3 Dressed for success

Holding up the newly crafted leather breastplate he turned it left then right. It wasn't anything flashy, just a simple cuirass type chest armor made out of boar leather. Cocking an eyebrow he glanced over to Beth who was watching him like a hawk. "You really managed to make all this in just one day? Didn't it take you like half a day to make the one bracer?"

"The bracer was a new design. I had to make it by hand to unlock the recipe. These were just basic designs they were already in the work table. I actually don't have to do a lot of the manual work to make something already recorded. Just feed it materials. So quit stalling, what do you think?" fidgeting as she asked it was obvious she couldn't wait to hear his praise.

Instead of answering her question, he asked another "So… were you a seamstress in your last life? You seem pretty good at this if you managed to make something from scratch on the first try."

Rolling her eyes again she plucked the chest piece from his hands. "Actually I worked in a bakery, one of those chain store bakeries you get cakes or dinner rolls and such from."

He picked up the leather pants and held them up to his waist trying to get a feel for how well they would fit. "Weird… Didn't that guy… whats his name… the blonde one. Ah right, Carl. Didn't Carl get made a baker when we arrived? You would think it would have been you considering that you've had experience. Did you think about switching with him?"

"No way! First, How would we even switch? Second, I love this stuff. I actually did a ton of cosplay before. Always made my own costumes. This is actually kinda similar. Well, less glue and foam but still I think it's cool. Besides Carl love's baking, he was a bank teller but apparently was obsessed with baking shows on the food network. I actually think the jobs we received are things we would most enjoy." She whacked him in the arm with one of the boots she'd crafted "So obviously you are some masochistic deviant since you come back beat to hell every day."

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes and he plucked the boot from her hand taking a halfhearted swipe at her with it. "Oh, so you and Carl are pretty close ehhhh?" Teasing her was fun but the conversation was actually pretty insightful. He tried to picture her in cosplay. He'd done a bit himself and made a run of a few of the conventions. He tried to picture the snarky girl in front of him dressed up in the over the top outfits he'd seen and laughed.

"What's so funny? I don't think I like that look. And you leave poor Carl alone. He's a good guy" Her eyes were narrowing and he figured he was in for another outburst if he stayed any longer.

So he did the logical thing. Scooped up all the armor pieces and made a hasty retreat "Nothing! Got to go! Early day tomorrow! Thanks again!! BYE!!"

"Don't forget I don't work for free you still owe me!!!" her shout followed him out of the workshop.

As he went he couldn't help but wonder why he was given the warrior class. After a bit of debate, he decided the simplest answer was probably the right one. Of all the things he could have done in a world like this becoming an adventure or hero type was something deep down he knew he'd have chosen himself. After all, it was that reason he'd keep trying for the last month and the reason he'd keep trying going forward.

*********

Twenty minutes… It had taken him twenty minutes to get geared up in the outfit. He hadn't realized just how much time the simple zipper saved humanity. Lacing and buttoning up things took way longer than he expected. Still, he'd never complain about it, not now that he'd finally slain an Antger. Grinning down at the hideous corpse in front of him he felt like dancing. Not only had he finally managed to kill one he'd received experience points for the kill. It didn't even matter that the other two had escaped. He'd done it, he was finally making progress again. Another big plus was that the armor was better than he expected. While the Antger blades were sharp they didn't have a lot of power behind them. So against even the most basic armor, they tended to glance more than anything. No longer having to worry about every attack he'd managed to overpower one with a flurry of attacks of his own. It was a bit of a reckless fighting style but since it worked he wasn't going to complain.

Twirling his spear as he turned in the direction the other two had fled. He couldn't stop a hungry grin from spreading across his face. "Come out, come out my lovely experience points. I just want to farm you… It won't hurt I promise!" Running through the forest two hideous beasts felt a cold chill pass over them. They knew things would never be the same for now something terrifying was presently hunting their territory.

*********

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Beth looked down at the two Antger hides in her hands. "I mean I guess this is double the last ones you brought me." She wore a well-practiced scowl of disappointment, so well crafted he couldn't tell if she was really disappointed or just teasing.

"Well, I actually got three." He summoned in his one pristine hide showing it off to her "But I need this one for a quest." He quickly dismissed it back into his inventory as Beth, her eyes shining, dropped the others and lunged for it.

"Waiit! Bring it back out. That thing appraised as a pristine material! You can use that to upgrade a piece of armor by a whole tier!!! Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie! Do you know how much skill you can gain for upgrading!!" she was practically drooling as she backed him into a corner. He hadn't given it much thought but she must have a skill system similar to his own… and with no other source of materials, she'd been in just as much a rut as he had.

