Chapter 17: Overpowered Armor
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["You did an excellent job on that equipment, brat. That beautiful boy will be head over heels for you! At the end of the day, the best way to buy someone's heart is with money and valuable treasures! Hahahaha!"]
The Heavenly Demon started laughing inside Vlad's head, but he ignored his cringy statement. He had only invested in Chris because it was convenient, and, well, he was a friend. Or he wanted to believe that.
Chris had also helped him earn real-life money through the Livestream and had also pretty much given most of the drops, even though he could have easily asked for half of them as part of the livestream payment and Paul would have only had to agree to him.
So, in a way, Paul felt indebted to Chris, although he hated to admit it. He'll also need his help to livestream more because there was no way he would be able to do it all on his own; he lacked the guts for that as someone with social anxiety.
"I merely did this to pay back for his help and friendship, nothing else... Also, it's creepy how you say all these things out loud; do you have any shame?" Paul sighed as he was molding the liquified metals and fusing Phantasmal Obsidian Steel with the last Mithril Medal he had.
["What? Of course, I am! I am the Heavenly Demon! There is no shame for me; I am a shameless bastard that stole the Heavenly Treasury, hahaha!"]
"Yeah, yeah…"
Paul ignored him as his Avatar's eyes shone bright red in surprise. This happened whenever vampires got excited; their eyes gave out a small, red glint of light.
And it was because right in front of him, the alchemy cauldron had successfully merged his Phantasmal Obsidian Steel with Mithril, creating an upgraded version of the metal.
It didn't change its name, but its color became slightly clearer, which Vlad found amusing.
"Interesting; it has gained some of the Mithril properties; though, it is too little Mithril compared to the steel ratio, but that's as much as I can do right now."
He quickly moved on to pour the liquid metal into the molds. He wanted full-body armor, so he had several pieces of mold arranged already, mostly taken from the Heavenly Treasury.
The armor of Murim was similar in terms of functions, though its aesthetics were similar to Chinese armor from ancient times, which Vlad actually liked.
It would give him a distinct appearance from the rest, and although he was shy and didn't like standing out too much, it was fine with the equipment.
Who doesn't like to brag about having shiny new equipment in an MMO?
"Now…"
As the liquid metal entered the molds and took shape, he quickly grabbed the other materials and started synthesizing them into different shapes or forms.
He crushed a dozen beast cores into dust and poured it into the metal before it was to cool down and harden, enhancing the metal to become capable of conducting large quantities of Arcana.
This, coupled with the actual beast cores embedded once it hardens, will probably make the Arcana pool in the armor even higher.
Or so he believed; he was still testing things, but he was having a lot of fun doing so.
He had never played a game that was so detailed before. Even other VR games with crafting elements were very basic.
Usually, you would go through an automatic animation and combine materials into pre-designed items.
But this game was different; one could make any custom item, and the game would help the user make whatever they imagined a reality.
Since he was young, Paul had always loved survival and crafting games with RPG elements. His favorite game, which he played for many hours through his harsh childhood to cope with all the problems and lose himself in a fantasy world, was usually Terracraft.
Terracraft was a perfect blend of RPG, Open World, Crafting, Survival, Collecting, Monster Taming, and more. It had everything, and it was perfect.
Even though right now it would be considered a game with outdated graphics, Paul still plays it occasionally with old friends through online co-op.
"But isn't this even better than Terracraft?" He wondered with a warm smile. "It's so much fun!"
After he was done modifying the metal, he quickly activated the alchemy cauldron and imbued it with an ice spell, making the liquid it created very cold.
FRRSSSH…!
The metal rapidly cooled down and hardened instantly. After that, Paul took out each armor piece and started working on all the technicalities and small things alchemy couldn't easily produce.
Using the tools he had obtained from the Heavenly Treasury; he refined his crafted armor while embedding beast cores in the crevices.
