Bear School Astartes

Rong Buqiu excitedly trotted to the middle of the crowd, his large, watery eyes sparkling.

Because although the crafting process of this armor involves Smaug’s scales and dragon skin, which have long lost their magic power, there’s no room for the New Continent craftsmen to showcase their specialties, as most of it was coordinated by Belengar.

But according to the hunters’ rules, when a hunter changes equipment, how can they not consider their companion cat?

So, in fact, there is also a set of equipment for Rong Buqiu here.

In the clearing of the crafting house, a large and a small armor display stand were set up inside.

The tall armor perfectly matches Lann’s body data, making it feel just right for the demon hunter standing in front of it.

And beside the tall armor, a short one, with not much material used, a small cat armor is also standing there.

At the very inside of the excited crowd, Belengar and the leader of the Second Period Team stood beside the two sets of armor.

They both crossed their arms, with a smug look on their faces, evidently this set of armor is their proud creation.

"The appearance has been completely modified according to your requirements."

Belengar reached out his hand, pointing to that tall armor, speaking to Lann who walked in from outside the crowd.

"Only the appearance?" Lann smiled, sizing up the armor, while teasingly saying, "I don’t believe that you two would only modify the appearance when you team up."

"The rest of it will be discussed later, let’s start with the most obvious," the leader of the Second Period Team waved his big hand, "Are you satisfied with the appearance? Does it fit your battle scenes?"

Lann stepped into the circle of the crowd, raising his hand to lightly touch the armor.

The fingertips sketched across the breastplate, followed by tapping twice with the knuckles.

"Bang bang~"

Smaug’s highly defensive dragon scale texture, from these slight taps, echoed back into Lann’s knuckles.

Making the young demon hunter raise his brows in admiration.

This armor, although primarily led by Belengar, is ultimately cast in the crafting house at Star Base. So inevitably, its appearance leans towards the style of the New Continent hunters.

That is: a robust yet harmonious combination of biological materials and steel.

Smaug’s dragon scales had long been polished into usable components by the Lonely Mountain Dwarves, just waiting for assembly and fine craftsmanship.

And Belengar and the leader of the Second Period Team have undoubtedly completed their work to a high standard.

Including the assembly of various specifications of dragon scales into the armor body, and unbeknownst to anyone, what processing they did to the scales.

The overall presents a color with a steel cold hardness texture.

Smaug’s dragon skin was also fully utilized.

They transformed into straps, weapon bands, hanging belts on the armor.

Belengar’s origin from the Wolf School led him to design many conveniently usable mounting points on the armor.

It should be very handy for hanging flying knives, daggers, potions, and other small items in daily use, faster by a few seconds compared to digging them out from the alchemy pouch.

Lann’s piece, with the [Early Recovery Guard Stone] embedded in the center, engraved with the Fifth Period Team’s badge, was steadily wrapped around the center by the armor’s belt method using the dragon skin belt.

The largest piece of dragon skin was made into a fishtail skirt.

The extensive distribution of dragon skin was as they expected, outstanding in flame resistance.

Lann’s suggestion was indeed very useful, in the final product, the two grand craftsmen vastly removed the spikes from the original design, so that this armor wouldn’t appear too "brutal" to the average observer.

These spikes were indeed an aesthetic obsession of the New Continent craftsmen, completely different from the concept of the demon hunter school armors, those which don’t compromise armor strength while slightly enhancing the offensive means, with armguards and shoulder plates covered in tripoint nails.

Especially the crowned skull-shaped helmet is a feature of Belengar’s ’rebellious spirit’ drawn out by the New Continent craftsmen.

Pieces of dragon scales interlock, bite together, and dragon scales and dragon skin cooperate, forming boots and gloves.

The projector on the left hand also inherited all previous functions.

It must be said that aside from the ’peculiar’ aesthetics due to survival environment, the blacksmiths’ design really stands out, with high level of completion.

The whole set of armor highlights a cold and sharp aura, although not as "exaggerated" as the New Continent Expedition Team’s styles, it still retains sophistication and momentum.

Such armor would not be mistaken as cheap common goods wherever it is placed.

But with slight disguising, it won’t attract undue attention wherever it goes.

Convenient for situations where Lann wears armor as everyday clothing.

Hunter’s armor is equipment for hunting; functionality matters; other aspects are irrelevant as long as it works.

But demon hunter’s armor, besides being a tool in combat, is even attire for negotiation; it requires more consideration.

Just as Lann demanded: At least it shouldn’t be too scary, right?