"Whoa calm down! I told you I need it for a quest. Help! Help! I need an adult! I'm under Midget Attack! Code Tiny Terror I repeat it's a Code Tiny Terror." His teasing only seemed to make her more determined to get her prize. "Ok Ok! Once I'm done I'll get you some I promise." He held up his hands in a shielding motion.

She glared at him "10… I want 10 of them. That's the least you can do considering all the work I've done without any payment so far."

"Ok ok 10 it is." He gave her his best smile

"Alright. Now give me your bracer." She held out her hand.

"Er why?" No way was he giving her back the armor. Was she going to extort him for the hides?

Rolling her eyes she reached out and grabbed his left arm before starting to unlace the boar bracer. "I just thought of something I wanted to try and I need your bracer to test it on." Sliding his bracer off she promptly turned while scooping up the hides he'd brought before heading into the back room. Since she didn't say anything he decided to follow her.

He'd actually not been in the back and wasn't sure what to expect. There were wooden barrels that reminded him of fifty five gallon drums lining one side of the back room. Several wooden mannequins stood against another wall. One of which sported a full set of armor identical to his boar leather. She walked straight towards a table in the back. It was covered in different tools and a heavy leather bound book sat off to the side. She pushed aside the tools and dropped the hides on top of the table and he was actually surprised to see them disappear.

"I thought you said you didn't have an inventory system?" She now placed the bracer on the cleared spot of the table and started flipping through the book.

"I don't. Not like the one you have at least. My workbench can store materials related to my craft but I can only access it when I'm here at the bench." She stopped flipping and he glanced over to see what she was reading. The page she was reading was blank, he started to question the blank book when she asked. "Hey, do you have any more of those claw blades?"

She traced her finger along the blank page as if she was reading something. "Er, yeah here." He summoned in the four blades he received from the three he'd killed. Then watched them disappear into the bench after he handed them to her. After a few moments, his bracer disappeared off the table too.

"Wait!! I need that still!" he reached forward and slapped his hand down on the table where his bracer had been just a moment ago patting the solid wood.

Slapping his hand she snapped at him "Stop interrupting me or I'll kick you out." She returned to reading more from her blank book then after only a few minutes, a new bracer appeared on the table. This one looked like the original Antger bracer. Picking it up she turned it over looking at it. "So, crafting the one piece unlocked the recipe for the entire set. And using the basic leather pieces with the materials I can do an upgrade instead of a raw craft. It will take more materials but I get better skill gains this way. The stats are the same on this one as the one I made previously too, see."

She held the bracer up for him to examine. He started to tell her he couldn't see any stats but when he focused on it a message appeared.

[Item Appraised: Basic Antger Bracer]

Armor Value: 6

A bracer made from the durable hide of an Antger accented with one of the creature's claws.

"It has stats!" He snatched it from her hands and checked that the stats were still visible.

"Wait, you can't see the stats of items? How have you known what to use?" Beth sat down next to the work bench.

"Well, it's not like I've had a lot to pick from. This is great! Can you identify my spear?" He summoned it from his inventory and held it out before she could even answer. She didn't even get up, just looked at it for a moment then another message popped up.

[Item Appraised: Warrior Spear]

Damage value: 10

A common spear issued to all beginning spearman classed warriors.

He was grinning from ear to ear "You are awesome! I could kiss you!"

Beth who had been leaning back her chair on two legs thumped forward as she sat up straight giving him the oddest of looks.

"Er I mean I would never try and kiss you?" She glared at him "I mean I could kiss you?" He corrected his tone confused, she just rolled her eyes.

"Give me your other bracer and I'll make an upgraded one with the spare basic bracers I have." She held out her hand.

"Well, you said the stats are the same right? I'd rather keep this one." This way I need less material to upgrade the set, though he thought the last to himself.

"But… it's ugly. The upgraded ones look better." She gave him more odd looks.

"Yeah, but you made it for me. I'd rather keep it." Grinning he turned to head out "Don't worry I'll get more hides!"

"Ugh! Just.. be careful…you idiot!" She hollered out behind him as he headed out of her shop. It was too late to head back to the forest, though he did debate on it. Finally, he decided to head to bed early. He wanted the morning to come as soon as possible. The last thing he did was check his status tab one more time before falling asleep.

