Jake wondered what more Arnold could have in store for him. He was definitely in need of a gear upgrade after Nevermore, as the place hadn’t really given that much. It was only on the first part of the floors that equipment was really rewarded, while on all later floors, only raw materials for crafting were ever given. It was likely a form of balance to not fuck over crafters too much.

Still, it meant Jake had a lot of stats to be gained from equipment. Some of what he wore was still good, especially his boots, necklace, mask, one of his rings, and all his weapons, but much of his basic equipment had fallen behind.

The Shadestalker Legguards and Shadestalker Chestpiece he currently wore had already only been “pretty good” when he originally bought them. He had gotten them due to how reliable and simple they had been, both having the ability to nullify a bit of physical damage taken, self-repair, and also serve as okay stat sticks.

However, they hadn’t scaled with him as he leveled up, resulting in the damage nullification quickly becoming insignificant, the stats falling behind, and the only good thing about his gear now being how it looked and its ability to repair itself.

The reason why he focused primarily on his chestpiece and pants wasn’t just because they were the two things he wanted to replace the most, but because that was also exactly what Arnold brought in as a drone entered the room.

“Let me be upfront right away,” Arnold said before he opened the boxes that Jake saw the equipment within. “My ulterior motive in offering you these is because I expect them returned for analysis after a period of use. As you wear this equipment, it will be affected by your Records and arcane energy passively, and I have primed them for future analysis already. Additionally, I am but one of several crafters of this. I had assistance from a few acquaintances from other universes to procure materials and complete several parts.”

With those words, he opened one of the two boxes. One of them contained a leather jacket of sorts, though it definitely looked more medieval than modern, likely as a very deliberate design choice. It was dark in color, with a few dark green patterns here and there.

Also, while Jake called it a leather jacket, he wasn’t sure it was actually made of leather. Lifting up the jacket and looking at it closer, it felt surprisingly soft. It was also heavier than he expected, and not by a little. He would almost assume it was made of metal with how much it weighed… which an Identify proved was actually a very legitimate assumption.

[Titanssteel Nanofiber Chestpiece (Ancient)] – A marvel of different concepts merged seamlessly together to create an incredibly durable piece of clothing. The Titansteel has been refined into small fibers, making this armor nearly impossible to cut using regular means. Offers respectable resilience to all forms of magical attacks. This chestpiece is able to self-repair and remember all forms of energy passing through it, storing memories of its journey within. This function is especially effective during the self-repair process. Enchantments: +1500 Strength, +1000 Toughness, +1000 Agility, +750 Vitality. Self-Repair. Material Memory.

Requirements: lvl 275+ in any humanoid race.

He also quickly threw an Identify on the pants and saw a very similar result.

[Titansteel Nanofiber Pants (Ancient)] - A marvel of different concepts merged seamlessly together to create an incredibly durable piece of clothing. The Titansteel has been refined into small fibers, making this armor nearly impossible to cut using regular means. Offers respectable resilience to all forms of magical attacks. These pants are able to self-repair and remember all forms of energy passing through them, storing memories of their journey within. This function is especially effective during the self-repair process. Enchantments: +1500 Agility, +1000 Toughness, +1000 Strength, +750 Vitality. Self-Repair Material Memory.

Requirements: lvl 275+ in any humanoid race.

They were practically identical, outside of the fact that one was a chestpiece and the other a pair of pants. The stats were also shifted around a little bit, with one giving more Strength and the other giving more Agility, but it was nothing extreme.

He also noted how they gave quite a lot more stats than what he had right now… though perhaps that was only to be expected of a mid-tier C-grade item like this. They didn’t have a lot going for them outside of the stats and just being super durable, so a lot of the Records could be allocated to just giving stats.

Also… one had to remember just how many stats Jake could actually get from gear. Jake could get just over 34,000 stats from gear total, with each of these offering 4250 stats stats total. Seeing as one could only wear ten pieces of equipment total, and that his mask and cloak didn’t offer stats – and both tended never to – he wouldn’t even hit the cap if he had eight pieces of equipment that gave as many stats as these two pieces of Titansteel Nanofiber armor.

And even getting this many stats wasn’t easy. Certain pieces of gear tended to give more stats than others, with larger pieces usually giving more. In other words, the chestpiece and pants would give more stats than boots, gloves, and bracers. Jewelry did give more than anything else, but part of that was because they were just stats and didn’t need to offer any innate protection.

