Chapter 61: Forging a Complete Set of Equipment

All along the way, Jessie kept making small talk, and Lin Xiao was nearly driven mad. If it weren’t for the need to earn money, he’d have thrown her out on the roadside just to be rid of her endless chatter.

Finally, he managed to drop her off at home, but Jessie wanted to invite him in for coffee. Without a word, Lin Xiao started the car and, as if fleeing, sped off toward the town, ready for a major shopping spree.

“Jonathan, why did you turn down Barbara, and now this beautiful girl too? Don’t you like girls at all?” Will asked, confused as they drove. Even he thought Jessie was both hot and sexy; he couldn’t understand Jonathan’s rejections. Was there perhaps something off about his orientation?

Lin Xiao shot Will a glare. Since when were kids so precocious, daring to question his preferences? “Will, are you looking for trouble, doubting my orientation? Of course your big brother likes girls. But do you think this is the right time for romance? Think about how many enemies we’re facing: mind flayers, werewolves, vampires, that damned witch’s spirit, not to mention how I’ve supposedly offended the Crimson Overlord and the Goddess of Dark Abundance. Do I really have time for love?”

Will suddenly understood. He’d forgotten just how dangerous things were for them, with threats lurking everywhere and the constant possibility of attack. Who had leisure for romance under such circumstances?

“Sorry, bro, I misjudged you. You’re just trying to protect us. I shouldn’t have said that,” Will apologized at once. Lin Xiao nodded slightly—at least the kid understood now. After all, he was still just a child.

He took Will to the largest supply market in town, where all sorts of materials were for sale—everything needed for crafting equipment could be found there. Entering the market, Lin Xiao began searching carefully among the many shops.

After more than two hours and spending over five hundred dollars, he’d gathered all the raw materials he needed, including several types of high-quality cotton, various alloys, and plastics—essential for crafting cloth armor.

With the purchases done, Lin Xiao took Will home. Number 11 and Joey hadn’t returned yet, and Sheriff Hope was on duty—work had been hectic lately, and he’d been pulling extra shifts nearly every day.

He sent Will to his room to study and returned to his own room to begin forging equipment.

From the last battle with the mind flayer’s avatar, he’d received a standard-level miniature chest, which had yielded two items: three lesser elemental crystals and a precious gem.

[Mental Guardian Gem: Standard material, condensed from the core essence of a mind flayer avatar. Can be used for forging or enchanting equipment.
Effect: Generates a mental shield, blocking psychic attacks up to level 10; grants 50% resistance to psychic attacks up to level 20, and 20% up to level 30.]

The first piece he planned to forge was a tunic. With this piece and his extraordinary physique, he would need no fear against light firearms in the future.

Otherwise, in gun-saturated America, it would be ridiculous to survive monsters only to be gunned down by people.

He summoned the system interface, opened the disassembler, and retrieved the Tracker’s Leather Belt from his inventory. After spending three units of source energy, the belt was dismantled, yielding three attributes: +3 kg carrying capacity, +5 stamina, and +0.5% MP recovery speed—all from the belt itself.

He dismantled the belt not only for the attributes but also because it was leather armor, not cloth. The best gear for a priest was cloth armor; leather armor offered no bonuses and wasn’t suitable.

He chose to craft an Adventurer’s Cotton Tunic, a simple process: five units of cotton went into the forge, then alloy materials, and after spending fifteen units of source energy, the tunic was complete.

He repeated the process to make an Adventurer’s Cotton Trousers, Belt, Pauldrons, and Boots.

Five pieces of level 6 equipment, with only the crafting fee costing source energy—a total of 48 units: 12 each for the tunic and trousers, 8 for each of the other three. Then came the enchantments.

As level 6 gear, enchanting each piece was much more expensive. The magic solvent alone required three units per tunic and trousers, two for each of the others—twelve in all, costing another twelve source energy.

