"Hey, Loran!" Alexx called out.

Loran turned to see Alexx and Zed walking up to him.

"Hey, are you guys headed to the Workshop too?"

"Yeah, everyone else seems to be getting ready so we figured that we should check if our equipment is done."

Although Loran and his equipment had been the most damaged from the fight with The Wise One, Alexx and Zed were both in similar situations. Alexx's bracers had been reduced to ribbons, and all of Zed's armor needed to go in for repairs.

"So I guess we'll be leaving soon?" Loran asked.

Zed shrugged. "In an hour or so, there's no need to rush."

The three continued walking while reviewing their plans for finding the nest and how they would deal with any Iron Ants along the way.

At least, that was how the conversation started; but between the three of them, and an off-hand comment from Loran, it didn't take long for the discussion to simply devolve into arguing over who would be able to kill more ants.

"I'm just saying that there's no way that you can hunt these things with a spear," Loran explained.

"And I'm just saying that's quitter talk," Zed responded condescendingly. "You may have gotten more kills during the fight with the wolf pack, but I'm going to clean house with these ants."

"Both of you are wrong," Alexx chimed in, "I'm the only one around who's actually strong enough to crush them. I'm gonna wipe the floor with them while you two are stuck trying to chisel through their armor."

"If you can hit the damn things," Zed scoffed. "You can barely hit me whenever we spar, you think you can keep up with these speedy little guys?"

"You're an experienced fighter, and they're ants," Alexx emphasized, "unless you're about to say that these things are either faster or more skilled than you they'll be nothing but target practice." Alexx's face was confident for a moment before becoming concerned and turning to Loran. "These things aren't faster than him right?"

"The one we fought had almost 30 AGI," Loran recalled, "so they're about even with Zed. But there is one problem. As long as the ant is on the ground, they can basically ignore momentum."

"Wait what?"

"How does that even work?"

"You know how bugs can stick to surfaces?"

They both nodded.

"This is just me theorizing, but since they're so strong compared to their weight, they can pull themselves in any direction regardless of their previous movements. During our fight, Yang could barely land a hit on the damn thing because it would start moving in a different direction at the last moment."

"So their movements are extremely unpredictable," Alexx said, his expression deadly serious. "I fight by predicting things like this, are you telling me that they hard counter my build?"

"They're not completely unpredictable. They can't seem to move side to side all that well, and they like jumping too, so predicting the trajectory will be easy. I'm just warning you that they'll be harder to deal with than most other animals."

Alexx shook his head. "I know you said it before, but these things are so OP."

"Yeah," Zed said with a manic grin, "isn't it awesome?"

Alexx and Loran sighed at Zed's confidence.

"Zed, just a reminder, please try to-"

"I know," he said, cutting Loran off, "dial back the crazy." Most of the players avoided Zed because of how aggressive he could be, but now he was going to be forced into close proximity with twenty such people. Tension was going to be high and the last thing they needed was Zed starting a fight.

"I already told you I will." Zed puffed out his chest, "I'm a man of my word."

"Right," Loran said as they entered The Workshop, his voice thick with skepticism.

Normally, the area was kept quite orderly by Rika, but right now it was a chaotic mess. Assorted bits of crafting materials and tools littered the pathways. Players were constantly moving, either handing out materials or offering unsolicited comments on someone else's project. Loran even saw an unconscious player being carried out by two others, and it wasn't hard to see why.

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In the center of the Workshop was a fire billowing thick black smoke, with several players trying desperately to put it out. In addition to that, there were three other fires set up, one of which had a large structure seemingly made from dried mud over it. Even though the Workshop was a completely open area, the four fires left Loran feeling like he had just walked into a crowded kitchen.

"Oh hey," a voice said through labored breaths. "You guys here for your equipment?"

Turning to his left Loran saw Rika sitting in the grass, breathing heavily and coated in a layer of sweat. Their default clothing, which always had minor cuts and tears from constantly crafting, was now deliberately torn off to become a crop-top and shorts, probably to deal with the oppressive heat. Rika's head drooped as Loran noticed dark bags under their eyes, having slept very little over the last few days.

A player pushed by Loran from behind carrying several bowls of water, handing one to Rika before going to pass the rest around.

"So... I guess the smelting process isn't going that well?" Loran asked as Rika gulped down their water, draining the bowl in seconds.

"We're making progress, but these things take time," Rika said as their breathing became more steady. "Smelting the chitin is definitely producing toxic fumes, so we'll need to figure out a workaround." They shrugged. "Well, at least it's giving us something to really think about."