To conclude… Jake would be lucky if he could reach his stat cap wearing a full set of ancient rarity equipment with a level requirement around his own. It was truly the woe of being strong and having a lot of percentage titles and a generally strong Path. The system had effectively deemed that someone like Jake needed quite a few legendary items as standard.

Not that Jake would ever say no to good ancient rarity stuff, and these two Titansteel Nanofiber gear pieces were pretty damn good. There was one thing that did bother him quite a lot though.

“Not gonna lie, it feels incredibly weird to have you just handing me clearly valuable stuff like this all the time. It isn’t like I’m doing much for you in return,” Jake muttered. “Sure, you say you analyze my Records and arcane affinity, but this definitely feels like an unbalanced trade and that we have an even more unbalanced relationship.”

Arnold was silent for a moment before he looked up at Jake with a serious expression.

“I do not make my decisions out of a sense of kindness or altruism,” Arnold spoke. “Your observation that our working relationship seems unequal is also entirely accurate and purposefully made to be that way. I have provided you with more tangible support than you have given me. However, rather than a loss, I view this as an investment in the future. An assurance, if you will. There currently does not exist any reliable method to protect against future problems, but I believe this to be the best option.”

Jake raised an eyebrow as Arnold continued. “There may come a day when I will need your assistance. At that time, I deem it highly beneficial that you feel like you owe me something, spurring you on to act. While the future is uncertain, your mentality on certain matters has proven itself a constant, and I believe my actions will result in you being willing to provide support should something unfortunate and unforeseen happen.”

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Arnold’s explanation was very… curt. And exactly the kind of explanation Jake would expect out of the scientist. He didn’t honey any of his words but outright stated he was effectively trying to manipulate Jake into feeling like he owed Arnold.

The thing is… he was entirely correct. Jake would help Arnold without thinking twice as things currently were. There were still some points of doubt, though.

“Gotta ask, are you expecting any problems since you need this assurance?” Jake asked.

“As of this moment, no. At least none I believe are likely to materialize in the near future that I cannot deal with myself. This is instead an assurance against the unknown. Perhaps nothing will ever happen, but considering our significantly expanded lifespans and the possibility of living eternally, it’s effectively a statistical certainty I would one day need your unquestioned support,” Arnold continued to answer honestly.

“Thanks for the honesty, I guess?” Jake muttered. It still felt weird that Arnold was effectively trying to bribe Jake into helping him with something neither of them even knew what was. But, no reason to say no to a good thing, and Jake was sure Arnold also knew he couldn’t just make Jake do anything he wanted.

“No problem,” Arnold clearly took Jake’s words at face value. “To note, the Titansteel Nanofiber is also still a work-in-progress material, and I will make improved versions based on the Records they collect during your use.”

“Does that mean you think you will eventually become able to make this armor consistently legendary rarity?” Jake questioned.

“Yes,” Arnold nodded without a trace of doubt in his voice.

“Mass-produced legendary equipment, huh,” Jake shook his head.

“Not mass-produced. The labor and materials going into each creation remain significant, and there are no plans to mass-produce the most powerful version. Lesser iterations will likely be made for cheaper material and using a methodology facilitating mass-production through automation. Additionally, while you may find my claim spurious, I wouldn’t find it difficult to believe if you could also consistently transmute legendary material,” Arnold clarified while also having a pretty good point.

“True, I probably could if the base material is good enough,” Jake agreed. Yeah, probably shouldn’t be surprising Arnold could consistently make legendary equipment if he had good enough materials.

“I can’t really make anything at all!” Sandy decided to chime in uselessly. “But I’m confident I can eat more legendary stuff than both of you combined. Wouldn’t even be a competition.”

“It wouldn’t be a competition because no one wants to compete with you,” Jake said with a smile as he shook his head. “Though I would be up for a competition of energy-absorption. Specifically vital energy.”

“No equipment of any kind allowed.”

“Seeing as it’s a part of my soul, does Eternal Hunger really count as equipment anymore? It’s more an extension of my body,” Jake shot back.

“With that logic, can I use anyone I’ve eaten to help in the competition? Because if so, let’s have our competition at the Order, and I’ll just have a few A and S-grade vampires jump in there real quick,” Sandy argued back. “Seeing as they’re literally part of my body when in my stomach, they don’t count, right?”

