Everyone was drawn by the sudden commotion and turned to look.
The reckless knight stared wide-eyed, blankly looking at the sword in his hand. No, it was no longer a complete sword.
Where the blade had struck the plate armor, a large chunk had shattered, and tiny metal fragments flew everywhere.
The remaining parts were severely curled and deformed, as if struck against an object several times harder than the original. The plate armor on Lucas's shoulder...
"You idiot! If my nails are damaged, I'll skin you alive!"
Lucas roared angrily, quickly turning his head to check his shoulder.
But what he saw made his roar choke in his throat.
On the smooth surface of the nail, not a scratch – yes, not a scratch.
Under the sunlight, the spot where he was struck remained smooth, reflecting the blue sky and clouds, as if the powerful sword strike had been an illusion.
"This... how is this possible?" The knight with the sword leaned in, carefully examined it, and gasped.
"...Look for yourself – forget damage, not even a scratch! I just used seventy percent of my strength!"
Lucas carefully examined the area and double-checked, finally accepting the truth.
He looked at his reckless companion, the anger on his face replaced by a smile, a stupid smile.
The other knights gathered around, and when they saw the intact plate armor and the shattered steel sword, each of them showed surprise on their faces.
Karl took it all in, waiting for everyone's attention to return to him.
He cleared his throat slightly and said: "This is exactly what I wanted to say earlier."
"The new plate armor you are wearing is at least as strong as traditional five-millimeter-thick plate armor in terms of protection."
Meanwhile, the knights familiar with forging could no longer maintain their composure.
Everyone's face showed a mixture of shock, disbelief, and ecstasy.
One-millimeter-thick steel plate, traditional plate armor with protection over five millimeters? Still only half the weight? Is mobility comparable to chainmail?
This is no longer an improvement over the original forging technique; it is a revolutionary innovation.
After Dalton and his group confirmed that the new plate armor was a perfect fit, Karl sent them away.
After everyone left, silence returned to the forge. Karl turned and walked towards the pile of discarded plate armor.
All of this was old equipment, previously discarded, made of ordinary materials and forged with rather crude craftsmanship.
But it was perfect for conducting high-risk, high-complexity enchanting experiments. If it succeeded, it would be a breakthrough; if it failed, no problem.
He picked up a half-worn breastplate and placed it on the workbench, a thoughtful expression appearing in his eyes.
Advanced enchantments are not just simple protection enhancements; they require engraving multiple runes with different functions.
And allowing them to coordinate with each other to form a stable composite energy circuit.
If a rune goes wrong or the energy connections between them are unbalanced, the enchantment may fail, at best.
In the worst case, it causes magical backlash, damaging the equipment or even injuring the enchanter.
In general, even experienced enchanters have a fairly high failure rate when performing this multi-rune composite enchanting.
He began to engrave the first Quen rune. The moment the rune formed, a faint yellow glow flashed on the surface of the steel armor and disappeared.
Then came the second Yrden rune, and finally, the third Guardian rune.
Karl's movements did not stop for a second; he had already calculated the position, angle, and depth of each strike.
When the heat vision ceased, the three runes formed a thin triangular pattern on the surface of the breastplate.
They did not overlap, but were positioned with the left, right, and bottom sides over the breastplate.
At that moment, the surrounding magical energy flared and gathered, pouring into the breastplate on its own.
They are connected by extremely tiny, almost invisible channels to the naked eye, forming a solid energy triangle.
Karl raised an eyebrow, feeling the newly enchanted breastplate, where magic flowed smoothly through the runes.
Three energy fields of different natures merge together without interfering with each other, forming an advanced composite protective effect.
The mana fluctuations were even and strong, far surpassing ordinary single-rune enchantments.
A look of surprise appeared on Karl's face; everything went much more smoothly than he had expected.
He had expected to fail at least a few times, having to adjust the placement of the runes or the depth of the engraving.
After all, he had only learned the basics through Hen's oral instruction, relying entirely on self-study and research.
But throughout the process, his perception constantly reflected the flow of magic and the resonance frequencies of energy between the runes...
"When the soul becomes strong, perception and control over magical power... it truly underwent a qualitative change," Karl muttered to himself.
He remembered when he was studying at Ban Ard Academy, although he could sense magic, it was more like observing through frosted glass.
But now, the magic outside felt to him like a fish swimming in a clear stream, every movement visible.
He continued to feel the state of the breastplate; the three runes had already reached the limit of enchanting that this piece of plate armor material could sustain.
This is not a technical problem, but the limited "magical flow" of the material itself.
If a fourth rune is forcibly added, regardless of how complex the layout or perfect the control,
this breastplate would not withstand the overload of magical flow, causing internal cracks or even explosions.
"...The maximum capacity of ordinary materials is three runes?" Karl's eyes flickered, his thoughts racing.
"Although the new plate armor is more refined in craftsmanship, it is essentially made of ordinary steel, so the magic flow won't increase much."
"Maybe it can carry one more? At most two? But the price may be a decrease in stability..."
Karl's figure flickered and instantly appeared a hundred meters away next to Keira's workbench, casually placing the newly enchanted breastplate on the edge of the table.
Keira was focused on carving basic protective runes on a breastplate, completely unaware of his arrival and departure.
Then Karl instantly returned to his spot, ready for the next test.
"Hmm?" Keira finished carving a rune node.
She stretched a little, and out of the corner of her eye, she casually glanced at the edge of the workbench.
There was a new breastplate, and Keira's gaze immediately locked onto it, unable to look away.
As a gifted sorceress, her perception of magic, though not as extraordinary as Karl's, was not much worse than Triss's.
At that moment, from the seemingly ordinary breastplate emanated... a chilling magical fluctuation.
Not the same violent, unstable, and dangerous fluctuations that could lose control at any moment.
It was like standing on the edge of a seemingly calm volcanic crater.
Knowing that lava was boiling below, there was no sign of eruption.
"Well..." Keira put down her tool and instinctively stood up, leaning closer to the breastplate.
"This magical fluctuation... advanced enchanting?!" Her voice changed slightly from the shock.