The largest beast core he had, belonging to the Obsidian Skeleton Lord, was placed in the chest plate, hidden inside two hard metal layers.
For the embedded core to not break or something, he added a cushioning element similar to a paste that would harden and secure the jewels so they would not move around no matter what.
This paste was made by using alchemy, of course, combining the bones, cartilages, and blood of all the monsters, including the Obsidian Bones.
"Now, Runic Engravement..."
As he started engraving runes using the knowledge he gained from his beginner magic book, he multi-tasked, cooling down the rings, bracelets, and necklaces he had made.
In the game, there was no equipment slot, so players were free to abuse the system and equip as many items as possible over their bodies.
However, the stronger the equipment was, the more their Aura of Arcana would become, which could clash against the player's own Arcana, creating a disruption that would make magic weaker and weigh down on the user, slowing them down a lot.
Essentially, if you had too much magic, you couldn't equip too many magic items without a lot of penalties, but that wasn't a problem for Vlad, whose stats were perpetually lowered by 90%.
One ring for each finger, two necklaces, two earrings, two bracelets—this was his current plan, and they were all getting done, cooling down over the molds.
Each individual accessory would only give a little boost, but combined, they could greatly enhance his Arcana and all other stats!
"Phew… Armor done!"
FLASH!
The armor pieces all melded together into a single full-body armor set as Paul finished his last synthesis. Slowly emerging out of the bubbling water of the cauldron, Vlad gently placed the entire armor set over the table.
Ding!
[Congratulations! You have successfully synthesized the [Vampire Arcanist Knight Full-Body Armor (A Grade)] x1!]
[The Subclass Skill: [Sewing (D): Lv3] has Leveled Up!]
"It's done…!"
Vlad looked at his new armor with utter fascination; he had painted it with the blood of the vampire bats, giving it a dark red color.
The beast cores were all well hidden inside the armor; even though it looked a lot like ancient Chinese armor, he didn't mind; it was actually rather cool.
The Full Body Armor included a chest plate, a helmet, gloves, and even armored boots. Using the game interface, and after storing the armor inside his inventory, he automatically equipped everything.
FLASH!
His body was quickly covered by the crimson armor, from head to toe. The first thing he felt was the weight of the armor, which almost made him fall to his knees.
Despite how much he tried to make it lighter, it was still several kilograms weighing over his already weak body.
"Ugh… {Lightweight}!"
However, he had already thought about a solution ahead of time.
The chest plate shone brightly as an invisible aura of winds covered his entire body, including the armor.
Suddenly, it became very lightweight, to the point where it wasn't bothersome anymore.
This was a must-have spell he had to imbue into the armor so he could carry his body around with it!
Even though he couldn't walk properly right now and would also need to rely on Float, this armor would still weigh his body down too much.
Thankfully, there were a lot of useful Tier 1 to Tier 3 spells in the book he read. Most of them were often not really used, as magicians went for just the basic defense and offense spells.
But these spells were all surprisingly good for helping redeem the flaws of equipment!
"It's perfect; I can move just fine! Holy sh*t, I'm a fully armored knight now!"
Paul sounded a bit cringy, but he was finally living one of his fantasies of wearing full-body armor made completely out of steel and not just some fake armor made of plastic.
He was thankful Chris wasn't around to make fun of him.
["That's decent armor, but it's a shame. If you didn't have such a crippled body, you could have just strengthened your body to be as hard as armor through body cultivation."]
"I know, and this is why I made the armor to begin with."
After testing the armor out, he quickly decided to take a look at the armor's status, while he quickly started to finish his accessories. Embedding a max of three beast cores each, with tiny runic engravements using the Skill of the same name.
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[Vampire Arcanist Knight Full-Body Armor (Helmet, Chest, Arms, Gloves, Legs, Boots)]
{Item Type}: [Armor] [Full Body Set] [Combined Set]
{Item Quality}: [A Grade]
{Item Requirement}: [Vampire Only, 5000+ Blood Power, and Soul Aether.]
