I let Maria steer the fortress since she knew where we needed to go to start our search. I had ways to locate both Javier and the barge but they were both beyond the range of either option currently. At least I hoped Javier was just beyond the range. The other possibility was not one to dwell on at the moment.

My working sensors were still picking up people following us but once we crossed out of sight of land and headed over the open ocean, they wouldn’t be able to track us as easily. I’m sure they already knew where I was headed, considering their capabilities and reach.

Ska was downstairs keeping Maria company while I worked on my armor. It was going to be three full days of flying to cross the ocean. I only took breaks to help charge the mana hearts every few hours or so.

I examined the armor in front of me, slowly turning it on the rotating dummy. I was checking all of the layout work I had added to see if I made any mistakes before I started on the actual carving. My Mage-Bane armor was nice, having the ability to absorb most magic. Unfortunately, the leather of my new armor didn’t have the same resistance to magic.

I could have gone with wyvern skin again but I had opted for the new leather for a few reasons. It was more flexible which made it easier to move in while retaining a high armor value. But the biggest bonus was its ability to self-repair.

I had seen similar armors during my many trips to the Bazaar. They were always outrageously expensive. Every merchant I spoke with said it was worth the cost just to not have to repair the armor. I had asked about the metal pieces but apparently, a skilled enough crafter could carry over the self-repair feature into any piece attached to the armor. Hence the reason why you would sometimes see masterwork full plate with the leather lining the interior.

Anyone who could afford a set of armor like that probably wasn’t on the front line though. The price tag for a very bare-bones set had started at one hundred and twenty thousand credits. That was three times the cost of my hand and my hand had been purpose-built for me by a master craftsman.

But the prices didn’t stop there. One merchant I talked with quite a bit allowed me to see a special ordered set that came in at four hundred thousand credits. I could easily see why it had cost so much. It was a work of art, inlaid with gold, and silver over the mithril. Every open space was filled with densely packed enchantments or detail work. Even getting near the armor you could feel the power that radiated off of it. It had been commissioned for some planetary Emperor to commemorate the tenth year of his victory to control his planet. I hadn’t even known planetary Emperors were a thing.

Thankfully, the species was non-human and didn’t do well in environments below the boiling point of water.

When I looked back at my armor, that suit had been an inspiration for me. Not that I could mimic the enchantments. I was more after the feeling I got when I looked upon it.

Runic patterns snaked across every bit of metal on my armor, the design, dipping, and weaving amongst itself in what looked like a mess at first but showed itself to be purposeful in nature. It was as far from the rigid enchantment designs as you could get. The looping designs ended with the head of a snake biting its own tail. The eyes were tiny mana hearts set above my heart.

The gems were needed not to power the armor but to store the converted energy.

I had seen what fighters on my level were capable of and I had no feasible way to beat someone who specialized as I currently was. It was possible I could find a skill that let me enhance my body as much as they seemed to but I already had similar skills and wasn’t sure they would work in tandem.

So this was my answer.

A complicated set of runes that converted damage into body strengthening. The conversion rate was poor but that was by design. My body needed to grow used to the changes. Going too fast would have similar effects as activating my Aura of Rage. Tattooing hadn’t worked out to enhance my body but I already knew this would work based on some tests I ran. If it seemed like my body was in danger, I could change the conversion back to the armor, allowing it to further strengthen itself. This change was also permanent as my body adjusted to the new norm. It wouldn’t enhance any of my attributes, but it would allow me to push myself further, especially using Aura of Rage.

That wasn’t all though. I incorporated a similar set of runes as I had in my defensive necklace, allowing the armor to spread an impact to the entire piece. Hard to pierce armor when all your impact is spread out. It wouldn’t do anything against skills that could nullify or reduce armor but little could, short of a magical barrier. But I liked this better because it didn’t need to be recharged.

The helmet was particularly tricky. There were no slits in the helmet to see out of, instead, the face formed into the snarling visage of a Ravor Beast, my homage to my dearly missed mount, Bella. The outside consisted of the same runes but the inside was where it got special. I had stumbled across this particular combination while toying around one day. I just hadn’t figured out what to use them for. But now I knew.

The interior runes made it so the helmet disappeared from view completely from the inside. In effect, it was partial invisibility. I had no obstructed view but I was fully protected and hidden from the outside. I spent nearly as much time adding the runes to the helmet as I did the entire chest piece, thanks to the awkward angle and space to work. As with the chest piece the helmet contained two fire red mana hearts inset into the eyes.