Over the last month, the crafters had mostly been limited to maintaining and remaking the hunters' equipment and it was starting to drive them crazy. This wasn't because they were all needed to get the work done, in fact, most hunters have taken to maintaining their own equipment; the problem was that they were limited to such primitive tools and materials. There was only so much they could create with common stones, wood, and animal parts.

The discovery of the Iron Ants sent the crafters into a frenzy. Iron was versatile enough for it to give them countless crafting opportunities, so they wanted to get their hands on it as soon as possible. On top of that, just extracting the metal presented its own problems, which the crafters readily took as a challenge.

The black smoke had been rising from the Workshop several times over the last few days as the players as they experimented with extracting the metal. Firewood consumption had practically doubled and the noise was constant as the crafters worked ceaselessly through the night, causing quite a bit of annoyance among the rest of the players.

However, their actions were tolerated, because everyone understood that the sooner the crafters succeeded the better it would be for everyone.

"So, our equipment?" Zed asked impatiently.

"Yeah yeah, give me a moment," Rika said as they stood up, stretching their exhausted muscles. "I've got your stuff over here. Along with a few surprises."

"Surprises?" Loran asked.

"Don't worry, you'll love it."

Rika walked them over to the Workshops storage area, an open-air shelter that was basically just a roof on stilts to protect items and materials from the rain. The area was more empty than usual, due to the crafters' recent activity, consisting mostly of half-finished creations and the usual pile of Fire-Hardened Spears.

Separated from the storage's usual contents, was a small pile of assorted equipment that Rika began handing to them piece by piece.

"Let's see, these are Loran's," they said, handing him a big pile of leather armor. "Try not to let these get turned into ribbons this time, okay?"

As Loran took the armor he noticed that the material felt and looked different than his original set. Instead of the tough rawhide, he was familiar with, the leather in his hands looked slightly burnt and felt hard and smooth in certain places.

'I can't imagine Rika would just give me armor she dropped in a campfire,' he thought, deciding to [ANALYSE] the items, 'so what exactly is....oh.'

[NAME]: Hardened Leather Armor

[QUALITY]: Uncommon

[TYPE]: Equipment(TORSO)

[DURABILITY]: 100/100

[STATS]: 7 Armor

[REQUIREMENTS]

STR: 10

[DESCRIPTION]

Armor that was made by heating thick pieces of leather to harden it. Minimal movement restrictions.

"You made new equipment? And it's uncommon?" Loran asked, slightly shocked.

"Don't be too surprised. We've been stuck doing the same things every day for a month now, obviously we would start getting better at it. Pretty soon equipment like that will be everywhere."

"You mean this wasn't luck?"

That truly shocked Loran. So far, only Yang's armor was of Uncommon quality, and even Rika admitted she wasn't sure what improved the quality.

"But it's a completely new item," Zed noticed. "I don't see people walking around with that stuff, so how did you even get past the poor quality?"

"The practice doesn't have to come from the item creation alone. I've been practicing the hardening process and stitching on individual pieces of leather." They picked up a piece of leather off of the ground.

It wasn't a piece of any armor but Loran could tell that it was processed just as well as the armor he was holding.

"Once I felt like I understood the process better I made that armor. There might be some luck involved since the leggings are still only common, but it seems like the system is mostly based on the actual skill of the crafter. And since we don't need to completely make the items to get the better results we won't have to waste our time and resources on lower-quality equipment."

"So does this mean that my armor is also..." Zed looked at Rika expectantly.

"Sorry Zed, but the hardening process takes a pretty long time. I gave Loran the new equipment because he needed an entirely new kit. Yours was only damaged, and mildly at that."

"Sorry man," Loran said, sarcastically, "I guess you're just too good to get the good items."

Zed scoffed. "More like you're so bad that you need the good items."

"With that said," Rika began, handing Zed his armor, "I was able to give it a bit of an upgrade. I put a few patches of Hardened Leather at some key locations for extra protection. It has slightly better defenses than Loran's but is a bit heavier and more restrictive."

"That...sounds okay," Zed said, his voice even despite the grin forming.

"What about my bracers?" Alexx asked, slightly excited.

"Actually... where are my bracers?" Loran asked, realizing that Rika had given him an incomplete set.

"Oh don't worry," Rika said, the exhaustion disappearing from their eyes for a moment, "I told you guys I had some surprises didn't I?"