Lloyd held the amalgamation of leather, bone, and beetle elytra in front of him, trying to figure out how to connect it to the thing in front of him. Sitting in the centre of his work bench, a mannequin was adorned with a half complete mesh of leathers, covered in half-finished inscriptions and runes, as if it had been abandoned before it could be finished.

  As he found the rights angle, Lloyd smeared the edges with melted resin as he slid it into place, watching the unfinished inscriptions combine into an interconnected whole. One after another, Lloyd snapped the remaining pieces of leather into place, watching as the chestplate took form before him.

  With a satisfying grinding noise, Lloyd pushed the last bit of leather into place, revealing the fruit of hundreds of hours of labour. The gruelling process of synthetic amalgamation was incomparable to the effort that went into a normal armour piece.

  Each piece of leather needed to be added at a predetermined time in a specific order, otherwise you would end up with something that wouldn’t be able to go together. If even a single inscription was misaligned by even a millimetre the chestplate would instantly lose efficacy, severely damaging its power.

  Lloyd paced back and forth around the table, nudging and adjusting the pieces of leather to get them in the perfect position for what came next. When he judged it ready, Lloyd summoned a fistful of bone from his ring, thin and polished, they were all perfectly fit for the seams between the leather.

  Considering the amazing impact resistance of the iguana bone, and the surprising rigidity of the tree resin, it should serve as an amazing solution to the weaker seams present on his amalgamated armour. All things considered, it might actually work better, as there was nothing stopping him from adding some leather strings in the future.

  For now, this was more than enough, as there were very few things in this part of the forest that could hope to damage this armour, and those that could, wouldn’t be bothered if there were a few extra strings protecting him. If something truly dangerous were to confront him, Lloyd would be more inclined to utilise his movement enchantments, not seeing the need to risk his life to win a losing battle.

  As he coated the bone shards in molten resin, Lloyd winced as the substance scolded his fingers, but ignored the pain as it was overshadowed by a sudden sense of excitement. One after another, Lloyd slotted the bones into place like he was working on a jigsaw, quickly filling in the gaps with the dirty white rods.

  Lloyd stepped back with his hands raised above his head, after so long, and so much work, he was finally done. The feeling of satisfaction was only amplified by the fact that the inscribing was already done, the intricate nets of carvings and the five or so runes already long done, completed alongside the leather they had been dug into.

  Now, there was only one step left before he could truly claim it as his own. From a barrel on one of the side walls, Lloyd collected a large bowl of viscous red liquid, the substance reeking with a metallic stench.

  As Lloyd smeared the dark honey-like substance across the surface of the armour, Lloyd watched as it sunk into the fibres of the leather, reinforcing it further. The inscriptions glimmered in a proud crimson, their image unfettered by the rancid smell emanating from Lloyd’s hand.

  A point of interest that Lloyd hadn’t realised before, the amalgamated bonding agent was naturally more chaotic that the ones designed for a single kind of leather. Because of this, the distinct smell from all of the different agents was combined into the unholy concoction currently traumatising Lloyd’s nostrils.

  If not for the knowledge that it was currently fusing everything into one cohesive armour piece, then Lloyd would have been inclined to leave then and there, saving his nose from this torture. Unfortunately for him though, Lloyd would have to endure a little longer, as this was a vital step of the process.

  Stepping back with his arm across his mouth, Lloyd flicked the red paste off of his fingers as he admired his handywork from a distance. As the armour slowly absorbed the bonding agent, Lloyd began experimenting with titan stride, trying to figure out the method he’d discovered a few days ago whilst messing around to give his mind a break.

  Whilst leaping across the forest floor a while ago, Lloyd had accidentally propelled himself, not straight forward, but at a thirty-degree angle into the air. He was unsure of exactly what had caused this to happen, but he suspected it had something to do with the way his body was oriented, but he couldn’t be sure.

