These are still novice recipes, though, I thought to myself as I shifted a Tunic I was working on. How will level 10 recipes change? Maybe we’ll need to find Iron or a new material? Will I learn a whole new batch of recipes with new materials I’ll need to look for, or maybe the recipes will stay the same and I’ll just be able to substitute other materials?
I gradually worked my way through the rest of the armor as I created and discarded theories in my head, crafting Tunics, Helmets, and Pants. Roughly forty-five minutes later, with me eying my experience bar the entire way, I was rewarded with another skill up in Leatherworking followed by a wall of information.
Your skill in Leatherworking has increased to Level 10!
Congratulations! You have completed the Novice crafting levels and have begun the journey to master your craft!
You have earned the right to call yourself an: Apprentice Leatherworker!
“Ah!” I broke into a smile as I quickly read the information appearing in my vision, quickly focusing on the next paragraph.
Crafting progression is broken up into seven separate tiers, which reflect the amount of skill you possess in a given Tradeskill.
The tier and skill progression is as follows:
Novice – Skill Levels: 1 to 9
Apprentice – Skill Levels: 10 to 29
Journeyman – Skill Levels: 30 to 49
Expert – Skill Levels: 50 to 69
Master – Skill Levels: 70 to 89
Grandmaster – Skill Levels: 90 to 99
Legendary Grandmaster – Skill Level: 100+
As an Apprentice, a new crafting attribute is now available on all crafted items – Item Quality.
Item Quality represents the craftsmanship that has gone into the item as well as the potency of materials used to construct it. This attribute can positively or negatively affect the end item’s statistics, attributes, and durability. In order to ensure the highest item quality, it is advisable to craft items well within your skill range and to use the highest quality materials available.
Item Quality and the impact that they can have on an item ranges from:
Poor (-10%)
Average (+0%)
Fine (+10%)
Good (+15%)
Exceptional (+20%)
Mastercraft (+25%)
Mythical (+30%)
In order to progress from one tier to the next (E.g Apprentice to Journeyman) on the final skill level of a tier (Skill Levels: 29, 49, 69, 89, and 99). The crafter must create at least one ‘Mastercraft’ quality item as proof of their growing skill. This Mastercrafted item must be any finished product appropriate for the Tradeskill. (E.g., A piece of armor, jewelry, weapon, etc.)
“Item Quality?” My eyes jumped as I read over the information. Ah! That’s awesome! It means crafters won’t just be repetitively grinding out ten thousand Iron Daggers or something equally useless just to raise their skill! We’ll have something useful to work towards every time we pick up a tool!
I had my fair share of games that had made crafting simple beyond measure, or so needlessly complex and interdependent you had to level practically every single Tradeskill in parallel, which left you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated as you constantly had to switch between Tradeskills, just to create a simple pair of boots.
As an Apprentice Leatherworker, you are now able to create new items via Modular Recipes. This allows you to take an existing recipe that you have learned and modify the recipe to use different materials of the same type or to add additional properties to other items already created.
For Example:
The Novice recipe - [Bronze Studded Cap]
1 x [Raw Leather]
1 x [Bronze Ingot]
Has now been replaced as:
[Studded Cap]
1 x [Leather]
1 x [Metal]
This process allows a crafter to experiment with different materials as they explore and hone their craft. Different combinations of materials will produce drastically different results!
“Ah! That makes sense!” I said to myself as I pieced together what exactly a Modular Recipe was. “If I already know how to make a helmet out of scrap leather and bronze, it’s not going to be a completely revolutionary change to make a similar helmet out of a different type of leather, or another metal like Iron.”
“The difficulty will be in working the material itself, since Iron I imagine is very different to work with than Bronze.” I paused to think about it for a moment. “Though I’m sure if I wanted to make a full plate helmet or something similar… that would be its own recipe.”
Armed with a better understanding of Modular Recipes I continued to read the final bit of information that was still hovering in my vision.
Keep in mind, a true crafter is not limited by the recipes that they have learned, but by the limits of their very imagination! Recipes are intended to be simple guidelines to follow, those who experiment beyond the simple assembly of recipes have the potential to create truly wondrous and unique works never seen before!
That’s how I made the pots and pans! I thought to myself as I finished reading. I had a picture in my head of what I wanted to achieve, and eventually with a few prototypes, work, and clarity of what I wanted as an end result… I created my own item!
I was excited to see how far I would be able to push the limits of crafting, and what sort of items my Improvisation skill would allow me to craft. Where other people would be limited to following the modular recipes with leather and metal, I could replace those base materials with bone and wood if I wanted to! Imagination would truly be my only limit when it came to crafting!
And I have a pretty wild imagination! I smiled as ideas started to pop into my head.
