More Viable Armor [CFT/RSH]

[Saber]

Do you believe in ghosts?

“THAT’S IT!” The shout echoed through the book-filled halls of the underground library, awakening any and every wandering soul within its cradle. In the center of the massive room, a shadowy figure stood with his hands planted firmly on the stone table beside a book, who’s pages were yellow and dusty with age. On its pages was a set of instructions, images, glyphs, and a long mathematical formula which very few beings could actually understand. Now, that was only saying that they had not read the rest of the book; as all of the variables were supplied by the author of the bindings. The man who loomed over the book had taken all of that knowledge and formed a solution in his mind.

The question was simple, how could one create a metallic piece of armor or weapon which could flex and endure a strong enough twisting force to keep it from shattering to pieces? The armor would be one which could be worn on any part of the body, bend, twist, and stretch with the user’s movement but also be strong enough to withstand the force of an offensive strike. To put it simply; armor which could bend with one’s joints and still deflect an arrow or sword. The current known armor was stiff, unmalleable, and weak if bent or twisted. In order to make it strong, said armor would have to be reinforced or layered to increase its density. However, the solution was right in front of the Scholar; smaller, tiner pieces linked or molded together to create a much larger piece. It was an easy thing to come up with, but that was where the formula came in.

How small was too small? How large was too large? Was there a specific shape the pieces had to make? How would the effectiveness of the armor differ from chainmail, which used the same concept? The answers were all within that mathematical equation… The size of the pieces would have to be in proportion to the user, as every person’s limb length was different. Each piece would have to vary in weight in order to match the user’s strength, combat ability, and their limb length once again as to keep strain to a minimum. Flexibility of the armor would be based on the number of pieces, and that would have to be connected to the size of each piece; the larger the piece, the lower the flexibility. Or, decrease the size of the pieces and increase their number, but that could lower the strength. Larger pieces would be able to take a larger impact, but the displacement of the force would be lower across multiple pieces. Smaller pieces would be weaker, but the spread of the impact force would be greater. It was just like chainmail, to put it into a more modern perspective. But there was one difference.

Rather than using hundreds of tiny chain links and connecting them all, there would be hundreds of tiny “scales”. It reminded the Scholar of dragon scales, or just reptile skin in general. It would be tough, flexible, and light. If he was smart about it, he could also modulate it. Modulating the pieces would allow for hot-swapping lighter pieces for heavier pieces. So if someone wanted heavier shoulder guards, they could detach the upper arm from its section and connect in the new piece. That would be more difficult, however, so Saber would have to wait on that. For now, he would focus on the task at hand.

: Word Count :
588

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Saber]

Do you believe in ghosts?

Still, Saber had a plan. At first he would need to create the army of tiny pieces and would have to create a way to link them all together. There was no way he could possible turn one piece of iron into a singular piece of a hundred “scales”. Said scales would have to be individual and then most likely melted together or superheated and placed on top of one another. However, doing so could create and uneven surface. He needed singularity; one piece, one layer. Anything else could create a weakness in the armor and put the user at risk, doing that would put his craft at risk. So he would need a method to fix that. The author of the book whom had speculated the “Reptile Skin Armor” suggested putting the scales directly next to one another and then applying heat on their edges to melt them together. Doing that would simply make each plate an individual piece, allowing a well-focused strike to break through the hard metal. Saber couldn’t risk that. Instead, he had another option.

Just like he had initially planned, he could use a staggered form of creating the armor. Yet, then he could compress it all slightly. Under pressure, the pieces would smoothen out slightly and make a less rigid face. Then, he would simply attach some kind of barrier on the inside to protect the user from the potentially sharp pieces, leaving only the outside on its own. If he wanted to go further, he could completely enclose the armor with some sort of hard leather, but that would decrease its flexibility. Light cloths would probably be the best way to go, but then again, he could leave it up to the buyer to determine how they wanted the armor protected, if they wanted it guarded at all. Saber personally thought it would be uncomfortable to the skin to feel the armor, so he would probably keep a shirt on.

“Well, I guess it’ll work.” The man stood up and scratched the back of his head, questioning himself as he stared at the text before him. If the creation worked, the armor would be much better than the crap he currently wore, and it would probably help a lot of other people if he shared his findings. He would have to do so carefully, however. Unlike his other crafts; Saber would test this one personally.