  Jumping into the air, Lloyd leant backwards, activating the skill and launching himself forward, going forward on a twenty or so degree angle, a far call from the near vertical position he had been in. Lloyd’s next conclusion was that it was related to the angle he was standing on before activating the enchantment.

  In and attempt to go run on the most vertical angle he could manage, Lloyd jumped up the side of the tree before activating the skill. This was something that backfired miserably when he shattered his teeth against the wall in.

  Lloyd fell to the ground gripping his face as blood ran from his mangled mouth, occasionally spitting out a chunk of shattered tooth. While it wasn’t anything serious, and could be healed quickly by simply circulating some mana, it was still painful as hell to smash your face into the side of a tree.

  “Fuck.” Lloyd sputtered between bloody coughs.

  As resilient as his body became, when he did manage to overcome that durability, it always hurt like hell, especially considering it was usually his face taking the brunt of the damage. With a quick mental command, Lloyd felt a painful sting burning his face as mana began to reform the mangled mess within his mouth.

  The process was extremely painful, but compared to the feeling of having half his teeth shatter and having his bottom jaw dislocated, it wasn’t that bad. After a while, Lloyd felt like everything was back in working order, and spat a coagulated clump of blood and phlegm onto the ground, glad the painful process was over.

  Pulling himself to his feet, Lloyd considered what he should do, maybe he could try to figure out titan strid again but—yeah no, fuck that. Smashing his face into a bloody pulp once was more than enough for one day, and after the lengthy healing process the chestplate was nearly ready anyway.

  For the time being, Lloyd just sat on the ground fiddling around with mana strings in an effort to improve his control. A few short minutes later, Lloyd got ready to finally finish his armour, watching as the last of the bonding agent sank into the leather.

  A knife suddenly appeared in Lloyd’s hand, gliding up to his palm as he sliced open the very obvious scar, spilling blood across his palm. Sticky, red droplets ran down Lloyd’s forearm and onto his bracers, flowing away from his bloodstained hand.

  As he pressed his hand against the sturdy leather, Lloyd watched as it faded, only to be replaced with the vibrant glow shining from every orifice of his new armour. The lightning filled radiance quickly faded away, replaced by the glossy surface of the chestplate and its innumerable inscriptions.

  Lloyd stared with open eyes as he activated identify, entranced by what he saw.

  Chestplate of the Enduring Storm (Rare) – A masterful chestplate made by an extremely talented craftsman using powerful techniques to take full advantage of its defensive capabilities. Stand tall before your foes, strike them down with thunders eternal wrath, withstand their onslaught untouched as you tear them down. You are immutable, you are thunder, let none survive the storm. (Enchantments, self-repair, Immutable storm)

  To say his jaw dropped to the floor was an understatement, with the shock on his face it may as well be underground. This craft had pushed beyond the realms of uncommon, reaching into the next tier, it seemed the painful process had paid off.

  Lloyd’s eyes ran across the words over and over again, trying to take in his accomplishment. He was so engrossed in the splendour of a rare armour piece that he didn’t even bother with the motif at the end. He was simply ecstatic, and it was with a massive grin that Lloyd removed the chestplate from the mannequin, placing it on himself.

  It was a wonderful feeling to wear the chestplate after so long working on it, he took in everything just enjoying the experience. before he lost himself, Lloyd pulled himself back to reality, noticing something he had glossed over before.

  The skill, immutable storm, he had seen the difference in power between common and uncommon skills, and he could only imagine what a rare skill was capable of. Thankfully he didn’t have to imagine when could find out for himself, and he knew just the way to test it.