Then there were the lesser elemental crystals. With one left over from the last forging and three more from the chest, he had four, but the tunic and trousers each needed three, and the other three pieces needed two apiece—twelve in total, leaving him eight short. He bought the rest from the store, spending eighty more source energy, leaving seventy, just enough for enchanting.

Once all materials were purchased, Lin Xiao began enchanting each piece: stamina bonuses for the tunic and trousers, MP recovery speed for the belt, carrying capacity for pauldrons and boots.

Apart from enchantments, each piece had its own special effects, all significantly improved over level 1 gear.

Enchanting the tunic and trousers cost fifteen source energy, and ten each for the other three pieces—sixty in all. Out of 210, only ten source energy remained.

Of course, this wasn’t just luck; Lin Xiao had calculated everything in advance. If he’d fallen short, he could have skipped enchanting the boots, but thankfully, his energy reserves were more than enough.

However, he would have to postpone making jewelry; the Mental Guardian Gem would have to wait for another day.

All five pieces were completed, with the following attributes:

Adventurer’s Cotton Tunic:
Type: Cloth Armor
Slot: Tunic
Required Level: 6
Grade: Standard
Weight: 1.5 kg
Durability: 28/28
Physical Defense: +25
Special: +5 Stamina

Adventurer’s Cotton Trousers:
Type: Cloth Armor
Slot: Trousers
Required Level: 6
Grade: Standard
Weight: 1.3 kg
Durability: 28/28
Physical Defense: +20
Special: +5 Stamina

Adventurer’s Cotton Belt:
Type: Cloth Armor
Slot: Belt
Required Level: 6
Grade: Standard
Weight: 0.3 kg
Durability: 25/25
Physical Defense: +18
Carrying Capacity: +3 kg
Special: MP Recovery Speed +0.5%

Adventurer’s Cotton Pauldrons:
Type: Cloth Armor
Slot: Shoulders
Required Level: 6
Grade: Standard
Weight: 0.8 kg
Durability: 28/28
Physical Defense: +18
Carrying Capacity: +3 kg

Adventurer’s Cotton Boots:
Type: Cloth Armor
Slot: Footwear
Required Level: 6
Grade: Standard
Weight: 0.6 kg
Movement Speed: +6%
Durability: 20/20
Physical Defense: +15
Carrying Capacity: +3 kg

When Lin Xiao took the five pieces from his inventory and put them on, he was relieved to find their appearance plain—unlike the attention-grabbing heart-shaped boots, they looked much like ordinary clothes, the overall style reminiscent of a Western cowboy outfit.

With all the pieces equipped, a powerful surge of energy flowed from the gear, resonating with his inner magic and greatly enhancing his overall stats.

First, stamina increased by five points, movement speed rose to 6%, and carrying capacity increased by three kilograms—though offset by the gear’s weight, so there was little net change. MP recovery remained about the same, but the biggest boost was to physical defense.

From a previous 57 points, his defense first reverted to the base 44, then soared to 145—more than double the former value.

His current defense was fourteen and a half times that of an ordinary person. Small-caliber handgun bullets were now negligible; rifle rounds might injure but wouldn’t be fatal.

As for heavy machine guns or RPGs, he probably still couldn’t withstand those, but such weapons weren’t available in most gun shops—maybe only on the black market. For now, he didn’t expect to encounter them.

However, magical resistance remained a major weakness. There was little he could do: not only did he not know how to gain magic resistance, but standard gear simply didn’t have that attribute; only advanced equipment did.

And advanced equipment, even if he could acquire it now, required a class change at level 10 before it could be worn—so for the time being, that was out of the question.

P.S. Here’s an extra chapter to celebrate breaking out of the old category and reaching the sixth frequency. Thank you all for your steadfast support—without your recognition, this book would never have come this far.

Three years writing, ten failed books—this time I truly want to finish a story, not leave it abandoned mid-way.

You can probably see the structure of this novel already—the stage has only just been set. Greater adventures await us beyond.

Let’s not miss our next meeting.