He knew it would be bad, but not this bad. Even with his enlarged mana pool, Lloyd had emptied it almost eighty times in the curing process. Several times the project had been put on hold simply because Lloyd would throw up if he expended anymore mana.

  It was far from ideal, but the results spoke for themselves, leather stronger than anything he’d made prior, and an overall improvement in quality. Even his bracers couldn’t compare to this, as he cycled through the leather like sheets of paper, Lloyd realised there was actually some skill required to use a talisman effectively.

  This was emphasised even more by his custom one, since he had sacrificed ease of use in exchange for more mana being infused. If he moved the talisman around too fast or too slow, the mana would spread unevenly, wasting some of its efficacy and making him expend more than necessary.

  It wasn’t a big discrepancy but a little bit of mana over a hundred times was a lot, and when overusing mana made him nauseous, every optimisation was necessary. Another thing Lloyd realised was how mana was actually expelled from his hand, at first, he had figured it would come from his palm, then he considered his mana pathways and guessed it was his fingers.

  Both of these were wrong, but the second idea was on the right track, he just wasn’t looking deep enough. Looking closer at the mana pathways, they didn’t just work like electric cables taking something from one place to another.

  The closest thing Lloyd could think of was a soaker hose, dispelling the resource across the whole area at an equal rate. As mana coursed through his veins it dispelled evenly throughout the part of his body that he willed it to.

  Because of this, the way Lloyd held the talisman mattered. So far, he had held it almost like a mouse, with his hands on top and palm on the side. This proved to be incredibly inefficient and only ended up infusing around seventy percent of the mana he used into the talisman.

  On the contrary, if he held it with his palm atop the talisman, then he infused closer to ninety percent of the mana he used. From what he could tell, there was nothing else he could do to improve the rate of mana that successfully entered the talisman by holding it different.

  Thankfully, there was still something he could do to push that metric closer to one hundred percent, but it wasn’t a physical change. The only way he could improve the efficiency he infused mana with was to control it better before it left his body, further concentrating it around his palm.

  At first it was annoying and hard to figure out, it was like trying to stop an unconscious habit, something that you didn’t realise you were doing until you were in the midst of it. For the first few pieces of leather, it was really difficult control, but after a while it became easier, and after a few hours he had got the hang of it.

  The overall effect wasn’t that profound, only increasing his efficiency rate by five to eight percent, but considering the sheer volume of mana being used, that was a lot. This proved to be mostly unnoticeable to him, but by his estimations it must have saved him at least five mana pools by the end of the process.

  When he reached the end, Lloyd was just mentally exhausted, physically exhausted too, but the aches in his joints couldn’t compare to the phycological torment his brain was going through. He somehow managed to underestimate the consequences every time, and each time he just ended up worse than before.

  It was like trying to sit through six hours of school on two hours of sleep without zoning out, it was possible, but you’d rather be in a coma than attempt to do so. He wanted to do something, anything to help him get his mind off how tired he was, but he could barely walk around without dozing off and falling over.

  He tried to read, but every five words he forgot what he just read and had to go back. Without anything he could do to get his mind off things, Lloyd went with the next best thing and just went to sleep.

  Last time he had tried to keep himself awake after overextending himself he had almost ruined his valuable materials, so he just didn’t see it worth the risk. Laying limp on the floor, Lloyd stared up at the ceiling as he blinked until his vision went black.

  It was a long needed rest that should have come two days ago, but due to his stubbornness he had decided to give himself insomnia in the name off efficiency. Hindsight is one hell of a thing, and whenever Lloyd looked back, he could only sigh at his incompetence.

  It was hard to say what it was that made him decide that saving six hours in a several week process mattered, especially when considering the physical and emotional turmoil it put him through. If there was one thing Lloyd had to improve in then forget crafting, forget combat, he needed to do some forward thinking or he would die of exhaustion.

  Lloyd woke up feeling like he had gone to heaven, the euphoric bliss of being in a normal mental state was incredible -if not a little concerning- and it gave him the energy to keep going. This state of overstimulation felt good at first, like he could finally make progress after a long, painful slog, but then he considered what made it feel like that.

  He had forced himself to keep going, for literally no reason, and the worst part? It had taken two hours, two hours of sleep and he was back in perfect condition, why had he done this to himself, what he was doing was borderline masochism.