“It better work…” A heavy sigh escaped his lips at the thought of him failing this and potentially being stabbed, but he had no choice; his armor sucked at the moment and he needed something better. In order to do so, he had to put his life on the line, literally. Though, it was better late than never. It was good that his gear lasted this long. It had saved him a lot of money.

The lifespan of his current armor was about to come to an end however, and so he deposited all of it into his inventory so he could move about the library easier. Yet, he didn’t go to bookcases; he went straight to the forge. There, he pulled out seven iron bars that he had created out of the ores he had mined; two bars for the chest piece, one for each arm, one for each leg, and one for his pelvis. His pelvis would probably need extra protection, so he would definitely focus on that being perfect. But that was beside the point.

: Word Count :
580

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Saber]

Do you believe in ghosts?

After he had each bar, Saber returned to his table and grabbed a sheet of paper as well as his quill and ink. With that, he began to draw a very simply form of a scale. It was terrible at first, as he couldn’t draw too well with ink, but after a few strokes he began to get the hang of it. Then, he finally had the design he wanted; it looked sort of like a guitar pick, but the bottom wasn’t pointing. Instead it curved just like the top two corners, creating a triad. That design would work better than any others Saber could think of, as there were three connection points and a flat enough surface to absorb an impact. There were also no sharp corners so the impact force would flow off into other pieces a lot more steadily. Though, the sides would be the most annoying thing to worry about. Yet, that would be where the other corners of the other pieces would rest; this would create an almost seamless fade.

With his design drawn out and his mind confident, Saber returned to his forge and grabbed a hold of one of his white marble blocks which he used as molds. Using his hammer and a chisel, he broke the mold into three pieces and then sanded them so their surfaces were smooth. Next, Saber took his chisel and very, very carefully etched the design of his “scale” into the molds. Yet, he didn’t just etch one in… he etched twenty five of the scale templates into each mold. After about an hour of doing those seventy-five, Saber grabbed another marble mold, broke it apart, and then created another seventy-five. This time, it took him forty five minutes. He did this two more times until he eventually had three-hundred templates for the scales. At that point, the blacksmith took a break. A long one… So long that he ended up leaving for a day because of how damn tedious it was.

Once he finally returned and didn’t decide to turn and walk back out the door, Saber returned to his workspace and heated up his forge. When it was ready, he placed an iron bar into a reinforced bucket and placed that bucket into the heated hell fires. As the iron bar heated, Saber stared at the handful of molds that sat on his workbench; his arms became a little tired just thinking about what he had done, but that was the last time he ever would. Due to creating them all so many time, his interface allowed him to simply insert the required ingredients and summon the finished product. This asset was probably the only thing that allowed Saber to deal with being a blacksmith, but then there was a thing this game had that the world didn’t have. After each use, or a certain amount of uses, the game essentially ate the molds Saber created. In reality, that would never happen. So having the interface option was probably a good balance to the game’s theft of his work materials.

Looking back towards the ore, Saber cursed a little as he saw that it was already a burning hot liquid and was actually bubbling. In haste, Saber put on his blacksmith gloves and retrieved the smelted ore from the inferno. He placed the bucket onto his anvil and then placed the molds carefully around it. Then, he very slowly poured the melted ore into each mold. The design of the mold allowed him to pour the ore into a fraction of the actual scale-holes, as he had connected them all together with very thin flow lines. These flow lines allowed the liquid metal to expand from the little holes and spill over into the ones surrounding it. This saved time, and saved any wasted ore as Saber could retrieve the flow-line bits when they cooled.

In less than five minutes, Saber had filled each mold and still had a lot of ore left. So, he set the bucket near the entrance of the forge to keep it hot, but not too hot. He wanted the ore to be melted, not scorched. Plus, it would cool faster if it wasn’t extremely hot, but that was just for Saber’s benefit. His first batch on the other hand was scorching, and so he was forced to wait much longer for it to finally cool off enough to be worked with. Unlike his weapons and the other pieces of armor Saber had made, there was no hammer required to work on the scales once he took them out of the molds, but he did need his chisel.

: Word Count :
778

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Saber]

Do you believe in ghosts?