Before I could start experimenting, though, I had to finish the rest of the Militia’s armor. My most recent skill up made the task of crafting the armor trivial. Quickly and smoothly, I used my knife to cut out the needed patterns without a single wasted motion, allowing me to quickly finish the remainder of the boots and gloves in just under forty minutes.
With the armor finished, I moved on to the spears, slowly drawing them out of solid bronze. They would be heavier than the wooden ones used by the Militia, but much more durable as well. Not to mention being all around more lethal. By the time I finished making the spears – the sun’s rays were starting to poke up over the horizon, leaving me blearily surprised at the amount of time that had passed.
“Shit… the sun’s almost up,” I said with a bit of surprise as I put the final spear down. “Gah, I haven’t even started on repairs… or upgrades!”
I quickly inhaled two Fried Snake snacks to curb my growing hunger as I smelted five more Bronze Ingots, then carved out a few pieces of leather before getting to work on quickly repairing everyone’s armor.
The repair process was fairly straightforward and quick as I sewed tears in the leather together, and added patches to cover the stitching. In Drace’s case, it was easier for me to completely replace the missing sleeve his tunic had lost than try to recover the few remaining shreds of leather that remained.
Once the armor was repaired, I hung each of them on the armor racks, trying to discern a method of upgrading them somehow. I could possibly add in a few sheets of leather around the knees to give it better padding… and maybe make a shin guard out of bronze…
Turning away from the armor, I walked over to the crate of supplies and began to rustle through for inspiration. Nothing catching my eye, I opened my pack and began to transfer materials I’d been carrying into the crate. Hell of a lot of spider shit still in my pack.
I sighed as I began to transfer [Spider Fangs], [Spider Carapaces] and other various spider parts into the crate, until I pulled out the stack of [Strange Glowing Ichor] I had looted from the Webwood Horror.
As soon as I pulled it out of my bag, it was immediately engulfed in a pale blue aura, which only served to intensify the pale blue it already shone.
You have identified a [
Strange Glowing Ichor] as [Mana-Infused Ichor]!
Wait… what?
I looked at the item with surprise as it blazed with arcane energy. “Holy shit.”
I quickly put the ichor down as I reached into my pack to pull out the other items I’d looted from the horror. One by one, each and every single piece shone with a brilliant blue aura, before long I had everything set in front of me barely believing the sight in front of me.
100 x [Mana-Infused Ichor]
10 x [Massive Mana-Infused Spider Legs]
11 x [Wicked Mana-Infused Spider Claw]
1 x [Massive Mana-Infused Spider Carapace]
30 x [Mana-Infused Spider Silk Webbing]
2 x [Massive Mana-Infused Spider Fang]
“I was right!” I hissed to myself. These spiders have to somehow been getting in contact with the Ruptured Ley Line! What else could be filling them full with mana?
I looked at the pile of glowing spider parts. Maybe I can test this somehow?
With a shrug, I grabbed a smelting pan and put a [Spider Carapace] in it, then poured a vial of [Mana-Infused Ichor] on it. The carapace hissed as it quickly absorbed the ichor, gaining a very slight aura to it… seemingly on the verge of fading away. Curious, I poured a second vial onto the carapace and saw the aura brighten then begin to dim once more. I quickly poured a third vial onto the carapace.
You have created a [Mana-Infused Spider Carapace]!
“Yes!” I exclaimed as the carapace now shone with energy. “It worked!”
Taking it out of the pan, I carefully inspected the carapace with my Arcane Sight to see if the energy would begin to fade, but after a few minutes, I didn’t see any dimming of the aura.
I think I’ve stumbled onto something here!
“Now… what can I do with this I wonder…?” I held the chitin in my hand as I squeezed and bent it, finding it tough, yet much more flexible than it was previously. “Hmm… this is pretty light too…”
I looked at the party’s armor pieces that were hanging on nearby racks. Walking closer to the rack my armor hung from, an idea started to take shape in my head. Placing the carapace on a piece of the armor, I broke into a smile.
“This could work…”
***
“Lyrian? Lyrian!” Sierra and Constantine burst into the workshop in a rush. “There you are! You have to come se-“
They both stopped in their tracks as they saw what I was working on. “Lyrian… what… is that?!”
“Oh, hey!” I turned to wave at the pair, then looked back to the last bit of stitching I was working on. “Is it time for everyone to be up already?”
“Time to be up?” Constantine echoed as he walked towards an armor rack, having completely forgot what he came in here for. “Lyrian, did you even go to bed?”
“Bed? Nah.” I shrugged as I finished my last stitch and took a step back to admire my work. “No time for that, not today at least.” I turned around to regard my friends and gestured towards the armor. “So what do you guys think?”
I waited patiently as Sierra and Constantine wordlessly inspected the armor. “Lyr…”
“I know, I know. Armor just isn’t enough,” I said with a sigh as I waved at another workbench. “That’s why I also made these.”
