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Chapter 196 - Always There(Thank you for your support, lordsenju!)
🕑 Added 2024-11-17 08:46:39 +0000 UTCYou completed a trial. Please choose between the classes: Leatherwork, Jeweler, and Farmer.
You obtained the Leatherworker class.
You improved the Dexterity parameter.
You unlocked the Aptitude: Master of Hides.
You unlocked the skill: Hide Treatment.
You unlocked the skill: Leather Customization.
Master of Hides: Gain additional bonus experience when crafting and enhancing leather items.
Hide Treatment: Use techniques to process and treat leather hides, enhancing their quality and properties. This skill allows you to apply special treatments that make the leather more durable, flexible, or resistant to environmental factors. Treated hides can be used to create high-quality leather armor or accessories with enhanced attributes. Cost: 05 Mana per minute.
Leather Customization: Customize leather items to fit specific needs or preferences. This skill allows you to modify leather goods, such as armor, bags, or accessories, with special features or designs. Customization can include adjustments for improved fit, added pockets, or unique patterns that enhance the item’s functionality and appearance. Cost: 07 Mana per minute.
I finally could make leather armor of decent rarity rank… I couldn’t help but sigh since my plans had been thrown off due to many circumstances around me. Still, while I had planned to obtain as much strength as possible following my original plan, I never thought that I would be this strong after five years.
‘No, my strength is still very questionable… It relies on a lot of external factors. Given how much I have suffered in recent labyrinths, I still have a long way to go.’
Besides, there was a suspicious swordsman around… one who was strong enough to defeat almost ten wannabe assassins of Clarice’s group. Well, they weren’t good at fighting as they were good at taking their targets while they weren’t aware of them, so it was hard to tell their real strength.
Regardless, I decided to return in a hurry, since I could tell that Clarice wasn’t used to how I operated. Even though she probably gained some experience making the magic ink, she doesn’t like to gain experience while grinding like me. I soon found her grumbling to herself.
“Sorry for the wait. It looks like we still have some time, but I suppose we can leave. Where can I go to make the magic ink without being bothered?”
“... We have a hideout somewhere nearby where we keep some stuff guarded. I will lead you there.”
“Why didn’t you guys use that kind of place to recover, then?”
“It isn’t suited for people to used to rest.”
I nodded, and then we left the dungeon. We had to move for a while before we reached a certain large tree. It had an entrance from above and the interior was almost completely hollow.
I thought that they had carved out the interior, but it looked like it was natural like that. It was quite convenient. It even had a bunch of rooms where gear, weapons and poisons were being stored.
We reached the bottom and soon I began to work on the process of mixing the whole thing. I made large batches of it using my cooking pot… I would have to buy a new one, but it was fine.
‘If I were an alchemist, I would buy a cauldron and make large batches of mana potions every day. I bet that would be fun…’
My build was all weird and spread out, but I believed that I was using my cards well. Still, a bunch of ideas came to mind when it comes to alchemy… I decided to discard them, since they would only bring more trouble to my life, even if they seemed interesting.
I lost the notion of time, but I made a lot of ink. I didn’t know if it was enough to last for a few years, but it was a lot more than I ever had. When it was over, I sighed in relief and then frowned when I realized that Clarice was still around.
“I thought that you had left a long time ago.”
“As if I could leave you alone in our hideout.”
“Others aside from your unit know about this place?”
“Yes.”
That seemed like trouble… then again, they probably had some supporters that come here to restock their stuff to keep them focused on their work. Someone like Clarice’s grandma. She must know what Clarice was doing, and she seemed fine with it for some reason.
Which was odd, given that her brother was doing something that would give him a lot more recognition. Maybe she knew why Clarice was doing this.
‘Come to think of it, she should know what I am as well… but she didn’t look that bothered. Maybe with age comes a lot of wisdom and understanding. Some people would think that old folk would be only stuck in their ways, but some would quickly accept other changes as natural as the passage of time.’
