Date: Unspecified Time: Unspecified Location: Myriad Realms, Lil. Red Storm, Seed World, Trophy Section, Duel Realm, Crafting Sector, Venue: Chaos Dwarven Forge.
"That's time, contestants! Off your workshops!" the Judges announced, their voice amplified across the colosseum as the time-space array formation deactivated while they gestured with their tail to emphasize the end of the time to the contestants and the audience. The audience, however, was engrossed in a heated discussion, completely ignoring the Judges' announcement. They were animatedly debating the bizarre skills the unknown demon merchant's frosling corpse puppets were demonstrating with their strange silks. They were pointing at the puppets, gesturing to each other while exchanging excited whispers.
This obviously soured the Judges' mood. They glanced over the audience before grudgingly turning to eye the unknown demon merchant, who had been teleported back to his corner of the colosseum along with his corpse puppets. They narrowed their eyes at him. However, there was nothing they could do now. The rules were set; the crafting duel was set. All that was left was overseeing the match. Unless they were courting death, the Judges weren't going to create problems for the unknown demon merchant. So they let out a sigh under their breath and shift their tail in resignation.
However, they were still the Judges. Without them, the duel wouldn't progress to its second phase—the combat match between the corpse puppets crafted by the two contestants to decide the winner. As a consequence of being ignored, they decided to make the audience wait until they had everyone's attention. The Judges stood tall in the air above the collosseum, their arms folded, looking expectantly at the crowd.
Seeing the unknown demon merchant return to his corner with his three Frosling corpse puppets, Dulas curiously eyed them. Their icy armor piqued her curiosity the most. As a chaos dwarf, she was no stranger to mechanical armor, but she was surprised to see one made entirely of snow. She analyzed their frame, armor plates, joints, etc., and found that the ice used to make the armor displayed properties similar to SS-rank black steel—from tensile strength and toughness to ductility, weldability, malleability, formability, durability, and general strength.
The more Dulas analyzed the armor, the more she realized its material was superior to SS-rank black steel. Multiple very thin layers of snow fused together to form the armor plates and the softer armor for the joints, significantly enhancing their strength and durability. Not to mention, the entire ice armor had thin threads woven into them forming an array. This was when she realized the mechanical armor was more like a golem—a golem made of glacier, with the Frosling corpses serving as their core.
Thoroughly mesmerized, Dulas wanted to touch it, but the oppressive power emanating from the corpse puppets stopped her. She reached out a hand but a little hesitant to touch it out her fear. Just then, she heard the unknown demon merchant's voice warning her, "If I were you, I wouldn't try to touch them. Unless, of course, you want to be infected by a particularly lethal form of glacier plague."
"Ah!" Dulas hurriedly held her breath and stepped back in fright. She gasped and stumble back, covering her mouth. Seeing her reaction, Wyatt shook his head and said, "Don't worry, the glacier plague is controlled. You won't get infected just by breathing the air they've touched."
Releasing her breath, she took a deep, satisfying inhale and then curiously asked, "Did you give them the ability to control the plague? Considering the Froslings' natural immunity to glacier plague, that would be a lethal skill for a corpse puppet to have."
"Nah, glacier plague's lethality varies depending on the environment. In an environment , it can barely survive without support, let alone be weaponized. It would function better as passive additional damage along with the main damage, like frostbite or freezing. The items created by these corpse puppets, and the puppets themselves, have passive additional damage called Glacier Bite. The best thing about it is that it stacks. Meaning, if the corpse puppets land enough clean hits on their targets, they will be frozen solid," Wyatt gestured towards the puppets as he explained, encouraging Dulas's curiosity and admiration for his corpse puppets and their 3D-printed weapons and armors. "I saw them while they were practicing their skills and sparring with each other. How are they able to create what are clearly SS-rank items in such a short amount of time and use them in combat? It takes me half an hour to create an S-rank item through soul crafting. I can't help but envy how your corpse puppets can create SS-rank weapons and armors in under a fraction of a second with their will," Dulas looked down and fidget with her hands while admitting her envy to the unknown demon merchant seeing him be so open and willing to answer and explain his creations to her.
"It's technically not crafting but more of a skill or spell, if you will. Like how one can summon a mud wall, or a bone spear, or a wind blade, or a fire arrow, etc. Those glacier weapons and armors these corpse puppets create are only effective as long as they supply the soul power. Once they stop, those glacier weapons and armors will be like regular glacier, just shaped into weapons and armors.
"So, you have nothing to be envious of. Besides, in my books, being able to craft an S-rank item in half an hour using soul crafting is very impressive for someone as young as yourself. I bet your uncle must be proud of you," Wyatt consoled Dulas a reassuring smile, who was doubting her crafting skills, while also subtly raising an eyebrow as he mention her uncle not missing the opportunity to sow a seed of doubt in her mind.
"Glacier weapons and armors with the Glacier Bite effect. Now those are some cool names. I'm never able to come up with cool names for my items—I bet you can't relate to that since you have a good naming sense. Unlike me, who can't even decide on a cool fake name," Dulas shrugged and said with self-doubt, showing Wyatt that her uncle and elders had certainly done quite a number on her confidence and self-esteem.
"Believe me, I can relate to you. When I first crafted an armor of my own design, I didn't know how to name it coolly, so I gave it a name that was too long making it a mouthful to speak. Whenever I think of it, I get embarrassed," Wyatt said rub the back of his neck in embarrassment, recalling the name of the armor he had created to rescue Ronnie from the Zhang financiers. "Really? What was it called?" Dulas asked him leaning forward with a hopeful expression. She had come to admire the unknown demon merchant after watching him craft the three Frosling corpse puppets, she couldn't help but get excited to share a common trait with him.