Archie cracked his fingers and fell on his chair, looking at his newest craft atop his table.

  Sentinel Platiniteshell Chestpiece (Rare):

  A sturdy chest piece made from the corpse of an E-Grade Sentinel Platiniteshell Tortoise and its core. Forged by Archie Gracefield, an E-Grade Novice Forgesmith. The armor retains the tortoise’s natural toughness thus making the armor highly resistant towards physical attacks. Grants the ability: Material Carapace, which allowed the wielder to grow Platiniteshell across their body, effectively doubling defense for a period of time while minorly reducing Agility during that time. Effect: Soul-Bound, Self-Repair, Greater Physical Resistance & Material Carapace. Provides +80 Vit, +60 End & +15 Str. Status: Perfect. Requirements: Lv 65+ & Humanoid Race.

  Archie stared at the chestpiece with a satisfied smile. It was the first ever chestpiece he had made with sleeves integrated into its chestplate. He had learned while cutting the tortoise open that its hide was almost as sturdy as its carapace, yet very flexible.

  Using this newfound knowledge, while shaping the chestpiece, Archie covered the joints with its hide which he had refined within Forgesmith’s Flame

  And most likely judging by the chestpiece’s stats, what he previously considered to be the sleeves slot for his equipment were in fact armguards.

  Did he have enough Sentinel Platiniteshell Tortoise material to make armguards? Yes. But was he going to make them now? No, he was far too exhausted to make them right now. He hadn’t slept in quite some time considering that according to his Tutorial Panel, he had been awake for fifteen consecutive days, constantly moving around.

  Group Tutorial

  The 72nd cycle has begun; thus, a tutorial is needed to increase the survivability of the newly integrated myriad races. The Emernigan Isle is filled with various creatures from across the universe, each providing Tutorial Points upon their death to their killer. Tutorial Points can be exchanged between individuals, as a form of currency. Tutorial Points will be used to gain rewards after the full tutorial is completed.Completion Criteria: Number of Survivors:Time Remaining:

  , Archie thought, comparing the number to when he’d first opened the panel when arriving at the Group Tutorial.

  , Archie thought while picking himself off the chair and sending the chestpiece into his spatial storage.

  Compared to the end of F-Grade, where he needed to sleep and eat at least once every two to three days, he liked not needing to sleep as often. Looking at the overhanging moon, Archie gave a glance at his notifications as he took out his bed.

  Skill Evolution: [Gaze of the Forgefather (Epic)→ Gaze of the Forgefather (Radiant)]

  Gaze of the Forgefather (Radiant):

  The gaze of the Forgefather is known to spot even the smallest imperfections on forged items. Allows the Novice Forgesmith to transform their own eyes to spot the imperfections on forged items. Whether it’s a slight imperfection in a rune or item, you are able to see it clearly while forging. This skill gives you the edge in forging items, ensuring every detail is perfected before the final piece is complete. When focusing on hidden or faded runes, their true forms are revealed to you. Not all runes may be revealed or shown when Gaze of the Forgefather is active.

  *Your Profession has reached Lv 65 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*

  Archie smiled at his second Radiant rarity skill before flopping across his bed, passing out the moment his head hit the mattress.

  Waking up from his slumber, Archie flipped himself over and took notice of the disappearance of the moon and the now peaking of the sun, signifying dawn.

  Yawning, Archie rolled himself out of the embrace of the impossibly soft bed and onto the sand below. With a sigh, Archie pushed himself off the ground and towards the tortoise.

  Ripping off two sizable chunks of Platiniteshell from the tortoise’s carapace, Archie made his way to the forge. The forge's flame was absent, prompting him to reignite it with the Forgesmith’s Flame

  Grabbing his heavy-duty tongs, Archie placed one of the chunks of Platiniteshell into the forge and waited for it to turn red-hot. Once its previous silverish coloring became red-hot, Archie took it out of the forge and onto the heavy-duty anvil.

  Archie grabbed his heavy-duty anvil and started to hammer the Platiniteshell, imbuing it with non-attuned mana with every strike. Not wanting his Nature-Affinity to potentially override the benefits of the Platiniteshell, Gaze of the Forgefather

  While he had more than enough Platiniteshell to experiment with, he wanted to focus on another task after this, which he’d been attempting for quite some time now.

  Once the Platiniteshell became uniform and in the shape of an elongated rectangle, Archie placed it over the horn of the anvil, shaping it into a semi-cylinder. Grabbing the Platiniteshell cylinder, Archie submerged it into the sea, pulling it out once it cooled down.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Archie then placed it atop his desk and cut four thin holes in the corners of the cylinder with his Thermal Carver. Grabbing two thin strips of leather, Archie looped them into the four holes, and on the ends of the strips he attached belt clasps made from thin steel scraps he had prepared just before making the Sentinel Platiniteshell Chestpiece

  Grabbing the second Platiniteshell chunk, Archie repeated the same process of making it into an armguard.

  After finishing the second armguard, Archie etched onto them the runes of Soul-Bound and Self-Repair. Using what he learned from the Material Carapace runic script, he etched a rune of Physical Reinforcement onto both armguards.

