A Soldier's Life

Chapter 193: Parade Armor

For the next five days, I kept to my routine. Flora and Livia arrived at the same time every day to clean. They told me Renna was doing well, but they barely had a chance to talk to her in the common dining hall. My protective nature had me thinking of the two as my younger sisters. As they ate the meal I prepared for them, it was nice to listen to them talk about their days. It added some daily normalcy to being trapped in the tower. I even got them to submit a requisition for the ingredients I needed to make the mouthwash. When it arrived, I stored everything in my dimensional space to retain its freshness.

My cooking skills slowly improved, and I managed to make a decent burrito with refried beans, rice, seasoned meat, corn, and a simple salsa made with onions, tomatoes, and chili peppers. I would alternate the meat between beef and chicken. I used the dungeon bear meat as an experiment, and marinating the meat first worked well. I believe I was beginning to understand why Zyna savored the dungeon harvest so much. I practiced with my air shield in the morning, and from my experience metabolizing the essences, I could feel the aether flowing from my stomach like a very weak essence.

I started to make extra burritos, grilling them briefly after wrapping them in large wax leaves and then sending them to my dimensional space for consumption later. Over the five evenings, I consumed five major dexterity essences, an apex essence of insight, three major essences for aether tolerance, and one apex essence for the illusion affinity. Even with the ring of sustenance, my appetite increased with so many essences.

My illusion affinity increased from three to seven. My aether tolerance increased from 42/51 to 48/56. I thought the latter increase also reduced my discomfort from the aether burn, but that could be a placebo effect. I saw diminishing returns from the dexterity essences but still received a sizable improvement. My dexterity attribute increased from 47/63 to 53/67.

I noticed significant improvements in my physical and dreamscape training due to enhanced dexterity. Through my training in the dreamscape, I realized that my biggest shortfall was my quickness. If I could be just a little faster here and there, I believe I would perform much better against Konstantin and Xavier. Maveith had been wise to choose all the quickness essences. The best I could do now was to train with weighted weapons and boost my quickness through sweat and effort.

I made progress on the earth speak spell form and felt I had rested my earth affinity in my aether core enough to consume more essences. I had six major and six minor earth essences remaining; my current affinity was 19. I would have no difficulty reaching the minimum threshold of 25 for the spell form.

I was on the balcony overlooking the city, going through spear forms with the black spear. It was dark, but the sunrise was coming, so I ended my training. Even though I had cleared the bedroom of all furniture, I preferred practicing in the open air on the balcony in the dark. The cool night air and looking down on the speckles of lights in the city below made me feel free and in control. I couldn’t practice in the sunlight as there were sight lines from a number of rooftops in the upper city.

As the line of daylight cracked the horizon, the common room door thudded with an impatient, powerful knock. It was much too early for Flora and Livia, so I answered the door cautiously. I swapped the spear for the black blade and opened the door to the stairs. I was bare-chested when I opened the door and was shocked to see the gray-haired Ignis, the master smith, standing there.

She looked a little surprised at me, looked down at the blade tip resting on the ground, and then back at me, “If you are not going to use the sword on me, move aside.” Ignis picked up two large bags and walked into the common room, looking around. “Haven’t been up here in years. Surprised the place is actually clean.” She carefully put the bags down, studied the room, and then me. Slowly, a frown formed on her face. “Your body has changed.”

“Well, the shoulder and chest fit may be off,” she answered, somewhat annoyed. “Should be enough play to get them comfortable. Are you planning to get much bigger?” She said, looking me over from the floor up again.

“Probably,” was all I could muster under her gaze.

She released a heavy sigh, “Well, come see me instead of whining to anyone who will listen that your nipples are chafing off.” She reached into one of the bags and handed me two pairs of black gloves. “Try these on.”

The seamless gloves easily slid over my hands, and Ignis smirked as I admired the work. I flexed my hand and couldn’t tell I was wearing gloves. The pads had a slightly tacky grip, but the material did not stick to itself.

Ignis interrupted my appreciation of the final product. “He incorporated some anti-fire runes into the threading. He felt he needed to add something extra for the value of the surplus material. Magical fire is the only thing that can damage spider silk of that quality. So, unless you decide to dance inside one of Zyna’s flaming dragons, they should last you a lifetime. Probably don’t even need the second pair.”