  Looking back at his past self, Lloyd felt like he was deranged, because holy fuck, taking a break won’t kill you, but not doing so might just do it. Maybe if Hugmun had told him a date to break the tablet, and he’d been on a time crunch, then he could rationalise this behaviour.

  If he needed to get it done today or he would fucking die, then he could understand, but no he had as much time as he needed. Hugmun had told him to return when he felt he was ready, not even, when he knew he was ready, and he was pretty damn sure that wasn’t when he was sleep deprived and halfway to throwing up from overusing mana.

  For now, Lloyd was fine, but in the future, he had to go easier on himself because this unfounded harshness came with no benefits. Lloyd sighed hoping that next time he would be wise enough to give himself a break, but at the moment there wasn’t much he could do.

  With a small frown on his face, Lloyd sat down at his bloodstained table in the centre of the room, readying himself for one of the easier parts of the process, in theory. The procedure he followed to create his boot and greaves was quite simple, he simply had to follow the predesigned structure laid out for himself.

  Using a mix of leather strings and tree sap from the giant ashes that made up the bulk of the forest. For whatever reason, the trees sap was overwhelmingly durable for an adhesive, and would only melt after he infused it with supercharge, which should have been enough to make it explode like a grenade.

  His best guess was that the trees also had some kind of leveling system, likely tied into how large they could grow, and with many being several kilometres tall they must be very powerful indeed. Considering that the sap forming on the outside of the tree was a form of defensive resin, to help the tree heal from a wound, it would make sense if that was why the sap was so strong, as it did have to contend with the monsters in the forest.

  Considering that the trees were strong enough to take blows from beasts far stronger than even the parrots, it made sense that something designed to protect their injuries was so strong. This incredible durability and adhesive properties made it the ideal thing to help connect armour at the seams, especially on something rigid like a shin guard.

  For something like his boot, it was less ideal as he had to have frequent breaks in the sealed seams so that it remained flexible. The most obvious place for something like this was his chestplate, but that was a whole new beast he wasn’t ready to tackle yet.

  The multi-layered abomination was on a whole new level of intricacy that he didn’t want to deal with until everything else was done. For the time being Lloyd was happy to focus on the boot and greaves, leaving the problematic concept of synthetic amalgamation for a later date.

  The difficulty spike between making normal armour and the amalgamated chest piece was akin to teaching a child long division then asking them to explain quadratic formulas. Even something so standard as the order you assembled everything in was way out of whack, as he had to inscribe half finished sheets of leather just so that he could fit them together.

  Should he try to assemble it normally, he would either end up with three half-ready chestplate with no way to combine them, or a single chestplate with hundreds of missing inscriptions. either way, it wouldn’t work as intended unless he followed the absurd procedure needed to pull of this overcomplicated craft.

  Ideally, Lloyd would just be able to make each layer in a way that made them easy to slide into one another, but he simply didn’t have enough experience for something like that. Maybe in the future he could figure out something that worked like that, but for now it wasn’t something worth the time it would take.

  For now, Lloyd was happy to simply work on his singular boot, overlapping the leather and sewing it together with practiced ease. The seams were quickly smeared with melted sap which dried almost immediately after Lloyd deactivated supercharge.

  It was much easier to wrap his head around than the task that laid ahead, but it did serve as good practice for when that time came. As he attached the sole of the boot to the main structure, Lloyd thought about how weird it was to only make one boot, should he make another?

  No, as amazing as his new healing abilities were, they were not good enough to regrow a lost limb, not yet at least. Looking down at his false leg Lloyd wondered if it needed to be replaced, it was a haphazard job made from a shoddy attempt at smithing and might be better if remade.

  While the iguana bone was undoubtedly stronger than the weak metal that his leg was made of, the fact that he had no real way to attach it was a concern. Originally, he had attached his false leg with a health potion to quickly regrow his flesh around it.

  His healing abilities had certainly improved since then, far eclipsing what he had been capable of at the time, but he was unsure if it could match a health potion in efficacy. Without any certainty that he would be able to replace it, Lloyd was unwilling to risk becoming monopedal to reinforce his false leg.

  For the time being, none of that mattered to him, and he simply considered it a waste of time to ponder on something that wasn’t likely to help him. At the moment, Lloyd was making the finishing touches to his boot, readying it for inscribing.

  As he polished off the last of the imperfections, he scratched a speck of resin from the leather staring closely at his newest creation. The boot seemed to be a great addition to his repertoire, sturdy and useful, seemingly a good vessel for new enchantments.

