Corwyn IV
He inspected the lathe drill bit he was using, a slight smile on his face as he nodded, double checking the input parameters to the lathe machine, before flipping the switch and watching as the multi hundred thousand lien machine got to work carving away at the titanium nitride block locked inside its grasp.
He was making rings inside the Workshop of Signal. The reasons were obvious as he was currently thinking of expanding the size of his Armory. Taking out and giving a look at his Journal, Corwyn smiled at the progress he was making.
- Armaments -
[spoiler=Malleus Fulminis] Malleus Fulminis (Exotic Item)
Lightning Forged: This weapon has been forged with Lightning Magic, granting it the aspect of Storm. Storm, Lighting, Electricity, and Thunder based Enchantments are unlocked and enhanced.
Soul Bound: This Weapon has been bound to the user's very soul via an advanced Aura technique. Its durability is dramatically increased, it will deal increased damage, and will receive Aura easier when enchanting.
Transcendent Craftsmanship: This item has been forged and fashioned by a prodigious smith who took great lengths to craft the best weapon he could. While no masterwork of unparalleled craftsmanship, this weapon is a solid work that no warrior would scoff at wielding. Through absorbing its creator's Aura and experiencing his semblance through this absorption, the weapon is improving; slowly reaching towards unreachable perfection as it constantly grows in quality the more it is fed.
Thunderous Wave: Unleash a devastating wave of thunderous sound, dealing physical and magical damage to all that get caught in the wave's wake. Deafens, stuns, and can cause internal damage to a large group of enemies caught in its area of effect.
Heaven's Earth: Slam your hammer's head or butt down upon a foe or the ground itself. When striking a foe, they will be struck down by divine lighting empowering your hammer as it burns with the heat of plasma and electrocutes their bodies; stunning them if they survive the attack. If attacking the ground, the earth itself becomes impossibly electrified, shocking all within a fifteen meter radius; healing those that you subconsciously consider allies.
Gust: At will, one can swing this weapon and following the swing a titanic gale of Category Seven Hurricane Winds will follow.
A Brittle World: This enchantment is a passive effect, causing all that the hammer strikes to be strangely brittle, allowing it to shatter and crush what it strikes with dramatic ease.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler= Stormplate] Stormplate (Exotic Item)
(Note: This is a Set Item. It has exaggerated and compounded Enchantments but is limited in versatility.)
Lightning Forged: This armor set has been forged with Lightning Magic, granting it the aspect of Storm. Storm, Lightning, Electricity, and Thunder based Enchantments are unlocked and enhanced.
Soul Bound: This armor set has been bound to the user's very soul via an advanced Aura technique. Its durability is dramatically increased, will mitigate Aura drain when protecting the user from damage, and will receive Aura easier when enchanting. Due to the effects of Living Armor, the user can now infuse their own Aura to bolster and rapidly regenerate their armor's Aura.
Transcendent Craftsmanship: This armor set has been forged and fashioned by a prodigious smith who took great lengths to craft a worthy set of armor. After an intensive amount of time absorbing his Aura, this set of Armor has become Transcendent in quality. While not looking like a masterful artwork, its design is entirely functional while its make, material, and sturdiness is beyond quality and has stepped into the realms of the Supernatural. Through absorbing its creator's Aura and experiencing his semblance through this absorption, the armor set is improving; slowly reaching towards unreachable perfection as it constantly grows in quality the more it is fed.
Lightning Cloak: At will the wearer of this armor can activate a dangerous cloak of lightning that will strike at enemies with an almost intelligent awareness of weakness. A direct blast of this cloak can cause instantaneous third degree burns on a person and can stun a foe as it wreaks havoc on their nervous system.
Living Armor: The energies of Aura that have been infused into this once unliving object have given birth to a soul bound to one. The armor now has its own Aura, using it to protect its only and sole wearer. The spirit enhances its user's strength and movements, acting like a powered exoskeleton as it uses its spiritual might to supplement its master's.
(Semblance) Soul Warden: The armor acts as a warden to its wearer's soul. This semblance passively increases the durability of the armor, its Aura, and its wearer's Aura. It actively prevents the effects of other semblances from affecting anything it's user's Aura envelops or touches.
