Preparing to start making new gear, Matt set his pack with all the wood next to his desk and laid his armor on top of the desk. Looking down, he had his front and back chest plates, his helmet, his arm and leg guards, and his bracers. He also had his bat but that was fine on its own and didn’t need modifications, so he just let it rest against his pack.
His armor was decent, but it was certainly a rush job to help him through the forest, and it has done that job. Now, he had more wood and could make more covering armor. He might not have just enough yet for full plate like a lot of adventurers had, but he could definitely be better then the few he had now.
He was about to start going through the process of making more plates, but he had an idea. There wasn’t exactly a reason he had to make plate armor like he saw other adventurers wear, that was just his first thought seeing the nature of his new home, but it wasn’t his only option. It might not even be the best option.
Turning over a few ideas in his head, he needed to experiment a bit before he knew if his idea had any merit.
Flexing his sense of his new material to start making it, he was a bit surprised to feel that the rope he had made pinged his ‘Fabric’ perception. However, it felt weaker than what his clothes and the bedding was made of, like it was lesser in his understanding of fabric. Which did make sense. If someone had told him that rope was fabric, he would just have to grit his teeth and say ‘Yeah, technically. If you stretch the definition’
And it seems that was true when Shaping was concerned. Ignoring how he knew it was made from wood and just focused on the fact how it was technically fabric, he tried to Shape it and came with a few observations. The material did in fact move when he willed it, but it was much harder than any other time he was shaping rope.
So trying to bond with things and shape them with loose connections was a lot harder than if he had a strong understanding, which made sense since his entire ability to Shape in the first place was based on his ability to manipulate materials he had an understanding of.
He also discovered that while he could not Shape fabric and wood at the same time, if he was Shaping a single something that was both, then he could. Shaping both the fabric and wood in the rope, it was easier then if he tried to shape just one. It wasn’t that substantial of a difference since it wasn’t very fabric-y, but it was easier.
Picking up a thick branch about two feet long that weighed around five pounds, he reached his bond through the wood and started to shed the fibers away from each other, shredding the wood into a pile of wood fiber. It was a little shocking how much more volume of wood the separated fibers created, but that was better for him as he bent down and ran a hand through all the wood.
When making rope, he would just braid the fibers together directly from the wood but that would be a bit harder when making fabric since it needed to be more uniform. Getting to work, he could only feel the wood in the pile but as he started to weave the fiber together into a sheet, its feeling of fabric grew greater and greater, and as it began to become shoddy fabric through his own skill, his system imparted understanding of fabric kicked in and straightened out his mistakes.
After not long, the five pounds of wood fiber was turned into a five yard long, one yard wide sheet of white cloth. Thanks to his understanding of Fabric, he was able to instinctually make even and straight fabric with a uniform pattern. If he had to do this manually it would be nowhere as neat. It was a few millimeters thick and quite rough on its own, but by shaping it to be much more durable than the already decently sturdy wood fabric, and making it much softer, he had a lot of fabric that was very strong and as soft as any regular shirt from his old world.
New Achievement!
Through the shaping of certain materials, you have created a new crafting material all on your own! The ability to further refine or manipulate the material you are crafting with is one of the core abilities of a Shaper craftsman.
Reward: Small Level Progress
Level Up!
You have earned enough level progress and leveled up!
Reward: 1 point
Smiling at the window and dismissing it, leaving the point in his status to use later, he turned back to his roll of fabric. Thanks to his ability to combine his understanding of materials, it was incredibly easy to shape the fabric however he wanted and he didn’t need to have any knowledge on how to actually sew.
Separating a few feet off his roll and fusing the edges back into the rest of the material so there was no fraying edge, he took the square and held it up against his chest. It covered his whole torso just as he held it out, and as he looked into the mirror he observed as he Shaped the cloth to cover him and cover his body. Another benefit of Shaping was he didn’t need scissors or anything.
Shaping the fabric, he continually adjusted it until he had a jacket made completely out of his white wood fabric. He adjusted the fit as he stretched out into different positions until it fit to his liking. There was no hood, but he had the collar extend up so it was covering his neck, similar to a turtleneck sweater.
It had an opening like a zip up sweater but had no zipper, just an inner strip of fabric that extended out past the edge and was as long as his torso. When he wanted to close it, he just fused that under strip to the inside of the other edge, leaving a small gap going down his chest that had the strip slightly visible beneath it. The bottom of the jacket ended a few inches above the center of his thigh, so on the back he made a split from the bottom going up to the same point the unfused front open reached, letting the jacket cover part of his legs without restricting his mobility.
