When Evren had gotten to Gallus's home, he was already making patterns for Harley's armor. He was drawing on paper with a piece of charcoal. He handed the note to Gallus, who took a look at it while nodding. He took a few sticks of varying lengths and set those out on the patterns, adjusting them with the charcoal.
"Have you given any thought on the design?" Gallus asked.
"I thought about a breastplate, some bracers, and greaves" Evren said.
Gallus peered at him with surprise, "Oh! Thought about that all by yourself, did you?" Gallus cleared his throat, "Could have just said, 'Make armor. Protect girl.' And it would have been more concise. Useless."
Evren shrugged and looked to Levi in confusion. Levi said, "He knows what pieces to make, but is asking for how to make them look."
Evren shrugged again and said, "Oh… uhm… deep reddish brown. Form fitting, but easy to breath in, with straps that tie up the sides of the breastplate to backplate. The bracers should be lightweight, probably engraved with strengthening using celestial bronze. The leggings should be thicker around the thighs in the front, and greaves should go to the top of the calves."
Gallus replied, "That better. What kind of designs do you want?"
"Designs?" Evren asked as he pulled out a folded sheet of paper, "How's this for designs?"
The paper had rough designs draw on it from a conversation with Harley and Walter.
Gallus balked at the designs, "Who drew this, some kid?"
"Yes, it was some kid. Less than two years old too." Evren said, just a little hurt, and then quieter to himself, "On this world at least."
Evren abruptly changed the subject, "Tell me what you're doing with those sticks and what the note means."
Gallus shook his head, "Nope, trade secret."
Evren took a deep breath and sighed, instead opting to watching Gallus work. As Evren watched, he noted the marks on the sticks corresponded to the marks on the note. As Gallus used each stick to measure out the different sizes of the base shape of the leather needed. He then began to draw separate pieces to the side that fit the shape of the pieces he needed on the drawing.
It was like he was designing a puzzle. Each piece that fit into the puzzle had a shape he needed to find and design. He would draw on other sheets of paper, then cut them out to fold them or curve them into shape, adjusting where needed. He cut all the pieces he needed for the breastplate and handed them to Levi to cut from the leather. He used a sharp curved leather knife that Levi had to struggle with to get through the tough red bear hide.
Levi started with the base pieces, and as each piece above it was finished, he would lay them on top of the base piece in the place it was supposed to be. The upper pieces that were to have the designs on them were handed to Evren with a piece of chalk, "Here you go." Levi said.
Evren took the chalk and the leather pieces and arranged them on the table in front of him. He first drew some lines to separate the leather into half, then began the actual design, mirroring it down the center of the leather so it was symmetrical. As he would draw the basic design on one side, he would do the same for the other side. When he finished one piece, he moved on to the others.
"How do you inlay metal onto leather?" Evren asked.
His reply from Gallus was curt, "You don't." Evren looked to Levi and shook his head.
"You basically make a decoration and sew it or rivet it into place. If you want to hide it because it's something magical, you can put it between the leather." Levi said with a follow-up.
Evren nodded in understanding, "So, I could take a mithril plate to use as reinforcement for the leather and engrave the mithril and inlay with celestial bronze, then put it inside the piece to not only make it stronger, but also enhance the magic capabilities."
Levi looked up to the ceiling as he thought through what Evren had said, "I suppose you could do that."
Evren finished the designs on the chest armor and was handed the pieces for the other parts next. As they worked through the day, Evren would ask questions while Levi, or sometimes even Gallus would reply.
When Evren had drawn the design highlights on the leather pieces, he headed to the forge to make the mithril supports. He had gotten the specifics on what size and shape to make them and since he was using mithril, it didn't take long to make them. The longer part would be the engraving and inlaying.
It took two days of steady engraving to finish. Levi helped with the inlay of celestial bronze, and then the filing and polishing of the finished product. When they brought the finished product to Gallus a few days later, he had finished crafting the designs into the leather. He had added more embellishments to the design to improve the look and quality.
It took an additional two days to finish assembling the armor. Evren didn't want to do another presentation, this time for the armor, so he called Harley over when he was walking to Gallus's house. "Harley! Come here, I've got something for you."
"Really?! Thanks Mr. Evren!" she said as she ran over to him.
"Yep, all for you. We just have to go pick it up." He replied.
They approached Gallus's home and he was sitting outside on the front step. When he saw Evren and Harley, he stood up in front of the door and said, "Oh no you're not!"
"Get out of the way, you rotten old fart. All you've been doing is complaining the last few days, and now that she's come to get it, you're getting all sentimental?" Evren said.
Gallus shook his head, "There's a procedure to do this properly."
Evren nodded, "Yeah. First step is to give it to her. Come on, give it up!"
Gallus stomped his feet, "No! We've gotta give it to her in front of others!"
