I get out of bed with a groan. It’s (bell sound)past noon, so I should’ve gotten up earlier. On the other hand, my entire body is complaining. I think my mana hurts as well, though I don’t even know how that’s possible.

When I enter the bathroom, I am greeted with an unpleasant smell. Right, the bugs’ chitin. There’s three plastic bags of it in the shower area, as well as one with improvised gear made from it.

I rinsed it all in water yesterday, but if I intend to use or save it I suppose I should clean it properly. As for the improvised gear, it earned me the skills [Mana Crafting] and [Improvised Crafting].

My stomach convinces me to put it off until after food, so that’s what I do. Afterwards I put most of the pieces on the balcony to dry. While it doesn’t get direct sunlight, the summer temperatures should quicken it.

That taken care of I turn on the computer, and wow, there’s lotsa news!

People have started withholding information on more advanced classes and abilities, but still share [System] mechanics and more basic skills. There is a neatly systemized wiki aiming to gather all knowledge about the [System], including mechanics and abilities.

Speaking of mechanics, it seems anything the [System] sees as an ability can be improved to superhuman levels; already people have found themselves able to cut things their weapon should not be able to, or to shoot things even when not aiming directly at it.

Homing bullets are a things now. Also, the higher skill level an ability has, the faster it increases in power, and vice versa. It is most significant with skill levels to power levels, though.

Aside from that, dungeons occasionally have storage containers like chests, within which you can find pretty sweet loot. They also seem to change location of enemies and loot over time, and people think they might change the actual layout.

About those chests: Mimics also exist now. Though they can be placated by giving them items. Still, a chest suddenly growing legs and teeth… It looks hilarious in the video, probably not so much for those who experienced it.

And that video reminds me I want to get an action-camera. I have one which works, technically speaking, but the quality is at the level of a potato. For situations where I have time I’ll just use my phone anyway. Hmm, I’ll put it off until I get some income.

Before starting the computer, I swapped my abilities and classes around. I equipped [Artificer] on the secondary class slot.

Despite having both the abilities for [Pack Leader(non-beast)], I lost the faint feeling of the pack I’ve had in the back of my head for the last couple days.

Meaning classes themselves can have effects.

I also made sure to have both [Meditation] and [Healing Touch] equipped, to lessen my pain and heal sore muscles. While absently using the abilities I found out how to soothe pain, and got another ability, [Regeneration].

Ability Learned: [Regeneration] Derived from other healing abilities, [Regeneration] makes the user passively heal any damage as long as they have mana.

Of course, as soon as I could, I swapped [Healing Touch] for that one. A truly passive ability to heal myself sounds great, and with my body as sore as it is, I can surely level it up a few times today.

Incidentally, it is the first resilience(RES) ability I’ve learned.

After updating my hunt.ing profile and continuing the discussion with my potential group member, I turn my attention to the chitin. It’s mostly dry now, and a quick sniff tells me I’ve at least gotten rid of the worst smell.

First targets: The experimental gear I made yesterday.

I suppose I should point out that I went with the police to the bug hive. They did most of the work, but they wanted me to lead them there. Turns out, there’s a dungeon there.

We only took a brief glance inside, but I’m pretty sure it’s full of bugs. There were also big spider-web like things on the walls and roof, so I gotta learn fire magic or bring a flamethrower if I wanna delve into that dungeon.

Back to the improvised gear, it consist of arm- and shin guards. Conveniently, some parts of the bugs(mostly their legs) had pieces that were the perfect size for that. I cut away a part of what would become the inside of the arms and magically made holes along the edges.

After that I simply connected the two sides with twine and put them on. Voilà! (Improvised) armor in 1-2-3!

As for what I’m gonna make now, I want some more complete protection. That means, my entire torso and the lower parts of my arms and legs. Since I already have the experimental gear, that leaves the torso.

Since I do not expect to meet anything that is armed, humanoid and/or intelligent, I can probably have some weak points, as most potential enemies would not be able to spot or use those. I also want to keep my mobility.

Of course, what I can make depends on the material. I have some larger chitin plates from the bugs, but most of it is bent in a way that makes it ill-suited for plate armor, at least unless I cut it into smaller pieces.

Something like lamellar or scale armor should be simple enough to make and maintain, while offering both protection and mobility. Well, let’s first see if I can shape the chitin without breaking it; if I can, many more options will be possible.

During my experimentation, I’ve learnt many things, and leveled up the relevant abilities.

First off: I can’t shape the chitin without it breaking. Yet. Like with wood, I might be able to slowly change its shape, but I set aside the long-term experiment. It’s quite simple, if not easy, to cut the chitin though.

With that in mind I did some research on armor crafting and the various types, and concluded that lamellar/scale armor would be best in terms of my ability to make it while also granting protection/mobility.