The pants and gloves came next. They were much simpler as they only had slightly curved plates on the front and top.

It took me every waking moment of our crossing to finish the armor. Well, not every moment, I did sleep a bit and help out every few hours but the majority of the time had been spent on the armor.

I slipped it on, adjusting the bindings a bit. It didn’t need much in the way of adjustment, thanks to the flexibility of the leather. After putting on the helmet, I looked into the mirror.

It looked like some demented scientist had brought dinosaurs back to life and mixed their DNA with humans. If I hadn’t been the one wearing the armor I would be afraid of a person that was. It emitted a presence similar to how Dominion and Destruction did, only milder, but terrifying all the same.

Mantle of Oroboros - Set

Quality: Masterwork

Armor: 45

Slashing Resistance: 70%

Stabbing Resistance: 85%

Blunt Resistance: 60%

Magic Resistance: 50%

Elemental Resistance: 40%

Body Reinforcement: 1/100th of damage absorbed

Self Repair: Can fully repair all damage within twelve hours

Spread Impact: Reduces impact by 70% by shunting the momentum to the rest of the armor

Unobscured Vision: The helmet does not obscure vision when worn

This masterfully crafted armor set is made from hydra skin and mithril and has inherent self-repair properties. When worn as a set, the repair speed is increased by 10%. Runic enhancement has given life to this armor, allowing for the inherent soul of the hydra to leak through slightly. Those not scared off by this effect and still attack have their damage converted into energy to strengthen the wearer's body and mind.

The armor was everything I hoped it would be. I could even toggle the runes, turning them on or off. This was part of my built-in safety feature. After what happened with my staff, I didn’t want the same thing to happen while I was wearing armor. I could remove it through my ring, but then it was just a time bomb waiting to go off. Turning it off didn’t disable the hydra aura but removing the helmet did as it was a set effect. That was good, wearing it around constantly would be a hassle. I could conjure it on my head in a moment anyway. Plus I still had my necklace. It just couldn’t be used when I was wearing all the armor.

***

I set the fortress down out of sight of the small town, there was no point scaring the locals. I was glad I brought Maria along. My Spanish was rusty at best, having not used it since high school. For whatever reason, the System didn’t translate languages you already knew at least partially.

It helped that Maria had been here before. I let her do all the talking while Ska scouted around to see if he could find anything. I did get a faint hit on my tracking device for the barge and it was far to the south. So far that Javier was not within range of Reaper. Still, I waited for Ska to return from scouting and Maria to speak with the locals to see what she could learn.

I could tell I made them nervous but I didn’t stray far from Maria. If this had been a plot by locals to steal the barge, I wasn’t about to hand them another hostage.

“… Gracias,” heard Maria say before she nodded to the two women she had been speaking with and hurried back over toward me.

“Mr. Paul, they say that some local thugs are no longer around and disappeared around the same time the barge was spotted. They also said that the guard returned a few days after we were last here and headed back north on foot.”

“Well, at least that is some good news. I think I got a trace on the barge, lets go collect Ska and get moving.”

It didn’t take long to locate Ska, he was already making his way back.

“Find anything?” I asked.

“No,” he hissed.

“I’m not surprised, its been weeks and I’m not sure Javier even set down near the village. I think my tracker picked up the barge far to the south, so we need to get moving.”

Ska nodded and we headed for the fortress. This was not going to be a quick trip. I knew that Javier was still alive though if the barge had gone that far south. It wouldn’t still be moving if he were dead as only a select few people could fly them.

I had told Javier and Maria that the keys were bound to them but that wasn’t technically true. A rune built into the console could detect their mana signature and I used that to make sure only they could use the key. This made it so they had to be alive and capable of feeding their mana into the system for the key to operate. The only way past this restriction was the tattoos that Martin, Ska, and I had. Just another safety feature I built in for my employees.

If they were killed after the system was activated, the barge control room would detonate, taking anyone inside with it. That was one feature I would never be telling Maria or Javier about.

That was how I knew Javier was still alive. If any of those scenarios had happened, my tracker would have thrown a red light along with the location. I didn’t know how far the tracker covered but I knew my Reaper title covered approximately five hundred miles. Even at the fortress’s top speed, it was going to take a week to catch up if it didn’t keep moving south. If it did it could be two more weeks before we finally caught up. One of my souped-up vehicles might have been a better option as they were significantly faster but they couldn’t go the distance like the fortress.