136 Wanted
Jay opened the door, the hint of a scowl on his face as he was interrupted from crafting; right in the middle of something.
“Anya?”
“Hi. Viladore wanted me to remind you to visit him today, and I owe you these rings so I thought I’d bring them over.” she shrugged, holding out the rings.
With a sigh, Jay took them.
[Helvetian Ring] x 14
“Thanks,” he looked down the stairs to see Trenly standing there with a light frown, “Trenly let you up?”
“Well… I said it would be ok and rushed up here before he could stop me.” she shrugged with a smile.
Jay shook his head, “It’s alright Trenly.”
Trenly nodded and went back to work.
“Well, if that’s all, I have some stuff to do.” Jay gestured down the stairs.
Of course, Anya had an ulterior motive to coming here.
“Uh, oh.. I was wondering if you were planning on going back into mist keep? I have some useful tips for the third pyramid?” she smiled.
“Oh, well yeah – but later today… Also, I already conquered the third pyramid so that’s ok. You can help with the fourth if you’d like.” he shrugged.
“You conquered it!?” Anya raised her voice, before glancing down the stairs and lowering it again.
“So you beat the two creatures alone?”
“Yeah, and then the room after that too.”
“The room after? What? There’s a room after?”
Jay shook his head, Anya was wasting his time with silly questions; he wasn’t going to repeat himself.
“You’ll see.” he said with a sigh, “I’ll come to the association when I’m ready ok? Maybe in an hour or so.”
“Mm.. Thanks…” Anya looked down the stairs before turning back.
“What are you doing now?” she smiled.
Jay squinted at her, checking the stairs himself before whispering.
“You know how I was making that dagger? That time you startled the shit out of me when I thought you were unconscious in Carter’s Demise?”
“…yeah” she smiled slyly.
“Well, now I’m making armour… and here you are interrupting me again.” Jay shook his head with a smile.
“Oh, sorry…” she shrugged; it wasn’t really something that interested her, “In that case, I’m going to go kill some mobs. I’ll head over to the guild in an hour and wait for you.”
“Sounds good, see you then.” Jay said, watching her leave before closing the door.
With a sigh, he propped up the chair again.
“Ok, where was I… oh yeah, armour for myself.”
Jay took out some bones and began to channel his mana into them once more.
He crafted himself some vambraces and greaves similar to the skeletons – except without the bar going through the middle.
<[Necrotic Vambrace]>
[Common]
[6 Armour]
“Nice.” he smiled, analysing one of his finished products.
“Huh, it’s called necrotic instead of spectral? I guess it’s since I made it for a human?” he thought, looking at them.
“…too bad there’s no health bonus – but it’s better than nothing.” he shrugged before finally trying them on.
They were a snug fit around his Molodus coat, but that was not necessarily a bad thing. It would be better in battle so that they wouldn’t slip – though Jay did encounter one problem.
“Oh, my gauntlet…” part of the gauntlet had excess armour travelling partly up Jay’s arm, stopping the vambrace from fitting on it.
“Damn, oh well..” he stored the second vambrace into his inventory; it would be a backup. Just in case.
“It’s nice that the armour doesn’t need mana to maintain its form. I wonder why it’s different?” Jay thought for a moment, “Perhaps weapons simply need more maintenance.” he scratched his chin.
Unlike the armour, all the weapons he had made so far, including his shield had a [Lifespan] passive ability, which made them require necromancer mana to ‘maintain their form’.
“Hmm, what else can I make…”
Jay thought about the armour that the helvetian statues wore for inspiration, and in an instant he had an idea.
It was immediately clear that a helmet was a most crucial part of the armour – it would be what Jay targeted first during a fight after all.
Jay decided to create one similar to those T-visor helmets that the statues wore.
Immediately, he got to work, forming another green blob of glowing bones.
Next he decided to form half a sphere, forming it into a bowl shape.
After that, he elongated two parts of it downwards, which would eventually be the cheek plates.
Jay decided to solidify the shape he had made before continuing the crafting process, as he had an idea while forming it – perhaps coming from his level three insight.
The idea was to target a specific part to mould while stopping his mana from travelling through the rest of it; this meant he would only need to focus on a single part.
After the pseudo-helmet was set into its shape, Jay began to funnel mana into it again – but he kept it localised to a certain part, making a T-shape with his mana.
The T part of the visor was now liquid, and Jay forced it to each side which created the T-shaped gap. As the molten bone was pushed to each side, it effectively reinforced the edges of the T-visor with a slightly thicker rim.
It was a pretty simple design, but it was the best Jay could do for now.
Happy with how it was looking, he let it solidify.
<[Necrotic Barbute Helmet]>
[Common]
[9 Armour]
“Hmm…” Jay looked at his new armour, happy with the bigger armour bonus – compared to his vambraces and greaves anyway.
The final step was to try it on.
“Awesome, perfect fit” he smiled, glad that he wouldn’t have to make another.
Before making some helmets for his skeletons too, he decided to see what else he could make.
Pauldrons, which were like shoulder armour, would not work because they would have to be strapped on with some sort of leather bindings – and that would require latches to be made into them, which Jay wasn’t confident with yet.
Still, he decided to have a go anyway. The basic cup-shape of the shoulder armour was made – next, he made a long strand of bone and attached it at two points.
For whatever reason, it simply wouldn’t attach. Jay tried adding more mana to the pauldron and the strand to make them more liquid-like and mix, but then some of the strand became so skinny that it would have snapped.
“Damn… It’s simply beyond my level right now.” Jay lightly frowned.
“Oh well, I’ll get there,” he encouraged himself.
Jay summoned Sweeper once again – he needed a head to test a skeletal helmet on after all.
Immediately he got to work, crafting a slightly smaller helmet. The first turned out to be a little too small, and nearly got stuck on Sweeper’s head while it was half-on.
Thankfully, the second one fit perfectly.
Next, Jay crafted three more of the T-visor helmets for his skeletons.
Even though he made them slightly smaller to fit their fleshless skulls, they still ended up having the ‘necrotic’ prefix in their names – same as Jay’s.
“I guess it’s since they weren’t specifically made for the undead?” he shrugged.
“Oh well, I think that’s enough crafting for now.. My mana is pretty low.”
Jay ate another bondtussle root, refreshing his mana regen buff to one hour before collecting all his bones and armour pieces.
Walking to the door of his room, he took out Estobar’s journal and gazed at it for a moment.
“Hmm, later… I’m too busy today.” Jay stashed the book away as fast as he took it out.
“Now, time to see how many bones my helminth has for me” he turned to de-summon Sweeper again, but paused…
This was when Jay noticed something different about Sweeper, for some reason it caused a shiver to go up Jay’s spine.
“… You’re still wearing the greaves and vambraces… even after I re-summoned you?”