Mike had been really eager to make his new item, but now that he was standing in his workshop he didn't know exactly what that item would be. He could make a piece of armor, but that would mean giving up the synergy bonus his current armor gave him. It didn't raise it to the level of what a heroic rarity item would give him, but it did affect his entire body. Besides, he really didn't feel like he had the time or patience at the moment to make an entire set of heroic gear, even if the synergy would be absolutely amazing. No, for now he would be making just a single item.
His hammer had served its purpose absolutely admirably. It was a hammer, and he hit things with it. As long as it didn't break it was good to go. The biggest benefit he got from his hammer was the weight increasing properties of it. That was something Mike didn't know if he could easily part with. It was certainly his favorite way of increasing his damage output, and dive bombing his enemies from above with the weight of a truck in his hands was just a great feeling.
If he had to make the choice between keeping his hammer and making a heroic item, he would definitely choose to keep his hammer. But perhaps he didn't need to choose. His Arcane Fusion skill was one that Mike really hadn't used as much as he probably should have been. It allowed him to just make materials stronger by condensing large quantities of said material into a smaller, stronger version.
If he could get his hands on more of the metal that made up his hammer, then he could potentially make the hammer itself stronger without needing to lose the effect. Now the only problem was if he wanted to make the hammer stronger by a significant margin, he would need a lot of the metal. Checking the item's description, he saw that the metal was called Nonmium. It sounded dumb, but the potential it held was anything but.
He knew the miners likely had a supply of the metal, but now that he needed to pay for his materials he couldn't just ask for them. Mike was broke, and all the coin he had to his name was the single silver coin he got for setting up his account with the bank. He should have charged a small fee when he infused the coins, but there wasn't anything he could do about it now. The other smiths in the village would soon be back to making more coins due to Dune needing coins as well, and Mike could charge commission when the time came for those to be infused.
He needed to either sell off some of his creations, or barter with the miners. He had been meaning to sell off some of his stuff anyways, so he simply grabbed the ornate golden armor he had created before and walked to the center of the village. He set up an armor stand and outfitted the epic rarity set onto it.
“Auction for this armor! Who's interested?” He shouted, drawing quite a few eyes. “Starting bid is 10 silver!” Mike really didn't know if that was a fair price or not, but as more and more people identified it, he realized that the bar was set much lower than it should have been. Several people piped up with offers for the set. The bid was raised to 20 silver, then 50, and soon had reached one gold.
Most people had given up after the bid crossed this point, but two individuals seemed very insistent on buying the armor. The bid eventually reached 4 gold and 35 silver, with no counter bid being placed. Mike recognized the winner as the captain of the guard. The large muscle bound woman greedily accepted the armor after handing over the coins from some pouch she pulled out of a slot in her armor. Apparently it paid well to be captain of the guard.
“Wait, who is paying her?” Mike said, watching the woman walk away. As he was contemplating where the money had come from, his thoughts were brought to a screeching halt as he saw the woman walk up to a familiar mage. John had to get up on his tippy toes as he planted a kiss on the lips of the taller woman. The two walked away, with his perception faintly picking up the compliments John was giving her new armor.
He took the complements as if they were directed to him, and he was filled with pride when he heard the praise of the craftsmanship. In all fairness, John likely wasn't super interested in how well made the armor was, and was probably more interested in the woman wearing it. That did nothing to dampen Mike's appreciation of the comments, and his ego was at an all time high as he walked to the mines, meeting a man out front.
“Watcha looking for?” The man asked. “We got therium, unrefined cardlin, powdered stones, and quite a few other things.”
“I would like to buy some nonmium.” Mike said. The other materials sounded interesting, but he doubted anything the miners made would be of a high enough rarity to be more useful than more nonmium would be.
“Expensive taste.” The vendor said. “How much? We charge 5 silver per kilo.”
A combination of both Mike’s complete lack of experience with the metric system, along with him still not having used coins that much, worked in tandem to make Mike have absolutely no idea if he was getting a good price or not. He was about to accept the price, when a voice he recognized spoke up behind him.
“Really Cole? Trying to hussle the leader of the village?” The trader who had traveled with the caravan said, stepping up next to Mike. Mike had no idea how the man had gotten back to the village so quickly, as by his best guess the caravan still had almost 8 hours before it arrived back to the village. The vendor who had a name that perfectly fit his profession went pale.
