Flying through the massive cavern on a disk made of ice was exhilarating and mind blowing at the same time. Well for Ethan it was exhilarating the dwarves would have collapsed especially considering at what speed he was flying. But with the cavern being just an empty expanse that reached out into the distance, Ethan actually had time to look at the new set of clothes he got from the dwarves, as long as he didn’t stop to focus on his surroundings. Which was actually easy with his improved stats, well back to his clothes. While the robe he wore now had supported him since the tutorial and offered some nice perks it was also very…old-fashioned, because if he was honest with himself the robe didn’t offer the best range of motion and was lacking in terms of space, namely pockets.

  So he pulled the pieces from the bundle one after the other, making sure they wouldn’t fly away but enough so he could inspect them and see what this new equipment was all about. Starting with the boots as he used [Identify] on them.

  [Leather Boots of Earth Sense][Advanced]

  [Boots made from the hide of a Starnose Burrower, the hide was treated by an expert crafter who managed to infuse the boots with a fraction of the monster’s abilities. Gives the wearer a vague sense of what is hidden beneath the earth if standing still and helps them to traverse challenging terrain. The boots themselves offer good defense and repair themselves when damaged. [Earth Sense][Self-Repair]]

  Ethan smiled after he read the description, his current boots offered him increased movement speed and helped him to…well, not fall over like an idiot. These ones would help him locate things underground and also keep him from falling over…like an idiot. If he doesn’t know it any better he got the feeling his equipment might mock him but that wasn’t possible, right?...right? Well he put the boots back and one after another he inspected each piece of new equipment.

  [Pants of Earthen Resilience][Advanced]

  [A pair of pants made from the spiky fur of a Starnose Burrower, the fur was treated and expertly woven to create a thick and sturdy fabric. The crafter managed to infuse the pants with a fraction of the monster’s abilities and made them cut and stab resistance while offering a slight increase in defense against blunt weapons.[Earthen Resilience][Self-Repair]]

  [Leather Gloves of Spellcasting][Expert]

  [Gloves made from the hide of a Starnose Burrower, the hide was treated by an expert crafter who infused them with their own energy guiding the material to manifest an ability towards spellcasting increasing casting speed and hand dexterity by a minor amount. Sapphires are sewn into the gloves on the back of the hand. Making water, ice, weather and healing magic cheaper by a slight amount. [Spellcasting Focus][Mana Cost Reduction][Self-Repair]

  [Shirt of Earthen Resilience][Advanced]

  [A shirt made from the spiky fur of a Starnose Burrower, the fur was treated and expertly woven to create a thick and sturdy fabric. The crafter managed to infuse the shirt with a fraction of the monster’s abilities and made them cut and stab resistance while offering a slight increase in defense against blunt weapons.[Earthen Resilience][Self-Repair]]

  [Leather Trench coat of Superior Defense][Expert]

  [A trenchcoat made from the hide of a Starnose Burrower, the hide was treated by an expert crafter who managed to infuse the trenchcoat with a minor amount of the monster’s abilities. When infused with mana the trenchcoat will be covered in the spiky fur of the original monster to defend against attackers. The monster’s abilities made the coat cut and stab resistance while offering a minor increase in defense against blunt weapons. [Spike Defense][Earthen Resilience][Self-Repair]

  After Ethan looked at everything offered he was astonished by what the crafters managed to create, while the shirt and pants were nothing special compared to the rest of the equipment it offered straight up protection which was nice. Of course he would have wished for all of his equipment that it would improve his spellcasting and mana regeneration. Still everything that could protect him from, well dying, was good in his book.

  What understandably caught his interest the most were the gloves which seemed to hide a small surprise. While they looked just like black leather gloves, when he used his thumb to rub over the back of them he could feel a finger nail sized stone under the leather. While his staff also had a big gem on top that channeled his magic it wasn’t a sapphire. The fact that he learned from an item description that sapphires would increase ice related magic was kind of funny but very good to know. Especially if he could find some to turn over to the dwarves for crafting.

  When he looked over the trenchcoat he was once again surprised, it offered the same [Earthen Resilence] like his pants and shirt while being slightly better at it. The spike defense trait was new and sounded like a last line of defense because if someone got that close he was in a lot of trouble. Still it was nice to have even if he hoped he never needed it.

  While he really wanted to land and put his new equipment on he wanted to finish the first leg of his journey. Flying through the cavern was kind of boring after a while, especially since he just had to move forward while maintaining his height. The cavern didn’t have any obstacles, enemies were nowhere to be seen as being caught in the open was a bad idea for any kind of prey. So for the next hour he flew in a straight line, so bored he just played around with the shape of his travel disk thinking about ways to weaponize it like he did with that plague mole.

  Finally Ethan reached the edge of the cavern which was just a boring gray wall covered in holes. Some of them looked natural, at least to his eyes, while others were definitely created by creatures. Obviously the moles were his first guess after his previous encounters with them. He landed not far from the wall and made the disk disappear in an explosion of tiny ice particles. Before he continued on his way he decided this was the best moment to put on his new equipment. He wanted to be as prepared as possible. The only thing he kept from the old stuff was his hat which, while stereotypical wizard attire, had grown on him. At least without a replacement he would keep it for now.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  The moment he put the gloves on and wore the full set a description appeared in his vision. The dwarves mentioned that this was a set after all a set so he wasn’t that surprised, he gave it a quick read.

