Ch.224224. Variable (1)

A few days after the departure of the social tax collector and the knights who had been wrongfully involved.

“Hmm… this should go here.”

As usual, I was diligently engaged in my newly acquired hobby of crafting.

Recently, I had been living a rather sticky lifestyle when I suddenly felt the need for a healthier and more practical hobby. What caught my eye was the ice greatsword that had been damaged but was now mostly repaired.

With materials received from Louis VII and various precious items mixed in among luxury gifts, I began dedicating myself to equipment crafting and modification after a long time.

What made the most decisive contribution to my new hobby were undoubtedly the premium materials included among the various luxury gifts I had received.

In a world where all sorts of fantasy creatures exist, rare materials typically come from body parts or byproducts of powerful beings. Considering the difficulty of subjugating or capturing such creatures, it makes sense that these materials command high prices.

Well, from my perspective, it’s fortunate that I can use these valuable materials without spending a penny.

Anyway, the first target of my modification work was the ice greatsword that was under repair at the time.

Separating and disassembling the blade part to create armor, and then using the remaining quarter staff for close combat.

While the mechanism itself might have been considered complete for some time now, there was no harm in adding a few auxiliary functions.

Especially from El-Temur’s body, which I obtained as a reward for my decisive role in his subjugation, I was able to acquire his heart—the only part that remained intact while his internal organs were turning into meat porridge due to the hydra’s deadly poison.

For knights of intermediate rank or higher who can handle aura, the heart is the center of aura operation trained through abundant aura activity. From a mystical perspective, it’s also a kind of repository where the mental image of martial prowess is stored.

And I generously incorporated this precious heart into the process of restoring the greatsword.

Thanks to this, the completed greatsword might not appear much different from before except for improved functionality, but surprisingly, the changes to the ice greatsword were quite remarkable.

It now has the ability to assist the wearer in swordsmanship, particularly the greatsword techniques that El-Temur presumably wielded, and the capability to extend cold energy from the staff to form a greatsword.

“Oh, this is pretty good!”

After experiencing this success, I felt compelled to try again, so I began crafting in earnest, combining my hobby with equipment replacement.

In truth, most of the equipment I had been wearing until now was designed for intermediate rank users. Since I needed to completely overhaul everything anyway, my activities had now transcended mere hobby.

Fortunately, I don’t need to make a new staff.

This staff, which I remember was a gift from my mother to commemorate my advancement to intermediate rank, not only enhances nature magic by one level (talent rank increase), but also functions adequately as a basic magic auxiliary staff.

It stores a certain amount of magical power, shortens casting time for specific spells through formula preservation, assists in spell casting to lower difficulty and increase power.

Additionally, it improves the efficiency of magic cast using the staff as an axis, and can even substitute for “catalysts” required for casting certain spells.

Among druid magic, there are spells that require seeds of specific plants or remains of creatures as “catalysts,” but when using this staff, no separate catalyst is needed.

Of course, since mysticism follows the law of equivalent exchange, there’s merit in using additional catalysts even when they can be substituted, as it increases the power of the spell.

On the other hand, unlike the staff, other equipment was generally unsatisfactory by my current (advanced rank) standards.

To be honest, from the perspective of equipment diversity, what I’m currently wearing isn’t bad, but when examined individually, everything was generally unsatisfactory by advanced rank standards.

Take armor, for example. Things like robes worn by magic users and the light armor worn underneath.

While they may not be lacking in functionality or versatility, the biggest issue I see now is that they were designed for intermediate rank users.

To put it bluntly, they lack output. Perhaps because they were designed and manufactured for intermediate rank, equipment that cannot perform its functions properly in battles between advanced rank users has begun to emerge.

Equipment made simply to assist specific spells still works fine, but general-purpose defensive gear designed to counter intermediate rank attacks has become useless.

Especially for magic users who inherently have low physical durability, reinforcing defense through equipment is essential, and at the same time, versatile armor—equipment that can be worn like everyday clothes—is also necessary.

Therefore, I’ve been spending most of my free time recently on creating armor for advanced rank users.

The foundation material is none other than the advanced adult dragon material obtained along with the hero title from the Elf Kingdom. Specifically, body parts from a Forest Dragon that complement druid magic well.

Of course, unless it’s something of abnormally high value like a heart, obtaining fairly common materials was easy if it meant restoring the elves’ damaged prestige.

In particular, the materials I acquired include a substantial amount of scales and leather, numerous bone fragments processed according to purpose, as well as parts like blood vessels and tendons.

When creating armor using only natural materials, it’s hard to find materials as excellent as these.

First, the Forest Dragon’s leather. Unlike the green scales or membrane, their leather was close to a light brown, similar to that of a cow, and since it wasn’t particularly thick anywhere, it was a conveniently usable material.

I later learned that the color changed during the processing for equipment use, and despite being tougher than steel, the processing itself didn’t seem too difficult.

As a result, not only was the comfort excellent, but the quantity was also more generous than expected, enough to make an entire set of equipment from dragon leather and still have some left over.

Meanwhile, I decided to compensate for the slightly inferior durability of dragon leather by using dragon scales, which are known to be harder than adamantium.

The given amount was about 5 pieces. Although I could tell they provided large and hard parts of the scales, these scales were split into smaller ones to cover part of the leather because the quantity was slightly insufficient to cover the entire body.

The green scales attached densely over the cloak enhance both defense and style, as do the scales that form a kind of shirt covering the chest.

Dragon scales in particular dramatically improve their durability and magic resistance just by infusing them with magical power, and the abnormally high magical capacity of the scales themselves was also favorable for me.

Additionally, dragon blood vessels and tendons are superior biological organs for transmitting magical power, and bone fragments are… both medicinal ingredients and tier 0 catalysts that can be used to imbue druid magic.

Short-term rejuvenation, aging rate reduction, disease treatment, and physical burden recovery. In any case, dragon bones, which possess all these tremendously beneficial effects, are actually more valuable as catalysts for enchantment or as equipment materials than for direct use.

Of course, no matter how high that value might be, it’s nothing compared to druid magic, so I was just enthusiastically proceeding with design and research.

And it was around that time.

“…Huh?”

While I was deeply engrossed in designing equipment, creating prototypes, and conducting research, I suddenly felt some information entering my mind.

Through an alarm spell, a kind of safety zone formation magic deployed throughout Tarask, what was suddenly conveyed to me was that “friendly entities” were approaching.

“Mother… or fairies?”

At first, I thought it might be my mother being detected, but when I sensed their life force as lower rank through my perception, I wondered if they might be Tristia’s fairies living in Tarask.

“…?”

But as if to prove my thoughts wrong, they calmly approached this location set up on Tarask’s back in a straight line, and then…

*Thud!*

“We’re back!”

The beings who entered through the front door connected to the living room were… surprisingly, a boy and a girl with somehow familiar faces.

“Ah, it’s Dad! Hello!”

“Hey, hey! Something amazing happened today! So…”

“…???”

They were mysterious twins who resembled Sofia and me to a suspicious degree, calling me “Dad.”