I could have retorted that she didn’t know just how long I would live, but didn’t. “Thank you. I can barely feel them.”

“The spell weaver mentioned it was some of the finest material he had the privilege to work with.” She winked at me, “Had to tell him it was imported by the Adventurer’s Guild. He also said it was among his best work.” Smirking, she said, “Now, you shouldn’t have any trouble hiding your ring.”

My jaw didn’t work for a moment as she ignored my surprise. She bent over, unfolding two black long-sleeve shirts of the same material from the bag. She handed them to me, “These also have the fire resistance runes into the threading. He twisted the threads, so the material should also have no tackiness.”

I tried on one of the shirts, and Ignis was watching carefully. The satin-like black shirt fit like loose spandex. I admired the comfort and feel of the material. Ignis nodded at the fit and added, “It is durable and resistant to slashing but not impenetrable. I suggest you only wear it under your armor. Any damage will be nearly impossible for you to repair. The material should be easy to clean and is odor free, but keep it away from lye, or you will lose the black dye. Now, let’s get to your armor.”

Ignis proudly began to unpack the armor she crafted from the two large duffel bags. All the pieces were the same shape as my red-dyed, resin-infused, auroch hide, but the chest pieces, pauldrons, greaves, and vambraces were metal. I was confused when the armor was a blood-red color instead of the shiny steel of the other Imperial Legionnaires. “Is this red enamel?” I asked while inspecting the glossy red cuirass. The cuirass had a golden lion in relief on the front, the symbol of the Legion.

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Ignis scoffed, “This is ceremonial parade armor. Don’t be fooled by its beauty. It is fully functional. The red glossy finish is made using ground rust monster antenna and dried chimera blood. It creates a layer of crimson red on the surface of the steel that can be polished. Each piece has also been inscribed with runes to permanently prevent rust. If those runes fail, the armor will degrade in a few months.”

I had to admit it looked impressive, and the amount of work that had gone into it was substantial, even assuming magic assisted in the crafting. “How durable is the finish?” I asked, strapping on the cuirass front and back.

“It will react just like normal steel. It can be scratched or dented; you will need a master armorsmith for any repairs. Most minor scratches can be buffed out.” Her tone switched to forceful. “I don’t want to see you in the training yard practicing in this suit. This suit is a status symbol for Chancellor Zyna.” Great, I was a trophy dress-up doll for Zyna.

Ignis handed me the final piece of the armor, the helm. Only the helm was steel on my original suit of armor. This helm matched the crimson-glossy nature of the rest of the suit, and even though it was also open-faced, it had a faceguard that could be slid in and locked, creating a bucket helm. Ignis showed me how it worked, and there were special grooves on the crest to add a plume so I could look like a proper peacock. I donned the helm. I couldn’t help it but went to check myself out in a mirror. Okay, I looked pretty epic.

Ignis handed me an arched body shield from the floor of the duffel bag that matched the suit. The last time I used a body shield was in training. This one was much heavier, maybe twenty pounds, and these shields were best used in formation and with a spear or shortsword. “Most legionnaire guards prefer the smaller shield, but Zyna wanted this for your guard duty.” The front of the shield had the relief of a rich blue kraken outlined in silver. “That is First Citizen Zyna’s crest.” The beast looked fearsome, and I assumed the kraken was because her estate was a coastal settlement.

She handed me a scabbard for my black blade that matched the ornamental design. We spent ten minutes adjusting and marking straps before Ignis stepped back. “And now my work is done.” Ignis put on a genuine smile as she admired her work.

“It is incredible. Twice as heavy as my old armor, but I look ten times as good,” I stated after removing the helm. “Is the armor cooler? I feel a bit cold inside of it.”

“Just a small side effect of the rust prevention runes. You will be thankful for it standing guard under the sun mid-summer.” She started to pack up after placing a beeswax mixture on the table to polish the armor.

I took the opportunity to pull the book on metalsmithing a teapot from my dimensional space and placed it on the table. “Would this be useful to you?”