Experience: 18/100

*********

Left, right, left, left, left, right… he took half steps shifting his weight to avoid the flurry of blows from the lone Antger. At this point, he could do it without even thinking. Which was good because half his attention was divided watching his status page. More particularly he was staring at one line in particular.

Agility: 19

After finally leveling up he'd decided to dump the total of six points he had into intelligence. It was the only attribute that hadn't gone up… plus it brought it to a nice even twenty. Now only his agility was below twenty.

He'd been grinding for a little over a week now. Every day from dawn until dusk he'd been killing all the Antgers he could find. Beth had managed to upgrade his entire set of armor with the basic pelts and he was pretty sure she was most of the way through another set. Today he'd gotten his tenth pristine pelt on his twenty second kill. They had become more frequent towards the end, possibly because he'd started killing them with a single well placed attack.

The problem was since he'd gotten that last hide he hadn't received a single experience point. He'd killed another six before deciding he really wouldn't be getting any more experience from killing Antgers. So for the last half an hour, he'd been grinding his agility up on this Antger. After dodging several more attacks the Antger turned and tried to flee yet again.

"Nope! You're not going anywhere until I get this last damn stat to twenty." He kicked it into overdrive and rushed around to block the fleeing creature's path. It let out a horrid whining sound and made a few half hearted attacks as if asking for mercy. "No way! You'd better pick up the pace and help me get this last stat. I'll tell you what… I'll even spare you... if I get it in the next…ten minutes."

The creature backed up several more steps making a plaintive whining noise before once again launching into a flurry of attack. "There you go! That's more like it!" As if even the system of this world started feeling sorry for the poor creature he finally saw his attribute increase. Grinning he took half a dozen rapid back steps to disengage from his sparring partner in order to check the new messages.

This was something unexpected as he hadn't received anything new when his other abilities had hit twenty. He just wanted them all at least twenty to sate his OCD tendencies.

You've met the minimum threshold in Dexterity, Agility, and Intelligence to unlock a class ability.

[Active Ability Unlocked]

[Hasten] [Level 1]

He frowned a bit. Why would intelligence be a requirement for a warrior class ability?

Checking the ability information he read:

You have reached a milestone of physical ability and acquired the mental capacity to utilize it to its fullest for a short period. Able to temporarily push your body and senses to their peak for a short time.

50% increase in speed and mental acuity for 2 minutes. 24 hour cooldown.

"Hmm, I gotta try this out." He looked around for the Antger he'd been fighting only to realize the thing had fled. "Damn it I was gonna practice my parry skill on him. Oh well, it is getting late. I'll try this out tomorrow.

*********

Dropping off what he'd gathered that day with Beth as he always did before heading to his little barracks he was now staring at his armor. The full Antger Leather armor was the same bright green color as the creature's whose hide it was made from. Scythe blades had been used to accent both bracers giving him a blade running down the length of his forearm. It wasn't exactly the best weapon but it did help reinforce his arms so he could better block with them. More blades decorated the shoulders, while others were used as reinforcing materials. Overall it was too bright and gaudy for his likes. Also, green wasn't his favorite color either. But it was way better than his other armor and like all good gamers at low levels. He would wear whatever gave him the best stats no matter how it looked.

"If she made me a pink tutu with more armor I'd wear it over this… Maybe." He flopped back down into his bed and opened up his inventory. After acquiring the tenth pristine hide he'd gotten a message awarding him fifty experience and a quest token. He checked his status tab again:

Experience: 78/200

He'd had gotten the three experience for the runt. Then killed a total of twenty five exp yielding Antger. Then got the fifty from the quest. After leveling his experience had reset to zero… or well a more annoying three. The experience to level had doubled too.

Most interesting was the pristine hides had remained. He actually had eleven of them even. Shrugging to himself he figured if the system didn't want his hides he'd have Beth upgrade his gear again. The token though was another thing. When he pulled it out of his inventory it was an odd metallic coin. He'd ask Beth to appraise it but got nothing more from it than he'd gotten before. Yawning he rolled over. "Screw it, I'll figure it out later."

*********

After dropping off his armor and the pristine hides he'd swapped into a loaner set of the basic boar armor. That way while she started the upgrade process he could still do some hunting. She made it sound like it was a pretty involved and time consuming process though he figured it would just be dumping everything into her work bench before waiting for some. Still, he decided to check on the boar population and see if they had respawned… he could hope, right? He was nearly to the meadow when his only warning was a deep rumbling growl before a silvery blur slammed into him. He got the briefest glimpse of giant yellow fangs and huge green eyes before being bowled over.