Chapter 246: 'Rusty' Armors

"A fool may use a golden sword to mine, but a wise man will create gold from stones," Kiana stated.

Hearing the idiom, Lucius felt a bit underwhelmed. He was expecting some grand statement as there were in the many texts, but this one was rather light.

"I see… it does make sense, I guess," Lucius replied.

"It sounded way better when I was a child. To adults, it seems a little weird yes," Kiana admitted.

Having heard that, Lucius simply nodded his head and looked at his new Lost.

"So what is the plan with him now?" Kiana asked.

"Well… he'll be making dust… a lot of dust…" Lucius spoke.

Hearing that, Kiana's fingers curled in disgust. 

"At least it will be contained, right?" Kiana asked.

"Yes, we need to do that at least," Lucius replied before turning to look at one of the empty rooms on the other side.

"Looks like we can finally get to using that room as well. It would be better if we reduce the spread of the dust, as much as we can here… at least until I get a better understanding of it." Lucius said.

"Alright," Kiana nodded.

After that, the two of them discussed a bit more and planned how the Lost would be assisting in the battle that was to come soon. 

~tak~tak~tak~

The sound of metal boots walking on the stony floor could be heard coming from the stairwell in the distance. Lucius and Kiana stopped talking and looked in the direction of the sound. The lamps were already lit up, thus it was easy for them to spot who was coming from there.

"My Lord," one of the guards came and saluted Lucius.

"What is it?" Lucius asked.

"The armors you asked for are ready. They are waiting upstairs in a carriage. Do you want me to transport them here?" The guard asked.

"Ah! They're here at the perfect time. Please do," Lucius replied.

"At once, my lord." The guard said before hurriedly leaving to do his duty.

Then in fifteen minutes, several boxes were brought from the back of the basement. They used the secondary entrance as it was the largest and made it easier for large boxes such as these to be transported.

In total, there were ten large boxes. They were rather heavy and the sound of metal clanging within it could be heard when they were being moved. Once the staff of the reeducation center finished moving in the boxes, they left under the orders of Lucius.

"Finally…" Lucius muttered and looked towards the closed lab.

"Come, open this Doyle." Lucius ordered.

"Eng!" A muffled grunt could be heard coming from behind the doors.

~Creak~

Five seconds later, the door of the lab opened, and out walked Doyle. He had awakened upon hearing Lucius and the other Lost could also be seen within the lab. Most of them were still asleep, and only Doyle and Jacob were awake for now.

Doyle walked to the box that was closest to Lucius and placed his hands on it before prying apart the lid of the box with his nails.

~WEENG~

The sound of wood bending and metal nails being forcefully uprooted could be heard before the lid came off.

~thud~

Doyle put the lid aside and the contents of the box were now visible. Lucius and Kiana peered inside it and saw about thirty metal helmets placed within it. They were a dark maroon in color and looked like they were rusted. 

But in reality, this was simply a metal alloy that was chiefly composed of copper, iron, along with a few more metals in minor quantities. This gave it its unique 'rust' color, but it was also quite durable due to it.

Lucius picked one of the helmets and looked at it. It was rather simple in design, having a broad dome shape that would easily allow the large heads of the Lost to fit in without problems. 

It had two rectangular slits for the eyes and had a mask like front which could be slid to the bottom to reveal the mouth. Lucius had specifically asked the blacksmith to make them like this so that the Lost would have an easier time if they needed to 'feed' in the middle of a battle.

That way, they would not break or remove their helmets entirely. There were even some facial patterns carved on the mask that gave it an eerie vibe.

"Huh, they made it rather well. The mask design is also sufficiently intimidating, I suppose." Lucius spoke.

"You didn't give them the design for this, did you?" Kiana asked.

"Nope, I just asked them to make it as intimidating as possible and they delivered rather well." Lucius replied.

"It was the right choice to pick the acquaintances of Johan for this," Kiana spoke.

"Indeed, since they've done such good work, we may as well make them our permanent workers," Lucius stated.

Kiana simply nodded, and they got to the next box.

"Open the rest of the boxes as well, Doyle." Lucius ordered.

"Eng!" Doyle replied before getting to the rest of the nine boxes.

Five of the boxes contained the chest pieces of the armor set, while the remaining four contained the gauntlets and boots. They were similarly rust colored to the helmet and even had some additional reinforcements made on the joints with a special type of treaters rune beast leather.

This prevented excess noise during movement and also reduced the chances of the rivets snapping or bending.

The chest piece was similarly broad enough to fit the large frame of the Lost, but even for the ones that were a bit more slimmer like the most recent Jacob, the armor could be adjusted using some straps that were hidden underneath.

The gauntlets and boots both had beast claw like patterns on them and they looked rather intimidating as well. Lucius checked each of the armor pieces until he was satisfied and finally got to the main part.

"Let's see how it actually functions,"