Lloyd sat down his fifth book on blacksmithing with mixed emotions, these books had gone into extremely useful intricate details for anything and everything someone relatively new to smithing could need. One of the books even provided a viable way for a healer to use their skills in blacksmithing, yet out of all of them, not one went into detail about the basics of pre integration smithing.
Unfortunately, these five books were all the in house library of the guild hall had to offer on smithing, so it seemed like he would have to fill in the blanks himself. His first works wouldn’t be pretty, but practice makes perfect, and the best time to start is now.
Lloyd started out simple, transforming the random clumps of metal into workable material. Looking around the forge area, he found some useful objects like an absurdly heavy anvil, a hammer and tongs, and a large crucible he could heat up the metal in.
The crucible was quickly filled with the dull black metal and nestled in amongst the red hot coals. Sweat dropped down his forehead as he pushed the crucible deeper into the forge, it seemed weight wasn’t the only difference spiritual smithing brought on, as Lloyd was pretty sure a normal forge would start to melt before it could get this hot.
The forge was veritably glowing with fiery energies, just getting close to it made him feel like a human candle as he tried to stop his hair from smoking. By the time the metals been reduced to a molten orange sludge, Lloyd had figured out he could mask himself from the heat if he covered the front of his body in some of the lizard skin.
Lloyd reached deep into the forge with the tongs shakily gripping onto the crucible as the hairs on his arms started to writhe from the heat. Turning around to one of the workbenches Lloyd slowly tipped the crucible over, letting a small stream of molten liquid fill up one ingot mold after another.
One by one, Lloyd filled up the molds until the metal ran out, leaving him with seven and a half viscous metallic blobs he could only hope would solidify. Waiting for the ingots to harden, Lloyd once again sat down and pulled out one of his gigantic tomes, this one called ‘Professional’. This book was different to the others as he didn’t know what it was about, and the title didn’t help in the slightest.
Lloyd droned across the pages at a superhuman speed trying take in all the information the book had to offer, as he was absorbed by the opportunity in front of him. The book said that it was possible to almost double your stat gain per level, you just needed to get a profession.
A profession was very similar to a class in the way that you upgrade it by doing tasks related to your profession at increasing levels of difficulty. However while a class would almost certainly need you to kill things to level up, a profession could cover a broader field, like practicing a craft, or managing a business or town. This got Lloyd thinking, maybe there were more similarities to the old world than he had guessed, but he also had to ask what kind of sick individual would enter a world full of magic and decide to work middle management at a business for the rest of their life.
The part about professions that made Lloyd nervous, was that they weren’t guaranteed. Unlike a class which the system would grant you for free, a profession had to be earned. You could only get one if you became proficient enough in a certain field for the system to deem you worthy of one.
Also, even if Lloyd reached this threshold, it still wasn’t guaranteed that he would get a profession, as only some races could. As read in the book ‘across the multiverse and its myriad races, some are intrinsically stronger than others. To counter this, these races, which tend to gain most of their stats from race levels, cannot gain both a class and a profession. If one picks a class and wants a profession, they will have to forfeit their class and the stats points it gave them, resetting their progress. This means that having both is something only the weaker and more adaptable races are given as a means to even the playing field.’
This gave Lloyd hope, but also made him concerned, if he got a profession, it would greatly boost his fighting capabilities from the influx of stats. But it would also come with the caveat of the system deeming the human race a weak one, this put Lloyd in a limbo between wanting a profession and wanting the human race to be a strong one that didn’t need to rely on one.
Unfortunately for humans, Lloyd felt the scale tipped towards the former, as the book had said the stronger races gain most of their stats from their race levels. Conversely, in humans their race level only gave them a combined fifteen stat points, while their classes gave them twenty five stat points per level.
Lloyd felt a bit defeated now that he was almost certain that humanity was deemed weak in the face of the system. But he couldn’t be certain until he unlocked a profession, perhaps he just needed to reach a level threshold for his race to award more stat points. Despite how he tried to convince himself, Lloyd new deep down than humans were weak.
Lloyds eyes were practically glowing at the prospect of doubling his stat gains, this was his key to escaping from the miscus village, new armour and weaponry paired with a huge stat increase was his ticket to freedom. Lloyd got up with new fervour as he checked on the ingot molds. It seemed that the heat magic also made the metal cool down faster as the ingots had already become solid bricks of cool black metal. He tapped the ingots out onto the table with a hammer and inspected his handiwork. His mediocre handiwork.
