The next morning, Jade seemed to have woken up first, going down to the tavern area on the inn’s first floor and not seeing either of the siblings. Shrugging, he moved over to the counter and ordered breakfast, still feeling a slight shock at the overweight innkeeper’s dark red skin before he sat at one of the stools. He gave the innkeeper a smile at their confused look, picking up the offered mug of water before jumping as someone sat at the stool next to him, spilling some of the water onto his sleeve.
“Newcomer in town I see?” a man asked, Jade trying not to be creeped out by his pitch black skin.
“Uh… yeah…” Jade answered, giving a thankful smile to the innkeeper as a plate of food was set in front of him.
“I’m Baxter.” The man offered his hand, Jade raising an eyebrow and forcing himself to shake it.
“Jade.”
“So what brings you to our lovely town?” Jade took a bite of his food, thinking over an answer before speaking.
“Oh you know. The adventuring life.” Baxter nodded at that, giving Jade a slightly too wide smile that nearly made him choke on his eggs. That’s either the worst pickup line ever, or this dude is looking to con me. Jade went back to looking at his food, wondering how he was going to get away from the slightly creepy man.
“Hey Jade!” Yondol yelled, the elf coming over to the bar and Jade holding back a sigh of relief. “Sleep well?” The elf sat on Jade’s other side, giving Baxter a rather intense look that made the other man get up and finally leave Jade alone.
“Slept just fine. And thanks for the help there,” Jade whispered, nodding his head towards the Baxter, who he noticed was sitting down at a table with some shady people.
“Yeah. You get used to that kind of thing hanging around Amy. So what’s on the agenda for today?”
Jade hesitated at that, mulling over how he was going to broach the next topic. He’d been coasting on his knowledge of Errant for a while, but that came to screeching halt at the next items he wanted to procure. “So… I know this is going to sound weird… but did your town have like… chests with treasure in it nearby?” he asked quietly, fidgeting with his fork. That’s how it had worked in the game, but from Yondol’s confused expression, it was obviously not the case.
“I mean… there were the local dungeons some adventurers went to,” Yondol replied, Jade perking up at that even as he noticed the elf’s suspicious look. “I’m told they had treasure chests appear after defeating the monsters within… though the contents were usually rather mundane. Almost always some form of money, ores, or gems.”
Jade nodded at that, chewing some more of his eggs in thought. “Okay. We’ll see if this town has the dungeons too, then. You guys can stay in town while I do that…” He noticed the excited look on Yondol’s face, sighing as he corrected himself. “Or you can come along. But I’m making some armor for you if that’s the case. Don’t want you dying on me.” Yondol nodded quickly at that, clapping Jade on the back.
“Whatever you say, man.”
#
As soon as Amy came down from her room, Yondol excitedly whispered the current plan, Amy looking less than impressed until the elf mentioned Jade’s offer of crafted armor. She was completely on board at that point, the trio leaving the inn to source some more materials.
“I know it’s going to be expensive, but we need to buy gold for the armor I’m going to give you. I could make wooden armor, but it’s not going to be very protective,” Jade informed the siblings, Amy giving him a confused look.
“Can’t you just use the same metal you used for our weapons?” she asked. “Gold can be pretty fragile…”
“We’ll test that out when I buy the gold, but I don’t have enough of the other bars left. So unless we want to try and weather one of Daemon territories…” Jade hadn’t been sure if the biome from the game would have the same name in his new world, but he got a hard confirmation at the dismay and winces the two gave him. “Gold is going to have to do. I have a suspicion it’s going to be better than normal gold suits.” He gave a chuckle at that tidbit of information he remembered from the internet, gold being notoriously brittle when used for weapons and armor outside of video games.
After stopping by the local blacksmith, Jade carefully looked at his crafting interface and pulled up the stats for gold armor, nodding at them being slightly worse than his meteorite armor, though the set bonus would make up for that and make both armor defenses equal. “Just as good as my armor. Now we just need a quiet space for me to craft.” He’d also bought three each of the armor vanishing tokens to give to the siblings, not wanting the sparkly armor to draw attention.
“There should be some private rooms available in the guild hall.” Yondol gave a shrug. “Or at least ours had. Should be the same.” Jade nodded at that, sourcing directions to the guild hall from passerby once more. Really getting tired of that.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The guild hall indeed had private rooms, Jade taking one as Amy and Yondol sat themselves by the bar. Before he closed the door, he could see Amy flirting with one of the patrons, Jade shaking his head at her shenanigans. The room had a fancy looking coral desk and chair, obviously set up for filling out forms if the writing utensils were anything to go by. Welp… here goes.
