Chapter 371 — Suojilin's Order

Suojilin was no expert in arcane technology, nor did he truly understand how the machines and mass-produced magic arrays Gao Yang had devised actually worked. But he was, at the very least, an experienced warrior and a well-traveled adventurer. From those unprecedented, inconceivable arcane armaments he could see their immense advantages and vast prospects, and he could roughly imagine the environments in which such weapons might be deployed. That was enough.

Of course, Suojilin knew well that judgments made on the strength of past experience would surely prove insufficient. These new weapons were too potent in effect, too far ahead of their time—the notion of "letting every ordinary person unleash magic power enough to destroy heaven and earth" was a mad inclination, yet one that genuinely existed in the Cecil Territory. So the high-ranking ranger himself was not certain how far such armaments would ultimately develop. But one thing he could be sure of: he knew what he wanted.

"The lord has ordered me to train a Steel Ranger corps—an entirely new kind of soldier—and he has also given me the task of designing new weapons and validating new tactics. You know, this is a most challenging assignment," Suojilin said with a smile. For the Mr. Nikoxidan before him also always wore a smile (a comical one), which made everyone who spoke with him unable to keep from smiling in turn. "So I have some rather... advanced ideas. We can find a quieter place and discuss those design proposals in detail."

"Of course. We can go to the Mechanical Manufactory," Nikoxidan buzzed, rising and floating upward. "Hmm... the Artisans' Hall has too many people. Let us go to my office instead."

Nikoxidan's office was right beside the Artisans' Hall—it served both as his office and as his usual dwelling. It was a room into which few ever came visiting besides Rebecca and Gao Yang. Outsiders could hardly imagine how a sphere one point three meters in diameter lived and rested; Suojilin was equally curious, and after entering this cylindrical room, he saw a great many rather bizarre... things.

He saw numerous metal cylinders of varying heights arrayed throughout the room, and metal plates polished smooth as mirrors set into the walls. There was no bed, no table, no chairs such as humans required, but there was a circular platform in the very center of the room, just the right size for Nikoxidan to settle upon and rest. Beside that circular platform, Suojilin also saw a three-tiered rack filled with all manner of metal handicrafts—yet the appearance of those handicrafts was truly... strange. Some resembled intricately structured sails, some resembled interlocking rings, and others were simply twisted, tangled clumps of metal. Suojilin was certain that even the finest connoisseur of art could discern no meaning in these things here.

"Did you make all of these?" he asked curiously, gazing at the great metal sphere floating ahead. "These... decorations?"

"Made from scraps in my spare time," Nikoxidan buzzed. "My memories are fragmentary and incomplete, but now and then some hazy impressions still surface. Gao Yang suggested I preserve those hazy impressions as models, for perhaps it might help me remember something. Of course, the method has produced no effect thus far, but making these little things is still quite enjoyable. I surmise these objects must be things I frequently came into contact with in those years, and that is why they left such deep impressions in my annular polarizer—oh, the annular polarizer is my memory organ. But never mind that for now; tell me your ideas."

Suojilin's attention shifted at once from the roomful of "handicrafts." He cleared his throat twice and said, "First, regarding the protective gear currently used by Cecil's combat soldiers—from what I know, their arcane armor has a layer of 'lining' inscribed with various runes, is that right?"

"Correct. The original version of the arcane armor had the runes carved directly onto the metal plating, but that made the runes prone to failure when the armor was struck and vibrated, and it was inconvenient for upgrades and replacements. So afterward we added a tactical lining inside the armor, made of tough leather," Nikoxidan said, casually taking an iron ingot from a nearby pile of metal castings. The metal floated between him and Suojilin and, as though liquid, rapidly changed shape in midair, within a few breaths assuming the form of the standard-issue armor of Cecil's combat soldiers—and furthermore the armor's various components separated and spread out before Suojilin. "This part here—this is where the tactical lining sits."

"The tactical lining is much like the cotton or leather armor worn beneath steel plate, but its primary function is to bear the runes, so its coverage and protective value are lower than leather armor—this is also to reduce costs," Nikoxidan continued. "At present, the runes we have integrated into the tactical lining are chiefly: a weight-reduction spell, to lighten the armor's overall burden on the soldier; weak elemental protection, to strengthen the soldier's resistance to low-tier magic; and a breeze shield, which can withstand a certain degree of incoming attack and can also be used to resist toxic environments. Beyond that, we have also set protective runes against high and low temperatures. They are all weak in effect, but sufficient to let soldiers survive longer in many extreme environments."

Suojilin looked at this suit of armor that could almost turn an ordinary person into a low-tier transcendent. While clicking his tongue in wonder, he could not resist asking curiously, "Do all these things draw their energy from the combat backpack?"

"Correct. Inside the combat backpack is a high-output mana capacitor. Besides charging the weapon crystal, all surplus energy is supplied to this suit of armor," Nikoxidan bobbed up and down. "The largest energy-consuming unit in the armor is the weight-reduction spell, but that is also the most important part—without it, the soldier's physical exertion would multiply severalfold."

Suojilin thought it over carefully, then said, "If we abandoned this layer of steel armor, or kept only lightweight plates, and at the same time reduced the amount of combat crystals carried, could we then lighten the combat backpack as well?"

"...In theory, that is correct," Nikoxidan considered. "But the protective value would drop greatly..."

"We can compensate by adding stoneskin runes to the lining. Its effect is somewhat weaker than the steel armor currently forged in the Cecil Territory, but it can still provide soldiers protection against ordinary light blades. And as a basic rune set, the stoneskin rune consumes far less energy than a formal spell like the weight-reduction spell," Suojilin explained his thinking. "According to my conception, the Steel Rangers are not a corps meant for head-on confrontation with the enemy. Even when we must assault a fortified position, we strike once and withdraw at once. So we may as well save the weight of the armor and combat backpack and spend it elsewhere."

"Understood. I will consider the proposal," Nikoxidan said, while using another metal ingot to begin "shaping" a model of the item Suojilin required. "What else?"

"Then there is the matter of weapons. Besides equipping them with arcane terminals bearing heat-ray guns and force-field shields, I hope the Steel Rangers can also have some more powerful offensive weapons..." As Suojilin spoke, his mind could not help but conjure that perilous encounter last winter on the Typhon border—the mysterious cultist of the All-Ending Doom, and the course of his own battle with the man.