Only Seven Days

Time had run out and Noah appeared back in Albert's office.

"You're here! So did you complete the quest?" Albert asked excitedly

"I did," Noah took out the large crystal. He set on the floor for Albert to see.

[Transitioning Black Crystal] (A Class)

"Good, exactly what I need. With this and the stuff you gave me before I can make a gun matching your sword. Do you have a design or do you want me to give you some to choose from?"

"I have one." Noah put the design he had gotten from the Special Gold Chest.

"This is quite rare, you normally don't see guns that can act as a physical and magical one."

Noah didn't understand designs but he guessed that's what the 'hybrid' in the name meant. "What's the significance of having both of them?"

"Magic guns and physical guns have a completely different inner working, but this design compresses everything to squeeze the two into one weapon, this means you can use physical bullets as well as mana bullets."

"Aren't physical bullets much weaker than mana bullets, why would I use them?"

"Ah... you have so much to learn," Albert said shaking his head, he then took out an item. It was a single bullet, he threw it to Noah.

[Explosive Bullet] (E Class)

A special bullet filled with fire energy, when shot will explode on contact.

"That is a magic bullet with a fire spell embued into it. This is why you would want to use a physical gun. You can find a bullet for every kind of spell possible. Each one has no mana cost as well, so they are great for beings with low mana."

Holding the bullet, Noah looked at Albert, he could see the potential of such a weapon. He wouldn't have to learn elemental spells and just needed to load the bullet to do the same damage in the future.

"The design you gave is complicated, but I won't go back on my word and I'll make it for you. As for the two other rewards, you get the membership token as you leave. And if you haven't decided what other equipment you want me to make, you can leave."

"Can you make D Class set equipment?" Noah asked.

Albert hearing paused then laughed, "I can, but if you commission it from me it'll take a few months and more gold than you can imagine for me to fully make it."

Noah knew it wasn't possible but still wanted to try, "E Class set equipment then."

"That isn't a single item, but I'll let it go since its all just E Class. What type of equipment do you want? Bulky, strong and defensive? Light, thin and fast? or just something that is balanced in between?"

"Balanced, but if you can, have it focus on Sense then Agility and Strength."

"That'll depend on the materials you'll give me, so what do you have for it?"

Noah reached out and took out another large chunk of A Class Darkness Crystal. Two chunks had dropped together, "Does every piece of the set equipment have to be the same class?"

"Not necessarily, but they usually are because of the similar materials they use," Albert answered looking at the new chunk, impressed by Noah's luck.

"Can you this to make the chestplate into a D Class one?" Noah took out the Deeptanimum he had gotten from the Special Gold Chest.

Albert was surprised then nodded, "It can, that'll do well, anything else?"

"How many pieces can you have in a set of equipment?"

"Normally, you'll have four, for covering the feet, legs, chest and arms, five if you have gloves. Some rare ones have six with a helmet."

"What about seven?"

"It is possible if you add an accessory or some cloth type equipment to it-" Albert stopped and looked at Noah taking off his cloak and mask. This was the first time he had seen his appearance, and Noah looked exactly as he imagined. He was this cold handsome young man.

"These two pieces of equipment can you add them to the set?"

Albert picked up the mask and Cloak, "The mask will need a little alteration but it can be used as a helmet. Even though the cloak has a similar element, it'll be harder to add on but you had gotten Black Sheep Cloth in the stuff you left with me earlier, I can use that to add it in." Hearing no objections Albert added, "I have all the main materials but I still need a lot of the supporting ones."

They went out of the room and Noah set large sacks down for Albert to take what he wanted. Noah had prepared these sacks before coming to Albert but didn't expect he would end up going to a Hidden A Class dungeon so had been carrying them around through the whole dungeon.

Back in the office, Albert looked at Noah, "So I'll be enhancing your D Class sword, crafting a D Class Hybrid Pistol, D Class Chestplate, E Class pants, boots, arm guards and gloves. With all of this, I'll be altering a D Class Mask and Cloak."

Albert looked at all the work he suddenly had, he had just agreed to craft two pieces of equipment. He sighed thinking that the materials were too good for him to reject.

"I'll take seven days for everything."

It was now Noah's turn to be surprised, "What? Only seven days?" He had been ready for it to go over a month.

