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A Soldier's Life - 193 - Parade Armor
🕑 Added 2024-05-12 16:18:46 +0000 UTCChapter 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.”
I felt a little self-conscious, so I pulled a shirt from the storage and put it on, covering my sweaty torso. “I have been training hard,” I answered after I covered myself.
“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.
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 never to 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 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 or 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 but go to a mirror and check myself out. Okay, I looked pretty epic.
Ignis handed me an arced body shield from the floor of the duffel bag that matched the suit. The last time I used the 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. “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’s 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. legionnair?”
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 dimensional space in order while I had some time. I was hoping Zyna’s relationship with Ignis would help me keep my secrets. I carefully stored the armor in my small room next to my borrowed auroch hide armor.
I returned to the alchemy lab to set up 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 in, and I will whip you up something.” Lirkin volunteered to help, and we moved into the kitchen.
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Comments
Erick Thiemke
It is a Patreon programming error. Something with apple operating system. I fixed a bunch and will try to fix the rest today. Basically what happened is is a single word in the text was italics all words cut and pasted as italics but it looked normal on my screen
J. L. Mullins
Hello! Thank you for the story. Question: Why are some of these chapters suddenly all italics? Looking forward to continuing the story!
Kit
I'm new to this, but why is Eryk taking so many risks to expose himself suddenly? It seems out of character after trying (albeit lazily) to hide his secrets
Brianna Stormcloud
Love Ignis, especially her comments about ‘his size’ 🤭🤭🤣
Jeb Wieland
The old smith narrowed her eyes, magnifying her crow’s feet, “What do you want for it. legionnair?” < mispelling
Erick Thiemke
corrected
Samantha Lane
Perfect haggling with craftsmen: give them something unique and unobtainable that assists in developing their skills (and fame and money) and let them pay the favour back in the quality of goods requested.
Robert Biederman
I would really love to see him move and fight in that armor like a fracking tornado cutting down the weeds in the grass as it were love the chapter by the way
J S
He hawked it for beer money and a nice toothbrush.
Space Cadet
What ever happenned to the red armour that the countess had made for him?
Ivan Kanewske
Thank you
Erick Thiemke
He didn’t chose that time spell form. He took slow aging instead of the stop aging
Ivan Kanewske
I thought with his time affinity running he could only make physical increases through essences, yet he is trying to increase his physicality through practice ???
Erick Thiemke
corrected to 42/51 on the master
Bloodorange17
It says Eryk's "aether tolerance increased from 40/51 to 48/56," but in chapter 187 his aether tolerance is listed as 42/51?
Bloodorange17
Would the repair item spell form mentioned a couple of times in book 2 work to repair Eryk's spider silk shirt if it got slashed?
Bloodorange17
Found what I think is a typo? "I even got them to submit a requisition for the ingredients I needed to make the mouthwash. When I arrived, I stored everything in my dimensional space to retain its freshness." -- > "When they arrived"
Ben Walker
Doesn’t he also have other magic essences still in his space (water?) wouldn’t this be a good hi time to use them noting the side effects ?
Silver Beard
The ribald comments from his friends- expected a response about Lareen's betrayal... and a pointed look at Konstanian... oh well\
Silver Beard
@III architue III.. maybe. War is an ugly business. Bureaucracy! Eryk's going to be overlooked. He's still a nobody. Everyone else is plying for political favor and advantage. Anyone that comes after him won't be a sanctioned hit...and he can deal with them... with mage bane. Though I agree the lady looking to get an elfish book translated is going to get attention...considering the Empire is at war with them atm.
Silver Beard
Brings up an interesting point- if Zyna only wants him to feed her his Dungeon stuff- is it so she can see how much he makes? She's not stupid. He's already pulled out the table and pelts. Essences don't take up much space but it's not zero, and if she and Ignis talk (and they're women so that's a given) Zyna will hear about the weapons, book, and spinnerets soon. (Imagine Ignis delivers his restored weapons while he's off with Renna and Zyna is the only one there to receive it.) His weapons are in storage... not on display in his room which are a lot bigger than the 'box' he's supposed to have. Shall we go on? Better hope she never catches him with his spear. Affinity of 50-60 not unreasonable.. But it's known his 2 highest affinities are space and time... if space is that high...then time could be too... more than high enough for a spell form. perhaps this is where Zyna reassures him his choice for time... is the right one?
IlI architrue IlI
Well, the empire is quite efficient in punishing/keeping anything that is even remotely valuable. As soon as he would reveal anymore lost/interesting knowledge/items, he would disappear in a dungeon (not the fun one) of the empire or a first citizen.
Silver Beard
I especially like that he got to talk to Maveith. That seems a connection worth maintaining though I wonder Konstantin likely has 'instructions' for him. That'll be a lot less pleasant.
Silver Beard
He really needs to look through those books and find the ones on Runesmith blades. The Empire hasn't had any in centuries since they were all killed off. Such things would be considered priceless...and could be traded for almost anything. If he just happened to collect a few that is. (hint) As his dreamscape library grows- wonder if he needs to take up scribing. Otherwise, the only way to regurgitate the knowledge is to sleep with some bugger and invite them in. More he puts into it the less likely I see him willing to hand it off... to anyone.
Silver Beard
At the very least- he left her a healed war mount. She's not destined for a plow or meal.
Silver Beard
I agree but the move out was too sudden and he wasn't given a chance to 'visit' on the way out of town. Also, she'd have taken up a lot of space... that he used to pilfer a lot of goods from the Dungeon/elf City.
Codename_Fatty
Heck he should have stashed ginger in his space when nobody was looking.
Erick Thiemke
Even though their are minor, major and apex essences, they have different purities to them. It also gets more difficult to raise potential with more essences. There is a plateau. But he has a massive advantage with his ability to milk essences
Thomas
I believe that essences give the same absolute amount of increase. Yet that is a decrease in total numerical value since a number of 30 is twice the absolute value of of 20, and 40 is twice 30. Using your example of a 6 point change with an apex earth essence when it was at 0, then the same essence when he was at 20 would only be a 1 or 2 point change.
Erick Thiemke
yes, he only took the metalsmithing books. all the other books are copied in his dreamscape amulet (or in the process of being copied). the Tsinga link may or may not pop up in this book. I plan to have him travel there eventually and will model it after the Amazon in South America somehow. Maybe when he leaves with Maveith to return to Stone Mountain Island but that plot has fingers in the second half of book 4 with the Hounds
Daniel kanevsky
In the excel file it says he has close to 500 books from the elvish library in the dimensional space, are all of them on smithing, were there any books of herbalism, alchemy, or any other topic? Also, now that he is in the university, will he take the opportunity to learn tsinga or get a language amulet, it seems kinda useful to know/have?
Daniel kanevsky
He just needs to collect the steel armor to collect the whole set!
Erick Thiemke
From the duchess, yes. But if he pulled it out it would show the size of his space
Codename_Fatty
I thought eryk had a second suit of armor in his space.
SouthToiletWizard
Thank!
Grayson
Thanks for the chapter! You may have already discussed this, but are you reducing the essence benefits to slow down the MC’s progression? In the 1st book, a apex earth essence gave him 6 affinity points and a major healing essence added 4–now the MC only gets 1-2 points a essence, even on low affinities…
Faa Diallo
Thanks for the chapter
Erick Thiemke
updating the excel authors notes now - cleaned up his dimensional storage tab a bit https://www.patreon.com/posts/84934084
Erick Thiemke
2nd of 4 for cycle. World Sphere chapter is next on to do list. Dont worry action is coming
