The Lone Wanderer

“Wow, that looks like quite the spell.” Nesha pitched in.

“You haven’t seen anything yet.” Percy grinned.

Reaching into the mana around his arm, he willed one of its properties to shift. Without warning, the entire gauntlet vanished into thin air, causing Nesha’s eyes to widen. She opened her mouth, seemingly about to ask, though she held herself back. She knew enough about Percy’s magic by now to figure out what he’d done.

“It’s still visible through Mana Sense.” she noted after a second.

“Of course. Though I’ve thought of a way around that. I’ll work on it later.”

Nesha nodded, but she didn’t say anything.

Next, Percy tried to make the Gauntlet incorporeal, though that didn’t go nearly as nicely as he had expected. Having failed to time all 18 or so transitions properly, he watched the pieces of the gauntlet fall apart as they lost contact with one another in several spots.

Hearing Nesha chuckle, he rolled his eyes.

“This last bit might require some more practice…”

“Percy… I don’t want to rain on your parade right after you upgraded a spell, but I don’t think this is enough for you to survive against a Green by yourself. We don’t even know how many they’ll send this time.”

“Why not? I can just point my hand at their spells and block them with my amazing gauntlet!”

“Come on. Be serious. What’s the plan here?” Nesha asked, not buying his bullshit.

“Alright. Just lighten up a little.” he shrugged. “Who said this is all I’ve got? Nesha, the Vault of Magic is a treasure trove of runes.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, I’m just getting started.”

***

Percy stared at his Gauntlet’s pieces in its deconstructed form. Technically, it was already useable like this, but he had much greater plans for the spell.

Like he’d told Nesha, he’d worked hard to master several runes from the Vault, and it would be a waste if he only used the preservation and hardness runes on it. Of course, Percy had yet to delve into magiscript proper, so he wasn’t able to merge multiple runes into the same enchantment. The solution had been to engrave the two runes on different sides of the object, applying one to the interior, while leaving the other for the exterior. Sadly, his Gauntlet had already run out of surfaces for him to draw on…

‘For now.’

Pinching some teal powder from his trusty jar, he mixed some soft mana with it as he used Reinforcement once more, shaping it into a new piece. It took him several minutes until he was satisfied, but he eventually moved it close to his eyes, a grin tugging at his lips.

It was a circular band similar to the pieces that went around his fingers’ segments, yet this one was a little wider, as if it was meant to loop around them. Picking one of the previous components from the table, he pushed it inside the new one, rotating it at the same time. A few teeth in the interior of the wider band slid right through the nooks Percy had carved in the other one, as the two objects joined together with a satisfying click.

It fit perfectly!

Even the two sets of holes on the pieces aligned nicely – those were there for the teal strings to pass through, fastening the bands to the rest of the Gauntlet.

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Nodding in satisfaction, Percy examined the structure once more, verifying there was nothing out of place. The two bands didn’t have exactly the same shape, the second one extending a little further back – resembling a spiky scale. That way, it would even cover the joints somewhat, protecting them without inhibiting them much.

‘And now I can add more runes on it!’

By adding a second layer to the band, Percy had just created two new sides waiting to be engraved! Naturally, one of them would have to be adorned with the preservation rune again – it had to be present on every single piece to ensure their longevity – but that still left him one free slot.

Of course, he didn’t bother drawing the runes right now. He still had plenty more pieces to perfect. Besides, his armour would probably end up replaced a dozen times over before he needed it.

His eyes shifted to the next piece, as he picked up another handful of powder from the jar, resuming his work.

‘I wish it wasn’t such a tedious process though.’ he sighed.

***

Besides the ridiculous amount of time required to prepare the new spell, its greatest downside was arguably the sheer amount of teal powder he needed for all the pieces. If he had to condense them on the spot, Percy would easily need a week just for that.

‘The good news is that it can be recycled.’

While he had to reforge his Gauntlet every few weeks, he didn’t have to keep condensing new crystals – well, besides the ones he needed for the elixirs. Suffice to say, the contents of his jar were immensely valuable for him, as they represented several months of accumulation.

‘I might be the only mage on Remior who has to carry ingredients around to use his spells…’ he smiled bitterly.

Regardless, he knew it was worth it.

Based on what he’d learned in the Vault, a rune’s effect largely depended on the grade of the one who drew it. Given Remior’s underdeveloped runecrafting techniques, it would take a Green or even a Blue to match the potency of Percy’s enchantments. By that point, the runes wouldn’t be effective enough for them to rely on during a fight – which was why he’d never heard of anybody else carrying enchanted equipment.

‘I’m sure there are some worlds out there where it’s more common.’

In any case, Percy donned his Gauntlet once more – all 54 pieces of it – marvelling at its improvements again. He had actually not stopped at the second layer, instead opting to add a third one on top!

He could have pushed it further, in theory, but at this point he’d already have to spend a huge amount of time maintaining all the pieces. Besides, he was swiftly approaching the limits of how bulky it could get without starting to bog him down during a fight.

That said, the imposing teal Gauntlet now had several spiky protrusions covering each joint like a dragon’s scales, all of them adorned with runes. Percy had even reordered them, deciding to keep the force absorption enchantments in the deepest layer, to mitigate the impacts his body received. As for the hardness runes, he’d moved them to the middle layer, to protect the armour itself.

The only layer that wouldn’t be protected was the outermost one – but that one had a different purpose. Turning the construct invisible, he looked at Nesha.

“Well? How is it?”

The girl squinted as she circled Percy. Presumably, she’d activated her Mana Sense too. It wasn’t until half a minute later that she replied.

“I can tell something’s off, but only because I’m actively looking for it. It’s not immediately obvious.”

Percy nodded. Naturally, he’d engraved concealment runes all over the third layer! While his runecrafting technique had plenty of room for improvement, it was more than enough to hide the construct from plain sight!

“Neat!” he exclaimed, taking it all in.

Getting this far had taken him weeks, but Percy thought the result was worth it. And, apparently, his Status agreed.

[Congratulations! Your spell has evolved: Phantom Gauntlet – Refined -> Phantomscale Gauntlet – Refined!]

This was his second spell to evolve while remaining within the confines of the Refined tier, the other being Synchronization. Percy had no idea where Refined spells ended and Masterful spells began, but this had to mean he was getting closer, right?

“Percy… I still don’t see how a gauntlet is going to help you.” Nesha said, bursting his bubble.

“It’ll be plenty… together with the other pieces.”

“Other pieces?! Was that your goal?!” Nesha seemed taken aback. “We don’t have time for this! It’s been weeks since those people snitched on us! The Greens might be here any day now!”

But Percy wasn’t deterred.

“Like I said. If we get attacked before we’re ready, we’ll just abort the operation. Micky is still regularly patrolling the area around the town. He’ll spot them hours before they reach us.”

“Do you actually think you’ll have a full set of armour ready in time?”

“Probably.” he shrugged. “The Gauntlet was the hardest piece by far. It’s full of joints and required dozens of pieces. The rest of the armour should be much simpler. I’ll have everything done in a couple of weeks.”

Seeing she wasn’t convinced, he continued.

“Nesha, House Tantalus can’t just send a group of Greens whenever they want. I’m more worried they won’t take the bait in the end.”

“If they do, do you think our preparations will be enough?” she asked.

“Did you finish enchanting those slabs of stone I gave you?” he asked back.

“Yes.”

“Then, they’ll be enough.”

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