"Your a member now so you have priority. Plus not only did you give me better materials to work with, crafting something from scratch is a lot easier than reforging something. It'll cost a lot, boy, so be ready to empty your pockets." Albert said putting everything away.

Noah then left, he picked up a silver token from the front desk while leaving. Unlike the bronze token he had given back, this one was his now.

...

Outside Noah flew on his Levitation Staff, the 24 hours on the crystal seal were up. He didn't go for the Teleportation Hall instead stopped at his warehouse in the Dragon Wing Auction House.

Noah took out a sack and started moving all the materials he had him back to the shelves. As he a black staff with a triangle at the top floated out. He caught and looked at it.

[Sinner's Tears] (D Class)

Willpower +100

Active Skill: [Gate of Oblivion] Send all enemies in a hundred-meter range to oblivion. For the skill to work on them, the enemies must be lower level than the user.

cooldown: 24 hours

This staff was something that had dropped from the Abyssal Abomination. It was a D Class staff but gave only 100 Willpower. What was worst was the skill it had was useless to him. Only F Class monsters were lower level than him.

Currently, he was level 8, even if he tried his hardest he could only reach level 10 in the Protected Zone. That was the max level the system had set for humans over here. Only when they opened the Protected Zone to the Eternal Battlefield they would level up.

The staff was useless for now, but when he got to higher levels it could be a trump card. He put it away for now. He probably wouldn't see it again for more than a year.

Finishing up the rest of the items, Noah took off the Jungle Tree Cloak and Silver Deer Mask he had re-worn.

"So many options..." Noah said as he controlled all the accessories that had dropped in the Deep Mines to float around him. Every single A Class monster he killed had dropped at least one E Class accessory, he even got lucky and a D Class one had dropped.

He went through them all and selected four.

[Onyx Earrings of Contradiction] (D+ Class)

Strength +130, Physique +75, Willpower +75, Sense +150

Passive Skill: [Facade] Your existence is secretive, identification skills no longer work on you. You may alter the perception of your existence as you please.

Active Skill: [Investigate] You can now read the status pages of other beings. The skill only works perfectly for beings of Class D and lower.

cooldown: 5 minutes

These earrings had dropped from the snail at the end. Noah loved them! They were the second piece of D+ Class equipment he had now. It gave great attributes, he was starting to focus more on the sense and strength attribute so this went well with that.

The skills were fantastic, they were the best skills he had seen in an accessory and were probably the best he could get in the Protected Zone. Facade overlapped a bit with the effects of the Ghost's Shadow cloak but was much better at hiding his presence. He would have to use it to fully understand its effects and what it meant by 'alter the perception of your existence'.

Investigate was a type of skill he hadn't seen or heard of before. Noah liked it, one reason why he was able to win fights was that he was able to judge the combat prowess of monsters well. But no matter how good his senses were he would never be able to tell a monsters skills. Just knowing skills before the battle began, he would be able to predict its moves better. The skill was limited to D Class, but he wanted to try it on higher class monsters then judge how useful it was.

[Lunar Red] (E Class)

Strength +45, Agility +45

Passive Skill: [Critical Damage Increase] Hits that do critical damage have a further increase of damage by 20%

It was a long thin red bracelet. This went well with Critical Hit Eyes, his attack power would increase greatly in his Death's Dance state wearing this.

[Emerald Healing Ring] (E Class)

Physique +33, Intelligence +33, Mana +33

Passive Skill: [Healer's Stone] Contact with the ring causes the rate of natural healing to increase. Also doubles the effect of healing spells on the wearer.

Active Skill: [Low Heal] heals all superficial injuries instantly.

cooldown: 10 minutes

This was an emerald and jade ring. Noah mainly chose it for the Low Heal skill. The gloves had the skill but he would replace them eventually so he wanted another item to have the skill as well.

[White Crystal Necklace] (E Class)

Strength +30, Intelligence +30, Mana + 40

Passive Skill: [Incease Damage] Increases all types of damage dealt by the wearer by 10%

The White Crystal Necklace was the most simple with only a white crystal as a pendant to a chain. A general increase was perfect.

He changed the Necklace and earrings. He then took off his current bracelet then wrapped the Lunar Red tightly around his left wrist, securing it. For the Emerald Healing Ring, he didn't take the Anti-Gravity Ring off he just wore the green ring on his index finger on his other hand under his gloves.

Noah then walked out and travelled back to the Inn in ImmortalCloud City