Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! I might be a couple of days*cough*months*cough* late, but here’s the chapter!

ANYWAY, Well guys, I’m back. And to celebrate, free cookies for everyone! Yayzies! That said, while I DO feel like writing IO once again, recently I haven’t felt like writing much in general, so I won’t make any promises such as weekly releases or something like that just yet. This also means that it MIGHT take some time till the next update, but who knows? Anyway, for plans in the writing world right now I have Project Hero in planning next, followed by Spiritsmith.

ALSO, Since it has been a couple of days since the last chapter, I’m not sure how many of you remember this, but I kind of asked you guys to come up with names for Rio’s armor. Well, while I did have a name in my mind, someone just came and gave one that I just felt it was much better. Well, extra cookies to Lyricines for coming up with the name.

ALSO(2), on another note: MONSTAH HUNTAH GENERATIONS!

Spoiler : Current progress: HR 6, Mizutsune weapon upgraded, working on Glavenus’.

Main weapon: Dual blades, Adept or Aerial depending on the monster.

Main sets: Astalos, Shogun Cenataur.

Favorite Flagship: Astalos (Design), Mizutsune (Fight, music and gear (Mizu’s Music is SOOOOO GOOOOOOD!))

Deviants status: Dreadqueen Rathian: Dual blades created. Up to Level three. Snowbaron lagombi: Set AND Weapons created and upgraded to level 3. Silverwind Nargacuga: Weapon up to level three.

(DREADQUEEN IS SCARY! REALLY REALLY REALLY SCARY! T.T)

Well, I’m having a blast with this damned game. More than I sincerely thought I would to be honest. While I couldn’t help but find the mainline monsters to be a bit easier than usual, I was (pretty much literally) blown away by the Deviants. Heck, I even got my armored ass handed to me in a silver platter by a Lagombi! A FREAKING LAGOMBI! A BUNNY KOALA BEAR HYBRID OF SORTS! (but then, i did have a weak low rank set WITH weakness to ice, sooo...)

On the other hand, soloing High rank proved to be an amusing task. Even more when I litearlly reached HR 5 wearing only my feeble Astalos set from low rank, only to find out that the defense was pretty much worthless at that rank (I’m not the brightest bulb, mind you…). Well, soon enough I’ll mass hunt some Astalos to near extinction so I can wear their high ranked skulls as a helmet once again.

Btw, my character is called Yuu, and yes, I do have a palico called Lieutenant.

Whew, with that out of the system, what else is there to talk about…?

Oh well, can’t remember. Sooo…

Have a Nice read!

----

“I leave for a couple of minutes and I find you making an armor set. For pets.”

“UNHOLY ALATREON! WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM?” I shouted surprised at the sudden appearance from the reporter.

“I’ve been here for ten minutes already.” The mummy said while staring at me blankly

“No. You should have been sleeping. Didn’t you leave to sleep?” I asked confused.

“No. Sleeping doesn’t create scoops.” He said while looking at me with a scary ferocity. “If sleeping means that I would lose the chance of watching you crafting, then all I have to do is crush sleep with the sheer strength of coffee, red bull and vodka.”

“…So you overdosed yourself on caffeine just so you can see me crafting?” I asked worried.

“It’s not like I went that far.” He said while shaking his head. “I know my limits and know that I can’t abuse my body if I want to keep on working regularly. Thus I made sure to only ingest the minimum amount needed to keep me awake.” He said proudly, to which I simply stared at him in confusion.

“How much is this minimum amount you speak of?” I asked dubiously, and he answered with a nod.

“Three cans of each.”

“You are definitively going to die early, aren’t you?” I said slightly amused.

“Bah. Not the first all-nighter I pulled in my life.” He said with a wave of his hands. “So, care explaining what exactly I missed here?”

“Well… I was having a hard time thinking over a major problem so i decided to make something simpler.” I said my brief explanation before looking back to the naming window before me.

“And your definition of a simpler activity is the act of breaking what is understood about the mechanics of the world by carefully crafting a protective gear tailored for the wyvern-type dragons that not only is most probably a lot more effective than any other bestial companion-tailored equipment, but also applies a bonus that was previously regarded as exclusive to armor used by humanoids beings, thus completely destroying what most would agree to be an staple mechanic of games?”