Regenerative Steel: Originally just an enchantment that would allow the armor to automatically repair itself, through Living Armor this enchantment has become more. Stormplate's Aura now actively regenerates its integrity as if it were healing a flesh and blood wound. Furthermore, its wearer benefits from this effect by having their own healing factor doubled by Stormplate's aura assisting their own when injured.
Battle Scarred: This piece of armor gets stronger the more battles it sees. A growth item that becomes even harder, tougher, and more elastic to damage as it goes through hell and back.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler= The Thunderers] The Thunderers (Exotic Item)
(Note: This is a Set Item. It has exaggerated and compounded Enchantments but is limited in versatility.)
Lightning Forged: This weapon set has been forged with Lightning Magic, granting it the aspect of Storm. Storm, Lightning, Electricity, and Thunder based Enchantments are unlocked and enhanced.
Soul Bound: This weapon set has been bound to the user's very soul via an advanced Aura technique. Its durability is dramatically increased, will deal increased damage, and will receive Aura easier when enchanting.
Transcendent Craftsmanship: This weapon set has been forged and fashioned by a prodigious smith who took great lengths to craft a set of javelins that knew no equal. He took no shortcuts and obsessed over producing his greatest possible product. These javelins are perfectly weighted, balanced, and have been worked and re-worked over and over again to achieve the nearest possible point of perfection. They are such that any thrown weapon user will remark on their legendary-grade quality and declare them a weapon worthy of a hero's might. Through absorbing its creator's Aura and experiencing his semblance through this absorption, the weapon set is improving; slowly reaching towards unreachable perfection as it constantly grows in quality the more it is fed.
Returning Bolt: When thrown, the javelins can be summoned back to the thrower in a spark of lighting, manifesting within the hand of the thrower when the spark returns.
Thunderer: The enchantment these devastating Javelins gain their name from. When thrown, a small boom of thunder follows in their wake. When they strike their target, the Javelins produce a devastating boom of Thunder on impact of around 220-300 dB.
Glass Blade: The tip and blade of this weapon has been physically sharpened a micron thick. Its edge will never dull, chip, or break.
Artillery: Distance is irrelevant to you. If you can see it, then these javelins can strike it. It isn't recommended to try and throw weapons at the moon. It is unlikely you'll get them back.
[/spoiler]
He only had three items. However, they were all Exotic in Rank, which was insane. A pathetic number to be sure, and all of them were rather specifically specialized into the lightning element for a number of reasons.
One of which was his personal bias. He was best in Dust Casting using the Lighting Element, and with all of his gear also having been made with the Dust, it unlocked a selection of Elementally Aligned enchantments that created what he had today.
The other reason was that it was easier to hide his semblance if he focused so narrowly into a specific section of elemental might.
Lastly, he didn't exactly need any other Element, especially for what he was planning now.
In the two-months and two weeks of his awakening as Corwyn the Amalgam, he'd managed to create three items that were at the peak of the Exotic Grade, which was the Fourth Quality Milestone.
After Exotic, Corwyn had claimed the next milestone to be the Relic Grade.
After Relic came Legendary, and then Mythical, and lastly Divine.
A total of eight ranks with him using mathematics to predict once he hit the Eighth milestone, he'd hit a level of diminishing returns with a theoretical Divine Rank Item requiring him to pour his Aura into it for centuries if he wanted to upgrade it to an unknown ninth milestone. Even now, Corwyn had hit the 'soft-cap' relatively quickly in creating his first three items, with Exotic being the point where things started costing an insane amount of time to create and upgrade past that rank into the Relic Grade.
These items were to be his foundation. The base of his build.
None of them were finished per say, but they were solid. His Hammer was his AOE and the ideal weapon to crush the hordes of Grimm with, all without spending a dime of Aura cost or Dust. Thunderous Wave, Heaven's Earth, and Gust were all wide range attacks and defensive maneuvers wielding in a weapon that was designed to crack hard targets, mitigating its weaknesses, but neglecting its strength.