  Lloyd burst through the doorway with excitement leading him, but not before checking on his status to see his progress.

  status

  Name: Lloyd Tethys

  Race: Human (F) – lvl 22

  Class: lightning mage – lvl 22

  Profession: bestial craftsman – lvl 23

  Health points (HP) 512/567

  Mana points (MP) 618/627

  Stamina points (SP) 396/435

  Stats

  Strength – 256

  Agility – 127

  Endurance – 174

  Toughness – 159

  Vitality – 227

  Perception – 177

  Intelligence – 251

  Wisdom – 204

  Willpower – 150

  Free points – 0

  Lloyd was genuinely taken aback, he had been so engrossed in the crafting process that he didn’t notice how many levels he’d gained, in fact he had completely missed an entire skill selection. The case of his incomprehensible incompetence aside, this was great as the gains he had made from these levels was astounding, pushing a third and fourth stat past the two hundred mark.

  All of this was a massive gain on its own, but it was all overshadowed by the new title currently stealing away his mind.

  [Rare talent] – A prestigious title only awarded to the best of craftsmen, you have managed to craft a rare item while still only F-grade, a truly rare accomplishment. Standing above your peers, this is a testament to the true mastery needed to do such a thing. +5% all stats.

  This title was great, one of the best he’d seen yet, and was only overshadowed by galactic talent, the skill he had gotten from creating supercharge, which was a hard standard to match. The upgrade had increased the stat gain from fifteen in all stats, to a full five percent, and best of all, it hadn’t taken away the other fifteen when he got the upgrade.

  This put his percentage gain up to fifteen percent in all stats, which was a massive gain, and when factoring in his total between all stats was over two hundred stat points gained from titles alone. As amazing as this new title was, Lloyd didn’t pay it too much attention, as he still had a skill selection to attend to.

  His new skill selection was promising, but nothing to write home about, as it only had a measly three skills on offer for him. Not to say the skills were bad, quite the opposite actually, most of them seemed above average, but only three felt like a pathetic result for the work he’d put in lately.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  [Runic encyclopedia (Common)] – Become an expert in an instant, gaining a huge library of runic knowledge that expands as you study them. With all consuming knowledge to aid you, easily incorporate your runic expertise into your works, pushing them to new heights.

  [Mana flame (Common)] – Summon a small flame that becomes hotter and more intense the more mana you infuse it with. Given enough mana, this flame can melt almost any material, a helpful tool that costs near nothing to run.

  [Adaptable affinities (Uncommon) – As you engrave runes and inscriptions, learn from the process boost your affinities as you explore their intricacies improve your ability to take advantage of them. Engraving runes and inscriptions tied to certain affinities boots your connection with said affinity, giving more meaning to inscriptions done with practice.

  Lloyd looked at his options carefully, evaluating each one of them against the others, trying to come do a decision, but it wasn’t easy. Each of them had their use cases that would help him with making armour, but he needed to find which one would help the most.

  Runic encyclopedia sounded good, and the ability to expand his knowledge of the subject just by using the runes seemed useful, but he already had a small library of runes in the form of his stolen tomes. If he really needed a specific type of rune, then he could just look for it in one of the books until he found something that would work.

  Something that was harder for him to replicate, was mana flame, he could serve a similar purpose using supercharge, but it was a lot more chaotic and harder to control in comparison. The most relevant example for this was when he melted the clumps of resin, supercharge worked, but it often spat out molten globs of sap around in the process. Not to mention it could easily just destroy the rein by accident.

  Mana flame should offer a cleaner and more refined method to do this, alongside the many other things he did using supercharge for heat. It would certainly be a good addition, but he was still undecided whether it was better than his final option, and he was leaning towards the idea that it wasn’t.

  Adaptable affinities sounded like something that was far stronger than it was at face value, an uncommon skill that would make your inscriptions more effective, but there was more to it than that. With each iteration of a given inscription or rune, it would gain efficacy, he didn’t yet know the extents of the skills power, but it didn’t seem like something that should be uncommon.

  Something with such potential seemed like something that should be limited, but it mentioned no such thing and Lloyd was curious. If it really was as good as he thought, then he had every reason to pick it as it would have no limit to how good it might get.

  With such potential for power, Lloyd felt like he was being compelled to do so when he did decide to pick it. It just felt like to good an opportunity for him to let go, and he would have been left wondering what he’d missed out on if he had picked something else.

