A hammer striking hot metal echoed in the workshop as Thomas continued his work on the breastplate. He was forced to occasionally use his Transmutation ability to fix little mistakes here and there. It had been a rather long time since he'd actually hand forged something like this. The last game he'd played for a few years had been technologically advanced so simple metal armor didn't really exist. It was all power armor made from machines similar to giant printers. He'd hated that part of the game as the only 'crafting' in it was designing blueprints that machines built for him. No getting his own hands dirty. This led to him being a bit out of practice and introduced little mistakes and forgotten steps here and there. Nothing his cheat-like Transmutation ability couldn't fix easily though.

Once he finished hammering in the muscular design on the front of the breastplate, he began to bend the sides of the armor so that they would protect the wearer better. When the armor was finished it would hang from the shoulders and protect the entire torso and all the squishy organs within it. That was the entire point of the breastplate, to begin with. After bending the sides the shoulder pieces were also bent. He saved drilling holes through the armor for straps for later so that he wouldn't make a mistake in their positioning.

With the sides and shoulders of the armor bent into place the front half of the armor was completed. The next step was making the back half, which would be much easier. After setting the front half of the armor to the side, he retrieved the other piece of sheet metal and summoned up the saw blade once again. Everyone in the workshop grit their teeth when they saw the saw blade floating next to Thomas. They all knew what was coming now and were not looking foreword to it. Sure enough, within moments of the saw blade being summoned sparks and the sound of screeching metal flooded the air and set everyone's teeth on edge.

When Thomas finished cutting out the pattern for the back of the breastplate there was merciful silence in the workshop for a moment before it was filled with sighs of relief. The sounds of metal cutting metal was nerve-wracking. Thomas ignored the sighs of relief and immediately got to work on the new piece of metal. The back half of a breastplate was significantly easier to work on since it would remain mostly flat. The only thing he needed to do was reinforce it a bit. To do that he would hammer a protruding line down the center of it above the spine. For the life of him, he couldn't recall what the particular name of this was.

The work was pretty simple and straight forward. All he had to do was hammer the inside of the armor to create a raised ridge down the spine. This would add some stiffness to the armor and allow it to take blows better than if it didn't have it. Armor was meant to protect so if it was too easy to bend and disfigure then what would be the point of even wearing it? Thomas continued to hammer out the ridge on the spine using the cross-peen hammer while Clad observed silently. Clad was actually rather bored at the moment. With Thomas using fire magic to heat the metal Clad had nothing to do but stand around.

Thomas worked efficiently and within an hour the back half of the breastplate had been hammered and folded into shape. He picked up both halves and aligned them on the work table to check their positioning against each other. It wasn't perfect so he made some minor adjustments to make sure that everything lined up properly and would fit snugly together once the straps and hinges were added. Even without any extra embellishments the armor already looked rather impressive. The muscled design on the front gave the armor an aggressively masculine look.

He decided not to add any sort of embellishment to it. If the enchantment he had in mind worked as he intended then the armor would rarely be seen anyway. His eyes flashed blue as he observed the Earth mana infused into the armor. Earth mana was unique in the way it sat within the steel. It formed clumps that, unsurprisingly, looked like small rocks sitting calmly within the metal. Earth was solid and hard to move, he expected that the enchantment would have a rather high mana cost to function properly but would ultimately be worth it.

With the two halves of the breastplate matched up, he set the front half down and prepared his enchanting medium. For weapons, he almost always saved the enchanting for last but for the armor it needed to be done now. Then it would be covered in leather padding. The last step would be putting on the leather hinges and straps. Once the enchanting medium was prepped he got to work. He referenced the rune for the Earth element in his work while using the image of solid rock covering the breastplate and protecting the person wearing the armor.

He didn't let his mind wander much while he was working on the enchantment but he couldn't help wondering if there was a next stage to it. For blacksmithing, the stages were divided into the materials that could be used. Upgrading from iron to steel, from steel to mithril or something similar. There were better mana crystals, but he could cheat and have the best whenever he wanted. Maybe there was a better Alchemist's Oil he could find and use? His books never mentioned anything so maybe this was it. If so, that was a little disappointing to him.

All it took to complete the enchantment was a little time and effort. Once it was done, Thomas placed his finger on the enchantment and channeled some mana into it to test it. He kept his output low and watched for the changes with his 'All Seeing Eyes' active. The rock-like clumps of mana within the steel seemed to become more densely packed as his mana interacted with the enchantment. Slowly his mana built up and a layer of dust started to spread out and coat the front of the armor while leaving the backside clear. As his mana continued to accumulate the dust condensed into a thin layer of rock that slowly grew thicker over time.

As he increased the output of his mana and poured more into the front half of the breastplate, the thin layer of rock quickly transformed. It became significantly thicker while the mana inside became far denser and compacted the material to increase its strength and durability. He would not want to punch someone wearing the armor at this point. It would definitely protect the wearer as long as they could put enough mana into it.

Once he cut off his mana the rock crumbled off of the armor and vanished shortly after. Without mana to maintain it the rock had no form and ceased to exist. With the enchantment in working order, it was time to move to the next step. Thomas collected some leather and started to cut it into a proper shape to line the interior of the front and back halves of the breastplate. The leather would provide at least a little cushioning and comfort as well as some protection for the enchantment. He'd never had enchantments fail or break but he suspected it was possible and decided to protect the armors enchantment, at least a little bit.

