AN: By now most people know that I have recently dealt with a lengthy bout of illness. For a little over two weeks I barely updated anything on this site. Then last week my mother was hospitalized for a few days. My motivation dwindled greatly even as I started to recover from my illness.

Anyway, that's behind me now for the most part. I know it's been nearly a month since this updated, but I have not dropped it. Currently Origin ARS is taking most of my time as I need to make up for being roughly 3 weeks behind. More Origin tomorrow. Impossible Devices and Nocturne Version 2 will be updated this week, and then the rest of this Blackthorne chapter will pop up. Earth Tactics Advance might be updated again this week as well. I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things, bear with me please.

Enjoy!

Chapter 45.2: Proper Equipment

Working tirelessly over the course of the next few days, Blackthorne made several interesting new items. Most of them were low-end creations, but one of them proved to be incredibly interesting. However, it was difficult to make for one quite obvious reason.

Blackthorne reached back and then tore at his backside. He let out a pained roar, but after a moment of agony he acquired the item that he sought. He tore a handful of scales from his armored dragon booty.

"I need to find some other dragon to scale like a fish..." he muttered, before dropping the handful of scales into the pile. It took a full day for his scales to regrow, and those that did regrow seemed to be less sturdy at first. Only the first batch had regained the strength of what they used to have.

"Now... for the shittiest part." said the dragon before he grimaced as only a dragon could. Blackthorne reached up and gripped one of his largest fangs. He pulled with all his might, tears welling up in his eyes while doing so. The sword-like tooth tore at his paw even as the paw tore it slowly from his root.

Blood streamed down his mouth, but even that was not wasted. The dragon leaned over the top of a large barrel and allowed the newly formed cavity in his head to pour his life's blood into the container.

Several minutes passed before the bleeding stopped. It would be at least two days before the fang regrew to a size where it was properly useful for eating. Though, that would not matter much. He could just take human form and walk around missing a canine tooth. The bloody gashes in his manly booty would make sitting painful, but that was the price that he paid for using his own body as synergy ingredients.

One might think that it would be easy to harvest his own body for parts. A little anesthesia that puts dragons to sleep, a bit of surgery, and repeat. However, each time he did this, he received a warning that he had lost a little experience as a result of self-harvesting. So far he had not lost a level, due to hunting between harvests, but he doubted that it would be a situation that could continue indefinitely.

He broke off one of his claws while roaring in pain, then reached his head around to tear off a chunk of his own wing. "God damn!" roared Blackthorne as he felt the pain of his actions.

After he spat his bit of wing onto a small pile of wing material, Blackthorne sighed. "Enough, damn that's enough."

"There has to be a better way to do this!" muttered the dragon. The self-inflicted wounds would take days to heal properly, perhaps a week or more to heal completely. Doing this left him vulnerable, but the reward was worth it.

Blackthorne waited until the pain subsided enough that he did not want to cry out with every movement that he made, and until the bleeding stopped. He would have several terrible wounds in human form, but for now that did not matter. All that mattered was finishing what he had started.

"Now, the time has come..." muttered the dragon, before he picked up pieces of his wing and began to synergize them together. There were many mishaps. His skills were too low for this sort of crafting, but he seemed to receive a bonus since he was using highly familiar material. In the end, it worked out... for the most part.

In the end, after all of the chunks of wing flesh were used up, he had three small pieces of premium celestial dragon leather to work with. Hopefully it would be enough to finish his masterpiece.

Blackthorne had gotten the idea when he made a certain item previously. He pulled out a lady's swimsuit made of all natural materials then tried to combine it with the dragon leather. The first attempt ended in miserable failure, but the second attempt met with enough success that he felt confident enough to continue. The last piece of dragon leather was combined with the hideous looking bit of swimwear, lending it a much better appearance.

Celestial Dragon Battle Bikini[Women Only]

This item is a special creation of an unremarkable synergist. Utilizing flesh from a willing dragon donor battle bikini is the favorite armor of choice for over-developed warrior women everywhere! Can you harness the power of the dragon? Rrawr!

Defense: 63

Durability: 97/97

Special Option: Great Resistance to Dark Elemental Energy

Value: 42000

"Ah, it worked again! Nice!" exclaimed the dragon. Pain lanced through his wing and his other damaged areas due to his sudden movement, but he did his best to ignore it. This was the last time that he would try to do this for a while. These items could be worth a lot of money in the future, but for right now he wanted to build his synergy skills. He wasted too much of his precious resources at the moment, and he paid the price in pain. Creating a few items for the ladies in his life motivated him to experiment, however.

"Now I can try what I was hoping to make happen..." Blackthorne pulled out a set of scale mail that he had purchased in town for his next test. If what he had planned worked, he would have a nice present for someone special when he went to collect her for their quality time.

Blackthorne picked up a handful of his scales and began to fiddle with them. Combining them did not seem possible at first, but after trying to combine them one at a time he discovered that his individual scales would be made into larger scales. He continued until he had several very large celestial dragon scales to work with. Most of his collected bits and pieces had been destroyed in the process as his skills needed work still, but the end result gave him hope. He was focused and determined to see this work. He wanted this! The world needed this to happen!