Apon leaving their molds, the ingots clattered out onto the table covered in lines of demarcation. These lines were full of air gaps and still crystalised chunks of slag, giving one a hit with the hammer Lloyd sighed seeing it crack along one of these seams.
Reluctantly, Lloyd once more filled the crucible with metal in the form of his failed ingots. Sliding the metal back into the forge, Lloyd started drawing up a plan for his leg replacement. One more hour, one more step of the process. Lloyd finished his scribbles, stowing away the paper before going back to the forge.
Lloyd pulled the crucible from the forge, scooping the slag from the top of the crucible. Once more he poured the metal into the casts, as they settled Lloyd observed them, this time noticing far fewer imperfections in the metal than last time. When they cooled, Lloyd repeated the process he did before and was pleased to see they were of far higher quality than the first batch.
The ingots were far from perfect, but they were now at least workable. Now that he could use the metal for smithing Lloyd sat the ingot in the midst of the forge waiting for it to heat to a workable temperature. Once the ingot began to glow red Lloyd pulled it from the coals and sat it on the anvil, he slammed the hammer onto it with the force of a falling boulder.
The hammer rebounded off of the metal leaving a small dent but barely left any effect on the overall shape. Not discouraged by the difficulty, Lloyd kept swinging the hammer trying to flatten one end of the ingot. A few minutes of ineffective hammering only left Lloyd with a slightly rounder ingot barely even changing the overall shape.
Lloyd slid the ingot back into the forge, waiting for the ingot to get a bit more malleable. It quickly grew to a vibrant yellow, then a blinding white, seeing that the metal was now softer and easier to manipulate Lloyd gripped it with the tongs and sat it on the anvil. He reared his hammer and slammed it down to flatten the metal, and he was a bit too effective.
Molten metal globs spat out from the ingot leaving a massive dent in the centre, the metal bent upwards around the hammer imprint leaving a bent and deformed ingot. It seemed he had gone from one extreme to another, as the metal was now far too soft, being effectively useless for forging now.
Lloyd could have heated up another ingot to be an orangy yellow colour but decided he needed to come back to this with a fresh mind before he did something stupid. Lloyd started hopping over to the bedroom that the guildhall included when he noticed something strange on the floor. Was that a sheet of scales on the floor?
Lloyd picked it up and realised it looked familiar, a small mana infusion confirming his suspicions. “fuck” Lloyd sighed, realising that wasn’t the only one. “So that’s why it didn’t qualify for a rarity.” When he was smithing, Lloyd had had to rely on his cloak’s regenerative abilities to keep him safe from all the sparks the forge was spitting out. But while his cloak was repairing itself, his customisations didn’t have that luxury.
It seemed his first attempt at making armour wasn’t as good as he’d thought. Ignoring this, Lloyd went into the bedroom and flopped onto the bed, letting the mattress consume him. This entire day had been an emotional roller coaster, he’d constantly made new discoveries or found another useful resource only to be met with one roadblock after another. Lloyd sighed knowing he could only try to ignore this as he drifted off to sleep.
The darkness dispersed from his mind as Lloyd rose from the bed, his mind was bent on progress not out of some manic fervour, but out of pigheaded stubbornness. A restless night filled with dreams of his family’s demise reignited his purpose. To escape this island.
He heated the metal to a bright orange before pulling it out and putting it on the anvil. Heavy, but deliberate strikes slowly flattened out the ingot into a long, metal rod that was flat on one side. Now that the basic shape had been ironed out, Lloyd could implement his new idea into the design.
Going over to one of the more specialised benches, Lloyd started turning the handle on a large grinding wheel that was set in the table. The wheel quickly built up momentum, spinning like a windmill in a hurricane. Lloyd’s idea was simple, he wanted to add an offensive element to his false leg, it wasn’t complicated, it was just another option for if his arms were occupied or out of commission.
Lloyd ground down the rough black metal, taking off the corners, and replacing them with sharp bevelled edges. His final product was a short, thick, black sword with no hilt, one might easily mistake it for a failed attempt at a short sword. It might seem like a bad thing to make a prosthetic leg from, considering where the attachment point should be a straight rod, but this was just him taking advantage of the system.