When he got the chance to upgrade the item to Relic Grade, he wanted to make the item even more of a terror on the wide-scale battlefield, as Brittle World already took care of the weapon's need for destructiveness against armor and the material world; now all that was left was to turn it into a weapon that called the apocalypse on his enemies.
His armor, he'd hit the Jackpot with.
While creating Enchantments with his weapons and armor were all very equal in the cost of Aura he needed to expend, upgrading his Armor from Legendary to Transcendent took a lot of work. This was due to the fact that the Stormplate was an entire suit of armor, and he needed to infuse every inch of it with Aura. Compared to his Javelins and Warhammer -less so for the Javelins, they were a pain too- it required him to infuse a disgusting amount of Aura that unlocked the 'Living' Enchantment Tree.
His Javelins too had managed to unlock one too, but he didn't take them as it'd just create a weapon reminiscent of Yondou from Guardians of The Galaxy. Which, while a cool and effective weapon capable of taking out dozens if not hundreds of armed guards, still required the quality of the weapons -in Yondou's case his arrow- being capable of the level of penetration shown in the movie.
Corwyn also didn't want to throw away years of effort and practice with his Javelins, only to take a different and 'easier' route of manipulating them. So, he'd gone a different path with them and upgraded the penetration of the weapons.
His Javelins were penetrative and designed to go as deep as possible when thrown into a Grimm. Now, each blade was as sharp as glass, with the flush tip just as sharp and incapable of being broken by a hard defense. This would allow him to not only take care of armored foes without worry but would also guarantee penetration for 'Thunderer' to take effect inside the wound.
Lastly, his Armor, like mentioned, was enchanted with Living Armor. He was very enthused regarding Stormplate's Semblance, having expected it to have something to do with lighting or similar. Instead, it seemed to focus heavily on its protective identity as Armor and developed something that was invaluable: immunity to semblance effects.
The Corwyn from Remnant was familiar with all manner of terrifying semblances that could affect a person without any real way of defending against it; from mentalist and illusion semblances, to semblances that were only whispered about in certain circles and believed to be nothing more than myths. This enchantment proved that he'd not be taken down by mere trickery or a bullshit semblance, as his semblance was more bullshit than their bullshit!
The last few enchantments on Stormplate were Regenerative Steel and Battle Scarred, two enchantments that worked flawlessly together. It was an effect that he wanted to have placed on all his items but was kept on hold for The Thunderers and Malleus Fulminis. This was due to the fact that 'Glass Blade' prevented the weapons from dulling or needing replacement save for their hafts. Hafts that Corwyn was more than willing to replace, as the heads were more annoying and expensive to do so.
Malleus meanwhile was a Warhammer. By default, the damned thing was built to be practically indestructible, and its Transcendent Craftsmanship and Soul Bond allowed him to effectively only pay attention to its far thicker and sturdier haft reinforced with titanium and tungsten components.
His armor, meanwhile, wasn't built in a way that was designed to be easy to repair or impervious to all damage. It was armor, and it'd break, and eventually it'd be replaced. However, now that wasn't possible, and so he wanted to have some insurance that slacking on methodically maintaining it wasn't going to lead to some catastrophic failure.
Living Armor synergizing with Regenerating Steel was unexpected, but entirely welcome though.
Anyway, with his core 'build' complete, he could now look into diversifying his kit and truly getting all of his equipment slots filled up.
Today, he was making rings.
He didn't want to make earrings as they were uncomfortable as all hell when wearing his coif and helmet. He'd tested some cheap ones out but didn't like them. If he wanted more accessory slots, then he could get some toe-rings or something. Ring on even one hand of fingers alone already felt like plenty to try and enchant with any meaning, and he'd likely narrow that down to an even more reduced three.
One for protection, something that could generate a shield to protect him and others from ranged attacks.
The second that restrained his emotions from broadcasting to the Grimm, allowing him a semblance of stealth against the demons.
Lastly, one for granting him a healing factor. This one he'd likely keep on his necklace.
Speaking of which…
Corwyn smiled as he held up the chain necklace made out of disks resting on his chest. It was made out of silver and had swirling wind motifs engraved on each of the linked disks.
