I Said Make My Abilities Average! (LN) - Volume 19 - Chapter 136

Chapter 136:

Plate Armor

“MILE, COULD YOU WITHDRAW some of my funds from your storage?” Mavis asked out of the blue one day.

Mile shot her a dubious look. “Huh?”

Mavis wasn’t referring to her portion of the joint savings the party had earned since coming to the new continent. She meant the personal funds she had brought with her when she departed her manor. Of course, the girls had saved up quite a bit of coin since their arrival, so she could have easily asked for a share of that if she wanted. In this instance, however, she was after the personal savings she had entrusted to Mile, her human safe-deposit box.

Mavis had learned how to wield storage magic of her own, but she either lacked confidence in her abilities or had simply gotten used to using Mile as her personal safe. She was still in the habit of keeping everything she couldn’t fit in her drawstring bag in Mile’s storage.

“Uh, sure, I don’t mind. I mean, I’m only holding on to it for you, so it’s not like you need my permission. How much do you need?”

“Oh, say, about a hundred gold coins?”

“What?!” the entire party yelled.

A hundred gold coins was equivalent in value to ten million yen in Japan. Hearing Mavis drop that exorbitant number was enough to make Reina and Pauline gasp in shock right alongside Mile.

Especially Pauline.

“M-M-M-Mavis, wh-wh-what are you thinking?!”

Considering these were Mavis’s personal funds, not the party budget, Pauline really had no right to protest. 

“Mavis is free to make her own choices, Pauline. She never wastes money, so if she’s determined that something is worth such a huge sum, it must be important to her. It’s not our place to say anything.” 

It was a sound argument, but the ever-inquisitive Mile still couldn’t help but indulge her curiosity. “On that note, what do you plan to use it for, Mavis?”

“Oh, well, I was actually thinking of buying some plate armor…”

“Plate armor?” all three of her companions asked in unison.

Plate armor was a type of full-body armor. It was sometimes called “full plate armor,” but that was a relatively newly coined term, and just plain “plate armor” still implied a full suit.

It was expensive. Incredibly so. In Earth terms, it cost about as much as a car. The cheap stuff was around the price of a standard automobile, but the high-end products were worth as much as a Porsche or Ferrari. For something to be worn by a count’s daughter like Mavis, a hundred gold coins was probably on the lower end of the range.

“I realized something! I can use storage magic now, right? That means I can carry around plate armor without any hassle at all!”

“Ugh!” Reina and Pauline scoffed, their moods taking a sudden turn for the sour.

“A proper knight needs a suit of armor! Yet hunters are always traveling long distances and trekking through forests, wastelands, swamplands, and mountains. I couldn’t very well cart heavy armor through those terrains, not to mention that it takes time and assistance to put on. I’d need to bring a minimum of two attendants along for the journey. And so, although our divine messenger here went to the trouble of making me a holy knight, I had given up on my dream of plate armor. But then…”

“But then?”

“I had an epiphany! None of those problems matter if I have storage magic!”

“Ah,” sighed the rest of the party.

“If I keep it in storage, I don’t have to worry about carrying it around. And if I don the armor, strike a specific pose, and then pack it away while I still have it on, all I have to do is strike the same pose when I take it back out.”

“Ah…”

As soon as they realized what Mavis was getting at, all three girls’ jaws dropped.

“Sound familiar?! It’s the Borgman System that Mile once tried to test on Pauline! That gave me the hint I needed!”

The Borgman System was one of the many ideas Mile had experimented with to improve the party’s defenses. In this groundbreaking system, a member of the party would shout a certain key phrase, cueing the gear to come out of Mile’s inventory and automatically equip itself to the user. It was supposed to be like a transformation sequence straight out of the show.

Alas, the System had never quite come together because, when Mile was trying to get Pauline to try it out, she had gotten inexplicably hung up on “jiggle physics.” 

Plus, given Pauline’s lack of physical strength and terrible motor skills, the armor had weighed her down to the point of being unable to walk or stand. Taking the chain mail underneath into account, the lightest plate armor was around thirty kilograms, and the heavier examples weighed upwards of forty. Way too much for Pauline to handle.

