She immediately realized how dumb the question sounded but Alice couldnÆt help herself It came out like a reflex Cursing her idiocy Alice raised her hand and used Mending Touch Very quickly the worst of the gashes across womanÆs upper torso knitted back together The wounded woman released a relieved breath
Thank god She muttered as she sat up and spat out a fat glob of blood
Alice put her hand on the other womanÆs shoulder inwardly marveling at how soft and clear her skin was Probably not the time to mention that Ah careful This is my fault I knew you had been gone for a while but
Alice trailed off Probably not a good idea to say that she had lost focus because a friend had brought an absolutely delicious danish from a cute little bakery that was becoming popular recently Instead Alice drank a Mana potion and used Mending Touch once more It didnÆt actually restore Health but it would remove all of the wounds and the associated debuffs that would lower a personÆs natural regeneration
Holy shit no no stop looking at me like a stepped on puppy IÆm just glad it turned out like this The woman said as she stood and stretched Thanks for that by the way Real convenient that you know healing magic
Yea well usually people wounded enough for it to matter canÆt escape the Dungeon so Now that the wounds were gone Alice recognized her Her name was Helen right The one who had come earlier and demanded entrance to the Dungeon Since the woman had money and no one else was scheduled to use the Level 50 Dungeon Alice had allowed it but
Then Alice froze Wait a second if she had been gone for almost two hours in the Level 50 Dungeon DidnÆt that mean that Helen had been alone in the Dungeon for almost 3 months
The Level 50 Dungeon
Alone
Ah you should Alice started but then she trailed off Aether Sickness was a problem that no one could avoid What help could Alice give but go find a bed and quick If you spent too much time in a Dungeon you simply werenÆt able to function in the relatively thinner Aether of Earth You would be bedridden for weeks
Right wouldnÆt have been able to try again if it wasnÆt for you Thanks again Helen said briskly Then she walked right back up to the Dungeon and disappeared
You Alice tried to stop the other woman but she was already gone
Crazy Alice said looking down at her bloody hands Then she looked over at the danish lying discarded in the well trodden dirt After sighing she said Seriously Why I am surrounded by so many weirdos
Even with SamÆs very full complement of equipment forging the metal that Randidly had created was difficult Even he had a hard time believing how resilient the ingots he provided turned out to be
When Randidly had given Sam the ingots the other man had just grunted sourly fiddled with one tested their weight and then nodded his head As they got deeper into the creation of the molds for the arm and the shaping however SamÆs idle interest quickly sharpened to a viciously sharp point
Very quickly it was obvious that the heat produced by a normal forge wouldnÆt be enough to melt the ingots Not even close Even when placed in a compression furnace the process was slow to the point of being aggravating Randidly was forced to show his hand and use his own Ignition of the Emerald Essence to rapidly heat the metal to the point that it would melt
And even he could only cut the time in half the metal stubbornly resisted all other influences
Still it was a lesson for Randidly that he shouldnÆt take his Skill for granted The fact that there was such a stark difference in the heat of the flames meant that his Skill was improving
There was a moment in the midst of the sweating struggle that was the process of melting the ingots into the molds when Randidly could feel Sam standing behind him carefully considering the pile of ingots Then Randidly felt SamÆs gaze shift to Randidly where it remained for quite a long time Even as he continued to exercise tight control over his flames Randidly gritted his teeth
Ultimately Sam simply turned away without saying a word about the metal He had chosen to go a different way
As I thought Sam wonÆt accept this shortcut He will find his own Path forward Randidly thought as he bowed his head Not that he could blame Sam after all Randidly had chosen the same path Randidly just had the benefit of a very extensive headstart
Luckily Sam didnÆt need much of an explanation for the details of what they were doing A few seconds looking at the plans and the other man had been already on the move gathering the materials they would need While Randidly handled the treatment of his ingots Sam prepared the molds that they would use to create the pieces of the arm
As Randidly had discovered the arm was to be made by layering hoops Specifically hoops which possessed outside edges which were slightly raised Then these different sized hoops would just need to be slid inside of each other The inner hoops were slightly smaller so they couldnÆt fit all the way through and would protrude some distance forward In this way with an increasing number of hoops the arm would slowly be built outward
There were some complications due to the presence of a working elbow and the fingers but the solutions created by the troublesome Spriggit Head Engineer were relatively clever and simplistic Randidly was honestly impressed by how well Wendy was able to design when she had looked like a zombie
Once the arm was assembled all Randidly would need was a stop on the back to keep any of the parts from falling off That would be at RandidlyÆs shoulder Sam already had rigged up a basic leather harness that would tie around his torso and act as the base to attach the arm to Randidly
Perhaps due to his plans to create equipment for Randidly Sam didnÆt need to measure Randidly at all And when the leather harness was thrown toward him Randidly was surprised to find that it fit perfectly
Randidly decided not to dwell too much on that strange fact
Another benefit of this particular design was that in theory the arm could be retracted by pushing all the hoops back into themselves The arm itself would be hollow which would allow the rest to slide neatly into place In theory at least Randidly didn’t think it would be so easily accomplishable in practice Especially considering the hand and the elbow
Still that didnÆt matter Most of the control over the arm would fall on the runes Randidly would add to the metal later So it was enough just to make sure the thing was mobile before Randidly started to plan out the runes in earnest
The whole matter of forging the arm was something of a letdown Once they had the molds all they needed to do was pour the molten metal into them Sam didnÆt even bother with a sophisticated extraction method due to the hardness of RandidlyÆs metal he felt confident enough to just smash the molds to pieces with a hammer It was a bemused Randidly that watched Sma clear the entire set of molds with several devastating blows with the hammer
It also made Randidly remember that very soon he would fight against Sam The challenge against Donnyton was a message meant for Sam as well
At first Randidly winced But very quickly a pile of elaborate hoops made of the silvery grey with emerald and crimson speckles appeared In terms of efficiency Randidly couldnÆt deny that SamÆs methods achieved results
In the end the two men look at the scattered pile Sam picked up a hoop and flicked it lightly
Tingg
The clear ring of metal echoed throughout the workroom
Sam couldnÆt resist in allowing his face to break into a wide smile Good metal Whoever made these plans you owe them a favor For all that the concept is a simple idea the execution should be a bitch Some of these hoops should be structurally flawed so that they could fit into a cohesive whole Most of that weakness should be made up by combining a bunch together but you should never be able to completely rid the inherent flaws But these plans
Gesturing helplessly at WendyÆs scrawls Sam grumbled But somehow this guy manages to do exactly that The slight alterations to shape in each iteration of the hoop it’s very precisely calculated Combine that with the material and well