(Chpt. 64) Shaping a new reality (5)

Alice.

Another day, another chapter. One of these days there is going to be a double release since I am too ashamed of posting a single of that chapter duo, so both of them the same day. Needless to say, I am not looking forward to it. 

I'll be asleep when chapter goes live, I think I'll wake up to a dumpster fire, (possibly not) it feels like throwing a dice. Hope everyone enjoys the chapter.

I gave some thought to whatever the dwarf said, I found it weird. ‘I mean, who was I proposing to? Do I even love someone in an affectionate way; to be with them way? Weird…’ I shook my head and looked back at the rings that were in the bucket, now I had two buckets. One full of scales and one full of rings. 

I took both of the buckets to the grass and sat down, it was getting dark but the warmth and candescent light of the furnace made a somewhat cozy atmosphere. The grass was refreshing and still cold to the touch. I could see somewhat clearly, so I wasn’t really bothered by the time. 

I pulled out a pair of tweezers from my inventory, I had a pair of every single tool; backups and whatnot. I gripped a scale with one and threaded an iron ring, I grabbed the now threaded scale which looked like a keyring and inserted another scale on the same ring, then closed it off. I added another ring to the first scale and added yet another scale on the opposite side. Once that was done I added one more ring to each of the lateral scales and threaded a single scale in between both rings. 

I had a small rhombus shape that was made out of four scales and four rings, it was slightly tedious but I had to keep doing it. It was also a bit confusing, it was slightly hard to grasp the pattern since the scales moved every so often so it didn’t really look like a uniform shape, but rather just a mess of a keychain. 

I kept adding rings and scales broadening the scale mail, eventually, it was fairly wide and it could cover my arm, since I couldn't keep expanding it into a rhombus, I stopped adding scales to the sides and just kept “weaving” the pattern through the center, what I had was basically an arrow that was oddly stylized. 

Slowly but surely I kept threading rings and scales, it was a slow and tedious process, even though it made a nice jingling sound akin to a keychain whenever I added new things. I paused for a second and couldn’t help but be amazed at what I was doing. I was almost done with the scale part of things, I still needed to mount it and whatnot, although, what amazed me was just how intricate the pattern looked. Rings threaded in groups of four following an arrow shape made naturally by the scales, most scales had three rings threaded through them. It was oddly satisfying and fulfilling to see what it was ending up like. 

It took quite a bit of time but after some more threading and using a lot of tweezers trying my hardest to not touch the actual scales I was done. It was surprisingly uniform and it had no blemishes, I had half a gauntlet at this point. I looked at both buckets with satisfaction, almost no scales and rings left, just a few spare ones. I added one more ring at the tip of the arrow and a few across each other on the sides. 

Breathing in and out I pulled out some random piece of armor that I saw of good quality in my inventory, it seemed to be a coat of sorts. Black shiny and smooth leather with some silver linings and accents. I had no way of cutting the leather to fit the scales on it, I guess it was due to lack of preparation. 

I sighed in defeat as I left the coat in the ground, at that moment I heard a high-pitched dangling next to me. Aizen was inspecting the scale mail with a discerning eye her eyes sparkled for a second before she coughed. 

“This is it… right?” She asked trying to hide her enthusiasm. I couldn’t help but avert my gaze and sheepishly scratch my arm. 

“Umm… actually I couldn’t finish it because I don’t have a knife…” I said with slight embarrassment, Aizen froze for a second and got to thinking. She inspected her nails with a bit of hope, they were slightly pointy and a bit long but they weren’t vampiresc or claws for that matter. However, her gaze lingered on them. 

“I might be able to do something…” She said with a bit of doubt. I tilted my head hearing her. 

“How so?” 

“Well, I have a feeling I will be able to do something…” She absentmindedly said as she dug her hand into the scale bucket and grabbed a single scale, she slightly flinched as it darkened, but her gaze was as sharp as ever. She held the scale right in front of her and concentrated her utmost attention, I closely watched wondering how the scale would change but I saw nothing happen. 

She breathed out in tiredness. “Alright, that should be it…” I tilted my head yet again. “Just hand the coat .” I wordlessly nodded and gave her the coat. She lightly touched the durable leather with the tip of the scale and effortlessly drifted it across the shiny and smooth surface, to my surprise the scale was cutting through the coat as if it were butter, even though it was supposed to be a Legendary item… 

Aizen deftly cut the sleeve off and started gradually removing bits of unnecessary leather. She looked like an experienced leatherworker for a second, she seemed to have experience with it, but now that I thought about it, the rags she had been wearing when I first met her were probably made by her, or at least I would like to think that she did that. 

Aizen avoided cutting too much and we ended up with a leather sleeve-gauntlet-thing, it was basically one piece leather gauntlet. Aizen did add some stylization by cutting open the bottom and leaving just a few strips that connected the leather together, it was an open design if you will. 

