Chapter 774: A Difficult Choice — Vine Armor or Leather Armor (Part 2) The vine armor in Han Cheng’s hands was somewhat heavy, weighing about twenty jin (around 10 kilograms). Han Cheng wasn’t worried about this. It wasn’t because the tribe members were exceptionally strong, able to carry twenty jin without breaking a sweat. Instead, it was because the vine armor would naturally become lighter after some time. This magical change was not due to Lame having magical hands, nor did Han Cheng have any superpowers — after all, he wasn’t a fairy like Balala the Fairies. The reason was simple: this freshly made and somewhat crude vine armor was woven from wet vine strips. After a while, once the moisture evaporated, the armor would naturally become lighter. Well, this is like the explanation that freshly boiled water shouldn’t be drunk immediately but needs to cool down first — an explanation that might make someone want to hit you. Han Cheng held the vine armor for a moment, then began to put it on. Because vine armor was rigid and had no elasticity at all, it wasn’t easy to wear. On the vine armor, below the shoulder area at the armpits, there were slits cut on both sides. Han Cheng put on the vine armor, poking his head through the hole at the top, and slipped both arms out from the openings. Then Lame came over and helped tie the leather straps at the edges of the two slits together. After a while, Han Cheng’s upper body was entirely enclosed by the vine armor. At this moment, Han Cheng looked somewhat strange — the vine armor on him resembled a chicken coop used to cage chickens. Though the look was odd, Han Cheng took it seriously, earnestly feeling out the vine armor’s characteristics. The newly woven vine armor smelled of fresh vine and felt somewhat heavy when worn. Han Cheng shook his head and stretched his arms a bit — the edges of the vine armor rubbed uncomfortably against his neck and arms. This was normal because the armor was woven from vine strips. Once some hemp cloth was wrapped carefully around the edges, this problem would be perfectly solved. Aside from this flaw, everything else was quite good. Looking at his reflection in the water jar, Han Cheng nodded in satisfaction. However, the story of Zhuge Liang burning the vine armor army kept flashing in his mind. Armor is challenging to put on; accordingly, it’s also difficult to take off. Imagining himself wearing this armor, catching fire, turning into a human-shaped torch, Han Cheng involuntarily shivered. That was truly terrifying. After worrying for a while, Han Cheng gradually calmed down. Because this was not the era of the Three Kingdoms wars, and not everyone here liked to burn things like Zhuge Liang did — and indeed, not every fire would be that precise. Moreover, in future battles, even if some clever opponent thought to use fire against the tribe’s vine armor troops, they wouldn’t be able to achieve the terrifying effect Zhuge Liang had. Most tribes in this era found it hard to start fires, and it took considerable effort; by the time they succeeded, the tribe’s army would have already dealt with them. Even if some tribe managed to get a fire started early to burn the vine armor troops, it wouldn’t be easy. They had no rockets or anything that could throw fire far away easily. Besides, people in this era held a deep respect and fear for fire; even if someone came up with a fire attack, putting it into action would be very difficult. With all this, plus Han Cheng’s careful precautions, the Qingque tribe’s vine armor troops would most likely avoid the fate of the Southern Barbarian vine armor army. Han Cheng, wearing the oddly shaped vine armor, hopped around a bit and pointed out several uncomfortable parts that needed improvement. Next, he needed to test the armor’s defensive ability. After all, that was the most fundamental function of the armor; looks were secondary. Looking at the sharpened and fire-treated wooden spear, Han Cheng smartly asked Lame first to remove the vine armor from his body. Since this protective gear was still experimental, he didn’t dare to wear it during the test. For origınal chapters go to 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⟡𝕗𝗂𝗋𝖾⟡𝕟𝕖𝕥 His hesitation stemmed from a news story he had seen in later times. A foreigner wearing a bulletproof vest got shot in the belly, but the vest failed to stop the bullet, and the guy died. After seeing that news, Han Cheng gained a new perspective on bulletproof vests, aside from wondering why foreigners were so few. With that news in mind, he naturally wouldn’t try any dangerous experiments on himself in the beginning. After all, he valued his life significantly and had no intention of risking it recklessly for fame. The removed vine armor was placed over a thick tree stump. On Han Cheng’s signal, Lame thrust the polished, sharp wooden spear fiercely at the vine armor… The vine armor shook as Lame pulled back the spear. Han Cheng leaned in to inspect. At the spot pierced by the spear, some bark had peeled off the vine strips, but otherwise, there was no damage. Han Cheng nodded in satisfaction and told Lame to continue stabbing. After about ten consecutive stabs, Han Cheng took the vine armor off the stump and scrutinized it. After enduring about ten consecutive attacks, the front of the vine armor appeared quite battered. However, most of the damage was just the bark on the vine strips being scraped off; the real damage was minimal. Only one relatively thin vine strip was pierced and snapped in the middle. This level of defense was already outstanding. After examining it, Han Cheng hung the armor back on the tree stump and called over Second Senior Brother, who was strong, to strike it with stones. The Second Senior Brother always had great enthusiasm for throwing stones. Once he understood what Han Cheng wanted, he grabbed his sling and was ready to go. Han Cheng quickly stopped him, asking him to hold the stone in his hand and hit the vine armor directly. Although Second Senior Brother was a bit disappointed about not using the sling, he soon got excited again. As someone who liked throwing stones for fun, he believed you had to like