Thirty men and ten horses hauled the massive wagon into the RazenHeir camp. It was a steel crate wrapped in chains with a lock the size of Hikari's fist in the center. As the lumbering wagon comes to a halt, the foreman hops on top of the wagon, sticks a key into the lock and begins channeling a spell.
After a brief moment, the links holding the chains to the lock abruptly withdrew into the lock, causing the chains to recoil outwards, creating loud clanks as they bashed against the steel lid.
Ria hid behind Hikari's boot as the metal chains rolled down the sloped side of the crate before landing harmlessly in the sand.
The men then each pulled out a handle from each side and mounted it on their shoulder. The man at the front pushed upwards to tilt the wagon just slightly while the men in the rear made way. With a unified heave, they gave the heavy lid a solid shove, allowing the heavy metal lid to slide off the wagon.
At last it has arrived, Hikari's new armour. Ria could feel her excitement in her heartbeat
as she stood over the crate. It appeared to be a black mass of fungus, if one looks carefully, one might notice the swirls and subtle changes in its color.
"Living armour. The fire proofed parasitic skin of the king black salamander. It is said that if one does not kill the beast for good, it would return a week later fully healed. It can even grow and take the shape of its owner. With this, I no longer have to spend sleepless nights figuring out how to find you new armour. "
A henchman carrying a chest with both arms approached. The foreman then opened it, presenting Hikari with a brilliant blue jewel encased in silver that was attached to a leather belt.
"The ring is imbibed with the ritual of the druids that would allow the armour to recognize you as its owner. You only need to wear it for a week before its effect becomes permanent. We will return its deposit once you return the ring to us intact."
Hikari then bent over and slid it onto her index finger. As it tightened itself around her finger, images of runes inscribed into the jewel flashes across her mind. The complex spell they depict was completely incomprehensible to her, but all she had to do to use it was to channel mana.
And she did. The viscous black mass immediately began to respond to her presence, swirling excitedly beginning to climb out of its container. The maids and stable hands gasped in fear and began backing off as the knights clutched their swords.
Hikari got down on one knee, waiting patiently for the nightmarish goo to approach. She slowly lowered one finger into the goo. It started crawling up her skin, soon swallowing up her hand.
It was harmless actually, it even came with a nice cooling feeling since it absorbs heat from its host's body, insulating it from the volcanic environments where it's found.
Hikari allowed the goo to gradually make its way up her arm, and then her shoulders, moving down to cover her torso and eventually her thighs. All the while watching its progress intently. If the parasitic goo did in fact try to eat her, she would immediately incinerate it.
Most of her audience kept their distance, some even taking cover. The foreman and his crew confidently stood their ground.
But the parasitic goo just settled onto Hikari's body uneventfully. She then stretched her arms, and then began flexing her muscles. The goo adapted to her movements and the shape of her muscles seamlessly, expanding and contracting at her will, offering no resistance and signs of tearing.
Then she attempted to channel her mana into the goo. Mana resonance of a knight's gear is of paramount importance. Wyvern skin offered her protection against her own flames and conserved her mana by blocking some damage but offered little in terms of a conduit for her spells.
It works. The skin of a mystic beast. She could her mana coursing through the goo in a way not dissimilar to her own body. Although it was only a minute amount, it was the first set of armour that could do that. Plus, she feels as though she could train it.
"It fits."
She turned her attention back to her audience. The delivery crewmen's noses were bleeding, their pants bulging. So were the RazenHeir knights. Ria was staring at her with her mouth agape.
Hikari stared back with a confused look. She was yet unaware that her new armour had made her appear as a muscle goddess in a yoga suit, flexing her toned biceps and thighs in plain view and making the air around her stir has the side effect of overloading the jingleberries that bear witness to the spectacle.
After an awkward pause, Ria finally cleared her throat.
"Ahem! Looks like all is in order. We'll accept delivery for the armour."
The foreman took a moment to snap back out of his daze.
"Righto, sign here." The foreman took out a paper, allowing Ria to quickly scan through it before pressing her RazenHeir seal against the bottom.
After the men left, Hikari gently tapped her finger on Ria's head.
"Don't worry. I'll be sure to bring back more wyvern corpses."
"Ah. Don't remind me. That won't cover the bill for this one. We'll be in the red for the foreseeable future." Ria shakes her head.
"I'll bring the queen wyvern's head then."
"Oh no. Don't. I'm sure you can kill it. But the queen wyvern's carcass and whatever treasures in her lair were allotted beforehand to the slayer's guild. We'll be in trouble if we try to steal it. That said, although this is just a support role, if we pull this off, we could start getting investors to put together a proper raid. Now that would make us some real money."
"You have something in mind?"
"The Herdial frontiers." Ria said confidently.
"Oh?"
"The reason why Herdial is struggling right now. From the reports I could gather, monsters that were empowered by a strange energy smashed through frontier fortifications at several points. They were found to have been caused by a mysterious mana stone. Only one had been found. The Herdial royal family has placed a huge bounty on them."
"Interesting"
"But that's all for later. Focus on the wyverns for now."
"Understood."
—-- King salamander skin —--
weight : ~350 kg, physique + 69, mana + 175, defense + 179