“What with the difficult words?” I said frowning. “And it’s not that bad to be honest. I mean, all I did was make a set that went well with itself. Not THAT difficult.”

“So, you meant to say that all the all you had to do was to prepare the pieces so that they would go on as a set, and thus they became a set?” The mummy asked doubtful while taking out the notebook.

“Well… Kind of?” I said a bit worried. “I mean… How do I explain it…” I stopped to think before looking to the small wyvern who was flying around with some difficulty around the room. “…Can I just add the name before I explain? It’s kinda complicated to put it on words so suddenly.”

He stared at me for a moment before nodding.

I took the chance to once again focus on the armor’s window and stopped to think about it.

Thinking about it, I made the armor for a Rathian, the Queen of Land, and while it’s still a bit far from being something near it, I did end up naming Rio in homage to the green wyvern, so I think it should be fair to somehow make a mention for it on the armor’s name.

Well, firstly, she’s the queen of the land, so probably something that’s both a mention to royalty and earth would be nice. Second would be the fact that, I still think I can improve it somehow. Well, more specifically, make it a bit prettier with the help of a certain cat-girl with an identity crisis. (In other words, Hanbei who’s using the set that looks like a wolf-girl.)

Basically, I plan on adding some things to make the armor a bit less aggressive a bit more colorful and more regal looking. Something that I learned firsthand that it’s extremely difficult to do with a brutish craft like blacksmithing.

I might need to pick up jewelcrafting later, but for now, I at least have an idea on how I will proceed with adding the finer details. Anyway, I somehow have to think of something along these lines…

“Disciples. The two of you. Something that’s pretty and is related to earth. Quickly!” I said suddenly, making both Lily and Yuu jump up in surprise for a moment.

“Ground… Gems?” Lily said surprised.

“Flowers?” Yuu gave another idea.

Hmm, gem and flowers. Both are actually quite good ideas. I mean, don’t gems usually get related to nobility since they are expensive and all?

“Well, if you go with flowers, it would be a rose, right?” Lily said. “I mean… Isn’t it the queen of the flowers?” She said that on purpose, didn’t she?

“What do you mean?” Yuu asked confused.

“Well. The first flower you think when you say flower is a rose, right?” Can’t deny that. “Not only that, but they are also an excellent magic components despite being so common. Also, I’m pretty sure it’s the symbol of the royal family of Ezoria Argus. If not, at least from a major family for sure.”

“Okay. I’m totally adding Rose to the armor’s name.” I said with a nod.

“Ah, it’s for Rio’s armor?” Lily asked confused, and I nodded. “…Does it have anything to do with her name?” Once again I nodded. “Then… Hmm… Why not give it a strong feeling name? I mean, she IS a greater dragon, right?”

“That’s kinda what I’m going for right now.” I admitted. “But it’s not that easy to be honest.” I sighed while thinking of ideas. Naming is hard. Unless it comes suddenly, kind of like how I named Lieutenant. Heck, maybe it will happen with pebble too, and before I know it, I’ll be calling it Pebblesworth or something… “That said… If she became pink thanks to the armor… It would be scary.”

“Why would a pink Rio be scary, Shishou?” Yuu asked curious, to which I replied with a dry smile.

“Rathians are awesome. I’ll never deny that.” I said before turning to her. “But the Pink subspecies is downright scary. It’s so much stronger that I even fear it even when I can fight the elder Dragons head on.”

“EEEH? STONE-MISTER CAN FIGHT ELDERS?” Rio shouted suddenly.

“N-Not here, Rio. It’s a long story.” I said awkwardly, to which she sighed in relief.

“Regalia of the Conquering Rose.” Ozzur suddenly said.

“...What?” We said in synchrony.

“Regalia of the Conquering Rose.” He repeated with a self important tone. “The Regal Vestments of the Conquering Queen’s Flower. A denomination that both envelops the idea of being the ruler the land as you so wished, but also denotates strength and power through the use of conquest.” For a moment, we simply stared at him in surprise. “What? As a reporter it is imperative that I use some of my free time reading to expand on my vocabulary and knowledge. The use of poetics comes as an aftereffect.”