  From what he could tell, there were few to no flaws left to correct, and it should be ready to start inscribing. Lloyd’s hand flicked open as a sharp blade appeared before his palm, the edge of energetic inscriptions humming with mana as it began to bite into the leather.

  The tiny particles of leather burning away in the aggressive mana, as he started to scrawl across the surface of the boot. The spiralling patterns crept across the leather like unmoving gusts of wind, their arms branching out in reach of the runes at their centre.

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  The runes of speed and lightning stood side by side on the sole of the boot, their meaning spreading across the boot with the inscriptions as a vessel. If he was ready to accept the quality that had been his standard when he first made his old boots then Lloyd might have left it there, but he had come a long way since then.

  Lloyd went in further, smoothing out previous cuts and adding new minute cuts in amongst the old ones to allow for better energy flow when he channelled skills. All of these changes were so miniscule that you could hardly tell the difference from before he made them, but they should have a noticeable effect compared to if he hadn’t made them.

  Even if they had a barely noticeable effect, it was still a good thing to do as it was always in your best interest to give your all every time. in the future, when he had more perception and was capable of more precise inscriptions, then this step would make more of a difference, but for now it was just a good habit to have.

  Lloyd gave the boot a final once over, and when he decided it ready, smeared the inscriptions with bonding agent. Giving it a few seconds to dry, Lloyd summoned his hunting knife, the blade held to the scar on his hand in preparation.

  After a few seconds, Lloyd’s hand shot sideways spilling blood everywhere as he squeezed out more in an effort to cover his hand. The bloody scene had become unnervingly natural, and Lloyd barely flinched at the pain as he pressing his palm against the sturdy leather.

  As the blood sank into the leather, Lloyd watched as the inexplicable glow spread through the inscriptions crackling with lightning as it moved. At this point Lloyd had long given up on questioning this strange occurrence focusing on the boot itself.

  Eager for what was awaiting him, Lloyd keened his eyes for the prompt as he activated identify.

  Boot of the nimble titan (Common) – stride across the land with speed and vigour passing your obstacles with ease your determination unyielding just as your momentum. A pair of boots crafted from a powerful F grade beast by a talented craftsman, sturdy and flexible they will accompany you on untold travels. (Enchantments, self-repair, Titan stride)

  Lloyd was not disappointed by what he saw, while it was a bit irritating to see the common tag, it was nothing to worry about as he was only just making the jump into uncommon. He was more interested in the description, it was still full of flavour text and nondescript jargon, it was far less so than some of his previous pieces.

  The boot seemed far humbler than something like his bracers, or Thunder bone, which prided themselves with hyperbole and overexaggeration. These seemed more to the point, a pair of boots that would speed up your travel, going back to mentioning the craftsman that made them a nice change in his opinion.

  Another thing of note was the enchantment, titan stride, it hard to say if it took inspiration from the specialist material here, as the boot didn’t incorporate any unique parts, only the hide of a particularly fast beast. Really, it was just there to add a little something extra to the hide from the iguana titan in hopes of manipulating it into a powerful enchantment.

  Whether or not he had succeeded in making a unique enchantment was up for debate, as the name seemed to hint toward the iguana more than anything, not even mentioning the viper-fang frill lizard in the mix. The only way to tell for sure was to test it out, and judging by the extremely dim light creeping through cracks in the door, it was night.

  Without the worry of a predator coming to attack him, Lloyd was free to run around as much as he wanted and make as much noise as he wanted -though he did make sure to move some distance from the tree hollow.

  Standing atop a large stone at the edge of a clearing in the ferns, Lloyd readied himself as he prepared to activate the new skill. A sudden rush of energy surged though his legs as titan stride was triggered, his calves filling with power as he shot forward.

  In an instant, Lloyd appeared at the other side of the clearing with a single step propelling him almost ten metres before he returned to his standard running speed. It was an extremely unnatural feeling, and he wasn’t sure what to compare it to, but it was certainly not like anything he’d experienced prior.

  The enchantment on his old boot -swift step- essentially made the ground feel like ice, letting him move faster at the cost of balance. This, however, was nothing like that at all, titan stride effectively warped him a massive distance in the time it took to take a single step, almost feeling like teleportation.

  Compared to the risky speed boost provided by swift step, this skill was a million times better, dispelling the risk in exchange for pure efficiency, but it did come at a cost. Something Lloyd hadn’t realised was possible, as he hadn’t encountered it before, was that an enchantment actually could consume resources.