“… you know what, I’ll let you have this one rather than continue a discussion that’s just making everyone in the room dumber for having listened to it,” Jake muttered in defeat.

“Victory has been claimed!” Sandy said utterly shamelessly. “My ingeniousness is truly unmatched, only perhaps matched by a scarce few gods. And Tom, but Tom’s just built different.

Arnold had also proven once more he was the smartest of them all because he had clearly not paid any attention at all to their stupidity, ignoring both Jake and Sandy.

Jake stuck around in Arnold’s workshop a bit longer as he got his new katar and clothing before it was back home to the lodge for some more alchemy. Only very briefly, though, as Jake was repeatedly dragged around to do stuff with Miranda.

During this time, he also strongly considered going to the Order of the Malefic Viper for a little bit but stopped himself. It was just too risky to leave the universe, even if there probably wasn’t a big chance anything would go wrong. Still, Jake couldn’t help but consider what would happen if Ell’Hakan or someone else did some shit that stopped Jake from returning to Earth for the Prima Guardian event.

The reason why he had wanted to go visit the Order was naturally to check in with Meira and Irin primarily, but he also wanted to say hi to Scarlett, who he surprisingly learned wasn’t returning for the Prima Guardian event at all. From what Jake gathered when he briefly heard from Reika, the snake simply didn’t see any purpose in returning, seeing as she definitely couldn’t actively participate in the event. She had consumed a lot of energy from system-provided unique items, making her only choice to ally with the Prima Guardian or sit out… and if she was going to sit out, she might as well sit out at the Order. From the sounds of it, she was also making many friends of the draconic kind, so good for her?

Anyway, even if Jake did want to go, he decided to delay till after the event. Besides, Jake still had a lot to do. To make sure he was warmed up, Jake even went on a few minor hunts to take down monsters that couldn’t be negotiated with. None of them put up any good fights, but it was still good to flex his magical and actual muscles a bit once in a while.

Like this, the days quickly went by as the system event drew ever nearer, with new updates every day. The atmosphere of Earth had also changed significantly. With the entire planet on high alert and working in unison, it couldn’t help but trickle down to even the regular person who was still only in E or even F-grade.

Those living in smaller settlements traveled to larger ones, defensive barriers were reinforced, and Miranda took practically every precaution Jake could imagine, as well as a few he hadn’t even thought of. But, in his defense, he had kind of forgotten stuff like the fact some people had to eat to live. What a foreign concept, right?

When only about a week and a half remained, Jacob informed Miranda, and thus, by extension, everyone else, that he had located the exact spot where the Prima Guardian would arrive.

Jake had been correct in his assessment that it was in the massive desert on the opposite side of the planet from where the enlightened races lived. It was incredibly far away from them, but there wasn’t any worry about the actual travel time to get there. With Sandy, it would barely take a day.

Also, even if Sandy turned out to be restricted or unavailable, space mages were already hard at work, putting down a track of teleportation circles. It was almost like a railroad where they put down magical circles in a line straight toward the spot Jacob had pointed out.

The one in Haven overseeing the project was also a familiar face who Jake hadn’t interacted much with for a long time. It was Neil, who’d also returned from Nevermore quite a bit stronger. Jake remembered that the guy had always been more focused on the crafting side of space magic, and he had really embraced that by now, being one of the top people managing Earth’s teleportation network. Still, that didn’t mean he couldn’t fight, as space magic was still a very potent school of magic.

Over these final days, everyone also started to arrive in Haven, as that was where they would fly out from. A few had already gone to where Jacob was beforehand, but the vast majority headed to Haven. All the familiar faces were naturally there, with a lot of the more “mid-tier” elites also coming. Even if they wouldn’t face the Prima Guardian as part of the strike team, Sandy would still help transport them, as they would form a perimeter to fight this “army” that would arrive.

All in all, it was definitely a massive undertaking to prepare everything, and Jake was happy he hadn’t been in charge of any of it. Instead, he had managed to make a good batch of top-tier Heartrot Poison and a few dozen acid bombs he was very much looking forward to seeing if he would have to use. He really hoped he would.

With everyone gathered in Haven and ready to go, Jake didn’t expect any more surprises. What could there even be at this point they hadn’t accounted for? Well… there was one thing… or, more accurately, one person. Because, with only a day to go before they would head off from Haven to the Prima Guardian touch-down spot, Miranda contacted Jake:

“Jake, I’m coming over immediately… William is back and needs to talk to you.”