Ruby had bought it for him, and it was of Expert Craftsmanship, and so he'd immediately taken to brainstorming what he could do with it.
The lathe finished its process, jolting him out of his thoughts.
Corwyn reached over and started to inspect what he had, before taking the product and flipping it around, letting the lathe go for another round to finish out the details. He hummed as he felt through the infinite amount of potential his necklace had, before stumbling and almost tripping over mentally as he found one that shocked him.
'Aura Regeneration…' He thought with wide eyes.
He immediately applied the enchantment to the necklace, the item glowing a dull gold before it flashed the light and then dulled to nothing. His Aura having been reduced to a mere fourth started to regenerate Aura at a rate that left him boggling. Twice. Twice the amount of regeneration that he normally had.
He licked his lips as he glanced over at the collection of rings he'd already finished.
Seven rings, all of them enchanted with Aura Regeneration…
'There'd eventually be a point of diminishing returns, but if I could triple, or even quadruple my rate of Aura Regeneration; I'd be capable of several items a day! Screw making a Relic in half a year, I could make one next month…'
Yet, as he was having those thoughts, he noticed something.
Frowning down at the necklace, he felt his excitement calm, abate, and eventually wash away. He tried to get angry, but he failed. He tried to feel anything other than this state of…tranquility.
'Its forcing me into a state of emotional peace and equilibrium.' He realized. With a furrowed brow he focused back onto the Enchantment he'd placed on his Necklace, and realized that it was an Enchantment of Meditation, not just Aura Regeneration. That was a side effect, not the actual Enchantment. The necklace was helping him learn how to meditate and reach a state of equilibrium within his spirit, enhancing his spiritual growth and regeneration rate.
He sighed. Good things were often untrue, but he was glad to have found this. The necklace also acted as a means of avoiding Grimm, so he didn't need that second ring's enchantment so long as he had the necklace active.
He'd need to brainstorm what enchantments he could put on his rings though.
One for regeneration, one for protection…
'Hmm, a Ring of Danger Sense would be nice. Then one that could remove my presence and quiet my movements for effortless stealth. Don't those cultivation novels have Storage Rings too? They seem more convenient than the traditional Bag of Holding. I could put my Javelins inside the ring and summon them whenever I needed to.'
Corwyn nodded, taking several mental notes as he watched the lathe spin.
He leaned stroked his chin in thought, eyes wandering, before they landed on the medical and first-aid kit placed on the wall of the Workshop.
He blinked.
Mundane Items.
Mundane Items!
'Bandages of Healing. A Thermos of Water Conjuring, or Infinite Water. What else, what else…Useful things, think what is useful. A compass? A compass that points to whatever I want it to! That'd be cool. Hmm, what else? Think movies. Harry Potter had that map. No, too limited, but…what about a Game Minimap? An ever-updating piece of paper that functions like Minecraft's Maps. Hmm, what else? I guess I could get into guns too. With a theoretical Storage Ring, I could store all kinds of weapons and gear inside. A sniper enchanted to be as deadly, accurate, and powerful as possible would be all kinds of crazy. Then attachments for that sniper, a scope that highlights enemies within its lens and marks where to place the reticle for a headshot would be powerful.'
Corwyn hummed and nodded to himself, before thinking outside the box. 'What are some items that aren't specifically useful for me in the field but are just nice to have.' He thought.
A kitchen set would be cool. Having a portable enchanted and magical kitchen set to make food on the fly. He'd also want to add a preservation enchantment on his storage ring to make sure what he puts inside it doesn't rot or decay.
He gave a glance at himself too. Aura while providing temperature regulation, it came at the cost of Auric drain. An undershirt or something to keep himself perfectly cozy inside and outside his armor would be neat as well. He could also enchant his socks!
'Socks of Thunderstep would go crazy.' Corwyn thought. The Third Level 5E spell that allowed violent teleportation to anywhere that he could see would be all kinds of cool. He could enchant his socks further, upgrading them to allow him to run on air, or turn into a gaseous form too. Why not all three?
