The list was getting quite long some even at what Gar considered respectable levels, well at least for a person that only got his first skill less than two months ago. He could see some that he should work on and would once he was somewhere safe. What he was most interested in though was the latest and last skill on the list armourer unfortunately the description seemed more snarky than useful. Either way he had the skill and he was sure it would be helpful once it was levelled up a bit. To work on that he made the second vambrace. It went much smoother than the first and in about an hour he had a second arm guard to match his first. Still no skill level so he moved onto the greaves for his legs. He got the skill level when he had finished the first one.
“Armourer levelled up armourer level 2”
Built the same as the vambraces the greaves had a leather inner that laced on with a carapace outer. He had worked two pieces of carapace together to give him a larger thicker piece to cover and give better protection for the leg. It took a moment to decide which way the laces should be pointed but ended up settling on facing in between his two legs so that both the front and back of his legs where protected as well as the outside. The bottom of them was more shaped to go round the ankle while at the top the front came up a bit to offer some protection to the knee. Gar did a bit of movement in his new armour to test it out and he was happy with it. The carapace was exceedingly light for how strong it was so the weight wasn’t an issue and so far he still had full movement.
He was going to have to do the body piece next, the lower thigh pieces might have been easier except he needed to know how long the body piece would go before he would know the size of them. Gar took some time to think over how he would make it sketching out ideas on the stone floor with one of his writing sticks. His concern was that while he had plenty of leather to make armour it was a limited resource. He decided on a long leather vest that would be tightened at the waist with a belt, below that it would go down to mid-thigh with a split up each side. Once he had the leather down he would add plates of carapace overlapping each other to give protection and movement much like it had been on the queens’ guard.
With the plan sorted he got to work, he took everything slow double checking every measurement before he cut. He used a piece of string he would knot in the appropriate place to compare measurements from his body to the leather. Once he was happy he cut the front piece out. He was in no rush taking it extra slow to not make any mistakes. Holding the piece against his front once it was cut it seemed like a good fit but he wouldn’t know for sure until he had put it together. Then using the front piece as a template Gar marked out the piece for the back then altered it slightly to be better shaped for the back, slightly wider so the sides would come round more, shaped the head hole slightly smaller as it was on the back that sort of thing. Again he took it slow and carful in the cutting it was what he was most worried about and where he feared there would be the most waste. Once the two pieces where cut he sewed them together at the shoulders to see how it would sit.
“Leatherworking levelled up leatherworking level 2”
Slipping the leather over his head and then holding the sides together it seemed good. There where possibly some places where he could trim it like the arm holes could have been a bit bigger and it had come out longer than he had expected. Over all it was good and he could look at trimming and fixing any problems once he had it all sewn. Knowing they would be taking a lot of strain he went back and double stitched the shoulders then stitching another piece of leather over the seams on each shoulder to strengthen the area. Then he stitched down the sides overlapping the join so he could have several rows of stitching to give it strength. Once the stitching was done he tried it on again he had been right about the arms and had to slightly widen the holes so he could get his arm through without the leather being too tight.
The Piece was shaped to fit tightly to his body which meant it didn’t go on or come off easy because of it though it was more comfortable and less restrictive on his movement. He still wanted a belt on it though to bring it in a bit at the waist as it had to be left large so he could put in on over his head and shoulders and a good belt would put some of the weight onto his hips so it wasn’t just hanging on his shoulders. While he was still wearing it he cut a long strip of leather for the belt. Putting it around his waist he worked out where it needed to sit and marked the leather vest appropriately. Taking the whole lot off he was then able to add belt loops where he had marked to get the position for the belt set. Putting it on again he tested the belt, it was at the right height he just needed to work out a way to do it up with no buckle. what he ended up with was narrowing the belt on one end while putting a couple of slots in the other the belt could then be threaded through the slots then back over and through the overlap before being pulled tight on itself.