The dragon thought of Sonja as he worked to combine his scales with the scale mail armor. The first attempt was an abysmal failure, but he had three shirts to work with at the moment. Purchasing them ready made had been somewhat expensive, but if he was right he could kiss monetary expenses good bye at some point soon. Synergy might prove to be the best possible way to earn the money needed for his people.

In the end, two dragon scale armor had managed to survive. Neither was particularly attractive, but they were in one piece. Blackthorne continued to merge his scales with the two items until they achieved a much better resemblance. Of course, with each combination the total size of the armors shrank. Where once a full-length scale armor was provided that would cover the entire torso, and included shoulder protection, there was now two pieces of armor that covered only the chest.

Blackthorne checked the stats on the chest protectors then nodded. They were definitely something he would want to mass produce after he gained another twenty or thirty levels of synergy, or if he found a dragon nest that he could survive exploiting.

"I have a lot of scales. Once we're done hunting, it might not hurt to get the girls to pluck me like a chicken at least once." said Blackthorne thoughtfully. If they harvested as much as they could from him, he could possibly outfit at least one full squad with dragon scale armor. He was not large enough to create plate armor yet from his scales alone, but he did want to test out whether he could merge his scales with steel plates to get a similar result.

He was not done yet, however. Everything he had been working toward was for the coming moment. A life-long dream was possibly about to come to pass.

Blackthorne picked up the leather bikini and once of the armored chest protectors. "Let it be so..." he intoned briefly before he nodded his head in silent prayer. Immediately thereafter he poured all of his concentration and will into synergizing the two pieces of armor.

The dragon thought of Sonja and what she meant to him. He thought of certain things that she had said over the last few weeks about how her people adored dragons. His current task was because of one thing that she had said to him not long ago. "When a dragon rider and dragon become truly connected, the rider can wear armor made from the dragon's scales."

She had never blatantly said so, but he could tell that she longed for a set of equipment made from his body. It was sort of twisted in a way, but after Blackthorne realized that he could harvest himself for parts it made sense.

Thoughts of Sonja and what he wished to accomplish combined in the sweetest of all synergies within his mind. The result on the actual synergy process was also quite profound. Blackthorne's serpentine eyes went wide at the glorious creation that now floated in the air before him.

Mahorela Abaivonin's Secret[Unique][Women Only][Soul Bound]

This item is a special creation of a dedicated but unremarkable synergist that will only fit one woman in the world. Form fitting and sensual, any slave sworn to the service of a dark dragon of the heavens is bound to love it. The perfect armor for the beautiful battle maiden on the go.

Defense: 112

Durability: 126/126

Special Option: Immunity to Dark Elemental Energy; Improved Resistance to Instant Death abilities; Improved Status Capacity at Night; Vitality +100

Value: 97500

"Damn... There goes any hope that she won't try to take me by force..." muttered Blackthorne. If he actually gave that thing to Sonja she would probably try to get him pregnant.

Blackthorne scratched at his chin. The black battle bikini looked like something a busty woman would wear on Heavy Metal album cover. Strangely, it was accentuated with the occasional bit of gold color, but not so strangely it was backed by leather he had synergized from his wing. It was warm to the touch, and made him smile. "Yeah, I better wear a chastity belt or something when I give this to her."

He nodded to his handy work, literally the best thing that he had ever made, and the set it aside while he worked on other things. He had something for Ashton, and something for Sonja. Shara would feel left out if he didn't make her something to wear too.

The problem for Blackthorne was that he did not know what to make. Obviously some sort of bikini, since that was the style. The fur-lined number that he had made for Ashton, had already been upgraded once more with a bit of his wing leather. He had even found that when he focused on who the thing was for, it would reshape itself slightly in the synergy process to be a better fit. The first result, the one he planned to give Ashton, was only slightly better than before, but it did have a properly crafted hole for her tail now.

"Scale mail isn't really right for a ninja... I mean I think they wore the stuff, but a chest plate is more in keeping..."

Blackthorne rubbed his chin for a moment then shook his head. The actual shape of the armor didn't seem to matter much in relation to how much it defended. Sure, it left places exposed, but neither Sonja nor Shara seemed to care about that.

Armor was weird anyway. It defended to a small degree all-over no matter where it was situated, but the most defense was on the piece of armor itself. He had at one time thought that armor only protected the spot if was worn on, but after speaking with Shara and a few painful tests it had been confirmed. There was a percentage of the defense from all armor pieces applied to the body in general. It was sort of an aura of defense.

Someone wearing several strong armor pieces that barely covered anything, would probably be better off than someone wearing lesser armor that covered every place. Such was the bizarre existence in a game world. Critical hit reduction was really the only reason to cover everything, outside of aesthetic tastes, and social morality issues.

A proper outfit for a modern day ninja girl, one that had to be like a bikini... Blackthorne considered for a moment then nodded. Shara liked to show it off. Her favorite sort of ninja wear mimicked the fan-service laden ninja girls of videogames such as Mai Shiranui. The girl had it and liked to flaunt it, even if she was not sure what to do if someone mentioned it.

Blackthorne took out one of the remaining swimsuits then smiled. The design would be perfect for a fan-service centered ninja girl. It was time to get to work. Soon his little holiday would be over and he would have to get back to spending quality time with the girls. Training was necessary for all of them, but becoming closer and working through their issues was just as important.