  [Minor Blessing of the Magical Prowess]

  [Crafted as a set for an ambitious wizard this set boosts defense but when equipped in its entirety it boots mana regeneration and mana pool size by a major amount as hidden gems woven into every piece form an intricate network aligning with the mana channels of the wearer. [Improved Mana Regeneration][Improved Mana Pool]]

  “You sneaky fucks, here I thought you crafted something anybody would find useful.” Ethan laughed and he could feel the gems inside of his armor, they were cleverly hidden, down his arms, on the sides of his pants, the back of the trenchcoat and shirt even in the heels of his boots. He grinned like a child on Christmas and stretched a bit, testing his range of motion and was surprised how good it felt. The fabric was soft like silk which should have been impossible when he thought about the mole’s fur. Not that he was complaining about it. The last thing was checking his status to see how big his increase in mana actually was.

  Mana Points (MP): 3960/3520(5020)

  “What the fuck?” His eyes grew big when he saw the increase, his mana was usually at 3520 but now it sat at 5020 which was a jump of 1500 points. “That’s 150 levels worth of mana! Who calls that a minor blessing!? WHAT THE FUCK!” he stared at it for a long time before closing the status. He just walked towards the next cave entrance while shaking his head. “They’re absolutely mad, how much material did they invest in this equipment?” he mumbled to himself and shook his head while stepping into the darkness.

  While walking through the oppressive dark tunnels Ethan managed to get over his shock: His new equipment made that quite easy, he was brimming with energy as his increased mana pool was filling up and just waited to be used. What Ethan didn’t realize up to this point, as he never entered the mines of the dwarves, was that the tunnels were filled with monsters, albeit weak ones. After taking his first turn he walked into a literal horde of cave rats. Giving one of them a quick [Identify] only left him disappointed, they were not really worth his time and just blocked his way forward.

  [Cave Rat - Level 35]

  He didn’t even bother with the description as they were literally just subterranean rats and just created a group of ice soldiers, what made him happy was the fact that his limit was up once again to eighteen soldiers at a time. He also needed less time to create them. While they counted as ice magic his gloves [Mana Cost Reduction] even worked with them! Taking his increased mana regeneration into account he should be able to summon even more! So maybe increasing willpower should be his next order of business? Maybe he reached the current limit for his willpower but he still felt like there was room left, he couldn’t feel any kind of strain on his body or mana. Something that needed further investigation for sure.

  While he was in thought his soldiers equipped with shields and their blood reaper halberds slaughtered the rats filling the tunnel. Ethan followed them slowly, looking over decapitated rodents, cracked skulls and innards spilling out of open bellies. Every wound turned a pale blue from the inflicted frostbite. All of that was met with a cold detachment as he continued down his path. The eighteen soldiers were covered in blood from slaughtering all those rats. They turned around another corner and Ethan tilted his head in surprise. One of them had just been destroyed, when he reached them he saw a giant rat looming over his soldiers, they stabbed it but the difference in size made his halberds look like toothpicks.

  Ethan smiled and looked over its description. This might be a small challenge for him after all.

  [Cave Rat Broodmother - Level 45]

  [Broodmothers are the central part of every Cave Rat colony, they can birth dozens of cave rats a day as long as they have enough food to sustain themselves and her brood. Broodmothers are far from defenseless and sport a thick hide and vicious claws but their true strength lies in the buffs they can apply to their brood.]

  It was barely above his level but enough to destroy his soldiers apparently, Ethan knew that the ice they were made from was not his eternal ice. At least not completely, so much became clear during testing. While they were more resilient anybody could destroy them if they tried long enough, probably to balance the ability out.

  Slamming his staff into the ground Ethan summoned his chains and frozen hooks burst from the ground, walls and ceiling. Launching themselves at the broodmother with impressive speed. Even while he attacked it she gave birth to more cave rats, which was the most disgusting thing he had to witness. Ethan was just lucky that they looked far from being newborn and were even stronger than the ones he fought so far. His soldiers got to work killing the new rats while Ethan watched his chains slam into the broodmother.

  Hooks bury deep in her flesh, pulling her in every direction at once, her head snapped back from the chain pulling it towards the ceiling. While the broodmother was barely mobile in general due to her physiology and now restrained Ethan chains. He started to create a large projectile, he wanted to test his mana pool and envisioned a serrated drill made from ice. Using his ice manipulation skill to rotate the projectile so it would reach incredible speed. The drill was as tall as Ethan and looked like it could thrust through everything with the amount of spin it was picking up.

  Taking a deep breath Ethan walked five steps back, the ice drill was spinning so fast it pulled on his new clothes and was just a blurry cylinder at this point. He poured more of his magic into it and launched the drill, while it wasn’t as fast as a bullet it was still incredibly fast. The next moment a round hole appeared in the broodmother’s chest. The edges of the round hole looked like someone had chewed through her flesh instead of cutting it. The drill was nowhere to be seen as it had continued and was still moving through the stone ceiling for a few more seconds before coming to a stop.

  Without further ado Ethan walked around the corpse, his soldiers forming a circle around him. He paused all those standard notifications for kills and experience as he wanted to finally find this exit without any distractions.