“While I am still disturbed by the fancy wording, I admit that the name is good. I’m taking it, but won’t pay the Royalties.” I said while noting down the name on the window.

“The lack of monetary remuneration for the creation of a simple name does not bother me.” He replied indifferently. Still, I didn’t miss how his feet kept on bouncing on the floor non-stop. Hmm… I wonder if getting over-excited in-game is enough to burn off his caffeine in his body.

Shaking my head to get my focus back on the window, I quickly re-read the name of the armor before pressing the confirm button. Satisfied with the name, I threw a long look to the piles of shells and carapaces and sighed.

I still have to think of something about those, huh?

Deciding to run away from the trouble, I turned back to Ozzur and said.

“Well, you wanted to know about the whole set thing, right?” He nodded. I quickly turned towards Lily and made a motion for her to come closer. “You might want to sit down to hear this too, as it MIGHT have something to do with how I get my things done.”

“Oh.” She nodded excitedly before sitting down on a small bench near the table with the materials.

I put my hands over my eyes while thinking of the words I’m going to use. Finally, I simply sigh before looking at the two.

“Okay, let’s start with something I already have done. What do the two of you think when someone mentions the Blazing Tails?”

“Huh?” Lily blinked confused. “Blazing tails… Aren’t them the large Red Tails from the forest?”

“Newbie crushers.” Ozzur said methodically while flipping through his notebook. “Large vulpine like monsters with a strange jewel on the forehead and three tails. Usually these monsters are the first boss tier enemies that most players will encounter when questing near Eldor as they are in a fairly accessible area. Due to overconfidence, most newbies die after being overwhelmed by a mix of fire magic and physical overpowering. Their hunt was popularized after a certain group publicized their location after completing their own quest.” He said before raising his eyes towards me. “If my information is not mistaken, they are also the source of materials you used to make your very first set, is that correct?”

“Yeah… They are also the ‘normal’ version of Aura here.” I said while resting my hand on the fox’s fur and gently stroking it, enjoying the cool feeling as she cooled her body with magic. “But I asked what you think about it, not what you know about it.”

The two blinked at my words, then looked at each other for a moment while trying to think of an answer. Ozzur simply shrugged, while Lily went on.

“Well… If they are like Aura… I’d say that they are really pretty. But if they are much bigger… Then they must be really scary.”

“…I can’t deny that.” I said while remembering how my first in-game death happened after being literally paralyzed in fear of the blazing tail. “But personally, I relate the Blazing tails with three things in particular.” I raised my hand and extended one finger out. “First, it’s eastern culture. This one you may probably ignore Lily, but I think Ozzur might get what I mean.” I explained quickly, to which the undine and the mummy nodded. “Second, it’s ferocity and fluidity. The way they move and attack, jumping back and using magic or going forward to bite your head off is pretty offense based, but it does have this kind of rhythm to it. They don’t really have much use for defense as much as they would rather bombard you with attacks. They are the leader of their species, and as far as I know, they are selected simply by being the strongest, so they actually NEED the offensive power, both to get the position and to protect their brethren. Lastly, it’s fire. For obvious reasons.”

“Indeed. However, the connection between the personality of a monster and your creations still eludes me.” Ozzur said slightly annoyed.

“Calm down will ya. I’m just explaining what I THINK I might be doing, so give me a break.” I replied before taking a deep breath. “One thing that I always found amazing in Monster Hunter was how the armor usually captures the same feelings that the monsters bring to them. And I personally try to copy this when doing both my weapons and armors.” I explained quickly. “For example. Take the Blazing tail, as I said earlier, I see them as being both very ferocious, and at the same time having a fluidity to their movement while also having this eastern feel to them, right?” I pointed towards the armor set I was using. “Do you see where I’m going?”

“Does it have anything to do with the way your armor looks like a martial artist’s, teacher?” Lily asked, and I nodded.