He mentally selected the golden helmet to start out with, once again diving into his crafting space and looking around. The same crafting stations appeared for him, showing him the other ones he crafted to help make more items. Looking at his menu once again, he looked at the options he’d ignored before, whistling at them in appreciation.
[Instant Method: Craft an item instantly with poor workmanship and stats.]
[Process Method: Make the standard form of the item, giving it adequate stats and looks. Best for making items in a small amount of time to enable making many sets.]
[Custom Method: Pick and choose how the armor looks, leading to exceptional stats for a longer crafting time. Also pick who the work is going to be used by, which will lead to additional effects.]
Jade instantly hit the custom option, excited to see if he could add damage increasing stats to them. The 15 gold bars he needed for the helmet appeared around the anvil, Jade frowning as he moved over and picked one up. It looked a lot more uniform than what he saw when he purchased the bars, the smith having not had molds for his bars, apparently. It had been very expensive for him to buy, but it was worth it in his head. Besides, I can just pop monsters from afar with my magic for more money, if I ever need more.
Placing the bar on the anvil, Jade picked up the nearby hammer, only then stopping and wondering how that was going to work. Gold bars needed to be heated from what he remem-
His arm suddenly moved on its own, Jade’s eyes widening at the lack of control. He soon figured out that his whole body was moving on its own, keeping him balanced as his arm started swinging at the bar. After futilely trying to gain control back of his body, he looked down at the gold bar, shocked to see the metal slowly taking the shape of a wing. Wait… didn’t the gold helmets have wings on the side? He excitedly focused on the creation of the armor, not even knowing if it was him or his magic that grabbed the second bar to continue the crafting. His tooltip had stated it needed focus to make an exceptional item, so he quickly got into the mindset to think of the stoic elf and what he might need for his armor.
He’s going to be using his sword most of the time, though I doubt he’s going to stand directly in front of the mobs to be hit. So more of a dodge tank? Light, so his sword swings have more dexterity wouldn’t hurt. As he continued to focus on what the elf might want, mostly from what he saw of the hit and run tactics the elf used against the slime, the helmet slowly took shape over several minutes, Jade glancing up at the time in his crafting menu to see how long it was taking.
After almost an hour of work, so a good bit less than a minute in real work time, the helmet was complete, the gold taking on a shiny hue as Jade picked it up to examine. Just as I thought. Increased movement speed and weapon damage. It was only a buff by a few percentage points, but it would definitely help the elf in his dodge tank style. He pocketed the item into his inventory, cracking his fingers and selecting the next armor in the set. Over the hours, he slowly completed each of the armor pieces for the siblings, Amy’s armor getting a focus in movement speed and throwing damage, Jade hoping it would help with her accuracy and throwing strength as he worked on the pieces. Amy’s pieces turned out with more of a matte finish, the wings a lot sharper on the helmet as well. He very much appreciated that her armor still covered everything, expecting to feel fairly disgusted if the armor went with the bikini cut like in other fantasy games. Of course… it’s going to be invisible, so it probably won’t matter, he thought to himself as he finished the last pair of leggings, stretching as he looked over the stats of the armor in his inventory.
And now… to see what they think.
#
Melee Gold Armor Item Stats:
#
Melee Gold Helmet
Body Slot: Helmet
Defense: 5
+1% Increased Melee Speed
#
Melee Gold Chestplate
Body Slot: Chest
Defense: 6
+2% Increased Melee Damage
#
Melee Gold Leggings
Body Slot: Pants
Defense: 5
+1% Increased Melee Speed
#
Set Bonus: +1% Increased Melee Speed & +1% Increased Melee Damage
#
Thrown Gold Armor Item Stats:
#
Thrown Gold Helmet
Body Slot: Helmet
Defense: 5
+1% Increased Movement Speed
#
Thrown Gold Chestplate
Body Slot: Chest
Defense: 6
+2% Increased Thrown Damage
#
Thrown Gold Leggings
Body Slot: Pants
Defense: 5
+1% Increased Movement Speed
#
Set Bonus: +1% Increased Movement Speed & +1% Increased Thrown Damage