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She was squeaking out offers so quickly that I felt the need to stop her, but before I could, she was done. Instead, I gave her an exasperated smile to which she was entirely immune.

"Like last time works. In fact… think you could make armor that looks more or less identical, just enchanted? It would be a perfect way to rub it into the face of the guy who ruined the original set."

Yules\' face went dark for a second, but the grimly vindictive smile that followed assured me she liked my suggestion.

"That works. That works great, actually! That was an inspired piece of armor, if I do say so myself," she bragged, fully in her element now that she knew I was not going to replace her with her mother. "Next is the matter of enchantments."

"Well… what sort of options would I have, for the amount of souls I\'ve got?" I ventured carefully, not sure what I could actually afford.

The last time I was around, her mother had informed me that even her simplest work was way out of my budget. With Yules on the job, I still didn\'t need to worry about the premium a renowned smith would charge, but I assumed that enchantments weren\'t cheap, regardless.

"We have options," she said firmly. "The base armor set would cost around 500 souls, if I want to make it out of solid materials that can withstand good enchantments, so that does cut into your budget a little. But I\'m not charging you for the design process of a custom piece."

She held up a hand to silence my protests. "It\'s not really a custom design if I\'m using the old base, right?"

"What about the enchantment schema?" I countered.

By the way her eyes widened, I could tell she hadn\'t expected me to call her out on that. Unfortunately for her, or for me, really, I knew a bit more than a fresh recruit should.

When I was serving under Glaustro before, one of my rewards for turning in a particularly valuable soul was a host of greater quality souls. Among them, I found a singular hidden gem which had allowed me to absorb Apprentice Enchantment Theory (Basic).

Now, I would be the first to admit that demonic enchantment was probably leagues ahead of anything a mana-poor world like Berlis could offer. But some fundamental concepts had to carry over, right? One such concept was the idea of enchantment schemas.

Enchanting an item was a complex process. Before you could begin engraving runes or entire runic matrixes onto the item at a conceptual level, you first had to plan out your work. If you just tried to dive in with no plan, the enchantments would begin conflicting with each other eventually and ruin the item.

It wasn\'t just a matter of deciding which runes to use, and in what order. You had to calculate the maximum number of enchantments an item could hold based on its mana conductivity and material make-up. Then, you needed to determine and adjust the level of complexity you would use in every enchantment.

Take something simple, like enchanting an item to light up and dim on command. That would require a whole runic matrix. A single \'light\' rune would get the job done, but then the item wouldn\'t automatically draw mana from its environment to power the enchantment. It wouldn\'t accept mana properly if someone fed it in, either. It wouldn\'t be possible to turn the light on or off, or adjust the brightness.

On and on the list went, and each specification just complicated the schema further. Oh, you could slap something together and call it a day. But it would waste your materials, barely work or be grossly inefficient, and might fall apart if you were too loud around it on the night of a full moon or some similar nonsense.

Enchantment was kind of like coding, in a way. Except it happened in way more than three dimensions, relied on a substance that behaved differently based on ambient emotions, and was anchored in reality based solely on what, to me, were random symbols from a random ancient language, because fuck you, that\'s why. Any truly successful schemas were the work of generations of masters making small, incremental improvements.

And while I only knew the bare bones of what went into it all, I could clearly see when someone was trying to undersell their work.

My little moment of reflection bought the demoness enough time to gather herself.

"Listen," she retorted, "the schema are valuable, but I\'m nowhere near ready to make my own. This means we\'ll be working with my family\'s schemas. They\'re a bit rigid and will limit our options, but they\'ll do just fine, and it doesn\'t justify me charging you extra."

I mulled that over, but couldn\'t find it in me to protest more. I did need to budget carefully, and if she wouldn\'t have to spend hours bent over a desk designing the whole thing, I could be okay with it.

"What are our options, then?" I asked instead.

"Well, there are the basic \'mana resistance\' and \'toughness\' enchantments. They\'ll make it difficult for blades or spells to pierce your armor. Mana resistance will also make it hard for people to affect your armor directly with mana. In other words, it will prevent things like… what happened with your old set."

My anger flared up with no warning at the reminder, and I gritted my teeth for a moment. Thankfully, what she was describing made me happy enough to push past the fury.

"That sounds amazing. How much would it be?"

"For the basic level enchantments? With the base armor included, the total would just about come up to 1000 souls. Past that, I can\'t recommend the automatic repair function enough. It\'s 500 souls all on its own, but it would be worth it."

I considered that. I didn\'t know how to make those, because they were way past anything considered \'basic\', but I knew about them. Such enchantments stored information about the armor\'s condition at the moment of their installation, then constantly compared the armor\'s current and original state. If damage occurred, the enchantment would use repair spells to return the armor to that original condition.

I could technically learn the relevant spells myself, but there were a thousand and one other things I wanted to learn. I didn\'t have the correct spell guides, anyway.

"That\'s an easy yes," I said. "Won\'t always have the luxury of repairing my items in the field."

Yules beamed at me when she realized I liked her suggestions so far.

"Okay, that leaves us half your budget to play around with. We can do a strong barrier spell with a decent separate mana storage for it. Those are expensive. It would cost about 1000 souls outright. Finally, for the last 500 souls… I think I can put together a decent last-ditch attack spell for you, and maybe an automatic cleaning function? The latter is both cheap and simple, so I don\'t mind just throwing it in. It\'s pretty much default."

I chewed on that. Honestly, it sounded interesting. However…

"You mentioned that the base protective enchantments and armor would cost 1000 souls, right?" She nodded, and I forged on. "Then, I think I\'ll pass on the barrier. I can cast it myself. How about you put my extra 1000 souls towards Mia\'s armor instead?"