Plate armor had several other drawbacks in addition to its cost and weight. It made it hard to move freely. The helmet obstructed the wearer’s view. It was hot and stuffy most of the time and ice-cold in the winter. If you happened to trip and fall, it would take a long time to get back on your feet without assistance, and a weakling might not be able to pick themselves up at all. Stumbling mid-battle could easily prove fatal. And, as is probably already apparent, transporting and equipping the gear was time-consuming.

But what if storage magic could eliminate the aforementioned trouble of transporting and equipping?

Mavis could instantaneously equip the armor right before heading into battle. If she tripped and fell, she could store it on the spot, then reequip it as soon as she was back on her feet. At her current level of training, if she only had to keep the gear on during battle, the heat and weight would be nothing she couldn’t handle. Plus, between the True Godspeed Blade, which called upon the nanomachines inside her to cast body-enhancing magic (though the girl in question perceived this as “spirit” power), and the EX True Godspeed Blade, which involved doping her with the Micros, she had already augmented her body with the nanomachines.

“That…could actually work,” Mile murmured, impressed by Mavis’s ingenuity.

Meanwhile, Reina and Pauline gnashed their teeth in jealousy, reminded once again of how handy storage magic could be.

The two hunters still made a point of training every single night. Pauline, in particular, had made good progress. She was at least capable of opening a subspace and taking things in and out of it.

However, the storage magic wasn’t the only part of this bothering Pauline. Even though it was someone else’s money and technically no concern of hers, she was deeply distressed by the thought of a large sum like a hundred gold coins changing hands.

“We at least ought to test that it actually works before you actually purchase the plate armor!”

“Good call!” the others agreed.

***

Mavis went to a nearby forest to test out her plan. For the trial version, she would be using the same Borgman equipment that Mile had made and forced everyone to try on previously. It had been collecting dust in Mile’s inventory ever since the plan was initially rejected, but at last it would see the light of day once more.

Of course, it was only getting used to test whether armor could be equipped from storage, but that was better than nothing.

First, Mavis equipped the prototype armor—the “Borgman” equipment that Mile had made for her personal use. Then, she struck the pose from which she would stash the armor in her storage. She chose a simple stance, prioritizing its reproducibility over the cool factor.

“Release!”

Shlorp!

The gear disappeared in an instant.

“Ooohhh!” the rest of the party gasped. 

Now, Reina and Pauline were marveling right alongside Mile. They were jealous of her storage magic, sure, but they could also see how it would be a huge asset to the Crimson Vow if Mavis could equip and remove sturdy armor at any given moment. This was no time to be petty.

“That’s incredible, Mavis!” Mile exclaimed.

Mavis beamed.

“Next step. Time to put it back on,” Mavis said, then struck the same pose she had when she unequipped it. “Borg, get on!”

Ker-thwack!

“Gwah!”

The prototype gear knocked Mavis straight to the ground as soon as it appeared. And since it was heavy, metal armor…

“Umph!”

Nanos, what’s going on?

YOUR INVENTORY EXISTS IN A DIFFERENT DIMENSION, LADY MILE. AS ITS CONTENTS ARE MOVED VIA DIMENSIONAL SHIFT, THE ARMOR CAN BE BOTH STORED AND EQUIPPED WITH OUR ASSISTANCE, PROVIDED IT IS STORED IN THE SAME CONFIGURATION AS IT IS MEANT TO BE WORN. HOWEVER, THE STORAGE MAGIC UTILIZED BY THE HUMANOIDS OF THIS WORLD DOES NOT ACCESS AN ALTERNATE DIMENSION. IT IS SIMPLY A SUBSPACE POCKET. WE CANNOT ATTEMPT ANYTHING MORE COMPLEX THAN TAKING THE OBJECTS IN AND OUT. THEREFORE, EVEN IF THE ARMOR IS DISMANTLED CORRECTLY DURING THE STORAGE PROCESS, IT WILL NOT RETAIN THAT ARRANGEMENT WHEN IT COMES BACK OUT.

Whoopsie…

“M-Mile, put the armor away… And heal me, if you would… I-I think I broke something…”

“Eep!”

A flustered Mile quickly stored the gear, then cast a healing spell on Mavis.

Her ambitions thwarted, Mavis gave up on her plan to buy plate armor. Pauline, for one, was relieved. Although the money wasn’t even hers, she couldn’t help but be quite pleased to know those hundred gold coins would remain in Mile’s storage.