Chapter 271 B4 Chapter 27 - Hack

Vivi zapped awake an unknown time later inside a musty and cave-like smithy. Or more precisely, a traditional outside-carving runesmith’s workstation.

There was an L-shaped table with a sword vise, with a neat display of carving knives and conductive paste. The room reminded her of Rensfig’s workstation back in Zand—the one in Ven’s secret base, where she’d created Abyss Destroyer—with closed-in walls and barely enough space to move. All of the equipment here was pristine, however, probably brand new and arranged just for her. If only any of this equipment was useful.

Behind her, the eminent aura of Shilman Fried filled Vivi’s senses. It seemed he’d woken her up by reverting the spell he’d cast to squeeze her unconscious. She slowly turned to him.

Both of her cores still felt entirely fine. She had all of her forty million wisps, and her three skills, including Ascension Of Divinity. Her void core was as hostile as ever, with wisps eager to turn her to a monster if she so allowed. Lucius was healthy and silently observing, having been awake during her unconsciousness.

“It has now been six hours since we last spoke,” Shilman said. “You should be rested enough to start working.”

Vivi would have objected if Shilman wasn’t threatening her at any disagreement. Her head was jumbled and confused. Her six hours of unconsciousness hadn’t felt like sleep, and her head hadn’t processed any of the events that had just happened. It felt more like she’d fallen unconscious and immediately zapped back awake.

“To confirm things,” Vivi began, “you want me to create a modified slingshot launcher that can shoot Ythar through the clouds on the surface, and into the sky?”

“With enough force that he doesn’t return,” Shilman said. “Is that possible?”

Absolutely not, not if I don’t have Freyven and Patryn with me, Vivi thought, but outwardly, she gave a confident nod. “I have ideas, but I’ll need time and materials.”

“Anything you require will be provided. How long?”

“Probably… Two weeks?”

That should have been enough to give her time to get started on creating a pretty showcase, with plenty of time to complete the project she actually needed to escape.

“Two weeks is acceptable,” Shilman said calmly. “Any more than that I cannot spare. Offer me a list of materials you require, and you will get started right away.”

“Most of the equipment here is useless to me,” Vivi said. “My method of runesmithing doesn’t use conductive paste. I don’t need the sword vise, and the table can be moved out for more space. I will need a forge and an anvil, a crucible furnace with crucibles, raw ingots, and loads of ether roots.”

Shilman batted an eye, and Vivi had to explain that inside-carving had very little in common with its outside-carving counterpart. She avoided little details, only mentioning that her method flipped the order of the runesmithing process around, and it used ether roots instead of conductive paste.

Shilman accepted the explanation without further questions. He nodded along, as if to show that he understood what was being talked about, though Vivi wasn’t certain if he actually. Maybe being a fifth elevation hunter made him overconfident in areas outside his expertise as well.

“I have a few more questions,” Vivi said. “Ythar is the size of a human, right? Will the launcher need to be large enough to shoot a human?”

“No,” Shilman said. “Ythar will be chopped into pieces. Only the part that contains his core needs to be launched into the sky. To be safe, each piece of his body should also be shot out separately.”

“Okay, that makes it easier,” Vivi said. “I’ll have it done in two weeks.”

He stared at her. “I should mention that I have scanned both of your cores. I am aware of the amount of ether you own, as well as the three skills you wield.”

“I would prefer not to give them to you,” Vivi said.

“Worry not, I don’t intend to generate malice between us,” Shilman said. “Once Ythar is dead and shot into the sky, I will let you free, and I will reward you greatly. I won’t withhold any of your skills or ether.”

“Thank you,” Vivi said with an honest bow. Not losing any of her skills would make this much easier.

“Beware that this smithy is warded, and you are tracked. Attempt to escape, or betray me, and you will die. Loretta Nimwind has already been captured with the same spell, and she is a much better concealer than you.”

“Yes, thank you,” Vivi said. “I won’t betray you. As long as you don’t harm my friends.”

“That much I can promise, so long as you keep yours, too.”

“Then, I’m ready to get to work. Please bring me every tool and material I requested.”

***

For her first night in the smithy, Vivi actually crafted what she was supposed to.