  As interesting as Lloyd found the skill, he had done his fair share of crafting for the time being, and he just really wanted to do some hunting. putting the matter of his new skill aside for the time being, Lloyd got up from the root he was sitting on and leapt into a jog.

  The underbrush flew by in a haze of greens and browns as he pushed the giant ferns aside, looking for something to fight. Throughout the forest, Lloyd could hear the distant cries of many creatures, but he couldn’t find anything that was strong enough to pose a threat to him.

  Maybe if he were back at level eighteen, then these beasts would be more threatening to him, but Lloyd was looking for bigger fish. At this point anything under level twenty was a waste of his time, as they just didn’t give enough experience to justify the time spent hunting them.

  Lloyd found a few promising suspects on his trek through the forest, but all of them fell short, and it seemed like there might not be strong enough beasts in this part of the forest.

  Razor wing dragonfly -lvl 18

  Fire claw cassowary -lvl 19

  Toxic blade toad -lvl 17

  It seemed that he was in a bit of a predicament, nothing here was powerful enough for him to get any experience from them, and he didn’t want to go into parrot territory, so he needed a compromise. Maybe he could go back to the swamp and look for some powerful crocodiles, but that was something like a hundred kilometres to the west and wasn’t worth the time.

  Just as he thought he was stuck, something caught Lloyd’s attention, a roar louder than all the others echoed through the trees, forcing all the other creatures into a fearful silence before they resumed a few seconds later. It was definitely something strong, how strong? He couldn’t be sure, but he definitely wanted to check it out.

  Running across the forest floor, Lloyd quickly zeroed in on the location, jumping up onto a branch with boundless leap so as to get a bird’s eye view of the situation. Standing in the middle of a torn up battle field, Lloyd could see what looked like a mix between a tortoise and a lizard.

  It was big, like really big, about the size of a small van and it was clearly powerful, judging by the deep scars in the ground had power to match. The beast was standing over what looked to be the carcass of some large mammal, although it was hard to tell with only bloody mush to guide him.

  Lloyd was unsure of just how powerful this thing was, and was unwilling to enter the fray until he knew its level. The problem with that was using identify to find out would more likely than not alert the beast of his location, ruining his element of surprise.

  After some deliberation, Lloyd came up with a compromise, he would charge a plasma bolt and if he could fight it, he would supercharge it midair, and if not, he would launch it at a tree and run. Readying himself in case he had to make a break for it, Lloyd got ready to run as he summoned a plasma bolt before activating identify.

  Razor jaw tortoise brute -lvl 23

  As soon as he saw that the level was within his reach, Lloyd launched the plasma bolt with all his might, supercharging it to further bolster its speed. The bolt shot forward with unbridled power, but it wasn’t quick enough, the tortoise whipped its head around, spotting the incoming projectile before it could arrive.

  A sudden burst of mana exploded outwards from the beast’s shell, a translucent dark green barrier manifesting around it. The barrier was instantly turned into glossy mist as the supercharged plasma bolt ripped its apart, but as the dust cleared, Lloyd saw that the tortoise was still unscathed.

  Mana surged through his body as titan stride launched him forward, bringing him into the fray. In the moment it took before the beast realised what happened, Lloyd burst into action, releasing a field of plasma mines as he wove mana into supercharged ropes of deadly energy.

  The moment the tortoise realised what happened it was already too late, as it was on the receiving end of a small horde of mana bolts. Blind rage pushed the beast forward, its thick muscular arms swinging toward him, activating the plasma mines strewn around it.

  The explosion that was set off launched the beast backwards, giving Lloyd an opening to attack its underbelly. Two of his mana ropes shot through the maze of plasma mines taking on a serpentine appearance as they wrapped around its neck before releasing their deadly package.

  As the electric energy ravaged the beast’s body, the ropes fell to the ground devoid of energy, their power sapped. Like a hydra with its head severed, as two fell, four more appeared, ready to strike, but he didn’t get a chance.

