The change Purity experienced... Kiki could not help but be astonished by it.

  The Kenyan woman was already rather old, in her mid fifties as far as Kiki knew, and she definitely looked the part. She had dark skin, leathery and rugged, her voice scratchy from regular contact with strong cleaning chemicals. Her mouth full of crooked teeth. Just from looking at her, anyone could see that she had lived a hard life, full of hard physical labor.

  But despite that, her eyes always looked kind, and as crooked as it was, her smile was always humorous and cheeky.

  So, seeing that old lady change the way she did, Kiki wasn't quite sure how to deal with her any more.

  Right in front of Kiki's eyes, in mere moments, the woman's posture straightened and stature in general grew taller. Her shape, saggy and covered in skinny, corded muscles filled out. Her teeth straightened and her skin cleared and smoothed out. And at no point did the kindness in her eyes, or the cheeky grin on her lips disappear.

  Sure, the woman in front of Kiki didn't look like some kind of princess. The signs of labor were still clear on her body and her posture spoke of someone confident in their work.

  But gone was the old lady who looked ready and deserving of an early retirement, to be replaced by a woman just into her thirties who probably starred as the leading actor in quite a few fantasies involving cleaning ladies.

  But even more astonishing than that was the fact that she wasn't alone. Rather, there were four identical copies of her, all standing ready behind her.

  "Wow! I feeling young again!" the Purity in the front said, her voice now smooth like butter, even if her german was still as broken as before.

  "Well," Kiki said, not quite sure what to think. "You definitely look like it. You look like you just hit your thirties."

  "Oh my." she said, acting all shyly. It might even have worked, if she didn't still have that grin on her face. "I think maybe need some new things for wearing. Feeling tight in few places..."

  "What the hell kind of Class did you get?" she finally decided to ask. There was no way this was a common one. Kiki even had doubts whether this was still an uncommon one.

  "Said is Rare, and numbers were big. Sound good, so I took it. Will be able to clean place on my own now, so have to raise salary!" Purity explained, her grin growing into a satisfied smirk at her declaration.

  "Yeah." Kiki agreed. "Probably." After all, she would be able to quite literally do the work of five people.

  "Now. You need help?" the changed woman asked, reminding Kiki why exactly they were currently here.

  "Right, that. I need your help testing something." Kiki said as she put on one of her gauntlets. They were part of one of her most expensive cosplays, a 'medieval' set of armor made with actual forged steel plates.

  With the gauntlet and bracer fixed to her left hand securely, Kiki continued to explain. "I need you to punch me," she pointed at her left upper arm, "here. Not too hard, just so I can feel it."

  "Are sure?" Purity asked, momentarily confused, but her front most body coming forward nonetheless.

  "Go ahead." Kiki said.

  "Then." With that, purity pulled back her arm, her fist striking Kiki in the shoulder.

  "Ouch." Kiki said in monotone. It hadn't really hurt, but she had definitely felt it.

  "Now, again." but this time, she made sure to pull up her sleeve, leaving her arm non-covered.

  When Purity's fist struck for a second time, the result left Kiki depressed. Because she could still feel the strike. But there was a noticeable difference.

  ___

  Less is more (rare)

  Originating from every piece of armor you wear, a skin-tight invisible barrier extends radially to non-covered areas until it covers an area equal to that of the origin armor piece.

  Barriers that would overlap, instead connect and spread further in other directions.

  These barriers infuse the user's body within 1 cm with a durability equal to the originating armor piece adding to the body's natural durability.

  ___

  'All non-covered areas'... apparently refers not JUST to armor. I should have expected that, but I was really hoping I could wear clothes underneath this damn thing. I mean, sure, that's not how it's supposed to be worn, but it's also supposed to be nothing but really fancy cosplay...

  "Sigh..." Kiki sighed, hard. "Help me put this damn thing on, please?" She decided to bite the bullet and ask Purity for help.

  "Sure now is right time for this?"

  "You felt it, right? The second time you hit me?"

  "Yes. Felt strange."

  "Yeah... I have a Skill that makes this," Kiki points at the rest of the armor still on the mannequin, "actually useful. And apparently it only works when I don't wear clothes underneath..."

  "Oh? So you strong Warrior, and sexy?

  Will have no trouble finding partner to 'fight', eh?

  Will have lot of strong men to go out and slay with?

  You do enjoy playing with big sword, right?" The woman asked question after question, her grin growing wider each time.

  "Urgh..." Kiki groaned. "Would you please stop?"

  "You not like when gets a bit rough?"

  "Oh come on!" Kiki complained, but she couldn't help grinning herself at the woman's shameless teasing.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  While one of Purity was teasing Kiki, two of them had split off, working together to take the 'armor' off the mannequin. Kiki couldn't help but watch, it was just such a strange sight, how seamlessly the two Purity's worked together, passing each other things without even looking, just knowing where the other's hands would be.

  Before Kiki knew it, five Purity's stood in front of her, holding different pieces of the set, looking at her intently.

  When it was just one old woman, it had never really troubled Kiki, but now that she looked so much younger, and there were five of her.

  Yeah... this feels kind of awkward...

  Then again, it wasn't like Purity hadn't helped her like this before. While the Beckers were like the Grandparents she didn't have, then Purity was like an aunt to her. Even if she had only worked at the manor for much shorter.

  So, after some initial hesitation, Kiki quickly took off her clothes until all that was left were her panties and socks.

  Once done, Purity passed her the first piece of 'armor'. A set of dark red, high cut bikini panties with a triangular piece of steel sewn on the front, made specifically to fit her build. Luckily, they had been made to have some stretch to them, so even though it was tight, she still managed to get them on.

