Scrap Silk Armor

Returning to the game to find myself appearing lying on the smithy floor in early morning sunlight, I quickly sit up to find the others camping in the yard behind the smithy deck

A short distance away worked the village's blacksmith, grinding away at the head of a large ax at a seated grinding wheel. Noticing my appearance out of thing air, the smith stutters in his working of the pedal for a moment before asking, "Lad, where did you just come from?"

Reaching up to light scratch my cheek near the broken heart Mark on my face, I simply wink and say, "Just a quick hop from the wagons. Thank you for letting us intrude on your space like this, by the way."

Shaking his head briefly, the man says, "Don't mind it, my young friend, I had already seen you pass out once before from all the work you had done. In fact, watching you lot work so hard to make such weapons reminded me of how I felt in my youth when I first inherited the smithy. If you still need to use the forge, help yourself."

Taking out some healing meat from my player inventory to gnaw on for breakfast, I quickly reassure the blacksmith with, "We may need to use it later, but we should be out of your way for the most part. Today we'll be working on making armor and only a few of us will be using metal plating. The rest of the metal work will be simple dips and trimming."

Nodding wordlessly, the blacksmith simply returns to grinding the face of his large ax while I go into my party's small camp to see who was around. As it turned out, only Oleander, Merch, Go, and Stonewall were online and currently going over all of the team's loot, materials, and the equipment we made the night before. Thankfully, Oleander and Merch were already hard at work making their own armor pieces while lecturing Go.

Stonewall, sadly, was too large in the hands for 'delicate' work on small crafts and the automatic sizing of equipment meant his crafts would just be a waste of materials.

Deciding not to interrupt the others, I inwardly sigh and set to work gathering up some of the spider silk fabrics and materials made or acquired last night. Since we had upper scale level fifty dungeon materials, which was a fifth tier material by default, I did not need to do anything too fancy with the base materials. However, I needed to use the fanciest base material.

Simple Gigantula Silk Canvas turned out to be the chosen material, turning out to be a half-inch thick bolt of layered silken fabric. The description for the material said that it had a 'thread' count of of 86 per layer. Considering this was a crude material made from thick threads, that was probably equal to somewhere around two hundred normal thread count per square inch.

Being simple despite being the toughest material was actually for the best, the only proofing reagents available in the village were some light water and fire resistant resins. However, since this was only the base material, a fire resistance resin was perfect to help compensate for the loss of lower grade goblin leather.

To prepare the entire bolt for my plans, I take a single small leather working needle from the tools spread out by the others and run it through with a crude spool of kobold tendon. Next, I simply unroll the bolt of cloth on the 'work area' of goblin hides covering the ground and start creasing it with one-inch upright folds like pleats that I sew closed up one side and back down the other. Folding these over one by one, I use the previous fold to mark the space between each new fold.

Once the entire ten-yard bolt of canvas had been doubled up in folds, I lay each fold over in line and sew it down for a total of one-and-a-half inches of silken canvas at the cost of one-third of the overall material length. Next I simply cut a fifty-inch or fifty-fold length of material from the bolt between two folds and then sew the new ends together at the top corner.

Using a pair of 'Adept Armorer's Shears' the others had acquired from somewhere, I cut two small crescents of material from the upper sides of layered canvas across two folds for about five inches. The entire material that was now a very crude vest of canvas was only about forty inches tall but that was great for a shirt as far as I was concerned. Now, though, I had to carefully roll and measure a length of layered canvas against these sleeve holes.

Cutting two portions of canvas that were only four folds wide, I take another bolt of gigantula canvas from the pile in the middle of the group and measure out a single cut that was the same width as the proper sleeves. Then I cut this single layer of silken canvas in half.

Afterward I set the base for the sleeves by sewing the halves along the insides of the vest's sleeve holes up to the collar area and around the inside of the surrounding sleeve for several inches.

Next I simply fitted the inner lining into either layered canvas sleeve before sewing the lining to the sleeve from the inside out. I originally intended to wait to use magic, but halfway through the first sleeve fitting I was forced to start integrating my mana into the canvas to transmute it into an even lining for sewing. This alone took more than ten minutes.

Ending the use of mana once the second sleeve was attached, I use an easier method of simply fitting an outer layer of simply silk canvas around the outside of the sleeve, shoulder, and vest. Once the vest was officially a sweater, I set to work making an inner lining for the sweater by measuring and cutting a single layer of canvas to the inside of the sweater. Then I lightly painted both sides of the canvas with the clear paint-like waterproofing agent.

Sewing this waterproof lining to the inside of the sweater to cover the seams of the inner sleeve lining after painting and drying the inner sleeve liner, I set to work using magic to dress the outer folds of the sweater with the slightly thicker and darker fireproofing lacquer.

The outer folds stiffened considerably, but they remained flexible enough for wear despite not having been flexed and worn in yet. Next, I once again integrated my mana into the suit and set to work transmuting the sleeves of the sweater to the open seams of the vest sleeve holes. Once they were seamlessly fused, I quickly stopped my incomplete work.

