Chapter 34: 32 – Armor Up

(Lia! Left!)

I don't even question the call Navi made and immediately jump left, barely avoiding a tackle from a drake in my blind spot. Slashing Seren at the drake, it screeches in pain as its flank is opened, but I have no time to finish it as another drake impacts my shield.

As I'm holding it off, an arrow flies out from behind me and hits it in the neck with a small explosion following it, nearly severing its head from the body. Spears of darkness and stone are raining down around us as Navi does her best to thin the pack before they reach us.

"Ha!"

I hear Sara yell out as she stabs a spear into another drake on the other side of Ailine.

(Final fifteen minutes!) Navi yells telepathically.

Knowing that we can finally breathe after so many hours of this, we redouble our efforts. Killing any drake that comes into range.

Finally, fifteen minutes later, and with a death roar, the final drake of this pack falls to the ground. Taking a breath, and falling on our asses, we all bend down and take a long drink from the bodies around us, even as hundreds have already melted.

Navi flies down and spins around. "Good work vampires! We finally finished this endless hell of a floor!"

"Thanks for calls and supporting fire, Navi. That was absolutely brutal," I say, still catching my breath. 

It's been a little over six months since we started diving in the dungeon again. The week after the yearly festival, we made the choice to start up again. It was a bit hard leaving Anastasia, but she knew it was going to come eventually, and wanted to practice drawing. Steph, Lala, and Tsuki are all taking good care of her in our stead.

We began including Sara in the runs. She's amazing with a spear, and had become much stronger over the few months before we started again. She fits our team composition well.

The forty-seventh floor was a lot like the forty-fifth. Only, instead of an underground tunnel, it was a forest, and instead of wyrms, it was a lindworm. It looked nearly identical but also had front arms.

Fortunately, the fight was very similar, with the main difference being me focusing on the hammer and Sara with a pouch full of javelins. The coordination really worked well. Overall, the floor didn't take us an extremely long time. 

Then we got to floor forty-eight. We've been training for the last couple months here. It's level gimmick is absolutely brutal, but it's a great training exercise. Still, this floor absolutely sucked.

The monsters on it were all identical. Level 65 drakes. Picture a wolf with a dragon face and scales. That's a drake. The highest level monster we've fought, and they hunt in packs. Honestly, their level is weird. It's higher than the Wyrm but one on one I doubt it could kill it. Even their skin's hardness and attack doesn't match their level. However, in their packs, I definitely believe it. Overall, just weird dungeon logic and a reminder that levels aren't a be-all and end-all.

If that wasn't brutal enough, what made this floor suck so much were the mechanics and this endless hell of a boss fight.

It took us a week to get to the boss door, even though it was a single path with no traps. The floor reminded me a bit of the Tutorial Dungeon first floor. Wide open grassland. The path was wide, at least thirty feet across, and the grass flanking it was at least eight feet tall. The reason it took so long was the fucking spawns.

Where normal floors you walk to the monsters, here, until you get to the boss door, spawns are based on time intervals instead of monster numbers. Sitting still or walking, it's all the same. Every three hours, a spawn starts and lasts for thirty minutes, creating an infinite spawn of six drakes. Kill one? One comes out of the grass. Trapped one? It dissolves and another comes out. Over and over for thirty minutes they attack from all sides. Then it just stops and you have three hours until it begins.

If there was one good thing about this floor is that it allowed the four of us to work on our teamwork and coordination, along with skills. No matter how many times we were bit or clawed, Navi and I would heal everyone. Many times it would be in the middle of fighting. That was the only way to keep going, but becoming adept at those skills was tremendous.

At one point last month, we decided to try fighting head-on back on the fortress of the forty-sixth floor. Navi only destroyed the ballistae and a boulder in the center of their main force. Then we attacked the fortress to train against weapon users and not dragon wolves. It was a valuable experience and let us become even better at calling out enemies and covering for one another.

