Melina followed Miss Li out of the tent.
Maria was waiting outside—for some reason, this scene made Melina feel as though the other woman was about to ask, "Doctor, how is everything?"
"Lili, if I want to have custom gear made, how long will it take?"
"Hmm?" Miss Li let out a prolonged murmur of thought, her dark red eyes reflecting a pensive mood.
"Bright Silver takes a week and a half, Ore Alpha takes about a week, Dragon Bone takes around three days, and Brass takes about three days."
She rattled off the four types of novice equipment.
Melina frowned. "That's so long."
"Bright Silver takes a week and a half?" Maria rested her left hand on the pommel of her sword, rubbing it out of habit. "Why does it take so long? I remember the ones Suosuo and I use only took a single day combined."
Speaking of her area of expertise, Miss Li reverted to her usual placid expression and explained calmly:
"That was in the Royal Capital. The Royal Capital is abundant in produce and resources; whatever accessories you want to buy are available locally."
She paused briefly, giving no one a chance to interrupt before continuing:
"Another point is that polishing takes time as well. The basic effect provided by the Bright Silver set is [Protection Level 2]. This kind of magic factor force field must be fitted extremely tightly to ensure that most things aren't misidentified as attacks. Please come a bit closer, Miss Maria."
The tall, blonde-haired woman stepped closer.
Miss Li then showed Melina the front segmented armor structure of the Bright Silver breastplate.
"Upper armor," Miss Li patted it twice, producing a solid *thud-thud* sound.
Melina secretly glanced at Maria's expression and found that the other woman didn't react at all.
"The magic factor judgment must be rigorous. Full-body armor is extremely complex and difficult to manufacture, so we crafted this upper armor in segments. Both the upper and lower armor feature plate structures, interlocking and split-type, while the abdomen is equipped with internal plate armor pieces behind an eye-membrane to provide both flexibility and protection."
She tapped Maria's abdomen with her finger, then slid it upward, hooking it at the joint of the upper armor.
Only then did Melina notice that the joint was somewhat hollow.
"Pressure cotton, and the innermost layer is the magic factor trigger. In other words, it has to be like this..."
She made a forceful, CPR-like compressing motion. A blue light instantly flared on Maria's body, pushing her back two steps. Melina, who had prepared herself, also stepped back immediately and was not knocked back by the [protective magic factor].
"A certain level of attack intensity is required to trigger the defense tier, so the structure of the upper armor is actually: surface armor, pressure cotton, magic factor attachment layer, inner armor buffer structure, inner armor layer, and inner protective buffer... Not to mention considerations for wearing comfort and the like. The reason your and Miss Sonia's Bright Silver armor could be made so quickly is because you both fit standard body types and only required slight polishing, whereas Miss Melina..."
She shook her head. "Needs specially customized dimensions and sizing."
The manufacturing process of a single set of armor was this troublesome.
Before Melina time-traveled, a medieval set of full-plate armor often took months to forge. In this world, armor-forging had become simpler, but the barrier to entry had risen significantly. Craftsmen without a massive supply of magic factors were utterly crushed in terms of efficiency.
However...
Am I really that big? Melina looked down and glanced briefly.
"Is Bright Silver an absolute must?" Melina asked. "Aren't Dragon Bone and Brass pretty good?"
"They are good, but the subsequent upgrade paths..." Miss Li hesitated. "If you want to upgrade your equipment later on, the Ore Alpha and Bright Silver Alpha routes are relatively smooth and convenient. They don't have many demands for monster materials, so you can rely on financial resources to solve a lot of things. But upgrading Brass and Dragon Bone is quite troublesome..."
While speaking, Miss Li even glanced at Maria.
Lao Ma smiled like a proud mother:
"I get what you mean."
Melina guessed she must have dunked on Sonia.
"The defense performance of the Bright Silver series is more prominent. The Ore Alpha series also shares the same attributes, making them relatively suitable for beginners." At the same time, they were also among the few sets where most upgrade materials could be handled with money.
"It's fine, I lean more toward resolving material issues myself."
Miss Li nodded with a tranquil demeanor:
"Then do you lean toward offense or..."
"Offense."
Melina blurted out the answer without the slightest hesitation, so fast that even Maria raised an eyebrow.
She had always been a staunch member of the offensive faction.
Offense with an advantage cements the win, offense with a disadvantage creates opportunities, and balanced offense breaks deadlocks. She was a lifelong supporter of all-out aggressive tactics. To her, talk of playing defense to win the championship, or treating 1:0 and 5:0 as the exact same 3 points, was sheer nonsense—Melina only played offense.
Although the Explorer profession meant risking one's life when fighting Dragons, generally speaking, Explorers who made targeted preparations held a tremendous advantage. Having a massive advantage and not attacking was equivalent to wasting that advantage; those who understood could type "understood" in the chat.
The Brass series was actually quite good; its main branches numbered over a hundred, but the main streams were divided into three types.
The Steam Stream: continuously converts magic factors into a water-hydro mixture of steam, erupting into dense steam mists laden with massive amounts of magic factors, gaining various enhancements within the mist.
