Chapter 44

With that in mind, Liam summoned Incursio around him and walked closer to the volcano. "I'll let Incursio adapt to this environment first," he said as he felt toxic fumes going through the armor. He sat down and slowed his breathing. Slowly, the armor began to adapt, though it was much slower than he expected.

'It's adapting, but it isn't that fast,' he thought. 'During the fight with the fiend, Incursio adapted to the higher temperatures quickly. But then again, it didn't need to adjust much—it already had strong fire resistance. Still, why is there such a difference?' He realized how little he truly understood about Incursio. 'Knowing it from the anime isn't the same as understanding how it functions here. I'm so naive. I used to study ancient artifacts for a living, and now I forget to study my own weapon.'

Liam closed his eyes, paying close attention to the armor's response to the toxic environment. 'Come to think of it, I don't even know how I breathe inside Incursio. The armor is completely sealed—so where's the air coming from?'

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, repeating this several times until he noticed the armor's mechanism. 'Incursio has an airlock system. When I breathe in, it closes off the front and opens the area close to my nose, and after I breathe out, it releases the air and allows fresh air to enter. There's a small space between inner and outer layers that holds the expelled air temporarily.' He noted this thoughtfully. 'For my training to survive in lava, I'll have to improve that space, or I'll suffocate.'

With a training plan forming in his mind, Liam decided to work on the toxic air problem first. 'Filtering out poison first is necessary. Once that's done, I'll start on heat resistance.' He thought about the upcoming challenges, knowing how much he needed fire resistance for future encounters. 'Between the Extremis soldiers who burn at 3000 degrees Celsius and beings like Surtur—and even the Hell Dimension itself. Fire attacks and extreme heat are common.'

Liam also realized how weak he actually was to toxins. Sleep gas could have knocked him out if he couldn't hold his breath long enough, and poisonous gases could kill him if he didn't notice in time.

After three hours of training, taking short breaks to let Incursio recover, he began to notice physical effects: irritation in his eyes and more difficult breathing. 'Incursio's close to adapting, but the poison's been going through this whole time,' he thought. 'Just a little more…'

After one more break, he continued training for another ten minutes. Finally, he felt he could breathe easily again. 'Finally,' he thought. 'The armor adapted to filter toxins—it even changed how it handles airflow, adding tiny filters to the front opening. And the oxygen capacity seems to have increased too.'

He examined the armor closely. 'It's not just storing more air, Incursio's filtering the CO₂ when I breath out, allowing me to reuse the same air more efficiently.' He was amazed at this change.

Leaving the toxic fumes, he unsummoned the armor, took a sip of water, and laid down, looking up at the clear sky. 'When did I last take time to just relax like this?' he thought, feeling nostalgic. 'This new life… it's truly something.'

After a few moments, he stood up and summoned Incursio again. 'This journey—the training, the progress—it's all so much fun.' With that in mind, he approached the lava, descending the steep edge of the volcano's mouth. 'Time to test Incursio's adaptation in lava. Surface temperatures here should only be around 1000 degrees Celsius.'

He crouched down, dipping a finger into the lava. Bits of the intense heat went through the armor, feeling the heat around his finger, but the lava stayed out. After about five minutes, he shook the lava off his finger, noticing a change in the armor's color. 'The lava was too hot, the armor's starting to melt slightly.'

Studying the damaged area, he noticed a different type of energy going over there. 'It isn't my own energy. Is this coming from the Tengu power source? It doesn't look like energy from this dimension. It's the same white glow I saw when I went to the Dream Dimension.'

The armor began to repair itself, with the damaged area absorbing additional energy, gradually reinforcing itself. 'It's like the armor remembers what was damaging it and builds resistance to it,' he observed, dipping his whole hand into the lava this time. After five minutes, the same changes occurred, but this time it happened faster.

'It's like the armor develops a sort of immunity, similar to a vaccination,' he realized. As the armor completed its adaptation, he scooped up some lava with the same hand, noting that it took longer for any damage to appear. 'It's not adapting as quickly as it does in battle, but the process is still remarkably fast. An active fight must activate more of Incursio's instincts from when it was alive, speeding up its adapting state.'

A thought crossed his mind. 'How strong was this creature in life? And more importantly, how did it die?'

Looking at the lava, he steeled himself. 'Well, time to take a dive.'

As a safety precaution, he put Neontote above the lava, making sure he'd have a way to pull himself out. 'Well then, here goes nothing,' he thought, he slowly climbed down, into the lava.

To his surprise, he found that the lava wasn't very deep at this spot—his feet touched the bottom. Only his helmet was above the surface as he stood within the lava, he moved carefully, knowing he couldn't risk sinking into an unexpected drop that could lead straight to Earth's core.

Feeling the intense heat around him, Liam sensed Incursio working hard to manage the internal temperature. After a few minutes of continuesly walking up and down to get fresh air, he climbed out of the lava with Neontote's help. 

Sitting on the edge of the volcano, he allowed the armor to finish adapting. Once the adapting was finished, he stepped out of the toxic plumes, unsummoned Incursio, and took a moment to catch his breath.

As he sat there, he suddenly remembered something crucial. 'I completely forgot to check the news for Tony's announcement. Let's hope it hasn't happened yet.'

Opening a portal back to the Sanctum, he hurried to his laptop, searching for any live news streams. He found no live news, what he did find were short video's and the new No.1 trending post. 'I was too late, I missed the most iconic moment in Marvel history.' Liam thought, blinking away a tear as he watched an uploaded clip from some news channel.

Even though it wasn't live, he couldn't help but smile as Tony declared, "I am Iron Man."