  The beast struck with just as much energy as the first strike had held, and he was shocked to see just how little damage he had truly done. As the tortoise dove straight through the minefield, Lloyd hastily repositioned with titan stride narrowly avoiding the monstrous strike headed his way.

  Without anything left in its way, the tortoise kept up the attack, with just a few chips in its shell to show for it. Lloyd was severely taken aback, as that should have at least broken the skin, but he couldn’t see any signs of bleeding no matter where he looked.

  What he could see however was the network of cracks crisscrossing its body around the areas that made impact with the plasma mines. Clearly the mana bolts hadn’t been able to penetrate the durable carapace, but he had managed to do some damage nonetheless.

  As Lloyd released another wave of plasma mines in retaliation, he was forced to dodge as a giant apparition appeared around him. It was a massive replica of the tortoise’s head, its robust jaws coated in glyphs and sigils glowing with an ominous green energy.

  The jaws slammed shut around him just before he could escape, the many glyphs around him lighting up with a verdant glow. As he launched a series of supercharged mana bolts into the translucent barrier, he began to panic as a foul-smelling mist began to emanate from the sigils on the walls.

  Lloyd grimaced in annoyance as the mana bolts only managed to make a small hole in the side of the barrier, barely the size of his head. Without much time before he ran out of space, Lloyd jumped over the gas, trying to break through the wall with his hands, to limited success.

  As the mist grew thicker and began to rise, Lloyd summoned Thunder bone into his hand, about to make a huge overhead swing before something caught his eye. Somewhere in his peripheral vision, Lloyd noticed a glimmer of movement, a glimmer that quickly morphed into the shape of the tortoise’s head.

  The glossy barrier shattered into shards of mana as the giant beast broke through its giant clawed forearms raised above its head ready to strike. With just moments before he was turned into a fine red paste, and the still very much solid remnants of the barrier to his back and side, Lloyd made a split-second decision.

  The surrounding environment was robbed of mana, and the destabilising barrier had its energy sapped away as it coalesced around Lloyd. In just moments, Lloyd was surrounded by a chaotic maelstrom of energy slowly being sucked into his body.

  Air was torn out of the way, and the sound barrier barely held onto itself as the beast’s claw descended at a speed far exceeding what its bulky form suggested. With just moments remaining before Lloyd was struck, something changed.

  The air felt still, the breeze gone, suddenly replaced by a raging tempest with its centre focused directly on Lloyd. With wind so strong that it was visible, Lloyd could barely move even if it was parting around him, but that wasn’t enough to stop the beast.

  Claws like swords tore through the winds, coming down on Lloyd like a meteor as he hastily raised his weapon to block. Luckily for Lloyd, it never got to that point as the enchantment decided to demonstrate why it was called immutable storm, not immutable wind.

  A bolt of lightning as thick as a light post tore through the air completely removing the claw from sight as it filled his vision with pure white light. It was hard to say exactly what had happened, but when the winds cleared, Lloyd was the only one standing upright.

  With his only signs of damage being his severely drained mana pool, Lloyd burst through the wall of dust into the clearing, surrounding himself with a field of plasma mines and mana bolts. The attack he had been expecting didn’t come though, the beast was standing on the other side of its previous assailant, the bloody mess smeared further across the ground.

  This time he had actually done some damage, or at least his enchantment had, as immutable storm had blown off a large section of scales on its left arm. The bony carapace was torn open, blood flowing ceaselessly from the charred wound, with the creature unsure how to proceed, but it made up its mind pretty quickly.

  With renewed vigour, the tortoise burst forward, its clubbed tail tearing through the field of plasma mines, ripping them to pieces whilst slowly corroding its shell. Amongst the echoing explosions, Lloyd was lost in the dust being kicked up all around him, something he took advantage of as he dove between the beasts legs.

