The next day Zoey was up early and excited to test her new talents and abilities. The first thing she did was activate her Aether Engineer talent and test the repair and modification feature that she had unlocked. Her 9mm custom handgun was simply absorbed into the three dimensional interface when she activated the talent. It appeared in the holographic display and several options and alerts started showing up on the display.

The display highlighted the wear and damage on the gun and gave the option to repair it. There wasn't much to repair, only some slight corrosion in the barrel. Once the repair was complete she took a look at the modification function.

The instant she selected it her display was filled with modification options. There were hundreds of options she could use to enhance her gun. The interface seemed to be pulling data from her old universe and this universe and adapting the info to her needs. There were modifications from her old universe like glowing sights, underbarrel laser attachments red dot sights, and many more. What drew Zoey's attention however was the category that was related to her newly awakened Dark Star Runic Blood.

After taking a look, she found that she could now actually apply the Ice Venom rune to her 9mm by etching the requisite runic array onto her magazines. Once the array was applied, she would be able to switch on the fly between a normal magic slug, and a slug that carried Ice Venom. The trigger was simply her applying magic to the array on the magazine before firing. She would be able to fire a normal slug then follow up with an Ice Venom slug right away, and then switch back if needed. The disadvantage to this was that the Ice Venom slug did not have the same power and impact as the normal slug had. She would have to use the Ice Venom only after she had cracked the defenses of her target or found a weak spot.

Zoey happily applied the new array to her magazines. Ice Venom slugs would be extremely strong if they made contact with a target's blood and would increase her effectiveness in combat. Additionally, she made some modifications to the array etched onto the gun itself. These modifications would allow her to use her own magic to increase the firing power of the gun. Before, it had been limited to the magic stored in the magazine, but now she would be able to increase the power if needed. This would let her offset the weaker power of the Ice Venom slugs, but would likely damage the gun if used. She decided only to use the power array as a last resort.

After that she removed her gun and magazines from the interface and pulled out her combat knife. In reality, her knife needed the biggest change when it came to modifications. In its current state, it couldn't even do damage to a Rank 2 creature. After a few moments of research and looking through methods she could use to modify the knife, she finally decided on what to do.

First she modified the handle of the knife to include a magic battery. Then she etched an array onto the knife that formed a magic edge on the blade when the array was active. Then she applied the same Ice Venom rune array to the knife she had put on her gun magazines. These modifications would allow the knife to be more versatile, but she was not certain how well it would perform until she tested it on something like the Rank 2 Ice Venom Sky Snake.

Finished with the knife, she moved on to her other gear. First she created small metal plates and etched a magic array onto the plates. Then she attached the plates to her gear. She made five total plates, two for her underclothes, two for her shirt and pants, and one for her poncho. The array she had etched allowed all five plates to network together into a larger array and create a magic shield that layered on her clothing. This shield would be able to block elemental, magical, and physical damage when active. To activate the shield, all she had to do was inject her magic into the array.

Satisfied with her work, she closed her interface, put on her gear, and grabbed her backpack, getting ready to head out. Nito had already left earlier in the morning so Zoey headed back to where she had hunted the Ice Venom Sky Snakes yesterday. Once she got there she found a small clearing to do some tests on her gear.

First she tested the shield array on her clothing. When she activated the array, there was a slight shimmer that could be seen over the fabric of her clothes and poncho. Using her knife, she was not able to even damage the cloth of her poncho. Only after activating the knife's magic blade array and using all her force was she able to penetrate the magic barrier and damage the cloth. She also tried firing a magic slug through her poncho with the shield array active. The slug was able to penetrate, but it completely lost its power and simply dropped to the ground after it got through the cotton material. She tested her outer nano armor garment in the same way and the slug could not even penetrate the fabric when the shield array was active.

Finally she tested her nano armor clothing with the shield array active by firing her new Ice Venom slug into it. On impact the shield array crackled and hissed as the Ice Venom splashed across the surface. After a few seconds the Ice Venom evaporated doing no damage to the nano armor beneath. The array was slightly weakened though, and Zoey calculated it could only take four or five direct hits from her Ice Venom slugs before it broke.

Using the info from the tests, Zoey could calculate how strong her defence was against elemental magic attacks. One magic slug was as powerful as five Ice Venom slugs. The Ice Venom slugs were comparable to the Venom spat by the Rank 2 Ice Venom Sky Snake. This meant her shield array could tank around five direct hits from a Rank 2 creature's magic attack. As for Rank 3, it might be able to withstand one hit.

As for physical protection, she judged that the shield could mitigate five hits from a Rank 2 creature similar to the Ice Venom Sky Snake that she fought yesterday. However, if it was a penetration type attack, like the fangs of the snake, she could not guarantee that the array would hold.

Satisfied with the protection her modified gear provided, she repaired the damage she had done, and headed out to hunt some more snakes. Hopefully she could find some more Rank 2 Ice Venom Sky Snakes to take home.