The sharp sounds of shattering rock burst through the air as Fey and her party battled sapphire and ruby[i] golems. An upgrade from the jade golems Fey and Mimi had fought before, their carapaces were much harder but more brittle, tending to send dangerous shards of crystal flying everywhere when broken.

In order to deal with the hard-bodied monsters, Leandriel had swapped his usual longsword with a two-handed warhammer and was applying his strength with devastating results, deactivating a golem with every two strikes of the heavy weapon. There was no indication that he was any less comfortable with the pole arm than a sword as he swung with perfect distance, timing, and balance.

Fey had no chance of keeping up with the celestial, given that Leandriel’s base stats were approximately 50% higher than hers at a matching level, but she did her best, using Inertia Increase to give her kicks the same authority as a hammer blow. At this point, her stamina was high enough that, as long as she was not using Self-Haste, she had a boundless store of energy, and she thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of effortless motion. (She also thoroughly enjoyed how beautifully deadly Leandriel looked while fighting, but focused on her own combat so she wouldn’t start staring and drooling.)

In contrast to the two other warriors, who were freely ranging across the battlefield in pursuit of their targets, Blade had entrenched himself in a defensive position no less secure than a stone sentry tower. At this point, his Shield Wall ability had evolved into Mirror Wall; as the name suggested, it could reflect damage back at attackers, allowing him to focus on protecting Sirena from stray shards of crystal while his opponents battered themselves into rubble against his defences.

Behind him, Sirena was giving the fighting a very game-like feeling by telepathically broadcasting the type of martial instrumental music that would occur during battles in an old-school RPG, granting her party attack and speed bonuses. At the same time, she cast combination water-ice spells that widened any cracks in the golems and caused large chunks to shear off in an impressive fashion. The multitasking had the benefit of training her concentration stat, making her highly resistant to interruption skills and raising her maximum attack power.

From above, a fiery falcon went into an attacking stoop, becoming engulfed in an incandescent fireball as she built up speed. (That’s right, the author is suddenly mentioning Firefly as if she’s been participating in the adventures this whole time and not as if she’s been totally ignored and forgotten for 57 chapters. Deal with it.) Colliding with a previously frozen golem, the resulting temperature shock caused it to completely crack and shatter, leaving only its core intact.

Less visibly flashy but a lot more noisy, Boris and Amethyst cut a destructive swath through the golems as the iron boar repeatedly Charged in straight lines across the field, toppling any golems who happened to be in his way, while his slime passenger struck at any targets within reach with her long and deadly bubble-arm.

From the shadows, crossbow bolts finished off any damaged monsters who needed a gentle nudge into the afterlife. Mimi’s form was rarely visible as she maximized her stealth capabilities, but the angles of her shots – both real bolts and shadow clones – suggested that she was ranging even more widely than Fey and Leandriel. Shifty, her weapon spirit, had cleverly learned to lessen its draw weight on loading and increase it after being drawn, allowing the sniper to launch missiles that looked like they should come out of siege weapons when the occasion called for it.

After the mobs had been wiped out, Fey left the gathering of loot to her industrious pets and took a break. She pulled up the list of Caleb’s desired crafting materials and checked off another item. Between Leandriel’s unbelievable fighting abilities and Mimi’s precise knowledge of item drops and monster locations, they had collected every type of item within range of her mana tree’s bonuses in just three days. Upon each player gaining a level in the course of the fighting, the guild had easily reached level 3.

“Where should we go next?” she asked aloud.

“West?” Blade suggested. It was both a correct and unhelpfully vague answer; the only lands east of the Elvenwood were the cultivated human lands, which were rich in advanced crafting products but lacked unique natural resources of the kind that would interest their guild’s blacksmith.

Directly to the west of the elven lands were the Oré Mountains they had already visited; beyond those was the vast sandy desert known as the Sea of Sand. In addition to being home to sun elves, drought-tolerant plants, and the typical desert fauna one would expect in such a habitat, there were magical versions of aquatic creatures that moved through the dunes as if they really were part of a sea.