“Are you done? When are you going to paint the bow?”
“Ah, I have to do that, right? Let’s see, there are some things that I want to test first.”
The bow was mainly made of bones, so perhaps it could work like the amulets too. I wasn’t planning to change its shape or draw a magic circle in it, but I was considering drawing a tattoo and seeing if that can change anything. Even if it wouldn’t, nothing would change and the bow wouldn’t be damaged.
I took a certain tool from my magic bag and filled it with the magic ink, Clarice frowned when she saw that since she had never seen something like that before.
The pen was a pretty well-made, hand-carved tool made of polished, dark walnut wood. Its surface was smooth.The top of the pen is slightly wider, tapering down to a fine tip that appears almost metallic, hinting at a coating or reinforcement to ensure precision.
The pen operates using a reservoir system embedded within the wooden body. To fill it, I had unscrew the midsection to access a small chamber designed to hold the ink. The ink is pulled through capillary action to the tip, which releases it smoothly when pressure is applied to the surface. A subtle twistable ring near the tip adjusts the flow of the ink, allowing for fine or bold lines.
I made that while I was lying low before exploring the Aeloria Dominion. I didn’t know when I would have the chance to get magic ink, but I decided to make that. It was good for manual applications and automatic ones since I could easily change the amount of ink that I was used and that would fill the space in the drawings in no time, even faster than using a brush.
Only the largest bow was big enough to sustain even the most basics of tattoos, so perhaps I was wasting time here. Regardless, once it was done, I put a mana core on the tattoo and that absorbed it. In the next moment, the bow received the extra parameter Ice Affinity (Adept) and that increased the same parameter by twenty points.
“How is that even possible?”
“Breakthroughs are made by challenging what it appears to be possible. Since the bow is made or monster parts, it would make sense that it can make it work like this.”
I also added a slot for the mana core in the middle of the tattoo, to make that work like the amulets. Still, I could tell that my high dexterity and then open helped with that. The ink was being absorbed pretty fast by the bone. I wondered if it was because I was using my mana… regardless, a lot of requirements were necessary for this to work. No wonder no one managed to pull this off until now.
It was time to paint the bow, but it looked like I would be doing a lot more than that… since the ink was being absorbed pretty fast, I wouldn’t be painting just the surface of the bow. The whole weapon will turn dark inside out thanks to it. I was fine with that since it made the bow look more impressive… I will have to keep it hidden unless when it comes time to use it, though.
It took a while for the whole thing to end. It consumed a lot of ink as well but I had enough to last me for a while.
“It should be mid afternoon already… we can’t rest that much, but we should before moving at night again. Glacien also should be hungry.”
“Perhaps I should just leave her waiting for me outside. Instead of letting her cooped in that place all the time.”
“Well, aren’t you a caring owner?”
“I treat those I can trust well.”
The moment the words left my mouth, I felt a bit of regret. They hung in the air heavier than I intended, as though I’d just openly declared that I didn’t trust Clarice. It wasn’t entirely untrue. Trust didn’t come easily to me. In fact, I’d learned long ago not to trust anyone completely, not even my own shadow. Life had taught me that even the most reliable things could let you down, and this cautious mindset had become second nature.
But Clarice wasn’t just anyone. She had proven herself time and again to be an ally, someone I could rely on when things got tough. So, while it was true that I didn’t trust her entirely, it wasn’t because of anything she’d done wrong. It was more about me and my inability to let my guard down fully. Still, I should have kept that thought to myself. Saying it out loud was a mistake, one that might make her feel unfairly judged or unappreciated, and that was the last thing I wanted.
Clarice didn’t seem that bothered by it since she also didn’t trust me completely. Unlike before, where she had no concept of personal space, now she kept her distance very clearly from me. She was probably thinking that any physical touch would awaken my thirst for blood… she didn’t know that it was always there.
Comments
ThoMiCroN
I would buy a caldron->cauldron*