“S-sorry. I hadn't realized who you were.” Cole said, sweat forming on his brow. Mike could tell he was now being identified. “For you, 3 silver per kilo.”
Mike glanced at the satisfied expression of the trader, and took the hint. “Deal, I would like to buy as much as this will get me.” Mike said, placing all 4 gold and 35 silver he had gotten from selling the armor on the table. Both the merchant's eyes widened at the sum he placed on the table. The nervousness on Cole's face was wiped away when he saw just how lucrative this deal could be.
“I'm sorry, but we only have enough of the material to sell just over three gold worth. If you would like, I can have more shipped when it gets dug up, and will continue to do so until you get what you paid for.” The man said, reaching for the coins. Mike slapped his hand away.
“Just give me what you can, I can come back for more later.” He said, taking all but three gold coins off the table. Cole walked back to a container sitting behind him. A magical lock similar but much weaker than the one Raj had shown him was on the chest, and was unlocked by Cole. Soon after, Mike was carrying 100 cubes of the material back to his workshop, with the trader walking alongside him the entire way. The cubes were not very large, as Nonmium was very dense. They were only an inch or so in length, width, and depth. Mike talked with the trader, his voice holding no hint that he was carrying 220 pounds in his arms.
“How did you get back here so fast?” Mike asked.
“I have a couple of skills that work together to make me faster, including a little something that I am quite proud of.” The trader responded, and two brilliant green wings sprouted from his back. They didn't have the feathered design that Mike's own wings had, instead looking more skeletal in structure, reminiscent of a bat's wings. They were made from uncommon fragments, and Mike nearly dropped his cubes when he saw them. They didn't have as many small parts as his own had used, but it looked impressive in its own right. He summoned his own pair of bright blue wings, flaring them out to their full 10 foot span. This prompted a high five between the two which did cause Mike to drop his cubes.
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“Shit!” He cursed. They made it to his workshop shortly after, and the trader said his goodbyes before turning away to leave. “Wait!” Mike said. “I never got your name, and thinking of you as ‘the trader with the sick wings’ in my head is getting to be a bit much.”
“Mateo. Took you long enough to ask.” The trader said in a joking tone. He walked off immediately after, and Mike entered his workshop. He set all the cubes down in a circle around his hammer. He wasn't sure if that would actually matter, but if nothing else Mike thought it would look cool. He braced himself, casting Arcane Fusion on the cubes and his hammer.
“Please, please don't mess up my baby.” He said as lines of mana shot between each of the cubes to every other cube. Mike was right when he thought that it would look cool, and the hair thin lines of mana that were connecting each of the cubes made a very eye pleasing pattern as they pulled the cubes closer together. When the first cubes touched the hammer, he felt his mana begin dropping. His mana levels got lower and lower as more of the cubes merged with the hammer, making it heavier and stronger as time passed. He didn't sit idly and watch, instead pushing more mana into the skill, making the cubes merge with what felt like a slightly higher level of effectiveness.
As the last cube merged, the light that filled the room from the mana disappeared. Mike sat down on a nearby chair as he felt the toll from using most of his mana hit him. It was similar to being tired, in that relaxing just felt so much better. He rested for several minutes as he let his mana regenerate back to full capacity, and moved onto the next step of his plan. Making the material itself stronger had made the hammer more powerful, but it had not been enough to kick it over the line to being a heroic item. It was close, however, and Mike still had several more improvements he was planning on making.
He brought his hammer into his soul using the connection he shared with the soulbound item. The rare class and profession fragments he had used for the hammer head and handle had been what made it an epic rarity item when he first made it, and were what allowed him to wield the hammer without as much effort as what he should have had to use. It was time to cast them aside, and he began replacing them with his newest class and profession fragments. After evolving, he had gotten epic fragments for the options he had picked for the two, though he had been unable to shape them in any meaningful way when he first acquired them.
Since then, he’d spent hours practicing fine control when he made his wings, and his mana manipulation skill had reached new heights. The manipulation of both mana and fragments was similar, but the skill didn't affect his control over the fragments nearly as much as it did with his mana. The fragments took shape as they mirrored the shape of his hammer. The class fragment for his Mighty feller of Giants class filled the hammer head, and the fragment for Prodigious Artisan of the Arcane took the shape of the handle. They filled the hammer with power, improving the effects even further.