  Sentinel Platiniteshell Bracers (Rare):

  Sturdy bracers made from the corpse of an E-Grade Sentinel Platiniteshell Tortoise. Forged by Archie Gracefield, an E-Grade Novice Forgesmith. The armor retains the tortoise’s natural toughness thus making the armor highly resistant towards physical attacks. Effect: Soul-Bound, Self-Repair, Greater Physical Resistance & Physical Reinforcement. Provides +80 Str, +60 Vit & +15 Agi. Status: Perfect. Requirements: Lv 65+ & Humanoid Race.

  *Your Profession has reached Lv 66 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*

  Archie took out his Sentinel Platiniteshell Chestpiece and equipped it, then put on his new bracers. He had gained a total of 40 Vitality, 95 Strength, and 15 Agility at a cost of 10 Endurance. Well worth it, in Archie’s opinion. He now had just a bit over 900 points in Strength with all the bonuses he gained from his titles, bloodline, and blessing.

  Titles were very useful but judging by the ones that gave him percentage bonuses, they seemed to be hard to get. Bloodline Progenitor gave him +5% to Vitality, but to get the title he had to not only have a bloodline, but he also needed to be its origin. Legendary Innovator gave him +10% to all stats but he needed to upgrade a skill to legendary.

  Archie thought.

  Waving away his train of thought, Archie decided to try and connect with the spirit realm. He had lost his way to connect to it when he had changed classes to become a Novice Forgesmith. But with his new class skill Spirit Bond

  Grabbing a Lava Wraith Elemental core, Archie activated Spirit BondSpirit Bond

  As the darkness disappeared, Archie found himself staring at a vast lava river, similar to the one around the volcano on the island he was on. The only difference was the sheer size of everything around him.

  The term "river" was a simplification; it was more like an ocean of lava, and the volcano was easily 10 times larger than the volcano on the island. He wasn’t sure why he originally called it a river or considered the volcano similar to the one on the island, but it felt…right.

  Archie stared into the lava river and watched as it bubbled. Suddenly something started to rise from the lava, revealing it to be a core. Its core hovered atop the lava for a few moments before tendrils of lava flew from the river and wrapped around it.

  Archie activated Thorns

  Once firmly wrapped around the core, Archie reinforced his vines with more mana and pulled the core towards him. The lava that was forming around the core fell to the ground as though it were a puppet and its strings were cut.

  Once in hand, Archie stared at the core in his palms with intrigue. This was the first time he had seen a creature’s core during Spirit Bond

  Jumping back enough away from the ‘river’ to where the tendrils would take at least a while to reach him, Archie activated Nature’s Meditation

  Pushing his mana outwards, Archie tried to seep his non-attuned mana into both the core and the area around him. Both would undoubtedly be filled with lava-elemental spirits or at the very least, fire-elemental spirits.

  While enveloping his surroundings and the core with his non-attuned mana, he definitely felt something. It felt hot and…energetic for lack of a better word. Constantly restless and eager to move, it felt like the opposite of the lesser ice elemental spirits he had sensed before—but stronger.

  Now that he was able to identify that there were some sort of lava/fire elemental spirits around him he needed to figure out how to manipulate them around.

  , Archie thought in annoyance. He quickly exited Nature’s Meditation

  Kicking off the ground, Archie ran a good distance to the left of where he previously sat and reactivated Nature’s Meditation

  Refocusing on trying to sense the lava/fire elemental spirits around him, Archie focused on trying to intermingle them around his mana. But sadly, all that did was overwhelm the spirits and make them vanish.

  After multiple attempts at trying to manipulate the spirits and jumping away from the lava tendrils trying to reach him, Archie found something. He managed to inch the spirits towards him.

  What he learned was that instead of trying to touch the spirits with his mana, he needed to coax them to come towards him, but that wasn’t all, he had to provide them an incentive to do so. That incentive was a small nugget of mana that it could safely digest, testing Archie’s finesse at mana control to make a piece of non-attuned mana that small and dangle it in front of the constantly moving spirit.

  Once Archie gathered twenty separate spirits, he decided to see what would happen if he pushed them into his body.

  As the spirits entered his body, a sudden burst of warmth erupted within him, flooding his mind with a whirlwind of images of stars and space before jolting him out of the Spirit Bond

  Coughing in surprise, a tuft of smoke released from his mouth as Archie looked around in surprise. Feeling something fall onto his lap, Archie saw the Lava Wraith Elemental core was gone and in its place was cracked stone and dust, covering his palms and lap.

  Looking at the notification that popped up after his emergence, he smiled.

  Gained Skill: Spirit Link (Epic)

  Spirit Link (Epic):

  Through meditation, you enter the spirit realm of your current surroundings. By entering the spirit realm, you are able to connect with the spirits on a more intimate level and manipulate them. Linking with the spirits around you, your mental and physical capabilities are enhanced. This can only be done after a successful Spirit Bond or within an area saturated in spirits.

  *Your Race has reached Lv 69 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*

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