A bit higher than that opening closer to his waist, he attached some belt loops around the jacket and taking some of the rope he first made, he made a belt by folding the rope in half and fusing it like he had before, except now he used his understanding of fabric to make an even strip of thick rope fabric two inches wide and a centimeter thick. Making a square ‘buckle’ out of wood, he fused it to one of the ends and when pulled taught around his waist, he fused the other end to a smaller block of wood he then fused to the buckle to keep it closed while needed.
Looking in the mirror at the new white jacket, he smiled at how cool it was. Sure, it might have been a bit much back on earth, but Matt was very happy with the look and feel. And it wasn’t even done yet. Picking up his front chest plate, he compacted the wood a bit thinner with his increased manipulation force and split the plate into several symmetrical sections.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Taking those new plate tiles, he looked into the mirror and started fusing the plates directly onto the surface of his jacket, still leaving a bit of a gap between each tile, eventually his jackets chest was covered in armor plates like some of the plated body armor in his old world or in sci fi media. Since he didn’t have to worry about attaching them mechanically and could just fuse the plates into the fabric, it was much easier to make something like this.
Adjusting the tiles so that they restricted the flexibility of the jacket as little as possible, he moved on to covering the rest of his vitals with the plates. He couldn’t cover the entirety of the jacket's surface with the plates without removing the main benefit of having it in the first place, but he could cover almost all of his vitals and weak points. Leaving most of the uncovered area around the inside of his joints and along his side, he turned the rest of the armor he already made into plates. As he was getting to his sleeves and was about to plate it, he faltered for a moment. He could just make plated sleeves, but that wouldn't be as good as a proper bracer. However, a bracer would get in the way of the sleeves. Hmm…
Looking at his arms, he Shaped the fabric and unraveled the sleeve up to just below his elbow, leaving the rest of the fabric as a strip of cloth that hangs down off his sleeve. Grabbing the strip, he began to wrap the cloth back down his forearm, extending the sleeve slightly so it was also getting wrapped and then using some of the extra fabric not used in the jacket to extend the strip until he was able to wrap all the way to his wrist, and then he fused the end to itself so it held on snugly.
Now, he had his sleeve held down at his elbow by the wrapping that covered his arm, all while leaving his forearms unencumbered for better armor. Since he was already there, might as well make something for his forearms and hands. Taking more fabric, he Shaped it until he had gloves covering his hands and went over the wrappings. Opening and clenching his hands, he was satisfied with the fit and began to attach his bracers.
Adding the bracers to the outside of his glove and then making smaller plates to cover to insides while leaving the bracers straps, now also rope fabric, attached to the underside he could slip the now gauntlets on and off, and then tighten them to fit. Moving to his hands, He didn’t make anything to cover the palms of his hands, but on the backs he made a large plate for the back of his hand and a smaller one for the back of his thumb.
On his fingers, he covered the backs fully with wood while having them wrap around to cover the insides slightly, but over the insides of his joints he had it uncovered so he still had full mobility. At the tips, he covered them fully with wooden caps, and then he extended the caps into slight claws so he could apply more precise dexterity if necessary. Also, it looked very cool.
He didn’t have quite as much finger dexterity anymore, but if he had the gauntlets on he would probably be doing things that didn’t require much finesse. And with Shaping, there eventually won’t be anything that he will need to use his hands for. Looking over to his pack, he bent down and picked up his bat. Feeling it in his hands, he gave a few test swings and felt how he lost a bit of grip while wearing the gauntlets. Thinking over a solution, he grabbed some more fabric, thinned it out and fused a new grip wrapping to the handle and shaped it to be rougher. Now when he swung, it felt solid in his grip.
It was a bit hard to just pull the gauntlets off, but since it was wood he didn’t need to. He just tugged them off with his Shaping and made a new realization. He could apply force and pressure to material when he was Shaping it, but he had never tried to lift something fully with his will. As he tugged them off, they came free of his hand and were suspended in the air for a few moments before he released his bond, and they fell like normal.