He shook himself from his thoughts that were getting a bit out of control. He sighed, now knowing he'd not rest until he'd made all of what he'd thought about. Or, at least, most of it.
With a roll of his eyes, he smiled at his finished ring. He put it with the rest of them and cracked his back, shutting down the machine, only to freeze and glance at the door of the Workshop.
In came Copper Brande, the professor of Hunter Workshop Class. The woman had a cup of coffee that was likely spiked ten ways to Sunday with whiskey, thick bags under her eyes, and her hair was a copper mess.
Professor Brande glanced over and spotted him, a deep frown crossing onto her face. "What are you doing here at this time, Corwyn? This is a restricted area without a reservation." She immediately pounced, Corwyn narrowing his eyes at the professor as she stalked towards him, her copper-colored wolf's tail swaying behind her.
Corwyn did not like Copper Brande, and neither did she like him.
For reasons that were quite apparent to him, she didn't like him for one reason.
Artistic Differences.
Corwyn would frankly admit to being pants at Mechashift design.
He'd tried, he'd failed, and so he simplified and found he excelled when he wasn't required to do some bullshit five-head thinking required to somehow fold a gun into a mace without compromising the integral structure of the weapon itself.
Anything he made was liable to break or become damaged, and what was made worse was the fact that his weapons he'd made in his first few years got Bs and As.
He was wiser and more informed now, that what he'd created in his first year was deemed acceptable by first–year standards. However, it failed to recognize that Corwyn was paying out of his pocket for a large majority of the parts for his weapons as his governmental allowance was being made specifically for him to make his weapon; thus, it made no sense to allow him to have a free run of supplies to make mistakes.
On a stringent budget lest things get bad financially, he could either take a premade weapon design like most of the Governmental Types or spend most of his allowance to try and make a weapon for himself.
He, cocky little shit he was, chose to make one.
The first one he did was crap, but acceptable by the school's standards for a learning weaponsmith. A weaponsmith who got frustrated with his inability to further prototype and improve, as that one weapon wiped out his account and sent him struggling financially. Thus, he'd instead pivoted and went simple and ergonomic, developing cold weapons and turning those in for his grade.
Copper Brande did not like this.
At twenty-four years of age, having been hired in his first year of school at twenty, Copper wasn't exactly one who'd be imagined to be a respected teacher of the future's protectors. She was, however, a genius. A Mechashift and engineering genius and one who landed this job for future prospects and to network.
The intellectual world was an unfamiliar and alien place to Corwyn, but his interactions and investigations into Professor Brande meant that he'd uncovered a world that was full of nepotism, corruption, and most importantly and critically, networking. A Huntsman Academy was the perfect place to network, as this was where the greats got their starts and then she could start calling favors from students who got famous and get their endorsements for her projects and goals.
He'd discovered that Professor Brande was working on a line of Mechashift weapons that she wanted to go industrial, spread to the Vale Knights and Militia Guards, and effectively rise as an up-and-coming merchant of death.
She was egotistical and narcissistic, loved toying with the male student body's emotions and pulling them along, only to crush them in some sadistic rejection. Safe to say, she had a reputation.
Copper also loved to ride his ass about his 'primitive designs' and 'uninventive flair'. It was 'her way' or 'the highway' and it grinded his gears. He'd not since gotten higher than a B- on his projects since first-year, although he aced his quizzes and tests with a nonchalance that he knew irritated the woman.
His projects that once irritated her with being 'primitive' drew her attention. And so, she started playing her games. Flirtatious, manipulative, demanding, seductive, promising; it went on and on.
Nothing worked on Remnant!Corwyn, because that guy was preceptive, smart, and knew a guy who knew a guy who experienced her little games. Trust with authority also was never his thing, and he knew from experience that no authority figure would ever want to get involved with a piece of Fodder.
Thus, he grew suspicious, and his paranoia was rewarded by not falling into her web, but she lashed back, since having been an utter bitch for the following three years of his education.
