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"When you stare at me like that, it makes things really uncomfortable," Stonewall remarks with a hollowly echoing voice from inside the heavily plated mobile fortress helmet that he was wearing.

[Ancient Night Tragedy's Mobile Fortress Suit

PATK: 118

PDEF:512

MDEF: 256

+40 Strength

+20 Endurance

+20 Agility

+20 Intelligence

+20 Willpower

+20 Luck

Critical Survivor: Survive a killing critical hit with 1HP 2x a day and 4x a night. Uses recharge during inactive cycle. Active Uses: (2/2)

Set Bonus- 1pc: 10% increased awareness for the fortress and 5% to its defenders to detect assassination attempts, +5% more for defenders wearing any piece of Night Slayer's armor. 3Pc: +15% PDEF/MDEF and +5% to its defenders, +5% more to any defender wearing any three pieces of Night Slayer's armor. 5Pc:+15% PATK/MATK to the fortress and +5% to its defenders, +5% more to any defender wearing any five pieces of Night Slayer's armor. 7Pc: Ancient Night Tragedy's Mobile Fortress Suit now has an overall shared durability of 25000 and its defenders gain +100HP, for any defenders wearing a full suit of Night Slayer's armor a one-second barrier worth 100HP will appear every three seconds to potentially take damage instead of the Night Slayer's armor and its wearers.

Description: Crafted from the ancient steel and primitive processes of a ruined empire and its natural enemies, the Ancient Night Tragedy's Mobile Fortress Suit reminded the gods of mortal history and the lack of strength that led to their cataclysmic downfall. In the hopes of avoiding another tragedy for the mortal race, the gods led by Melpomene's inspiration have lent their power to the current world of mortals to help them grow through strength and inspiration. All creatures of the night have 10% damage reduction in the face of this armor- stacks with Night Slayer's Suit 5% damage reduction]

"I honestly couldn't care less," I reply while simply smiling at the appraisal window that appeared every time I inspect Stonewall in his giant suit of armor.

The armor itself had all the same designs as the Night Slayer's Suit except for the outer layer. This layer on the upper body and sleeves was made up of mostly just numerous broad overlapping plates of long overlapping scales for the sleeves. In the middle of Stonewall's chest, though, was a single large diamond shaped plate ornately set with inlaid chitin and kobold parts framed in solid gold inlay.

Like the upper armor, the fronts of the thighs and shins bore the main plates while the others were overlapping outward from them. The thigh plates were dressed in the same fancy inlay patterns and settings but the shin plates bore small stakes just like the mobile fortress wall shield. Each spike was surrounded in primitive pieces and more gold inlay.

Thanks to all of the arcanite and immense mana used in making the armor, the steel came out with a milky white coloring similar to white flames which contrasted well with the few hundred gold coins we melted down for the inlay.

Like the Night Slayer's Masked Helm, the mobile fortress suit had a masked helm with a large forehead and face plating but Stonewall's face had a more monstrous design with the entire helm bearing concentric circles of gold gilded teeth and claws with all of the spaces filled in by black chitin to hopefully make the impression of a demonic lamprey's mouth for a face.

The back of Stonewall's armor had all downward facing plates as opposed to the sideways angling outward plates reaching around from the front of his body. Along the spine here were the ornate plates, two rows of spearhead-like scale plates each ornately set with gilded parts and chitin for designs similar to magic symbols. Sadly, these 'runes' had no effect.

As far as the combat role of tank was concerned, Ancient Night Tragedy's Mobile Fortress Suit was literally the most perfectly designed armor for that role. Not only was its defensive properties huge, it came with a survival ability that protected him from critical-kills. In order to damage him in general nearly every attack would have to be aimed at a vital point to score critical damage, making him naturally resistant to death in general on the battlefield.

On top of the limit broken stat enchantments, the set bonuses of this holy anointed armor were the absolute best for a defensive support role. His presence alone in that suit of armor empowered his allies with increased buffs for the companion armor of the same generation. There was just one problem.

