Survival in the game world begins with Biochemical 2

Chapter 879 The Armor is Complete
The bronze-colored "bell" then sank, surrounded by the deep lake water, making it impossible for anyone with slightly less skill to see what was in the lake.

This "giant bell" is actually a magical submersible that allows creatures unable to breathe underwater to meet the Lady of the Forge.

There are several windows on the outer wall of the clock that, despite not having valves or glass, still manage to keep out the lake water, which has considerable pressure.

The lake seemed to be unexpectedly deep. Li You and his group sank for a long time, until they could barely see the light on the surface of the lake, before they finally heard a "click" and the underwater elevator stopped.

"...She's here!"

Brock immediately turned his head and looked out the window; Li You and Sindri also looked over.

Amidst the dense aquatic plants and seaweed-like vegetation at the bottom of the lake, a figure swam gracefully and swiftly.

It was indeed a mermaid. She had a fish tail and a human body, covered in scales and fins, with skin that was generally purplish-gray, and long, dark red hair that grew upwards like seaweed, swaying with the current.

From her appearance, she actually resembled a "fish" more, and wasn't particularly beautiful. However, the powerful magical energy emanating from her body was something Li You couldn't ignore.

The Forge Lady glanced at the two people inside the protective shield, then reached out and placed her hand through the invisible curtain of the window in front of Li You.

Upon seeing the legendary forge lady appear before him, Brock was unusually nervous and could barely speak. Clutching three magical bags containing materials, he stammered for a moment:

"I, uh... I, that..."

The forge lady did not respond, nor did she even glance at him.

Sindri, who was standing nearby, seemed to have been unable to stand it any longer. He snatched the package from Brock's hand and handed it to the Forge Lady.

Then there's no need to explain how to forge it. As long as it's a work by a master craftsman that meets the requirements, the Forge Lady can sense the blacksmith's will from the processed material, understand their design, and optimize it to complete the forging.

This is also the fundamental reason why blacksmiths are required to have a certain level of skill.

At this moment, Lady Forge took the magic pouch handed to her by Sindri, put it back in the water, and with a slight squeeze, the ropes of the three pouches untied themselves. The materials and armor plates that Brock and the other two had already processed flew out on their own and floated in front of Lady Forge.

Upon seeing these materials, which are extremely rare in the Nine Realms, a hint of surprise flashed in the eyes of the Forge Lady. She turned her head and glanced at Li You and the others.

But she didn't speak; she simply clasped her hands together and gathered all the materials and armor pieces together.

Then, her hands began to move rapidly, releasing amazing magic, and the embryos spun in the water.

Under her hands, all the armor plates were arranged together, vaguely forming the shape of the armor. The blanks that had not yet been incorporated were then dispersed, melted, and filled into the gaps in the armor piece by piece.

Finally, a heavy full suit of armor floated in front of the Forge Lady.

This suit of armor is very complete, from the full-coverage helmet to the breastplate, arm armor, and leg armor, and the powerful magic emanating from it is terrifying.

However, at this point, the details of the armor were still unclear, only the overall outline was visible.

At this moment, the Forge Lady turned around, looked at Li You, and then extended her hand to him again.

Li You immediately realized what was happening, and Brock, not holding a grudge about Sindri taking his things earlier, explained:

"She now needs the final ingredient. The blood of the armor's owner—a god. This will help the armor take its final form, and it will belong entirely to you, its shape molded to your will."

"Just give her your hand."

Li You was not surprised. In the game, Kratos also sacrificed his blood when he came to forge the spear. However, at that time, the spear's shape was already sculpted by the Lady of the Forge, probably because armor and weapons are ultimately different.

Li You stood by the window and stretched out his hand. The Forge Lady swiftly swam to the window and then grasped Li You's hand.

She grabbed Li You's wrist with her webbed hand, and with her other hand, she used her claw-like nails to tap Li You's fingertips, drawing out a large clump of bright red divine blood from his body.

The Forge Lady then guided the flow of blood back to the unfinished suit of armor.

She used her magic to activate the inherent properties of the divine blood, causing the blood to condense in the water into unique runes or patterns representing their owners.

In the game, Kratos' blood, under the magic of the Forge Lady, manifests as two Greek runes representing war and Sparta. Meanwhile, Li You's blood takes the form of a burning fire, within which the faint roar of a dragon echoes.

Lady Forge's eyes flickered, and she waved her hand, merging the divine blood into the armor beside her.

