Vol. 7 - Power - Chapter 17 (Patreon)

Thomas stared at the notice for a bit as he mulled over what he should call the gauntlet. After fucking up the 'Sound Balls' he was slightly more prudent with his naming of new items. Also, he wanted to try to think of something ultra-cool to call it. Unfortunately, his naming sense wasn't exactly all that good. He stared at the notice for several minutes before finally giving up, "Shield Gauntlet."

The moment he spoke the gauntlet he'd just finished let out a blindingly bright golden light that bathed the entire room in its radiance. Thomas leaned back and covered his eyes with his hands to protect them from the light. It lasted nearly a minute before the light finally faded and Thomas could see the results of his hard work.

System Notice: You have created an Epic rarity Shield Gauntlet. Quality: Perfect. You have gained 6,640 Magitech Engineering experience. You have gained 13,280 experience.       

Armor Type: Shield Gauntlet   
Rarity: Epic   
Quality: Perfect   
Description: This single gauntlet has the potential to change the world of combat forever. Anyone wearing this gauntlet need not fear spellcasters as it's retractable shield is capable of dispersing any spell it intercepts. The Anti-Magic Ancient Lead shield is indestructible when going against materials of the same rarity. The enchanted gauntlet with the inlaid perfect mana crystal will amplify any form of Magnetic Magic fed through it so long as the mana crystal maintains a charge.
+100 Endurance (Left hand/arm only)
+∞ Shield Endurance (against Rare rarity and below weapons/all magic)
+30% Power Amplification of Magnetic Magic while charged
+Current Charge: 0/300
-Requires 150 Power to wear
-30% effectiveness to non-Magnetic Magic spells cast using the left hand   
Souldbound: Thomas Darkrose    

Thomas's whole body trembled as he read the description of the gauntlet. One word kept repeating over and over in his mind as he read the description over and over again, 'Invincible'. Screw the base one hundred Endurance that the armor provided. The goddamn shield was invincible against anything below epic rarity! Who the hell had epic items aside from him and NPCs? He was pretty certain the answer was 'NO ONE!'. Anyone without an epic weapon or running around as a spellcaster was now his bitch!

Slowly he started to chuckle, little giggles of delight that quickly manifested into outright laughter that wouldn't be out of place coming from some cheesy b-list villain. His whole body shook as he laughed and cackled like a madman. He even went the extra mile and threw his head back to laugh even harder! Off to the side, Snowlily watched her partner with narrowed eyes. If Thomas happened to look at her at that moment he would have seen the look of contempt she was shooting him before she shook her head in a dismissive fashion. Sometimes she couldn't help wondering just which of them was the child.

As Thomas continued to laugh for a few minutes, Snowlily placed her head on the floor and covered her ears with her paws. Even after he stopped laughing she kept her ears covered. Thomas, on the other hand, was still giddy even after he finished his 'diabolical villain laughter'. The gauntlet was amazing but it was only the first piece of what he intended to make. He calmed himself down and reluctantly stored the gauntlet inside of his inventory. He would not wear it in public for the time being. He was too weak and it would attract all the wrong kinds of attention. After setting his hands on the workbench he took a deep breath and slowly let it out. It was time to work on the second gauntlet and finish the pair.

The process of making the second gauntlet was actually a lot easier than the first. He had no intention of adding a collapsing anti-magic shield onto it so that saved a ton of time and effort. Pieces of purified Mithril were quickly shaped into pieces of armor to protect his hand and attached to a glove made out of more Black Tar Boa skin. Thanks to a liberal use of Transmutation, the second gauntlet took little more than an hour to reach eighty percent completion. Like the first gauntlet, this one was made using his own right hand as the model. Given past experiences, this meant that the gauntlet would likely be soulbound to him as well. Something he really appreciated. No matter how low the odds of dropping something were, dropping one of these pieces would hurt.

With the base work for the gauntlet completed, he moved onto working out the details for what he had planned. This gauntlet wouldn't have any complicated mechanisms with hidden tricks. He planned to keep it simple this time, but that didn't mean he couldn't add a little something extra to it. To get things started, he began to slightly reshape the knuckles on the gauntlet by adding in shallow divets similar to the one for the mana crystal on the previous model. He did this for all four knuckles leaving them looking slightly deformed. He did the same thing on the top of the gauntlet, prepping a place for a second mana crystal 'gem' to be installed later.

With all the sections prepped, Thomas set the gauntlet down and retrieved a small piece of Ancient Lead from his inventory. The lead still stank of the solution used on it but it was nowhere near as bad as the solution itself. He glanced at the container holding the solution inside of his inventory. It would stay there forever where it could no longer hurt anyone. His hands glowed while he carefully reshaped the Ancient Lead turning the one lump into several smaller pieces. Those pieces, in turn, were changed into small thick discs that fit perfectly into the divets on the knuckles of the gauntlet. Although the pieces of Ancient Lead were small, he hoped that after purifying them it would allow him to punch spells, specifically he wanted to be able to punch and damage magical shields and barriers!

The pieces were too small to effectively stop spells like the shield he made, but he hoped they would be able to interfere with the mana in other things and help break them down. If not, no big deal they would still hurt like hell if he punched someone in the face with them! He carefully lay all the pieces of Ancient Lead into their slots and then sealed them in place using the Mithril itself along with a generous helping of glue. Unfortunately, he couldn't simply fuse the two metals together since he planned to purify the Ancient Lead and capitalize on its anti-magic big brother. With every piece of lead in place, he began the purification process turning each knuckle of the gauntlet into Anti-Magic Ancient Lead.

