[Crafting, Solo, Research] Creating the Mana Liner Shield

[Tessia]

Having returned too the market after the generous pay from the NPC that lost her rabbit, Tessia had immediately rushed to buy as many Magitech items as she could find.  Spending most of the day wandering the stalls, buying up all the Old Diode, Old Filaments, and Old Lamps that caught her eye.  The object she had mind in creating was something she had seen before coming too this game.  It was from one of the toughest games she had ever played, and at least survived in, Dark Souls.  As well as taking from another game series she adored for the technique she would be attempting, the Atelier series and it's mana lining that she had been fascinated with.

Admittedly she didn't think this was going too work.  As her skill level was very low at the moment, she hoped that with repeated exposure she could get a grasp on the armor she wanted too see made, mainly by leveling as she failed in it's creation.  So, here she sat on the bed in her rented room, staring at the Diodes and Filaments that lie there with her.  This was going to be exhaustive work, but at least she had rented out the room for awhile and had ensured she wouldn't be disturbed.  Picking up two of the filaments and a Diode, Tessia's marks on her body already began to react too the latent mana surging through the object.  

Just like before she could feel that light pull at her mana reserve, just waiting to be shaped and combined like she did with her Crescent.  Getting up, Tessia began to remove her Leather Armor top and flattened it out on the bed, scooting a few extra filaments and Diodes closer too it.  She then began to draw her focus inward, pulling on all she had learned about the creation of her Crescent, and how the Soil Golems body shape would most likely affect the outcome.  At the end of all this she would most likely lose all of her material, as well as her armor, but nothing ventured nothing gained.  Her tattoos began to glow with that soft silver light, she was ready.

[Tessia]

Initially, her first creation was a simple harness, four wire filaments attached to two of the diodes and wrapped around a old lamp.  This proved useful at first as she slipped the devices onto her bare skin and looked up at her mana bar.  Like always, a small portion of her mana had depleted to power the closed circuit device.  It was not unlike a simple batter with taped wire powering a light bulb.  The plates on her chest remained inactive however as she fiddles with the wires here and there attempting to get them to respond.

After awhile, Tessia began stripping the wire as too increase the amount of available mana, as well as expose the diodes to even more of it.  Success!  And a really hot one at that.  It wasn't even a few moments of having the wires touch her skin that they began to heat up and then, like a few of her other tries, the filaments fizzled and refused to conduct.  Sighing, she removed the harness and replaced them for the third time, being sure to expose the old wires just enough as too touch her skin.  Slipping it back on and holding the sides a little, she st still and focused this time, willing her mana to her command.

This time, she could feel her energy as it began its flow through the filaments.  Direct exposure worked, but it required one to MAKE it work, which was a problem in combat.  Feeling/thinking along the flow of her own energy as the device hummed, she reached up and gripped at the connections that held them against the Diodes.  Breathing now slowly as she did to allow only a small amount of mana out, she felt her hands grow hot up against the plates of the Diodes, she was fusing the wires with the metal plates!

Her HP bar shook as she took a bit of damage from hanging onto them, but soon she had fused the wires directly too the Diodes on her chest, as well as fixing them in place so they wouldn't slide about.  Opening her eyes and looking at her mana, she only had about half left to attempt the other part of her experiment.  Calming her mind again, she reaches out along the flow of her mana along the filaments feeling for how tight they were.  The problem was that before the filaments were loose and allowed the mana to surge about inside the contraption.  This time she would force the wires too contract and lessen the flow as too only take a limited amount.

Sensing along the paths leading up around her shoulders and under her ribs, she focuses on the filaments coiling and making them tighten.  Calling upon her skill Spark Shot, Tessia holds her hands up to conduct the energy from her tattoos into her palms.  Her focus shook but she stubbornly refused to let go, as she sent surge after surge of electric and mana energy through the lamp in the center.  The overall reason she gathered that filaments burned out, is when they receive so much energy that they burned up.  Her point of the electric energy was to keep the lamp lit so that her focus could twist and twine the filaments mentally without having too keep the whole thing powered by focusing on her mana flow.  And maintain a certian amount of mana surging through the device again without having for her too think about it, since skill were automatic.

Unfortunately, she had spent too much mana and by the time her focus waned and she opened her eyes, the harness she had created smoked and fizzled but lost all it's power.  Sighing and slipping it off of her, she could only flop over in her bed at the Inn and begin too sleep.  One day down, six more too go before she would come up with something worthwhile.  She should really buy some mana recharging potions, at least then she wouldn't have too wait.

[Tessia]

Tessia rushed back towards her inn room, confident that now she had the answer to how to make this device work.  It took a bit of a sidetrack with Hirosame and Caerbannog for her to realize that she did not posses the spell ability that was needed.  After being hit with Caer's barrier move, Tessia had been struck with a inspiration on how to get her armor to project a similar effect.  It had cost her quite a few parts, and the prototype she had already made, but she was confident that the next one would function properly.

Finally making it too her room, and scaring quite a few groups as she zoomed by them on the way there, she shut her door and began rummaging about for more parts.  Picking up at least eight Old Filaments, she also withdrew a throwing knife from her belt pouch and sat atop her bed.  Scraping off the Filaments coverings was simple as she sliced here and there and stripped them each.  Taking two in hand, she began to twist and twine them together.  Making at least four separate strands now twice the size thanks to the Filaments being combined.  