  Previously he had been under the impression that enchantments were unlike skills in the sense that they could be activated free of charge, but it seemed not. The cost wasn’t unwarranted however, as it did have a benefit none of his other enchantments had.

  No cooldown, unlike all of his other enchantments, including swift step, titan stride didn’t have a cooldown, and if you could stomach the cost, it could be used over and over again. While the cost put it outside the realm of a travel aid, the same couldn’t be said for its combat usability.

  During combat, the skill could be used to quickly reposition or escape if necessary, darting out of his opponent’s range at the cost of his resources. The cost itself wasn’t actually that steep, only being about a twenty fifth of his stamina and mana pools, allowing him to travel something like a quarter of a kilometre before exhausting himself.

  While he had to be careful not to overuse the skill during a fight, it wasn’t to much of a worry as he could very easily defeat a similar levelled enemy without the enchantment. One of the best use cases for the enchantment was simply dodging attacks, as it would save him the resources needed to recover from the damage.

  The fights where this skill would work best would be the ones where he tested his luck against higher levelled enemies, enemies that could actually hurt if he got hit. It was a useful ace that could get him out of dangerous situations or put him in an advantageous position when he was put on the backfoot during a fight.

  As he got stronger, titan stride would only get better, as it would take a proportionally smaller amount of his resources each time he levelled up, until he had a better alternative at least. It was hard to say what had prompted the system to grant him such a powerful enchantment whilst leaving the item itself a common, but he couldn’t complain.

  Hopefully, the next boot he made would also have a powerful movement skill like this, as it would be a massive boon to his combat ability. Several ideas came to mind as he thought of possible use cases, trying to figure out a way to make this work in combat.

  Unfortunately, beyond simple repositioning, Lloyd couldn’t come up with anything ground-breaking, drawing a blank on combat utility. Not that it mattered, as what little he could think of was already a huge improvement on what swift step had provided.

  Feeling invigorated by the success of his craft, Lloyd began walking back to his workshop, occasionally activating titan stride as he made his way through the forest. Without the feeling of anticipation that had plagued him on his outgoing trip, Lloyd felt as if time was in sprint as he jovially ran through the ferns.

  With a child-like grin tugging at the edge of his lips, Lloyd squeezed through the doorway of his workshop, readying himself for another crafting session. Lloyd sat down next to the table in the centre of the room, summoning a piece of leather as he ripped the cork off a jar of bulbous resin droplets.

  A smear of the superheated adhesive followed by a bone needle carrying a thin thread of leather, and Lloyd was once more dragged into the process of his craft. Hours passed in moments as a pair of greaves began to take form around the pallid mannequin in front of him.

  Lloyd couldn’t help but get excited as he thought about what kind of enchantment he might get on these new greaves. Before he made any hasty decisions he would regret, Lloyd calmed his nerves, getting up and drinking some water before returning to the table.

  With the overexcited jitter gone, Lloyd took a deep breath as he activated energetic inscriptions, the blade carving smooth circuitous patterns in the glossy leather. The swirling nature of the inscriptions didn’t last long before they shot into jagged peaks amongst the roiling waves that permeated the rest of the armour.

  It wasn’t the most visually appealing thing he’d made recently, but it was a necessary part of the process if he wanted to get another enchantment as good as titan stride. As he scrawled the intricate web of mana paths across the surface of the leather, Lloyd squinted as he tried to remove any imperfections down to the most minute detail.

  It wasn’t the most appealing of processes, but he couldn’t help but be engrossed in the perfectionist method that was needed to evoke the best result from his new creation. Perhaps he was just eager to do a simple task that didn’t require much effort, but it was a necessary part of the process, and it would be of great use long term.

  After scrutinizing the intricacies of his greaves for -honestly far too long- Lloyd was happy with his work, and after checking that there were no problems with the main structure of the armour, he got ready. Making the greaves had been a far faster process than his boot, as he was in the right state of mind already, not having to get the ball rolling again.

  It had only been around half a day, and he was already coating his hands in blood to soulbind the new item. Blood dripped from his hands like melting butter, gathering on the table that was already a deep vermilion from the carcasses that had been processed on it.

