The Deep Waters of Terra's Universe

"As for the Aether Armor, I'll leave it all to you."

Viscount Grant trusted Ian completely in this regard. After all, Ian's armor design had won an award in the Imperial Capital—how could someone as hopeless at academics as him possibly question its worth?

Though it had failed to place among the top ranks for various reasons, that was also because Ian had not spent much time developing it, leaving it somewhat lacking in versatility.

By now, Ian was quite famous within the armor design circle. His reputation was so great that even he himself could not have anticipated it.

As for the Aether Armor needing to be taken apart... honestly, that was no great matter.

Aether Armor needed to be dismantled regularly for maintenance anyway. Unfortunately, while Viscount Grant had some talent on the Ascension Path, he knew absolutely nothing about alchemical inscriptions or Aether Armor construction. Those matters had always been handled by Elder Pude; now, they were simply being handed over to the more capable Ian.

"Then I'll begin."

Ian did not stand on ceremony with Viscount Grant. He had the man bring Tidebreaker to the warehouse district east of the city.

The armor maintenance equipment Ian had brought from Xiahui Territory had already been set up there.

It was somewhat crude compared to what Aether Armor required, but Ian was not truly planning to build an Aether Armor from scratch. He was merely repairing some of its core components.

Not to mention that Ian possessed the complete blueprints for the core component that needed repairs.

In other words, repairing Tidebreaker was a piece of cake for Ian. His true goal was to inspect Tidebreaker firsthand—or rather, to examine the design philosophy behind someone else's Aether Armor.

Although he had obtained the cutting-edge Aether Armor prototype known