As always Giliath demands your power stones!
*
I finally got to see what it was inside Father's own Combat Orbment. And for my initial impression, I could immediately spot some differences. Seeing my surprise right away, Giliath smiled.
"It seems you picked on something. This will be another lesson for you. There is indeed a difference between my Combat Orbment, and the more common standard-issued ones you can come across on the marketplace. Like I said, I've mine custom-built. Consider it a perk of serving His Imperial Majesty.", Giliath said, explaining the situation to me. "Now, what do you think the difference between mine and the standard-issued ones is?"
Hearing that, I went into my thoughts and observed the Combat Orbment device before me. It looked very similar to the Generation IV model, perhaps slightly bigger? I saw the center of it, and it had the normal center. One center Quartz could be slotted into it. Circuits could be seen connecting one Slot to another. These are called Lines. And depending on the person who wields their Combat Orbment like Father stated, they'll have different elemental locks.
There was one big difference I saw right off the bat.
"One...two...three...", I uttered, beginning to count the lines. Stretching from the center Slot, I counted a total of four Lines stretching on each end. "No way, there's nine Slots!?", I exclaimed in disbelief.
"Hahaha! So you could tell the difference. As expected of my son. His Imperial Majesty has some connections to some rather well-known engineers in the field. This Combat Orbment of mine is definitely not your ordinary Combat Orbment you'd get on the market. Only those really high up in the Imperial Army can use these beauties. And it's not just assigned to anyone either. ", Giliath responded, letting out a loud laugh.
I couldn't help but suck in a cold breath. In the first half of Sky, you only had six Slots. In the latter half, you had seven Slots. Then you got improved generations, the 5th and 6th Generation models. The Enigma I and Enigma II, and Arcus I and Arcus II respectively. That's when shit really turned crazy. In the Erebonian Empire, they'd release the Arcus Combat Orbments, and only they had a full nine Slots. Once the Arcus II came out, you would lose one Slot, but it got supplemented by a new feature, which introduced Master Quartz and Sub Master Quartz, which provided an even larger variety of effects and goodies.
I luckily had the chance of seeing the Xipha in action too, which was Calvard's new and improved Generation VI model. The Xipha had a whopping sixteen Slots! It underwent a fundamental improvement over the other Combat Orbment devices, which brought in a whole realm of new combat tactics. You wouldn't see this until Daybreak onward. And that right now, is a full two decades away. Quite unfortunate, am I right?
Even with the available Arts right now, having nine Slots is a bit overkill. This should allow Giliath to cast most Arts though. I can't say I'm not jealous. If you wanted a character in the games to fulfill two roles instead of one, then this is definitely the type of Combat Orbment to do that! Depending on the character you could build them both as a healer and as a damage dealer. It never listed Giliath's Combat Orbment stats when you could fight him, but if I had to take a guess, he could build enough to make him both a tank and a high attack damage dealer. He soaked up so much damage when you fought him.
"Does that mean you can cast a lot of Arts, Dad?", I questioned.
"Indeed I can. Luckily enough I just so happened to bring this practice dummy with me!", Giliath said, suddenly vanishing behind a nearby tree. As if pulling it out of his ass, a large wooden practice dummy suddenly appeared in my sight. The hell?
Like, I won't question it. I bet Giliath had this pre-planned, and hid the dummy behind the tree. He probably didn't want to see any Arts being cast on the nearby wildlife. They aren't monsters. Unless in dire circumstances, we typically leave them alone, or even domesticate them. We save Arts casting for when someone hunts monsters.
"I won't question where you got that, but you're going to show me an Art, right!?", I happily replied, showing excitement in my eyes. I mean, who wouldn't want to see a magic spell be casted in person like this? Magic didn't exist in my previous life. All we had was science, and even that had its limits.
"That is why I brought this thing out, yes. I will be demonstrating Arts today. And before I dive into the practical side of things, let me explain how casting an Art works. There's no inner energy you have to focus like how you do with battle qi, nor are there any scripts you have to recite to activate it. All you have to do is simply draw your finger across the Lines you want to use. That will trigger the required number of elemental points to activate said Art. Once you start doing it a few times, you'll get the hang of it. There's even individuals out there who are known for their quick casting. Now that takes real skill to master. Being able to cast Arts in quick succession in under a second will determine how the battle goes.", Giliath said, explaining the entire process to me in one go. I swear, he didn't even take a single breath. You really are a monster aren't you, old man?
