Thomas arranged the leather he'd already removed from his inventory in front of himself. With that set, he dug through all of his inventory space for any other leather he might have. After searching through various boxes and crates he found one with a few pieces of leather inside of it that made him grin. How could he forget about this leather when he was wearing armor made from it? He ran his fingers over glossy black scales covering a thin leather hide. The black Elder Lizardman hides. He'd used most of it before leaving on his journey but there were still three sheets left. Just enough to make a chest piece and maybe something else useful.

He removed the Elder Lizardman hide from the box and tossed the box off to the side. No need to keep an empty box inside his inventory. He smoothed out the hide and retrieved the plans for a vest. The armor he wore now was nice and provided some defense, but compared to how strong he had gotten it was pretty much useless. The new armor would be specifically designed to enhance his stealth. That would make it far more useful to him. He set the design on the back of the hide and began to trace it out so he would know where to cut.

With the pattern drawn out on the first two pieces of hide, he pulled out one of his knives and carefully cut through the leather while trying not to damage any of the scales attached to it. It took a bit of time but preserving the integrity of the scales would be worth the effort. They added additional strength without compromising the flexibility of the leather. Giving it all the benefits of scale mail with none of the drawbacks. Once the patterns were cut out he was left with two halves of a vest. It was time to reinforce the leather armor with some Origin Steel. Just because he wasn't going to enchant it to increase his defense didn't mean it had to have a weak defense.

Transmutation was used to create relatively thick slightly curved plates of Origin Steel that were lined them up on the interior of the hide. For the front half of the armor, he made several small plates and measured them against his own pectoral and abdominal muscles to get the size and shape right so he wouldn't compromise his own flexibility. Once he aligned a plate with where it would fit against his body, he fused the edges of it to the hide. He was constantly lifting the hide to hold it against himself with one hand while the other held the metal plate against his chest or abdomen. It was awkward and slightly annoying but it allowed him to perfectly align and shape the metal plates to fit his body. A tight perfect fit with no movement would make it better for stealth operations.

Once every piece of steel was fused relative to his pectoral and abdominal muscles it was time to add the enchantment to the armor before covering the backside with leather to protect it. Thomas took a moment to get a good image of the concept he wanted for the armor. He actually used the same mental image as the previous time he made stealthy leather armor, active camouflage. With an enchanting medium made from purified mana crystals, he began the enchanting process. At this point, he was an old hand at enchanting items. Today alone he'd enchanted over thirty items. There was nothing new or interesting about the process.

Once the enchantment was completed, he grabbed some regular leather and cut it into shape so it could be placed over the backside of the armor. This would sandwich the plates and enchantment between the two layers of leather. Once it was cut to shape, he fused the pieces together. Half of the armor was now completed. All that was left was the back half of the armor. For that, he made more Origin Steel plates that would protect his back and spine. Unlike the front half of the armor, the back half could use larger plates making the sizing and adjustments a lot easier to do. Once the plates were formed they were fused to the Elder Lizardman hide. Since the second half required no enchanting, he skipped right to covering the plates with another layer of leather.

Once the layer of leather was fused to the back half of the vest, Thomas fused the two halves together at the shoulder straps and sides. The vest would be a pullover instead of having any straps and buckles. Once everything was fused together the new armor was completed.

System Notice: You have created an Uncommon rarity Shadow Armor (Chest). Quality: Perfect. You have gained 731 Magitech Engineering experience. Armor Type: Shadow Armor (Chest) Rarity: Uncommon Quality: Perfect Description: This armor has been designed to specifically fit Thomas Darkrose making it perfect for him to wear. When mana is channeled into the armor it distorts light around the wearer making them harder to see.

+75 Endurance (Chest Only)

+25 to Stealth Skill

+Blend into the background while mana is channeled into the armor. Soulbound: Thomas Darkrose

After reading the description of the armor, Thomas couldn't keep from grinning. If memory served, the last time he did a stealth enchantment it had barely done anything useful. This time it would let him blend into his surroundings like a chameleon. He quickly wore the armor and smiled when it didn't automatically resize to fit him. Since the armor was designed specifically for him it fit like a glove. He started to flex his body, moving around and stretching to check the fit of the armor on his body. It felt like he was wearing a nice, comfortable, and somewhat tight shirt rather than armor. He gave himself a few taps on the chest and felt the sturdy metal plates beneath the solid but flexible scales.

Feeling comfortable in the armor, he starts to channel mana into it. His entire body begins to shimmer like heat waves on a hot road and became more difficult to see. He wasn't completely invisible and quite easy to spot if someone was paying close attention. He was just far harder to spot than normal as he blended in with the background. If he was in darkness it would be nearly impossible for anyone to spot him by sight alone. It was definitely good enough for what he had to do.

He kept the armor on and checked the time. Making the armor barely took half an hour so he still had plenty of time to make another item. For the next idea, he planned to do something completely new. He hadn't even shown this trick to the pirates and had never actually done it himself. From inside of his inventory he pulled out the mana crystal infused thread he'd made. This thread had been manufactured on his ship before being captured. His original intention was to use it as wire for transmitting mana but in this case, he planned to use it for its intended purpose.

Thankfully, he'd spent a small fortune on various supplies including reams of cloth for making clothing. Thomas wanted to enhance his stealth even further and planned to use clothing to do so. He pulled out some plans for a simple set of pants and traced it out on some black cloth. He didn't have time to worry too much about style, functionality was the primary concern. Once the pattern was traced he quickly cut out the two halves of the pants and fused them together. No time for unnecessary sewing. Besides, fusing the cloth together would be far sturdier than sewing it together.

