Although Duanmu Huai didn't really want to work for some local, provincial god, since the other party was willing to offer overtime pay, he reluctantly agreed.
Of course, he didn't forget to put his remaining points into Strength, Intelligence, and Constitution — after all, he couldn't increase Charisma anyway.
If Sigmar had given him a Charisma-related feat, maybe he would have been more interested in helping him.
Clearly, Sigmar didn't understand people's hearts.
As for his specialization points, Duanmu Huai put all of them into [Psyker Combat Training], raising it to level 10, which upgraded it to [Master Psyker Combat Training] and granted him the special skill [Psychic Combat].
[Psychic Combat: Each 1 point of Warp Heat increases weapon attack damage by 1%]
Put simply, it was a skill that condensed Warp heat consumption into increased weapon damage. For most psykers, it wasn't very useful — normally, during battle, they would generate Warp heat while using psychic power, but once their psychic reserves were depleted, that heat would gradually cool down, much like a machine gun automatically cooling after sustained fire.
Soulwalkers, however, were different. Soul Cards permanently occupied part of the Warp heat limit. This meant that if Duanmu Huai were surrounded by a large number of enemies, he could activate [Raging Fury], [Against All Odds], and then stack [Psychic Combat], summoning a swarm of Soul Cards to forcibly push his Warp heat to the limit, and then…
Oh, the swing from that hammer would be glorious.
If he'd had this skill back in the Holy City, he wouldn't have needed to wait for the Church's paladins — he could have smashed that heretic Ivel to death with a single blow.
After that, the group stayed in Mordheimer for a short rest, while General Paste once again reported to the crown prince. Although Mordheimer was technically recaptured, what came next was the real problem. Purging the city completely was extremely difficult — almost as bad as tearing it down and rebuilding it from scratch.
Of course… it was also possible that this "recapture of Mordheimer" was just a smokescreen, and the crown prince had really only come for the dimensional stone here.
But that was no concern of Duanmu Huai's.
Because Melody had brought him good news — the mount he had ordered from Buddy was finally complete!
Hearing that, Duanmu Huai immediately opened the door back to the Holy City world. Taking Augis, Lorena, and the others, he eagerly headed to the Doll District to see Buddy again.
"I hear you've got it ready?"
The moment he stepped into the shop and saw Buddy, Duanmu Huai asked without preamble, eyes darting around to spot his new ride — hmm, didn't seem to be in the store.
"Hahahaha, of course."
Buddy was clearly in high spirits; it seemed this commission had been a particularly satisfying one for him.
"Don't bother looking, it's not here. A mount sized for you? No way it'd fit in here. Come with me."
"Alright."
Duanmu Huai nodded and followed Buddy out, the group walking down the road. As they went, Buddy began explaining his thoughts and process in making the mount.
"To be honest, you really know how to make an old man's life difficult. You wanted it sturdy but also agile and light — not easy to manage. And you know, with your size, the mount has to be big too. As you can imagine, in a city, you probably couldn't use it at all — it's only for the open road."
"I know."
Duanmu Huai didn't mind. As Buddy said, his sheer bulk already took up enough space — even before crossing over, it had been inconvenient. Buying a car had been nearly impossible, bikes and scooters were out of the question, and even getting through subway ticket gates required turning sideways.
It was one reason he always wore power armor — even if he took it off, he had no clothes to wear; everything had to be custom-made.
His need for a mount was mostly for convenience in combat. For getting around the city… well, he took up enough space walking as it was.
Of course, in a modern city with six-lane roads it might be fine, but in a medieval city? Some streets were so narrow he had to turn sideways just to squeeze through.
Luckily, medieval cities were usually small. The Holy City, compared to the cities before his crossing, was about the size of one or two districts. Walking was still viable.
"As for materials, I really had to put in some work. I found some refined mithril in the church's storerooms. Normally, they wouldn't sell it, but when they heard it was for making your mount, the archbishop agreed."