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“Leatherworking levelled up leatherworking level 3”
He was happy; it held tightly, was simple to do and undo all while not being too bulky. With that most of the leather work was done it was only a matter of adding the carapace plates. He started heating queens’ guard carapace pieces ready for the next step. Once he had soft enough pieces he started shaping them as he found each piece needed to be individually shaped to fit with the others and still allow for maximum movement. It was slow and careful work with each piece being shaped exactly for his body. Each piece had to be adjusted multiple times and at one point he completely started again when he found the pattern he was using wasn’t going to work and that was all before he started attaching them. Once it was finished his chest had several large plates with smaller ones around them and overlapping bands and small plates on his stomach, the back had more large plate’s still overlapping and surrounding smaller ones. The space for the belt had been left clear and he had changed up the design under that turning it into more of a scale mail with lots of small overlapping carapace scales.
“Armourer levelled up armourer level 3”
Gar put the finished piece back on and did up the belt. He knew it fitted and he still had good movement as he had constantly had it on and off as he added pieces adjusting them as necessary to keep the movement he wanted. It had taken all day and he hadn’t finished everything but that didn’t matter he already felt better having some armour to protect him. It was already dark but with his dark vision it hadn’t bothered him and he had kept working. He sat staring up looking at the tops of the cliffs surrounding him and up at the stars above he felt like a frog in a well, he wondered when he would get out of there. What would the world above be like? He spent a while longer just staring up dreaming about what his life would be like in the future. Pulling himself out of his wistful state he headed to bed.
Gar woke and stretched feeling his leg ache as he did so, although there was an ache when he stretched it there wasn’t the constant pain he had been in. He clambered out of his shelter finding another pleasant day. It seemed that at least for the time being the rain and gloom was gone. With more space being outside his small shelter he sat and unbandaged his leg to take a look. The injury was a lot better, where he had removed the skin it had grown back still a little new a lighter grey colour and shiny otherwise healed. Where the deeper bite mark and subsequent necrosis had been was still a jagged gash with a large scab over it but even that you could see the healing round the edges. Gar was extremely happy with the progress especially as it seemed it hadn’t gotten infected. With how well it was healing he decided to leave the bandage off, he considered trying climbing as it seemed much better however he left it for another day.
He looked to his armour he wanted to get that completed and as it seemed he still wasn’t up to going anywhere, he figured he might as well. All he had left to do was protection for his thighs and upper arms. The tops of his thighs as well as his hips and groin where protected by how his chest piece came down to cover them, it still left the lower thigh above the knee unprotected. He couldn’t have made the top longer or it would have hampered movement more than he was willing to accept. Gar started by trying something similar to the greaves and vambraces but ended up with something different, a two piece design a front and back piece of both leather and carapace which were then laced together up both sides. It was a design that offered good protection front and back while allowing the movement in the thigh that is required for normal activity. Happy with how the first one came out he completed the matching one for his other leg.
“Armourer levelled up armourer level 4”
The upper arm was similarly complex as that part of the arm changes shape quite a lot between straightening and bending. To get round this Gar created pieces much like the thigh guards except the lacing on the sides wasn’t done as tight and there was more thick lacing with room between it so the upper arm protection hung off the shoulders of the main body piece, this allowed it to be loose enough to allow the movement without sliding down and getting in the way of his elbow.
With that done he put on his entire armour for the first time. Gar stood up in his full set, it surprised him how light the entire thing was he could feel it yet didn’t think it would slow him down much if any. He did a few movements and stretches and while his leg hurt the armour didn’t seem to hinder him. It was a little weird wearing something when he had been bare chested for so long, although Gar wouldn’t say it was a bad thing feeling more covered and protected. The biggest downside to the armour being it took ages to put on and take off but for protection he would keep it on for most of the time so time to put on or remove seemed like a small price to pay. Gar figured he would keep wearing the armour to help him get used to it and it made him feel safer just to be wearing it.
