Ashton grabbed one of thicker threads of spider silk that he had gathered and threaded it through the ear of his needle. The spider silk, despite being 'silk', was actually stronger than almost any thread that you could get your hands on before everything went to shit. It was almost impossible for them to tear in your day-to-day if you used them for clothes, so it was the perfect material to use to stitch everything together. Plus, since he was making a magic item, the silk should help with the special effect as well.

  He had finished the sketch he made pretty fast. He ended up coming up with a neat idea for a black lizardman-leather jacket, and a matching belt. If possible, he wanted to make some boots as well, but he didn't exactly have the right tools and materials for that right now. Ashton knew there were a few cobblers in the city. His dad would get his old shoes fixed up with one of them a lot and bring him along. Maybe he could find the store, and hopefully surviving craftsman, later.

  For now, the fact that his boots were black was already good enough. Well, the bright red shoelaces might be an issue, but one that should be relatively easy to resolve.

  The lizardman leather was a bit uncomfortable to the skin on the inside, so for that reason, and to help keep it all together, Ashton stitched the cut-out leather pieces onto some fabric. It was easy to get your hands on that when every fabric store in the city was completely abandoned. Ashton had spent decades making clothes for himself by hand, so though his hands were much slower now and he made some more mistakes because he got ahead of himself, he was still able to finish the jacket shockingly easily.

  Well, it was a shock to the people sitting at the table with him, at least.

  "Mate, what can't you do?" John asked with a confused smile. Ashton looked up and raised his brows.

  "Hm? I mean, it's really not that hard if you know what you're doing. I feel like I've done more impressive things," he said bluntly, quickly standing up.

  "You're just saying that like that? Not worried that people will think you're being cocky?" Jacky wondered, looking around somewhat nervously. Survivors had been flooding in for a while now, and especially today, tons of new people joined.

  They were dishevelled, hungry, weak, and dirty. Meanwhile, Ashton stood there and seemed to be enjoying himself, doing something seemingly useless like making himself a leather jacket. And just in general, the way that Ashton was carrying himself and talking could be seen as bragging by a lot of people. Even Jacky was feeling a little jealous herself.

  "There's a difference between being cocky and just being proud of your strength. I'm strong, and it feels more insulting to act like I'm not," Ashton quickly put on the jacket. It was a bit too large... not massively so, but Ashton forgot that he used to be a lot more muscular. Well, he would grow into it, most likely. He looked back at his table, seeing the stares of his new friends. "What?"

  "Nothing, it's just... Were you always like this? We spoke to Sam a bit earlier, and he said that you used to be a lot more... reserved," Oliver explained, feeling a bit awkward to say it. "I guess it just seems like the apocalypse suits you a bit."

  "Says the guy that just excitedly yelled about using magic for the first time." Ashton took the jacket back off and sat down at the table, getting out his watercolour kit and some materials that were leftover from potion-making. There were a lot of waste materials that came to be in the process, and Ashton knew how to make use of most of them.

  Jacky laughed slightly and looked away from Oliver's awkward expression. "What we mean is that you just seem to make this work really well. Were you one of those... what are they called? Preppers?"

  "If I were a prepper, I'd be dead in a bunker right about now," Ashton said, adding a few of the dark and black dyes into a small bottle of already blackened oil castoff from the 'Mental Fortitude' potion. But he slowly stopped himself and looked up at the others. "And just to make it clear. I despise what is happening right now. If I had the choice, I would be part-timing at a convenience store at the corner from my flat right now, rather than preparing to stop the end of the world."

  With a slight scoff, John leaned onto his arm. "Stop the end of the world? Aren't you a bit late for that?"

  "... You'll laugh at the idea that this is the end of the world in a few months." Ashton grabbed a small, fine brush and started painting the leather jacket. The smooth scales didn't take amazingly to the paint, but since this castoff was just alkaline enough to etch itself into the scales fast enough. Luckily, this was a pretty cheap brush with plastic bristles, and this type of plastic seemed unaffected by the solution.

  This was great, honestly. He never would have thought this day would come, but Ashton genuinely missed plastic for cases like this. Despite its harmfulness, it had some great uses for alchemy. Glass was a great tool that he would use in Lumia, but it was much less versatile.

  As the pattern etched itself into the scales, depositing different substances onto them, the magic that was hidden within the leather was drawn out. This was another application of enchantments. Rather than using enchantments as a tool for craftsmanship, which is what Ashton used it for most of the time, this was probably more akin to what you would think of. Enchanting things with a special effect. Essentially, the pattern would strengthen and guide the magic hidden within something.

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  Of course, it wasn't powerful enough to simply place any effect you wanted onto any imaginable item. The power, or at least something that could be moulded into that power, had to exist within the enchanted object. High-tier enchanters had a lot more room to play with in that regard, but Ashton wasn't a high-tier enchanter, sadly.