In an instant, the lake water around the armor seemed to boil!

A golden-red light shone brightly, carrying a scorching aura. Even the lake water, which contained a large amount of magic, was evaporated, and countless bubbles surged upwards.

The Forge Lady retreated a distance for a moment, for in her lake and in her forge, there were forged objects that had almost broken through her magic.

However, she had no time to be surprised. Although her technique was quite different from that of an ordinary blacksmith, the forge lady was also a blacksmith who could create powerful works, which was exactly what she wanted to see.

After a long while, the light and heat emanating from the armor finally subsided, and the armor, which had been crafted by three legendary dwarven blacksmiths—Brock, Sindri, and Lunda—and finally completed by the Lady of the Forge, was finally revealed in its entirety to everyone.

As seen before, this is a set of heavy armor with a black base, covering the entire body, with pale gold patterns meandering and flowing with magical light.

Those rare materials, fused together, were transformed into armor that allowed the entire body to be covered without any exposed parts. Its design style differed from that of the Nordic lands, and it was full of an ancient and mysterious aura.

Li You's blood was transformed into dark red ribbons with dark silver decorations hanging from his shoulder armor and waist, and into his skirt.

Just looking at this suit of armor, Li You felt a faint calling.

At this moment, not only Li You and his two companions, but even the Forge Lady herself was observing the armor.

However, most people thought that the design of this armor was very different from the Nordic style, but only Li You could see its special features.

In terms of overall appearance, this armor is very similar to the armor from another game, Demon's Souls Remake, which is known as the hardest armor to obtain, featuring the design of the Knight Armor.

However, compared to the original, this armor has undergone many changes in details. The blade element has been reduced, and some subtle dragon elements have been added, but the style is still consistent.

Li You hadn't actually intended for this armor to be designed to resemble the Penetrating Knight Armor, but it still turned out this way. This was probably because, in Li You's mind, the Penetrating Knight Armor was undoubtedly the most difficult to obtain.

Lady Forge had finished examining the armor and a look of delight appeared on her face.

With a wave of her hand, she used magic to shrink the armor, which condensed into a small, strangely shaped dark gold heart. The forge lady held it in her hand, then returned to Li You and handed it to him.

A strange look appeared in Li You's eyes. He took the heart and injected a little of his divine power into it. The heart instantly expanded and transformed back into the form of armor.

At the same time, Li You felt the divine power that had been accumulating in his body for a long time being strongly called, and the power burst out uncontrollably in an instant!
"boom--!!"

A beam of light, reaching the heavens and the earth, pierced through the lake water and soared into the sky!
Li You felt the attraction and instantly understood that the armor was almost perfectly compatible with him. So much so that when he was freed from the magic suppression of the Forge Lady, it resonated with the blood in his body and instinctively activated his dragon-human form, wanting to merge with him!
The problem is that if the dragonkin form is unleashed here, not only will the lake be damaged, but Brock, Sindri, and even Lady Forge might also be injured.

Upon realizing this, Li You immediately controlled the divine power within his body, suppressing the instinctive urge to transform into a dragon-human, and the astonishing beam of light also disappeared.

However, he did not completely suppress the restless divine power within him. Instead, he released a half-dragon phantom and let it fly in front of him. The armor seemed to have a target and immediately merged with the dragon phantom.

After the armor merged with the dragon-man phantom, its appearance changed again, becoming even closer to the shape of a dragon.

Just like the current form of the dragon phantom, this armor, after it began to change again, was not completely finalized, and the details were still slowly changing.

However, this is only a detail; the overall design and capabilities of this armor have already been finalized.

Brock and Sindri were both stunned. Staring at the armor draped over the dragon-man phantom and floating before them, Brock was even somewhat lost in thought, muttering to himself:
"(Old Norse) Daufifretr, she's so beautiful... Wait, I almost forgot!"

Block seemed to remember something, then turned to the forge lady at the window: "Madam... we would be very honored if you could bless it."

However, Lady Forge did not respond to Brock's words at all, as if she had not heard them at all.

"...Hmm? Hello?" This repeated itself, and even the slow-witted Brock sensed something was wrong. He waved at the Forge Lady: "Can you hear me?"

Lady Forge still didn't react, so Sindri stepped forward again, pushed Brock aside, and repeated what he had just said to Lady Forge: "Madam, we would be very honored if you could bless this armor."

