you’re done.” She walks out of the room and closes the door behind her.
I quickly put the outfit on, finding that it fits me very well, and is less restrictive than a suit should be. I bet I could fight in this fairly comfortably if I had to. Checking myself out in the mirror, I call Morah back in.
“Wow, you clean up well.” She walks up to me and adjusts my clothes, making sure everything is right where it should be. “And green suits you well, I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. The clothes are really nice, thank you.”
“Of course. Now bend down a little bit.” She takes out a jar of hair gel and does my hair for me. I’ve never been one to style my own hair, so I just let her do it without complaint. After she finishes I look like some kind of rich noble scion, minus the missing arm and burn scars, those make me look like a plane crash survivor.
Next, she rolls up my left sleeve until the entire prosthetic is showing, and a bit of my arm too. She looks at it with a contemplative look on her face, like she doesn’t like the skeletal arm.
“Can you lose the arm?” She asks.
“I already lost it.” I joke as I teleport the arm to my storage.
“Now make a new arm out of raw mana, I know you can do it.”
“My disability isn’t just another option for accessorizing you know.”
She rolls her eyes in a very older sister way while letting out a small chuckle. “Trust me, this is better. The one thing everyone on Helot respects is overcoming adversity, and that prosthetic will look like a crutch to most.”
“But if it’s made of my own mana it’s as good as having my regular arm?”
“It’s hard to explain to someone who didn’t grow up here, but it’s like bragging. You’re basically saying that a missing arm is no big deal for you, you'll just use your impressive mana manipulation skills to emulate it and move on. It plays well into the wild animal reputation you’ve been building.”
“What reputation? I haven’t heard about any of this?”
She gives me a blank stare before responding. “Word travels fast here. And your feats haven’t been exactly… normal.”
“That’s because I’m a badass, and naturally my feats follow that same rule.”
“Here’s the common knowledge the people at the ball will know about you. You survived a month in the Undead City as a fresh initiate. You cut off your own arm like a wolf caught in a beartrap. You are constantly seen opening portals all over the city, which has gained you a lot of attention, by the way. And last of all, you just walk around with old wounds showing. Did you even try to get those burn scars removed?”
“I blame Merrick. He was the only contact we had in that city, and his guidance turned me into what I am.”
“Something tells me that if you had the opportunity, you’d do it all again.”
“Almost certainly. Despite how others may view me, I think I’m the best version of myself right now. I’d cut off each and every limb I have if that was all that was standing between me and my goal.” I shrug my shoulders. “It’s just who I am now.”
“And it suits you well, or rather it suits this planet well. Now, form that arm and let’s get going.”
I do as she says and shape my mana into an arm like how I used to do, finding it fairly easy to maintain now. I shape the fist open and close a few times, finding that my dexterity with it has increased, probably due to the extra levels recently.