With the metal work done for the moment, he proceeded to pull out some more of the Black Tar Boa skin to use for the leather of the armor. The boa didn't seem to be all that rare and was readily available for a decent price. Thomas chose it for its durability and comfort, the smooth skin-like scales also gave the skin an appealing look. Along with the boa skin, he retrieved some tailoring plans. He picked a pattern for a vest, similar to the last set of armor he created. He preferred the vest shaped armor that left his arms free. With the armor he'd already made, he could retain that freedom while still being well protected.

Granted, most armor was designed like that so it's not like he was being wholly original with his design. Then again, designing something original would take far more talent and skill than he possessed. None of that was helpful to him though. Instead, he focused on tracing out the pattern of the vest onto the snakeskin. After tracing the pattern, he began to slice it out with a summoned tool. His work was smooth and nearly effortless thanks to the sharpness of the summoned Mithril tool. The snakeskin was quickly sliced into two main pieces that would form the front and rear main panels along with multiple smaller pieces.

Altogether it would be layered with the sheets of Mithril in between. He looked at the bottle of glue he had and frowned. He was sorely tempted to make his own glue using purified materials. There was a problem though. According to the recipe in his Alchemy book, making the glue didn't take much material or effort. The problem was that it took nearly a month to thicken and settle properly once it was prepared. If he made a batch now he would need to wait all that time for it to be ready. Worse, he couldn't store it inside of his inventory since time wouldn't pass there. It could be stored in one of his storage rings but that wouldn't change the amount of time it needed. With that being the case, he had little choice but to use premade glue that hadn't been purified. He would just make several proper batches once he had the U.L.T.R.A. and could afford the wait time.

With everything ready, he began the process of building the layers for the armor. The powerful glue was more than enough to hold everything together as he worked up each layer by sandwiching the pieces of Mithril plating between layers of snakeskin. The process was relatively quick and easy. The glue took very little time to set and provided a bond that would make even modern 'super' glues seem weak in comparison. Little effort was needed and in less than an hour both halves of the armor had been completed.

The front half of the armor looked very modern with straight lines and angles with very little gap between the plates. His chest was covered by two of the larger plates to protect his heart and the majority of his lungs. Below that were smaller plates that covered the lower portion of his chest and stomach in wide thin plates. He sacrificed some flexibility for protection but felt the trade was worth it. He wasn't overly flexible, to begin with. The loss would hardly be noticed. At least he wouldn't be a tin can!

As for the back half of his armor, it was slightly less protected and made of many more plates. Unlike his chest, his spine needed to remain as flexible as possible. It wouldn't do if he couldn't bend over or flex his back. To protect his vulnerable spine, he used a dozen much smaller plates all lined up with a small gap in between. It was a vulnerability but a small vulnerability. Anyone or anything that could take advantage of the gap could likely crush him without having to resort to such a small weakness. Next to the small plates covering the spine were larger plates that protected bigger areas such as his shoulder blades.

With the two halves finished the next step was to enchant the armor before the final assembly. He didn't plan to make it fancy, just something to take advantage of the metal magic imbued Mithril and spread the defensive bonus to the entire piece of armor. Purified mana crystals and Alchemist's Oil were deposited in lines on the interior of the armor where it would be protected from external damage. The lines of the enchantment were clean and simple, just like the intended enchantment. He worked slowly and patiently until it was finally completed.

With the enchantment completed, he used the glue once more on the straps that would allow the armor to hang from his shoulders as well as the sides. To don the armor he would only have to slip it on like a shirt. As soon as the two pieces became one he received the expected system notice.

System Notice: You have created Epic rarity Steelskin Cuirass. Quality: Excellent. You have gained 3,087 Magitech Engineering experience. You have gained 6,174 experience. Armor Type: Steelskin Cuirass Rarity: Epic Quality: Excellent Description: This armor is an excellent balance between flexibility and durability. When infused with mana the durability of the armor can be greatly increased. However, the more the defensive ability of the armor increases, the more the flexibility decreases.

+200 Endurance (Torso only)

+Increases Toughness while mana is infused

+Decreases Agility while mana is infused Soulbound: Thomas Darkrose

Thomas was satisfied with the description of the armor and its function. With powerful bursts of mana, he could temporarily increase his defenses to ward off dangerous attacks. Continuous use of mana with the armor would be pointless and go against the reason he designed it the way he did. He studied the armor for a bit longer before putting it away in his inventory. He only had one piece left to create, a helmet. Now, what he just needed to decide what he was going to do about its enchantment. He already had a design in mind and any visual enchantments seemed a bit pointless with his access to his 'All Seeing Eyes'.

While thinking about it, he decided to take a short break for lunch with Snowlily. She'd been laying off to the side in her usual spot to observe Thomas at work. When he approached, her tail instinctively began to wag. She knew what his approach meant... FOOD! She was right, of course. As soon as he got comfortable on the floor, Thomas began to pull food out of his inventory and shared it with her. Together they ate a rather tasty lunch. Thinking about it, Thomas realized he hadn't really had a bad meal inside of AoG. Even the food the pirates served was pretty tasty. It seemed like it would take a fair amount of work to make monster meat taste bad.