{Item Durability}: [80.000/80.000]
{Item Effects}: [Arcana]: [30.000/30.000] [Physical Defense]: [15.000] [Magical Defense]: [7.000] [Strength]: [+1500] [Vitality]: [+1500]
{Runic Engravements}: [Tier 1 Life Magic: Sharpen Senses] (Helmet) [Tier 1 Wind Spell: Lightweight] [Tier 2 Fire Spell: Blazing Aura] (Chest) [Tier 1 Curse Magic: Strength Lowering Curse] [Tier 2 Earth Magic: Stone Fist] (Gloves) [Tier 2 Light Magic: Shining Beam] (Legs) [Tier 1 Wind Spell: Winds Of Speed] [Tier 1 Wind Spell: Float] (Boots)
{Item Abilities}
[Arcanist Knight's Armor]: When all set pieces are equipped together, it increases All Stats Bonuses by 10%, Magic Damage Dealt by 15%, and decreases Arcana cost of Spells below Tier 3 by 10%. When conjuring Spells, Residual Arcana will accumulate inside the Armor, which can then be released as a [Magic Shockwave] against foes, dealing 50% Damage based on maximum Blood Power and Arcana Stats. Cooldown: 30 Seconds.
[Phantasmal Vampiric Armor]: Whenever the Armor receives Damage to its Durability, it will accumulate Phantasmal Vampiric Essence based on damage taken, which can then be used to Summon one [Blood Phantom Clone], which will copy 50% of the user's Stats and Abilities (without including any debuff or buff). Cooldown: 1 Hour after Clone is destroyed.
{Description}
An incredible set of armor specifically created for Vampires who had comprehended the power of the Soul, Arcanist Knights. Using this armor, their magical powers will be enhanced, and they will even be able to summon a clone of themselves to aid them in battle.
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"It's insane… I did this?! Holy fuck!"
Paul was screaming, he was sure that if he had live-streamed these equipment stats, he would have surely gotten DMs from popular Players wanting to buy them or even commission them for themselves!
The bonus stats were amazing, the Durability was really high, it had a lot of Arcana and spells, and the two Abilities were outright broken in their own right.
"This and the accessories should be able to carry me to midgame without problems…" he smiled.
But above all, what he was very interested in was the "Clone"!
It inherited all his Abilities, including the Skills acquired from Gluttony, and it also inherited 50% of his Stats.
Without the penalties of his Flaw!
It meant the clone was actually stronger than him. Without including that, it would have no equipment of its own.
"I think I am understanding the way to slightly circumvent my issue, Heavenly Demon," he thought. "To create clones that inherit my stats without the flaws is one... Is there any clone creation technique I could learn?"
["You'll need to get your Soul at Tier 3 for that, but yes, there's one called Shadow Clone Technique…"]
"Perfect… It looks like we have something to aim for now."
And just as he was thinking about these things, he was also multi-tasking, getting his accessories done. Naturally, doing this delicate work would be impossible IRL, but with the skills assisting his every move, it became surprisingly fast and easy.
After twenty minutes, he was done with all his equipment.
Each one of his fingers had a ring—ten rings in total; his neck had two necklaces; and his arms had two bracelets. They all looked very similar, were made of black metal, and were embedded with beast cores.
But anybody who was to see him would call him insane; no player could ever be able to withstand so much Arcana flowing into their bodies.
Unless they had none at all or almost nothing,.
FLASH!
Vlad's Aura of Arcana, which was deep azure, surged from his body, overflowing his surroundings.
Chris, who was training outside, felt a chill on his back, quickly looking back into the manor.
"W-What is that? What did Paul make now? Holy sh*t, I gotta see this!"
He quickly flew to see Paul, only to find a towering, crimson-colored knight standing in the middle of the room.
"Paul?!" Chris was amazed by his new appearance.
"…I can't move; help me."
"Eh?"
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