The next step of the process would not be pretty, but it was a necessary evil. Lloyd clenched his teeth in anticipation for the pain to come, he gripped the shaft of the prosthetic as he dug the blade into the stump of his leg. Blinding pain ran through Lloyd’s mind as his brain tried to stop him from doing this to himself, but he had to push through the pain.
His mind screamed at him to stop as he dug into his leg, cutting through the fibres and muscles as blood began to pour onto the floor. Finaly, he felt his consciousness faltering as the blade grazed his bone. Lloyd began the final step of the process, he spun the blade around and shoved the shaft into the gaping hole in the bottom of his thigh.
Reluctantly Lloyd began fusing the leg into its new position by drinking his final health potion, from here on out if he needed healing, he would have to rely on himself. As the last of the vile concoction slid down Lloyds throat, the all too familiar pain blazed through his body. The pain was just as bad as the first time, it seemed no matter how hard he tried to ready himself, the potion would still strike back with its full force.
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Despite the pain, Lloyd felt a small smile creep onto his face as he could feel his plan had worked. For a while he had been worried that the potion would make his body reject the implant, but it seemed that it would accept it seeing as he was willingly putting it there. This was amazing as it felt like everything else, he did managed to fail sooner or later, he could only hope it wouldn’t fall out somewhere down the line.
Lloyd lay on the floor gasping for air as the healing potion wreaked havoc on his internals. When the effect wore off Lloyd looked down at his leg, he wasn’t sure what to think. It had turned out almost exactly as he’d planned, but the sight was still unsettling to look at, he would just have to overcome form with function.
Lloyd got up and took a few shaky steps, trying to get used to how walking would feel from now on. He felt unwieldy and weak, unable to properly control his movements like he was an infant learning to walk. He stumbled across the room over and over, slowly improving his method until he could almost walk normally again.
Lloyd decided to continue his productivity, going over to the forge to start work on his halberd. This would be far more complicated, and likely take many tries to get right, so Lloyd headed over to the cold room to get some more metal.
When he pulled open the door to the cold room, Lloyd was met with an empty pallet, the metallic beast had been removed in the middle of the night. How had he not heard? When he last used the machine, the whole building had been shaking, he should definitely have heard it from the bedroom.
Another strange detail Lloyd noticed was that the pallet, was still there while last time it had been suspended hundreds of metres above. What was even more peculiar was that the wood was still stained with blood from where he had carved materials off of the beast yesterday.
Shouldn’t there be a new beast if the old one had been removed? As strange as it seemed Lloyd felt that this wasn’t the building’s fault, it felt like it had been removed by an external factor. Perhaps the system had done it, a lot of this building, while very useful was distinctly unnatural. It felt like the system had found a building it liked in the miscus village then stuffed it with random shit for different crafts and called it a dungeon.
This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it did leave plenty of glaring weaknesses in the building’s integrity. For example, the books, there was no way the miscus were intelligent enough to practice any of these crafts, and certainly not enough to record their methods.
Also, how would he be able to read the books if the miscus wrote them? He was well aware that his ‘Multiversal tongue’ skill would allow him to understand other languages perfectly, but if he couldn’t understand the miscus, then he wouldn't be able to read their writing. This had to be the work of the system as there was no other reason the building would take away a perfectly useable carcass.
Lloyd couldn’t make the corpse come back but he could at least try to get a new one. He walked over to the wall and pressed the brick with the pattern corresponding to the pulley, just like last time, the cogs and pipes all roared into action. The chains began to rattle, and the platform started floating back upwards.
The platform floated up into the mist, only to be replaced with a new silhouette moments later. The pallet sank back down onto the floor revealing a very different creature to last time, previously he had seen a metallic tank of a beast. This time the beast was a large reptilian, the beast had one very distinct feature, all along its back was a massive bony ridge. Massive blunt bones rose along its spine making it look like an unholy mix between a Spinosaurus and a chameleon.
Apon close inspection Lloyd also discovered the beast had very thick hide covering its colossal vertebrae, a material that would be perfect for leather armour. Lloyd dug into the beast with the cleaver, tearing off sheets of leathery skin from the lizard’s spine.
