Chapter 46 – Exoskeleton
The duel was over.
The monster was dead.
My body hated me.
I lay on my back on the dorm bed, shirt off, arm across my eyes, listening to my own joints complain. The healers had done their job—no torn tendons, no cracked bones on the report—but I remembered every moment my frame had almost folded.
Ezra's sword slamming into the claymore.
My wrists screaming.
My knees dipping under his weight even with Ark and aura helping.
"I don't need a stronger sword," I muttered. "I need stronger bones."
Ants could carry ten times their weight because their frame was built for it.
I was still just a human kid swinging adult problems.
I stared at the ceiling.
*Full exoskeleton,* the old world whispered. Not just a shoulder harness. Not just arm support.
Legs. Hips. Spine. Arms.
A second body wrapped around the first.
Not heavy armor. A light frame that made my strength scale up without turning me into paste.
I sat up, went to the desk, and pulled out fresh parchment.
The claymore leaned against the wall, batteries sleeping in its hilt, Ark core humming faintly at the pommel.
I took a breath.
"New Ark," I said quietly. "New frame."
The current Ark in the sword was good—mana in, power out at something like one to four hundred compared to old-world energy. Enough to treat kilowatt-hours like pocket change.
But for something that would hug my entire body, I needed better.
In my head, a familiar image floated up: a glowing ring in a man's chest, a miniature reactor powering impossible armor.
Not realistic back home.
Here?
"Scary realistic," I murmured.
If I reworked the spell structure, used Grum's alloy as both shell and coil, shaped the mana loops tighter…
"One unit of mana," I calculated under my breath, "for… two thousand units of work."
1:2000.
Even saying it in my head felt obscene.
Enough that a single proper charge could, by old-world standards, power a small town for a while.
Old world engineers would have killed for that ratio.
Here, it would sit behind my ribs, quietly feeding a frame.
I dipped the quill and started drawing.
First: the core.
A round "Ark heart," about the size of my palm, drawn as a flat disc rather than a sphere. Runes around the edge for confinement, three concentric loops inside for circulation.
I wrote next to it:
"ARK-2: Chest/Spine Mount. Conversion Ratio ~1:2000 (Mana:Work). Output limited by control array, not core capacity."
Then the frame.
I sketched a stick figure, then wrapped it.
– A spine rail from the base of the neck to the tailbone, slightly curved, segmented like a centipede for flexibility.
– A chest ring that sat over the ribs, leaving room for breathing, connecting to the spine rail at the back.
– Hip ring, wrapping the pelvis, anchor for the leg struts.
– Leg frames: thin bars running along the outside of thigh and calf, hinged at hip, knee, and ankle. At each joint, a blunt "cuff" that sat just above or below the real joint.
– Arm frames: similar struts along upper arm and forearm, hinged at shoulder and elbow, with a light band at the back of the hand.
A full exoskeleton, but close-fitting. No big plates. Just rails where the bones already were.
I added a second sheet and began labeling properly, the way Grum liked:
Top view:
CENTRAL CORE – mounted just below sternum, sunk into a reinforced plate. Quick-release from outside back for maintenance. SPINE RAIL – segmented, follows natural curve. Houses main mana conduit from core.
Front/side view:
CHEST RING – distributes load away from single point, attaches to spine rail via sliding locks (for growth). HIP RING – primary transfer for leg loads; splits weight into frame instead of spine. LEG STRUTS – outer thigh / outer shin; triple-hinged:
– Hip Joint: assists lift.
– Knee Joint: assists extension.
– Ankle Joint: stabilises landing.
ARM STRUTS – shoulder to elbow to wrist, with:
– Shoulder assist: lifting claymore.
– Elbow assist: controlling fine motion.
– Wrist cuff: vibration damping when mono-edge and Ark are active.
FOOT PLATES – thin inserts between boot sole and foot, with shock-absorbing glyphs.