She wordlessly handed me the gauntlet with a smile and excitement. I overlapped the scale layer on top and opened the rings I had added at the end, surprisingly Aizen had lined up the rings perfectly with the stripes so I could just thread them. I threaded the front and moved to the sides, slowly but surely it was a black and white gauntlet full of unblemished and pearl-like white scales. 

It was pretty, as soon as I finished threading the last ring something odd happened. I saw a rune-like pattern flash on the surface of the leather, kind of like an imprint, then it rapidly vanished. I couldn’t help but blink repeatedly, this wasn’t in the plan. I looked back at the gauntlet closely, the first thing I noticed was that the scales were shining like normal mithril instead of the white rock-like texture they had. 

“Is something wrong?” Aizen asked with curiosity. 

“I don’t know…” I decided to truthfully answer. “Well… here you go.” I tried giving Aizen the gauntlet but she rejected it by repeatedly shaking her hand. 

“I can’t take it right now, it will probably leave me out of mana…” She said with a bit of sadness, I gulped and slowly nodded. 

“You could turn it into an item and then tell me what happens,” Aizen said with a bit of a smirk, I nodded and poured mana into the gauntlet, touching the leather only the whole time. 

[Error: Cannot re-evaluate item.] 

“Eh…” What was that? 

[Title unlocked: Rekindler of the lost.] 

Rediscovered a long lost metal and bringing it back to its former glory, perhaps the world should know about you? 

[Title unlocked: Long lost but not forgotten.] 

You have brought the world something that had been thought as lost, but it's never truly lost until it's forgotten. 

I looked at the gauntlet with utter confusion, I don’t even know what was going on anymore, too many words going by my head, so much to think about that doesn’t even make sense. What are titles anyways… They used to be flex potential, but I don’t think they have any effects… They shouldn’t at least. 

I noticed something flashing by the gauntlet, or rather a bit of magic energy. I decided to inspect the gauntlet seeing I couldn’t really enchant it. 

[Dragon’s claw ⁠— Relic ⁠— A special gift for a special someone. The scales can be morphed into almost anything by drawing the user’s mana, they return to their original form after use.]

“... What?!” Did the item just auto-enchant itself without me touching it? Like, did the system recognize it as an item before I could even touch it? What just happened… Is the system turning sentient and about to kill me?! No wait… that should’ve happened quite a while ago recalling the random titles I have gotten… What was it? Something about loving a glacier? 

“What happened?” Aizen looked at me with concern. 

I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it, here.” I threw the thing at Aizen. 

“Wha⁠— What are you doing?” She let it fall on the ground as she skillfully dodged it and picked it up only touching the leather. 

“Just inspect it…” I said without much care, her eyes widened. 

“Did you do this?” I shook my head, she went into thinking and looked at the gauntlet fixedly a few times, with a bit of hesitation she put the gauntlet on before removing it in an instant, she moved her hand around with confusion. With a bit of doubt, she put the gauntlet back on, her face turned from doubt to confusion. 

“Is this the same hazardous-people-killing material from earlier?”

I tilted my head. “Well, it’s supposed to be, what do you mean by ‘people-killing’ though?” I asked, Aizen instantly sighed. 

“Think about it, if someone with an average amount of mana touched your cursed metal plate they would instantly have all their mana drained and die!” She said in annoyance, I kind of froze because of my stupidity. “Anyway, it’s better this way. I guess it only draws mana if I want it to morph, huh?” I nodded towards Aizen’s self-questioning. 

Aizen silently adjusted her gauntlet with a smile, this time she wore it under her robe, she would look at it occasionally with a bit of melancholy for some reason. Was that the reason she wanted a scale gauntlet? As I was thinking she slowly approached me and hugged me. 

“Thanks for going so far for me…” 

“Eh, what do you mean?” I was really confused. 

“Well you know, you fainting because of the metal, among other things…” Oh that… Yeah… It wasn’t exactly for you but it's better if I don’t say anything… I wordlessly hugged her back seeing she was still somewhat happy. 

After a few seconds she unglued herself from me and looked at me with a smile and then back at her gauntlet, she whispered something to herself and opened her mouth. 

“Well, now w⁠—” 

“I-I can’t believe you left me!” I looked back at the door or rather, the entrance, it was Ari. She had a look of betrayal and redness on her face, teary eyes and a bit of sweating. 

“I told you that they are not leaving you…” A tired voice came from behind, it was Dan. 

“Dan is bad with kids,” a cheerful voice added. “How silly of you brother.” Brother? Just what is happening?!  

Alice.

Sorry if the chapter feels a bit iffy, have Aizen art in compensation, was feeling artistic today. (Warning: It's a bit lewd, sorry...)

Let me know what you think of the art in the comments. Feedback is appreciated, o/