The peaceful days passed quickly, and two or three weeks went by in a flash.
During these two or three weeks, Shin had been consistently learning Cloth manufacturing from Mu. He had essentially mastered all of Mu's techniques; the only issue was his lack of a personal Cosmos.
Relying on the Cloth's integrated Cosmos when forging, he experienced a subtle sense of dissonance.
After all, the Cloth's Cosmos differs subtly from a human's, and since Shin didn't even possess his own Cloth, this disparity was magnified further.
The Cosmos evolves from the spiritual power within the human heart. Although the Cloths possess a form of life, their respective Cosmos still felt mechanical and rigid.
Essentially, at Shin's current skill level, he could manufacture Bronze and Silver Cloths and repair Gold Cloths. To advance any further, he absolutely needed to resolve his Cosmos issue.
Shin was helpless regarding this situation. He was forging Cloths to generate his own Cosmos, but without a self-generated Cosmos, he couldn't produce high-quality Cloths. The entire process seemed to be stuck in a vicious loop.
He could naturally gain the power of the Cosmos by relying on his self-evolution ability, but that would take a long time and require him to fully comprehend many more Cloths.
Having run out of options, Shin decided to forge a Cloth for himself first and then upgrade it gradually over time.
A Cloth that belonged entirely to him should have the highest compatibility with his non-existent Cosmos. Although it would still suffer from issues like stiffness and rigidity, it would offer far greater flexibility in manipulating the Cosmos than any other existing Cloth.
Furthermore, only a newly forged Cloth belonging solely to him could utilize the upgrade function. Shin was currently brimming with various insights into the Cosmos; theoretically, if he possessed his own Cosmos, he would have already reached the peak of the Eighth Sense.
However, he couldn't use his comprehension of the Cosmos to enhance the Cloth's embedded Cosmos; only the Cloth's inherent Cosmos imprint could be fully utilized.
While the dedicated Cloth was one step removed from his own potential Cosmos, it still possessed a growth function. Even if it started as an ordinary Cloth, relying on Shin's profound insights into the Cosmos, it could, at a minimum, reach the peak of the Seventh Sense or just enter the Eighth Sense.
Acting immediately on his decision, Shin wasted no time and began hammering away at the components of his own Cloth.
He possessed an abundance of rare materials, but the one most compatible with the Cloths was the large quantity of Amazonium metal he had acquired from the DC comic world.
Amazonium metal, also known as God Metal, was what the Greek deities in the DC comics used to forge divine artifacts. Although the Greek gods of the DC universe and those of the Saint Seiya universe are entirely separate, there was clearly some inexplicable link that made Amazonium the ideal primary material for forging a Cloth.
Besides this, the other high-grade metals Shin possessed could serve as secondary materials. Combined with some materials unique to the Saint Seiya world, the resulting Cloth would significantly exceed the strength of a Gold Cloth, though its Cosmos amplification capabilities would remain rudimentary.
Shin didn't actually need Cosmos amplification. Frankly, he didn't possess a Cosmos himself. All that mattered was that the Cloth's inherent Cosmos strength was sufficient; features like Cosmos amplification could be addressed later once he awakened his own power.
Utilizing various high-grade alloys, along with the Aries Gold Cloth—which possessed the ideal Cosmos for forging—Shin and Mu labored for hours, eventually producing a super-reinforced version of a Silver Cloth.
The Cloth absolutely had to be forged by Shin himself. Otherwise, lacking his own Cosmos, he would be unable to achieve proper synchronization with it, thus failing to create a true exclusive Cloth. Mu, however, was able to assist with the process.
Although this Cloth functioned only as an ordinary Silver Cloth in terms of Cosmos amplification, the sheer amount of rare materials poured into it was staggering. Metals like Amazonium and Uru wouldn't be considered outdated even if used as the primary materials for forging a God Cloth.
Other metals might have offered slightly less compatibility with the Cosmos, but their strength was shockingly high, especially the Galaxy Glaze that Shin finally revealed. Its properties were utterly perfect in every respect. Mu even suspected that perhaps not even the gods possessed such a precious metal.
"Such incredibly precious metal, used to create a Silver Cloth—are you out of your mind? This is a monstrous waste of heavenly treasures!"
Mu desperately wanted to point at Shin's head and yell this at the top of his lungs. While Shin had previously given him a generous amount of precious metal, those were all inferior grades, and nothing like the Galaxy Glaze had been included.
Now, seeing Shin's hidden collection, Mu felt that if he were given all these materials, he could easily forge the strongest Gold Cloth imaginable.
Unfortunately, Shin was the Goddess's instructor, and his strength far surpassed Mu's. In the end, Mu swallowed all his internal protests.
"Never mind, never mind. Since the metal was supplied by Shin himself, what right did Mu have to complain when he was allowed to see and even handle such treasures?"
Once the forging was complete, Mu was once again speechless regarding Shin's sense of aesthetics. He strongly suspected Shin had simply created a suit of knight's armor—it was completely covered from head to toe, lacking any patterns or beauty. "Say no more. Leave the post-processing to me!"
Shin didn't object. The only thing he was slightly dissatisfied with was his failure to collect the data for all twelve Gold Cloths, coupled with his lack of materials required to forge one.
Shin had long coveted the Gold Cloth, which possessed the ability to simulate solar energy. Unfortunately, Mu informed him that most of the original materials had already been exhausted, and it was estimated that no trace of them remained in the world outside of Mount Olympus.
"Once the Holy War is concluded and Athena is fully awakened, I definitely need to visit Mount Olympus. Firstly, to search for the Gold Cloth materials, and secondly, to find Apollo's God Cloth."
Shin was certain that the attributes of Apollo's God Cloth would be highly compatible with his own nature. If Apollo's God Cloth didn't contain complete solar and sunlight properties, Shin vowed he would literally eat the armor!
Shin certainly couldn't bring himself to melt down a Gold Cloth just to extract materials. Dealing with the other Greek gods, on the other hand, would be much simpler. Apollo's God Cloth had long been a target of Shin's ambition.
Mu spent a considerable amount of time polishing, working extremely hard to modify the appearance of this terrifyingly strong Cloth before finally completing the refinement process.
And just as Shin's new Cloth was freshly completed, the Saints dispatched by the Sanctuary arrived in Japan once again.
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Now available - Chapter 698: Finale (ENDING)