  Lloyd swung his arms forward with furious force, bending in his fists so as to better puncture the beasts hide. As the spider fangs attached to his bracers cut through the scales, Lloyd felt a surge of mana as he activated lightnings bite, injecting the beast with a deadly toxin.

  Clearly, this had shown the beast exactly where he had disappeared to, as he was suddenly caught in the midriff by the bony club at the end of its tail. The impact force was quickly distributed across his chest, dispelling the shockwave before it could do any damage, but it didn’t do as well against the transferred momentum.

  As he flew backwards across the forest, Lloyd left a trail of plasma mines and mana bolts in his wake, ready to combat the beast as it began its charge. With each explosion that went off, and each mana bolt that pierced a wound, Lloyd could see the beast begin to wear itself down.

  Its body was covered in cracks revealing the vulnerable tissue below, and with the toxin that made it weak to lightning now flowing through its veins, it wasn’t looking good. Lloyd slammed into the side of a tree, his armour easily absorbing the impact as he fell to the ground amongst a swarm of mana bolts.

  Blood spurted from the beast’s body like water from a sieve, the supercharged mana bolts diving through the cracks and tearing its body apart from the inside. As it looked like it was over for the tortoise, Lloyd looked up in surprise when he noticed something change.

  The damaged shell was suddenly dark green and shiny, its glossy coating untouched by the devastation that was clear as day underneath. At the same time, Lloyd was confronted by a spectral fist bigger than he was, its massive claws long enough to bisect him in a single swipe.

  Thunder bone appeared in Lloyds hands, its blade slashing at the illusory palm as it bore down on him. At the same time, Lloyd summoned swathes of mana bolts and plasma mines, working to wear down the shiny coating on the beast’s carapace.

  While Thunder bone was doing an ok job at repelling it, Lloyd would be lying if he said it was working well. The only other time Lloyd had fought a spectral enemy he had only managed to destroy it by overloading his body with mana to create an electric pulse, tearing it apart.

  That was no longer an option, as his body could handle far too much mana for that to be effective, so he would have to find another way. Thinking fast, Lloyd summoned a supercharged mana bolt, grabbing it out of the air and raising it above his head before crushing it.

  The resulting explosion tore apart the front half of the hand, and as it reformed Lloyd was given the chance to deploy some of the much weaker, but much cheaper plasma mines, finishing it off. With that problem dealt with, Lloyd turned his attention back to the still mostly undamaged armour coating the tortoise’s body.

  With only around a third of his mana left, Lloyd didn’t have too many choices, so he had to make his next move count. If he was going to break through the beast’s shell he would need something powerful, but not so expensive that he would run out of mana.

  For this, Lloyd had two choices, but only one of them would allow him to finish the beast off afterwards, so with his heart beating fast, Lloyd raised his hand into the air. As he stared down the charging beast, Lloyd activated plasma bolt, charging it with energy until it could hold no more.

  The bolt flew forward like a speeding bullet, and the additional supercharge made him lose sight completely as it turned into a white blur. Lloyd fell to his knees, his hands clasped over his ears with blood streaming through his fingers, he knew that the explosion would be powerful, but he had neglected to think of the consequences for his actions.

  He had been so focused on the damage he would deal to the tortoise that he had negated to think about the implications such an explosion would have on his ears, and he was paying the price. Not wanting to give the tortoise a chance to recover or get away, Lloyd pushed himself to his feet, his head throbbed and he was out of balance from his burst eardrums, but he could see it, and that was enough.

  Lloyd shoved his fingers in his ears, silently praying it would work as supercharge drained the last of his mana. Heavenly judgment rained down from above as smite exploded with power, tearing through the tortoise’s body and ripping it apart from the inside.

  The lightning coursed through the beast’s body like it was a battery, and it only stopped when the creature finally collapsed, overwhelmed by the ceaseless assault of lightning. from an outside perspective, the corpse was nothing but a charred husk, but Lloyd knew better, and as he stumbled his way down the hill, he could only imagine what kind of materials it had to offer.