He left the room with a small mountain of hide and bones from the beast, he might not need this much, but no sense in leaving them behind if the system was just going to steal them again. The hide was laid across the table and left to dry, while Lloyd read up on his new task at hand.
The sudden disappearance of the first beast had left Lloyds original idea unachievable as he didn’t have enough metal to finish a halberd blade. Since he couldn’t make a weapon unless the system decided to give him another metal monster, Lloyd figured the best thing to do would be focus on his defensive options.
He repeated his ritual of going into the bedroom, grabbing a stack of massive leather bound tomes, and snacking on cooked monster meat as he researched the next craft he planned to employ. This time, that new craft was leather working.
He studiously ran his eyes his eyes across, page after page, taking in all the information the books had to offer. He disallowed himself to look away, making sure no stone was left unturned in his pursuit of knowledge.
Dropping the final tome onto the table, Lloyd felt he was now ready to start making his new armour. He went over to the leather, scraping off the gore, and blood from the lizards hide before moving onto the next step. Compared to smithing, which was still very similar after the systems arrival, this crafts post integration methods differed far more from its old world counterpart.
He spread his palm wide, and began channelling mana, the books had advised him to use certain talismans or natural conduits, to run mana through the hide, but without any he had to improvised. Mana shot out from his hand and into the leather, the mana was quickly absorbed, leaving a very clearly visible demarcation on the beast hide, becoming smoother and sturdier.
After going over a few sheets of skin, Lloyd stopped and moved onto the next step, leaving the rest of the hide for later use when he was more proficient. It wasn’t always necessary, but the book said that sometimes leather wouldn’t immediately bond with the mana you infused it with, so it was best to add a bonding agent on top just in case. This bonding agent wasn’t something Lloyd would have thought of himself, but he could understand the logic that went into it.
Lloyd began making this mixture by taking one of the beast’s massive vertebrae over to the grinding wheel and shaving off the end of it. The white dust that accumulated at the bottom of the wheel was quickly gathered into a small bowl and mixed with some of the beast’s blood he’d squeezed from his scraps.
Adding to this mixture, a bit of water that Lloyd had found a trough of in the training room, and he now had a good ‘bestial bonding agent’ as the book had called it. This gruesome mixture would apparently counter the will trying to purge the invading mana by confusing the beasts lingering survival instinct with some of itself, tricking the hide into accepting the mana.
Taking the liquid over to the leather, Lloyd could see some small signs of the mana tanning being reversed, but that was about to change. Giving the bowl a small infusion of mana Lloyd scooped out a handful of the viscous, oil like liquid and slathered it across the hide. The scaley leather that would normally be impenetrable for this kind of liquid, but it absorbed the bloody mix like it was a sponge.
The mixture sank into the hide almost giving it a burst of rejuvenation, the previously dull scales gained a sudden vibrancy, like the lizard had just malted. That wasn’t the only change to the hide, the material had started out soft and easy to manipulate, now it was much more stubborn in its shape and wouldn’t fold like a rug.
One helpful feature of the leatherworking books that the smithing books didn’t include was instructions. Well not instructions per say, but general guides on how certain pieces of armour and clothing should be put together. This meant that while he would still have to improvise, his creation wouldn’t be a combination of assumptions formed from his ignorant attempts to piece the armour together.
Lloyd grabbed a knife and began slicing through the leather, creating interconnected layers to form the front of a chest plate. Deftly connecting the different sheets with a natural ease, he couldn’t explain. The leather was bent and sewn together, given shoulder pads adorned with lizards’ teeth and a stomach padded with soft layers of untanned lizard hide.
Before he knew it, the chest piece had absorbed a second round of mana infusion and the bonding agent, hardening at a visible pace as his hard work began to show off. The leather darkened as a crystalline ebony coating settled on its surface, the chest plate was by no means perfect but compared to his past creations the step up in quality was astronomical.
And it seemed the system agreed.
Chameleonic leather chestplate (Common)
A chestplate made from the hide of a powerful beast born with the ability to walk unseen, this trait has been passed on to the hides new occupant, granting the wearer the ability to blend in seamlessly with their environment.