I waved my hand to indicate what looked like a pile of spider parts, but on closer inspection were…
“Weapons…” Sierra whispered with a little awe and disbelief. “You made weapons and armor from spider… parts?”
“Yeah, it seemed like a good idea at the time.” I shrugged as I indicated the item Constantine was now holding. “Careful, that’s sharp! I sliced through a corner of the bench… uh… accidently… while making it.”
Constantine made a coughing sound as he put it down. “I don’t ev-“
“Hey, did you find him?!” A rustle of feet followed by Drace’s voice interrupted whatever Constantine was about to say as he walked into the workshop. “What’s going-“
Drace’s mouth fell open when he saw the armor. “-on… oh!”
“Hey Drace,” I waved at the speechless warrior as I cocked my head in the direction of the door. “Something going on?”
“Yea… uh… wow…” Drace crossed the workshop, instinctively going towards his set of armor. I could barely make sense of what he was saying. “Oh… Aldwin, Town Hall.”
“Hm?” I shook my head confused. “He wants to see me?”
“Sure… that’d be great.” Constantine had just indicated the pile of weapons to Drace, and he was visibly drooling over them.
“Wait, what?”
“Hey! Why is everyone just disappearing into here?” Halcyon’s voice called from the outside.
“It’s like the start to a bad joke…” I heard Caius begin. “Three Adventurers walk into a building…”
“Ugh.” I heard Halcyon grunt just before he poked his head into the Workshop. “What are yo-oh!“
I’d given up trying to get a response from Drace as he inspected his armor and looked at the two new arrivals. “Oh good! You’re all here now!”
“Lyr…” Caius and Halcyon both gasped as they found everyone fixated on their individual sets of armor, also forgetting whatever purpose drove them here in the first place. Their gaze eventually landed on me.
“What did you do?” Halcyon whispered in awe. “I can see the magic in it… but I don’t understand how you could have…”
“I upgraded our armor!” I smiled while puffing my chest out with pride. “I think you’ll all appreciate what I’ve managed to come up with!”
“This is still our armor?” Sierra said with some disbelief as she inspected a glove. “But…”
“…why?” Caius finished, “I thought we were digging today?”
I shook my head. “No… Aldwin wants us to head back into the forest and try to find out what caused the Horror to attack…”
“Oh…” Caius said as he nodded. “Probably a good idea now that I think about it. We can’t afford another attack.”
“How’d you do it, Lyrian?” Constantine asked, cutting into the conversation. “This looks like… spider chitin…”
“That’s because it is!” I started to explain excitedly. “Earlier this morning… after I finished repairing our armor, I tried to come up with a way of enhancing it.”
“Uh… curious… how many other things did you try before you thought that adding the flesh of our enemy onto the armor would be considered enhancing it?” Halcyon asked a bit squeamishly. “I don’t think the spiders are smart enough to respond to this level of intimidation… but if they are… I don’t want to give them ideas…”
“Oh, relax scaredy-pants.” I chided Halcyon as I went on to explain my discovery of the Mana-Infused Ichor, and how I could combine it with various other spider parts. “Then with my Improvisation skill, I was able to essentially re-enforce the existing armor using non-standard crafting materials.”
“Alright…” Constantine said nodding slowly, “But it looks like there are three different designs here…? How did that work out?”
“Well… when I was working on the armor, I had a slightly different vision in mind depending who it would be for.” I pointed to three sets of armor that all shared a similar design. “I call this one, the Webwood Striker Armor Set, intended for you, Sierra and myself.”
“For this armor set, as you can see, I added several carapace segments across the armor for some extra protection, plus a pair of bronze shin guards to keep the lower legs protected without losing any mobility.”
“I think you’ll also be happy once you see the set bonus for the armor.” I finished with a smile as I called up the Armor’s stats to look over myself.
Webwood Striker Armor Set
Slots: Arm, Chest, Feet, Hands, Legs, Head, Shoulders
Item Class: Magical
Item Quality: Good (+15%)
Armor: 175
Set Bonus (7/7):
Strength: +5
Agility: +5
Armor Type: Light
Weight: 7 kg
Favored Class: Any Martial
Mana-Infused: +15% Resistance against Arcane spells and abilities.
Level: 10
“Holy shit, Lyr!” Sierra gasped as she called up the armor’s information. “Stat boosts and resistances?!”
“Yeah! Only thing is, you need to have the entire set on for it to get the bonuses.” I said with a shrug. “If nothing else the extra armor is a huge bonus.”
“No kidding!”
I motioned to Halcyon and Caius while indicating another armor design. “This armor set is for you two. I call this one the Webwood Adept Armor Set. Similar sort of idea as the other set when it came to adding in some extra protection, but instead of loading you guys up so you couldn’t move, I used Mana-Infused Spider Silk in your stitching, which should help you focus and channel mana a bit better.”
Ascend Online Page 22