  Next came the shin guards. Those were relatively simple, though they had some rather intricate etchings. Putting those on wasn't too difficult, only requiring her to slip in, and let purity tied them close on the backside. Like pretty much all of the armor, these were intended to be worn on naked skin, and were as such padded on the inside, hints of the same dark red as the crotch-piece showing.

  Over that, came the boots. Those weren't anything too fancy, and while they did have some heels, Kiki could actually walk in them pretty well and comfortably.

  The bracers and gauntlets were rather similar, the bracers covering her entire forearms and etched with intricate patterns, while the gauntlets also covered her wrists. They were highly articulated, each part of her fingers covered in individual small plates, shapes like small scales, giving them a slightly spiky and more violent aesthetic, especially when she made a fist.

  For a moment, she considered foregoing the shoulder pieces since they were quite uncomfortable, but in the end decided against that. By far, those were the most normal parts of the armor, simple and rounded, if a bit small.

  And then, came the chest piece. If it could be called that. Really, it looked more like someone had taken a bunny-girl outfit, and cut away a long strip right down the middle in the back and front, where the two halves were then kept together by several leather belts. While the chest piece in name, really, all it covered were her sides, leaving a nice open strip for anyone who wanted to stab her.

  The final pieces were two metal plates, shaped like kite-shields to hang over and protect her hips from the sides, if not any other direction.

  Fully armored up, her long blonde hair in a ponytail, and her Zweih?nder at her side, she looked ready to shoot a video.

  Her upper arms and thighs for all the world to see, her hair flowing freely, uncovered by a helmet, and her front and back ready for anyone who wanted to take a stab at it.

  Looking at herself in her full body mirror, she could only admit that she looked incredibly sexy in a pretty awesome way.

  Without a doubt in her mind, Kiki knew that this was the 'proper attire' mentioned in the requirements for her Class.

  But looking at herself from any other perspective, like the one that meant she was planning to fight Monsters looking like this... Yeah, even knowing what her Skill could supposedly do, she couldn't help but question her own sanity a little.

  Never mind that using this armor to fight monsters would mean she would have to wear it in public…

  Maybe she could use some kind of cloak until she had to actually fight? Or would even something like that deactivate the effect and make her vulnerable to surprise attacks? On that note, could an enemy intentionally cover her and deactivate her defenses that way?

  For now, none of that mattered. All she was doing was distracting herself.

  Just another case of fake it till you make it!

  There are a lot of things people will let slide if you do them with enough confidence.

  Now all I need is that confidence... Let's go!

  "You certain don't want to take of socks? Those seem awfully many clothes."

  Now if just that damn woman would stop making fun of me...

  *****

  After Kiki finally had donned her armor, she, Jack, and Elias had regathered in the entrance hall to discuss the next step to take.

  "Are you sure you want to go..."

  "Yes, I'm sure." Kiki interrupted the question Jack was obviously going to ask.

  "I have an armor Skill that makes it so I'm actually better protected in places WITHOUT armor, so long as I'm wearing enough of it. So using something like this is more or less ideal. And after my recent... growth. This wouldn't fit if I tried to wear anything underneath."

  Of course, her final reason was a blatant lie, but Kiki decided to dare the men to call her out on it.

  "Sure," Jack answered, although clearly doubtful, before asking a question. "Now, please explain to me exactly how you intend to get the Beckers all the way here? There is no way we are going the whole way on foot. That's almost a kilometer there and back during which we could get attacked at any moment. And if you are going to say via car or the buggies, we are not going to risk the noise attracting them en masse."

  "Nono, don't worry! Though, if you are asking, I guess daddy didn't tell you EVERYTHING about the estate, huh? Well, come along and let me show you something interesting." Kiki said, and walked towards the right wing of the manor, trusting the two men to follow her.

  Staying on the ground floor, she led the men past several rooms, before finally opening the door to one of the many small reading rooms of the manor.

  "Now, where was it? I haven't used this in a while..." she mumbled as she checked through the bookshelf. It had truly been a long time, so she wasn't quite sure whether it was the second or third shelf from the bottom, but it didn't take her too long to find the right book as she could still remember the mnemonic bridge she had come up with when she was younger.

  "Karl Marx the door..." she mumbled silently as she pulled out the thick book on the second shelf from the bottom. Of course, this alone would be too simple, so she quickly knelt down on the floor and pulled the books on the left and right of her marker out of the shelf as well.

  Reaching through the gap, she found a place on the back-board that was just a little more worn than everything around it and tapped her finger against it.

  *tap* *tap tap* *tap tap tap tap*

  With a silent whirr, a wooden panel slid to the side, revealing a fingerprint scanner and a touchscreen. Kiki had never had an easy time remembering things, especially long passwords with nothing but numbers, so after many complaints her father had it configured in such a way that as long as her fingerprint was used, she wouldn't need the numbers lock. Now she only had to hope her daddy hadn't actually changed that in the meanwhile.

  *klick*

  Kiki heard the silent release of the lock. She pulled her hand out of the shelf as the panel hid the touch screen and fingerprint scanner once again and quickly put the books back into their right place.

  Meanwhile, a part of the tiled floor silently lifted upwards, and then swung open like a trapdoor, revealing the tunnel hidden within the manors foundation.

  Of course, having been built by actual professionals, this wasn't just a trapdoor that had been tiled over so you could hear a difference if you just stepped on the spot a little strongly. No, this 'trapdoor' if it could even be called that, was thirty centimeters thick and made from reinforced concrete, so so long as it was closed, it was basically impossible to distinguish from the rest of the floor.

  "Here you go! At the end of this tunnel, we should only be about a hundred meters from the Beckers house. I used this path all the time when I was younger, since it leads there in a straight line and is shorter than going above ground." Kiki explained.

  "Ladies first?"