"How about this? We give it to her, and while she's wearing it, have everyone come see her?" Evren said. "I don't have time to do a presentation every time I make something."
"Oh? And what else do you have to do then?"
"I've got a lot more stuff to make. I've got to finish Fletcher's armor and have yet to get started on Isobel's or Walter's. Oh, by the way, Harley. Did you want to keep using the wand or did you want a staff?"
"No, I like the wand, Mr. Evren." She replied.
"Fine. Fine. I'll let you have it now. Let me work on Isobel's and Fletcher's armor. All you need left is the leather on that, right?" Gallus said as he turned around and opened the door.
Dim light filtered in through one of the windows and lit up the dust that flittered about. Deep red armor engraved with flowers and vines and butterflies and birds lay upon a table on the far side of the room. When Harley saw the armor, she approached quickly and picked it up, examining it.
"I love it! Thanks Mr. Evren and Mr. Gallus!" she said and ran up to hug both of them. "I'm going to go try it on right now, and with my feather cloak too!"
After Harley left, Evren said to Gallus, "I've got flame hound leather for Isobel, and I want to use the thunder hog leather for Fletcher."
"You got the cores on those?" He replied.
Evren nodded, "Can you do something with the cores?"
"Flame hounds augment speed, and thunder hogs augment the use of lightning spells."
Evren looked to Gallus, "Why don't you write any of this down?"
"Can't write." Gallus replied with a shrug, "Don't wanna."
Evren sighed and started to walk away, "I'll bring by the flame hound leather later."
Evren went back to the house he was staying at and grabbed the flame hound leather, setting it by the door. He also grabbed enough scarletite to start working on Walter's armor.
"Blue armor, red armor, black armor and green armor. I'm starting to feel like a kid's show." He dropped the scarletite in his backpack and then brought the leather over to Gallus.
He pulled the chain vest out of his backpack along with a filled large sack. "I was going to add leather here, some straps here and here, and then something for the shoulders. I'd like the leather to be a brown, or dark brown, or both depending on how it looks. He'll also need bracers and greaves. I won't use reinforced pants; I want to keep his legs somewhat light so he can move around.
"As for Isobel, make it black or as dark a brown as you can get. Give her the works. She'll be getting in the hotseat, and I don't want her to get hurt. Hmm… plenty of pockets too, or places to attach knives." Evren pulled a knife out of the backpack and handed it to Gallus, "I'm getting her used to knives like these for throwing."
"Uh huh. How many do you want?" Gallus asked as he examined the throwing knife.
"One each arm, either inside or outside of the forearm. Six here on the stomach, three per side. Three per leg at the thigh." Evren counted, "Baker's dozen, that sounds good."
Gallus tilted his head at the strange comment.
Evren explained, "Baker's dozen means fourteen total."
"Oh, and this bag is extra rings that we didn't use in case you need them for something." Evren said gesturing at the large sack.
Gallus pointed at the large sack and said, "These are all mithril rings?"
"Yep!" Evren said as he turned and started heading towards the forge.
When Evren got to the forge, he laid out the ingots he was going to use and put on his fine dwarven apron. He threw one of the ingots into the forge and poured magic in while pumping the bellows. When the ingot up to temperature, he put in on the forge and began flattening it while enchanting it for defense and strength. He would be adding the red and white mana core from the red bear on the chest to further augment Walter's strength.
The shoulders would be engraved with dragon heads and inlaid with silver. The engravings would continue down to the chest where the mana core would be located, flanked by two white mana gems. It would be banded on the arms between the shoulder and the gauntlet, and also around the abdomen and sides. The tasset would be banded, but the upper thighs and greaves would be plate. He was going to let Walter use his regular heavy boots instead of metal sabatons so it would be more comfortable for him during the journey.
Hammering the metal flat was more difficult than just drawing out the length on a sword. He needed to use a rounded hammer to pinch the metal and drive it out evenly. Without precise tools, it makes it even more difficult to ensure everything was the same thickness and even. In addition to that, he needed to ensure he stretched it out in the right direction. If he were making the whole suit from banded, this would be fine, but he wasn't.
Five days later he was finishing the rings that would form the chains at the areas not covered by banded or plate. He had created most of the pieces of armor he needed, now he just needed the red bear leather to begin assembly. But before he could begin assembling the armor, he needed to engrave it and inlay the engravings with silver. He also needed to cut and engrave the mana gems and prepare the core.
This time he tried his hand at gem cutting to see if he could get something that would look good, since it was going to be located on his chest. Antrias, the man he entrusted with working on gem cutting was helping Evren to cut the gems in a triangle shape. The gems would be engraved on the bottom with magic collection and distribution to the armor, fueling the enchantment. It was ten more days before he could give the completed armor to Walter.