But seriously, that was a lot to take in there. I was definitely curious to see how this would go, considering this isn't the games. In the games, all you had to do was navigate your menu, select Art, and choose from a filtered drop-down list. Sadly, I don't have that luxury here. But I did get my explanation instead!
All you have to do is drag your finger from Quartz to Quartz, making sure that the Lines activate from one to another, and the elemental points will add up. This triggers a resonance with the Combat Orbment device itself. It will take over, unleash its Orbal Energy, and activate said Art. It happens in the span of a couple seconds, and as Father said, if you develop your casting skills good enough, you can do these in even under a second. He definitely alluded to a certain guy who goes by the name, Toval Randonneur. He would eventually earn the moniker, "Zero Artisan", renown for his insane casting, and quick cooldowns. By the time you finish casting your own Art, he'd already unleash several of his own.
A true Wind God, in a sense, haha!
Further down the line, Quartz will change, allowing Arts to be assigned onto Quartz themselves, instead of you having to waste time drawing your fingers across the Lines. I'd figure once we reach that point, all we'd have to do is tap the Slot itself to trigger the resonance effect. But after that is where the craziness starts. Luckily enough for this too, I was able to see how Xiphas worked, like I previously mentioned.
You can literally plug in Arts into your Xipha itself, without relying on Quartz or Slots. It's basically hacking your phone to trigger magic spells. Seriously, how cool is that?
Definitely something to look forward to. That's for sure.
I saw Giliath take a few moments to set up the training dummy. It was soon ready, and 10:00 AM struck. It was still morning, and there was still some time to have some fun before we had to head back and have lunch with Mother and Rean.
"Has Kasia taught you the names of Arts during my times away from the house, son?", Giliath decided to ask me.
"Yeah, Mom did. Are you giving me the choice of wanting to see one?", I asked with growing anticipation.
"Haha! I like that look in your eyes. Tell me which one you fancy. I'm sure you don't know what they do, considering I haven't taught you Combat Orbments until now. Just say the name of one, and I'll try to cast it for you.", Giliath said, prompting me to choose any Art I want to see casted.
Any Art I want, huh...?
Well, let's not get too crazy here. We probably shouldn't go into any B or A tier Arts. Perhaps more around the D or C range. Just like Crafts, Arts also have a similar power ranking, going all the way from E to several S counts. The higher count S has, the more it'd do. You'd see that type of damage from the highest tier Arts or from S-Crafts.
I'll go into S-Crafts another time. But to some those up, they're basically a character's so-called ultimate skill.
"Hmm. Any Art I want to see...", I uttered. Right now only those shown in the Sky games should be available, at least those in the first half of the story. The upgraded Combat Orbment doesn't exist yet, so Tier 3 Slots shouldn't be a thing. Arts are pretty limited as a whole right now. Still, one popped into my mind, and I decided right then and there.
"Let's go with Blue Impact!", I exclaimed. Giliath paused, hearing me yell that out.
"So in the end, it's a Water Art. Pretty ironic, your late Mother was always fond of casting Water Arts, even though she didn't do it too often.", Giliath said. I saw a hint of reminiscence appear in his eyes, suddenly talking about Mother.
"Really?", I replied, not expecting Giliath to say that.
"Yes. For now, let us not reminisce about the past. I will cast you Blue Impact. Watch carefully now...", Giliath said, grabbing a hold of his custom Combat Orbment. My eyes were glued on it, not wanting to miss any detail. After all, if one of these lands in my hand one day, I'll have the knowledge on how to cast Arts instead of simply choosing one from a game menu!
I mean, it would be pretty cool if my Gamer System could adapt such a function, but that'd raise too many questions if others saw it. I'd have to show it to those who trusted me, or alone, if that became a thing in the future. And in the games, the characters wouldn't shout the names of the Arts. They'd just grunt or remain silent while they took a turn to cast it.
I saw Father quickly trace his fingers along the Combat Orbment, making sure he touched both Slots and Lines. The resonance effect triggered in a mere moment, and his Combat Orbment suddenly lit up in a big blue glow...
"Hah!", Giliath yelled. Before I realized it, the Blue Impact came forth, creating highly pressured water into a single jet stream. It landed right onto the target!