Off to the side of the mobile fortress suit's inspection window was another window that I had been ignoring since the creation of the suit that had followed long after its rewards. Initially we all got our roles and perks as designers and assistants, but then we all got extra rewards that ended with extra titles. We were the first players to not only make any legendary item but also the first players to make any divine artifacts.

We made a whole-ass suit of them. We got one legendary crafting title and perk, upgraded crafting skills, gold, experience, more reputations, and finally a system question window.

[Bygone Era VR would like to make a world announcement concerning: Ancient Night Tragedy's Mobile Fortress Suit. Do you approve? YES/NO]

The others were all still debating about whether or not to go through with something like this even though I wanted to just say no. Did I release the information about the Elder Oak? Hell no, I kept that shit to myself like someone with a brain.

Just like all the other little tips and tricks that were only now starting to be released by people seeking their fifteen minutes of fame, I kept my shit secret. Why? Because now everybody was swarming the forums for information like I had done for crafting methods and were raising the bar of the average player's abilities.

If we released the information about our first legendary creations without being able to assuredly create more with cost effective means, we would just be noobs seeking attention. Once we inspire others with any information about the equipment, no end of money and labor will be poured into trying to match us by the real world business work shops involved in the game.

Even with the Divine Designer's abilities and the ensuing limit breaker perk, I could not simply shit legendary materials and equipment. The materials we were currently using were already subpar except for the metal itself. The ancient scrap had a high rating and grading.

The others, though, were anxious for their own fifteen minutes of fame. They were all now WELL within the top one hundred reputation rankings thanks to crafting and they were getting eager for more. If the eleven of us formed a clan right now, we would be in the a few different top twenty and ten spots. In reputation we would probably be in the top three.

However, Tragedy's Travelers was still just a party even if it already had one forced announcement. As far as the big names are concerned, we were just a bunch of lucky kids with a couple of privately sponsored players. If they felt like they needed to, they could pick the party apart with recruitment or even threats.

Once we became a clan, we became contenders. Poaching my people was the least of my worries because I knew many of these original gaming groups came from previous games and one of them was Monochrome. Quite a few of them were part of the reason that game was ruined, whether by actively taking part in the destruction of the NPC or through simple inaction.

Now that we had finished making our new equipment, though, it was time for us to start moving on with our mission to Winter Wood. The wintry forest was already just a couple dozen miles away, we would be there by tomorrow afternoon if we traveled through the night. I wanted to get on the road and move forward with the mission to get a knighthood and my own divine artifact.

After half an hour of singing their own praises, Tragedy's Traveler's finally decided to silence the world announcement. However, like with the Elder Oak, the system informed us that the game would release the information in a week. This was not too bad because I kind of like the idea of that world announcement even more.

'World Announcement, Tragedy's Traveler's made the most legendary, legendary suit of armor. A week ago. Thank you, have a nice day'.

Everybody would lose their shit at having been beat to the punch. And then they would probably quit the game after the next sentence. 'A week ago'.

I was probably offline or asleep for the Elder Oak announcement, but the other players would always wonder if it was a week in the game or a week in reality! Everyone who already experienced such a thing themselves would know, but everybody else would be flabbergasted. I, myself, had already missed two weeks in reality of such announcements.

After cleaning up our messes around the smithy, we bid our new friend farewell after receiving promises of welcoming us and our people any time. I informed him bluntly that we would gladly use his services while in the area, including help in finding land to settle a base or campground of sorts.

He was only too happy to oblige while presenting me with a set of gifts for my party.

With the Hounder's lodge at the beginning of the region for a basic adventuring outpost, the grove in the middle for supplies and trade, we could make a small compound for players to rest, train, and privately trade in around this village outside of Winter Wood as a final outpost between the noob lands to the intermediate wilderness before reaching a level fifty proving grounds of sorts.