No less than eighteen detentions, five write-ups, and an attempted suspension. The last one he fought with the school board, the previous abuses of power having him always record him making anything inside the Workshop; both as a means to study his own process, and to record any 'accident'. That video recording showed that he did nothing wrong and that the machine was faulty, and he was being unjustly blamed for 'breaking school property with willful intent' as claimed by Copper.
"I'm here with Professor Xiao Long's permission, Professor Brande." Corwyn said blandly as he produced the slip.
The woman visibly restrained snarling, stalking up to him and trying to snatch the card away from his hand. He reeled it back, presenting it to her eye, drawing a glare from the significantly shorter woman. Corwyn deadpanned down at her.
"Give it!" She demanded.
"Are you going to give it back?" He asked patiently, tone as if he was talking to a toddler.
She sneered, "Watch your tone."
Corwyn rolled his eyes and handed her the card, to which she inspected, before reluctantly handing it back. "What are you making? Another one of your…'weapons'." Her disdain was evident.
"Rings." He responded.
She huffed,, "Using school property and valuable materials to make petty accessories like rings? I do believe that is a write up." She grinned, "One more and you'll be getting suspended." She cheered.
Corwyn rolled his eyes, "I bought the materials from the quartermaster. The rings are Semblance related." He answered without concern or a hint of stress in his voice.
Copper frowned deeply, "You unlocked your semblance?" She asked, tone disbelieving.
"Yes."
A silence followed and he knew she was waiting for him to explain what it was.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"What's your semblance, dear?" She gritted out.
"Private information." He responded with monotone, a slight smirk crawling up his lips as he saw her brow jump in irritation. He watched her shake her head, before storming off to the enclosed office within the Workshop, leaving him to his duties.
He rolled his eyes as he watched her leave, eyes tracking the swaying tail and round ass it taunted, before ripping his eyes away and collecting his rings.
The door to the workshop opened once more, and Corwyn let out a smile. Ruby peeked her head inside, scanned around, before a smile split her face and she zoomed over to him.
"Corwyn!" His girlfriend of two months cheered. She crashed into him, hugging him tightly as she vibrated.
"I can't wait to show you some of my projects! You said we'll be working together on some stuff, right? What kind of stuff, huh? I need some sort of close-ranged option, and so do you! I kinda want something blunt, something to make me want to work on my strength, so maybe a collapsible mace? With spikes that retract out of its faces! It doesn't really need to be a gun, so I guess we can take advantage of mechashift's abilities to collapse weapons; make it really small on our person! What about you, huh? What do you want to make? Maybe a knife? Knives are cool! Like, I could totally see you with some throwing knives that get all sparky-sparky, or maybe a really big knife, like one of the Menagerie Knives that are real knives. You get me right? I want you to have a big knife, maybe one that could stab-stab my insides. You didn't hear that okay? I mean, I've only tried some of Yang's toys, and she's a total size queen, and her's are a bit big for me, but I stretch really well; so it's fine if you're not too big, but I kinda want something big-big."
Corwyn made a mental note to make something that enhances the speed of thought. Maybe a pair of glasses with a few intelligence enchantments? Although reaction speed and thought acceleration would be crazy helpful just as well.
"What was that about big knives again?" Corwyn asked, trying to filter through that word vomit that Ruby just expelled onto him.
She giggled, something that sounded somehow not-so-innocent-at-all.
"So, what're we doin'?" She asked derpily.
Corwyn blinked, "Well, I was thinking of making some secondaries for us, like I think you mentioned." He got a quick nod and he continued, "Then I want a sniper. A big one."
He swallowed as she licked her lips, her hand reaching up to rub at the gothic neck-choker.
'Damned hormones. You kiss a girl, and all you can think about is how good it'd feel inside her throat.' Corwyn thought.
'Damn hormones. You kiss a guy, and all you can think about is how good it'd feel to have him inside my throat…' Ruby thought.
"So, a sniper, a big one," Ruby's smile widened, "And a knife, right?"
"Erm, yeah?" Corwyn nodded. "That sounds right."
She giggled, "It does, doesn't it?"
Corwyn's head tilted, "...Yeah…" He shook his head, "Let's get to work."
"Uzah!" Ruby cheered, rushing over to the tables to start working on a design.