AN: So, now we begin the next training and crafting arc proper... Enjoy![/b]

Chapter 45.1: Proper Equipment

The screams of terrified beasts echoed through the forest as they came upon a terrifying existence that should not be. It was not every day that a dragon the size of a city bus wandered into the woods. Whether through dragon fire, traps, or illusions many monstrous creatures had met their end at the jaws of the dragon and his beautiful foxy companion.

Trips to town had occurred frequently so that their gathered goods could be sent off to feed the masses. All that was kept behind was the items Blackthorne had deemed interesting enough to try to combine through synergy.

His synergistic innovations had been interesting in the last few weeks, but for the most part he had been forced to mass produce the same items on a continual basis. At first it had done wonders for his synergy skill development, but recently it had slowed to a crawl. True innovation was the key to skill growth.

The dragon shifted into human form then got to work. Ashton was back on Earth resting. They had come to an end of their training trip and now Scott had a few days in the dream world where he would train alone.

Scott looked at the various piles of animal bones, claws, fur and various other oddities. "Something simple first..."

He chose a bear fang and a small iron dagger. The plan was to try to use base materials to create something unique. He eyed the dagger for a moment. It had a base attack capacity that capped out at eight damage.

The mystic item maker took a deep breath then held the items up in his hands. After a moment of concentration the items began to glow softly. He brought them closer together and little sparks began to fly between them. The bears in this forest were about twice his level, though they were only numerous in certain locations they had proved quite beneficial for raising Ashton's level.

Unfortunately, most of the other beasts were around his current level. His combat skills had increased slightly, but he had not gained a single level himself. It was obvious that he would need to go to a location with stronger monsters when he took Sonja out.

The bear fang proved difficult to work with at first. He ended up destroying two of them before he managed synergize one of them with his dagger. The first result was lackluster. He now had something called an iron fang dagger. It was actually weaker that the original dagger! Though, its durability had increased slightly.

Not one to be daunted by such a thing, Scott persevered and continued on with his crafting. By the time he blew through his pile of bear fangs, he had crafted eighteen of the slightly useless daggers. They varied in quality, but that did not matter in the end. He was not done with them.

Two daggers in hand, Scott began synergizing them to see if something new and exciting would be created. After the first attempt left him with a slightly warped dagger he grinned. "This should be good training..."

The fact that he actually had difficult with the materials meant that they were roughly around the difficulty rating that he needed to focus on for skill development. Certainly that meant he would waste a lot of materials, but he could easily acquire more.

Over time eighteen daggers became nine. Those nine daggers became five not long after. It was not until the five daggers became three daggers that he began to see a solid difference in their capacity.

"Nothing to write home about, but they're definitely better than before." The base damage of the three remaining daggers ranged from ten to thirteen.

He pulled a few steel longswords from his sack and looked them over. The daggers were now about the same as a medium quality longsword made of steel. It had taken a lot of materials to get them to that point, but it had been worth it.

Scott decided to combine the best dagger with one of his steel swords to see what would happen. The longsword and dagger combined to create a new item called a steel fang falchion. It was several inches shorter than the previous longsword, and had a slightly curved edge that gave off the appearance of a fang.

He looked it over then narrowed his eyes. "Not quite..." After making three more of those falchions, he began to combine them. The end result was something that he deemed to be fairly decent.

Steel Fang Falchion

A weapon synergized by an unremarkable synergist. The edge is wickedly sharp and holds within it the essence of a wild beast of the forest.

Weapon Attack: 16 – 22

Durability: 46/46

Special Option: None

Value: 4600

It was no Death's Steel Longsword like he favored, but for an ordinary weapon with no enchantments it was decent and would withstand the rigors of battle for much longer than a simple steel sword.

Scott annotated the steps to create the item in a little log book that he had started. In the future he would be able to skip the wasteful steps and use far fewer materials to repeat the process. Synergists were few and far between in his faction. It was strange since he had thought that such a skill would be considered highly valuable. As it turned out, most of the people who had the skill had largely abandoned it since the items created rarely matched the value of what was spent in their creation.

He had found it to be the opposite. There was quite a bit of researched and development necessary to create an item that was interesting, but after doing so the process could be used to mass produce equipment that might be unavailable in the area. It was a skill that was more useful in the long run as an investment rather than as a short term gain.

"Right, now to get down to the expensive stuff..." Scott took out an ingot of mystic silver, what many called Mithril. He eyed the expensive little bar of metal for a moment then nodded.