For the crotch, he just cut a slit and quickly sewed buttons on. Due to his Agility attribute, Thomas could sew much faster than the last time he had to sew something together. With the work on the crotch completed, he retrieved the infused thread and looked it over. Even in the dim light of the dungeon the thread glittered. Despite having mana crystal powder infused into it, the thread was still just as flexible as before. It really would make for good wire as long as it was protected. Once the thread was fed through the eye of a needle, he took a moment to picture the enchantment he wanted. The exact same one as his armor.

Thankfully the shape of an enchantment didn't matter as much as the intent and the materials used to make it. He carefully began to stitch the enchantment as if he was making embroidery for his pants. He started by making a rough circle with a diameter of about a centimeter and then filling it in. From the circle, he stitched out long jagged lines. Even with the stitching of an enchantment, he stuck to his style of circuitry-like designs. Though the stitched enchantment looked far less sophisticated than his hand-drawn ones, it should still be functional. Hell, he even thought the silver-colored thread going through the legs of the pants looked rather cool.

The lines leading from the central circle were only as wide as a thread so they were hard to really see. Yet the portions on the exterior of the pants glittered on the black cloth, like stars in the night sky. Later he would need to remember this for some pretty clothing for Snowlily. With the last stitch of the thread, he completed the pants.

System Notice: You have created Magical rarity Shadow Armor (Pants). Quality: Excellent. You have gained 454 Magitech Engineering experience. Armor Type: Shadow Armor (Pants) Rarity: Magical Quality: Excellent Description: Not so much armor, this pair of regular pants have been enchanted to allow the wearer to blend in with their surroundings while mana is channeled into them.

+5 Endurance (Legs Only)

+15 to Stealth Skill

+Blend into the background while mana is channeled into the armor.

Thomas was honestly shocked at the attributes of the pants. He hadn't expected either the Endurance or Stealth increases. He simply wanted the enchantment effect. Five Endurance really wasn't very much at all, almost pointless, but it was better than nothing for sure. The bonus to Stealth was also pretty welcome. Not wanting to wait, he kicked off his boots and stripped out of his pants to put on his new ones.

As soon as they were on the size adjusted to a perfect fit. He bent his legs a bit before walking around. They were pretty loose, light, and comfortable. However, they didn't feel very... solid? That felt like the best description. They were just a thin piece of cloth with some extra stitching on them after all so they didn't feel quite right. He dismissed the thoughts on that though and got down to proper business. His mana flared and was channeled into the pants. The mana imbued thread glowed gently as he once again began to shimmer and fade from view. Once mana was added to the chest armor he became even harder to see. With both pieces combined someone would need excellent perception to see him when he wasn't under direct light.

He crouched down and started moving slowly while keeping his items activated. Fortunately, powering two items with mana wasn't the same as trying to cast two spells or casting a spell while powering an item. Powering both items just required him to emit some mana from the majority of his body, he didn't even have to split it into two. As he moved he strained his ears for any sounds being made. In the silence of the dungeon, he heard nothing. Even though his own Stealth skill only had a rank of four, the armor and pants added an additional forty points. He couldn't hear anything and he even had trouble seeing his own hands.

Well, he didn't have any perceptive skills aside from his 'All Seeing Eyes' so he wasn't too surprised that he couldn't detect himself. He didn't believe for a moment that others wouldn't be capable of spotting him though. It was best not to assume that he would be easily able to fool the pirates with this. Though if he combined it with his Sound Balls and Ultrasonic Goggles he would be able to move around secretly and keep himself hidden. He looked over his gear and equipment that he'd made and it brought a smile to his face.

With the time he had left he didn't feel that he had enough to make anything else. He started packing up all of his materials back into his inventory. Once it was all cleaned up he pulled out his Spell Cannon and grinned. It was time for dessert. He had a dozen rooms to walk through to make his way back to the safe room where he could take his nap. That meant a dozen rooms with Trolls inside of them to kill. Dead Trolls meant more experience points that he could use to increase his attributes even further. Yes, a delicious dessert.

With a charged Spell Cannon whirring in his hand he started to make his way back to the saferoom at the beginning of the floor. The first room was still empty but the next had three Trolls that were immediately pissed off when Thomas stepped into the room. Three shots and the Trolls were defeated. After collecting the mana crystals, he moved on to the next room and then the next. The Trolls stood no chance before, now they stood even less of a chance. When he arrived at the last room before the safe room, he activated his new armor.

He boldly stepped into the room, he had nothing to fear from the Trolls and simply wanted to check the efficacy of his armor. As he crossed the threshold into the room, the Trolls became agitated but didn't immediately turn in his direction or charge at him. Instead, they looked around confused while sniffing the air. It seemed they could smell him but couldn't quite figure out where he was. The two trolls split up and started to look around the room in an attempt to find his location. He stood still for a bit, then decided to mess with the Trolls a bit for ent... practice. Yeah, for practice.

Thomas crouched down and moved slowly using his Stealth skill to sneak around the Trolls. Thanks to the dim light, and brains of the Trolls, it was easy for him to remain hidden from them. He snuck around for a while and realized that the camouflage provided by the enchantments was rather excellent. He expected to be able to hide from anyone that wasn't a dedicated scout or simply much stronger than him. With certainty, he shot both Trolls in the head from behind, a first, and made his way into the safe room.

There were no signs of the Pirates and it was still about six hours before he was required to be back outside of the dungeon. He took a breath and picked a spot to get comfortable at. His plan was to begin his attack as soon as he left the dungeon when the guards would be least likely to expect it. Especially after they were forced to stand around with nothing to do but chat with each other. The moment he exited the dungeon he would begin his attack. With a sigh, he pulled out some of his sleeping gear and prepared for his nap. Soon he would be free and Snowlily would be back by his side. He drifted off into a fitful sleep.