Once inside the boss door after trekking for days and taking turns resting, it's a similar mechanic. Only it is a single timed spawn of ten drakes and lasts ten hours. Literally fighting all day or all night. Also, on the sucky part of this entire floor? We only get a tiny bit of EXP for the ones killed before the end of the spawn, with only the final six or ten after the time is up actually dropping a core or items. Everything else dissolves immediately as a new one appears like it never happened. 

Absolutely. Fucking. Brutal.

That's why it took us four months of near non-stop fighting, only taking a break after the boss for a couple days in the castle, for us to finally reach the point where everyone out-leveled the floor.

"I'm just glad we're finally done!" Sara said.

"Great work everyone," I say, still sitting on my ass. "Let's take a couple weeks as we prepare. Ailine, Navi, we're counting on you for this next floor."

Ailine is sprawled out on the grass. "Yes, Lia."

"Yup! Fairy power FTW!" Navi lands and sits on my head.

Looking at our levels, I'm really proud of us. Sara just leveled up yesterday on the trek, and Ailine will level up soon on the next floor. 

Our levels are:
Dalia - 68
Navi - 67
Ailine - 66
Sara - 66

Walking through the doors to get back home, I'm not looking forward to the monsters we saw on the forty-ninth floor. Elemental wyverns. Think dragon with wings in place of front arms. We were able to kill a water and fire wyvern last week, but decided to retreat and prepare different armor before going farther.

After a week in the dungeon fighting nearly nonstop, we're all relieved when we see the exit of the Tutorial Dungeon cave.

"Everyone's back! Welcome home everyone!" Anastasia bolts away from next to Steph and runs right into our arms.

"Mom's back!" Tsuki shouts.

Lala also flies over. "Welcome back, Mother!"

"My babiiiies!" 

The fairies all ram into each other midair. 

Steph comes up next. "I'm glad you're home safe, Sara."

"Of course I am, my sweet little Steph." Sara walks up and kisses Steph. 

Apparently those two started dating a couple months ago. Are all vampires gay? Well I guess King Rory liked women. So I guess not all vampires. In fact, nobody even batted an eye at there being a lesbian queen. Is same-sex relationships just a normal thing here? I guess for vampires that can't have kids, lineage isn't an issue. I'll have to ask Navi later, but don't really care enough to. It's not discriminated against at the very least.

I clap to get everyone's attention. "Alright. I think we're all tired, so let's call it a night. Navi and I will work on armor tomorrow night. Just bring it to the lab."

"Have a good night, Your Majesties!" Steph says with a curtsey.

With Sara and Steph seeing us off, Ailine and I walked Anastasia back to the castle. 

Ailine and I swing Anastasia back and forth as we walk, holding an arm each. "What do you think, Anastasia? Want to sleep with us like we usually do coming back from a trip?"

"Yes, please!" she shouts as she swings.

"Great! Then after a bath, we can all cuddle for tonight."

"Ok, Mommy Lia!"

Falling asleep that night, all three of us were content that we were slowly getting closer and closer to our goal of beating the Abyssal Dungeon. I also had an epiphany on a design that could trump what we were going to try. 

The next evening, Navi and I met up to discuss what we wanted to do. I pitched her my new idea, and she just stared at me.

"Thoughts?" I finally said.

"That you're asking the near impossible again, Vamps?" she shoots right back.

"But do you think it'll work?"

"You know darn well it would work!" she yells, pointing at me with a hand on her hip. "Why else would you have told me!"

"And do you think you can make it?"

"Who do you think I am? I'm the best fairy enchanter to ever exist! I just hope you realize how much work you, me, and Lala are going to have to do to get the materials for this crazy idea."

I smile wryly. "I do. It's ambitious."

"AMBITIOUS?! You could have windows in the castle or fight in the center of a forest fire with these! And you call it 'ambitious?' Those two materials with my enchanting and our scientific search engine PHD's might actually be able to freaking make it, too! You can't just call it 'ambitious.' This is anti-dragonfire armor if there ever was one, Lia!

"The only downfall of this thing is the insane mana draw this is going to require to actually work, not to include how much it will take to even make. You might only have, like, a few minutes tops even at your total MP before it runs you dry. Even if we supplement monster cores, you would need buckets to fight multiple battles. This would definitely be a 'fight one guy and recharge' type armor."

