...
Lan Qingyou never expected that after handing the design over to Chariot, he would come up with so many bells and whistles.
Still, a cavalry charge—that was actually a pretty good synergy.
Chariot: “There’s more. That Lance isn't just for charging. Try pressing the counterweight ball at the very bottom of the shaft.”
Lan Qingyou immediately gave it a try.
Clack!
Instantly, diagonal grooves recessed in a spiral along the Lance, and then the entire weapon began to spin, letting out a whirring sound as it cut through the air.
The Tower: “This is...”
Chariot: “Pretty good, right? Compared to a simple thrust, a drill packs way more power. I even specifically designed blood grooves into it. Guaranteed to leave a gaping hole with every strike.”
...
The Tower: “Right, it’s definitely impressive.”
Lan Qingyou watched the still-spinning Lance, then looked at Chariot’s smug attitude on the card, and could only reply helplessly.
She had originally just wanted some basic armor and weapons.
Yet Chariot’s flamboyant additions left her speechless.
If you want to pull off something like this, I guess you really do need a passion for it.
High Priestess: “You designed this?”
While Lan Qingyou and Olf were in the middle of their heated discussion, the High Priestess suddenly chimed in.
Chariot: “Of course. This is the image of the perfect Power Armor in my heart.”
High Priestess: “Are you sure?”
Chariot: “Absolutely.”
Chariot continued to hold his ground.
High Priestess: “Then why does it look a bit like Iron-pattern Power Armor? Especially the purple one—the color scheme feels very similar to the Emperor's Children legion.”
High Priestess: “And that thing that looks like a knightly order's helmet... is it a Loyalist style?”
The Star: “And the owl with spreading wings on the pink breastplate—are you imitating the Raven Guard? Owl Guard? Why didn't you put a Roman crest on the helmet to make it a Centurion? That would look so much better.”
High Priestess: “Yes, yes, yes! Add a black and gold color scheme and it would be perfect.”
Chariot: “Uh... this... inspiration. It’s completely ‘taking inspiration.’ I’ll say those two words to anyone who asks.”
Chariot was backed into a corner by the tag-team roast from the High Priestess and The Star.
Finally, in a fit of desperation, he resorted to the phrase “taking inspiration.”
It was quite a struggle for him.
The Star: “Whatever. Power Armor mostly looks like that anyway, but I feel like something is missing.”
Seeing this, both Lan Qingyou and Olf sent question marks at almost the exact same time.
The Star: “Cloaks. Neither the cavalry nor the infantry have cloaks. It doesn't look right; the coolness factor is cut in half.”
The Tower: “I suppose that’s true.”
Chariot: “...”
Lan Qingyou understood. After all, aesthetics were everything.
Olf, however, didn't seem to think so.
Chariot: “Cloaks are completely unnecessary, aren't they? What use are they besides looking good?”
This immediately set Ruan Qingyi off.
The Star: “What do you mean useless! What do you mean useless!”
The Star: “You enchant the cloaks! Defense Enchantment or whatever. The defensive power will skyrocket.”
The Star: “And that Lance—with such a high rotation speed, shouldn't you add a Constant Temperature Enchantment?”
That actually made a lot of sense!
Now, not only Lan Qingyou, but even Olf was left speechless.
The Star: “@The Tower, wait a bit. I’m going to make twenty-one cloaks for you. @Chariot, give me the data for the Power Armor.”
The Tower: “Ah, this... that probably isn't necessary.”
The Star: “It is necessary! Extremely necessary!”
With that, The Star went off to ‘prepare the materials’ for Lan Qingyou’s golems. Lan Qingyou could only stare at the card in her hand, looking as bewildered as the ‘old man on the subway’ meme.
After a good while, Lan Qingyou finally reached up to scratch her head.
She had originally thought she’d just grab the gear and head out for a scouting run.
But Ruan Qingyi’s sudden move made her feel a bit bad about leaving, yet staying felt like a waste of time.
Now she was feeling restless, unable to sit or stand still.
Forget it. While making cloaks seemed simple, it would still take some time.
In that case, she might as well find something else to do.
It wasn't like she had nothing to work on.
With that thought, Lan Qingyou took out the golems one by one to gear them up, even mounting the six purple humanoid golems onto the Horned Lions.
However...
Although Chariot said the cavalry Power Armor and the Horned Lions were linked.
In reality, it just meant they could sit on them smoothly, and the buckles on the back of the armor and the Horned Lions would prevent them from falling off.
To actually make them charge like knights, she still needed to add some instructions.
Both the humanoid golems and the beast-type golems needed additions.
Fortunately, there were only six pairs, so it wasn't a difficult task.
Thus, while waiting for Ruan Qingyi’s cloaks, Lan Qingyou simply modified the golems pair by pair.
As she worked, she also studied the notes she had recorded previously.
Slowly, as Lan Qingyou was writing for the third pair, she suddenly had a new and bold idea.
Since these instructions could be written in Kalim script, why couldn't they be written in the Federation common script of the Dragon Country?
After all, it took up less space, and every character had its own meaning. Sometimes, a single character could represent an entire instruction.
Being a woman of action, Lan Qingyou didn't let the idea go to her head immediately.
She didn't rush to experiment with the purple knights and the Horned Lions; instead, she brought over a Copper-hammer.
Although she had fewer Copper-hammers than Horned Lions, she could afford to lose one of these golems since their primary role was protection.
Compared to the crooked Kalim script she had been writing before, writing the Federation common script was much more natural.
Lan Qingyou experimented one by one, mapping the Kalim instructions to Dragon Country terms.
Then, like writing in regular script, she wrote every character with precise, upright strokes.
Only when connecting to the patterns and circuits would she slightly elongate the final stroke to make the connection.
Then she activated it, and it actually worked!
Lan Qingyou was stunned on the spot.
Success was certainly something to be happy about, but the implications behind it made her frown.
Success on the first try?
That shouldn't be possible.
According to Lan Qingyou’s calculations, an ‘innovation’ like this should have taken at least seven or eight failures to identify the problems and eliminate them one by one.
After all, she was someone who enjoyed innovating, and her previous attempts had never been successful on the first try.
Most of them required repeated experimentation and verification; she was quite experienced in that regard.
Yet this worked just like that?
Lan Qingyou began to ponder. Why did it succeed on the first try this time?
The talent ascension potion had succeeded the first time because of her meticulous calculations, combined with a bit of trial and error and a massive stroke of luck.
She wouldn't say she had every buff active, but she definitely had some advantages.
But why did this happen this time?
Rate on N.U.