To the south of the desert was the volcanic plain known as Dark Side, a harsh and unforgiving territory full of dangerous lava flows, boiling steam vents, miasmas of toxic gases, and frequent earthquakes. Demons, fire elementals, and shadow creatures made their home there, with the westernmost peninsula a cursed land that spawned undead.

To the far south of the continent – the ‘legs’ of the elephant-shaped continent – was a lush, tropical rainforest known as Rainy Junction[ii], home to a huge diversity of rare plants and unique creatures, most of them extremely deadly in expected and unexpected ways. No playable races were native to the area, and little was known except for a host of players’ accounts of rapid deaths shortly after beginning to explore there.

Fey briefly considered and discarded the idea of mocking Blade for the answer. (So mature these days.) “West,” she agreed. “Let’s visit Caleb and Beth on our way over.”

After teleporting to Mountaingate, Fey and the party found themselves outside of Caleb’s workshop. The plain building was quite similar to the first time they had visited, with the notable exception that the small display sign advertising his presence and crafting skills was missing. There was now no indication at all that there was a “shop” part to the workshop.

Fey cautiously tried the door and was relieved to find it unlocked, Beth in her usual place in the main room. “Hi, everyone!” the sun elf greeted.

“You guys close up shop or something?” Sirena asked, gesturing at the empty space where the display sign used to be.

Beth made a face. “Kind of. Caleb only ever traded with players to get materials for his experiments. Now that you guys are helping him, he doesn’t even want to bother dealing with new people. It’s all experiments, all day. He did finish your gear first,” she added. “Would you like to try it on?”

Sirena was moving before Beth had finished the question, her discerning eye gauging the sun elf’s body language and calculating where the equipment in question was located. “Absolutely,” she said cheerfully, correctly opening several cubbies and retrieving a robe and several sets of armour.

Despite having the most complex items, Blade and Fey changed the most quickly by virtue of having the Ex-quip ability. Blade’s set somewhat resembled medieval plate armour, but with some decidedly modern adaptations such as ceramic plates of the kind designed to stop assault rifle bullets layered under the outer mithril plate and a fully enclosed helmet with a large, clear visor that allowed full field of vision. The entire arrangement would have been far too heavy to manage in real life, but Blade’s strength-based build had no problems moving under the weight.

“Wicked,” he said, impressed, flexing his fingers within perfectly jointed gauntlets.

Fey examined her own armour curiously after putting it on. Compared to her old set of layered and woven steel, it felt absurdly light. It appeared as if Caleb had created a light exoskeleton out of thin metal rods and then wrapped the whole thing in some kind of impossibly tough-yet-silky fabric, creating armour that floated a hairsbreadth above her skin. The only places that had a significant amount of solid metal were where she had the same offensive spikes at the knees and elbows as on her old armour. The accompanying helmet had a round, anonymous shape similar to a fencing mask, the mesh at the front made of fibres of the same material that covered the main armour.

Experimentally, she stabbed at the cloth at a gap between the metal rods, first lightly, then pressing as hard as she could. The cloth had enough stiffness that she could feel a certain amount of pressure on her skin, but her punching blade was unable to advance to the point of causing pain.

She started to ask Blade or Leandriel to strike her with an experimental blow, then remembered that both of them would likely object and changed the target of her request. “Okay, Amethyst, hit me. Let’s say, 50% strength.”

Amethyst squeaked dubiously at the flimsy-looking armour. (“Really?”)

“Wow, Caleb would be offended if he could understand you. Fine, start at 30% and work up.”

Shrugging, (an odd gesture given the her lack of shoulders,) Amethyst hopped onto her usual ‘battle station’ on Boris’s back, anchored herself, and sent her bubble-arm whipping out. At 30% strength, the bubble did not create a sonic boom as it moved, but it was still as fast as a small firearm as it struck Fey square in the chest.