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He chose to use glue for once instead of fusing the leather directly to the metal. It wasn't that he wanted to give himself extra work, he was simply worried that fusing the leather to it might disrupt the enchantment. Ruining his own work would just be a shame. Once the lining was glued into place, the next step required him to cut out two rectangular pieces of leather to use as the hinges that connected the shoulders together. In the case of the hinges, he chose to use Transmutation to fuse them to the armor and make them more secure.

With the leather acting as hinges on the shoulders the armor could be opened like a clamshell and draped over the shoulders to hang comfortably. Normally he would have added some extra padding, maybe fur or something, to make the armor a little more gentle to the wearer's shoulders but the pirate could suffer the discomfort. All that was left was to add some leather straps to both sides of the armor with a buckle so that the armor could be strapped on tightly and wouldn't move around a whole lot.

Making the straps was rather easy. Some strips of leather with holes in them and other pieces of leather to hold the simple buckles that he shaped out of some scrap iron. The leather was fused directly to the breastplate and would not be easily removed. Doing so was a lot less time consuming than using something like brass rivets. Not that there appeared to be any brass in the workshop anyway. As he fit the last buckle in place, he finished the rather plain-looking steel breastplate.

System Notice: You have created an Uncommon rarity Boulder Cuirass. Quality: Above Average. You have gained 666 Magitech Engineering experience. You have gained 333 experience.

Armor Type: Boulder Cuirass Rarity: Uncommon Quality: Above Average Description: A rather plain, if masculine, steel cuirass that has been enchanted with additional protection. When mana is channeled into the armor it will produce a layer of rock to act as additional protection.

+100 Endurance

+Additional Endurance based on the amount of mana channeled into the cuirass.

-Requires 125 Power to be worn

-Requires additional Power proportional to the additional Endurace provided by the enchantment. Movement speed will be slowed based on the disparity between Power and provided Endurance.

Thomas ignored the experience and read the description of the 'Boulder Cuirass' with interest. He immediately understood why the wearer would be slowed down if they pumped too much mana into the cuirass. Weight. The more mana the wearer pumped into the cuirass, the thicker and denser the rock layer would become and the more it would weigh. If they went over a certain threshold it would become rather heavy. It had nothing on his Gravity Hammer but they were very different tools.

Without wasting time, Thomas donned the armor and strapped it tightly against his body. The shoulder area was slightly uncomfortable but not enough to bother attempting to fix. This would be the only time he wore it, after all. He looked down at the shining metal before running his fingers over the fake muscles. They weren't anatomically correct and were exaggerated but he couldn't help imagining what it would be like to have such muscles on his real body. He shook his head to dismiss that thought and started to channel his mana into the armor once again. This time he did not hold back.

As his mana pored out it was instantly converted into hard and thick rock that coated the cuirass completely. He instantly felt the weight on his shoulders increase. The more mana he pumped into the armor, the thicker the rock became and the heavier the load he had to deal with. The rock that was created had a dark brown earthy tone with a rough and craggy exterior. Thomas lowered his mana output to a trickle to maintain the rocky defense while he turned and pointed at a random guard with a sword hanging on his waist, "You, attack my chest."

The guard looked confused and lifted his hand to point at his face with a, 'Who? Me?' look on it. Thomas nodded and gestured impatiently, "Yes, you. Get over here and attack my chest, or back. Just hit the armor."

The guard, still looking a little confused by the whole situation, approached Thomas while drawing his sword. It looked like a rather simple and plain looking longsword. Not something you would expect a pirate to be wielding. Thomas lifted his arms above his head and completely exposed his chest to the guard. He didn't worry that the guard would accidentally kill him or anything. Worst case scenario, a bit of pain. The guard looked at the rock covered armor and made a half-assed attack that barely scratched the surface.

Looking at the timid attack, Thomas rolled his eyes and just said, "Harder!"

The guard looked a little more confident when he saw how tough the armor was. Truth was, he wasn't nervous about being picked to wail on Thomas's newest creation. He was worried he might accidentally kill Thomas! He might not visually look like much, but his Power was more than double that of Thomas. Without decent protection, the guard could easily cleave Thomas in half even with his shitty longsword. The guard still remained cautious though as he swung his sword again with a little more force this time. There was a loud metallic clang followed by the sound of a few stones hitting the ground.

This time the guard had cleaved a chunk of the rock protecting the armor off. However, with a burst of mana, Thomas quickly regenerated the damaged section until it was back to perfect. Thomas had felt the blow when it hit the armor. It hadn't hurt him in the least. It was just that he could feel some of the force from the blow through the armor as it was forced against his chest. The guard's eyebrows rose a bit as the two of them watched the armor regenerate from the damage.

Thomas poured more mana into the armor and felt its weight increase further as it became thicker. Honestly, at this point the rock coating the armor was so thick that if he lowered his arms they would remain stuck out to the side and would be impossible to lower past a T-pose.

"Again! Harder!", Thomas called out.

Seeing the thick stone protecting Thomas, the guard gripped his sword in both hands and swung it like a baseball bat while putting a fair amount of his power behind the blow. With a deafening clang, the sword slammed into the armor with enough force to knock Thomas off of his feet and send him crashing onto his ass nearly a meter away. A moment after Thomas's ass made a muffled thud from landing on the ground, there was a loud metallic clanging sound as half of the guard's sword blade crashed into the ground.

The force from the blow had sent Thomas tumbling, broken large chunks off of the armor, and snapped the guard's sword in half. Thomas ignored the disgruntled looking guard and observed himself. The armor itself had taken no damage, though a large portion of the rock protection had been broken off. As for himself, the blow had clearly knocked him back and put a fair amount of pressure on his chest. Overall, he was perfectly fine though. He couldn't help smiling as he cut off his mana and stood up to remove the armor, "Not bad at all."