Strength is strength, and style is style.
As the saying goes: Strength is temporary, but being cool is a lifetime affair.
Although the strength of this Diablos material wasn't quite up to the highest tier, its inherently asymmetrical and hideous appearance looked handsome enough. So for Andrew, it was just as acceptable!
Besides, no matter how you put it, the strength of this Diablos material was significantly higher than the previous Odogaron material. Compared to the Odogaron's styling, which was like light armor, the armor crafted from Diablos material was a heavy armor through and through.
It was the kind that was armed to the teeth.
If one were to say the Odogaron armor was agile and sharp, then the Diablos armor was thick and heavy. Unmatched in its heaviness. Putting on this suit directly turned the Hunter into a human tank, capable of crushing everything before their footsteps into dust and smashing them to pieces.
However, this armor had a very obvious flaw: its weight, which exceeded common sense.
Normally speaking, all Hunter equipment is incomparably heavy compared to the equipment of ordinary people. But among all types of armor and weapons, equipment crafted from Diablos materials stands out particularly in terms of weight.
According to what that Old Geezer, the Sapphire Star, said, originally in the Old World, even the Ace Hunters in some villages couldn't actually manage to pilot a full suit of Diablos Armor.
Relying on their strength, even if they gave it their all, the most they could wear were the three parts: the helm, the chest plate, and the vambraces. As for the waist and leg equipment, they directly abandoned them. They didn't even prepare to craft them.
(This refers to the fact that before Monster Hunter Portable, there were official design drafts for a full Diablos armor set, but in the released games, the Diablos armor lacked waist and leg parts. The author feels this explanation makes sense of that.)
After all, even for such Ace Hunters, if they fully equipped the Diablos armor, that unmatched weight would make even lifting their arms extremely difficult.
If one wore the full body Diablos armor, let alone quick evasive maneuvers like the Superman Dive, they wouldn't even be able to perform normal movements. Going hunting in such a condition would be meaningless, other than turning oneself into a hard-to-open canned meal for the monsters. It would simply be seeking death.
And since Ace Hunters were already like this when wearing a full set of Diablos armor, there was no need to mention the majority of ordinary Hunters in the Guild.
For them, a mere complete chest plate would already be like an extra-large turtle shell, directly crushing them flat on the ground, unable to move.
However, for Andrew, this weight was not a problem. The reason his memory of the Diablos armor's weight was so fresh was mainly due to events that happened back in the New World.
Thinking back to when he had just gathered enough materials to craft a full set of armor by hunting Diablos in the New World, Andrew immediately ran to the uncle at the Smithy in high spirits to ask for his help in crafting it.
However, hunting was one thing, and physical strength was another.
Although Andrew's physical strength at that time had been improving by leaps and bounds under the Sapphire Star's training, it was still considered insufficient regarding the armor crafted from Diablos materials.
Thus, under the expression of that Old Geezer, the Sapphire Star—who never minded watching the drama unfold—Andrew was successfully crushed by the full set of Diablos armor to the point where it was difficult to move. Walking around, swaying and waddling, he was simply like a penguin.
As a result, not only did that Old Geezer not lend a hand, but he also used the camera he had just obtained to take a picture of Andrew's unsightly state at the time. Oh, in the world of Monster Hunter, this thing used for taking pictures should be called an Observation Tool.
Then, in the following days, whenever he met that Old Geezer, the Sapphire Star, the other party would insist on taking out that photo to laugh at Andrew. It was simply as if he had been possessed by a cheeky brat that popped out of nowhere; you couldn't even refute him.
However, this instead aroused Andrew's fighting spirit.
Determined to improve, Andrew directly treated the Diablos armor as a weighted tool, wearing the armor every day to train desperately in the training grounds.
Coupled with the fact that the Old Geezer always took the largest share of the Ancient Forest's production quota, the Max Potions in the Sapphire Star's item box were actually overflowing at that time.
So, in order to return the favor for the Old Geezer's mockery, Andrew, holding a breath of resentment in his heart, would unceremoniously pop a Max Potion he swiped from the Old Geezer to recover his state every time he trained until his stamina was completely exhausted.