The conduits came next: thin "veins" branching from the Ark heart, running along spine, splitting at hip and shoulders, following struts down limbs.
This time, I didn't just scribble "power goes here."
I marked:
"Low-output, constant-feed channels – 5–10% of Ark max, enough to assist x9 body weight *in theory*."
And underlined "in theory" twice.
Nine times my current body weight.
If I actually used that full multiplier, my bones and ligaments would complain loudly. But I needed the frame and core to *handle* that load even if I never used it all.
Margin between "what it can do" and "what I will let it do."
[ System ]
[ New Project Registered: "Full-Body Support Frame (EXO-1)" ]
[ Target Specs:
– Power Core: ARK-2, Conversion Ratio ~1:2000.
– Structural Load: Up to 9x user body weight (safety margin).
– Operation: Normal use at 2–3x, short bursts up to 4–5x. ]
[ Warning: Unchecked use at full capacity will result in skeletal and organ damage. ]
I grimaced.
"Yeah," I said. "I figured."
Modularity.
That was non-negotiable.
If I built this exactly to my current measurements, in a year it would either hang loose or crush me.
So I went back over the whole drawing and broke it up.
– Spine rail: segments that could be added or removed, each locking onto the next with a simple dwarf pattern.
– Chest ring: two overlapping halves with multiple anchor holes; straps and padding adjustable.
– Hip ring: same. Extra holes for future expansion.
– Limb struts: telescoping sections, pins to set length, glyphs for self-adjustment within a small range.
Under the main sketch, I wrote for Grum:
"MODULAR BUILD – child size now, adult length later. Design base in sections so later frames can reuse core and main rail, only swap struts and rings."
It would be a nightmare to calibrate.
He'd love it.
I flipped to a third sheet and drew a more detailed front view:
The Ark sat under the sternum, but most of its bulk actually rested against the spine via a thick connector that passed between ribs. To an outside observer, it would just look like a slightly odd chestplate under a shirt.
Harness straps crossed over the shoulders and under the arms, anchoring the chest ring to the frame.
*Like a backpack,* I thought. *You forget it's there until it catches a load for you.*
I started annotating everything in Grum-speak:
– "Main alloy: 'future copper' spine, high mana conductance. Use same mix as claymore core."
– "Secondary: lighter steel for external rails, treated for resilience."
– "Joint caps: inscribed with shock-absorber glyphs. Do NOT use brittle metals here."
And, most importantly:
– "Control array: backplate, between shoulder blades. Ark output passes through here first. Hard limiters, keyed to my aura signature. If core goes wild, cut power."
If this thing failed, I wanted it dead, not flailing.
I sat back, flexing my fingers.
The idea of walking around inside this made the tired ache in my limbs feel… manageable. Ants with ten times capacity; I'd settle for nine on paper and three or four in practice.
Enough to let me swing, jump, and take hits without my body giving up first.
Enough that, when portals opened and monsters rolled out, my frame wouldn't be the weakest link anymore.
I added one last note at the corner:
"EXO-1: assistive frame, not weapon. Primary goal: protect user from *his own* bad ideas."
[ System ]
[ Sub-Quest Added: Deliver EXO-1 Diagrams to Grum. ]
I rolled the diagrams carefully, tied them with a scrap of string, and slid the bundle into my satchel—the same place the claymore plans had ridden before.
"Next time I go down," I said softly, thinking of the hidden lift in the ruined warehouse, "this goes first thing on the anvil."
The Ark in the sword hummed faintly, as if it heard.
I rested my hand on the claymore's hilt.
"Blade, batteries, Ark, frame," I counted under my breath. "One by one."
I wouldn't always be twelve.
But until my body caught up with my enemies, I'd build the difference.
Outside, the Academy lights dimmed toward night.
Somewhere under the city, a dwarf smith who hadn't seen the future was about to get diagrams from someone who had.
And somewhere beyond even that, in routes I'd refused to accept, the portals waited for a boy who kept showing up stronger than last time.