The Devil's Evolution Catalog

“Exactly, a meditation stone’s basic function is to clear the mind of its user, allowing him to enter a meditative state easier. However, some psychic magicks also use this stone as a medium. By using these stones to form an array, the rider inside these armors would be able to achieve a harmonised state within the shortest time possible. At that point, they merely have to be trained as per normal to make an army out of them.”

“By my knowledge, such arrays are highly intricate, and the vast majority of mesmers do not have knowledge of these esoteric arts. Lady Mo Na is a mesmer?”

“No, but I do come across some oddities in my travels.” Counting in Ferti’nier, I technically did know a fair bit.

“Oh? I wonder what other secrets Lady Mo Na are privy to?”

“That would be a secret as well.”

“A lady’s secret, then. Well, this old man won’t get in your way.”

What do you mean “a lady’s secret”… I mean, I am using my daughter’s name but… bah…

“But back to the questions. Other than the meditation stones, I can see that the rest of the ingredients are rather… expensive. Are you sure this design is meant for mass production?”

“That’s because that’s my personal armor -of course, I would use only the finest ingredients. And His Majesty has already approved it, you may question him yourself. As for the later mass production models, lower grade materials will be used, but the end result will still be above a four-star.”

It’s not corruption if you do it openly! And the king already had his chance to look through the list himself. He didn’t object then, and even gave me the keys to the treasury… In other words, he’s telling me to do as I please, he’s not lacking in money anyway… This is why it’s good to have friends! Rich ones!

“A cheaper version?” He nodded his general approval. “Then one last question. What would be the strength of this first prototype once it’s complete? An overlord dragon’s skeleton… scales forged from precious metals… Such an extravagance, should it succeed, would at least be seven-star? Eight-star?”

“Nine.”

“Nine?! Impossible!”

“To be exact, it’s the ability to stand against a nine-star.”

Their astonished silence was deafening. This revelation seemed too fantastical to be real. Lest one forgot, the closest proxy to what we were attempting, arcane constructs, especially necromancy which involved animating dead bodies, resulted in a net loss of power compared to their original state. After all, it was impossible to reanimate an overlord’s corpse and expect it to have the same power level, barring external additions. At the end of the day, an overlord’s strength drew from his or her Territory, something which required a functioning mind to wield. A construct wouldn’t normally have the prerequisite mind to activate a Territory. Thus, when an overlord was reanimated, it would automatically fall down a star level.

Naturally, one could use ingredients of such a high level that even an overlord could be recreated. Case in point, the Devil King Idol. But that was created by a Devil King! A divinity! There was no comparison here!

Besides, who would even use ingredients at the level of a Demigod to craft an overlord golem… there’s no forgiving such a sinful waste of resources.

Thanks to the above reasons, no one here expected my magitek armor to be as powerful as an overlord. Just like how no one here believes I am a man!

“Don’t worry, I did not expect my words to convince you all right away.” I smiled confidently. “I will let the end result speak for itself.”

“Fascinating. So Lady Mo Na still has some tricks up her sleeves which she has yet to divulge?” Meister Amori laughed accommodatingly. “Very well, a mystery that reveals itself too early is no mystery at all. I will eagerly await the day when my eyes are opened. Perhaps history will be written that day.”

“May we have a fruitful cooperation.”

“May we indeed.”

Now that I had convinced Meister Amori, I had essentially convinced everyone else on board. With everyone on the same page, the start of our project proceeded swimmingly. The dwarven craftsman, Meister Belud, proved as skillful as I was led to believe. The Dwarves were a race famous for their blacksmithing, mining, drinking, fighting, boasting, and blacksmithing. Meister Belud were all these, just with a bad attitude…

Meister Amori was an easygoing person. His skills were unquestionable as well, but he was also an amiable senior, one that everyone in this underground lab respected.

With the schematics thoroughly studied, work began on the outer armor of the magitek armor, led by Belud and his human disciples. However, the outer armor was no less intricate than the insides, causing the dwarven meister no small amount of headaches. But that was nothing a barrel or two of ale couldn’t fix.

One of the greatest problems was that they had to ensure the durability of this armor. Belud had the inspiration of using magicite and mithril, both materials worthy of any epic-grade craft, to form an alloy, creating a new material in the process. One with the durability of magicite and the conductivity of mithril. Unfortunately, the execution wasn’t as smooth sailing. After all, one was primarily employed in staffmaking, while the other was employed in weapon making. Separate branches that would require more work to combine.