Even if they presented different challenges, Ben still started with Abel’s, the work the girl needed still seeming marginally easier than what Foast would require as his clones brought together all of the separate components they’d made, only needing to be assembled still.

While something like a metal fabric seemed like it might be perfect at first, it didn’t work with how he knew Abel would move. The way she’d alter her form had a level of fluidity to it that traditional armour wouldn’t be able to match considering that she could not only outright turn herself into something that at least resembled a liquid, she could open holes in her body for attacks to phase through. 

Hell, even if cutting pieces off of her seems to work, they’ll just end up being used for her third-tier skill since she’d just turn them into monsters in a fight and even if that’s kind of beside the point, that really does limit the ways anyone might actually handle her.

Really, the biggest weakness he’d seen in the way she could alter herself was that causing cell death without it being a result of hacking away at her seemed possible, with some of Foast’s poisons and acids he’d spat at her in their spar having done their job, killing her flesh and leaving it to fall away without rising up again as some new monstrosity.

Which means fire will probably work too but…

But even then, she hadn’t been close to incapacitated from any attack that had landed. Either from skills or on a biological level, she was just too resilient for attacks on that scale to matter.

Which really makes me question the point of making her an armour in the first place but whatever, not my place to question a customer.

Trying to make a purely enchanted armour was an option, warping and contorting barrier magic to flow around her when in use but his own experience with an unfortunate number of encounters with magic nullification had left him hesitant to not include some sort of physical line of defense to block whatever else might get through and as he started assembling and enchanting what he had, he found himself discarding different attempts again and again, either for differing lacks of flexibility or range, meaning that if Abel were to use any of them she might either find herself trying to change to a shape that what he’d made didn’t fit or else having something that couldn’t keep up with the ways her shifting worked.

No, if he was making something for a shapeshifter then what he needed to do was reconsider just what armour was even meant to be as he looked over all he knew Abel could do and how that would relate to how best to protect her, leaving him to discard all he’d previously made to instead go to his storage room and look at the rarest material he had.

Well, I won’t have to use a ton of it and if the third tiers aren’t worth investing some in then really, who is? Looks like I’m finally busting out the stopstone.

The magical material that itself was immune to magical manipulation, he had a few ingots of the stuff and Myriad’s church was even then producing more, leaving him comfortable with spending just a bit as it slowly heated and softened for him to work, pounding it out thinner and thinner until he’d reached the minimum of what even he could create with his great skill before switching over to a roller, passing the metal through different grooves to squeeze it out, keeping it uniform as he went down sizes to the lowest point he could go, ending with threads of metal.

Creating a fabric was back on the menu but with the hardest material to work with done, it got significantly easier from there, able to use his magic for the orichalcum that was to be applied next with the threads he’d made being coated in the new metal only a few microns thick, applying a layer of physical resistance to the magic resistance he’d already created, needing only one final layer to go.

For that, mythril was the choice, adding down an even thinner coat with his material manipulation and ending with wires comparable to a human hair, only needing to be worked as different lengths were cut before he began weaving them, doing different segments at once with his magic by taking hold of the outer layers he had the power to manipulate, even if he felt the mana-proof cores resisting his touch.

With an end product that looked like nothing more than shiny, metallic mesh sheets, only needing a few more touches to be completed with the first one being to add the crystals that would empower its design, studding one side with white mana crystals for the enchantments that would be laid down after, the two he had in mind being in essence the exact same.

Both would be flexible barriers, with the only difference being their activation methods and where they’d be activated, with one saturating the material itself to strengthen it even further, mixing in all other relevant skills and his resistances to go along with it, while the other would hover about half a centimetre above it once activated for the sole purpose of providing protection to what he expected would exist in that thin layer of space. Abel’s skin.

Leaving only to see if his idea would in fact work once finished, needing the girl in question to test it but holding off for a few moments. The clone he was working through to guide her in woodworking was letting him see her clear enthusiasm for that particular skill and since he’d made expanding her horizons a small personal project of his while she was around, he didn’t want to break her focus when it was plain she genuinely was having some fun with it.