This time, the forge lady heard her and nodded in agreement.

But she didn't rush to bestow her blessing. Instead, she turned to look at Li You, her peculiar pupils gazing at him intently for a moment before she reached out her hand toward the armor, silently muttering something.

An invisible ray of light appeared and landed on the armor, then vanished in a flash.

After giving her blessing, Lady Forge glanced at Li You one last time, then flicked her long tail and disappeared on the other side of the lake, just as she had come.

Li You then used his divine power to urge the dragon-man phantom to disappear, and the armor reformed into a miniature metal heart, which fell back into his hand.

Sindri looked at the heart in Li You's hand and murmured, "Now it's finished..."

"Sindri, you lying bitch!!"

But at that moment, Brock suddenly flew into a rage, grabbed Sindri by the collar, and roared, "You lied to me! I was dead! I was dead!!"

Sindri didn't fight back or even refute; he simply lowered his head and said nothing.

But his appearance only fueled Brock's anger. "Why did you hide this from me? I have the right to know whether I'm dead or alive! You've been lying to me for so long!"

Enraged, Brock tried to punch Sindri in the face, but his fist didn't land because Li You pulled him back from behind.

Brock turned around and yelled angrily, "What are you doing?!"

Sindri also looked at Li You, wanting to tell him not to interfere.

In fact, Li You really didn't want to interfere at this time. He could understand Sindri and Brock's feelings, and from his position, it was not easy to persuade them.

Fortunately, Kratos has already set a good example for him in the game, so he just needs to learn from him.

So Li You activated the armor again, making it float in front of the two brothers, and then said:

"You can put your argument aside for now. Aren't you here to forge this armor? There's still one step missing."

Brock and Sindri were both taken aback: "A step is missing?"

Li You looked at the two of them: "It now has the blessing of the Forge Lady, but it still needs the blessing of the Legendary Blacksmith Master. Brock, Sindri, I'm counting on you."

Upon hearing this, Sindri fell silent, while Brock's expression twitched before he said, "...I can't. I can't even give a blessing, I'm not even a complete soul."

Li You continued to repeat himself: "For dwarves, what matters is the essence, not the form, right?"

In the game, this is a line that Brock keeps repeating on the way up the mountain, and Kratos uses it at this moment, which in turn moves Brock.

Although Li You hadn't laid this groundwork beforehand, this common saying among the dwarves still moved Brock and Sindri, causing them to stop what they were doing.

Li You concluded, "Brock, I understand your anger, but you should also be able to figure out why Sindri would lie to you."

"In your words, you two are brothers after all. As long as you talk things out, everything will be fine, right?"

What Li You was saying at this moment was not Kratos's words, but rather the lines that Brock used in the game when he persuaded Freya to reconcile with Frey. Even in this world, Brock had said something similar.

Upon hearing this, Brock finally slowly released his grip on Sindri's hand.

Sindri plopped down on the ground, not even bothering to complain about the dirt, and just looked up at Brock.

Brock looked at him, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "What do you want to say?"

Sindri remained silent for a moment, then took a deep breath before saying, "It was wrong of me to hide it from you."

"Back then, in that furnace accident, you really died. I couldn't accept it, so... I ran to the Lake of Souls in Alfheim and stole you back."

Brock remained silent.

“At that time, a large number of souls tried to stop me, and even now I can feel the touch of those souls’ hands on me… But the key is that I only brought back three-quarters of your soul.”

Sindri said, no longer avoiding Brock's gaze, "I made a choice, a choice I shouldn't have made. I couldn't bear being alone, so I kept it from you, brought you back, and still haven't dared to tell you."

“This matter has been tormenting me. I asked Atreus, and he advised me to tell you the truth… That’s why I didn’t stop you from coming here this time.”

"I completely understand that you're angry. If you want to hit me, then go ahead and do it. I absolutely won't fight back."

Brock looked at him, his face flushing with anger again. He grabbed Sindri and raised his fist to punch him, but after hesitating for a few moments, he lowered his hand.

Sindri had already clenched his teeth and closed his eyes, but not feeling the fist land, he couldn't help but open them again: "...Brock?"

Brock loosened his grip, causing Sindri to fall back to the ground, and said, "You shameless liar, let me tell you, this isn't over!"

Sindri didn't argue, enduring the insults. But Brock spat on the ground and then said, "But I'm not going to settle this score with you now. Get up, you skinny monkey, let's finish what we need to do first!"

