High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2864: Chapter 1085: Battle Garb

Because his name contains the word ’robe’, Zheng Qing very subjectively thought that the battle robes Korma and Old Yao mentioned were largely no different from the wizard’s robe he normally wore, perhaps just with some protective armor added to the surface, like the robes many hunting teams wear in the hunting grounds.

Until he actually saw the battle robe standing on the short cylindrical base.

Only then did he realize how wrong he was.

Rather than calling it a battle robe, Zheng Qing thought a more fitting name would be ’Mark II’—yes, the very Iron Man metal armor, from the helmet, to gloves, to boots, the whole set of armor covered every part of the body, not even revealing the eyes.

However, different from Mark I, this set of armor has many protruding points distributed on the shoulders, elbows, wrists, back, as well as waist and legs. These protruding points look a bit like snail antennae, soft and elastic to the touch, and not like the bone spur attack or defense mechanisms Zheng Qing initially thought they were.

”—You can’t wear it until Cloud Mother finishes the inner lining for you.”

Professor Yao bit his pipe, standing beside him, watching the boy with stars in his eyes, seemingly cheered up a lot himself, reaching out and tapping on the battle robe’s helmet.

Dong Dong.

”Full-helm coverage, with a 360-degree panoramic view, three-dimensional imaging, everything you can perceive—vision, hearing, smell, touch—it can help you perceive; what you can’t normally perceive—blood pressure, pulse, heartbeat—it presents as data on your secondary view; and what you don’t feel yourself, like the magical power fluctuations when a curse strikes, minor disturbances of dimensional threads, borders between reality and illusions—it filters out for you. In other words, wearing this helmet is equivalent to installing an alchemical Danube auxiliary brain.”

Then he tapped on the chest armor of the battle robe.

”—As for other parts, I won’t elaborate on the basic physical and magical protection abilities. Its life-sustaining systems are worth mentioning. Besides the life potion you saw at the dorm the other day, it also has some physical emergency measures, like emergency CPR. Hmm, seems not very useful. The most important thing about this armor is those synapses.”

The professor pointed to those soft whiskers like snail antennae, not touching them:

”—These synapses are the neural link nodes between you and the special configuration. The nine nodes along the back brain to the spine form the core part of this neural link system, able to immediately feedback every instruction you deliver. The armor can isolate you from the original body dimensionally, ensuring you’re always in a lower dimension—or rather, a dimension state that suits you. So those synapses are very important. They are your basic means of controlling the special configuration...”

”So, is there an advanced control method?” Zheng Qing forced himself to resist the urge to go up and lick, and turned his head to the principal of Jiuyou Academy with some restraint.

Professor Yao took the pipe away from his mouth, his expression becoming slightly more serious.

”There is, but I hope you never need to touch it.” He deliberated, slowing down his speech slightly: ”Remember the warning clause marked in red in the application forms you filled out during the resonance test?”

Who remembers things like that.

Zheng Qing silently ridiculed, like an insurance company’s notification or a computer application’s disclaimer, hundreds of dense, obscure details—does anyone seriously read them before signing?

No.

Everyone assumes they’re nonsense.

”Hmm, kind of remember.”

The boy replied vaguely, not blushing or flustered, calmly.

Old Yao glanced at him without exposing his little lie: ”—If the suitability match with the Giant God Soldier is too low, resonance can’t be generated, and you can’t control the Giant God Soldier; if the match is too high, there’s a risk of being assimilated by the Giant God Soldier’s own Taoist charm, which we call ’assimilation’. Therefore, when selecting the fit person, we set a fairly strict resonance range.”

Zheng Qing nodded thoughtfully.

”So, the ’advanced method’ you just mentioned is assimilation?” He had a certain suspicion in his heart.

”Yes.”

Old Yao grabbed the pipe and impolitely knocked the boy on the head: ”No matter when, always remember, you’re still just a little wizard who hasn’t even completed the registration ritual. That means you don’t have a true name yet, and if you’re assimilated by someone else’s Taoist charm, even the ancients would find it hard to retrieve your bit of aura from the river of time. Or rather, even if they got you back, whether you’d still be you is a very difficult concept to define.”

That is a concept more void-inducing than death.

”You still haven’t said why ’assimilation’ is considered an advanced control method.” The boy murmured lightly, covering his head.

”Don’t understand?”

Old Yao furrowed his brows together, grabbed his shoulder, turned him around, and they appeared on a terrace: ”Come, I’ll let you appreciate from a distance the ’special configuration’ you’ll soon come into close contact with...”

The fierce wind rushed face-to-face but instantly gentled near, silently brushing across Zheng Qing’s face against the transparent light film. Overhead were two massive moons of different colors, and beneath was a small terrace.

The terrace stood at the center of a giant lotus-shaped architectural structure in bloom, at the top of the tallest flower pistil. The wizards weaving in and out on the petals were like tiny mosquitoes, Zheng Qing could only judge their path from the residue of magical traces left behind them.

The magical power density seemed very high in this world, just being within it and breathing simply, Zheng Qing felt as if he could soar at a light touch of his toe.

But he had no desire to fly right now.

Because a huge behemoth, its shoulder height breaking through the clouds, sat silently before him, its eyes closed, expression solemn, exuding an awe-inspiring aura.

Though his distance from It was far, it felt as though It were within reach.

The distant Cloud Sea was vast, yet under the aura of this giant, it seemed particularly small and insignificant.

Zheng Qing never knew he had acrophobia.

But at this moment, he uncontrollably sat cross-legged on the ground, holding onto the terrace railing, staring dazedly at the giant.

”See it?”

The legendary wizard’s voice came from above his head, seeming to carry some sentiment and a touch of sadness: ”This is your special configuration, remodeled based on the legendary giant ’Artu Groot’s’ remains, a legendary combat power Giant God Soldier—’Taiyi’.”