Mike could feel his hammer cross the threshold into being a heroic item, but he still was not yet done. Mike had the pattern of the enchantment of repel foe that Raj had shown him burned into his memory. He had taken a mental screenshot when he saw it, and had done everything he could to commit it to memory. His wisdom stat worked double time to bring back every detail. The flow, the color, the scent. Ok, maybe not every bit of what he remembered was necessarily important, but he remembered it all nonetheless.
Mike knew that he couldn't hope to create a replica of what he had been shown, but perhaps he could create a lesser version. He attempted to strip away all of the necessary parts of the enchantment in his mind, determining which of the lines in the pattern only gave marginal increases to the effectiveness. Mike didn't know exactly how Raj had discovered how to improve it so much, as learning something like this from scratch seemed damn near impossible. After some time, Mike had stripped the enchantment down enough that he felt he could make it, while still keeping it functional.
The pattern was etched into the surface of the hammer by Mike's mana. His eyes were tightly clenched shut as he felt his way across the hammer with his mind. His body trembled with the mental strain it took to use his mana in such a precise manner. The material got stronger as mana infused into it, and this made it more and more difficult to cut through it with mana as his own worked to make the enchantment on the surface of the hammer. He made the last line just as his mana bottomed out. He fell to the ground, needing to struggle to stay conscious. His mana regeneration worked to bring him back from the edge, but he still felt exhausted. He lay on the floor next to his hammer, looking at it as he identified his beloved weapon.
Mighty Fellers War Maul (Heroic) (Classbound) (Soulbound)
A maul made from enhanced and refined Nonmium. This hammer has been infused with fragments of a mighty feller. All who are mighty wield this hammer as if it were just a third of its true weight. An enchantment has been inscribed upon this hammer that brings fear to all whose gaze falls upon it. This effect scales with the level and power of the wielder.
There was nothing telling Mike, or even hinting at it, but he felt that this wasn't at the lower end of Heroic rating. No, he could just tell that it was solidly into the rarity, truly earning the designation. He also had a slew of notifications blinking at him, and he opened them as he stood up.
*[Planet Notification] Humanity has created its first heroic rarity item. As a reward, all involved in its creation gain two levels in their profession up to level 50*
*Profession level up x5! Prodigious Artisan of the Arcane (level 39)*
*Race level up x3! Human (level 37)*
*Skill upgraded! Fragment Infused Weapon Creation, becomes Fragment Binding Weapon Creation (Heroic)*
Fragment Binding Weapon Creation (Heroic)
Bind Fragments to a weapon, causing the weapon to take on the characteristics of the fragment to a high degree. This skill increases the ease of infusing fragments into items, and as well as manipulating materials when creating a weapon. Stacks with skills that have similar effects.
*Skill upgraded! Arcane Fusion, becomes Refining Arcane Fusion (Heroic)*
Refining Arcane Fusion (Heroic)
Refine and Combine similar materials. Effects scale with quantity and quality of mana used in the process of combining materials.
*Title Upgraded! Epic Crafter, becomes Heroic Crafter (Heroic)*
Heroic Crafter
Gain +15% to all stats while a heroic rarity item is equipped
Well goddamn. Trailblazing was absolutely amazing. He almost felt bad for the people who wouldn't be getting such a huge bonus to levels due to not being the first to make heroic items. Almost. Last time something like this had happened, his own evolution had blocked him from receiving the full benefits of the bonus, and funny enough it had been when he first made his hammer at epic rarity.
He was still a bit salty about that. It did make Mike wonder why the enchantments or the statue of the Hindu deity hadn't triggered something like this. ‘Maybe it had something to do with whatever that censored thing was that empowered them’ Mike thought, walking over to his bed. He already knew that people were going to be knocking on his door, trying to get his attention, but a nap sounded just so nice at the moment.
The health benefits of sleep were nonexistent anymore, but the mental reset it gave was reason enough for Mike to flop onto bed and shut his eyes. A smile touched his lips as he heard the knocking on his door, followed by the jiggling of the door knob. He had placed his hammer next to the door, and infused it with quite a bit of mana. If anyone on the entire planet other than him could budge that thing through brute strength alone, he would be very impressed.
It had to weigh at least half a dozen tons, and only the weight reduction to the hammer given by his ‘mighty’ class had allowed him to carry it, even with his now, he checked, over 3100 strength, it was still extremely cumbersome at this weight. ‘Wow, I really hadn't realized how high that was getting, it's well over double my next highest stat’. Mike resolved to not care about the massive stat imbalance, and instead let exhaustion take him as consciousness slipped away.