The next day in the Warden’s armory, aka Rick’s workshop.

“ Seriously David, your armor was quite literally half fried. We would have to rebuild the upper half completely save for the left arm, and even then...”

David raised a finger.

“ You forget Rick, with the big ‘FU’ with the recent patch notes. Every Warden will only ever have one armor. That is my armor. Azanii wants to fight in that tournament and I will not let her unless I am there to take a hit instead of her with my children on the way.”

Rick rubs the back of his head and looks at the toddler sleeping in the nearby crib.

“ Okay, I get it. But if I knew this six months ago...”

David gives him a look and Rick shakes his head.

“ To be fair, he is not the only one here for their armor.”

They both look to a waiting Jake and her daughter looking at Adam while sitting on her father’s shoulder.

“ Oh, you and the other Warden armors are done... kinda... We still need to calibrate and personalize them.”

Passing by David, Rick moves to a wooden crate and pulls the side off of it showing a standing power armor even larger than Davids's.

“ The mark 2, I beefed up all the internals with John’s help. With the exception of the neural sensors and a few tech-heavy requirements, we had to keep. The armor was completely redesigned based on the bullsh... crap that went into David’s armor...”

“ Speaking of my armor, where is it?”

“ In storage, look for the box labeled D-001.”

David nods as Rick goes back to talking to Jake.

“ As I was saying. The first obvious difference you will find is that we removed the old power supply on the back. Since the suit runs on mana now it was pointless. That leaves you options for optional backpacks...”

As David got to the storage room he toned out the discussion and began scanning for his armor. Even if he did not use the scan skill he would have quickly found the box. Grabbing a nearby trolley, he brings the box out to the workshop and digs his hand under the nailed-down wood, and rips it off on his first attempt. This caused the other two to turn rapidly to the slap of wood on the ground.

“ For F sake David, could you not wait... five...”

As Rick trailed off, Jake was also mesmerized by the armor in the box.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“ Come on guys, it is magiced up. Of course, it has a self-repair function.”

Before anyone did anything else, Rick took a hammer off the table and pushed David out of the way before tapping the armor a few times.

“ Fuck me...”

“ Language in front of my daughter.”

“ Come on dad, after everything it should be fine to drop an F bomb or two. I won’t tell mom.”

David moves to stand Jake and raised his fist toward her.

“It's uncle Rick's fault if you develop a mouth, agreed.”

She smiled wide as she tapped her fist against his.

“ Yep!”

Jake could only sigh as Rick turned around shaking his head.

“ Not that simple David. I will need John to do a full check...”

“ Nope, you had my armor for nine months and only used it as a reference point. I need it again and you ain’t stopping me.”

Jake did not miss David moving to a wider open area of the workshop as Rick’s little hammer turned into a warhammer in his hand.

“ And how do you plan to do that when I won’t let you near it till it is safe.”

David looked Rick in the eye seriously before cracking a smile.

“ {Armory of the Lost World: Armor of the First Dreadnaught}.”

As Rick turned his head to look at the now vanished armor from the box. David realized he should have probably let the suit initiate a self-upgrade before being in it. As things shifted and broke the familiar green screen of the Warden OS appeared overriding the Universal systems.

Please design the exterior look of Grandmaster armor.

David blinked and the old shape of the Dreadnaught armor was replaced with the sketch he and Azanii made the night before. It was no longer a seven-foot-tall half a ton of armor but instead stood just over twice as tall at fourteen and a quarter. Weighting over eight times as much. Instead of removing the obsolete engine, it is replaced by a mana engine The Blind One evolved from the old one using the lingering energies of the Universal System evolution that made it tech into magitech. Furthermore, a mana crystal array was added to add even more power reserves to the suit.

In addition to the practical applications, a banner of the Unity hung high behind his head. The helmet remained the same with the exception of dragon horns replacing the antenna. On his shoulders were no longer angled plates of steel, but metallic feathers. His right side had been painted with a flame motif where he was burned before. The D-001, had been moved from the shoulder to the left breast area and under it appeared a plaque for ribbons and rewards. These were also his titles save for two. One medal is one that every current or future Warden who survived being in the scavenger hunt would get. The other medal is a medal that will not be seen on another till one reaches the grand elder rank. The medal of creation. For creating their own class.

David ignored the pain of his body, it hurt but he felt the sooner he got this done the better. Using his eyes, he began focusing on a few things that needed to be changed immediately. Such as improvements to the helmet or changing the color scheme so he does not look like a Warden knockoff instead of their leader. Next, he went into the technicals. Changing things to his preferences. Finally, he reset a few things and added a few things that will change when certain things happen.

When David was done he could not help but smirk. It was less Master Chief and more Doom Guy meets mech suit. And he bet Doom Guy would love a mech suit.