“Yes, the defensive properties of this black armor set in the making can be raised to Mid-level Rank 4 at the very least—if it turns out as we expect, of course,” Vaan stated.
‘Mid-level Rank 4!’ Astoria inwardly exclaimed.
That was the same level of power that shattered her Rank 3 armor and sent her into critical conditions by Fallen Witch Elvira.
If she had such strong armor, even if she couldn’t beat Fallen Witch Elvira in another fight, she wouldn’t necessarily lose either.
At the very least, Fallen Witch Elvira wouldn’t be able to penetrate her armor again.
At the same time, possessing a Mid-level Rank 4 defense implied that no one at Early-stage High Witch could harm her.
“Armor of this quality is hard to make even by the current Rank 4 Artificing Maestros. This is too valuable,” Astoria said with a sigh before adding, “If requested something like this from the Maestros, it would have cost me an arm at least.”
After all, the artificing business was big money. Equipment, weapons, and magic tools that could augment a witch’s ability wouldn’t be cheap.
And yet, here, Teacher Raphna was making her one for free.
“Is it really possible to make?” Astoria started to doubt, even though she wanted to believe in Vaan..
She watched Vaan go through the standard steps of a magic blacksmith to produce his Rank 4 black metal.
After the mixture of metals turned molten, Vaan took them out of the smelting furnace, added the mana solution, and stirred the big pot like he was brewing a potion.
Before long, the black mixture containing specks of other colors became uniform, being completely black.
Vaan took note of the time before he added the foundry bucket of molten black metal back into the smelting furnace for a second time.
The scorching-high temperature of the smelting furnace wasn’t something a normal person could get close to nor endure, but Vaan did.
Nevertheless, his face was blackened by dirty fumes, and his skin glowed red from the heat.
Sacha didn’t notice it the first time. But seeing him in action again, she realized his body was quite resilient to the heat.
It didn’t pain him nor cause him difficulties. Instead, he seemed nonchalant to the heat.
Sometime later, Vaan took the foundry bucket back out of the smelting furnace and poured the molten metal into the empty molds.
“I will need you to perform the first round of enchantments while they are still in their molten states this time, Lady Sacha,” Vaan stated.
“Alright,” Sacha nodded, understanding what she had to do.
Although the order was slightly different, the overall process was mostly still the same. After she cast her magic on the molten metal in the two dozen molds to refine them.
Even then, Astoria did not see anything distinctively special about them.
However, after they slightly cooled down and started to solidify, she finally saw the beginning of their miraculous properties.
Her instincts told her the black metal ingots were very hard, even when they had yet to solidify fully.
“Alright, I will take it back from here, Lady Sacha,” Vaan stated, immediately stunning Sacha.
Last time, she was in charge of everything that followed after the creation of the Rank 4 purple metal ingot.
And yet, this time, he wanted to do it?
“Are you sure about that? You must have a very specific design in mind, Vahn. If you can draw it up, I can handle it. These metal ingots have already become Rank 4 metal. The heat from the smelting furnace won’t be able to turn them back into molten states,” Sacha mentioned.
“I’m aware of that, Lady Sacha. However, you don’t need to worry,” Vaan calmly assured before he added, “As long as you haven’t cast earth anti-magic enchantments on them, there won’t be an issue.”
Shortly after, he summoned Topaz, stunning Sacha in the same instant she appeared in front of him.
‘Kyuuu!’
Topaz flapped her wings around Vaan happily and excitedly as she felt like Vaan had been giving her more freedom recently.
“This… is an Earth Spirit?” Sacha glanced at Topaz with astonishment, sensing the high earth affinity coming from her. Briefly after, she stared back at Vaan and exclaimed, “You’re a Spirit Contractor, Vahn! That’s incredibly rare!”
That said, she was most shocked that the innocent-looking little earth spirit fairy seemed to be even stronger than her!
‘A High-ranked Earth Spirit?! Is that even possible?’ Sacha was flabbergasted by the discovery, but she wasn’t too sure.
Nevertheless, if Vaan received blessings from a High-rank Earth Spirit, it made sense why he could endure the heat.
After a few words, Sacha took several steps back and turned to Astoria.
“Did you know about this, Headmaster Astoria?”
“Yeah.”
Meanwhile, Vaan used Earth Manipulation to shape the Rank 4 black metal ingots into his desired forms with Astoria’s precious armor set as the template.
That said, he took her dress into consideration before he made some adjustments to the armor to match her three body sizes of 37-25-37 inches perfectly.
Before long, the black armor was assembled piece by piece.
Afterward, Vaan asked Sacha to perform the finishing touches, the magical enchantments with anti-magic properties, which would prevent the armor set from being damaged, transformed, or manipulated by the magic of other users.
Sometime later, a Rank 4 Black Greatsword was also made for Astoria before everything was laid before her.
Astoria stared at the finished products in awe.
Although she wasn’t fond of black, she strangely found a rare beauty in them and felt attracted to them.
“Try it on,” Vaan urged.
“If you channel some light-attribute mana into them, they should attach to your body like super glue,” Sacha added.
“Alright,” Astoria nodded.
Just as she reached out to grab the first piece of armor, the black chestplate, she noticed her hands were slightly shaking.
Unexpectedly, she was rather excited, which was rare and a little nostalgic.
Nevertheless, after Astoria put on the black armor and moved around a bit, she received more surprises.
“This…”
“Is there a problem?”
“No,” Astoria shook her head and said, “I’m just a little surprised because it fits so well that it’s also a little creepy…”