Having arrived first at their designated meeting spot, Edwin stopped under a lantern and looked around for his teammates. Even though Master Quinnick’s armor was hidden under a wide cloak, his impressive height and sheer bulk still drew glances from the people passing by as they made their way through the cold streets in the early hours of this late winter morning. Bordan arrived next, the former soldier nodding to Edwin in greeting just as the remaining two party members stepped out of an alley and looked around. Easily spotting Edwin they walked over, Leodin sporting a wide grin as he approached.

“Alright then, Edwin, show it.”

Edwin rolled his eyes, but he undid his cloak and pulled it off his shoulders. For a few seconds, there was silence. Then, Leodin started to giggle. Edwin shot him a dirty look, which only caused the young man to devolve into full-blown laughter.

“Yes, yes, get it out of your system,” Edwin grumbled. “You can laugh too, Salissa, no need to hold back. I know it looks ridiculous.”

“I…” Salissa said quietly, looking him up and down with widened eyes. “I wouldn’t say ridiculous.”

“You look like the dark lord of something!” Leodin wheezed. “Does it come with a… heh … a dragon? No wait, a skeleton horse!”

Edwin crossed his arms in front of his chest in annoyance, which only sent Leodin into another fit.

“It doesn’t matter how it looks, all right? It’s good protection, way better than anything else I could’ve afforded.”

“Can you… turn around?” Salissa asked sheepishly, and Edwin complied with a sigh, further displaying the suit of armor.

Master Quinnick, while most definitely a gifted armor smith, hadn’t really worried about the practicality of his prototype. When it came to aesthetics, Edwin suspected the man had given in to his creative side, treating the project like an opportunity to combine his newly developed crafting method with his sense of artistry to create something truly unique and eye-catching. He intended to sell more of them, after all.

And boy was it eye-catching.

Except for his hands and head, the parts for which were not finished yet, Edwin’s already imposing bulk was entirely covered in thick, overlapping bone plates that had once adorned the backs of a large assortment of different direbeasts. Different-sized beasts had different-sized shields, and Quinnick had taken advantage of that fact to find the right size of plate for every part of Edwin’s body. His front, back, and shoulders were protected by the massive plates of a direbear, while his arms, legs, and other more detailed areas sported the plates from smaller beasts like wolves.

Had those plates been smooth and even, Edwin would’ve looked strange, but not too different from any other heavily armored warrior. Instead, the sides of them tended to grow into uneven, blunt spikes, while the surface area was covered in patterns, not unlike the lines on a hand – a detail Edwin had never taken the time to appreciate on any of the enemies they had fought.

What probably made it worse was the fact that in comparison to equivalent metal armor, the bone plates were several times as thick. Layered onto Edwin’s already impressive physique, the armor instantly transformed him into a figure that was impossible to ignore.

Having enough, Edwin turned around and threw his cloak back over his shoulders.

“How about you?” He asked Salissa, desperate to change the topic. “Did you still have time to pick up yours yesterday?”

“Oh, yes.” The young mage said happily, opening her own cloak to show off her new armor. After their unexpected windfall following the discovery of the Pioneer ruin, both she and Leodin had ordered adventurer coats from Armin’s but had departed towards Pel Harvand long before those had been finished.

Adventurer coats were the most common armor choice among adventurers, to the point that they were generally considered to be the easiest way to identify those of their profession. They were essentially long leather coats, thick enough to protect the wearer not just from wind and rain but also bruises, cuts, and bites from smaller creatures. The more vital areas were then reinforced by sewn-in plates of harder material, be that steel, bone, chitin, wood, or simply more leather depending on the customer’s requirements and wishes. As Leodin and Salissa were both ranged fighters, they had ordered the lightest variant that was reinforced with additional leather.

“How’s it feel?” Bordan asked curiously.

“Pretty stiff.” Salissa said, raising her arms and turning her torso left and right. “I guess that will change in time, but it feels strange to wear armor. Restrictive.”

“You get used to it.” Bordan said. “I feel naked without mine.”

“It does make me feel safer, I guess.” Salissa said, feeling the thick material between her fingers. “More… solid somehow.”

“It should wear in easily enough with use.” Bordan said. “Speaking of which, shall we go? No point standing here in the cold forever.”

Shooting a sideways glance at Leodin who had finally gotten over his laughing fit, Edwin grabbed his weapon from where it leaned at the wall behind him.

“Yes, let’s.”

Falling in beside him, Salissa curiously eyed the cloth-wrapped polearm, a bag covering the blade.

“What’s that about?”

“Protecting my sanity.” Edwin grunted. “The gawking is bad enough as it is, if I walk around town with a Pioneer weapon people start tripping over themselves and walking into walls.”

“He had it uncovered the first few weeks after we got back.” Bordan interjected with a small smile. “When we left for the trip with the other group, a passerby almost walked in front of a rolling cart because he wasn’t looking.”

“So that’s why you’re so moody.” Salissa smiled. “You’re the center of attention again.”

“Yes, and I hate it.” He grumbled.

“Too bad.” Leodin said, slapping him on the back, which he barely felt. “You’re really good at it.”

Edwin sighed.

When he first emerged from the underground laboratory, Edwin had been scared and paranoid, constantly afraid that a single wrong word would bring the inquisition down on him. While he had probably said or done plenty of wrong things, he had soon realized that his fears had been completely unfounded. People found him strange, but they didn’t get suspicious that he might be an undead mage disguised as a regular human.

And why would they? As far as everyone but him knew, that wasn’t even a possibility.

The realization that he wasn’t in danger of discovery had emboldened him, arguably more than it should have. Had he been thinking rationally, he would never have taken the risk of revealing his knowledge to his teammates. But he hadn’t been thinking rationally, of course. Edwin’s relief at being able to seamlessly blend into society had morphed into hubris, and combined with Walter’s inability to suffer incompetence he had spoken when he should have remained silent.

Edwin had only realized what a massive mistake he had made when Bordan and the others confronted him about his made-up backstory, shattering his sense of being untouchable and pulling him back down to earth. By then it had been much too late to try and salvage the situation. Yet still, he hadn’t been exposed. Nobody had tried to crack him open and pry the secrets from his body, and no black-robed mages had appeared to try and purge him as an abomination.

For now, Edwin didn’t really have a proper plan. His initial idea of blending in and living out his days until he grew bored of Edwin or people realized that the large man didn’t age as he should didn’t seem realistic anymore. He was cautiously optimistic that his teammates, his friends, wouldn’t rat him out, but he would have liked to remain anonymous when it came to everyone else. With his new armaments, that seemed impossible. Where before he had felt invisible in plain sight, now every turned head and curious look felt like it shaved seconds or minutes off his life, bringing the time Edwin would have to quietly disappear ever closer.

If only he knew whether that time was measured in years, months, or days.