“Exactly.” I nodded. “How to say it… Try to think of said monster as a person. What kind of armor do you see them using? It’s that kind of thing… I think.” Then I quickly pulled out my long-sword from the inventory. “When it comes to weapons, it’s pretty much the same thing. That said, I guess I do try to make it so that the weapon matches the theme of the monster. Like, I don’t really think a hammer would fit a blazing tail, as it’s kind of a brutish weapon, while the monster is more on the graceful side of the spectrum. Meanwhile, for doggy, one of the bosses from the dungeon, I thought that a more salvage feeling weapon like this one would fit better.”

“So, you are saying that the reason your items have such unique effects comes from the fact that you try to match them to the monster’s personality and abilities?” Ozzur asked as if he was trying to make sure of something.

“Exactly. Well, either that or its sheer dumb luck.” I shrugged. “Not entirely sure.” I stored the weapon back into the inventory. “So, with that said, back to crating.” I said while turning back to the large pile of carapaces. “…Or I would say that, but I’m still stuck with this, huh?” I complained while hanging my head down.

Thinking back to it, I should have asked Sol to teach me how she does that whole bone thingamajig I used to craft my sword and bow. Regretting my regrettable oversight, I scratched my head while running over possible solutions in my head. I could always simply mold them, then proceed to rivet the hell out of everything, but I don’t feel that a fantasy weapon should be riveted like that.

“Well, with items like that, I don’t think you can simply smelt them like ore, can you?” Ozzur said in a pensive tone.

For a moment I froze in place and stared at the mummy just like I had seen some kind of crazy men speaking nonsense. Then I frowned for a moment and stared at the pieces of small spiders spread around the table.

The normal logic would be to completely disregard the idea, then proceed to go back to doing some thinking. But with that said, I’m not really that much into thinking, and normal logic is overrated. With that, I casually picked some thicker looking pieces of the spiders and dropped it within the smelting furnace, much to the other’s surprise as they all stared at me blankly.

“…I was joking.”

“I know.” I replied to the mummy while watching the furnace heating up.

“…Doesn’t looks like it.”

“Just trying something.”

“And what would be that something?”

“Trying to smelt some carapaces.” I said while raising an eyebrow. I mean, it should be pretty obvious if you saw what I was doing, right?

For some strange reason, an awkward silence fell upon the room as Lily and Ozzur stared at me doubtfully. Then, when they finally sighed and had this expression of giving up, I felt a tinge of annoyance and decide to ignore them for now.

Turning towards the Kitsune who was distractedly working on her tailoring, I approached her while pulling out a bit of the explosive silk from my inventory, much to Lily’s and the mummy’s despair as they quickly took some distance, and asked her to see if she could somehow process the silk so it wouldn’t explode in our faces, seeing how she was more used to dealing with cloths and strings than me.

I also passed her some of the stretchy nerves to see if she could make something out of it.

She looked surprised for a moment, but once I explained her that I wanted it to make a string for my bow, she quickly nodded and took the items with her while putting on a pensive expression. She started listing some ideas of what she could do in a low tone, and noticing that it wasn’t anything I could help with, I left her with the task while turning back to the forge.

Much to my surprise, (and also Lily’s and Ozzur’s sheer shock), there was a thin stream of a dirty white material leaking from the furnace towards the crucible.

“…AHA! I KNEW IT!” I said while running towards the material and watching it settle down in the crucible.

Smiling widely while stopping the flow, I proceeded to start the process of removing impurities,

“I’m no expert blacksmith nor biologist, but I don’t think that carapaces work that way.” Ozzur said while staring at me blankly.

“Well, if you think about it, it actually does make a surprising amount of sense.” I said while separating the impurities from the… Substance? I’ll need to come up with a name for it. “Think about it, what did the spider drink?”

“…Magma?”

“But what exactly does that… Ah.” Lily started asking me, but it seemed like she finally understood what I wanted to say, because she stared at the material on the table then towards the furnace. “…I see… Should I put more of it to smelt?”

“Yeah. But it’s better to avoid using the matriarch’s materials for now. I’d rather test with the smaller ones first.” I directed her, and she nodded before going through the process of smelting some more of the shells.

“I wouldn’t mind an explanation.” The mummy said while crossing his arms.

“Hmm?” I asked surprised for a moment. “Oh, right. Well… Think about it: Magma in a volcano. It also had a lot of metal lying around. It drinks the magma as it were food. Minerals in the magma get absorbed and stored in the carapaces making them harder.” I explained quickly. “It was kind of a guess to be honest, but it seems like the high amount of ore in their carapaces might just be enough to make them work like some kind of alloy that I can smelt!”

