The Amber Sword
chapter-450

Chapter 229 – Wind Sharpshooter (2)

It was not hard for a grandmaster blacksmith who worked in the forge for decades to alter the cavalry’s armor to an archer’s.

An archer required his abdomen, upper shoulder and back to be free of obstacles, or it would affect the accuracy of releasing a bow.

Bosley removed a portion of the armor and changed it with metal plates, coming up with a sample on the very next day.

Quinn wore the prototype armor and stretched his upper body and showed a satisfied expression. The Tree Elves’ bodies were long and athletic, but Bosley’s armor was quite fitting. The only demerit about it was that the armor was slightly too small for Quinn. It resembled the Romans’ half armor in Brendel’s eyes.

“It’s a little heavy.” The Tree Elf remarked.

“It’s not possible to reduce the weight.” Grandmaster Bosley replied in a flat tone.

It was originally heavy armor meant for a cavalry. No matter how much he shifted the balance, some of the weight would still be on the shoulders. He was uncertain if the Elves found it too cumbersome and affected their accuracy, and he looked back at the youth behind it, trying to discern what the latter was thinking.

Brendel was rubbing his chin with his middle finger and thumb, looking satisfactorily at the artistic-like armor. The old man used gold paint over the layered armor, and the rivets reflected light as Quinn moved about, making the armor look dazzling.

“It’s easy. Just attach a rune to reduce to the weight. How many samples can you make, Grandmaster Bosley?”

There were different types of runes that reduced weight. Freya’s magic armor utilized the ‘Wind Dance’ rune, which was one of the best runes available. The wearer would not be affected by the weight and even feel like a wind was enveloping around the armor, adding agility to them.

“Numbers are not a problem, but why do you need so many?”

“Uhh…… You will know it very soon.”

It was after this event that Bosley felt that he perhaps did not want to ever learn the answer.

Brendel took back the armor from Quinn, and this artistic piece of work started to heat up in his hands. Everyone witnessed the reaction of magic, and the armor eventually turned into a torchlight that illuminated the area. Cracking noises could be heard as a giant hole formed into the armor’s center.

It looked like a candle melting. The liquid eventually turned into solid once again, leaving behind a circle the size of a fist on the armor’s torso.

Brendel shrugged.

No matter how one looked at it, this armor was destroyed.

Alchemy was a job that had a high probability of failure. It was especially so when Brendel had to test out an effective method of applying Wind Runes on dense metal. He was purely learning on how to apply it for the very first time.

The green flames in the forge over the next few days were not extinguished, and the beating and clanking of hammers striking metal did not cease every night. Armor after armor was ruined in Brendel’s hands.

The youth began to change his methods and used cheap Wind Emeralds to serve as the core of the Magic Formation. These gems were the most common and cheapest materials that contained Wind Element. During the highest inflation in the game, these gems sold for at most several thousand Tor coins.

The experiment was not ideal. The best prefix the armor gained from the Wind Emeralds was ‘Clumsy’, and the weight reduction was never more than 5%. There were even negative effects from time to time.

Brendel then tried Sky Blue Crystals, Viridian Olives, Azure Quartz, each material more expensive than the next, with the best results increasing up to 15% in weight reduction. It was only on the fifth morning that Bosley and Brendel came up with a ‘Nimble’ prefix.

“Nimble archer’s armor: Defense 4, +2 bonus against projectiles, 20% weight reduction.”

But it was still heavier than the target weight reduction. Quinn expressed that only the best Elven sharpshooters would not find it an obstacle to wear it in battle, and the majority of them would not be able to reach this standard.

By this time the number of spoiled Crimson Flagbearer’s armor had reached more than 10%.

This result was not sitting well with Brendel. His goal was to raise the Tree Elves to the Tier 3 standard in the game. The basic data for a soldier were comprised of several stats, Attack, Defense, Mobility, and Special Abilities.

[It’s not possible to raise their Attack stat unless Tree Elf Longbows can be made. They are a standard weapon for the archers, but that’s from the production fifty years later and I have no idea how to make bows. So the solution is still raising the Elves’ Defense stats. But the results aren’t favorable. It’s not realistic to make a new blueprint armor for the Tree Elves, and even if I did, there’s still the issue of weight. Not solving this problem means that a suitable armor for them is a pipe dream.]

The solution Brendel wanted to get was the prefix “Agile”, which was a 30% reduction in weight. But the fee for producing the current armor was already thirty thousand Tor coins. If he continued down this path, he was certain that Amandina would come to him with a resignation letter.

“There’s no other way.” Grandmaster Bosley was laying sprawled on his table, his hair as messy as a bird’s nest while he spoke wearily: “This is the limit. If you want to take away any more of the armor’s metal, it’s going to affect the defensive strength.”

