Chapter 130: Function over Form.

The boss had yet to arrive, so that was fine since not many would bother Kael yet. But once he shows up. Things will change.

Still, he didn’t trust that lack of worry. A boss was a boss, arriving or not. The moment Kael showed anything valuable, it would become a conversation. Kael hated conversations that were really negotiations with a knife behind them.

Side by side, the pair looked like they belonged together. Matching color. Matching mesh texture. Matching build. That symmetry did something to Kael’s brain that felt dangerously close to pride.

He crushed it down and moved on. Leather mattered now. Not for style, for survival. He’d already learned what raw runes did to flesh. He wasn’t interested in repeating it without a potion in hand.

He began working on the inner linings to protect his arms from cooking themselves when he used his fire rune.

After a bit of needlework, patchwork, and hammering, the lining was done, he placed them inside the new gauntlets and hammered them in place.

The needlework was crude by any civilized standard, but it was functional. Tendons pulled tight. Leather folded and reinforced where heat would concentrate. He checked the seams with his fingers, then used Brokk’s hammer to lock them down, smoothing weak points into something that looked almost professionally fitted. When he pressed the lining into the gauntlets, it seated snugly, no loose flaps, no gaps that would funnel heat into skin.

***

[Congratulations! You created a new weapon neverbefore seen in the tower!]

[You have already received the reward for this type of creation!]

[Atrax Rune Gauntlets]

Item Rarity: Unique

Item Level: N/A

-Bound-

Category: Fist Guards -Magical Equipment- Undefined.

Creator: Kael Ardent

Condition of Use [Kael Ardent]

Passive – [Heat Control]- [High Energy Conductivity]-

[Atrax Rune Gauntlets] are not recognized within the tower’s established item classifications.

Lore:

A tool created through innovation and necessity rather than convenience.

A magical tool that can be used for melee and ranged attacks once imbued with the necessary runes. It can easily host a number of runes and has a high ability to transfer mana. Though the design is crude, it is a perfect tool in its performance.

Function over Form.

****

Kael’s eyes skimmed the window with the kind of hunger he only allowed himself in private. Unique. Bound. Heat Control. High Energy Conductivity. The Tower itself was admitting that this wasn’t normal. He felt a quiet satisfaction at “Function over Form,” not because it flattered him, but because it was true. He didn’t build these to look noble. He built them so his hands wouldn’t burn off while he punched monsters.

“Nice, since it’s missing the rune slots, let’s finish those first.”

He said it out loud to keep his mind from drifting into celebration. And the next problem hit him immediately, because the moment he thought about sockets, he thought about the runes he actually owned.

He only has one anchor rune… How would these things channel the energy between each other? If he needed to cast fire from his left arm while his right arm had the fire rune, for example.

The thought stopped his hands mid-motion. Two gauntlets meant two platforms. But Anchor wasn’t optional. Anchor was the difference between controlled output and volatility eating him alive. Without Anchor stabilizing a chain, he was back to gambling with his own body every time he activated something. He stared at the runes in his inventory like they were pieces of a puzzle that refused to show the picture.

He couldn’t think up a solution for that.

He pictured the worst case quickly. Fire surging where it shouldn’t. Heft multiplying something at the wrong time. Excise turning a stream into a jet that cut through his own gauntlet. The Tower didn’t forgive “almost.” It punished “almost” the same way it punished “stupid.”

“I need a link…” Kael thought.

The words came out like a mutter, almost annoyed. A link. A bridge. Something that could carry support runes without forcing him to duplicate them. Something that would let the gauntlets behave like one system instead of two separate weapons.

At first, he had an idea, if he had something like a shoulder strap. Where he could link both gauntlets together, then place the runes on the strap.

He imagined a harness. Straps crossing the chest and back, runes seated along the spine or collar area, feeding both arms. It sounded clean in theory, like wiring a circuit with a central hub.

The idea sounded nice.

Nice until you pictured an enemy grabbing it. Nice until you pictured straps catching on rubble. Nice until you realized you’d have to remove the whole thing to swap a rune, and swapping runes was one of his few real advantages.

That would take time. Time he wouldn’t have mid-fight. Time that would turn “tactical” into “dead.” Kael didn’t build tools that demanded ritual to function. He built tools that obeyed instantly.

“It can’t be something fixed, and I need the runes to remain in the gauntlets…” he thought for a second and looked at the rest of the materials.”

His eyes moved across his remaining stash like he was back at a workbench on Earth, scanning for anything that could become a solution. Materials weren’t just loot. They were options.

“Links… chains? Usable in any situation. Good to even whip someone’s face in… could it work?”

The chain idea clicked harder the longer he let it sit. Chains weren’t straps. Chains didn’t rely on cloth or leather. Chains could be removed quickly. Chains could be reconfigured. Chains could also be used as a weapon, which meant even if the “link” concept failed, the material wouldn’t be wasted.

The idea clicked, and he began looking for materials. He needed the chains to be tough, nothing brittle like Atrax shell. And needed it to be highly conductive. And the only material he had that could do that was his old gauntlet.

Kael’s gaze drifted to the original gauntlet, the one that had carried him through the worst of the floor’s nonsense. It looked crude next to the new pair. It looked like a first draft. Still, it had one thing the new gauntlets lacked. Proven survivability under his kind of output.

“Sorry, good friend, you’ll come to use in a different form from now on.”

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