Well, that wasn’t exactly correct. Vivi wasn’t positive she could improve the launcher on her own enough to get rid of a god, if that was possible at all. But Shilman didn’t know either, and Vivi knew a lot of jargon. She could definitely create a showcase to “prove” she was making progress, just in case Shilman showed up unannounced to see what she was doing.

The end result was a pretty-looking barrel for a slingshot launcher lined with runes, including some strife runes that would heat up if ether was added in. That was about all it did so far.

She woke up after two hours of rest, stretched a little, and asked, Lucius, could you turn into measuring tape for me? I’ll need my measurements.

“What, hasn’t Lortel already measured you?” he asked.

She did, and she definitely knows all of my measurements, Vivi thought. But she didn’t tell me the exact numbers. Not that I would remember them anyway.

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“You really need to come up with more important uses for your spirit, Vivi,” Lucius said. “But you’re right. Measurements are probably needed for armor. Let’s see… Measuring tape…”

His form switched as he turned into a red translucent string, though he didn’t include any markings for measurements. The form was closer to a ribbon string instead of measuring tape.

“You do know how long an inch is, right?” Vivi asked. “Ythar came up with them. They’re standardised.”

“Uhh,” Lucius said. “I can come up with my own measurement system if you want.”

Vivi sighed at him.

“I don’t have access to Ythar’s encyclopedia down here!” Lucius said, turning back to a cat. “My personal memory is a sacred place. Everything I store in there has to be valuable. I won’t waste space for measuring tapes!”

“What if you take the measurement and memorize the exact shape?” Vivi asked. “Then, when I need to see the measurements, you can take the same shape later and show me.”

Lucius snorted, crossing his paws. “Yes, that was what I was going to do anyway. Stand still.”

He turned back into a ribbon and wrapped around Vivi’s waist, along with every other part of her body she wanted measured. He placed that into memory, which seemed to work very similarly to Drean’s permanent memory. By recalling it, he could return to the same shape he’d measured whenever he wanted with perfect precision.

Vivi still didn’t have any numbers, but this would work just as well. She began theorizing a design that would protect her from Shilman’s instant zap spell, and from discharges of ether.

She had never crafted armor before, but she had watched Grandpa create a full plate armor as a test to see if it worked. It had only been a single-runed design, and had required almost a full week to complete, but inside-carved armor was very much a thing, and just as much of an upgrade as inside-carved swords were to their outside-carved variants.

As was expected, none of the hunters had been interested in Grandpa’s armor. He’d made it only out of steel to save ether cost on the metal, and the ether roots hadn’t shone through the metal. Grandpa kept it on a stand for a few months, proud to have completed it, until he decided it was just on the way, and it had rotted in the basement since.

Vivi had been eleven when he made it, but she recalled the crafting process clearly, along with all the curses Grandpa couldn’t keep in after a few failed attempts. Inside-carved armor was probably the most arduous thing to craft right after a full house of inside-carved walls. But all inside-carved equipment followed the same theory. The ether within the armor’s metal had to flow cleanly, guided by the ether roots, without any spots of conflict where ether could clog and rip the metal apart.

She summoned her crochet hook and tied an asmite root into the vise Shilman had provided. She added ether to the emberstones of her forge just for heat, and for once, it felt good to work in a good and utterly cramped cell-like smithy, so hot that the temperature alone would soon make her sweat.

Armor had to be made in multiple pieces. That much was obvious. Even the breastplate would be separated into two, with openings for ether roots on each part of the plate, which would also make forging it much easier.

The most difficult pieces that Vivi knew would create trouble would be the helmet and the gauntlets. She still wasn’t sure how she’d get those done. For now, she got straight to work on the right arm, starting from the shoulder-guard.

Lucius, initiate the root, she thought.

The root sparked to life. Right away Vivi found herself fully focused, not because the pathways were tight, but because the shape of a shoulder-guard was entirely new. She had to follow the measurements for the armor to fit her shoulder specifically, while also making sure the ether root’s shape didn’t break the ether’s flow. As familiar as she was with the fundamentals, each move she made required thinking.