  Then again, in the same way that there were systems of magic that Ashton didn't know, like Oliver's occultist ritual, there were most likely systems of enchanting that worked slightly differently. Though, Ashton still doubted they could create effects from nothing at all.

  While he was painting, the others at the table, who had been silent for a while, slowly spoke up again.

  "Things are going to be really bad, aren't they?" Jacky asked.

  "Mm-hmm," Ashton responded simply, keeping his focus on his work.

  Oliver placed his hands over his eyes. "Why the fuck is this happening to us?"

  Now, Ashton stopped. Sure, he wasn't certain, but ever since this all started, he did have a bit of a guess. Maybe it was related to the fact that Ashton was thrown back to earth, and that the council followed him back then. That was the only thing that he could really think of. There were other reasons he thought so too.

  The state of Drakewood being one of them. This town was meant to be wiped out, and had powerful monsters thrown into it. Maybe it was because of the city's relative proximity to London, and the council figured this place would be a good challenge for the heroes created in England's capital. But another reason that Ashton could think of was to wipe Ashton out.

  Well, sure, it might be a little cocky to think that the interdimensional council would care enough about him to wipe out a whole city to kill him, but it wasn't really about him anyway. Mostly, it was about the Summoner. At the end of the day, they only died out of a technicality. If the Summoner had been left alone, they would have been a real, definite threat to the council, but instead they were killed as a punishment for not clearing a quest that had been forced on them. He was thankful for it at the time, but if the Summoner's survival could have ensured the safety of earth, Ashton would have gladly lived in the Summoner's grasp for the rest of eternity.

  "... There's no use in thinking about why something happened. It happened, and that's all that really matters at this point. There is no magic powerful enough to change the past. And even if there were, you wouldn't be able to go to the point before our world had as much magic as it does now. It would be impossible to stop the council's invasion." Ashton groaned as he finished up the painted enchantment on the jacket.

  With a loud laugh, John watched him stand back up. "You're saying that like you've thought about it."

  Silently, Ashton glanced at John.

  "... Seriously?"

  Ashton shrugged. "If I could go back and stop this all from happening in the first place, that would make things a lot easier."

  While the others sat there silently, he pushed his arms through the jacket's sleeves. It still didn't fit perfectly, which annoyed Ashton a little, but it wasn't the end of the world. Ashton let his mana flow into the jacket, and it was almost immediately pulled into the enchantment pattern.

  He could feel a cold air flow over his skin, as if wind poured out of the jacket. It was clinging to Ashton's body, and as he looked down, he saw that he was covered in a thin layer of black all over. Like a thick black mist. It was a little reminiscent of the red steam created by the healing potion.

  However, it wasn't perfect. Though his torso was almost entirely covered in the mist, the lower part of his legs, starting a bit below his knees, were still visible. His hands were fine, though this wouldn't extend onto his staff.

  "... A belt that pushes the force down to cover my entire lower body... and gloves that expand it onto my staff at least to some extent..." Ashton whispered. Again, boots made from the xantusi leather would be perfect, but not realistic at the moment. He looked at the others again. "How's my face looking? Is it properly hidden?"

  The trio stared at Ashton, clearly having forgotten what they were thinking about just a moment ago. What they just witnessed was a wave of black mist flowing out of the jacket, swallowing Ashton's body almost entirely. It was like they were looking at his shadow trying to climb up out of his shoes, since that was the only place entirely uncovered.

  "It's, uh... yeah, it's a little creepy, actually. Like, holy shit! Can you make those for us as well?" Oliver jumped up, looking Ashton up and down.

  He considered the request for a moment. "I could, but I'm not sure how much use it would be. It does take some skill and affinity to use enchanted items."

  "Hm? I get the 'skill' bit I guess, but affinity?"

  "Actually, could you explain the skill part too?" John chimed in.

  Ashton looked at Oliver and John, as well as Jacky who also seemed curious, and tried to explain it. "Well, you need to be able to manipulate your mana well enough at the right volume. It needs to be at the correct pattern-stability to be accepted into the enchantment, which is complicated in its own right. Plus, you need to keep up concentration on the process as you're using an enchanted item like this. More complex enchantments can take over those things, but I don't have the means for that yet." He started. "As for the affinity part... You need to understand the effect well enough. Let's say... you have an enchantment that helps with force manipulation. I'm guessing that John has a much deeper understanding of physical force than either of you two. So, the effect caused by him would be more powerful than what can be caused by you. And well, none of you, with the exception of maybe Nicole, are exactly built for stealth. But I can come up with a few things that could help you, if I have the time. Which I currently don't really have anyway, sorry."

  Oliver seemed a bit dejected. He was sad that he couldn't get such an awesome item, but he did get that Ashton couldn't just equip everyone around him constantly. He was curious, though.

  "What will you be doing that's going to keep you busy?" Oliver wondered.

  Ashton smiled a bit. "Well, I just made a rare magic item, so that crosses that off the list... so now, I guess I'll learn how to cast spells tonight, and then head out to take down the lizardman tribe in the costco."