APIECE!

The last place we visited was some kind of wheelwright and carpentry warehouse where Lady Mara outright bought instead of rented three western style canvas covered cargo wagons while renting three pairs of large bipedal reptiles called land dragons.

These things stood about seven feet tall and were a rare elite monster said to be found in most regions of the world. Their towing capacity was more comparable to a small pick-up than a horse but it was required to use them in pairs because they naturally existed in lifelong pairs after finding a suitable mate. This meant our wagon pullers were husbands and wives.

Once the wagons and dragons we paid for and set to be delivered to the estate with their necessary supplied, Lana and I left Lady Mara and Mr. Harlow with them for transport and instead headed to Skooma's armorer. There I found that not only had the armorer already begun selling suits like the ones my friends and I made but had already prepared our own heavy duty suits.

When he first brought out a large wooden mannequin that was wearing the armor, I thought I was looking at a punkish super hero costume. Or something a heavy metal band would wear on stage if they were all macho people. The design on it literally screamed 'look at my fake pecs and abs'.

The new jerkin no longer had vests but an almost patchwork gathering of layered and hardened leather plates over either side of the chest and over each of the six main abdominal areas. The entire jerkin was woven throughout with soft leather for padding through and around the hardened plates of alternating goblin and imp upper layers with opposing goblin or imp weaving.

Down the back of the suit was a spinal seam similar to the suits I had made but this one was a slightly looser coiling for increased malleability while layered leather plates had also been added spreading out around the sides from the spine and resembled armor ribs and between all of the pads were an assortment of claws and fangs wherever they fit.

The sleeves of the jerkin were woven with braided material for larger coverage even with a loose spiral pattern for the weaving that allowed mobility in the elbow area. The forearms, like with my design, had thick and differently schemed bracers on either of the differently colors sleeves and here the left bracer had claws protruding along the back of the forearm up to the elbow like blades while the right bracers bore fangs sticking straight out from all around like spike.

The leggings were similarly padded as if to look like quadriceps and woven like the sleeves with six-strand belt braids that were braided around clipped claws for small armor plates. About the left shin were the spikes of fangs like the right brace while the right shin casing of hardened leather layers was woven around downward set claw blades gone down the front and around the outer side of my lower leg.

I was afraid to look but was grateful that instead of a sculpted ass the leggings simply had a large pad of woven soft leather layers. The belt idea had been modified into a set of outer greaves with alternating plates of woven hardened leather draping down like the plated skirting of heavier armors.

As well, it was outfitted with several pockets, loops, and even hooks carved from claws on which to hang belongings.

Unlike my boots that had no soles, the boots for the armor suits the armorer was making had a crude and somewhat soft rubber soling but was still of a much higher quality than anything I could make with an inner soft leather layer and an outer hardened leather layer.

Like the shins and bracers, the boots bore claws and fangs for attacking but instead of one or the either they were covered about the toes with protruding fangs while along the outer sides and sticking out from the heels like spurs were claw blades.

On the mannequin's head was a masked helmet designed similarly to my own but on the mask was a flat setting of thinly carved claws and fangs shaped together to resemble a smiling mouth. The entire suit looked REALLY cringey, even worse than the ones I made because it came with a heavy two-layer leather coat woven with downward facing claws and fangs set close together and overlapping like scales.

However, the overall defense ratings were over one-fifty, the resistances were all five percent apiece, and the stat bonuses were also five apiece!

When I asked about it, it turned out that he was selling these 'medium armor' suits for the same price he bought the rights to sell my designs and improve on them for. APIECE! I GOT SCREWED!

However, instead of complaining, I simply introduced the man to Lana as the head of the Delai family and my boss before shamelessly asking for a discounted suit for her. He was fine with giving me a discount in order to ingratiate himself with a potential noble family, offering me half off just for gracing his humble business with her presence.

The only problem was that he currently only had enough suits made for my friends and I. I told him there was some urgency and then made a quick deal to sell him the goblin armor recipes in exchange for prioritizing another heavy leather suit. And another thousand gold.

Grateful that Lady Mara alone was enough to make most of what I said official on her own, I quickly led Lana out of the armory in her new heavy leather suit that had a Strength requirement of twenty points. Luckily, the suits for the girls were designed a little more modestly and with longer skirts so it was alright to give Lana Ivana's intended suit. Or else the armorer and I would have had some serious words with one another.

I felt like a complete idiot walking around in this armor but when I saw the way other people were looking at me enviously I was actually quite pleased with myself. Even though this was technically no longer a light armor, this was probably one of the strongest leather armors around while staying in lower grade materials. If I were to collect some magical beast skins with cores of similar affects tot he goblins and imps, I would probably make my own armor.

Which would probably be more effective for me than this suit made by a professional, thanks to my perks and benefits.

Only a few minutes after we had left the gate we ran into our first confrontation, stirring up three tree vermin who dropped out of a nearby young oak tree. My familiars started to run in at first but I quickly called them back. Instead I went out alone with Lana and used a few swift punches to lower their health and daze them before repeatedly casting Frostbite on their legs. Then, Lana would shatter them for me and get the kills.

