Mature Content Warning: None

Author's Note: This is a short, short, update but it shows what he was able to do in the aftermath of that battle. Most of this chapter was put into the battle in the beginning, but the next segment will be a bit longer than this middle segment.

Chapter 13.2: The Awakening

Two hours had passed before Blackthorne felt strong enough to transform into his human form once again. His true power had awakened, but it had come with the price of extreme exhaustion. Many of his wounds had been healed in the process, but his foot had continued to throb for over an hour. Even accelerated draconic healing did not cause him to regenerate serious injuries instantly, at least not yet.

No other monsters had appeared in the darkness, and he wondered if there were actually any more in the mine. It was possible that the Big Daddy Scorpion had simply moved up to this level from an area further below, and was not normally found in this part of the mine. Either way, it gave his dragon form the chance to eat scorpion meat until his vitality had been completely restored.

Not long after he had defeated the monster, he heard the gentle whisper that he had longed to hear. He had gained a level! Blackthorne suspected that he was actually close to gaining another level as well.

He held up a chunk of the black chitinous scorpion shell then rubbed his chin. He looked at the item information once more then grinned.

<<< Item >>>

Big Daddy Scorpion Body Plate

The natural body armor of the Big Daddy Scorpion is known to be incredibly strong and durable. It has growth potential and can be used in the creation of items such as armor and shields.

Defense: +40/ +4 per level

Durability: 100/100

Value: 4890

>>

Blackthorne rubbed his badly damaged cuirass then eyed the glossy black chunk of biological armor. Did he dare to dream? Yes, yes he did.

“Well, if it ends up ruined, I can always just go kill more zombies every morning until one of them drops a cuirass.” said the man.

He removed his damaged cuirass and then took out a few egg-shaped lumps of refined iron that he had created through synergy. He used them in conjunction with his armor.

The damage disappeared, but it required six units of metal to repair his armor using synergy. That was nearly his entire stock. The scorpion’s claws had been quite powerful. If he had been wearing leather or chain he was certain that the monster would have crushed him completely.

“Now for the moment of truth.” he said.

Blackthorne held up the biggest piece of chitin that he could find. He held up his cuirass as well, and then he began to synergy process. His eyes lit up when he saw that there was a strong radiance and a solid spark building between them. These items were clearly good options for synergy!

He could feel his vitality draining away rapidly. The items were a good match but they were a bit beyond his normal skill level. However, despite the higher grade of material he was able to fuse the two items into a greater whole. Blackthorne checked his new creation with hopeful eyes.

<<< Item

Black Scorpion Cuirass [Bio-Armor]

Crafted by a synergist of little renown, this armor is a living organism that drinks the blood of others to grow stronger. Due to the lack of skill on the part of the creator, its growth potential is greatly reduced. Due to the quality of the armor, anyone other than the creator must meet certain requirements in order to wear the item.

Restrictions: Spirit Stat = 80 or higher, Level = 22 or higher.

Quality: Low

Level: 1/12 [0.000%]

Growth Potential: Low

Defense: + 64/ +3 per level

Durability: 80/80 / +2 per level

Value: 8647 / +660 per level

Special

Blood Drinker: The armor will regenerate its durability and increase its level by absorbing the blood of recently defeated opponents.

>>

“Whoa, not bad. I wish my synergy skill was higher, though.” Blackthorne could only wonder at what he would have been able to create had his skills been higher.

He began to experiment by checking to see what the rest of his armor would do. By the time he was finished his equipment had changed drastically. Scale items had been repeatedly synergized with scorpion plates and had been turned into solid plate items. He now had scorpion plate bracers, and a black scorpion gorget instead of a scaled aventail.

His boots had become rather badass in his opinion as they now sported black scorpion plate sabatons. His ancient bronze helm became a black Scorpion barbute, and he was not finished there.

He had become creative by the time that he chose to work on his thigh armor. His studded leather battle skirt somehow shifted into an articulated scorpion plate cuisse. He still lacked several vital components to complete his armor set, but he also had plenty of scorpion plates left. In fact, he might be able to make a few extra pieces to sell!

Blackthorne chose to look over a few pieces of his handiwork. He had been forced to gorge himself on scorpion meat in order to deal with the drain on his vitality, as he was not able to use mana for the synergy process, yet. The meat tasted strange to his human tongue, but not bad. He had found that since he had become a dragon meat whether cooked or raw would taste great no matter what monster it came from originally.

His defensive power had increased by an incredible degree and he was not yet done. He needed to acquire a good shield, and another set of chainmail for his upper body and lower body. He would also need something like a gambeson for padding. He could acquire some things from the zombies, but he would probably have to buy a few others.

He packed up the rest of his plates, the stinger and claws, and then as much of the scorpion meat as he could pack into his bag. He would hit up the zombies first, but afterward he would visit the armor smith in Argent to acquire a few items such as plate gauntlets, chainmail for his legs, and rerebraces. The padded armor would probably be a good purchase in town as well. He did not need to buy anything expensive in that regard.

It would not be long before he would have armor befitting a true lord of darkness, living armor that drank the blood of his enemies and grew stronger while it did so! It was even quite comfortable to wear.