Chapter 194: Chapter 179: Salacious Science

I walked through the streets of Dawnhold, Cluma walking alongside, doing my best to act natural. I had no reason to be self-conscious. My clothing was nothing out of the ordinary. Mostly.

No, wait. I still had my ears, too. I was so used to them by this point that I kept forgetting they were add-ons. We'd long since passed the point of me deluding myself into thinking I was ever going to remove them.

Anyway, ears aside, my tunic was baggy enough that I looked normal. Whatever I'd thought a few days ago about going outdoors in my maid outfit being less embarrassing than having the relationship talk with Cluma, one of those things was a necessity and the other was not. Keeping up with my newfound vow of improved communication, I'd politely explained that while I appreciated her being a voice of reason if I was about to do something stupid, publicly humiliating me in an attempt to get me to stop wasn't okay.

And then, of course, the Law happened. The moment Cluma realised I considered it public humiliation, she just kinda... forgot. Apparently, until then, she'd thought I didn't mind being embarrassed. To be fair, that was mostly true, but only in the presence of friends. Not in public.

Alas, when I'd tried to leave for the second time, I'd learnt that she still remembered making her declaration. All that had changed was what she'd threatened me with. That time I hadn't quibbled, given that the time spent resolving it the first time around meant we were already late, and that what she now 'remembered' telling me she'd make me do didn't involve anything public. And, more importantly, I didn't want to watch the Law eat a part of her memories again.

Watching her memories change like that almost made me wish I'd gone along with her the first time. If I'd rushed through town with [Weft Walk], I'd have been fast enough that no-one would have seen what I was wearing. I could have coped. It wouldn't have been that much worse than my current situation.

"This is cruel," I complained, fully conscious of my underwear, even if no-one could see it. "I should have made you wear that ridiculous catsuit you had Adele make."

"Hmm? How would that help? It isn't embarrassing."

"Seriously? Just how little shame do you have?"

"Why would it be shameful? It's your reactions to everything that are weird. Clothes are clothes. You aren't embarrassed about your ears, so why get embarrassed about a dress?"

At some point I was going to need to get a third opinion, because I legitimately had no idea which of us was correct. But, for now, I had something more interesting to deal with—science! Not only my new limbs, but also our new armour. Maybe even some new materials, if they'd found a few mages with varied affinities.

Grover's workshop was occupied by the expected crowd. Carys, Vargalas, Kari and Hassok already waiting, along with Grover himself. Adding me and Cluma, the place was getting crowded. Thank goodness it was relatively tidy. Although, with Grover, 'relatively' was a low bar.

"You're late," complained Kari.

"I dunno how," answered Cluma. "We didn't take that long getting ready."

"How did the new materials go?" I asked, changing the subject. I could hardly explain that Cluma had forgotten a chunk of the morning.

"Nothing life changing so far. Certainly nothing at the level of orichalcum or adamantite, but we don't know yet if there are higher ranks available. We've manufactured a few extra types, though. They behave similarly to low-level affinity crystals, except without the conversion of ambient mana to a specific affinity. The flame-touched steel maintains a temperature around ten degrees higher than its surroundings, for example, and ice-touched steel ten degrees lower. They also make brilliant materials for affinity enhancement enchantments. Other than that, their properties are no different from regular mana-infused steel."

"Umm... Corpusclite?" I pointed out. That most certainly did not behave like ordinary steel. And affinity enchantments? I noticed that Kari and Carys were both sporting new staves in an unusual silvery-yellow colour. Animalite? Also, the casual thermodynamics breakage of fire and ice-touched steel was interesting. If it didn't involve any interaction with ambient mana, would it work on Earth?

"I did say mostly. Some of the more esoteric affinities are more interesting, and of course, crystals that generate raw affinity mana don't exist for every affinity. But it's useful enough that Raymond has already put in an order for an animalite staff for every healer at the hospital. They take some amount of mythril to ensure the enchantments don't degrade, but the result is stronger than using orichalcum, at a far lower material cost."

Grover shifted a pile of junk on a table, uncovering a pile of pinks and browns that made strange sucking and slurping noises as he picked it up.

"And as for corpusclite," he continued energetically, "see for yourself."

The pile unfurled, revealing the armour I'd left for him to upgrade. The entire bodysuit had been coated with the disgusting pink-white material. Most of the reinforcing plates had been left as they were, but I spotted plates of adamantite on the gauntlets which would be handy for parrying.

"How come it doesn't just fall off?"

"It's truly weird stuff. At first glance, it might look like a viscous liquid with high surface tension, but it's simple enough to prove that it isn't. Two ingots of the stuff don't mix, and trying to separate one ingot into two is every bit as hard as slicing an ingot of steel. You can actually rivet it in place, and the entire ingot will stay put. Spread it out where you want it, add a few rivets, and it's done."

Wow. I'd heard of non-Newtonian liquids, but that was something else. You couldn't rivet cornstarch in place and expect it to stay put.

Anaconda Emperor Leather and Corpusclite Armour (Quality: 50)
- Enchantment: Comfort (Quality: 71)
- Enchantment: Durability (Quality: 71)
- Enchantment: Sharpness (Quality: 71)
- Enchantment: Lightning resistance (Quality: 71)

The quality was still fifty, so either Hassok hadn't worked on it or the System took the lowest between him and Adele. The description didn't mention the adamantite, either, perhaps because there was so little of it. Then again, the [Analysis] or [Eye of Judgement] results for clothing with orichalcum enchantments had never mentioned orichalcum, either, and now that I was looking for it, I could pick up the thread of orichalcum sewn on the inside, hidden beneath reinforcing plates to protect the enchantments.

