Chương 51: Glee

The instant I wake up, I hop out of the bed I barely made it onto. My entire body is practically humming with glee as I open up the anvil's interface and select all the materials. Since it is a full set of armor, it is all treated as one crafting operation. It still allows you to use different cores for each piece of the armor, but it locks you into using one base material. In this case, that will be glintsteel. Normally this would be a whole lot more complicated.

I would first have to make each part of the armor separately, as well as each part of the chainmail bits. Then assemble it all together and make sure it all fits right. But with the magic of the system, I just need forty units of glintsteel, and a whole lot of magical effort. Of course, before I initiate the craft, I make sure to eat a whole lot of food and drink lots of water. Something tells me I will be doing this craft for quite a while.

I would probably be fine for that long without food and water, but I would rather not put my body through that. You can of course pause the craft and resume later, but I don't think that is necessary quite yet. Plus, I doubt I could stop myself. Like, magic is just so awesome, why would I ever stop? With that mindset, I start the craft and the world around me fades away. Just me, Luxmore and the anvil. The system wastes no time, and six pieces of glintsteel appear on the anvil.

Pulling out my heating stone, I twiddle my thumbs as the metal slowly heats up. A proper forge is definitely next on my list of things to acquire, which this armor will be very helpful for. With the bars heated up, I pickup Luxmore. Instantly I can feel the sheer power difference between it and my weak ass starter one. Luxmore practically hums with energy, and I haven't even done anything yet. Raising Luxmore, I let the energy flow through me. No trying to force it like last time.

Just like stamina, this crafting magical energy–which isn't just mana, but stamina, vital and even spirit energies, all mixed together, as I learned in my reading–doesn't like to be forced around. So, I let it flow, gently guiding it all throughout my body to gather up every scrap of energy it can, before finally heading into Luxmore. Just as Luxmore's head starts to literally glow, I let it fall. Clank -woosh. The gust of wind from the impact nearly throws me onto my ass.

Steadying my legs a bit more, I raise Luxmore once again. And again. I'm sure you get the idea by now. Every strike slowly bends and warps the metal. At first it just sort of clumps together, but then it starts to take that helmet-y shape. I watch as the metal gets a bit more dense too, which is a bit weird, but magic will be magic. Plus that just means it'll be all the better at protecting my noggin. Once the general shape of the helmet is set in place, Luxmore disappears and the two horns I acquired appear.

They aren't anything too special, apparently coming from some aquatic monster called a Lapirn. Truly terrifying, if the horns size is anything to go by. Definitely wouldn't want to be gored by them. As I raise the horns to the helmet, energy surges out of my body and into them. I can also feel the domain around me providing something. Thanks to my prior forethought, I am able to easily slot the horns right into the side of the helmet. I did initially worry about them making me look strange.

But after recalling many of the helmet designs I saw during the incursion, that fear left me. Seems like horned helmets are in fashion, at the moment. A sense of finality washes over me, and then the helmet disappears. In its place, twenty glintsteel bars appear. Guess that means the helmet is done, and it is time to move onto the chestplate. Naturally, since it is the largest piece, it requires the most material. After a much longer heating process, I repeat the same hammering for the chestplate.

Though it takes far longer. A part of me is thankful that the crafting magic takes away the exhaustion. But another part does fear just how long I will be out of it for as all the exhaustion hits at the end. Sounds like a later problem, though. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. With the chestplate done, the system next brings out the core that I chose for it. Which is a light beast orb, which I got as a drop during my travels.

Despite being from such a low level monster, the thing is of common rarity, so am presuming it is good enough. Inserting it into a socket on the front, I feel a much larger amount of energy leave my domain. A part of me worries that it might weaken enough to no longer count as initiate tier. But that doesn't happen. The chestplate just accepts the orb and then disappears. Next up is the armguards, which is going to be a far quicker process. There are eight bars to heat up though.

I might have gone a bit overboard on the density of them… Too late to change my mind though. Luxmore does its job once again, and I quickly add the core to the armguards. This time in the form of two small black stones that I found on the side of the road. The system identified them as lesser stones of absorption, saying they absorbed energy or something. What better thing to use as a core for armguards that I intend to misuse as shields? Next is the final step, the leggings.

I did design them in all the separate parts, but the system was just having none of that. So it simplified them down into one pair of leggings. Which is fair enough, I don't have three different cores anyways, as powerful as that might be. The leggings are much lighter armor wise, so only require six bars. However, the forging process for these ones actually take the longest of all. I guess all of the precise joints around the knee and hips made it require a bit more effort.

Plus the metal has to spread out over a larger area, I am rather tall, after all. Despite it being longer, the process isn't nearly as energy intensive. Maybe some day I will understand why that is. Unfortunately, that is yet another mystery I shall have to add to the 'later problems' drawer. The core for the leggings is something I debated for quite a while. It made sense to use the orb on the chestpiece, as that is typically the most important part.

The helmet obviously got the horns, and the armguards those stones. But what sort of material would fit leggings? I mulled it over for a while before realizing something. There is no reason why I cannot use wood, right? I was a bit unsure, but the craft did let me start it when I selected glimmerwood as the core for the leggings. Claire did say that it could be just about anything, and I guess other materials that would normally be bases count.

So I carefully lay out the glimmerwood, creating some intricate markings over the armor, like carvings. There are a bunch of symbols and such that I have no hope of understanding, but I presume they do cool magical stuff. When I put the finishing touches on the leggings, the last stage begins: assembly. All of the pieces of armor appear floating in the air before me, and following nothing but sheer system-guided instinct, I attach them together.

They form in the air around a nonexistent body, but the effect is the same nonetheless. I feel it, as the pieces become one, merging into a single piece of equipment or something. Then a last wave of energy rushes out of me, narrowing my mind. Interestingly enough, I found absolutely no descriptions of this last step in that book. According to it, one finishes the forging process and then it is simply over. Which makes sense, as this part has to do with my extra magical imbuement.

Normally one would skip the whole speak-to-the-equipment thing and the piece would just have some imbuements based on the rest of the process. Naturally, these are weaker and a bit less magic-y than ones created with the more intensive imbuement process. Luckily, I am no ordinary smith, but a magical one. This time, I focus heavily on defense, protecting me and such. It is armor, after all, it doesn't need to do anything fancy. Just stand in between me and the enemy's attacks.

However, I cannot help but suggest a few things. Like, it would be cool if it could boost my healing, right? Or somehow improve my skills. Might as well, while I have its attention. A sense of finality washes over me, and I once again get the feeling that I must select a name. I actually thought this out beforehand though, and decided on Stelan. I think it represents calmness or peace or something. Which is exactly what I wish for, despite knowing that I will be back to combat before long.

Perhaps this armor can at least keep me safe, so that I have peaceful times in the future. Did I overthink it? Perhaps. But names are important, after all. Naturally, this is the point where that exhaustion sets in. I barely get to see the notification before I lose consciousness. Something tells me I am going to be out of it for a while too…' Ding', Forging of Stelan (Common) successful.