Ignis’ aged face wrinkled in distaste when she recognized the writing. “It’s in Elvish.” She still opened the ancient tome and immediately became interested. She completely ignored me as she paged through the book from front to back, studying the images. She looked up, breathing heavily, “Where did you get this?”

“Ruins of Caelora. A few books were salvageable, and I was able to grab a few,” I said indifferently.

“You have more?” She stepped eagerly toward me before she regained some composure. “The techniques inside are enlightening, and I can’t even read the text. I will need to get this translated.” She swept the book protectively under her arm, holding it reverently.

“So, it is valuable?” I said, unable to hold a smirk back.

The old smith narrowed her eyes, magnifying her crow’s feet, “What do you want for it, legionnaire?”

What did I want for the book? It was mostly useless to me now that I had a copy in the dreamscape. I needed many things. I needed to get to the Adventurer’s Guild Hall to see Tarvon so I could purchase some revelation scrolls. That might be too suspicious, though.

“Can you clean and repair these?” I pulled the rusty twelve elven daggers, ten elven hand axes, and two damaged elven axes from my dimensional space.

Ignis quickly recognized the expert craftsmanship, “Neptune’s beard, how big are you, legionnaire?” She put the book down to examine the weapons. She studied each weapon and frowned at the two hand axes I had used to hack the vines on the floor of the Shimmering Labyrinth. “All are exceptionally fine work.” She looked at me differently this time. “Still, I will admit, cleaning and honing the edges on these blades would not be fair compensation for this book.” She placed her hand protectively on it like I might steal it at any moment.

“I also want sheaths for them all, a swordsman’s shield for my parade armor, and I could use a replacement short sword with a sheath as well.” The last was to gain a sheath for the mage’s bane spider blade. I might need to carry it in the future. “The quality of the short sword will be up to you to establish for fair compensation.”

Ignis looked at the assortment of weapons and the book as she contemplated. She finally said, “Agreed. And I will keep its origin to myself.” That was a point I was going to bring up, so I just nodded gratefully. “You indicated you have other tomes?” She asked, almost pleadingly.

“It is something we can discuss at another time,” I said as I began removing the armor. Ignis regretfully could tell I was not going to reveal more to her today, and she carefully collected the weapons before leaving.

I was worried I was showing too much, but I had the opportunity to get my dimensional space in order while I had some time. I was hoping Zyna’s relationship with Ignis would prove the craftswoman a silent ally. I carefully stored the armor in my small room next to my borrowed auroch hide armor.

I returned to the alchemy lab to prepare my first attempt at alchemy. It was getting close to noon when the doors in the common room flung open. The thud of the doors opening hard into the wall had me pull the mage bane blade to my hand. Had Ignis betrayed me so quickly?

“What in Pluto’s Abyss!” A familiar voice rang from the other room. “The bastard is living in luxury while we have to sleep on hard bunks. I bet he is drinking wine and eating ambrosia every night!”

Maveith’s deep voice reverberated through the suites, responding to Mateo’s announcement, “I am sure the mage is keeping Eryk very busy.”

Benito’s voice answered, “I bet she is! She was pretty well-shaped for a mage. She is probably working him really hard.”

Konstantin’s harsh voice cut through the rabble, “If High Mage Zyna is in these apartments and heard you say that, she would roast you alive, Benito. And I wouldn’t move to stop her. Maybe I would even encourage her.” The entire place was suddenly deathly silent, and the men from my company listened for movement.

I returned the mage bane blade quietly and moved silently through the connecting rooms. I emerged from the kitchen to the common room to see six men from the company on alert for the dangerous Fire High Mage. Konstantin was hiding a smirk at the unease of the other men. I smiled at the group. “She is not here.” They all exhaled and relieved, and tension left their bodies. “What brings you by today?” I asked, smiling at my companions.

Maveith spoke for the group, “We came to say goodbye. We leave in the morning. Konstantin said he could get us into the Mage College.”

I looked over the group of Mateo, Maveith, Benito, Konstantin, Blaze, and Lirkin. “Well, it is lunchtime. Come on in, and I will whip you up something.” Lirkin volunteered to help, and we moved into the kitchen.

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