So, instead of rare items, Dominic focused on making himself durable armour with a decorative chest plate. As his formal outfit was Sorcerer’s robes, long and flowing, there was no need for the majority of the armour to be highly ornamental.
The only part that anyone would see would be the plate over his chest, his gloves, and possibly, his boots.
But that gave him a great idea. As he was supposed to be a ranged combatant, he didn’t need to make a full suit of plates, with all its fitment issues. The forge in his room had a chain weaving loom in it for doing repairs to armour, as the apprentice’s suite was devoted to a Master Smith, not the Weaponsmith in particular.
He was about to start weaving wire for a hauberk when one of the armourers passed by the courtyard outside his window.
"Hey, Armourer, I forgot your name. Care to make a trade?" He called out from his small second floor window.
The young man turned, and then smiled when he saw who was waving at him.
"What did you have in mind?" He asked, coming close so they didn’t need to shout.
"I need a chain mail hauberk or a decorative chest plate and pants, sized to fit me. Unfinished, as I will be enchanting them for my own use." Dominic explained.
"And what do I get in exchange?" The armourer asked.
Dominic held out an Ogre’s Mana Core, and the man’s smile brightened.
"Now you’re speaking my language. That’s a level fifteen core, right? Throw in five goblin cores and I will trade you both right now. I’ve got a training set from when I was a kid which was never enchanted."
Dominic resisted the urge to sigh. "I will be right down."
The armourer was much larger than he had looked from above, Dominic realized as he reached the courtyard. He didn’t even stand as tall as the man’s shoulder, and he was only half as wide.
"Well, you might need to take it in at the side seams, but it should be adjustable enough. It’s got short sleeves, meant to be worn with bracers and plated boots, so the overall length should be good."
The armourer held up the two pieces in question, and Dominic nodded in agreement. Indeed, they were just simple chain armour, the same as the reservists wore under their plates.
"Thanks. I have events coming up which require full formal military wear." Dominic explained, and the armourer smiled.
"Wearing a full plate set under and over a robe is a pain because the pieces are designed to interlock and overlap, but they can’t if you slap a robe in the middle. So, you’re thinking a chest plate over, and chain under. You’ll sound armoured when you move, which is right, and nobody will be able to accuse you of being underdressed.
If you can get your hands on some Iron Pyrite and Brass, you can use them to plate a set of bracers and make them look like gold. It’s better than having them in raw iron. I don’t recommend doing the same to your chest plate, though. Too much gold looks gaudy.
Are you sure you don’t want to just commission a set?" The Armourer asked.
"Later. Right now, I need to repair the armour I have, as I’ve only got a few days off from the forge and then there will be mandatory events."
Dominic handed over the Mana Cores, which the armourer tucked away, looking wary of anyone seeing him make the exchange.
"Pleasure doing business with you. Now, I need to get all of this, plus those bracers you suggested, polished up and ready for finishing touches." He quietly informed the armourer.
They both returned to their duties, and Dominic sighed in relief as he realized that he really might have a full formal armour set ready before he had to head back to work.
A quick acid bath to get the chain ready for upgrade was enough, and Dominic got to work on the bracers while the ruins of his old chest plate went through the cycles of heating and working to improve the metal quality and pound out the lingering magic, so the metal could be reused.
Once the bracers were shaped, Dominic looked through the standard stamps and found one with the outline of a dragon.
That was carefully hammered into the surface of both bracers, and then he went looking through the materials for plating metals.
There was a salt and electrode kit for white bronze, which was almost as shiny as silver. That would do just as well as fake gold, and he could polish it on the buffing wheel.
The bracers turned out beautifully, and Dominic hadn’t even noticed as the sun went down, and then back up again. He only noticed that time was passing as he smelled breakfast being brought in while he was painting the dragons etched into the bracers.
Dominic came out to the smell of food, and noticed that Pops was laughing at his sweat soaked and filthy appearance after a whole night in the forge.
"Did you sleep at all?" He asked around a mouthful of bacon.
"I didn’t realize it was morning. I’ve only got a bit more to finish on the rough shaping of the new chest plate, and then I will go to sleep and do the detail work later. I’ve still got all day today and tomorrow off, right?" Dominic asked.
"That’s right. But be sure that at least one of those days is dedicated to sleep. We’ve already started to ramp up production, and you’ll be back to long hours every day of the week." Pops warned.
"Got it. No production quotas, just smash until we run out of materials."
Pops nodded. "If we can manage that, we might even get to go home early one day. But I will be moving you off the standard Apprentice lines. His Majesty the King has given orders that we are to equip a natural children’s regiment of riflemen.
You are skilled with ranged weapons, so you will be joining the Journeymen in the creation. Make whatever you want, as long as it can be made with the materials they give you. The Nobles will learn to live with it."
"Natural Children?" Dominic asked.
Pops chuckled at Dominic’s innocence. "It’s a polite way of saying bastards and sons by mistresses and concubines. Those who will inherit nothing but a few drops of Noble blood and the smallest affinity for magical items."