Which ended up taking longer than he’d expected. It seemed like when she grew interested in a topic it would stick and as much as he wanted to get that testing done, he let himself work on other projects while he waited, letting an hour pass until the skill acquisition announcement went off in her head as she finished using the knife he’d given her to carve a different knife.

Immediately she was looking at the clone by her side for praise and encouragement, seeming more like a puppy in that moment than someone who thrived in combat and violence and he reached out to ruffle her hair, smiling as he did.

“Fantastic work, Abel. You’re really getting the hang of this. I’d say you probably have a talent for woodworking.”

“Of course I do, I’m talented at everything,” She grinned as she puffed out her chest. “Nothing’s too hard for me to learn!”

“Ha, well I hope you keep up that mood because tomorrow you’re trying blacksmithing too but for now, I’ve hopefully finished your armour so go over to the real me and we can test it out.

“It’s ready?” She jumped, rushing to his side in an excitement that quickly turned to confusion as she looked at the light mesh sheets in his hands, not understanding what he was looking so proud about as the other two joined as well. “Um, thanks?”

Not wanting to hurt his feelings immediately and hoping there was something she just wasn’t seeing, she took one and lightly wrapped it around her shoulders, running her mana through it to activate the enchantments he’d placed and seeing the barriers that formed before letting go and letting it drop to the floor, giving her honest opinion as she did.

“So like, weren’t you supposed to be good at this?”

“Ha, I’ll have you know I’m excellent at this, it just so happens that this isn’t normal armour. It was as made for you as specifically as it could be, all that needs to be checked is if you can actually use it with your skill.”

“What? If it can be used then of course I can use it so show me how already!”

“Hey now, I’m not doubting you, I more meant that whether it can be used is going to come down to if I properly understand how malevolent form works for you. You basically have perfect control of your cellular structure, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“You can rearrange the shape of your body pretty freely, open holes in yourself and grow or alter structures you already have to suit your needs?”

“Yeah, you already know all of that.”

“Alright then. So if that’s the case, Abel, can you sink these to sit just beneath the surface of your skin and then activate them?”

“Can I…”

She trailed off as she repeated, doing what he’d asked as the side studded with mana crystals sunk into her flesh, wrapping around one of her arms as she did it before activating the outer barrier, instantly catching the eyes of both his student and Foast for the design and leaving a grin on Abel’s face that matched Ben’s own.

“So long as you have the control to move and adjust them inside of you when you change your body, this should be a near-perfect extra layer of defense. If any attack can get through the barrier above your skin then just below it, the metal mesh has additional layers to defend against physical and magical attacks. I’m not going to say it’s perfect, I did my absolute best but making armour for a shapeshifter was never going to be easy but still, this should be a serious extra layer of protection for most things, if you can use it that is.”

Her body started changing the instant he said that, her flesh warping until she was nothing more than a mound of skin and teeth, the barrier still active and sliding around her as she shifted her form more, collapsing into a puddle of cells and then switching from there, adding more spikes of sharpened teeth and bones jutting out of her from all angles.

That last one was less than perfect, requiring that the external barrier be deactivated to let those features protrude from her flesh but it still kept the internal ones, leaving her practically squealing in the end as she shook him.

“It’s perfect and this is the coolest! You really are good at your job, aren’t ya?”

“Why do you sound surprised?”

“I sound excited! Are those other pieces for me too?”

“They are. I’m sure it will be a bit harder for you to control but the idea was to have multiple segments you could move around inside your body to cover you from all angles and-”

Before he could say more she was already pulling them from his hands, absorbing each piece into her flesh and letting them settle right below her skin as she activated them all, ending totally covered and protected as she flailed her arms in excitement before trying to tamper it down just a bit, coming off entirely smug by the end.

“And now I’m even more invincible! It must be so sad for everyone else who isn’t me!”

“Ha, well as long as you don’t get killed wearing it then that means I’ve done my job well.”

And it also means I only have one more task to go.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep