ShanDeRad
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Book 2: Chapter 24
🕑 Added 2024-05-15 14:04:30 +0000 UTCThe moment he got out of the dungeon, he couldn’t help the sigh of relief, he immediately started to warm up, and the safety he felt from escaping that last attack was nearly overwhelming. The others were standing at the dungeon entrance as well, having just been sent back after their 30 minutes, all looking blankly in the air, obviously reading the message from finishing the dungeon.
*Calculating dungeon reward grade*
Wave 20 cleared. Adjusting reward grade.
Dungeon entered alone. Adjusting reward grade.
Dungeon reward grade: B
*Distributing reward at B level*
*10 Silver coin*
*Trisciolon Power Stone*
*[Advanced] Trisciolon Power Stone: A stone formed from three symbiotic energies, bound together through their completed power circuit. The stone is capable of holding three separate stores of mana, able to be unleashed only once per differing power before needing to be recharged.*
He had to admit, the loot was better than anything he expected, but he had broken through to getting a B grade so the reward should be better than anything else he had gotten before. The solo bonus really helped him in getting across the line. That and moving through to the 21st wave.
“You ready to go sell loot?” Gabe walked over and asked him.
“Yeah. How did you guys go?” curious as to what wave they had managed to get too.
“Have a look and see for yourself.” Gabe pointed to the dungeon leader board. His name was still at the top, showing he complete the 20th wave, just under him was Viv and the others, all having managed to complete the 15th wave, a great accomplishment, especially considering they didn’t have his advantages when it came to affinities.
They all went to sell their loot together, and as they arrived there was a small queue, not enough for them to turn around and come back later, but enough for them to have a moment to chat. “What do you want us to keep?” Viv asked him, referring to the loot they got.
“All the boss loot. I have some ideas. What did you guys get as a reward form the dungeon?”
“We got C grade, which wasn’t too bad. The reward was a vial of dust each, apparently ground up from a space rock. Not sure what you could do with it though. It didn’t really have much of a description.”
Shaun though it over, considering whether he could use it or not. In the end he told them to keep it for now so he could think on it further to see if he could apply it to something he could craft. When it was finally their turn Ulorid, the goblin was behind the counter and greeted him warmly.
“Master Shaun, It is always my pleasure to serve you. How may I help?” The goblin spoke to him.
“Just selling loot really, but I have some questions too if that okay? We can start with the loot first.”
He sold everything he wanted to, getting another 8 silver coins. The others did the same but got less, Viv handling it for the entire team. When it was time where he could ask questions he started with the easiest.
“Ulorid, I have just recently crafted some armour pieces for Eric here.” He gestured at Eric to come forth. “If it was going to be sold, how much would you pay for it.” Eric gave him a shocked look, obviously thinking he was going to have it sold. “We aren’t actually selling it, I just want to know the price in case I want to sell something similar in the future.” That calmed Eric down, realising what the point of the question was. If he had time and needed money he could craft more pieces and sell them, hopefully for more money that what it would cost to craft them.
“Let me see here.” Ulorid moved around the counter and came to inspect each piece of armour Eric wore. “This is reinforced armour, not just with the metals used but also earth, correct?” the goblin asked him, which he nodded to. “There are also a few spells enchanted into the pieces, very useful spells in fact. Good choices if I may say so.” The goblin did a second look at each of the pieces before standing back. “They are expertly crafted, at the very edge of advanced, nearly moving into epic. If these were sold as a set I would be willing to pay 1.5 gold for them. You are truly gifted Master Shaun.”
He considered it for a moment, if he bought all the material separately for armour, and spent maybe 2-3 days crafting in his spare time, it would cost him maybe half a gold coin to make it all, and in return he would receive 1 gold coin in profit. “Thank you Ulorid. And what would this be worth?” He pulled out the stone he just got as a reward from the dungeon and handed it to the goblin.
“Oh my, that is a good dungeon reward. I would pay 1.1 gold coin just for the stone. If crafted into something and enhanced, just like your friends armour, I would be willing to pay more than double depending on what was made and how it was incorporated.” Ulorid said, handing back the stone.
“Thank you, I think that’s it from me. Its always a pleasure seeing you Ulorid.” They finished goodbyes and walked out of the shop. They had a bit of an audience, and many of the people gathered looked at Eric’s armour, completely envious as to what he was wearing. They all knew he had crafted it, but what they now all realised was that being friends with him had more perks than just the attention from the clans, they would be kitted out with some of the finest equipment that could be bought in the tutorial.
As they walked back they got more stares, but he ignored it all. When they made it to Shaun’s apartment they all put everything they had from the dungeon onto his table. “What are you going to do now?”
“Craft the rest of Eric’s gear. So, I will be needing it back.” Shaun turned to Eric. “Strip it off mate.” This caused Gabe to giggle like a child, the others just snickered at him. “Before you all go, do you know who I will be working on next?”
“Yeah, Li. We need a way to keep her in the fight for longer, as soon as she runs out of mana she needs to wait a while for her to regain enough to re-join the fight.” Viv answered for them.
“Okay, then I need a gem, something that can store mana. Its up to you Li to find one that feels right and you can afford. My advice, invest in a good gem now, it will help you way into the future rather than getting something second rate that will need to be upgraded before you even make it through the E grade.”
“Anything else?”
“Yeah, Li. What spells do you use, what’s your focus? Short range, long range, area of attack or more one on one?”
Li became uncomfortable at the questions, she was rather shy when it came to him, he had noticed it wasn’t the same way with the others though. “I have a few spells I use. The first is Mana Blast, an upgrade on Mana Bolt which causes a lot of destruction in a large area where it hits. I also have some other spells that allow me to boost the attributes of myself and other, although I have only just started really using them. I also have mana shift, which allows me to swap places with someone or something else. Redirection, which allows for an attack to be sent from me to another. Lastly Mana blade, I can create a blade of pure mana, which I can fire at a monster from a distance or wield like a katana.”
“She is positively lethal, when she has mana anyway.” Gabe said in a cheerful tone.
“Okay I can work with that. Go, find a gem you like, save for it, buy it, and then we will make sure you can stay in the battle much longer.” He gave everyone a look and realising that there was nothing further to say. “Everyone out, I have crafting to do. Except Eric, he is stuck with me for a while.”
Once everyone left, leaving just him and Eric, he asked Shaun what he was supposed to do, his reply was simple, he stands there and doesn’t interrupt him. He spent the next several hours crafting the base of the boots and greaves before shooing him off so he could finish it all by himself. All he needed was to get the shape right and make sure everything fit, he even made a few adjustments to the rest of his armour to make sure it fit better. When he was finally alone he got to enchanting and reinforcing the last of Eric’s armour. He had already thought about what he was going to do. In one boot he enchanted it with an earthen spell, meant to cause a mini earthquake when he channelled his mana into it and slammed his foot down. The other he enchanted with an air spell, one that let him create a platform of air, very similar to what Shaun himself could do, but would take more energy and focus for Eric. But being able to redirect yourself in mid air had its benefits for a warrior like Eric, so he figured it was worth it.
When every last piece of the armour was done, he wanted to try one more thing, at the moment every piece was separate, only being held on by his body, but, if he could find a way to connect each piece of armour when they were all worn, like creating a circuit through the armour, than the power it would hold would be magnified.
He spent the next hour sketching out his idea on paper, when he was happy with the final design he started enchanting connecting runes from one piece to the next, adding in runic lines that flowed throughout the interior of the armour, enchanting further protective and barrier runes into it. It would only work if Eric wore every piece, but he decided to just go with his design, making it so that the whole was better than just the separate parts. When the last rune was engraved he ended up spending more time that ne wanted to infusing it all with mana, but the end result was more than worth it.
*Successful New Creation – Bonus Experience provided*
*[Epic] United Knights Armour – A set of amour that is uniquely bound together by a runic system. When the United armour is worn as a whole, the suit has a sustained resistance to all attacks, greatly increasing the protection of the Knight. The armour offers a passive bonus to strength, dexterity, endurance and vitality when worn, ensuring the knights success in battle. The armour is enchanted with multiple spells to aid the knight in battle.*
*Profession: Elemental Creator has levelled up by 2 levels. [Advanced] Elemental Creator has reached Level 35. +10 Int, +4 Wil, +6 Per, +10 Soul *
*Race: Human has levelled up by +1 levels. Human (E) has reached Level 38. +16 Ap gained*
The level gains were fantastic, 2 profession levels and a race level. But it was completely overshadowed by the fact that he had now made his second epic level item. The United Knights Armour was better than he had expected, the bonus to all of the physical attributes when worn was something he had never seen before. It didn’t say by how much, it could be only a point or two in each, but still it was fantastic.
Shaun couldn’t wait to see Eric’s reaction, to the point where he jumped up and ran to the door, as soon as he opened it though he realised he didn’t need to bother hunting him down, the entire team was standing out the front, arguing about whether they should interrupt him.
Shaun cleared his throat, and instantly they all stopped arguing about who was going to interrupt his crafting. “You here for me?” He asked them with a smile.
“We didn’t want to interrupt you. But we were hoping you could let Eric have some of the armour back? Only if you don’t need it anymore though! We get that crafting takes a lot of time and focus. But we were wanting to go for another dungeon run and didn’t want to go in without his protection.” Gabe stammered out the words, which was funny as out of everyone Gabe was usually the one to just come barging in.
“Actually, you guys are right on time. It done.” Shaun moved out of the doorway and let them all in. They all walked over to the table where the full set of armour was. “Hope you like it.” He couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. The armour was better than anything that could be sold in the tutorial, the stores had some epic equipment but nothing like this and it was so expensive that no one would be able to afford it even if they pulled together every coin they had available.
Once they all got a good look at the armour, they didn’t say a word, the just stared at it. It was captivating, but that wasn’t what they were staring at. Just like his gauntlet the armour radiated power, it could be felt in the air.
“Shaun, this is…….” Eric started.
“Epic, right?” He chuckled at his own joke, the others didn’t seem to notice though. “Put it on. I want to know what bonus you get in your stats.”
“I cant take this.” Eric said it him, sounding a bit sad.
“Ummm, why? I literally made it for you.” What the hell is happening now? Put on the armour.
“Shaun, its epic ranked armour!” Eric yelled at him.
“Yeah, cool right. Its only my second time making something epic, the boost in my profession levels was amazing!”
“Shaun, I don’t think you get it.” Viv started, “If it was advanced level we could have dealt with that, it would have been impressive, and more than any of us could have ever afforded in the tutorial. But epic ranked? Shaun, it is more than anyone could afford for years, even if we did nothing but dungeons, selling our loot and saving every coin, we couldn’t afford it.”
“Okay sure. But no one is asking you to pay for it. Its literally free! Imagine what you’re going to be able to do with it! The monsters will have no chance! And the tournament? Good luck to anyone that tries to get through that!” Shaun couldn’t hold back his sigh, “Put it on Eric, its yours. Don’t get caught up in the cost if you had to buy it because you don’t. I made this for a friend. For you.”
“Your sure about this?” Eric asked, needing to make sure that this was actually happening.
“Yes! Now put it on, I want to know what the bonuses are!” Jeez, come on! What are the bonuses!
It took a minute for Eric to move, but when he did he started attaching all of the pieces to himself. When he was finally done, and the last piece was put in place, the entire suit of armour started to glow and shift on him, covering every weak spot he had in a barrier of pure energy. Eventually the suit settled and the glow stopped, but it didn’t make it look any less impressive.
“Talk about my knight in shinning armour.” Gabe was the only one that spoke, but he was practically drooling over Eric, not really paying attention to the fact anyone else was in the room.
“Well, how does it feel?” Shaun questioned him.
“Better than anything you could possibly imagine.” Eric had a dreamy look in his eye, completely taken over by the rush of power running through the suit. “My stats have increased, it looks like by about 20%. It’s incredible.”
That would do it. He thought, percentage based increases always came with one hell of a sense of euphoria, and it seemed this would be the highest the Eric had ever experienced.
“Alright, to the dungeon then!” Viv yelled at everyone to get them moving, breaking the hypnotic trance that Eric had placed on them.
He was curious as to what impact it would have on his fighting ability in the dungeon, but he wasn’t going to join them. He was overdue for his second dungeon run of the day so would go in alone. He doubted he would be able to go further than last time as his mana was pretty low, but he could go in for the loot.