Now I just needed to hope the disgusting squelching was a one-off while he was unfurling it, and it wasn't going to do that while I was wearing it. Still, it could have been worse; they could have lined the inside with the corpusclite.

"And it'll stand up to a bite from level twenty monsters?"

"Yup. It's a little weaker against piercing attacks than slicing or bludgeoning, but you're not going to need to worry about the fangs of a level twenty snake."

"What about level forty?"

Grover frowned. "Forty? Aren't you getting ahead of yourself there, lad?"

"The final boss of the Serpent Isle dungeon is a level forty hydra."

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"Well... No. I would advise you not to let a hydra bite you."

A pity, but not exactly unexpected, given the base materials. As long as it offered protection from glancing blows, and hopefully any ranged attacks it might make, I could cope. Hopefully. But while I could theoretically buy better quality leather, I couldn't rely on Darren to manufacture higher ranked corpusclite.

Or could I? What if I focused on producing affinity mana, and then Darren compressed it and forced it into the steel? Something to try the next time we were in the mana concentration chamber together.

"I could certainly build a better lightning projector, too, but as Hassok kept reminding me, I have enough work to do already. Besides, I want to wait until we've had Darren try to manufacture better materials here at the institute. No point wasting time on an improved model if it's going to be obsolete before I even finish it."

A replacement for my lightning glove would certainly be cool. It kicked arse in Dawnhold, capable of killing even the goblin king, despite taking ten seconds to do so. I'd been worried about the way it wouldn't function on lower floors due to the mana density constraints, but I'd been worried about the wrong thing. It had become ineffective against monsters before hitting its floor limit.

"Let me know when you want Darren here, and I'll come too. We'll see if he can compress affinity mana that I produce. And, if it's safe, I'll try with space and time."

But not soul. That would be a spectacularly bad idea.

"Will do, but for now, let's move on to the main event."

Grover moved over to his forge, picking up an arm in dull silver. While the previous design had been obviously arm-shaped, this one was a sculpture. It had been forged in exquisite detail, right down to the fingernails. It also had substantial muscle definition. Hah—take that, Cluma.

Artificial Human Right Arm (Quality: 71)
- Enchantment: Durability (Quality: 71)
- Enchantment: Body affinity enhancement (Quality: 71)
- Enchantment: Biological integration (Quality: 71)
- Enchantment: Irremovable (Quality: 71)

"Actually, before we try the new one, let's retest the old one," I suggested, rolling up my sleeve. "I've gained a few [Superimpose] levels since then, so we need to account for any difference that has made."

"Ah, good point."

It turned out to make quite a lot of difference; I could no longer slice through my flesh using an unenchanted steel knife. When I tried a full-force stab—an act that made Cluma yelp despite me giving prior warning—the knife snapped.

"Well, that's certainly impressive," commented Hassok.

"Indeed. I assume your sword can still cut it?"

It could, but unlike last time, I needed to put some force into it. Not much, but it was an obvious difference. It would have been interesting to do more tests with other blades, but I didn't have a previous point for comparison. Besides, there were also the limitations of healing magic to worry about.

"Please don't do any more than that," said Carys, healing the resulting wound. "You want to do all four limbs today, so we don't want you overdosing on healing magic before we're done."

"Yes! What if you cut your leg off and they can't stop the bleeding?"

"Then I'll take Vargalas' potion. Or wait for it to stop bleeding on its own. But blood loss is actually a good point; healing magic doesn't seem to completely restore it, so we might have to stop before all four limbs, regardless of a healing overdose."

"One step ahead of you, lad," commented Grover. "Vargalas cooked this up for you."

Potion of Blood Replenishment (Quality: 70)
- Effect: Restore blood (Max 7 litres)

...Seven litres. I was reasonably sure that was more than I had. Thankfully, it said 'max', and it wouldn't just unconditionally add seven litres of blood to my body. I could imagine that resulting in quite a messy explosion.

"Wow. Potions can do anything," I commented, causing another pout from Carys as Vargalas infringed on her work. It elicited a frown from Vargalas, too, but I knew he didn't actually have a great opinion of alchemy. Potions couldn't attune him to lightning affinity, after all.

Or maybe they could, and it would just take a rank five alchemy skill? Maybe I should encourage him, but should he ever complete [Master Alchemist], he'd probably take a mage class to get mana control skills.

I did some further non-destructive tests on my original arm, finding that the strength gain from [Superimpose] had increased a small but noticeable amount, while the effect of [Strength] had increased more significantly. It seemed that more desirable properties of the spare arm were being transferred over, but while my dexterity hadn't increased, it hadn't decreased either, so undesirable properties were being left behind.

"Okay, I think we've got everything we needed. Now, let's replace that arm with this new one, and see the difference."

That was easy enough. I used [Redistribute] to switch my real right arm out for the original experimental model, after which Grover stood and waited for something.

"I can't detach it through fabric, lad," he said eventually. "You can't roll your sleeves up over your shoulder. You'll need to take your tunic off."

...Right. I had briefly forgotten about my predicament. The grin on Cluma's face made it obvious she was tormenting me as much for her own amusement as to encourage me to play safe, as far as she could get away with under the Law, but there was nothing I could do right now. I suppose I could teleport home, change there, and teleport back, but... at least I knew everyone here. Besides, this was the perfect opportunity to get that third opinion.

"I would like to point out that what I am wearing is entirely Cluma's fault, and ask that you try to keep hysterical laughter to a minimum," I said, using [Item Box] to remove my tunic and revealing the lacy padded bra beneath.

Kari did not keep her hysterical laughter to a minimum.

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