Upon hearing this, Sindri's eyes lit up: "Brock..."

"Stop being so girly! Get up now! That woman Luenda is waiting, let's get this over with quickly!"

At this moment, Brock seemed to have regained his former decisiveness. He quickly pulled Sindri up and then stood next to Li You's armor.

Sindri's face lit up with joy, and he followed closely behind.

He and Brock stood on either side of the armor, looking at Li You with great emotion, then at Brock, who snorted and turned away.

However, the two still cooperated perfectly. They each put one hand on their breastplates and simultaneously mobilized the magic power within their bodies.

Under Li You's gaze, Brock and Sindri, like the Forge Lady before them, silently muttered something, and then powerful magic surged from their hands, imprinting itself into their armor.

At this moment, Li You felt somewhat surprised, because in the game, when Brock "blessed" Kratos's Dropnir spear, he only recited a few words of blessing and then spat out a mouthful of saliva, without releasing any magic power.

At that time, the blessing was indeed only symbolic, and Kratos did not want an actual blessing.

Li You had thought so too, but at this moment, the two brothers, Brock and Sindri, seemed to be truly bestowing a blessing from the blacksmith upon his armor.

The magic released by the dwarf brothers lasted for a while before dissipating, and the aura of the armor changed again.

Before Li You could even see what had happened, he waved his hand and released his magic to catch the dwarf brothers who were about to fall backward.

He went up to take a look and discovered that the brothers' magic power had been almost completely drained.

"What are you..."

Brock remained silent, while Sindri forced his eyes open and said gratefully, "Thank you for what you just said. You helped us resolve our conflict, and both Brock and I are very grateful."

"This blessing is a special magic that a dwarven blacksmith master can only cast once in his lifetime. With the combined strength of my brother and me, although it is not as good as the Forge Lady's, it is not bad either. Consider it our way of thanking you for everything you have done."

Li You was stunned: "This..."

“Don’t worry about it. Like I said, you’ve helped us a lot, and this is all we could do. Besides, it’s worth it for the blacksmith to bless such a masterpiece,” Sindri said.

But Li You felt increasingly ashamed as he listened, since most of what he had just said was copied from Kratos's lines in the game, yet he had received Brock and Sindri's unreserved gratitude in return.

But looking into Sindri's eyes, Li You couldn't explain to him, so he nodded solemnly and accepted their kindness.

In his heart, Li You silently vowed that he would never let the tragedy of the original timeline repeat itself on these two brothers.

With a flash of light, Li You put away the fully completed armor, and the two dwarf brothers were lifted back to their feet by an invisible force field as he waved his hand.

"Thank you for everything you've done. Now let's go back; all the preparations are almost complete," Li You said.

Brock and Sindri had no objections, and the "bell" they were riding in rose up and slowly returned to the surface of the water, with the bell rising again.

Brock, now back to his normal posture, stepped off the platform: "That's it. Heh! I can't wait to see you in that armor slaughtering those Aesir fools on the battlefield of Ragnarok!"

"You can rest assured then. With this armor crafted by old Brock, those Aesir gods and brainless heroic warriors won't be able to touch you!"

Seeing his expression, Sindri smiled and retorted as usual, "How did it become your creation? Runda and I also contributed, as did Lady Forge!"

Brock glanced at him: "I haven't forgiven you yet, don't give me that nonsense!"

Sindri paused immediately and said no more.

Li You watched them bicker, and he felt quite pleased.

However, after the three stepped off the platform, they immediately realized something was wrong.

“…Wait, where’s Lunda?” Sindri asked in surprise.

At the small blacksmith shop by the lake, which was supposed to be the place where blacksmiths who came here would make their final preparations, Luenda had already processed the materials here and should have been waiting here, but now there was no sign of her.

However, immediately afterward, shouts came from the direction of the cave they came from, and then a short, stout figure ran out—it was Luenda.

She ran while constantly glancing back, as if something terrifying was chasing her. Upon closer inspection, there were even traces of blood on her body.

After running out of the cave, Lunda saw Li You and his companions. Her eyes lit up, and she shouted, "Watch out! Odin's army is coming..."

Before she could finish speaking, a rainbow-like sharp light came from behind and stabbed towards her back!

Upon seeing this, both Brock and Sindri's expressions changed drastically: "No—!!"

The next moment, a pale blue light flashed and disappeared!
"clang--!!"

(End of this chapter)