Chapter 879 (1/2)

The Engraving wasn’t easy, but it also wasn’t the slog that Randidly had expected. In fact, it turned out that he had been subtly training for exactly a problem like this for quite some time.

The individual runes he would use weren’t difficult to make. Well, aside from the special Skill related rune that Randidly intended to add to the whole of the construction. The sort of runes that generated mechanical motion in response to energy were of the type that he had designed originally for the drones he had created.

It wasn’t that difficult to transfer that energy from Mana to Aether controlled, which left only the process of figuring out how to perfectly engrave these runes onto the many hoops of metal that Randidly had created for his arm.

But his experiences trying to manage a growing Skill in a Mana Engraving had made Randidly master the understanding of how the 2D Engravings would work over a three-dimensional armor. Most of his practice time Randidly had done his best to work on armors that would simplify this process as much as possible, but he couldn’t completely ignore the issue.

And learning to use your brain in such a way wasn’t a Skill so much as developing a knack. As things became more complicated it put more stress on the individual, but that stress could be managed with Randidly’s Intelligence of 621.

He just had to see the engraving, and then wrap it around the whole of the armor. And for the past two weeks, Randidly had been smashing his head against just that issue.

So Randidly spent about an hour meditating, slowly picturing each individual piece of the arm he intended to create and then imagined how it would fit into the broader arm in terms of use and Engraving.

Although he didn’t classify the issues as such originally, Randidly quickly realized that there were two criteria of which he needed to be aware: shape and image. Each individual hoop would need its own set of Engravings, although most of them would be blessedly simple. But those images couldn’t cross each other, and their purpose couldn’t directly conflict.

In addition, Randidly had to consider that this was ultimately just an equipment. The Engravings that he had originally learned would be useful here; he had the option to add more Engravings to boost the arms power. Yet as soon as Randidly began planning to add a bunch of additional statistics to the arm the calculations swiftly became untenable.

Randidly pressed his eyes closed. In this case, simplicity was best. Although the material cost for this arm was significant, it was not something that would trouble him if he had a long time to prepare. In addition, his next iteration in the future could contain additional Engravings after he experimented and found patterns that allowed them to work well together. This wasn’t the final version of this arm.

This would just be the first.

No, for now, it was best to focus on two things: freedom of movement and the potency of the Skill Engraving.

Some part of Randidly wondered whether putting a Skill on the arm was actually worth it. It did, as did the stats Engravings, complicate the design he was making immensely. Both in terms of image and in terms of shape.

Plus the Skill had to go across every individual hoop, to work the Skill into every fiber of the arm. That was where the power of the Skill would originate from. Even if his Skill Engraving was low, part of its power would stem from the utilization of the complete whole of the Skill.

But flowing through every hoop meant that every engraving needed to be shifted to accommodate it. Because Randidly was struggling to picture the hoops, design the Skill Engraving, and adjust the control Engravings all it once, it was an almost overwhelming endeavor.

The sheer amount of calculations and adjustments involved…

Even Randidly, tasting at the energy flowing up through his bare feet to sustain him, was swiftly developing a headache.

With a shake of the head, Randidly dropped the imaging and walked outside of his hut. In the distance, he sensed some awestruck watchers who gathered in the surrounding area of his hill, but he did his best to ignore them. For all that most people were fascinated with him, they maintained their distance. For that respect, Randidly wouldn’t drive them away.

So… why make a Skill Engraving then…?

Randidly asked the nighttime air. The low hoot of an owl in the dark brought the answer.

To make the arm about a specific image. To give it a specific role in my arsenal.

In terms of utility, Randidly had no equals. And his spearmanship combined with a very deep Mana pool made him able to respond to threats from any sort of attack with a variety of Skills. But if there was one flaw in his makeup…