I had been experiencing a strange phenomenon.

Every now and then, when I went to relieve myself, I would hear some kind of moaning squeal.

At first, I thought nothing of it… But the first time it happened, some guy came running, knocked insistently, and scowled around, ignoring me and my legitimate questions.

Was someone spying on me? Playing a prank?

The sound didn’t always happen, and nobody came checking after the first time.

What the fuck is going on? My paranoia was growing every day.

After asking around, it seemed I wasn’t the only one who had experienced it. What kept me on the edge was that it had started soon after I had arrived.

Overseer Lorinthar said it was probably a spirit playing around. To ignore it so it would get bored and go away. And no, it wasn’t a demon spirit, or they’d know.

Well, even if it’s not a demon spirit, it might still be spying on me, dumbass.

Those reassurances did nothing to ease my uneasiness. Everyone’s out to get me.

I stretched on my bed while stifling a yawn. I dispersed the Violet illusion. She was getting more lifelike after every attempt.

Too bad illusions had no consistency. Different branches of magic were needed to create tangible illusions.

At the Academy, I had finished the last pending exam. Projecting Emotion.

I felt some distress when the teacher told me not to project fear because “we already know you’re good at it.” I guess exerting my dominance against the other students during the practical lessons came to bite my back.

But it didn’t matter. I passed anyway with adequate results. I had little to do besides practicing. In my cramped room.

Against my better judgment, I missed Vallachio’s lessons. His hardcore way of teaching was very effective, just like Violet’s.

Ellin wrote me that she would try my little dream experiment. She continued not being able to step outside her body. She thought she had succeeded once but later realized it was just a dream.

Perhaps she was missing a step, hard to say through snail mail. I hoped this temporary near-imprisonment would end soon. I would have met her at the Academy, but my bodyguards were always anxious to get moving.

I couldn’t fault them. Their predecessors had become sashimi. The Academy’s entrance had been upgraded with even more mages and soldiers., plus stricter controls.

Many nobles spent time within its grounds. Therefore, security had to be enforced at all costs. My royal escort allowed me to bypass some controls, so it wasn’t all that bad.

There was always that slight chance of another demonic spirit with the same capabilities. Even though the higher-ups were all theorizing about it being one of a kind.

I kinda missed hanging around with the others.

When spring came, they could go back to adventuring. That should wear of the sting of the bad experience.

Assuming they wouldn’t pick the wrong quest. Adventuring was a deadly wage-slaving business.

Unfortunately, I was stuck here till the war ended. Unless Violet gave me the OK. I’m sure she could understand the therapeutic effect of killing mobs since she was so good at it herself. I may have some chances after all.

Speaking of action, I needed some exercise. My muscles were waning, as I could see from my decreasing mana volume.

【SHOW MANA STATUS】

Mana: 266/266

Cast range: 3.85 m

Mana volume: 71

Mana density: 1

Mana efficiency: 0.75

Mana regen: 1.6 mana/min

Mana drain: -0.2 mana/min

Mana volume had decreased, but my mana had still increased thanks to better efficiency. The value was an average of the last hundred casts.

All these measures came from analog feelings made into constructs. Turning them into numbers had been a challenge.

Anyway, I had bigger concerns than decreasing muscles.

I was bored.

BORED!

I sprang up from my bed and got outside. I practiced my telekinetic abilities by attempting to levitate multiple snowballs. It was no easy task.

Nowhere to go. Nothing to see. No content to consume.

I was sandwiched between the two walls between the royal castle and the city.

I stared at the wall, and the wall stared into me.

「Allen: You think you’re hot shit, eh? You, piece of brick?」

The wall stood defiantly, posturing like he was better than me.

I ran toward it and jumped, trying to replicate some parkour moves I had seen that time the demon and the protector fought in the alley.

Acquiring better mobility skills was the basis of metroidvanias. The videogame genre involving exploration and progressive unlocking of new skills, allowing the player to jump higher, multiple times, and reach previously unreachable zones.

I didn’t like lagging behind. My competitive spirit was screeching like a turbojet.

Unfortunately, the wall was slippery, and I fell on my ass over the fresh snow.

I checked my surroundings. No one was around to see my shame. I let out a sigh of relief and walked away with my honor intact.

I decided it would be wiser to wait for spring before attempting magical parkour.

Learn to walk before you run, Allen. Winter was hard mode.

