"You managed to finish the Gambeson?" Seth asked as he visited Neeco in his room the next day. The tailor had thoroughly exhausted himself but he was already looking better after having a meal and a visit from Lynri. It seemed like Alison had also tended to him, during the night.
"Yes, here it is!" he said and pulled it out. Like the gloves and lining, it was made of ink black fabrics. It swallowed the light, making it hard to see any details apart from the contours. Unable to make out the characteristic stitches of a gambeson, it almost looked like a knee-length robe tailor-made for Evee.
"It's called the Garment of Demise, " the tailor commented and started to explain the effects of the relic-rated gambeson, as Seth's level in <Sewing> was not high enough to appraise it himself using <Eyes of the Maestro>
The Garment of Demise had two basic effects. Death Domination, Aura of Decay. Death Domination was the power Haa'Skon had shown Seth previously. The golem was naturally able to dominate undead, without using something like a skill to force his will onto them.Trace the roots of this material to novelb!n•
The golem had also shown the Aura of Decay, which was the power to exude the same black haze as Luf before she had gotten her body. Technically, it was the power of death leaking out, causing anything alive to rapidly decay. It could also turn corpses undead, if it didn't decay them to the point they couldn't function, like in Luf's case.
To rouse the Aura of Death the user needed to inject their magic power into the <Enriched Necron>. After the Luf's Aura of death was spun into a thread by Neeco Boos, it was the same for the garment. The problem was that it would kill the unprotected wearer inside,too.
Haa'Skon had no problem with that since there was no flesh, but even for Evee, who was an immortal witch, constant decay would have been a nuisance, if one ignored the terrible pain of dying of rapid full-body necrosis.
This was exactly what made the integrated circuit to guide this Aura of death away from the wearer so important. A faulty circuit or a missing set piece would simply spell death to the user.
Apart from these two effects, it also had the effects of Auto-Sizing and doubling its physical defense if infused with magic power. These were effects from Neeco's master-level weaving techniques. Apart from these, the gambeson was actually a disappointment as a defensive armament.
The physical and magical defense were barely 300, even with the doubling of the physical defense, it was not even half the defense of the gauntlets. Seth already knew that the fabric wasn't going to be any good for protection, but this was even below his expectations. He was just glad that Evee didn't really have to rely on defense.
However, there was one thing that made up for the lack of defense. The tailor explained that like the fabric he made from the elemental thread, the Garment of Demise was immune to physical damage.
This didn't mean it could block physical damage, but it meant that physical attack would be unable to permanently rip the magic power kept in shape by the effects of Neeco's skills. Strong magic was able to disrupt the fabric, but had to be really powerful.
“Wait, you never told me, that your elemental fabric had that kind of setting,” Seth complained. It was the first time he heard about this. He got even more interested in the potential of this kind of thread. So much so, that he was seriously deliberating about further raising his <Sewing> skill. If he raise this skill to the master level, his <Composer of Fusion> would also level up. If he then did stuff like boots and linings himself...
Seth shook his head. He was jumping too far ahead again.
“Thanks, Neeco. Great work.” he thanked the tailor and left the room with the gambeson. The blacksmith finally had all the parts of the armor that he needed to attune the circuit parts and then start on infusing soul armaments. He had finished engraving the circlet and gloves three days ago and had only waited for the gambeson.
“Sivri, can you prepare the mannequin for me? Set it to Evee's size, please,” “Will do.” the golden automaton said readily and set up the mannequin that Bess, the bowyer had prepared for him. Although the aura would only activate when supplied with magic power, there was no need to take a risk.
Slightly awkwardly, Seth started dressing the mannequin with the gambeson, the gloves, the boots, the helmet, and the cuirass. It was his first time dressing a puppet, but he managed to equip everything after a moment.
The mannequin was a special product that was able to supply magic power to equipment to test it, but before that Seth had to attach the upper arm guard to the Garment of Death. As they were needed to complete the integrated circuit, their position was one of the most important details. Using the straps of the arm guard he was able to fix them at a temporary position to test it, before permanently affixing it to the gambeson.
Once he placed the arm guards, Seth activated the mannequin and it became immediately obvious where the circuit was faulty since the mannequin started blackening wherever the Aura of Decay was not properly channeled.
Relic
Death Set 1/X
Phys. Def.:1275
Mag: Def:1555
1. Death Domination
2. +3 to <Heavy Armor>
3. +5 to all basic Knight-type Skills
4. +75% Damage with Weapons
5. +70 Agility
6. Active Skill: Suicide
7. Active Skill: Suffering Wind
8. +3000 Mana
Set Effects: To be updated.
One of a pair of boots that spell death for their wearer and his enemies. A diabolical piece of equipment from the hands of Master Smith, the first Master Enchanter, and Master Blacksmith of Urth.
Once rumors of the armor's power spread the item is guaranteed to become legendary.>
The number of effects was lower than his usual items, but that was okay. The only thing that surprised him was the second skill. <Suicide>? It took the blacksmith a good while to make sense of why such a skill had shown up here.
<Aura of Decay> was missing and <Suicide> was there instead. It was quite obvious once he got it. Without the set effect, that would allow the wearer to use the aura, infusing magic power in the the boots was plain suicide.
If he was right, every individual set item would offer this skill. It actually wasn’t a bad skill for Evee, as it could allow her to repeatedly kill herself if she tried to revive as a specific undead. However, the situation would probably have to be very dire for her to do something like that. Again, dying from necrosis was not a fun thought.
Putting the finished boots aside, Seth stretched and started on the next item after a short break:
The cuirass.