CH.232 Handing out Rewards

CH.232 Handing out Rewards

In the morning, I woke up like I usually do. To the sounds of Ria changing clothes. Sure it might be a questionable alarm clock, but it works, so what are you going to do?

The difference this time was that Lua had also woken up, so instead of just me, we both went to the factory together. Lua may or may not have ‘stolen’ my hand and placed it against her cheek before we did though. Not that I mind.

“... so, why did you come here?” Lua asked.

“Why not? I try to do it every morning and evening. It’s just a habit.” I answered. “But I do actually have something today. I need to do a few tests. Actually, we should start looking at your dress as well. You now know what my suit looks like, so if you want, we can try to come up with something that will match.”

“Yes. Let’s.” Lua agreed.

“But I do actually have some stuff I need to try.” I said to bring us, well mostly myself, back on track.

“Alright. What is it?”

“Just some test. I’ll show you.” I said, as I began to make a new test area, like the one I made last time.

As I was setting up the test area, Tahlia ‘teleported’ next to us. Yeah, I say ‘teleported’ as it technically isn’t teleportation, just destroying your avatar, and making a new one somewhere else. She was in her dark blue dress, in case you were wondering. I guess she still refuses to wear her pink onesie when she is in the ‘public’ areas of the factory.

“Father, Lua, good morning.” Tahlia greeted us.

“Good morning Tia.” Lua said to her. “It’s good to see you. It has been a few days...”

As the girls made smalltalk, I kept working. After I made the armor stands, I made factory copies of Ria’s new and upgraded armor. By the way, it currently looks like this.

Armored Crimson Boa Jacket - Blood Iron Metal Inserts [Defense +200][Fire Resistance - 50% damage reduced][Lightened - 40% weight reduced][Physical Attack Resistance - 10% damage reduced][Toughness - 20% durability increase][Blood Repair][Vampire Armor][Durability 2400/2400] Description: A leather jacket made from Crimson Boa hide. Because of the hide used, it is naturally fire resistant. It has thin blood iron plates inserted all over, to make it more defensive. The blood iron likes to drink blood, and by feeding it blood, the armor will self repair. The armor favors those that drink blood, and will defend them more than others. It has been enchanted to make it lighter, to increase its resistance to physical attacks and to improve its durability.

I don’t know how, but apparently my monsters were able to make it quite a bit better. It is basically better in every way, compared to the bronze version, even with the Lunatite install. Sure the Lunatite variant had the magic resistance, but this one has physical attack resistance. And yeah, 10% might not be that much, but it is still nice.

But back to what I was doing. I made three copies of Ria’s jacket, and lined them up next to each other. I learned last time that one success could be a fluke, so I think three tests will be the minimum for me. And I feel like Laura would laugh at me if she heard that, saying something like “Three? It takes at least a hundred to make sure.”

“Brian, is that..?” Lua asked.Alll latest novels at novelhall.com

“It’s Ria’s armor.” I answered. “Well, a copy of it, actually.”

“... I see. What will you do with it?”

“Just a sec. I’ll get the cards out.” I said as I dug my collection for three copies of Metallizing Parasite - Lunatite. Then I gave one for Lua to read. “Here. Take a look.”

Spoiler

[collapse]

After a few seconds of reading, Lua spoke up. “So... it’s a parasite that is resistant against spells?”

“Basically yes.” I confirmed.

“But doesn’t it ... equip directly onto a person? What do you need the armor for?”

“It does, but if I use it that way, it is treated as a monster. That means it can only stay out for two hours, and will take up a slot on my duel disk, or you will have to hold it in your hand in other cases.” I explained. “But by installing it into an armor like this, it will be a permanent part of it. It does come with a small downside of draining the wearer's HP, but that is a small price to pay for the defense increase, and the magic resistance the armor gets.”

“... I suppose. But that just depends on how much HP it takes.”

“Well, last time I checked, it was 1 HP every second. But mine, with the mithril plates, instead of bronze, only took 1 HP every 5 seconds, so I think this will be less. But we will find out soon.”

“... I see. That could be bad for a normal adventurer, but we should be fine, I think. As long as we are careful not to wear it for too long.” Lua said.

“Yeah. It would be a lot worse, if you only had like 500 HP or something. Also, the HP drain doesn’t actually affect me, as my Health Conscious skill negates that damage.”

“Oh, I didn’t know there was a skill like that.” Lua commented. “How did you even get it?”

Armored Crimson Boa Jacket - Parasitic Blood Iron Metal Inserts [Defense +370][Magic Resistance - 81% damage reduced][Fire Resistance - 50% damage reduced][Lightened - 40% weight reduced][Physical Attack Resistance - 10% damage reduced][Toughness - 20% durability increase][Blood Repair][Vampire Armor][Durability 2640/2640] Parasitic - When worn, the wearer will lose 1 HP every three seconds.This effect can be negated, by feeding the armor blood Description: A leather jacket made from Crimson Boa hide. Because of the hide used, it is naturally fire resistant. It has thin blood iron plates inserted all over, to make it more defensive. The blood iron likes to drink blood, and by feeding it blood, the armor will self repair. The armor favors those that drink blood, and will defend them more than others. It has been enchanted to make it lighter, to increase its resistance to physical attacks and to improve its durability. A metal parasite was later added to it, making it a parasite armor. While the parasite does offer unparalleled resistance to magic, it will also drain away the wearers HP. But because the metal parasite has a body of blood iron, it can take blood instead of HP.ErrorCannot Be AnalyzedPermission of individual Lucia required for the analysisVampire DressDurability 900/900A red dress made from blood cloth. Protects the wearer from sunlight.Armored Leather CorsetDefense +100Durability 1200/1200Other attributes cannot be analyzedNavy Leather PantsDefense +70Durability 1100/1100Pants made from an unknown leather. They have a deep blue color.Knee high Leather BootsDefense +50Durability 1000/1000Boots made from an unknown leather. They seem to always stay clean, and are completely waterproof.Vampire Dragon MantleDefense +90Durability 1400/1400A mantle made from the wing membrane of a vampire dragon. It has a deep crimson color. It has an edge made of vampiric steel. Protects the wearer from sunlight.