I was already thinking… double jumps could be achieved with some application of telekinesis. Levitating myself was beyond my abilities, but perhaps I could start with little bursts of inertial defiance.

Quest added (Learn magical parkour)

Quest added (Unlock Feather Fall)

Quest added (Unlock Double Jump)

I could start practicing with enchanted equipment. Eventually, I would learn to apply telekinetic forces to my own body.

With renewed motivation, I did some fitness exercises that Vallachio had imparted to me during the grueling military training.

Quest completed (Daily exercise) +12 EXP

Then I went back to my room to rest a little and write down my ideas. Until a noise caught my attention.

* TOC TOC *

「Allen: Who is it?」

I asked, my voice overflowing with boredom.

「Bart: It’s me, Bart!」

Bart sounded excited. I saved and closed the text editor. Could it be it?

「Bart: We’re ready for the testing! I thought you’d want to know.」

Fuck yeah!

I rushed to open the door.

「Allen: Of course I want to know!」

Holy shit!

Bart was there, beaming with a smile.

Finally! Boredom kicked to the curb!

「Bart: Every enchanter’s dream made true…」

He said and started marching back to the workshop. He sounded like a movie trailer dude.

「Allen: I wanted to be the first to try it assembled…」

I said, a little peeved.

「Bart: It had to be Klenn. You know it.」

Only Klenn and I were the ones with the full knowledge of how to maneuver it.

Because we had designed it ourselves. We were going to gatekeep it hard, milking all the fun we could before we received orders to train whoever would go and use it.

「Allen: Yeah, I guess.」

We arrived there in a minute, both excited like little kids.

The staff personnel had cleared up an area in the testing grounds just outside.

They had just finished transporting the Great Project and were reassembling it.

In the safe zone, a small crowd was forming.

Klenn saw us and waved us to join in.

「Klenn: It’s time.」

Vezlaz, our dwarven colleague, joined us with a satisfied air.

『Vezlaz: Years of being sidelined for being a dwarf. Worth it.』

We waited for the staff to finish assembling the last piece.

As if on cue, a ray of light pierced the clouds to shine on our masterpiece. The hype was skyrocketing.

「Klenn: I’m going.」

Klenn announced, walking forward with a dreamy air, crackling his knuckles.

He climbed the support to fit inside and pulled close the external structure. Sealing it.

The Magical Power Armor came alight.

Its face was pure rage.

Its color was the blood of its foes.

Illusory sounds, suggesting carnage started emanating from the Magical Power Armor, only there to evoke awe.

Klenn spoke through the voice-changer.

「Klenn: SELF TESTS COMPLETED. INITIATING MANEUVRABILITY TEST.」

He struck a cool pose and began moving. First, a normal walking pace, then a jog, and finally a sequence of dashes and jumps.

We had worked hard with several specialists to add assisted stability. Another set of specialists had worked to make the external limbs feel like one’s own.

The Armor had mana crystals stuffed in all the empty spaces to act like a battery in addition to the wearer’s own mana reserve.

But a suit that just walks would be useless without-

「Klenn: FILTHY DEMONS! BOW TO THE MIGHT OF THE MILITARY ENCHANTERS!」

* BLAM BLAM BLAM! *

Klenn fired the bolters. Which were simple cannons firing metal balls charged kinetically. Three targets went down in rapid succession.

「Klenn: KNEEL BEFORE THE ASTARIL KINGDOM!」

Astaril was the name of this kingdom. I somehow kept forgetting its name. Vezlaz often complained about how the Three Kingdom’s dream had been broken since the last Demon War.

The Three Kingdom’s dream… It meant to be humans, dwarves, and elves, joined together to fight as one. Alas, it hadn’t gone as planned, and after the bloodshed, the other races seethed when the humans quickly breed back to peak performance and rebuilt their cities from the ashes.

Some thought that allying with humans had been a mistake, yet some still believed in that dream.

* KABOOOOOM! *

Klenn unleashed the most explosive of his flashy attack magics. Most of the sounds and particle effects were illusory. A waste of mana.

I gotta say, they looked rad in action, though. Very impressive.

The blast was absorbed by the reinforced mana shielding.

The poor practice target had been once again reduced to molecular dust.

「Klenn: BEGINNING COUNTERMEASURES TEST!」

He shouted, gesturing at another set of people tasked to set off an explosive force against the Armor.