Moreover, he is not an ordinary Demon Hunter; he is one who extends ’missions’ across many worlds.

"Nothing to say, it’s fantastic."

Lann twirled around, examining the armor, generously praising the craftsmanship of the two master craftsmen.

Then, he turned his head down and watched the little cat mimic him by circling around the armor display rack.

"And you, Rong Buqiu?"

"Mmm, mmm! Very impressive meow!"

The Three-Floral Elu Cat cheerfully raised its head and meowed.

"We used an existing blueprint for the Elu Cat’s armor." The leader of the Second Period Team timely introduced the small cat armor, "The style is based on the Tigrex model."

There’s not much to say about the Elu Cat’s armor, although due to the small body, it requires less material.

But also because of the lesser material, the Elu Cat’s armor often can’t feature the ’depth of design’ found in Hunter Armor.

As it often can’t carry the "essence" of monsters.

"Since the appearance is not an issue." Belengar approached the armor, but unlike Lann, he did not touch it, "Then we can talk about the deeper aspects now."

Getting into the rhythm, Belengar exuded the aura of a Grandmaster Blacksmith, efficient and straightforward.

He indicated the armor towards Lann without actually touching it, as he introduced.

"I used the Magic Runes from your original Grandmaster Level armor in this armor, so it also possesses the effects of the Bear School equipment."

"And because the material from this dragon has better magic flow and storage, its parameters are even superior to your previous set."

Lann kept scanning the armor, transmitting the observed data to Mentos for a more detailed stress analysis.

At the same time, he inquired with great interest, "Specifically?"

"Specifically," Belengar spoke fluidly, "its efficiency in reclaiming broken Quen Rune magic power is higher."

"Your previous armor would basically have to have its shield break twice for the magic power to automatically generate one. But this armor..."

The old Demon Hunter first calculated the data mentally before giving a definite answer.

"Yeah, break four shields, and the reclaimed magic power can generate three times."

"Moreover, this armor can also enhance your Magic Seal’s effects. The strongest boost to the Quen Rune would be around forty percent, while the weakest, the Yarden Rune, would be about twenty percent."

"I have to admit," Belengar remarked with a bit of emotion at the end, "those who can design Grandmaster Level school armors are not ordinary personas."

Although Belengar’s craftsmanship is commendable, he has only ever seen the ’Grandmaster Bear School Armor’ to this day, the top-tier set of a Demon Hunter.

He hasn’t even seen the Grandmaster Level blueprints of his own Wolf School, indicating that his experience doesn’t quite match his craft and reputation.

The magic design inside this armor essentially mirrors Lann’s previous Grandmaster Level armor.

However, due to the superiority of the materials, the overall performance has surged.

If given more time for Belengar to study and absorb, he might have the capacity to design a Grandmaster Level armor himself, but undoubtedly, that is not the case now.

This does not suggest any shortcomings in his abilities, as a Grandmaster Level armor not only requires the internal magic runes design but also requires consideration and coordination with the armor’s material and physical defense effects.

Originally, on Lann’s armor, those combinations of bear skin, cotton armor, tanned dragon leather, chain mail, and so on were meant to compromise and coordinate with the magic runes while accounting for physical protection.

In different materials, different treatments and rune engravings hold symbolic meanings in mysticism.

Even delving deeper, whether to select bear skin during hibernation or mating season has meaning.

Minor adjustments can cause deviations in the whole process.

Belengar, in such a large material gap, managed to transfer the internal magic design of the Grandmaster Level armor to this armor comprehensively in a few days, which already demonstrates great skill.

By this point, Lann was already quite satisfied with this armor.

The defense of Smaug’s scales and dragon skin, combined with a super-enhanced version of the Demon Hunter School set effect, was already immensely powerful.

However, obviously, the rare materials from Smaug led to concerted collaboration between the leader of the Second Period Team and Belengar. But expecting this other master craftsman to purely be an assistant, he would certainly not accept.

After Belengar introduced the aspects of the armor connected to ’magic and mysticism’, the one-eyed bald man also approached.

"Haha, over the past few days, everyone has pretty much learned about the situation with that Fog Nest Master."

The leader of the Second Period Team chuckled heartily, hands on hips.

"Many hunters have come over, asking if the materials from that monster could be used to craft equipment."

"I reckon its reason for causing ecological pollution might be that chaos magic power, but don’t you all use chaos magic power yourselves? So I tried it on this armor first."

Lann himself didn’t care much about this, as being a Demon Hunter, he surely isn’t afraid of chaos magic power pollution. Instead, he looked at the other with interest, wanting to hear more about it.