Looking around, he made a small wooden ball quickly and tried to lift the ball purely with his Shaping, he did just that and held it in the air. Matt's heart quickened slightly as he started waving the ball through the air, watching as it flew around. He had to stop as lifting something fully took quite a bit more Connection then just changing or moving it, but it was incredible! He had telekinesis for anything he could Shape! Any previous longing for Mana had completely disappeared, this was the best power he could ever ask for.
Taking a moment to settle himself and get a bit of Connection back, he went back to his armor. He picked up the gauntlet from the floor and set them onto his desk moving on now that they were finished. He went to unwrap his arms with his hands, but thought about it for a moment and used his Shaping to roll the strips up and hold them down at his elbows.
Finishing off the jacket, he slipped it off and smiled down at the new piece of armor in his hands. Grabbing one of the thinner branches in his pile, he quickly made a hanger out of wood and slipped the jacket onto it. Looking around the room for a place to hang this, he frowned as he realized there weren't really any hooks or anything. Well, that isn’t really that much of a problem. Grabbing a small bit of wood the size of a nail, he made it stronger before fusing it directly into the wall at eye level. Happy with the makeshift peg, he hung up the jacket and stepped back. When he left the inn he could just get rid of the peg and smooth over the wall. The building was made of that white wood like most of the town, but it had been stained or prepared somehow that made it more gray than pure white so his peg stood out slightly, but that wouldn’t matter later.
Turning back to his fabric, he moved to make a pair of pants that were armored in the same way before he stopped. He could make a pair that would go over the pair he came into this world with, but having two layers would be uncomfortable. Thinking about it, he decided to just make a new pair.
Stripping off his first pair of pants, he set them aside as he took more of the fabric, thinned it out slightly and made a pair of tight shorts that ended above his knees. Grabbing more fabric, he made a pair of pants that were a bit baggier than his regular pair and had a higher waist when pulled all the way up. Now, when he would have his jacket on and closed up, there wouldn't be any gaps of his bare skin.
Satisfied with the plain pants, he moved forward and laid the wood plate tiles onto them. He had used most of his already made armor when making the top half, so he had to prepare more wood plates from the lumber he brought with him. Finishing up the legs, he had them less plated then his jacket. Pants had to be pretty flexible or else they were restricting, but he could still have larger plates covering his thighs, calves and back and leave enough space so he could move freely.
There wasn’t much he could do with his boots other than cover them with his plated pant leg, which he did, so he moved on and went to his last item, the helmet.
His bucket helmet was fine as is, but it didn’t really look as good as the rest of his new armor. Taking the basically cylinder in his hands, he inspected the head piece as he thought over his options. He unfused the rope from the inside and set it aside as he placed it and the faceplate on his head and started to Shape it. Smoothing out the edges and the shape, he added some more material and turned the previously ugly bucket into a way cooler helmet that looked a bit like a cross between a motorcycle helmet and a tactical helmet. With his jacket on covering his neck and the helmet, there would be almost no skin showing except for his eyes and face when he detached the face plate.
The top of his helmet ended just above his eyes and the edges closed around his cheeks, extending past his face both down toward his neck, and forward past his chin and mouth. The face plate for this helmet was a more bent ‘L’ shape when looked from the side compared to the straight plate of his old one, so when he slid it forward and fused it to the helmet, his eyes had a straight line of unobstruction and the bottom ledge of the mask covered under his chin.
Adding some padding to the helmets inside with some of the fabric that he made thicker, he had finished his set of armor. Putting back on the jacket and gauntlets, he looked in a mirror. Fully armored, he looked like some kind of futuristic soldier that instead of storming strongholds in the night, was constantly moving through a snowstorm. When he had the bat in hand, he looked like some kind of apocalyptic biker that beats down mutated monstrosities while looking like a ghost. It was a unique look but it looked incredibly cool, and it kept him way more protected than his previous equipment.
Setting down his helmet and gauntlets back onto the desk and making another hanger for his pants, he hung up the jacket and pants. Matt looked out the small window and saw that the sun had fully set, and he was feeling it. Putting away the rest of his materials and tidying up, Matt saw he still had quite a bit of fabric left so he stripped off the rest of his clothes and quickly made a set of loose pajama pants and a shirt.
Stretching out with a yawn, Matt moved towards his bed and got under the covers, getting comfortable. He had an exciting day, and he was going to keep having exciting days. The thought was almost enough to make sleeping hard, but his exhaustion won over that battle, and after he blew out the candle on his desk, he quickly fell asleep after shutting his eyes.