That was the best part.

「Klenn: READY!」

* KABOOOOOOOOOOM *

Another deafening roar made the ground shake. Smoke and dust were covering our vision within the shielded area.

And then Klenn, unmarred and unfazed, appeared before us with an armored arm lifted toward the sky as a sign of victory.

「Klenn: INTEGRITY CONFIRMED. BATTERY 75%. TEST CONCLUDED!」

The crowd cheered on. I couldn’t help but clap as well.

In a real battle, the Armor would be wearing a replaceable set of mana batteries in the form of a backpack for extra juice. Easy to attach and remove.

Bullets for bolters could be substituted with any sort of shrapnel that fit the barrel. We were already prototyping several kinds of enchanted ammo.

We had also added assisted aim, which still required more tests and calibration for long-range, but was already good enough at close range. It would come in handy for artillery rounds.

「Allen: The next run is mine.」

I stated as a matter of fact.

Making all of this work reliably was only thanks to me, who had brought in my processors into the soup. There were multiple fail-safes and fallback systems. It had been built for battle.

Not a single inch had been left unenchanted.

『Vezlaz: Convincing Klenn after this taste of power may prove difficult.』

We watched as the Armor split open, revealing Klenn, who pushed himself out of the harness and stepped into the support the staff carried close.

He looked pretty smug right there. More than usual.

Bart walked closer, us trailing behind.

「Bart: So, tell us. How did it feel?」

Klenn, still grinning, shook his head with a loud sniff.

「Klenn: It felt like… I was power incarnate!」

He yelled the last part.

Bart clapped his shoulder.

「Bart: Glad you finally found joy in the noble arts of enchantment!」

「Klenn: With this Armor… With this Armor, even I could enter the fray.」

Klenn said, trying to convince himself. I remained skeptical.

『Vezlaz: Glad you had fun, noble brat!』

「Klenn: Hmpf… I’ll let this one slide, dwarf.」

Vezlaz grinned back.

Then Klenn found my eyes.

「Klenn: …」

「Allen: Say it. 」

I stood there, lifting my chin for what was coming.

「Klenn: Alright, you win. It wasn’t a waste of time.」

I nodded in satisfaction. Klenn had been the first to say it wasn’t possible to build a useful power armor. He was singing a different tune now.

「Allen: Good, I can’t wait to read the logs and check the data.」

「Klenn: I noticed a few areas of improvement we could work on…」

「Allen: And the chainsaw! We need obsidian-tipped chainsaws for close-quarters combat.」

Chainsaws were a core value for power armors.

We started walking back inside. The prototype was being disassembled to be brought back into the lab.

「Bart: This calls for a celebration!」

Bart said, sneaking between us and wrapping our necks with his arms. Unwarranted physical contact.

『Vezlaz: Indeed.』

「Klenn: What if I ordered some pizza from Radenr-」

「Allen: No!」

I yelled, almost subconsciously.

「Allen: Radenrouge is a lousy imitator who steals my recipes! You will order pizza from the original “Pizza Heaven” restaurant.」

Klenn started to complain, but I cut him off.

「Allen: It will also be cheaper and allow you to feed the whole workshop for extra friendship points. Then you will tell me if my pizzas are inferior to Radenrouge’s.」

And the money goes back to me. Hehe.

『Vezlaz: Pizza and beer. What do you say?』

The dwarf glanced to Bart, who nodded in agreement.

「Bart: It’s settled then!」

「Klenn: Alright… Let’s give it a try.」

Klenn said, still unconvinced that a commoner restaurant could produce edible food.

He must have forgotten about all the treats I had snuck in from our private kitchen. When I could still get there, at least.

And so, that evening, the whole building of military enchanters celebrated for making a dream come true. Even Overseer Lorinthar joined us, despite some initial reluctance at removing the broom from his ass.

We ate, got drunk, and boasted of how we’d carve the Demons a new one.

Magical Power Armors (which I will refer to as MPA in the future). The reasonable compromise between underwhelming normal enchanted armors and huge impractical robots.

The choice of the Walking-Machine-Of-Death pragmatists.

If we kept at it like this, the battle-ready version of the MPA would be ready for spring.

I pictured myself chainsawing my way through goblins, verklings, demons, and anything else.

This time, Violet would be satisfied.