Ch.149149. The Blacksmith (4)

After returning to the Tree House from Hephaestus the blacksmith’s forge, I arranged the equipment for Lancelot’s full gear completion. The equipment was crafted with such delicate and intricate detail that it was practically a work of art—the mythril full plate armor and rapier.

“…What kind of effects would you like?”

[My lord, I would like to enhance my strengths.]

Before enchanting the equipment, I asked Lancelot what effects he desired. After pondering for a moment, he began to express his wishes one by one.

“So, should I focus on ranged attack defense, magic resistance, and physical enhancement primarily for agility?”

[Yes. I would be grateful, my lord.]

After summarizing Lancelot’s desired effects, I began enchanting each part of the full plate armor according to his wishes.

On the left shoulder guard, I placed “Blessing of Arrow Deflection” to defend against ranged projectile attacks like arrows. On the right shoulder guard, I bestowed “Guardian Spirit’s Blessing: Magic” to enhance the wearer’s magic resistance and defense against magical attacks.

For each gauntlet, I added “Spider’s Grip” magic on the palm area, which provides a powerful adhesive effect that can be turned on and off at will, along with “Ogre’s Might” on the forearm guards to increase strength and combat effectiveness.

On the steel-reinforced boots, I applied the celestial magic “Sky Step” to allow walking on air, providing a means for aerial combat. On the shin guards, I bestowed “Stallion’s Hindlegs” magic to provide elastic physical abilities.

For the most important piece, the breastplate, I intricately wove wild magic with physical enhancement effects represented by the “Wild Explosion” spell. And for the much-anticipated helmet, I incorporated various convenience features.

The helmet allows the wearer to maintain sensory perception as if they weren’t wearing it at all, and features like a visor that can detect magically invisible targets are just the basics.

The face guard part of the helmet has a filter function, allowing it to serve as equipment for biological and chemical warfare by selectively filtering what passes through.

Where human ears would normally be, I installed a kind of magical hearing aid, and inside, I applied space expansion magic to comfortably conceal Lancelot’s long rabbit ears.

Additionally, on the surcoat on the back, which was made as an independent piece of equipment… I created something quite unique—magical equipment that allows the casting of spells by channeling magical power.

The name of the bestowed magic is “Phoenix Feather.” It’s one of the wild magics naturally unlocked when I advanced to the advanced rank. Simply put, it’s magic that supplements a knight’s lack of ranged attacks.

When cast, 15-20 flaming feathers appear in mid-air and fly like guided missiles toward targets designated by the caster.

It’s possible to concentrate all feathers on a single target or detonate them before impact to sweep away multiple enemies at once.

Of course, compared to a genuine magic user’s spells, the firepower is lower, and the mana consumption is quite high by warrior standards.

But considering that warriors typically lack proper ranged attack options, having such a control skill is fortunate. Lancelot received my magic very positively.

During the process of weaving magic into the armor, I discovered a special power that this full plate armor possessed even without additional enchantments.

‘Is this… the craftsmanship of a god…?’

Though I couldn’t understand the exact principle, amazingly, this armor seemed to have a kind of homeostasis that “maintains its original form,” perhaps due to its structure being similar to a compressed world.

Thanks to this, the armor not only resists external impacts without easily being damaged but also has the characteristic of self-repairing to a certain extent if left alone after being damaged.

And this effect applied to the enchanted rapier as well.

This sword, with a blade thickness between a short sword and a rapier, is different from an ordinary one-handed sword, though not as flexible as a pure rapier.

The inherent homeostasis of the weapon and the flexibility of mythril allow the rapier to bend smoothly along the trajectory of each swing.

Because of this, even the most excellent warrior would find it difficult to counter such a sword wielded by a skilled swordsman on first encounter.

However, the clear disadvantage of such a sword is its lack of power. Against targets that cannot be cut by an aura-wrapped blade, it performs worse than an ordinary sword.

A rigid sword could at least transmit shock to the flesh inside armor upon impact, but if a rapier fails to cut, it simply bends, delivering almost no impact.

Therefore, my solution was to bestow the nature magic “Thorn Spear of Rose.”

This nature magic originally forms a spear made of rose thorns to attack enemies. While the mechanism itself is simple, this magic comes with excellent additional effects.

Merely touching the thorns of the rose vine drains health or stamina, and if wounded by the rose thorns, thorns spread throughout the body from the wound, shredding it from within.

After appropriately arranging this attack magic and bestowing it on the rapier, the additional effect took root in the sword and evolved in an unexpected way.

Now this rapier not only absorbs the life force or magical power of whatever the blade touches and transfers it to the user, but also, the moment it inflicts even the slightest wound, thorns sprout from within, devastating the target’s insides.

Additionally, an effect I hadn’t anticipated emerged due to the quality of the rapier itself: the user can form and control thorn vines centered around the sword.

While these vines don’t possess all the power of rose thorns or absorption abilities, they are made of mythril, similar to the rapier itself.

If necessary, they can be used defensively, or bundled together to form a lance—making it a versatile, all-purpose function.

“How is it, Sir Lancelot?”

[…It’s the best, truly the best!]

Naturally, not being foolish enough to criticize such magnificent equipment, Lancelot looked at me with an expression that seemed like it would display [Loyalty increased by 100!] above his head.

※ ※ ※

Chompantlus, Kechak’s day was extremely simple.

[Yaaawn….]

After waking up from sleeping in a cave that served as her nest where sunlight didn’t reach, she leisurely moved her body, finished her simple grooming, and left the nest.

Though she would have liked to stay forever in the cozy, damp interior of her nest, Kechak had her own duties to attend to.

So, skillfully moving her four legs, Kechak arrived at the “gateway” located at the edge of her nest…

“You’re here, Kechak?”

[Yes! Yes! I’m here!]

And so, Kechak naturally emerged from her nest inside the Tarrasque—or more precisely, from the Tarrasque stored in the demon essence warehouse—and clung to her parent’s side.

She came out through a “gateway” installed via the power of advanced magic that Gregory Aleinos, Kechak’s master, gained upon becoming an advanced caster.

[What’s for food today?]

“Country sausage and pancakes. Do you like that?”

[Yes, I like it!]

As she nuzzled her head affectionately while being held, her adoptive father stroked Kechak’s head and placed the diminutive Kechak on his thigh.

[Hmm, hmm, hmm~!]

Humming happily while waiting for her meal, Kechak soon noticed her new family members, magically shrunk to about the size of medium dogs, beginning to emerge one by one, and she got down from her adoptive father’s knee.

Though Kechak, not even a year old, had a strong desire to play with her adoptive father and cling to him, she felt the need to behave differently now that she had reached the intermediate level as an adult.

[Mmm… ugh!]

Of course, none of the other animal friends would particularly stop Kechak’s behavior, but she herself didn’t think that way.

Unlike other magical beasts whose mental age typically matches their physical growth, Kechak was a rare exception—a variant that evolved independently and reproduced through parthenogenesis.

So while her mental age was supposedly much higher than her actual age, Kechak was still under 10 years old mentally. She tried to appear dignified but couldn’t hide the disappointment in her expression…

”’…How cute!”’

The fact that mischievous adults were watching her with gleaming eyes and finding her adorable was a public secret that only Kechak was unaware of.

And so, another night in the Elven Kingdom was passing by.