Slipping on some gloves, Tessia reached into her pouch and produced 4 contained Mana Fragments and placed them on the bed too.  Next came more of the Old Diodes.  She had made a error last time and had used only two.  This time she was going to use four.  The mana drain on the individual would be astronomical but she had to finish it.  Punching holes in the Diodes as she did before, she then wired the Filaments as straps for the shoulders, using the lower ones as a stabilizing tie off for around the lower body.  After slipping off her armor once again and this time ensuring she was alone, Tessia removed her simple top as well and sat bare staring at the device.  

 She was sure that even with a Mages mana reservoir that she would have a hard time combating the mana drain from such a object.    It had to be controllable but able to reproduce the same results that she had achieved before, a concise constant reaction is what she needed.  And if she had to be the first to bridge the gap between the Magitech and Armor, she would gladly use as much of her mana as she had to do it.  Taking a deep breath and exhaling, she reaches down and picks up the device.  Already she can feel the hum emitting from it's surface, the pale glow of her crescent moon marks climb off her skin enough to light the walls slightly.  This was going to suck.

[Tessia]

Slipping it over her bare chest, Tessia sighed in anticipation as she kept the wire harness from touching her skin just yet.  Scooting a tad closer to those four Mana Fragments she nodded in thought.  The problem was twice-fold, one she didn't have any sort of barrier spell or protection she could copy.  But thanks to Caerbannog, she remembered how to manipulate the barrier effect and translate it to raw mana.  Two, she simply need a lot more power to keep the device running.  A lot more.  Just like the Soil GOlems Core, one had to infuse the machine with more than enough raw mana to keep it going.

She had to accelerate the flow of mana and use the Fragments nearby to help ease the drain on her own pool, so as she didn't blank out from the massive drain.  It was risky.  It was crazy.  But it could work, and she would not rest until it did.  Calming her thoughts as her fingers scooted the device a bit lower, Tessia reached out for that feeling of that barrier, the thought of how the mana melded too the skin and protected it from harm.  With one final breath of determination she let go of the device so it would sit easily on her shoulders. 

And all hell broke loose.  At once her mana bar plummeted all the way down to 20%, and at the same time the whole device began rumbling terribly and shaking atop her form.  Her head spun but she refused to let this go.  Snapping up the container, Tessia smashed it against the Diodes plating front, the blue glow emanating from the device devouring the Fragments slowly but surely.  Gasping at the intense headache that was five times worse than after using Fatal Ambush, Tessia forced her mind to focus on Caerbannong's spell, how it felt, snapping out her hands around the glowing mass of mana floating in front of her. 

Forcing the remaining mana she had into this, she began to exert her will over the objects as the harness rattled uncontrollably with supersaturated mana force.  Placing her palms on each Diode in turn, Tessia pushed flat all of the glowing blue energy and forced it to solidify.  Tracing her hands over the surface of the harness she realized that the area she had just flattened into a form had popped back.  She was running out of energy, already most of the Mana Fragments floating there in front of her were gone.  Hit Points rapidly plummeted as the Filaments surged with the heat of the reaction, but they held this time thanks to being braided together.

Activating Accel Dance, Tessia began to palm strike the mana flowing out from the Diodes.  Going faster and faster after each strike she managed to finally force all the mana flat against the surface.  Panting in from exhaustion and mana loss, she collided the remaining 5% mana she had left with the very center of the contraption.  Just like before, the very essence of the mana reaction was stripped off the surface of the device as Tessia held onto the swirling shape of the raw mana.  Forcing it into her armor, she nodded as her eyes began to close, seeing the familiar wards of protection surge on it's surface.  Then she saw no more for some time, as she passed out on the bed with little less then 10% HP remaining and no mana left.

[Tessia]

Awaking a good half a day after her experiment, Tessia sat up in her bed and stretched.  Looking down at her chest, she noted the burnt wires and now spent Diodes still loosely hanging there, and the room hazy with smoke from the burn out.  Taking up her nearby throwing knife, she sliced the useless wires and slid off the spent contraption.  Tossing the pieces aside, she then scooted up towards were her armor laid on the bed.  Retrieving her cloth top at least and slipping it on for modesty, Tessia picked up her leather armor top and looked it over.  Burned into the very leather were the same marks that she had seen before when her armor had reacted the first time.

Only now, it wasn't traces of mana sigils left over, but almost etched burned ones that sat on the armor.  Curious, she produced another mana fragment and tapped one of the marks.  Immediately the whole thing left off a soft glow as the sigils blinked into a soft blue color, fluxing gently as just atop the armor surface she could feel the almost glass like barrier.  She had done it.  Tapping her knife at the barrier it seemed solid enough, though she would have to field test it too be sure.  If this worked like she had hoped, it would give many of the players namely mages, a decent armor bonus and at least be a source of protection for them.  The glow of the shileds only seemed to appear if something was touching the armors surface. 

Heavier armored people could use it too, as long as you fed it your own mana or a mana fragment, the marks recharged and caused the translucent barrier to form.  Just like in her Atelier games, the barrier was only as strong as the armor but off by about 60%.  It was more of a damage shaver than anything really, requiring a recharge after it took its initial damage threshold.  And heavier armor meant more mana but a stronger lasting shield.  She donned the armor and stood, flexing a bit to test the weight.  It felt the same, as though there was no shield there to weigh her down while moving.  Gathering up the rest of the parts she hadn't needed, Tessia was sure to clean u this room she had been occupying for awhile, and throwing away the junk parts she had burnt out. 

Leaving quietly in the morning, she was glad that her top didn't show any obvious sings of the barrier being active.  Though like before, surrounding her HP bar was a thin blue strip of light.  She hoped dearly that this time she had made something work.  That maybe this time she could give something back to everyone that had helped her thus far.  She would leave the Inn and head towards the nearest Alchemic research building, intent on submitting her findings and producing the armor for all too use.