The Grapple Stream: outer thigh armor is fitted with various convenient grappling hooks, while the back is equipped with a power source system, allowing the wearer to fly around. Powerful Explorers could fly to a certain extent, but this world possessed a peculiar magic factor property—to take flight, one had to gather specific equipment and magic factors. Explorers were just like the ultimate Steve: absolute gods when standing on the ground, but forced to rely on fireworks and elytra or mods to take to the skies.
The Catapult Stream: modifies the soles of the shoes to gain piston-leg traits, allowing huge leaps over extreme distances, and generally possesses extremely powerful single-strike capabilities. Qiong and Lei, the two legal loli sisters in Echo Squad, utilized this playstyle. Although they currently wore the upgraded Ore set, they would probably switch to Brass Catapult later on. The reason they weren't switching now was likely because Don Quixote had not yet fully earned their trust.
The weight-reduced Ore set was already fragile, and the Brass set was even more fragile.
If Don Quixote failed to hold the Dragon's aggro, a single hit could turn the two legal lolis into little pancakes...
And why was the Brass set even more fragile?
"I see. If you advocate for complete offense, the Brass set would be better, and you'll get your hands on it a bit faster too."
Miss Li took out a draft diagram to illustrate several mainstream matching configurations.
Through the design blueprints, that exact question became clear: *Why is the Brass set the most fragile?*
The main body of the Brass set consisted of arm guards, gloves, spine magic factor-bonding functional armor plates, and leg guards with greaves—leaving the exact center completely hollowed out, relying on chainmail equipment for coverage and to provide the effect of "not being casually wounded by stray projectiles." This ultra-thin armor plating, which was practically a sheet of paper in front of a Dragon, was traded for extremely exceptional mobility and the maximum surface area of "residual space."
In this world, equipment would gradually develop emotions toward its owner, and this emotional bond allowed magic factors to bond much more smoothly.
There was a limit to the amount of remaining materials a piece of equipment could accommodate, and there was also a limit to the number of modifications it could undergo.
Every modification and every addition of monster materials would occupy a portion of the magic factor capacity and modification limit.
The Brass set was the cornerstone equipment with the highest modification limit. Of course, this didn't mean it had the "highest ceiling," but rather the "most modification slots," making it very suitable for "Explorers whose goal is continuous hunting." Many Explorers would even raise several sets of Brass equipment from scratch.
Adjust it enough times, and it would eventually fit just right.
However...
"Can't we put armor plates over this hollowed-out part?" Melina controlled her facial temperature.
"Why would you put armor plates on it?" Miss Li said, puzzled. "Armor plates don't provide defense, and they don't look good as decorations either. If you feel the chainmail inside doesn't look good, you can replace it later with a dragon-scale bodysuit."
She couldn't exactly say that this design of fully covering the limbs while leaving the middle hollowed out looked a bit strange, could she?
Besides, chainmail was relatively easy to match with her own body.
Melina could only nod.
Since she was using the senior sister's money, Melina felt rather embarrassed, but Maria resolutely chose the most expensive option, having Melina purchase the priciest Steam-stream Brass armor set.
Maria even pulled Melina aside to whisper a few words:
"The specialty of this Brass set is the steam-like distribution of magic factors that strengthens bodily functions, which requires consuming a massive amount of magic factors. I've heard Suosuo talk about your condition; consumption is nothing to you, so this set is best for you and has the most room for modification... If you don't like it, I'll buy you another set."
How could she possibly accept that?
Just as Melina was about to say so, she said with a hint of shyness, "Actually, I quite like the Grapple Stream too..."
Hearing this, Maria immediately hammered down the decision: "Buy it!" Anyway, she wasn't spending her own money, but rather that dog Suosuo's money.
"One Steam set, one Grapple set... Alright, I've noted that down... By the way, Miss Melina, what is your Armament? So I can make some targeted adjustments."
As the topic returned to Armaments, Melina fell into deep contemplation.
That's right, her weapon hadn't been decided yet.
Lili was experienced; seeing Melina's expression, she nodded:
"Shall I start with a balanced adjustment then? Once you've made up your mind later, I can make modifications accordingly."
"No."
Melina shook her head slightly, closing her eyes for a brief moment.
She had already figured out what her soul yearned for—or rather, the direction.
An Armament was an Explorer's inner self; therefore, the Armament had to match the Explorer's inner emotions. She wasn't a particularly emotional person, which had also caused Melina to feel somewhat lost when making her choice. But not anymore; her soul had drawn strength from a single mental image.
The power of anger.
The visual source of this anger was:
[Senior Sister missing 15 shots in a row]
So angry.
So damn angry!
Damn it, why? How could this person possibly miss so many shots?!
I am so mad!
Just like some professional gamers become pros out of the mindset "I can do better than that," besides her obsession with "becoming an Explorer," Melina finally felt a second emotion toward her Armament: [Rage and Anger].
She opened her eyes:
"Please craft... a ranged adjustment for me."