Preparations

Long story short, Alaric had not experienced worse pain. 12 screws total had been driven into his chest, where they met with long screw holes connected to a second plate of orichalcum on his back.

After waking from a painful adrenaline high due to the no-anesthetic surgical procedure, Alaric checked himself out in the mirror. In the middle of his pectorals was a rather odd-shaped piece of metal, with an extremely small, toothpick-sized hole in the middle.

"At this point, I should just go the full cyborg route... nah, never mind."

Alaric put his shirt on after checking that the metal was secure enough and left Mulder's forge. The soundproofing formation in the forge definitely saved him from a lot of questioning.

'The metal is surprisingly not uncomfortable... I wonder why?'

Alaric thought it could be due to the many magical effects of orichalcum, but in the end, couldn't remember anything specific.