I continue to smile at the fairy's rant. "But when we pull it off, how fucking badass will it be?"

Navi flies over and grabs my head and begins shaking it. "Insanely so! You make me jealous that I can't wear it you stupid vampire!"

After releasing me, I said, "Should we start by trying to make a pane first to do a proof of concept?"

"Duh! Now get to work. We just need a proof of concept. You make the glass and I'll make the titanium dioxide powder."

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We got to work making our parts. Am I a scientist? Hell no. I cheat with magic. Which conveniently works off of imagination. Which means, as the saying goes, knowledge is power. 

I just remember some names of things and what internet rabbit holes they took me to. One such rabbit hole was a component of some sunscreens. Titanium dioxide. That specific rabbit hole went to it being used as a self-cleaning coating for windows.

Could it also block the vampire's weakness to light magic for our eyes? I've suspected that some type of wavelength of light is similar to light magic. Such as how it kills bacteria and infection, and hurts vampires while lightbulbs or fire light don't. If someone holds a ball of light magic at my back but I'm covered, no effect, but when I look at it? Immediate pain in my eyes unless I'm covered in dark magic. Even when matched to what people say the intensity of our lightbulbs are, it looks a fucking hundred times brighter to us.

If we make this coating, and it blocks the harmful part to us, we could make a face shield in a helmet that allows us to still fight at max power, even with some light magic. This is an addition for the future of this armor. Also, because we saw what we assume to be a fucking light wyvern. Damn devil spawn is what it is.

After we had a pane of the coated glass, I fashioned my cloak around it so I could look through it but wasn't exposed anywhere. Then Navi made light magic balls.

She made a few as I watched them. Then made them brighter and brighter. I had to squint because they were bright, but I wasn't taking damage and still had my full Nightstalker effect!

"It fucking works, Navi!" I shout as her lights fade.

"Nice!" She gives me a high-five. Well  a finger-five for me. "Easy part of this armor is done!"

Setting that aside, we got to tackling the main task.

Could we beat floor forty-nine with what we have currently? Potentially. Some wyvern types would suck, but it could be doable. Although, with where things look to be heading, we need something much better to tackle floor fifty. Our solution is this current armor design.

When we fought the fire wyvern, the fire breath sucked. Even when avoided, the air we breathed was insane. A more direct hit would have burned our lungs. Now, what is the main thing you think of when you think of true dragons? Fire.

This theory is backed up by any info we found about how the old vampires killed dragons. More precisely, the lack thereof. We had been looking for information for a long time, to try to make this a bit easier. Yet, we could never find anything. No 'secret weapon' or 'we did this to beat it' were ever mentioned.

In fact, I always thought it was a bit weird that they never had any mentions at all. Once we got the drops for the wyverns, I started to get really suspicious. The reason why, was because the wyverns dropped scales and skin. Almost exactly like what we wore as 'dragon leather.' 

I guess it makes some sense. Wyverns are a type of 'dragon' and are usually considered the closest relative to the stereotypical 'true dragon.' So, I guess their scales and skin could be called and classified as 'dragon' items. Even so, the 'true dragon' was contained in the monster compendium and had a severe lack of information on it.

Where even for wyverns, it had info like 'bring them down by aiming at the wings.' For the true dragon? Simply a picture and a size estimate at thirty meters snout to tail, and that it breathes fire hot enough to melt stone and steel if in the fire long enough. To find out more, while we dove the dungeon, we had everyone left at the castle look for any information.

What we eventually found in the footnote of a book was shocking, but it also explained some things. They had fought, but never beaten a dragon. They had never fully conquered the Abyssal Dungeon.

I'd wondered why there were never any mentions of power leveling in here. Of making levels like the fortress level where you could get your entire population at a high level relatively easily. The few diaries of higher level people all had them fighting in the Abyssal Dungeon, but all of them fought the floors as they came. All legit clears of the floors.