Taking up my spare bolt of single layer spider silk canvas, I integrate my mana into this and hurriedly study the material with magic before experimenting with changing its shape and weaving as well as its different dimensions. Eventually, I successfully learned the new enchantments that I was looking for.

[Learned Textile Material Enchantment: Natural Density Enhancement]

[+30XP]

[Learned Textile Material Enchantment: Natural Flexibility Enhancement]

[+25XP]

[Learned Textile Material Enchantment: Natural Absorbency Enhancement]

[+30XP]

[Enchanting Leveled]

[+50XP]

[Learned Textile Material Enhancement: Natural Tensile Strength Enhancement]

[+50XP]

Drinking a mana potion and eating some medicinal meat to recover much of the mana I had used in the process of learning these enchantments, I wait a few minutes to recover mentally before returning to my sweater. Finally, I finish the base sweater not only by performing the new enchantments but also by breaking down the previous proofing reagents back into liquids before being once again absorbed in the enchantment materials.

[Learned Skill: Tailoring]

[+50XP]

[Acquired Title: Self-made Tailor]

[+100XP]

[Self-Made Tailor: Rare. Passive. After creating a textile armor higher in quality than common light armors, you have been recognized as a Self-made Tailor and armorer. Your textile combat crafts are now 10% more effective both physically and magically]

[Successfully Crafted: Resistant Spider Canvas Jerkin]

[+800XP]

[+800 Tailoring XP]

[Tailoring Leveled x10]

[+150XP]

[+800 Enchanting XP]

Examining my newly crafted sweater, I nod my satisfaction upon seeing that it offered me a new forty-two compared to the old thirty-seven defense just by itself as well as six percent resistance to both fire and water. The previous proofing resistances had only been three percent apiece. As well, the armor piece now had a natural magic defense rating of twenty.

The increase and addition in ratings and resistances was not all that much, honestly, but this was just the initial layer to full upper armor. The ratings and resistances would continue climbing as the next layers of new material were continually added and the MDEF would increase as they were continually added with magic and enchanted.

Moving down the line, I practice the same exact methods in crafting a pair of pants, the inner lining of a pair of sabatons from thick silk sheeting instead of canvas, the inner lining and mask for a helmet from folded silk canvas, the base for a new belt, and then the heavy canvas body of a full-size cloak. While most of my armor was made with the simple size proportions of the average person back home- which was too tight for me both in and out of the game- I had to make this outer wear full size to get the full effect that I wanted.

Everything but the boots and helmet came out as 'Resistant Spider Canvas' something or other and worth around or over a thousand experience. My Tailoring skill soon reached into the twenties, catching slowly up to my enchanting skill that was already halfway through its thirties thanks to my smithing. Luckily, this also increased the effectiveness of my work.

By the time all of the physical forms were done, everybody else had gradually come back online from reality over the course of two hours and some change. Luckily for them, they were just in time to witness my fusing and enchanting stage. After half an hour of working my alchemical magic, I finish all six pieces with a final conduction enchantment that I had been saving for the final touch.

After all of my hours of effort, the Resistant Spider Canvas Cloak came our with the highest defense rating of fifty-one. Nothing, though, was below forty in grade. These thick-ass light armors were all roughly in the same tiers as our current medium armors just based on the material!

This game is crooked as hell… or maybe the crafting inspiration I sold to the armorer was broken?

Knowing that my next designs would need to remain mine or at least bring in good royalties, I simply toss the future 'scrap silk armor' out into the middle of the work area before saying. "Study it and copy it, first suits are going to be sold as scrap armor. While you're making it, design improved versions for yourself and make your personal pieces based on your proper measurements. Everything there is the 'universal' size we're going to start selling by, its basically medium for men."

After our main crafters started breaking down the pieces with mana to break down the process for the others, I set to work spending another two hours and three mana potions making the base bodies for my suit of armor in full size. The overall magic defense rating for the original six pieces came out to one hundred and twenty, which was basically half of its physical values. Now, I was using mana in everything and for everything- including the needle and sinew for sewing.

Not only did these pieces come out stronger from the start because I made them based on my actual body but the finished MDEF for the jerkin alone was thirty points.

That was a difference of ten points of damage-reduction from magic attacks. I was already at the point where an imp queen's attacks back in Potlatch would probably do nothing to me without a direct MDEF rating in my last suit of armor from the armorer, these ratings probably meant I was untouchable below my level. Outside of PVP, of course.

On top of these increased magic defense ratings, the physical defense rating for the jerkin was now forty-five before enchantments. However, before cashing in on experience from officially completing the piece, I simply manufactured the rest of the suit physically before enchanting and treating with magic. This way, at least, everything would have the same base level of craftsmanship for their final ratings.

As opposed to the scrap armors which were also treated and retreated instead of properly one-step treated after the initial absorbency enchantment.

Unlike the scrap silk armors, all of my pieces brought in no less than a thousand experience and even my actual level rose to forty. On top of this, my Enchanting skill was nearing forty as well and Tailoring had finally entered the thirties thanks to bulk. With this solid tier-six suit of armor as the base for my operation, I set to work preparing the parts and pieces of the outer layers.

*