What I want to make is a lamellar vest. Of course, ideally I’d want something bigger, but I should have enough materials to make that as a test. Also, if it turns out well, I can use it or maybe even sell it.

And that’s why I’m currently magically cutting chitin into pieces about 8x4cm. I’m using the larger plates for this, as the smaller ones are too curved. The larger ones are curved too, but to such a little degree that it’s beneficial: I can use the curvature to make the armor form fitting.

Right, that’s one chitin-plate fully cut. There are some odd pieces, since the plate itself wasn’t exactly square, but i set those pieces aside without cutting them to the size I want for the others.

I start processing the plates, making sets of two holes in each corner. The work is monotonous, but still unfamiliar, so I have to concentrate on it. After a while I get sufficiently used to it that I can think of others things while working.

For example, what do I do if a piece breaks? Or if I wish to change the design? Will I have to take apart the entire thing, get a replacement part(s), and then connect all the pieces again?

So I make some amendments to my plan: First off, along the middle, both front and back, there will be a “spine” of plates going ninety degrees on the others. This will split both the front and back in two sections, meaning half the work to fix it.

After making holes like a robot for who-knows how long, it is time to assemble it into something more resembling proper armor.

I start at what will be the top row, left side. I overlap the outer (left) side of the plates and pull twine through the leftmost corner, out one hole and into the other. Then I add another plate, connect it, and so forth.

Then I do the same for the next row, but connect it to the bottom of the first. A couple rows later I make the rows longer, to go under the armpit, and leave a length of the twine to connect it to the back part.

Soon, the entire left front is done, and I repeat the same for the right. After that I have to cut a bit more to get the front “spine”, but soon that is attached as well, and I do the back. After that I attach shoulder straps.

I take a break to eat dinner and check for any news. Aside from speculation, there isn’t anything particularly noteworthy.

Back to the armor, which looks quite intimidating with its orderly dark gray chitin. I make a couple more plates and use them to attach the front and back on one side. At first I’m not sure what to do with the other side, but soon I find a way that lets me tighten it after putting it on.

It’s not a perfect fit, but for a first project it’s quite good.

Chitin Lamellar Chestplate Defense: High

Weight: Low

Durability: High A simply crafted lamellar chestplate, made of chitin. The design is simple, but still offers great protection for most of the upper torso.

I check myself in the mirror, and indeed I look imposing… or would were it not for me wearing summer clothes under it.

Before I start working on the next piece, I write down twine and fishing line in my shopping list since it seems I will be using it quite a lot for crafting.

By the time the summer sky starts to darken, I have a suit of armor. For inspiration I Googled knight, samurai, viking and armor, and found results both historical and fictional.

I need to get a proper padded jacket, but even without it, what I’ve made should be quite sufficient.

The armor consist of the lamellar vest. Taking a note from more modern samurai, I have detachable shoulder guards and tassets, the part that hangs from the torso armor and protects the upper thighs.

For my left arm I completely replaced the bracer with a series of overlapping plates, giving me almost full protection of my left arm and the top of the hand. I added “good gloves” to the shopping list, and when I buy those I will make some armored gauntlets.

For my legs I made new shin guards, this time reaching up to and covering my knees. Of course, the armor hardly covers my entire body.

Weak points include armpits, under the tassets (thighs and crotch), neck, inner knee and elbow, and the head, if I’m not wearing the skiing helmet.

While warm, the armor is actually pretty comfortable, though I probably want to get some thicker padding for the shoulder straps, after all, they are made of chitin.

On another note, I learned a meta ability: [Crafting Trance], which lets me enter a trance during crafting, reducing distractions and letting me put more concentration into the crafting itself. Or in the case of boring repetitive tasks, lets my mind wander and have an epiphany.

The epiphany in question was that aside from [Aspect of Life], the other big aspect in the city is electricity! That makes a lot of sense in hindsight, and when I learned that, I became able to sense the subtler aspects in the city while focusing.

Aspect Affinity Stat [Aspect of the Wolf] Pitiful END [Aspect of Mist] Strong AGI [Aspect of the Pack] Weak CHA [Aspect of Water] Pitiful AGI [Aspect of Electricity] Pitiful RES

A quick look at my affinities show that my affinities are rather poor, except for [Aspect of Mist]. Even at the current level I might be able to do some more interesting enchants; amusing at it is, a [Plank of lesser Mist] is not exactly useful.

I also wonder if i can do something similar to the half-mist form with the other affinities, after raising my affinity with those. I should probably do some tests with the mist-form first.

For example, what happens if something is where my legs would be? Would that stop me from transforming? What if something blows away the mist? Or condenses it?

Mist seems like a pretty safe choice to test such things, at least compared to [Aspect of Electricity]. Also, could I turn myself into a werewolf if I improve my affinity with [Aspect of the Wolf]?

Those are questions for another day. For now I want to catch up with the websites I frequent, and I think I have several new episodes of that one Netflix series.