I always wondered why they never built a city around the Abyssal Dungeon. Having a city there would make so much sense if you could power level everyone. I thought about the legacy equipment we received, which was their most powerful weapons and armor. None ever screamed 'dragon killing weapon/armor.'

Reading the footnote made a lot of things make sense. It was noted that King Rory made an attempt at conquering the last level of the Abyssal Dungeon. That they knew it was the last because of the golden core room door behind the boss. It said that Rory brought their ten strongest fighters, and returned with only two.

The dragon killed eight people out of eleven that went to fight. From what we could infer from the rest of the diary around that time, the fire was too much for them. Even when enchanted to survive the heat, the people inside were roasted or had lungs burned from breathing the air. The ones to survive were Rory, who was pushed away and barely survived the fires, and the ranged units who dragged him out, sacrificing two of them to get him out.

Their strongest arrows just stuck in the scales. Their magic, ineffective. Even when the arrow exploded, it didn't do more than scuff the scale a bit. They couldn't design equipment to fight it or survive the fires, and lost many good people.

I refuse to lose anyone to it.

The main issue they ran into was one of material. Enchanted steel plate armor has great physical protection, but not magical. What we've found is monsters that create things with magic, even though it can be the same element, will affect us slightly differently. That's partly why we had 'dragon scale' armor, which works great against magic. However, without a dragon's layer of skin and fat, it doesn't do much against blunt attacks and just transmits damage through it.

Honestly, it's all really fucking weird. Like the whole HP vs damage thing, it makes me realize again how insanely complex the [system] is. I have no idea how or why these things act like this. The deeper I go, the more I can't equate Earth physics or common sense to Erald and the [system.]

Why can't we use enchanted plate against dragon fire? Accounts of it melting. It had to be in the fire for a bit, but yes. Melting. Nope. Also, we can't enchant scales because of their high anti-magic properties. Plus, even if we had a metal that didn't melt, we would be baked alive or have our lungs burnt to a crisp.

Our solution? An alloy only us from Earth would know. We already know they knew about tungsten. My fucking crown is made of it. Highest melting point metal on Earth, but stupidly brittle. Although, mix it with a bit of nickel and touch of iron? You have a tungsten-nickel-iron alloy that we could make into armor, and still retain it's high melting point. On Earth, it was used for high temp environments like bearings, soldering, or even radiation shielding.

How to stop the magical aspect? Outer layer of scales. How to stop the hot metal burning our skin or baking us alive? Vacuum seal it with double wall insulation. Two layers of the alloy with a gap between. Enchant the outer layer of alloy with as many defensive enchantments as possible and have some AC inner enchantments circulating cold air. How to prevent lungs from being burnt? Enchant the inner layer of alloy to make the entire armor airtight. To breathe, we just have to adjust the underwater breathing system.

Prevent face shield glass from melting? Double pane. Inner pane has the titanium dioxide coating, outer pane made of magic-created diamond with a vacuum between the two to prevent heat transfer. Navi even tossed a dark magic enchantment on the inside of the helmet, just for extra light magic protection on it. Makes it look like looking into pure darkness through the diamond outer.

Bring it all together, we have a suit of armor that is anti-magic, anti-physical, anti-dragonfire, and allows us to see and breathe in any condition. This thing is badass.

Downfall? It will be stupidly heavy. Like, fucking insanely heavy. The wearer becomes a tank, in the truest fantasy sense of the word. Plain and simple. The mana draw for the enchantments is also ridiculous. Insanely ridiculous.

You need someone with stupidly high magic control to make it, along with high proficiencies in nearly all types for the multitude of enchantments. You need someone with a very high STR and STM stat to wear, and that person who will become a tank needs to have a very large mana pool. 

Yup. I think Navi and I might be the only ones to do this. Not even Sara or Ailine would be able to use this effectively.

This will be my anti-dragon armor, with Seren as my blade and a tower shield of tungsten alloy with scale outer layer. Remake the hammer and javelin in the alloy so as not to melt, and I might have a chance at fighting a dragon.