Then, he would once again drain the state he had just recovered with limit-pushing training. The cycle repeated.
At the same time, whenever he was hungry, he would also go and fiercely stuff his face with the Dragon Meat the Old Geezer left with the Meowscular Chef to replenish the nutrients consumed by high-intensity exercise.
It just so happened that the Hoarfrost Reach had just been discovered not long before. As the strongest existence among all Hunters in the New World, the Sapphire Star was needed to pioneer the investigation. So, for the majority of the time, he was conducting investigation missions in that new region of the Hoarfrost Reach.
Meanwhile, because Andrew's culinary skills had achieved some success, and because he had the memories of a foodie from the Flower Planting Nation, he could often replicate and create many delicacies he had eaten and seen in his first life through experimentation.
This made the Sapphire Star choose to directly open the permissions of his ingredient storage to Andrew in order to eat more.
But it was precisely because of this point that the Sapphire Star's inventory suffered a complete disaster at Andrew's hands.
By the time he returned to the Astera Star Stronghold for a new commission, prepared to ruthlessly mock Andrew once again, the Sapphire Star saw an Andrew whose strength had already grown to the point where he could adapt freely to the weight of the Diablos armor on his body. At the same time, due to the high-intensity exercise, his techniques had also improved quite a lot.
That relaxed appearance... it was simply as if he were wearing Kulu-Ya-Ku armor.
As a result, while he was surprised at how Andrew's growth efficiency had suddenly become so fast one second, the next second, the Sapphire Star saw his material box missing hundreds of Max Potions and the Dragon Meat in the ingredient storage that had completely vanished into thin air.
For a moment, he couldn't believe his own eyes.
After one wave of consumption, even the Sapphire Star, who could be said to be filthy rich, couldn't help but feel an unparalleled pain in his flesh.
Those Max Potions were still okay. According to the original inventory, even if Andrew let loose and desperately consumed so many, the remaining Max Potions were definitely enough to use. Besides, even if they weren't enough, Andrew, who knew the score, wouldn't possibly let his own training affect the serious business of the Research Commission.
But the ingredients in the ingredient storage were different! Consuming this stuff completely wouldn't have any impact on serious business like investigations.
Coupled with Andrew's appetite, which was outstanding even among Hunters...
Consequently, Andrew didn't leave a single piece of meat in the ingredient storage.
Ever since then, the Sapphire Star, afraid his ingredient storage would suffer heavy losses again, never attempted to mock Andrew again.
Although in private, the Sapphire Star still sighed with heartfelt emotion that this motivation method he heard from others was indeed very effective.
After all, according to the original expectations, the time required for Andrew to reach his current level would have been four or five times longer, rather than successfully achieving it in just a short half-month like now.
Although it wasted a bit of resources, for the Sapphire Star... it was worth it.
Ever since the Hoarfrost Reach appeared, his intuition as a Hunter had been constantly warning him. Afterward, there would inevitably be many unparalleled difficulties constantly appearing before everyone, and the dangers within would exceed everyone's imagination.
Under such intuition, Andrew's strength improvement could no longer be raised slowly step-by-step like before.
Only by quickly increasing his strength could Andrew's survival rate be guaranteed in the increasingly dangerous monster attack incidents or daily hunts that would follow.
No matter what, Andrew was his cheap apprentice. It wouldn't be good if he died when the crisis arrived later. After all, if his apprentice died, wouldn't that disgrace his reputation as the Sapphire Star?
Hmm.
Thinking of this, the Sapphire Star couldn't help but nod secretly to himself. It was definitely not because he was afraid that if something happened to Andrew, he wouldn't be able to eat the various delicacies cooked before.
At the same time, he didn't know if it was because of those Max Potions, but although Andrew's strength had increased a lot after this—to the extent that it could be said to have achieved a qualitative change compared to before—his physique did not have explosive muscle growth.
There was still a large distance between him and becoming a complete hunk of muscle like the Sapphire Star. Like a miracle, he still retained the state of looking slim when dressed but having meat when stripped.
His proportionate figure and muscle curves looked extremely perfect. Furthermore, the muscle lines on Andrew's body had indeed become more obvious.
