Mike was way overdue for an armor upgrade, and an upgrade for the crafting skill associated with it. He still wore the armor made from the tarantula matriarch's corpse, which he had made over 20 levels ago. The armor itself wasn't too bad, as it had come from a pretty strong level 45 beast, but it still wasn't exactly ideal. He wanted to hopefully make some armor that would last him another 20 or more levels, and to do that he would need to get some good materials.

He did also have a half dozen cores from earth elementals, which he had gotten during his two week level grind after the battle in Gratsden. He planned to use those to further increase the durability of his armor. Other than that, he was mostly at a loss for what to use. He knew the miners of the village had begun digging up epic rarity metals, but due to how rare of an occurrence it was they had always been too high a price for him to spend on something he wouldn’t personally be using.

Now though, he wanted to get his hands on the best materials he could. While he was at it, he could even buy up some more nonmium and try to improve his hammer a bit more. When he made it back to Thudfall, he headed straight for the shopping district, walking to where he knew the best metal shop in the town was.

Mike entered the store, and was briefly surprised to hear a bell ring. He looked up, seeing a bell hung to the ceiling where the door would swing, just like one you may see in older barber shops. He walked in and went up to the counter. “Hey Lane.” Mike said, already familiar with the store owner thanks to previous visits. “I’m finally ready to reach a bit deeper in my pockets.”

Lane smiled at Mike, sticking up a finger to signal he would get to him in a moment. While Lane finished up with the customer he had been speaking to, Mike looked at some of the items hanging on the wall behind the counter. He saw bags of gems, both intact and ground up. He saw bars of metal that seemed to be subtly affecting the mana around them, with one of them notably having no mana pass through it at all.

When it was Mike’s turn to speak with Lane, he pointed to the mana resistant bar. “What's that?”

“Identify it, find out for yourself.” Lane said, pulling up a couple more bars from under the counter.

Impervon (epic)

A mana resistant metal that lacks any natural magic of its own. Any mana infused into this metal will be slowly pushed out of the material. The speed at which this occurs is dictated by the amount of mana within.

It seemed like it could be useful for some things, but armor definitely wasn't one of them. Maybe somebody who didn't use mana at all during combat could use it in armor, but Mike used way too many mana based skills that would be severely hindered by the material. He then identified all three metals that had been placed on the counter.

Lilitan (epic)

A metal that has been folded and condensed many times, increasing its density and durability. Due to its high density, this metal has excellent mana conductivity.

Fendryl (epic)

A metal that is inherently sharp. Even when made into a flat surface, the mana within this metal will attempt to cut anything it touches.

Crodon (epic)

Lightweight metal with superb mana conductivity. Mana that passes through this metal is slightly imbued with the fire affinity.

“This it?” Mike asked.

“Yep, that’s everything. The boys back at the mines have only found four epic metals so far. I know it may not seem like a lot, and that’s because it's not.”

Mike saw the direction the conversation was heading, and wanted to just skip to the painful part of it. “How much?”

“The lilitan is 40 silver per kilogram, the fendryl and crodon are 80. The impervon is a gold, though I don’t expect you want to buy that.”

“Why is the lilitan so much cheaper?”

“It's very dense, so a kilo is much smaller than a kilo of either of the other metals.”

“How much of each do you have, because I plan to make a full set of armor using one of them.”

“We have enough of all of them for a couple of sets.”

“Good to know. In that case, I will take 500 kilos of lilitan.”

“Damn man.” Lane said, whistling. “I said a couple sets of armor, not half a dozen. We only have 400 kilos on hand.”

“Then I will take that.”

“Alrighty then. That will be, shit, 160 gold.”

“Also, how much nonmium do you have to sell?”

“We have thousands of kilograms, enough for whatever you might be making.”

“And how much is it?”

“4 silver per kilogram.”

“Cool, gimme a thousand.”

“God damn it, you are making me and the miners happy men today. That will be another 40 gold.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Mike had needed to go to the bank to pick up the gold, as carrying 200 gold around was way too cumbersome to do casually. It wasn't too heavy, but it was a large volume. He had needed to carry them all in a sack, which sagged from the weight. When he got back to the shop, he placed the bag on the counter and waited patiently for Lane to count it all out. Once that was sorted, he now had 1400 kilograms of metals that he needed to move halfway across town.

It took multiple trips, but soon he had every bar of it stacked up in his workshop. He wanted to improve his hammer first, as he knew that wouldn’t take nearly as much time as his armor upgrade would take. He stacked up every last bit of nonmium he had bought in a circle and placed his hammer in the center. He cast Arcane Fusion on the metal and his hammer, and the room lit up as mana shot between every bar of metal and his own hammer.

Mike fell to the ground as every last point of mana was ripped out of him. Gasping for breath, he suffered through the next 10 minutes as his mana regeneration fueled the combination. After it was all done, he moved on to what he wanted to do with it next. He had 6 earth elemental cores, and he wanted to save at least 4 of them to use with his armor. He combined two of them into his hammer. He identified his hammer after that, beaming at the product.

Mighty Fellers War Maul (Legendary) (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 fifth 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. Cores of Earth elementals have been fused into the hammer, increasing its durability by a moderate degree.