The cat girl managed to keep her face relatively blank, but her ears shot up at the suggestion. Even her tail went still, pointing straight out behind her back.

"I don\'t think that\'s necessary. Those souls are yours to spend," Mia assured me, though her voice definitely sounded conflicted.

"I am spending them," I pointed out. "Just not on myself. What\'s your budget like, if I don\'t help out?"

Her cheeks colored. "It is… well… I have around four hundred souls to spend," she finished lamely, looking away.

"See? Better we spend those souls on something else. Besides, I really don\'t need the barrier when I have my shield spell."

Maybe I was fibbing a little. An outside reservoir of mana for the barrier would be nice. But I really preferred that Mia got more defense instead. Now that I had finally let myself care about the frustrating cat, as a friend of course, I was starting to worry. She was running around with papier-mâché quality armor, and it caused me no end of stress to think of her on a battlefield surrounded by demons or equivalent combatants.

"We can make that work," Yules stated confidently, wearing a small smile. She had tilted her head in confusion when I first made the suggestion, but then her eyes lit up, and she started eying Mia speculatively. She either liked what she saw or was just excited to make a second set of armor, because she was practically bouncing in place to get started.

"Hayden, are you… certain?" Mia asked carefully. She looked strikingly vulnerable all of a sudden.

I blinked at her, tilting my head in imitation of Yules\' gesture. "Of course, I\'m sure. We decided to fight together, right? What happens to me if someone skewers you because your armor is just a bunch of mismatched pieces?"

"You really do need to get out of that armor." Yules, the lifesaver, jumped in. "It\'s not your size at all, and it\'s of abysmal quality."

I snickered, and she turned to me. "What?"

"Well… Abyss, abysmal, wouldn\'t that imply the armor is actually good?"

Yules\' lips twitched before she forced them into a stern expression. "Don\'t encourage her! She\'s going to get stabbed, and then I\'ll be stuck making armor for you only. Male armor sets are so standard and boring!" she complained, though her tone of voice betrayed that she was just teasing.

"I wouldn\'t dream of it, great armorer of legend," I said haughtily, earning myself a blush and a giggle that she tried to cover up with a glare.

"You are contributing nothing of substance." Yules stuck out her hand. "Your voucher, please. I might be family, but Mother isn\'t going to just hand me the materials I need to make this. She only covers my training materials. Going to need proof of purchase and upfront payment."

I handed over the gift voucher eagerly. It wasn\'t like I could pull the souls off it or use it anywhere other than in an armory. Not that I was desperate to get more souls that very minute, anyway. With the general\'s reward, I had more than enough to reach my ascension threshold, and plenty to spare besides.

I also had my grimoire and dimensional bag, as well as my sword and my soul purse. I hadn\'t retrieved it yet, but my dagger was somewhere in the crate with what was left of my armor, so I was set when it came to weapons.

The only thing I really needed was a healing potion or two. Well, and maybe some other support potions. And knowledge on spells and mana techniques. Unfortunately, potions could get ridiculously expensive, and knowledge of any kind came at a premium around demons. My best bet would be to earn it during invasions, or maybe find someone willing to train me a little more.

All of that could wait. As I handed over the voucher, I had one more important request to make.

"Can we watch as you make our stuff?"

To my surprise, she blushed and stammered, refusing to look me in the eye.

"Uh, s-s-sure."

I ignored the awkward moment. Mia just rolled her eyes and shot me a displeased look, so it was easy to move past it.

It was even easier when Yules threw herself into her work. Just like before, the demoness infused every moment of the process with creative joy. Designs were sketched out, adjusted, and discarded. Enchantment schemas were considered, selected, discarded, and then selected again. Then, at last, the work on the armor started properly.

None of it happened quickly, of course, and we weren\'t even there for all of it. Mia and I did have basic mortal needs, after all, even if Yules seemed capable of working nonstop with no repercussions. Besides, though we were on break and instructed to rest, it wasn\'t like Mia and I had nothing to do. We still trained lightly, absorbed mana to improve our cores, and even sparred a few times just to stay in top shape.

I can honestly say I enjoyed that period of time immensely, especially when I got used to Passion a bit and could channel the layer\'s influence into productive endeavors rather than a curiosity high. It was a fascinating feeling, to have an endless well of energy, creativity, and desire pushing me onwards.

Unfortunately, I didn\'t really learn much from watching Yules work. My knowledge of enchantments was limited to the basics of a lesser world. Hers was compiled from generations, refined and mastered in the layer of Passion. There was simply no comparison.

Still, we were present for most of the process. Yules loved having us there, not just for input, but also for company. To be honest, I had a feeling the demoness was a bit lonely. She clearly loved her work, but it didn\'t exactly come with a lot of opportunities to socialize.

So, on the day before the armor was finished, Mia and I were pressured into visiting one of the weird shell emporiums that were all over the place. I had spotted them back in the first city the demons conquered after my induction: enchanted shells, meant to function in any city containing a demonic obelisk, serving as communication tools.

Well, both Mia and I were now proud owners of slightly advanced models. The shells set us back by fifty souls each, but they would let us contact Yules occasionally.

Even so, when we departed the next day with our completed armor, Yules was reluctant to let us go. There was plenty of hugging to be had. I was surprised at how involved I got in all the affection, and that it wasn\'t only Mia Yules had grown fond of.

All in all, as we made our way back to the local Apple Infernal branch, I could say I was content. I was carrying a box with my brand-new armor, we were not running late to the rendezvous with the rest of Glaustro\'s troops, and I had made an actual friend! Without even having to fight alongside them for our mutual survival!

I could turn my gaze towards what was coming, safe in the knowledge that I was ready.

As \'safe\' as a recruit in a demonic army could be, of course.