(It isn’t your fault.) She responded.

(It isn’t yours either. So no self blame, alright.)

(... I’ll try not to.)

(Don’t try, just don’t do it.)

“... so my armor is worse than Ria’s...” Lua’s muttering brought me back to reality.

“Yeah. I guess it is.” I admitted. “But part of that is because Ria’s has Lunatite installed. Without it, hers was worse than yours.”

“Oh? Alright... Can I have one of those Lunatites?” Lua asked.

“Sure. We can test that out.”

We spent a lot more time playing around with the idea of where I should install the Lunatite into Lua’s equipment, but all of them ended up failing, as her equipment just didn’t have enough metal for Lunatite to take place in. But that experiment did teach me something. Lunatite takes a better hold in stuff with more metal. A full plate mail is the best, and then from there, the effectiveness comes down. It also prefers larger, thicker pieces of metal, like the ones my armor has. That is why the magic resistance is higher in my armor, compared to Ria’s. And in stuff with little to no metal, Lunatite cannot take hold. The install will either just fail, or it will end up breaking the armor if I force it. That ended up happening when I tried it with a copy of Lua's Vampire Dragon Mantle.

After that was the thing I was both dreading, and looking forward to. Rewarding my monsters. Some were easy, others not so much.

Firstly, the two most important monsters. Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu and Hinotama Soul. That duo can really work the new forge super well, and without them, making this stuff might have been impossible.

Kotetsu got himself an install of Mystical Moon, while Hinotama Soul earned an install of Burning Spear.

Spoiler[collapse]

It is too bad that I don’t have any Pyro specific equip cards, so I had to go with the more generic Burning Spear. I also really wanted to give Kotetsu a hammer, but I just don’t have one. Maybe I can give him some of the materials from my storage, so he can use them to make himself a hammer.

Anyway, next up were the vampires. Because we worked with blood iron, they were necessary. This of course meant that multiple of my vampires gained Violet Crystals.

Spoiler

[collapse]

And because Lua was here, we tested out if Violet Crystal could be installed into a dhampir. It worked, but it was far from perfect. It is designed for ‘zombie’ or ‘undead’ type monsters, while dhampirs are perfectly alive. Sure they have some undead tendencies, but they are more like half-undead. Or probably quarter undead. So while it could be done, other, more generic cards made for better installs.

Next was a group of monsters I wasn’t so sure about. I know the invitation was open for all of my monsters, but for some reason, I didn’t expect these guys to do anything.

Archfiends Darkbishop, Infernalqueen and Terrorking. Those three were responsible for the Physical Attack Resistance enchantment on Ria’s armor, so by the rules, they needed something. ... I just ... really didn’t expect my Archfiends to do anything, so I was a bit taken back.

The Darkbishop got himself a Dark Energy, the Infernalqueen got Falling Down and the Terrorking was now wielding an Axe of Despair.

Spoiler[collapse]

... I really hope I won’t regret this.

Out of my spellcasters, Dark Sage was the one that put in the most work, so he was the one getting a reward. He already has a Book of Secret Arts, so instead I gave him Diffusion Wave-Motion. I don’t know how good that will be for him, but I hope it will suffice.

Spoiler[collapse]

Then was the time for the ‘care squad’. Aka. the monsters that took care of Ria. Cure Mermaid, Dancing Fairy, Spirit of the Breeze and White Magician Pikeru. They all got the same reward, an install of Soul of the Pure. This further increased their healing abilities, making them even better for next time.

Spoiler [collapse]

“... maybe that could be installed into me...” I heard Lua mutter, as I was installing the cards.

“Sure.” I told her. “But I think we should wait until after the birthday party, and let Mia and Laura run experiments with it first.”

As for the water monsters that worked with them, they all got either Steel Shell, or Power of Kaishin depending on their type and preference. And type. Can’t give Power of Kaishin to anything that isn’t aqua-type afterall.

Spoiler[collapse]

Last, but not least, was Tyrant Dragon. His blood was used for the blood iron, and because of that, he had to die a few times when the blood was gathered. Sure, Laura did resurrect him with Monster Reborn every time, but dying cannot be fun. As a price for that, he got a Dragon Treasure, as well as the right to pick any of the Mountain peaks in the tower room for himself. And if anyone tried to claim that he has no right, I would set them straight.

Spoiler[collapse]

I do feel a bit bad. Not because of what I did, I think that is perfectly fine, but because Tyrant Dragon ended up taking the largest mountain top in the room from Blue-Eyes. And I would never sacrifice a Blue-Eyes for its blood, so Blue-Eyes really didn’t have a choice. I’d like to just give Blue-Eyes its own Dragon Treasure and let the two fight it out for control of the mountain top. But that would be blatant favoritism, and that honestly might do more bad than good. I already show massive favoritism to monsters that I summon to outside the factory, so I’ll try to keep a more objective look here.

But with all of my monsters rewarded, and the second test of Lunatite done, we could return to the real world and get ready for the day. Sadly, because of how much time both the Lunatite experiments and the rewarding took, we couldn’t look into making a dress. Well, we do still have a day or two, and if we do really run out of time, I think we can just use Vampire Fascinators dress basically just as it is. Or even the black dress Lua made by accident. I think either should work.