With the chisel rested on the anvil, the blacksmith carefully flipped each marble mold over and tapped them gently with a small mallet, causing the arrays of scales to drop out of their little homes. As each plate of scales dropped out, Saber stacked them on top of his work desk. Yet, before he started popping each scale out, Saber retrieved the bucket from the flames and refilled the molds, starting the process of another batch. As the new set of three-hundred began to set in, form, and cool, Saber returned the bucket to the forge and then headed back to his work table. With his chisel in one hand and a mallet in the other, Saber very carefully began to separate the scales from each other. Each tap was light, gentle, and very carefully placed as to not damage the tiny pieces. However, as Saber got to tapping, he learned just how tedious even this was. Dear god this armor was going to take forever…

BUT. SIX HOURS LATER… Saber had actually got a rhythm down. Using a “popping” method rather than his chisel, Saber was able to removed the scales much faster. In addition to that, he had almost three thousand of the scales. He had melted all of the ores, molded all of them, and not he just had to put it all together. That would take even more time, but he was okay with that. Why? Because he dropped everything, go up, and left. Another day, he would come back…

That day wasn’t for another three, when Saber actually remembered that he had the smithing to finish. It had slipped his mind entirely, but that was a good thing. As he returned to the table, he had a bit more tolerance for the tiring duty ahead of him, and he was determined to finish it now rather than waste more time and run off again. He had some warm breakfast with him as well, which was actually quite rare for him. That same morning, he had gone to his favorite little coffee shop and asked the lovely owner if she would be willing to cater to his foolish request for bacon, eggs, and toast; she complied at the expense of a fairytale book he had on him, but only for a week. Buuuut that was for another time… Back to the boring topic.

: Word Count :
397

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Saber]

Do you believe in ghosts?

With the huge pile of scales at his side, Saber summoned one of the few actual good shirts he had and placed it on the table. Immediately, the white shirt was stained with black soot and dust, but Saber didn’t care. He wasn’t going to ever wear the thing again anyways. With his template ready, Saber began arranging the scales across the front of it very carefully. He made the array of them so each piece touched a total of six others; three with its corners, three with its edges. He also made the array so every other scale was the bottom layer, and the ones around it were the top layers. This made a sort of “rolling-hill” feel to the scales, as one scale was up, one was down, and then the next was up. It was better than having them stack on top of each other, and it was also much smoother to the touch.

When the black sheet was finally formed in front of him, Saber returned to his forge and placed the sharp end of his poking-rod into it. He dipped the end into the depths of the inferno and held onto the other end with a small glove to protect his hand from the heat distribution that would occur. Once it was hot enough, Saber carried the rod over to his table and began the welding process. However, this process was much different than simply connecting the corners of each scale. Instead, the Blacksmith very carefully touched the centers of the scales and slid the super-heated end of the hot rod around it, quickly raising the temperature of the entire scale. Then, as one scale heated, so did the others it touched. It took a long time for everything to come together, and it wasn’t exactly working. The scales were heating, but they weren’t connecting; the rod had too small of a surface area.

“I can play hard ball, too.” The annoyed Assassin stated before dropping the rod onto the floor angrily. Instead of the rod, the man grabbed another iron bar and began to heat it. Once it was up to temperature, he pulled it free from the flames, placed it on his anvil, and began to flatten it with heavy strikes from his hammer. There was no intent to form a weapon or armor, but to completely flatten it into a sheet. Using the anvil itself as a template, he created a two-inch thick flat piece of solid iron. In order to ensure it was flat, Saber used his own hand and then tapped out any ripples or curves. When it was ready, he put the entire thing into the furnace.

: Word Count :
448

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Saber]

Do you believe in ghosts?