"Oh? I really should thank her."
Duanmu Huai was genuinely grateful, and his expectations for the mount grew. If Buddy said it was made of mithril, then naturally it would be silver and shiny — it couldn't possibly look bad.
After all, white hides all flaws.
While chatting, they arrived at a warehouse behind the Doll District. Buddy unlocked the door and ushered them inside.
But… the entire place was pitch dark.
"Mr. Buddy, where's my mount?"
Duanmu Huai peered into the dim space. He could vaguely see a shape, but wasn't sure what it was.
"Heh, watch closely."
Buddy flipped a switch. In an instant, the warehouse lit up, revealing a massive figure before them.
A… dragon?
No, not an ordinary dragon.
It had a streamlined, hulking body like a tyrannosaurus, with two thick hind legs and a long tail. Its front claws were smaller — not as tiny as a tyrannosaurus's, but still small compared to the hind legs. And on each side of its body were two pairs of folded metal wings!
In short, it looked like a Transformer version of a winged T-rex.
Its head wasn't dinosaur-like but closer to the triangular, narrow-headed shape of the dragons of this world.
Its entire body was jet black, with eyes glowing blood-red, and a mouth full of steel fangs — downright terrifying.
Even Lorena hid behind Duanmu Huai in fear.
"Well? What do you think, kid?"
Buddy banged a fist on the metal dragon's three-to-four-meter-high frame and laughed.
"Pretty majestic, right?"
"…"
Even Duanmu Huai had been startled when he first saw it, gripping his warhammer instinctively. Now, hearing Buddy's question, he was speechless.
"Mr. Buddy, didn't I ask you to make it look a bit nicer?"
"It does look nice. It's a dragon! What's wrong with being a dragon knight?"
"But… why is it black?"
He could already imagine the reactions if he rode this thing into view.
And hadn't Buddy said it would be mithril? Why did it end up looking like Deathwing?
"Oh, I matched it to your armor. Silver mount with black armor would clash. And the eyes — I customized them to match your helmet. Nice, huh?"
"…Really nice."
Thanks a lot.
Honestly, his first instinct was to have Buddy melt it down and start over. Was Buddy a plant sent by the God of Slaughter to make him look even more menacing? Buddy had clearly forgotten that men and women had different aesthetics — a female dollmaker might have made something prettier.
But… when he saw the mount's card stats, he couldn't bring himself to scrap it.
[Mythic Metal Draconic Mount (Gold)]
[Cost: 4]
[Attack: 5]
[Defense: 5]
[All damage to this follower becomes 0]
[Any unit attacking this follower gains -1/-1 (followers with defense 0 or less are destroyed)]
[Rider's Intimidation Level +1]
Damn, the mount was tougher than him!
Not only was it immune to physical damage, it had counter-damage built in.
If it were just a normal mount, he would have told Buddy to redo it. But with these Soul Card effects, he couldn't give it up.
Immune to physical damage and deals counter-damage — the perfect mount for charging into battle.
And that intimidation boost…
Why +1 intimidation? At this rate, I'm going to be scarier than the Chaos Gods. Might even get crowned the Sixth Chaos God just by standing there.
Why the sixth? …That's best left unsaid.
Though he was internally exasperated, once he mounted it per Buddy's instructions, Duanmu Huai found it incredibly easy to use. With rein-like control handles, he could command it freely, and it could even spread its wings for short-distance flight. Buddy had also designed it so Duanmu Huai could still swing his warhammer from the saddle.
While large for a mount, it was still smaller than a true dragon — mithril wasn't limitless, after all.
So for Duanmu Huai, riding it was about the same as a normal man on a warhorse. In that regard, Buddy had actually fulfilled his request perfectly.
It was just… the appearance…
He was half-tempted to ask Buddy to plaster a 2D anime girl on its side and turn it into a "pain-dragon."
(End of Chapter)