Otherwise, according to the Sapphire Star's original training plan, by now Andrew would have long since turned into the same build as him, perhaps even a bit larger, becoming a thorough large-sized hunk.
But regardless, Andrew, who had already thoroughly adapted to the Diablos equipment back then, now had a physical constitution that completely blew his past self out of the water after so much time. That goes without saying.
So even crafting the armor of the Bloodbath Diablos, which was a tier heavier, still didn't count as much of an issue for Andrew.
Very quickly, Andrew began preparing for the casting of the armor.
Fortunately, although during the previous hunt of the Diablos, whether it was the Gouram's collision or Andrew's several heavy Lance strikes, all were aimed at the head, when the Diablos actually died, the pair of horns on its head were still extremely intact.
Under such conditions, the most important and most characteristic feature for crafting the armor—that pair of Great Diablos Horns on the pauldrons—was secured.
Previously, when carving the Diablos corpse, apart from that surprisingly massive heart and the leg meat, this pair of dual horns was the first and most important material Andrew carved. Bar none.
After all, this could be considered the most iconic material.
And the carapace part of the crown connected to its root could be thoroughly turned into the pauldron part of this armor after polishing and trimming. Subsequently, it was a matter of selecting suitable shell materials for the plates needed for various parts of the armor and polishing them.
The crafting of Diablos armor was somewhat different from that of Odogaron. It was completely a matter of recutting the massive Diablos shell, polishing it into suitable shapes, and then piecing it together to arm into a complete suit of armor.
As for alloy compared to the strength of the material, it basically could only play a small role in decoration and reinforcement.
But very quickly, Andrew encountered a big problem.
That was, no matter how he picked and chose, the high-quality hard shells on this Diablos that satisfied the criteria of being hard, intact, and black with blood-colored patterns were still not quite enough.
If he wanted to continue crafting, there were only two methods.
The first method: Use black shells of a lower quality as a substitute. Although this would look exactly the same as the Bloodbath Diablos armor in appearance, the strength would inevitably be discounted quite a bit.
The second method: He could only use shells that were also high-quality hard shells but were yellow-black gradients in color to craft it.
This way, although strength was guaranteed, the color scheme would be...
Regarding this situation of preserving appearance versus preserving strength...
He hesitated for only a second.
The Rabbit Head quickly occupied the high ground and decisively dominated Andrew's brain. Andrew's heart had made a decision.
That was Strength!
As for the color issue... there are always more solutions than difficulties. If worse comes to worst, just dye it. After all, changing the color of armor isn't anything rare.
It's just that he would have to repaint the wear and tear that appeared due to battle from time to time later on; it was better than getting injured due to insufficient strength causing breakage during combat!
With the decision made, Andrew, no longer hesitating, quickly crafted this brand-new suit of armor.
The armor, glowing with a deep blue sheen amidst the black, was covered in scarlet patterns. The edges of various parts of the armor were covered in狰狞 spikes of varying sizes. Thick iron chains and iron plates were spread all over the body.
Binding and linking around the armor, not only could they make the armor more secure, but they also made one involuntarily feel as if this were restraining an incomparably dangerous object.
Like a demon from hell that had come to the human world.
The black tassets were similarly covered in scarlet patterns, and the leg armor matched the armor on the body. The thick and heavy armor brought an unparalleled sense of oppression to everyone who saw him, as if the Bloodbath Diablos had turned into a human form.
However, although this armor was extremely thick, compared to the original Diablos armor that looked extremely clumsy and heavy, it was already considered quite lightweight.
As for the equipment belonging to Meow-Da...
In order to maintain a unified art style, Andrew also agreed to craft a set for him.
Although he felt a bit sorry for him, while it was also the modeling of the Bloodbath Diablos equipment, all the materials for his armor were entirely the yellow-black gradient.
Coupled with the fact that the Diablos Palico weapon wasn't difficult to make, Andrew crafted it together first.
The Palico's equipment was also of the same style. The iron chains wrapped in the same way seemed to be restraining a demon that was one size smaller.
It was just that compared to the original color scheme, the yellow-black gradient reduced its inherent hideousness a lot. It looked like...
The type in novels that still had a possibility of being salvaged?
____
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