The sheet didn’t take long to ignite into an orange glow, and immediately when it did, Saber pulled it free and then placed it smack dab on top of the scales. He stared at it for a moment, eyeing the edges of the plate as to not burn down his table, but only worried about it for a minute. After that minute, he lifted the plate and looked down to see that the scales had been heated themselves and were actually starting to melt into one another, somewhat. They were sticking, and that was what Saber wanted. He placed the iron plate down to the side and gave the scales a few minutes to cool. Once they had, he lifted the little plate up before him and narrowed his eyes on them. Nothing fell off, but they also didn’t curve or bend right away. That bothered Saber a little, but it was okay. The scales had to be rigid in some sense. Yet holding it up wasn’t the test. With both hands, Saber grabbed both ends of the small square of scaled armor and squeezed his grip so it was firm. Then, very gently, he began to bend. It was tough at first as he barely used any strength, but as he increased the pressure the metal started to give. The blacksmith eyed the small sheet warily, watching as the scales flexed and curved. However, they did not break, and they did not part from one another. It wasn’t until Saber’s hands almost touched that there was finally a cracking noise, and the cracking was from his own bones because of how awkward it was.

Slowly, he returned the metal to its original position and then let go; the scales were bent in a few places and did not return entirely to their original position, but replacing the individual scales would be easier than replacing an entire plate of armor. In addition to that, no group of scales would need to be bent that much. If there was a need for such a curve, Saber would simply add more of the pieces to smoothen out the angle and make it less stressful on each individual piece. Putting that aside, he was mostly successful. Now, he simply needed to create a full set… and that would take a while.

: Word Count :
388

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Saber]

Do you believe in ghosts?

And by the Gods it did…

Three days later after strenuous work of constantly refilling molds, remaking said molds once the game decided to eat them, tediously welding the scales together, waiting for the ores to melt, and burning failed armors in his furnace just so he could try again, Saber finally had his chest piece. Yes, the chest piece. Not the arms or legs; just the torso. The freaking torso. It was composed of almost two thousand scales and was actually fairly light, but it looked pitiful because of its color, so Saber was in the process of polishing it when he realized that he was hungry. Dropping everything, the Assassin abandoned his post and fled to get food. He was back in a few hours however, and saw something amazing…

Due to him leaving the armor very close to the furnace, the steady amount of heat had made the scales a little more malleable, and the armor had actually begun to curve on its own. When he picked the thing up off the table, it wiggled in his hands and seemed less stiff. That was when he realized what had happened; the steady stream of heat and gentle pull from gravity had loosened up the stiffness of the scales. That made Saber grin. Without worrying about finishing his shabby-polishing job, the man slid the armor over his head and onto his body. It was a little sharp around where his arms poked through and it was a little loose, but it fit. As he twisted around, leaned forward and leaned backwards, the armor curved to him. It wasn’t perfect and it was still a little restricting, but the option for this armor being worn was much more viable than plate armor. It wasn’t sucking the life out of him, didn’t suffocate his lungs, and he still had almost all of his freedom of movement. It wasn’t extremely light like cloth, but the increased protection made Saber a little more comfortable with the thought of being stabbed at. At least now he could have something cover his body.

With that in mind, Saber removed the piece of armor and placed it on his table. Very carefully, he added to the armor and connected a pair of scaled-cylinders to the shoulders; adding protection to his upper arms. For now, that would do him enough good. His legs hardly ever were targeted and he was moving them too much for them to ever be struck. The main target for both people and monsters was the torso, as the most damage could be done there. And so, Saber tossed the armor back into his blazing furnace and watched it melt down. Once it did, he repeated the entire process all over again from the beginning. This time, he did it both to increase his efficiency, and to get a reforge effect.

Thankfully, it only took him a day. Not all at once, as the Assassin bailed twice in order to get food and kill a few things to balance out his life, but in total. And after that day, the Blacksmith had a finely polished, silver piece of Scaled Armor to wear.

: Word Count :
530

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

Recipe: Scaled Armor
Creator/Researcher: Saber / Funeral Parlor

Armor which has been forged after tireless days of hard work and research. Scaled armor is formed out of an array of tiny pieces, or scales (and that is where the name derives from). The pieces, or scales, are formed and welded together in such a way which increases flexibility for the user while keeping the same level of protection and weight as an equivalent piece of Light Armor does. The armor is much easier to maintain than plated or leathered armor, as the damaged pieces can be removed and replaced by a skilled blacksmith. In addition to that, the armor is slightly modular, allowing the user to "personalize" the armor by increasing or decreasing the amount of surface area they wish the armor to have (Ex. A full sleeve of scaled armor, or just half-of a sleeve). Anyone intending to craft this armor, however, must know the dimensions of the person they are crafting for, as the number of scales required in the armor will be proportional to those dimensions.