Six limbs down, more to go. In this fashion, I fed Lana most of a level in easy kills while working on initiation my tougher skills. However, I did not make everything easy for her. When we ran into an event location where a group of six goblins were setting of a camp for the night, I made her go around one side and close a pincer with me by herself.

Even with some training and levels as well as her new armor, Lana received several hits for her trouble while pretty much flailing about with my Galvanized Elder Bokuto. Luckily, those hits were only worth three or four damage apiece. If not for this, I would have been pretty unhappy with how hard it was for her to kill three healthy goblins.

I could have swore she was better than this before she got to her aunt's, which must mean she has been pretty distracted and busy with everything that had been going on. Instead of getting upset, though, I simply talked to her about it after healing her few percent of missing health and worked on giving her some tips. Managing multiple targets was not easy by any means, but neither was it impossible considering the weak-minded AI and abilities of the targets in question.

Despite all of this, though, we made it safe and sound to the Elder Oak Passage just as the sun was setting into true night. Sir Beryl the giant old knight was siting next to his campfire and sword as usual, just looking straight ahead at an empty Elder Oak Passage. "Sir Beryl," I call out while walking out of the grass. "I brought someone to meet you!"

"How many more friends could you possibly have?" Sir Beryl asks with a laugh as he climbs to his feet, turning around to receive quite the shock when he sees Lana and her golden title of Delai Family Matriarch. Bowing his head low at the sight of the beautiful and heavily leather armored Lana, Sir Beryl says, "You must be the infamous Lana Delai I have heard so much about. My, so young and so pretty but already the head of a recognized family."

"Recognized, but we have no value," Lana replies with her usual bright smile and honesty. "However, that should change, soon. Aunt Mara has decided to send Hack and his friends on an expedition to find some old artifacts that will help to make the Delai family… valuable. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Sir Beryl."

"No, please, it's only us here so just Beryl is fine," Sir Beryl hurries to assure her. "I'm sorry that I do not have much to offer in the way of proper refreshments, but is there anything that I can get for you?"

"No, please don't trouble yourself," Lana reassures him quickly before coming over to the fire to take a seat on a large one-hundred-pound block of iron that I pull from my inventory to use as a chair. "As you can see, most of anything I need my wonderful retainer can provide for me. To some extent."

"To some extent," Sir Beryl agrees while laughing at the giant block of smithing material that was being used for a seat right now. "Ah, it's never dull with young Hack around, is it? Has he been training properly? I remember giving him something of a mission to accomplish for training himself."

Giving the old knight a rueful smile, I silently ask Melpomene to share just my stats as well as the skills and titles that I acquired yesterday and today. Nodding his head in approval, Sir Beryl says, "As expected. I told him to get his base Agility value above fifty and no it's almost sixty. All of these stats are so high, too, especially for a classless at your level. MY stats were like this at your state, though. But not because of titles," he makes sure to point out as an afterthought.

Giving my older friend a dry look, I say, "We get it, you could flick a cow and make it fly like a dragon at my age. Not everyone can be you, Sir Beryl."

Both Lana and Sir Beryl started laughing at my remark and the atmosphere felt good. For a little while we talked about my training and abilities before discussing the fact that I was also teaching Lana how to fight. Sir Beryl was not sure how he felt about that but when Lana explained how we actually met in detail for the first time he had nothing to say.

Then he started throwing in his opinions and advice for both of us, talking about the training they use for the guards and knights of Sierra. One of the popular exercise methods they used was called the 'city lap'. You had to run all the way around the city from the north or south gate back to the north or south gate in a single lap. That was close to ten miles if Sierra was only three miles from north to south!

I immediately fell in love with this training regime, wishing that there was somewhere in reality where I could go to do the exact same thing without getting into trouble. Most of the things Sir Beryl talked about were obviously not for someone like Lana to try doing since her stat build was so minimal but my stats were around the point where people would be able to apply for upper level guard positions or even enter the lesser ranks of knighthood if they knew the right people.

Did I bring up the fact that our missions was essentially to get me a knighthood for supporting the Delai family with my own nobility? No, I thought it would be more fun to show off a powerful holy artifact and the benefits that came with it once I actually had it instead of just talking about it. I could not wait to see the old knight's reaction.

Finally, though, talk eventually rolled around to where we were as Lana wondered why she had never heard of this tree and this place. Of course, the tree was visible from most places in the region- including the walls of Sierra- but to most people it was simply one of several giant trees in the region. This particular Elder Oak, though, guarded a goblin kingdom.

When Lana heard about this she became terrified, imagining entire armies pouring out from underground. Sir Beryl, though, reassured her of our safety not only because of his anti-goblin existence but also because of me. Apparently, Sir Beryl was more than just impressed by my feats when my team and I actually beat the survival challenge.

After hearing about how I had fought hundreds of enemies here and survived through several insane instances, Lana wanted to actually SEE me in action. I, however, did not want to simply kill goblins for show. I wanted to show Lana how to kill goblins!

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