Falchion in one hand, mithril in the other, Scott began the synergy process once more. He had only used the metal twice before as he had not wanted to purchase it when he had little in the way of money.

A tense moment passed as the energy swirling between ingot and falchion lit up the area. A hissing crackle and pop signaled the difficulty of the proposition. He could work with mithril, but it was a difficult material at his skill level.

The resulting combination was a slightly warped mithril saber. It had only been a partial-success and the result had left him with a failed weapon. If that were the end of things he would be annoyed, but the material was salvageable, and he had other swords to work with at the moment.

Scott did his best to combine mithril with steel longswords until he ran out of ingots. The six failed swords that he created were combined with other swords until he ran out. While he synergized items he made notes of what occurred as a result. Failed weapons were slowly made into mediocre ones. The mediocre weapons were synergized to the point that they became decent equipment. In the end, he had but a single blade left, but he smiled at the result.

Mithril-plated Steel Fang

This long knife is the creation of an unremarkable synergist. It has been plated with mithril to provide extra damage and defense against the undead and cursed monsters.

Attack: 26-32

Durability: 40/40

Special Option: Increased damage against the undead and cursed monsters

Value: 8900

"I went through a lot of materials, but this is definitely decent." Scott rubbed his chin for a moment then smiled. "I'll give it to Ashton. She could use a decent light weapon."

Scott stored the knife in one of his sacks then started working on his next experiment. For his next project he needed a wire, shears, metal rings, and a needle. He set about cutting, sewing, and linking bits of fur with metal. The end result after a few hours of cutting, sewing, and linking items was an even dozen of the most godawful looking items the world had ever seen. He had made four bear pelt ponchos, and eight bracers.

He held up a set of bracers made from the pelt of the bear then winced. "A bloody ruin, but the system never seems to care that much."

Scott had experience with synergizing animal parts with weapons. Bloody and unprocessed materials seemed to work just fine with synergy.

He pulled a fur coat from his sack, what animal it had been original was something he did not know. It was an item he had snagged from Earth. A lot of things in his crafting sack, such as the metal rings, were Earth salvage.

Synergizing the fur coat with the bear poncho failed the first time. A charred and bloody remnant was all that remained. He had brought several of them, however. Time passed as he worked on combining his items. Three of the four ponchos failed, but the fourth was met with minor success. He ended up with a vest of the wild.

Vest of the Wild

This vest is the creation of an unremarkable synergist. It holds within it the furious power of a wild beast. It is also quite comfortable and fashionable to wear in colder climates.

Defense: 12

Durability: 45/45

Special Option: Increased cold resistance

Value: 3600

Scott smiled at his new fur vest shrugged and started to put it away. A strange thought occurred to him, however. "I've been meaning to try it, but..."

He giggled moronically for a moment, and was glad that no one was around to witness his immaturity. There was one class of items that he had avoided trying to work with until now. "Do I dare...? I mean I brought the stuff just in case I worked up the nerve."

No one was around. It wouldn't be that embarrassing if not one saw him working.

"Please don't judge me, oh creatures of the forest." said the dragon in human form before he reached into a different sack and pulled out a ladies swimsuit. It was a simple yellow bikini that would have left little to the imagination.

Scott eyed his fur vest and then eyed the bikini. "Dare I live the dream?"

He dared! Scott began to synergize the two items and found that they worked quite well together. Surprisingly well, in fact. The resultant item was far more notable than the vest it had been formed from. "It's like the system wants me to make stuff like this or something." he remarked while looking at the stats of his newest creation.

Fur-lined Battle Bikini[Women Only]

This item is a special creation of an unremarkable synergist. Fashion, sexy, love! The fur-lined battle bikini is the favorite armor of choice for over-developed warrior women everywhere!

Defense: 30

Durability: 46/46

Special Option: Increased resistance to cold

Value: 10000

"How the hell can a vest have less than half the defense of a bikini?" He laughed at the silliness of it all then placed his new gift for Sonja into his sack. Clearly that little bit of armor was meant for her.

Time passed, and his synergy efforts came to an end. He had only crafted a small number of items worth keeping, but he found that it was a good training and research session. The items he could craft from the monsters in this area were superior to the ones he made in the older areas. It was a clear indication that the power of a monster also determined the quality of the items that he could craft from their parts.

His level would not increase much from hunting in the area, but if he worked his skills to the best of his ability, he would be able to drastically upgrade the equipment of his personnel before moving on to better hunting grounds. The difficulty level of synergizing items in the immediate area was close to perfect for his current skills, so he would remain in the forest for the duration of the training trips with his friends.