“Let the elites of the Tree Elves wear them first,” Tamar suggested.

He was recruited halfway by Brendel. This future grandmaster alchemist had been helping out Ciel and Amandina with building a Mage Tower and Magicite Lab.

Magic was an important production resource, and the importance of a Mage Tower within the city was without saying. Furthermore, a Mage Tower could serve as a resource pool for Mana, which not only strengthened the casters but speed up the training of apprentices.

The Alchemist Lab was situated within the Mage Tower. Even labs with the lowest standards would provide an additional Alchemy level, while an advanced one would provide different specializations for the profession.

As long as there was a bit of money, no lord would be unwilling to build a Mage Tower. In fact, it could draw in more wizards, so why would one not build it?

Brendel did not wish to interrupt Tamar’s progress, but Amandina noticed that the youth was sucking up money like a black hole and she had no choice but to send Tamar to help out in restraining him, or it might end up with Brendel expending the entire city’s budget to make a super army. In her eyes, her lord seemed like a military nut who did not have any safeguards, always putting military power in the first place.

But Brendel shook his head at Tamar’s suggestion in the end. He did not merely want a group of elites, because he did not lack them. He had the Planeswalker and Nest system. If he wanted to, he could create a squadron of elites.

What he needed was a “main army unit”, with numbers like the Subterrane Dwellers, and this force had to stand firm with numbers in the next war.

He pondered for a while and said: “The two of you continue to experiment with the same materials and see if you can get a better placement for the Runes. I’ll think of alternative solutions in the mean time.”

[If it doesn’t work out with the armor, then it’s time to think about upgrading the basic soldier. Dragonblood potions?]

It was not as if the Tree Elves were unable to shoot after wearing the armor, perhaps the accuracy and strength would be affected, but if he was to get to the root of the problem, it was a matter of strength. Therefore, why not increase the Tree Elves’ strength?

If he were to add their strength, then drinking the Dragonblood potions was the best way instead of seeking another method.

[But the first batch of Dragonblood potions was already given to the White Lion Army. If I make the second batch, I would want to give it to the allied forces who accompanied me to the frontlines during Firburh’s siege. That’s two hundred potions, but what about the remaining thousand-odd Tree Elves coming in from the Dark Forest later?]

Brendel thought about raising the Centaurs to Tier 3 as well. The blood from the hunted hydra in the Dark Forest was not going to be enough. He needed to find more materials.

[Buying the materials? No, I don’t want to create the potions after I go to Ampere Seale. Maybe I can rear hydras on my own?]

Firburh, or any other ordinary cities for that matter, naturally did not have the capability to sustain a Nest, but how about Valhalla? It was a natural source of Mana. Brendel nodded to himself.

[Indeed, it seems about the right time to rebuild this fortress that experienced countless magnificent deeds in the past.]

Brendel thus left the forge entirely to Tamar and Bosley, while he went to analyze Valhalla’s core Magic Formation alone in his study. It was not a complicated thing to activate it, but it simply required an obnoxious amount of Magic Crystals.

The youth would have banged his head on the wall in frustration if he did not find the Magic Crystal cave in the Dark Forest.

At this point in time, there were already new settlers coming in, and they constructed a small quarry in the Dark Forest under the mercenaries’ protection. The first batch of Magic Crystals was not a huge quantity, but it was sufficient for his initial requirements.

While Brendel concentrated deeply into the calculations necessary to activate the Magic Formation, he did not abstain from worldly affairs. He knew by this moment that Princess Gryphine was prepared to head to Ampere Seale to negotiate with Duke Arreck.

The princess already decided on a loose arrangement of their contract in January and was to formally sign it in the next month. He was truly a little hesitant whether he wanted to let the princess and Duke Arreck meet. Trentheim was not ready to enter into the center of the whirlpool just yet, but he quickly made a decision.

Since he was for the princess’s faction, then he could not let history repeat itself.

He made a decision to play out a fantastic act before the princess headed to Ampere Seale. The stage was naturally the biggest trading harbor in Aouine, Ampere Seale. The date was already fixed and he was simply preparing for that journey.

Ciel and his wizards were sent out to look for Planeswalker’s cards. The youth knew that he could not bring out a huge army to Ampere Seale and his black wolves could not follow him either. The only thing he could rely on was the Planeswalker’s system and his own strength.

After the Dark Forest, his Planeswalker system was basically in a half-useless state. In order to revive the system, he needed to find a new method of picking up cards from his graveyard.

All his current plans were in preparation for his departure to Ampere Seale.

He meted out new ranks to the contributing mercenaries and soldiers, piled up materials for materials and the search for new cards was well underway. Trentheim appeared to be abnormally silent, but the internal affairs were moving at a shocking speed.

This silence continued well after the first week until a piece of news was submitted to his desk.