Lucky me!

Once I was done separating the impurities and throwing it all on a nearby bucket, I quickly took the remaining substance and poured it on the ingot mold with a wide smile as I saw it cooling down then hardening after a moment.

“So you didn’t simply throw it in without any plans after all.” Ozzur commented before noting down something in his notebook.

“Why do you keep insisting on me being some kind of impulsive retard?” I shouted angrily. “I do stop to think from time to time, you know?”

“…Only from time to time?”

“Geh… Don’t bother with the small details!” I said while turning back and weaving away.

Let’s ignore his insults and focus on the more important matter at hand. Picking up the ingot, I brought it up to inspect it, and smiled satisfied while seeing a window calling it: Pure S. Impaler shell ingot.

Smiling widely, I quickly brought up the hammer that I had been presented by my blacksmithing teacher and prepared to strike it down on the ingot before me. Raising up my arm while holding it in place with a long metal tong, I brought down the hammer with force to test the materials hardness.

And it shattered into a thousand pieces with a loud cracking sound that was really, REALLY similar to the sound of my dreams being broken apart.

“…Huh?”

…

After recovering from the shock of seeing the shell being smashed to pieces by my own hands, I quickly proceeded to work on the next batch. After all, this IS a test, so can’t let the first failure defeat me, right? Calming myself down and shaking my head, I proceeded to use the material that Lily was smelting to proceed with the tests.

We tried a lot of different ideas. From purifying the material even more to using what we thought was the impurity to craft the material. The first one led to an even brittle material, while the second one earned me a low quality scale-iron ingot.

I should have seen this one coming to be honest.

I tried re-heating the material and even using it with the impurities but both ended up in failures too, with the first one leading to literally no change while the second one earned me an ingot that was mildly resistant on one side, and worthless on the opposing side.

As a joke, I tried adding some elemental crystals to the mix once. This random joke earned me some results, which I admit, surprised me too.

Well, to put it in layman’s term, it seemed like the spider’s carapace amplified the effect of fire and earth crystals, leading to a surprisingly powerful fireball. On the other hand, any crystals that lacked either of those elements would have their effect drastically reduced.

And yes, I did try making flash bombs with that, but sadly, it seems like there isn’t enough fire in it to compensate for the rest.

The explosion combo of fire and wind did receive a significant boost, though.

Sadly, the material is too brittle to make use of it as either an arrowhead or a throwing knife, so for now, there isn’t that much of an use to it.

Getting side-tracked here. While this reveal was enough to leave me happy (And Ozzur confused) for a good time, the main point is still how to make a hammer out of shells.

“We are back Master.” I heard a call coming from the entrance.

“Ah. Crys.” I turned to the small flying elemental as she entered the forge. She looked around and gave an acknowledgement nod towards Lily and Ozzur. From the looks of it Yuu had left to work on the threads for me. “Quick. How can I make this work?” I said while pointing towards the next ingot in the process of being smelted.

She blinked surprised at the sudden question and quickly looked at what I was doing and then towards the area around. After a brief moment of silence, she tilted her head thinking and finally nodding.

“Try mixing it with the impurities instead of removing it.”

I suddenly felt like an idiot for not having thought of that before. I mean, the shells are hard enough as is, so if I were to remove the impurities, isn’t it like I’m removing part of the shell itself? But then, this is so counter intuitive.

I mean, when blacksmithing, you want to REMOVE the impurities, right?

But then, this IS something LIKE an alloy, so maybe somehow I have to control the amount instead of removing it?

While thinking that, I proceeded to return to the crucible and, instead of using it as is or removing the impurities, I mixed it so that it would become an evenly spread throughout the entire substance. After a long time of processing, I finally poured the material down upon the mold.

What came out of it?

Fierce S. Impaler ingot.

Good quality nonetheless.

Smiling silly, I felt my crafter’s blood burning with anxiousness so that I could start working.

Well, as a golem I don’t have blood, but you get the point.

----

Author's corner: BOOM! Random chapter drop!