With her Inertia Increase maximally activated, Fey absorbed the blow without needing to fall backwards. Other than the tremendous sound of impact, she had barely felt a thing. Looking down, she could not see an obvious point of impact, but guessed that the slime must have hit one of the rods that made up the structure of the exoskeleton. Examining the joins between the rods, she saw they were anchored in some kind of tough, rubbery substance that acted as potent shock absorbers and prevented her armour from rattling violently on impact.

Making a ‘come at me’ gesture with her fingers, she goaded her pet on. “Come on, Amethyst, turn it up.”

Narrowing her eyes at the armour, the slime sent out another Whip attack, this time at 50% strength.

Fey squeaked as the blow hit her at the waist, feeling like someone had unexpectedly jabbed her in a ticklish spot where the bubble had hit between areas of exoskeleton.

Amethyst squeaked annoyedly. (“That is it! Full strength!)

Boris grunted. (“Uh, you’re not going to try 70% first?”)

Amethyst squeaked emphatically. (“No! We’re going to dent this stupid armour!”)

“Uh…” Magic said out loud, tone concerned.

“What is it?” Leandriel asked, having been silently but concernedly watching the entire proceedings from off to the side.

“Amethyst is getting mad at the armour,” the mushroom answered reluctantly.

Before the celestial could even start wrestling with himself on whether he should intervene, it was too late; a sonic boom cracked the air as Amethyst launched a full-strength Whip at Fey.

“Oof,” Fey said, more in surprise than pain as the impact sent her crashing backwards into a set of shelves. She discovered that the exoskeleton was reinforced to prevent excessively fast neck extension as her head only lightly thumped the solid wood behind her.

Before the items above her could teeter more than once, Leandriel was there, stabilizing her with one arm while steadying the shelf with the other, his movements so graceful and precise she could only pause to admire him. “Thanks,” she said, slightly breathless in a different way.

Leandriel’s eyes were filled with a mix of worry, affection, and amusement he was starting to get used to. “Fey,” he said, somehow making the name sound like a personal endearment, “could you please be more careful with yourself?”

Fey took off her helmet so she could kiss him on the cheek. “I promise that I don’t act with reckless disregard for danger in real life.”

She could feel more than hear the deep exhalation of his sigh. The guilt felt like a physical burden on her chest when he said nothing further and simply returned the kiss on her cheek. “Okay, you win,” she said with her own sigh.

“Hmm?” he murmured, unaware of his super effective guilt trip.

Fey laughed and hugged him.

Across the room, Blade and Beth looked awkwardly away from the lovebirds. Looking for something to do, Beth said, “Oh, a few more things!” and reached into the cubby for several small items that Sirena had overlooked. “These are for the pets.” She outfitted Amethyst with a metallic cap over her bubble and Boris with a pair of tusk caps that narrowed to long, cruel points. Each of the other pets received an enchanted stone that strengthened their respective elemental powers.

“Wow, Amethyst, what level is Whip now?” Blade asked.

Amethyst squeaked proudly. (“Level 22!”) To spam a single skill enough to reach the second transformation stage at level 20 was an unusual and noteworthy accomplishment.

“Right,” Blade said, looking away from the slime he could not understand. “Hey, Fey, what—”

Annoyed at being dismissed, Amethyst demonstrated another full strength Whip, this time on Blade’s unprepared back. While he had approximately twice Fey’s mass in his heavy armour, this was about five times less than when Fey put all her mana stores into Inertia Increase. He went flying through the (closed) doorway with a loud boom, wooden splinters raining down on the street outside.

Boris grunted and heaved himself up from where he had fallen sideways, also unprepared for the attack. (“Hey, a little warning would be nice.”)

“Amethyst,” Fey scolded. “Look what you did to the door!”

Blade gingerly picked himself up. “Hey, why are you worried about the door and not me?” he complained.

Fey rolled her eyes. “There isn’t even a dent in your armour, you big baby.”