and master all the different ways to throw stones, not just a little. Only then could you say you truly liked it. Seeing Second Senior Brother excitedly holding the stone, Han Cheng quietly stepped back a little. He was worried that if he stood too close, the stone might bounce off the armor and hit him. Just after moving a couple of steps, Second Senior Brother swung his arm and threw the stone suddenly. As Han Cheng expected, the stone bounced off the vine armor, but it didn’t bounce far. Han Cheng didn’t immediately check the damage from the stone. Instead, he signaled Second Senior Brother to keep throwing stones from about ten meters away. The Second Senior Brother had great accuracy; seven or eight throws all hit the target. After telling him to stop, Han Cheng went over, took the vine armor off the stump, and inspected it. After this violent stone assault, the vine armor showed more scars. Not only had many areas lost bark, but some vine strips even had tiny stone fragments stuck to them. However, although the armor looked badly beaten, it had not broken through. In fact, the damage to the wooden stump behind the armor was less severe than the damage caused by Lame’s wooden stick earlier. This was mainly because stones are blunt objects that are easily stopped by the vine armor, whereas sharpened wooden spears could focus force on a point and sometimes even penetrate gaps between the vines. As a result, the vine armor performed better against stones. The Second Senior Brother was clearly not satisfied that his thrown stones only caused this level of damage. He casually untied his sling from around his waist, thumped his chest, and claimed he could smash the vine armor to pieces with it. Han Cheng smiled and stopped him. The reason he wouldn’t let Second Senior Brother use the sling was the same as why, in previous experiments, he had only Lame use sharpened wooden sticks and not the tribe’s sharper bronze spears. Vine armor is meant to defend against enemies. Based on Han Cheng’s current knowledge of other tribes, few had weapons like slings or long spears. So in experiments, he needed to base tests on the average fighting ability of other tribes. After confirming that the armor could effectively reduce damage against typical attacks of this era, he could then gradually raise the standards toward the attacking power of his own tribe. Additionally, from experience making vine shields, I found that after the vine armor dried, its defense improved. So at this stage, Han Cheng naturally wouldn’t test it against the highest attack power of his own tribe. After understanding the vine armor’s defense from the attack tests, Han Cheng had Senior Brother Shang and others who had returned from sowing seeds try on the battered armor. He asked them to point out any uncomfortable parts. He took notes with a pen and paper. These would be the areas Lame would need to improve on, besides defense. Shang examined the battered armor carefully and only relaxed a bit after convincing himself that he could kill someone wearing the vine armor with his spear. With this test result, Lame continued to improve the badly damaged vine armor. Two days later, Bai Xue had finished making the leather armor. The Qingque tribe was not short of hides, but those suitable for making leather armor were few. Han Cheng carefully searched his limited memory about leather armor and knew that the best hides for it were cowhide. However, the tribe’s most considerable livestock was donkeys, and no cows had been seen. This made manufacturing leather armor difficult. Because to increase defense, the smooth hides had to be layered two or three times — a troublesome task. Actually, the tribe did have good hides suitable for armor — most of the hides from the dead rhinoceroses of the Flying Snake tribe were still stored. But before the tribe’s armor-making skills matured, Han Cheng wasn’t ready to use those rare hides. He still planned to make himself a set of rhinoceros armor later and wasn’t willing to waste them now. Bai Xue’s craftsmanship was as good as ever. Although this was her first time making leather armor, and the tools and materials were not ideal, she still created a decent piece of leather armor, which looked significantly better than the woven vine armor. After patting Bai Xue’s head, Han Cheng continued the defense tests, following the same procedure as two days before for the vine armor. First with wooden spears, then with stones. Watching Shang repeatedly stab the leather armor Han Cheng had painstakingly made, Bai Xue felt very distressed. If it weren’t for these orders from Brother Cheng, she might have already taken back the armor from the stump. After Shang’s barrage of wooden spear thrusts, Han Cheng carefully inspected the leather armor. It had many small holes, but because it was mostly made of three layers of leather, only the front two layers were pierced; the back layer was still intact. So it couldn’t be considered a breach of defense. From this, the leather armor’s defense against spear thrusts was better than the vine armor’s. After the spear tests came the stones. Listening to the dull “thud thud” sounds of stones forcefully thrown by Second Senior Brother hitting the leather armor and then the wooden stump behind it, Han Cheng couldn’t help but twitch his face. Just from the sound, it is evident that the person wearing leather armor would feel quite a bit of pain when hit by stones. It seemed that against blunt objects like stones, the vine armor’s defense was better than the leather armor’s. Because the vine armor was rigid and didn’t dent under stone attacks, it didn’t transfer the force perfectly to the wearer behind it like the leather armor did. Having drawn this conclusion, Han Cheng was easily torn over whether to make more vine armor or more leather armor. Each had its advantages and disadvantages, making the choice a difficult one. This internal struggle went on until night, when Han Cheng finally made a decision. He decided first to produce a batch of vine armor and equip it for the troops. This choice was made not only because vine armor was cheaper, but also for an important reason…