Slowly the small pieces of matte black lead transformed into glimmering shards that resembled perfect pieces of obsidian. Only a fool would think they were as fragile as obsidian though. With every knuckle that he purified, the gauntlet took on an even more foreboding look. Even if they didn't know what it was, mages that relied on a shield for protection would feel an instinctive fear when seeing the shining black knuckles flying at their faces. It wasn't long before all four knuckles were coating in glimmering black metal capable of damaging magic itself.

After finishing each of the knuckles, he repeated the process of purifying a Troll's mana crystal and turning it into a hemisphere to seat into the back of the gauntlet. It would act as a nice battery and provide a bit of extra mana for him to use. Once it was installed it was time for the final step in finishing the gauntlet, enchanting it! For this gauntlet, he had something in mind that would be universally helpful to him. However, before he could begin the enchanting process, he needed to take a short rest and recover his expended mana. Transmuting plain Ancient Lead took a lot out of him and next, he would need to conjure up an engraving tool made of Mithril. Making such a high tier of metal using just his magic took a fairly large amount of mana. Luckily, maintaining it took a lot less once it was summoned.

He sat down next to Snowlily to relax for a bit before finishing his work for the day. After he did they'd head back to the inn for dinner and some rest. As he got comfortable, Snowlily finally stopped covering her ears with her paws and looked up at him expectantly. So far, every time he'd sat next to her there'd been delicious food to snack on. Sadly, this time was not the case. He smiled down at her and stroked her head when he saw her expectant look, "We'll be having dinner soon so you'll need to wait until then before we eat again."

Snowlily was slightly disappointed but the petting helped make it up to her. They sat in silence while Thomas recovered his mana with Serenity for a bit. Once he was at his maximum, he went back to work. He got all of his enchanting supplies ready, including what was left of the purified Alchemist's Oil. A single bottle was enough for multiple enchantments but if he wanted enough for everything he planned to make then he was going to have to take the time to make some more. Now that he'd used the good stuff there was no going back.

He held his hand up and gathered mana to conjure a Mithril engraving tool with his Metal Magic. Once the tool formed he took a deep breath and slowly let it out to help focus his mind. After dipping the tip of the tool in the mixture of oil and mana crystal powder, he got to work. The tool dug into the smooth metal of the gauntlet and deposited the small shards of mana crystal in its wake. He showed a single-minded focus as he carved thin lines around the mana crystal embedded into the gauntlet and along its edges. Like the previous gauntlet, he didn't go with his usual circuitry-like patterns and stuck with something more aesthetically pleasing. The process was slow as he painstakingly carved the enchantment into the hard surface of the metal. The whole time he only had a single focus for the enchantment, 'Amplify'.

System Notice: You have created an Epic rarity Mithril Gauntlet. Quality: Excellent. You have gained 1,549 Magitech Engineering experience. You have gained 3,098 experience.       

Armor Type: Mithril Gauntlet   
Rarity: Epic   
Quality: Excellent
Description: This gauntlet is made of the purest Mithril and accented with Anti-Magic Ancient Lead. Although it's Anti-Magic properties aren't grand due to the small amount of Anti-Magic Ancient Lead used in the construction, it is still capable of causing interference to magic that comes into direct contact with the knuckles.
+100 Endurance (Right hand/arm only)
+Knuckles deal damage to magic
+10% Power Amplification to all spells cast while charged
+Current Charge: 0/300
-Requires 50 Power to wear   
Souldbound: Thomas Darkrose    

Reading over the description brought a smile to Thomas's face. Though this gauntlet wasn't nearly as broken as the other one, it was still damned good. He could literally punch magic while he was wearing it. How badass was that?! The Power Amplification wasn't as high as he'd hoped to get it but ten percent was nothing to scoff at. The power requirement also wasn't nearly as high due to the lack of large amounts of heavy lead to weigh the gauntlet down. Comparatively speaking, the second gauntlet probably weighed about a tenth as much as the Shield Gauntlet. He felt he would be slightly unbalanced due to the difference in weight on each side of his body but he would get used to it.

With the pair of gauntlets completed, he began to clean up his supplies inside of the room. He'd be back tomorrow to make himself some more gear. The greaves he intended to make would be rather simple compared to gauntlets. They were pretty much just one solid piece of metal after all. The complicated part would be making himself a nice new pair of combat boots to go with them. He thought about the design and materials he would use to make them until he'd cleaned up all of his supplies.

On the way out of the guild, he pre-booked the workshop for tomorrow as well. He'd stick to one day at a time so he didn't overbook the room for the time he didn't need. Once he was done at the guild, he left with Snowlily walking right next to him. Occasionally he would snag something that smelled good from a street vendor and stuff it inside of his inventory. With it growing in size every day he was able to store much more inside of it without fear of cramming it full of useless stuff. Not that delicious monster meat was ever actually useless!

It wasn't long before the pair made their way into the inn they were staying at with the other two women. Inside he spotted both Lexiana and Selena sitting at a table together chatting while eating their dinners. As he approached both women looked up at him and smiled. Lexiana looked to be somewhat excited while Selena had a pensive look on her face. He briefly wondered what had her looking like that before dismissing it and ordering dinner for himself and Snowlily. Whatever was bugging Selena had nothing to do with him! If she wanted to talk to him about it she could otherwise, he wasn't going to butt into her business.

The three people and one Garou chatted, and yipped, happily with each other while eating their dinner together. Lexiana actually seemed to have calmed down a bit and wasn't acting overly familiar with either Thomas or Snowlily, something he found rather refreshing. Selena was rather quiet and just chimed in every now and then with fitting anecdotes to match the conversation. Once everyone finished and prepared to go to their separate rooms, Selena gently grabbed Thomas's sleeve and looked at him with a rather concerned expression, "Can we talk?"