Heaven Ranked Armor

Skee!

Tanner instantly moved form his position. A moment later, a huge jaw with extremely pointed teeth all over it's mouth, down to it's stomach snapped.

"Hmph, just a Grade 2 Earth Worm. It's grade increases by two when it burrows into the ground." Tanner analyzed the beast and recognized it almost instantly.

Soon after, the jaw snapped at him again. However he did not dodge it. He pointed directly at the ground where he stood and shouted lightly, "Water Dragon!"

A dragon roared and rushed into the ground, shattering the rocks in its way into dust. It struck the worm, turning it's entire body into dust. The ground trembled violently as it's core exploded.

[New notifications gotten]

"Ah yes, the kills from yesterday."

[You have killed a Grade 3 Bronze Skinned Golem.]

[First kill – 50 EXP]

[EXP – 100 EXP]

[Total – 150 EXP]

[You have killed five Grade 2 Bronze Skinned Golems.]

[EXP – 350 EXP]

[You have killed a Grade 2 Earth Worm.]

[EXP – 50 EXP]

[Total EXP – 550 EXP]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Data]

Name: Michael Tanner

Level: 3

Mana: 150/150

HP: 100/100

EXP – 150/500

[Stats]

Strength – 16.5

Agility – 24.5

Speed – 26.5

Intelligence – 15.5

Energy – 110/110

[Magic]

Water

– Mid-Tier realm

– Middle stage

[Miscellaneous]

Points – 0

Stealth – 2.5

Magic Control – 22.5

Charm – 5.5

Bravery – 4.5

Resistance – 7.5

He inspected his stats. Some of his stats like Magic Control, Speed and other had improved by one stat. His next level up increased it by a stat, and the next improved it by 0.5.

"I better head back. It's almost bright." After a bit more familiarizing, he sprinted back toward the camp.

___________

Whoosh!

Three people arrived at the same time. Allen's Wind Horse, a majestic Grade 10 beast disappeared back into his bracelet which was hidden inside his sleeves.

Arnold's armor disappeared back into his ring, and he landed gently on the ground.

Tanner who had run at full speed, grazed the ground beneath him as he slowly came to a stop.

They stared at each other calmly.

"Mid-Tier, not bad." Allen surprisingly commented, startling everyone.

"It's nothing. I'm still behind." Tanner sighed.

"It's still amazing you can improve at such a speed." Arnold patted him on the shoulder.

After the team was readied and set, they quickly freshened up and prodded deeper into the battlegrounds.

_________

"Lava lake found!" a scout reported.

"Details!" Arnold commanded.

"About three kilometers in size. Several Lava Golems, Snakes and Demons of various grades. In the middle, there is a tree, which looks like it's about to blossom. It is being eyed by a Grade 5 Lava Golem nearby and some other cultivators. It's a bit into the inner zone."

"Do we have a time limit? What's the nature of the fruit?"

"From it's looks, we have a week. It should be the Superior Grade Fiery Fruit, which amount to five."

Everyone took a deep breath. Subconsciously, Allen and Tanner stared at Arnold, who seemed to be calm but was a breath away from rushing towards the fruit.

Similarly, some other Fire Mages, which were about two in the group, revealed greedy expressions.

Allen and Tanner stared at each other, then at Arnold who was looking at them.

They understood each other, so they got a bit away from the team, and discussed.

"I say we should–"

"Water Wave." An extremely blunt wave struck Arnold soaking he and his clothes. His aura exploded out, drying him instantly.

"Now that you have a cool head, no. At least not with the team." Allen immediately spoke.

"They deserve a share in this, too." Arnold rebutted.

"They will get a share, based on what we get. However, they cannot follow." For once, Tanner was willing to side with Allen. The team had seven Advanced Mages. However, they were all at the beginner stage and had no combat experience.

Sometimes, Tanner wondered how they had entered the Advanced realm. They could barely deal with Grade 2 Bronze Skinned Golems. How would they deal with a Grade 5 beast?

"What we get? Why should you come?" Allen stared at Tanner.

"Because I want to." Simply replying, Tanner ended the conversation there.

Arnold told the team they would not go, leaving them in low spirits. They headed back to the exchange center, and Tanner kept the dagger in favor of a trident, which he used all his points he got from killing golems to purchase.

After that, he sold his armor, added his money and got another armor from an extremely creepy old man, who he had met at the center a while ago. He seemed to know what he wanted, and had traded armor he found in a gold chest in one of his adventures as a youth. It was called the Phantom Armor, crafted from the membranes of a Grade 5 Elder Phantom. He got it because of its two most important strengths.

It could be upgraded by an armor smith, and also had several passive and active abilities.

First, it possessed on of his old passive skills, Stealth. However, this one was substantially more powerful than the other.

Another was Phase, an active skill which enabled him to pass through anything at the cost of his mana. In his case, mana and energy.

Phantom Rush, which made him go into a state like Phase, but improved his speed by several folds, based on the amount of mana he channeled into it. Right now, if he channeled all his mana, his speed could reach Mach 5.

Phantom Clone, released a clone naturally in the Phase state. It could not be destroyed, but split up the user's consciousness to create every clone. When Tanner created two, he could have access to two visions, and he could set priority over one of them, making that his lone vision.

Ethereality, was the most powerful active skill. It offered both the skills of Phantom Rush and Phase, but had an extremely lengthy cool down time of three weeks. It could increase his speed generally, so much that a casual action reached Mach 3.

When he equipped it, he looked extremely sinister, as the helmet was coated with pale white, and his eye slots were red glowing circles.

The chest piece was also coated in white and blue, but looked almost invisible.

When he equipped the leg and foot pieces, his legs somehow morphed, giving an illusion of him floating.

The armor was originally just a normal blue coated armor with some gold linings, and the leg pieces being silver. It had extreme defense, but was light. Alone with it was a blue cape with fur on the shoulders and coated in the same scheme as the chest piece, and some silver gloves.

After coursing his Energy through it, it had became this. Only one type of armor had two states, Heaven Ranked Armor.

He was not happy, or sad. This was not by chance. He was eighty percent sure Time God IX had butted in his world again. However, it was good for him. To a god who could freeze space and time, Heaven Ranked Armor was useless.

However, where had his money gone to?