As for the others, they'll also get upgraded armor for the fights with the new alloy. Being so strong, we're going to make a thin metal plate armor with dragon leather backing. Defensive enchantments on the plate. Dragon scale outer with a similar helmet for the glass when we fight a light wyvern. 

Sara's set will also have a double wall vacuum since she will be up close, but with less enchantments to compensate for her lack of magical talent. She'll get a tower shield as well, but will primarily keep it stored away in her pouch.

Overall, similar to mine but simpler. Still much stronger and better suited to the last floors than their current enchanted steel plate, even if our movements will be slowed.

In the end, we had Lala focus on assembly of pieces and making the glass and diamond for the helmets. Yes, diamonds can be made with earth magic, but it uses an insane amount of MP. Even with everything Navi and I were making, she finished the face shields not long before us. Total, we worked for about six months on the armor. When our MP was shot, we would play or draw with the kids.

"Are we really fucking done?" I said, taking a step back from the armor on the racks in front of us.

Navi lands on my shoulder. "I think so, Lia. Frick I'm so jealous I can't wear this! And yours looks insane! You're essentially wearing two sets of plate covered in scales! If we didn't figure out that workaround for the joints, you would just be a lump of metal, A Christmas Story style! But no~, now you'll look like a darn demon lord or final boss or something! I'm so jealous that you're going to make me curse, you poop head!"

"Hahaha! You did enjoy testing it, didn't you?"

"Of course I did?” She started play-hitting me on the head. “I made a giant butt magic fire and roasted you in it until my magic was low! And you just stood there! What did we even make, Lia? Is this even fair to have?"

"Sure it is. We're still playing by the rules this world works on. We just bent them a bit, like with you and your rocks."

"That!...Is a fair point. That really was cheating, wasn't it."

"Yup. Anyone here on Erald could have stolen wild 'dragon' scales and skinned a dead wyvern. Discovered tungsten mixed with small amounts of other metals creates an insanely good alloy. Discovered and coated titanium dioxide on glass. Found a big enough diamond to make a face shield or had enough time and mana to make one. Discovered the properties of a vacuum on heat conduction, and had high enough magic and magic control along with enchanting knowledge. Anyone had the chance to make this armor. We just did it first."

She just stares at me. "...You don't really believe that, do you?"

"Sure don't,” I said without hesitation. “I just don't want a god or something to smite me for making an OP cheater armor or something. I really believe that only we could make this thing. In enchanting, you've even passed Tavelstein in his books, right?"

"Yeah, but that's the insane fairy magic control at work. He could still make more powerful ones like the teleportation platforms or the array on the walls, that even I can't power yet. His are like hammers. Mine are like scalpels. Enchant walls? Tavelstein wins. Enchant weapons and armor? I win."

"True. We'll have to examine those more once we beat this."

"So what now?"

"Let's call the girls. These look so damn cool," I say before telepathically messaging the others.

(Ailine, Sara, come on down to the lab! They're finally done!)

Soon after, the two walked in with Anastasia in tow. She was the first to comment.

"Wow! Mommy Lia! Those are so awesome! They look similar to those Demon Lord pictures you helped me draw! You'll look just like a villainess!"

"Hahahaha! That's what I said, my cute little niece!" Navi flew over and gave her a fairy face hug.

I almost fell to the floor, but looking again, it really does look like that. I didn't realize how sinister of a vibe they had until they both told me that. Well, maybe I did, but it just looks too cool!

With the plate already being dark, and the scales we had the most of being black, it does have a Sauron-esque vibe to it with so many angles and shadows thanks to the scales. With scales sized to the place they're protecting, it screams 'fantasy dragon armor.' The helmet looks a lot like a scaled motorcycle helmet. Came out nice I thought. My suit is the bulkiest with the thicker plate, then Sara's with thinner plate, then Ailine's, still allowing her to draw her bow. 

"Those look great, Your Majesties!" Sara said.

Ailine came up and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Good work, you three!" 

"Well then!” I clap my hands together. “Want to kill some wyverns tomorrow night?"

I'm looking forward to fully putting these through their paces.

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