(Enchantments, self repair, chameleonic shift)
Lloyd picked up the chestplate and marvelled at his creation, in his awe at his new armour Lloyd almost forgot the final step of the process. Pulling out a knife, he slid it across the palm of his hand in a lightning quick motion, letting blood run freely. Once his hand was drenched in blood, Lloyd picked up the chestplate once more, placing his hand firmly in the centre of the chest. The bloody stain left behind was soon swallowed by the armour as a new tag appeared in the enchantments line.
(Soulbound)
This tag meant that the armour was now intrinsically connected to him, connected to his very soul. Now, if anyone tried to use this armour besides him, it would retaliate, rejecting them. This was supposedly a common method used by armorers to discourage theft, as the resources needed to remove the enchantment would almost certainly cost more than the item itself.
Lloyd took the chestplate but didn’t put it on, instead he took it to the training room. As painful as it was to launch a spear at his beautiful new creation, it was a necessary part of the process. If he didn’t test it, how would he know if it was good? Putting it on straight away would be like cooking an experimental new meal and serving it to someone without ever trying it.
His spear slashed at the chestplate in a wide arc, hitting the training dummy square in the chest. As the unarmoured one had proved, this would normally go straight into the chest cavity, but with his new chestplate the dummy was left unharmed. All that could be seen was a light graze on the leather which was quickly repairing itself.
A series of vicious attacks later, and Lloyd was happy to call his chestplate done. Not one of his attacks had managed to leave a significant mark on the armour, and the only way he could leave a mark would be with plasma bolt. This was great, as even the big miscus wouldn’t be able to breakthrough with a haphazard swing, especially considering it lacked the claws of its kin.
Over the next few days, Lloyd refined his craft, perfecting his technique as he worked on completing his armour set, incorporating chitinous elements he’d gathered from a scorpion monster the cold room provided. Soon enough, Lloyd had completed almost every piece of armour he’d need, the original chestplate, a greave, -it felt weird only making one but its not like a metal rod needs armour-.
Lloyd also made a boot to replace his tattered steel caps that he’d arrived on the island in. what he hadn’t made was a helmet, as every book he’d read on armour, had stressed repeatedly for mages not to wear one as it would weaken skills if he did. Because the mana infused into the armour would disrupt the mental orders to execute a skill while at a low level, apparently.
While this seemed like a glaring weakness for mages, Lloyd saw no reason to argue and skipped it. This left Lloyd with one final piece of armour to upgrade. While he already had his compy bracers from the first day on the island, their durability had become obsolete, barely being tougher than his skin.
Add to that his huge increase in skill over the past days, and it would just be stupid not to replace them. For this Lloyd employed the use of hide from the latest creature the building had provided him. A large bull like creature, its body was sleek yet sturdy, designed to charge straight ahead and take the impact head on, impaling the opponent on its single spear like horn.
Lloyd took the tough hide from the creatures back, perfect for blocking strikes, precisely what the bracers would be used for. he gave the leather a mana infusion, slathered on the first coat of the bestial bonding agent, and cut the leather into shape. The leather was bent around itself and tied together with leather straps, they were given a second and third coating, and finally finished off with Lloyds new experimental addition.
Lloyd grabbed out his knife, this time however Lloyd didn’t cut his hand to soulbind them, instead he began carving patterns on the side of them. He created an interlocking design incorporating the runes of strength, and lightning. Lloyd wasn’t sure why but these patterns seemed to resonate with him, proving their efficacy.
Despite their apparent simplicity, Lloyd felt these bracers carried the most potential, out of all the armour he’d created so far. Just adding these simple engravings had completely elevated his creation, aligning them with his path. It seemed his past creations couldn’t compare.
Profession- Bestial craftsman (F)
A master armorer relying not on processed leathers, and minerals, but from the hides of his own opponents. Your foes become fuel for your path as you incorporate them into your defences. Stat bonuses per level- + 5 str, + 3 end, + 4 tough, + 3 vit, +2 per, + 2 wis, + 1 free point
His hard work had paid off. After almost a week alone in this building, the system had finally graced him with a profession, and it was a decent one too. Unlike the system granted classes, which all gave 25 stat points each level, professions gave you more, or less, points depending on your skill. This meant that while he wasn’t a top expert, he had been a very high achiever for someone who’d never done this a week ago.
This was huge as it would increase his stat gain by 80%. Now he needed to get some profession levels under his belt.