She’d decided that this would only be a single-runed project. With the time restraint, a two-runed plate armor would take far too long. Not to mention, this was her first time ever creating armor.

But can single-runed armor withstand Shilman’s spells?

She could easily protect herself against the zap spell. Its effect wouldn’t be able to pierce ether-enhanced plate armor. Vivi was confident that armor could protect her from a mage’s usual move of an ether discharge. But on top of those, Shilman could have had many more skills.

Still, full coverage armor gave her the best chances of surviving against whatever unexpected attacks Shilman could still have.

So you’re absolutely sure that Shilman can’t manipulate my core through armor? Vivi thought.

“The unconsciousness skill needs to get through your coating of ether,” Lucius said. “You’re the one that told me armor will give you the strongest coating of ether around yourself.”

Armor is essentially just that, is it not? Vivi thought. A piece of metal that contains ether, stopping my aura from leaking out?

Lucius had to think of his answer. Usually, if he didn’t know what to say, he just got upset and argued, but right now, their life was on the line. “I think that would make sense, yes. Your coating without armor is already passable. If we ascend to ten thousand ether, Shilman will struggle. Manipulating your core through an ascension skill is like walking through a storm.”

But my aura still leaks a lot, Vivi thought. Armor will instead concentrate it all to the metal protecting me. With your analogy, it should be like walking through a solid wall.

“Yes, that sounds right,” Lucius said. “As long as he doesn’t chain you down with some sort of snare skill, we’ll be fine. We’ll need a surprise attack.”

Vivi bit her lip at that. If Shilman also had a skill to stop her from moving, armor wouldn’t exactly help in combat. He wouldn’t be able to stop her muscles from moving—that would require getting through to her core—but he could try to physically restrain her.

Well, we can probably just kill him before he harms us, Vivi thought. Hopefully.

Before anything, she still needed to complete the armor. Even the first piece was still only on its last step.

Vivi was minutes away from cauterizing the ether root when the door behind her grinded open. Lucius retreated to her core and took a defensive stance, as Shilman’s unmistakable aura entered the room.

Don’t stop! Vivi ordered. Keep adding ether. It’s almost done!

She felt two people standing behind her, watching her work. As expected, Shilman had showed up unannounced, here to witness her shape ether roots for armor. But he wasn’t a runesmith, and none of the runesmiths here knew about inside-carving. If Vivi tried to hide her work in a panic now, the situation would be much worse.

“This will be done in a minute,” Vivi said. “Let me focus.”

“What is this?” Shilman asked.

“Give me a minute,” Vivi said again and focused on shaping the final branch of the shoulder guard, before finally cauterizing the root. What she had was five separated stalks of an asmite root shaped to the curve of her shoulder.

A handle-like extension still poked inward, where the piece would touch the shoulder, and where the runes would eventually be carved. If the ether roots were fully submerged in the metal, there would be no way of pushing ether inside. As always, all inside-carved projects required the ether root to be outside the metal in at least one contact point.

Vivi cut the stalk from the root and grabbed the handle as if she was holding a tiny pickaxe. “This is the framework for the enhancement string. I’m going to cut this into pieces and turn it into what powers the metal. And here is the barrel, though still unfinished.” Vivi showed her barrel to Shilman.

He observed both items for a moment before turning to the slim man accompanying him. He seemed to be an ordinary demon with barely any ether in his aura. He wore a nice tunic with a lightly scorched face and smooth hands, with small horns. He was the most human-like demon in Norfolm she’d seen. His fingers had light calluses especially on his thumb and index finger. An outside-carving runesmith?

“This is Liaf Nevermoore,” Shilman said. “The only man in Norfolm to have crafted a four-runed sword. He is here to examine your work. I trust you, Vivian, but I don’t know nearly enough about runesmithing to confirm whether you’re crafting what you’re saying you’re crafting.”

“So you brought an expert?” Vivi asked.

“Indeed. Liaf, what do you think of her work?”

Liaf crossed his arms, frowning. “From the information provided, I can only assume she is a hack. An enhancement string is not a concept I have ever heard associated with runesmithing.”

Right, Vivi thought, and prepared herself for another one of these arguments.