He contemplated going out hunting for some monsters to try eating sometime in the near future. He'd had a few different monsters but he was certain there were more out there worth taking a bite out of. He was especially interested in trying to get his hands on some dragon meat. In just about any fantasy game he'd ever played, dragons were the top tier badass among badass monsters. They usually required huge raids to take down. The efforts to defeat them were always richly rewarded. As much as he was curious about eating dragon meat, he wasn't stupid enough to attempt to defeat one. He had no reference point for a dragon's strength, having not seen one yet. Even so, given how games treated dragons he expected even the weakest of them would be Emperor class at a minimum.

Once they finished lunch, Thomas returned to his work. A freshly purified Mithril ingot was tossed into the forge and brought up to temperature so he could begin working on it. He paused for a bit to think about the element he wanted to infuse into the Mithril. After thinking for a bit he came to a decision and began working. For the second time, ephemeral green mana flowed through his tools as he pounded the wind element into the metal. He was making a helmet, so why not make one that would let him breathe in any environment? Simple, yes, but very effective. Poison mist was a common type of attack by monsters and it might even allow him to breathe underwater if done right.

With a bright flash of green light, the element was successfully infused into the metal. Thanks to his new tools, he was deeply in love with the process of pounding the elements into the metal. He was looking forward to seeing the results of what would happen if he created an embryo and then created a proper Magitech device by infusing even more mana into it when assembling the final product. Since he'd been taught the technique by Hekrin, he hadn't used it a single time. Mostly because he'd only made two real items worth going through the effort. The next ranged weapon he intended to make would use the technique.

With the Mithril brought back up to a proper temperature, he began to hammer the metal once more and started to form a sheet out of it. Once the sheet was formed he switched to using his ball-peen hammer and a conjured dishing tool to begin turning the metal into a helmet. The rounded interior of the dishing tool combined with the spherical head of the ball-peen hammer made curving the metal into a spherical shape easy. He worked carefully so as not to cause any flaws with his work. When the metal was too curved in on itself to use the hammer any further, Thomas switched to using his Transmutation.

Using the Transmutation, he reshaped the metal carefully using the image he had in mind. He created what was affectionately known as a 'bucket helmet'. It would cover his entire head and reach down close to his collar bones. The lower edge would provide some protection for his neck but could make looking down a little annoying. To be able to see out of the helmet he made a wide T shaped visor. This gave him a wide horizontal slit to see out of and a vertical slit for his nose and mouth while simultaneously protecting his cheeks. The helmet was placed on his head so that he could perfectly adjust it to fit himself.

Along the centerline of the helmet, he created a somewhat thicker ridge of metal to add stiffness to the otherwise somewhat flimsy helmet. Flimsy being relative to other, stronger metals. He also made sure that all of the edges were rounded to protect them from causing harm to himself. No sharp edges or pointy corners were allowed on his armor. Getting stabbed by the enemy was to be expected. Stabbing yourself on your own armor was the height of stupidity.

While forming the helmet he left some space for the interior lining. Having solid metal resting directly against his head would cause discomfort or even pain. Especially if he was hit on the head. At that point, the helmet would offer little protection against blunt damage and would turn any damage dealt into blunt damage. Nothing like getting a concussion mid-battle to rattle your brain and get yourself killed. To keep that from happening he created a pillow-like interior made of a cotton-like material and the boa skin. He planned to line the rest of the interior with the boa skin but before that, he needed to do the enchantment.

He planned another simple enchantment, however, it would likely prove to be an invaluable one. He worked carefully and carved the enchantment into the interior of the helmet. This would keep it protected from damage. The concept of the enchantment was simple but he hoped it would also be effective. He carefully carved in the lines of the enchantment until it was completed. The boa skin lining was then glued over the enchantment and covered the entire interior of the helmet to prevent chafing.

System Notice: You have created Epic rarity Helm of Breathing. Quality: Excellent. You have gained 3,112 Magitech Engineering experience. You have gained 6,224 experience. Armor Type: Helm of Breathing Rarity: Epic Quality: Excellent Description: This helmet provides a comfortable defense for the head. If mana is channeled into the helmet it will generate a bubble of fresh air around the wearer's head. This bubble will allow the wearer to breathe freely and filter out liquids and gasses. The bubble is weak though and will not protect against any other conditions.

+75 Endurance (Head only)

+Allows for breathing in dangerous conditions Soulbound: Thomas Darkrose

The description of the helmet left Thomas feeling satisfied. He'd created a gas mask and underwater breathing device all rolled into one! As long as he had mana he had no fear of breathing poisonous gas or drowning in water. Definitely an excellent utilitarian device. The description was also pretty clear, the air bubble wouldn't protect against much else. On top of that, it only protected from liquids and gasses near his head. If someone threw him in a vat of acid his head would be fine but the rest of him... not so much. It wasn't perfect but it was definitely helpful in the right situations. As an added bonus, he wouldn't have to suffer from terrible scents!

With the helmet completed, he had finally finished his entire new suit of armor. He had plans to make new weapons but those would need to wait a bit. He needed to do some additional research back in the real world. He also wanted to make a new melee weapon to become his primary one for a good amount of time. Unfortunately, the plans he had for it would likely take him most, if not the entire, day. With that being the case, he decided to call it early today. He could head to the auction house and see if anything interesting came up. He might even get lucky and find some useful items or materials that could come in handy for his future work.

The decision made, Thomas cleaned up all of his materials from the workshop and left with Snowlily. He didn't rent the shop for the following day though. He planned to log out and would likely be offline for at least a day, maybe longer. After turning in the key to the room, the pair made their way toward the auction house.