  As his hands wrapped around the curved front of the greaves, he felt the blood disappear from his skin as it was dragged into the leather. Pulling his arms back from the armour, Lloyd watched as the red stain was replaced by the lightning filled cerulean lustre that always followed a soulbinding.

  Eager to get to the main focus of his work, Lloyd couldn’t hold himself any longer as he activated identify.

  Greaves of the sky strider (Uncommon) – A pair of sturdy greaves made by a proficient craftsman imbued with the power of the beast they were made from, its great leaping abilities living on. Leap to the sky as you disregard the bounds of gravity, if only for a moment. (Enchantments, self-repair, Boundless leap)

  Straight and to the point, still getting in some poetic flare as the system seemed to insist, but far less than normal. From what he could tell, it was abundantly clear that the special trait was directly linked to jumping, just as he’d hoped.

  From his initial examination, Lloyd had high expectations. First of all, it was an uncommon meaning it was a notch above his boot when it came to quality. The next sign was the way it described the ability, unlike the things with lightning in the name, the greaves didn’t use overly vague terms.

  The description for the greaves was clear and short, giving a quick description that remained interesting, nonetheless. For something themed around jumping, the terms ‘disregarding gravity’ and ‘boundless leap’ were rather flattering, and it didn’t seem to be unfounded.

  His new greaves were likely one of his better armour pieces, and he had made it special by adding two of each rune, with one copy on each greave, hopefully boosting the overall effect of the inscriptions. If this did have an effect, he was currently unsure, but he had a slight feeling this would have a promising result.

  With excitement once more plaguing the back of his mind, Lloyd hastily equipped his new greaves of the sky strider and stumbled out the door. Still wary about exposing the location of his hidden workshop, Lloyd decided it best to keep himself hidden while in the immediate vicinity.

  The trek back to the clearing where he tested out titan stride was a quick one, and just as well, because Lloyd was practically jumping up and down from anticipation. Once more standing at the edge of the clearing, Lloyd didn’t hesitate to activate his new skill.

  As he triggered boundless leap, Lloyd suddenly felt as if he was asleep, getting the feeling as if he was falling in every direction at once. The source of this sudden imbalance was the very conspicuous fact that he was currently floating a few centimetres above the ground.

  Lloyd kicked off the ground with shocking speed, hurtling upwards like a kite caught in the wind, until it all came crashing down, a bit too literally for his taste. All of his upwards momentum was suddenly sapped away as he hurtled downwards like he had been thrown.

  A cloud of dirt kicked up around him as he slammed into the ground, the shock travelling up his legs in a violent shiver that threatened to sprain his ankle. Based on his first and only experience with the skill, Lloyd was thoroughly confused.

  Compared to titan stride, which was extremely intuitive, this new skill hadn’t explained itself well at all, the vague descriptions coming back to bite him. The only positive thing he had to say so far, was that when it said ‘escape the bounds of gravity’ it was not lying, it felt like he was underwater, just without the pressure.

  Even though his first experience with the skill was bad, it didn’t mean the enchantment was useless, he just needed to get the hang of it. As he activated the skill again, Lloyd lost a small amount of mana to compensate for the lack of a cooldown.

  The moment the mana left his body, Lloyd felt his feet lose contact with the ground as gravity lost control of him. Keeping his balance this time, Lloyd kicked off with more purpose, holding his arms flat to his body as he shot forward, soaring through the air before inevitably coming to a stop.

  With the knowledge of what was to come, Lloyd was able to brace himself and effectively negate the fall, far better than last time. Seeing how far he’d travelled, Lloyd reasoned that he must have moved about twenty metres, just over double the distance of titan stride, although this was over a few seconds not an instant.

  As he was weighing the two enchants against each other, Lloyd got an idea. With a sudden burst of imaginative genius, Lloyd escaped from gravity once more, kicking off into the air. Just as he was reaching the peak of his height, titan stride kicked in, propelling him through the air further, but instead of ten meters, the enchantment capitalised on the absence of gravity.

  Without anything weighing him down, Lloyd was sent flying rocketing forward with unstoppable force, until he was met with an immovable object. Lloyd nose broke instantly as he slammed into the tree, but he couldn’t get the grin off his face.

  He had combined two decent enchants into something that could propel him what must be half a kilometre in a few seconds, possibly more if not for the tree. After that display, Lloyd couldn’t possibly be disappointed with the result of his new enchantment, and knew one thing for sure.

  His new armour was an overwhelming success, and he just had one more piece to go.

  Just, one more…