*Skill upgraded! Fragment binding weapon creation, becomes Fragment binding weapon creation (Legendary)*

*Title upgraded! Heroic Crafter, becomes Legendary Crafter (Legendary)*

Legendary Crafter (Legendary)

All stats increased by 20% when wearing or wielding a legendary item.

*Profession level up! Prodigious Artisan of the Arcane (level 54)*

Only one thing had changed about the description. The weight reduction had gone from a third to a fifth. He would now be able to wield it far easier, or at least he would have been able to if it hadn't over doubled in weight. Now it was actually more difficult to carry. Not that it mattered, as when he was fighting it usually weighed at least several metric tons from being infused. Now though, it didn't take as much mana to increase the weight of the hammer, which was convenient.

Now, it was time for him to make his armor. The lilitan he had bought was very durable, and he wanted to maximize this effect to make a damn near impenetrable defense. As it turned out, the durability of the material made it a bitch to work with. He had needed to let his forge heat up for several hours and infuse tens of thousands of points of mana into it to increase its heat even further.

After all of that, it was finally able to heat the metal enough to be shaped with his hammer. He used his newly legendary hammer to smack the metal, bringing it to just the right shape and using spikes of mana to create holes for the armor straps. It took an entire day to do, but he made an entire set of armor from the metal. He used Arcane fusion to combine the excess metal into the armor, making it marginally tougher.

He used the skill again to combine the four earth elemental cores into the armor. After that, he infused all the fragments he had earned from killing the earth elementals into the armor. They spread out to fill the entirety of the protection, and he could already tell his plan was working. He had just one more thing he wanted to add to the armor, so he started enchanting it.

As his mana roamed through the armor, trying to get a feel for the material, he felt something that he had only felt in his hammer before. He felt the fragment having an effect on the armor, and not just to its durability. He quickly identified the armor, wanting to find out what was causing the irregularity.

Lilitan Earth Armor (Heroic)

A set of armor crafted from Lilitan. This armor has been infused with earth elemental cores and fragments, greatly improving its durability. +250 Fortitude when wearing the full set of armor.

“Holy shit.” Mike said, taking a step back. He would get twelve and a half class levels worth of fortitude from this armor set when he wore it. He quickly placed his hands on it, using his mana to further inspect what had caused this. He found out quite quickly as his mana encountered an enchantment. The only problem now was that it wasn't one Mike had created. It looked like it had occurred naturally, with mana flowing in patterns between the earth elemental fragments and four small clumps of mana. It only took a brief moment to puzzle out that the clumps of mana were the earth elemental cores he had fused to the armor. He had been working under the assumption that the cores would be evenly distributed through the armor, but that had clearly not been the case.

He then began inspecting the enchantment itself. He noted and memorized the various ways it flowed, and was confused at how it even worked as an enchantment. It all flowed in such irregular and jagged patterns, and Mike almost absentmindedly began using his own mana to smooth the paths out, which allowed the mana to flow slightly faster. He worked for sometime to try and optimize the enchantment as much as possible, wanting to make it as good as possible.

*Skill upgraded! Ritual Enchanting, becomes Fragment ritual enchanting (legendary)*

It hadn't upgraded the rarity, but that was fine, it helped the process along. When he finally finished, he used Soul bind on the armor to bind it to himself. He took a step back, getting a good look at his new and complete set of armor. The metal was solid black, and reflected enough light that Mike would have assumed it was made of glass. It was kind of overwhelming how shiny it was, and Mike hoped when the armor saw some use that it would get scratched up enough to get rid of it.

The helmet of the armor was the only place that an attack could slip through without needing to pierce the metal. It had a completely open face, but Mike had added a sliding plate that could cover everything below his eyes if needed. He didn't want his vision to be obstructed at all, so he hadn't made much protection for the eyes. He identified his creation, beaming at what over a day's worth of work and hundreds of gold had gotten him.

Lilitan Earth Armor (Legendary)

A set of armor crafted from Lilitan. This armor has been infused with earth elemental cores and fragments, vastly improving its durability. +500 Fortitude when wearing the full set of armor.

*Skill upgraded! Fragment infused armor creation, becomes Fragment binding armor creation (legendary)*

*Profesion level up x2! Prodigous Artisan of the Arcane (level 56)*

*Race level up! Human (level 55)*

The bonus stats had gotten even better, and the increase in durability had gone from a great one to a vast one. He didn't know how much of a difference that was, but he figured it was a good one. Mike took his tarantula armor off, putting on some casual clothes. Using his soul connection with the new set of armor to summon it onto his body and on top of the casual outfit, forgoing the annoyance that he knew would come with putting the set one.

He was elated to see that his multipliers from his titles affected the stats he gained from his armor, meaning he gained 700 fortitude instead of 500, boosting the stat to a total of 4656, just a few hundred points under his strength, which was still his highest stat. He added the free points from his newly gained levels into fortitude, bringing the stat up to 4883, now a whopping 2 points more than his strength.

He looked down, admiring himself as he felt how comfortable the clothes and armor were. Between the better weapon, far better armor, and higher level, he walked out of his workshop a much more dangerous individual than when he had walked in.