Looking down, Blade saw that she was right. Given that Whip had not been able to make it through Fey’s light armour, there was no way the same attack could damage heavy armour produced by the same smith.

Leandriel surveyed the scene thoughtfully. “It appears that perhaps all warrior classes might benefit from having Inertia Increase,” he mused.

Caleb came in from the back room to see the cause of the commotion while a hastily dressed Sirena did the same from the out-of-sight corner she had gone to change. (Mimi also appeared from somewhere; it was entirely possible she had never left the room and simply used cloaking magic to change in privacy.)

Surveying the damage, Caleb wordlessly activated his Repair ability. Splinters of wood flew in a backwards explosion, re-forming into an intact door and doorway. It returned to the state it had been in prior to being broken, meaning the door was closed.

Blade headed back inside. “Hey! Don’t shut me outside,” he complained.

Caleb did not bother replying to the irrational comment, instead looking over the equipment he had made now that it had been tried on, searching for flaws or adjustments that needed to be made.

Mimi was wearing armour quite similar to Fey’s cloth-covered exoskeleton, minus the pointy extensions designed to help with melee combat. Sirena was wearing a stunning robe that seemed to be the same silky material as the fabric coating the exoskeletons, but in a much thicker weave. The robe was also embroidered with intricate fractal patterns in silver thread and embedded with sparkling magic crystals that could store and amplify magic.

“This stuff is amazing, Caleb,” Fey commented. “Did you really make it all in three days?”

Caleb nodded.

“Well, here’s a new load of stuff. We’re off to the Sea of Sand next, so let us know if you think of anything else you want from there.”

He nodded again and messaged her with another five items to add to the list. Pulling open another cubby, he retrieved a box full of punching blades and handed them over.

“…Huh?” Fey asked, unable to discern why Caleb thought she would need so many sets, especially since he had already fashioned her a pair that was working wonderfully.

“Oh, those are the failures,” Beth explained. “They were hardened too much and are too brittle for sustained use. Caleb thought you could still use them if you needed extra sharp blades for some reason, keeping in mind that they’ll probably break in some way after several attacks and you’ll have to Ex-quip out with another set.”

“Ooooh,” Fey said in understanding, dropping the box into Boris’ saddlebags and setting up Ex-quip shortcuts so she could access them quickly.

“I feel so invigorated,” Sirena said enthusiastically. With the new robe, her mana stores were almost doubled, leading to an enhanced sense of well-being “Let’s go kill things!”

“Such bloodthirst,” Fey commented as they headed out. “Thanks again! See you later,” she said to Beth and Caleb.

Left alone with just Caleb, Beth busied herself tidying up the cupboards, expecting the smith to return immediately to his experiments.

“Beth.”

She looked up. “What is it?”

In his hands was a simple box that contained a bracelet that made her gasp. Of a simple bangle design, its feature was the rainbow gradient that washed from red to violet. Looking closer, she saw that the seamless colour transitions were achieved by a mosaic of tiny gemstones, each perfectly sorted by hue and placed with absolute precision.

Caleb did not create items that had form without function; the bracelet was enchanted to boost magic power. While he could have easily used a colourless gemstone to enhance the non-elemental magic she tended to use, he had taken the effort to instead cover the entire spectrum of elements and merge them to create non-elemental bonuses.

He slid the bracelet onto her wrist. “Thank you,” he said.

He had interrupted the thanks she had been about to give him. “What for?” she asked in confusion.

“For being you.”

“Oh,” she said, looking down as a blush began to heat her cheeks and ears. “I, I… Thank you,” she ended lamely.

With a last pat on her hand, Caleb returned to the back room, leaving Beth to collapse bonelessly on the nearest bench, trying to calm her racing heart.

[i] Sapphire and ruby are made of the same crystalline material known as corundum, a form of aluminum oxide. Red gemstones of this material, which gain their colour from the presence trace amounts of chromium, are referred to as rubies, while gems of all other colours are referred to as sapphire.

[ii] Name credit goes to cricket