Tragedy's Traveler's will have already done all we could to discover all of the dungeon and permanent event locations in the area, but the idea of pioneering would still be present in every other person's mind. Our current mission was basically a main story quest to unlock the Winter Wood for the rest of the game. Anything we did in here would probably bring us more levels, materials, reputation, and general notoriety.

I was both excited and anxious about finding new materials because of all the crafting that would be involved in it, but there was little choice to be had in this if we wanted armor that would once again remain par for future courses.

After leaving the smithy we went to retrieve our wagons and dragons where I ended up once again paying the same amount of gold I told myself that I would not be spending. The dragons looked like they had been taken good care of and were even cleaned regularly so their usually dull scales almost shined. The kids earned it.

After making a few pit stops to replenish some of our losses by selling Dense Web construction material and my own lesser giantula silks in town, we left with multiple reinforced relationships that would help set the foundation for expanding the Delai Family's and our own reaches in the game world.

Despite my own wishes, though, the others wanted to continue milking crafting buffs and experience for making more of our silk light armors to sell instead of Fast Traveling. As much as I wanted to conserve time and make up for losses through hunting monsters for the passive gold loots, I knew that these high tiered silk suits would be worth a lot of money to a wide variety of classes with their combined defense ratings.

Surprisingly, though, the once simply named Resistant Gigantula Silk armor pieces with rare blue names were now epic suits named Silk Soldier's Standard. It became apparent that making scrap goods like the original resistant silk armor would have to be left for lesser craftsmen and NPC like Canley. The 'Standard' even had three set affects for magic resistance, movement speed, and then physical defense!

Even though this was a simply designed piece of armor made with basic magics, being Divine Assistants and limit breakers made them into a brand line of epic armor suits. Their overall ratings were even nearing the sixth tier in both defense ratings. If YOURS TRULY were to make such a suit, it really just might come out legendary.

So I did. I used nothing but magic to almost telekinetically manage and transmute the tools and materials to create a simply seven-piece suit of armor just like the original scrap silk armor I made at the start.

[Willpower raised by 1]

[Intelligence raised by 1]

[Successfully Crafted: Captain's Silk Standard]

[Saved Quick Crafting Recipe: Captain's Silk Standard]

[+2000XP]

[+2000 Expert Tailoring XP]

[Expert Tailoring Leveled]

[+100PX]

[+2000 Expert Enchanting XP]

[Expert Enchanting Leveled]

[+100XP]

Unlike the bright purple name of 'Silk Soldier's Standard', the 'Captain's Silk Standard' had a gleaming purple name that almost appeared somewhat silvery in color as opposed to the gold of legendary. Obviously, this was supposed to be some kind of epic-plus or quasi-legendary craft. As well, I could not simply shit legendary.

Despite this, I made everybody make ten more of their silk soldier suits apiece while I spent only a few hours crafting the quasi-captain suits just for the sake of farming experience and stat increases. Much as I expected, even though I made ten more suits I only got half as many increases in my magic stats and two more character levels. This, though, was still an extravagant bounty at my current stat amounts.

By the time the others were all averaging up to forty-five in levels, I was confident that our entire group had claimed a huge chunk of the ranking slots for levels at the moment. However, I did not let them keep abusing such a system or spend their stat points. Instead, I used some spare odds and ends to make some simple steel accessory rings with each of my stat enchantments for them to break and learn from.

Then I set about transmuting a synthetic pristine mana crystal into each of their armor pieces and applying a plus-eighteen stat enchantment on their armor. The seventh enchantment, though was a second Luck enchantment for everybody to maintain a certain stat balance and improve our overall looting. These simple and singular enchantments granted everybody one hundred and twenty-six stat points, one point more than twenty-five levels.

Once they managed to learn my stat-up enchantments worth fifteen points, I gave them each two ancient steel rings and pristine synthetics apiece to make their own stat rings. I, however, simply sat around and lectured or speculated while the others practiced at studying and enchanting raw materials because I was already at the edge of level fifty and wanted to hold myself back until they got a little closer. I wanted it to be a team thing.

*