Dusk Slayer's Goblin Suit

When I finally set to work putting cuts and binding together, so too did the others start putting the armor pieces I only needed to show them once or twice previously for them to learn. Putting these pieces together in an appropriate method with tight lacing for seems, though, was where skill levels variate greatly. Not just in the speed at which they worked but also the smaller details like the tightness of their lacing or weaving as well as the uniformity of the weaving material they cut.

One small consolation was that they were all working from their own stocks now that everyone here had gone through the survival challenge at least once. This not only provided us with a shit ton of materials but also raised our level average thanks to four people who were now either twenty-one or almost to it.

The level average for the current rankings was now entering the early and mid thirties, though. After the experience requirement jump at level thirty to five thousand for rea/ching thirty-one, though, it was a small bottleneck that would help us continually catch up. The goblin challenge alone was one assured level for anyone in their twenties right now.

Since the others could be left alone to follow my usual basic armor design for early equipment I could focus all of my attention on my own work. It took me most of an hour to get enough leather binding and cuts for all of our current suits, but after that my speed picked up greatly. Not only because my Leather Work level was entering the early twenties but because I was used to making this design.

While I was making simple jerkins, they would be a heavy leather style made up of an inner layer of a soft leather sweater that was half brownish green goblin skin and half midnight blue dusk imp skin. To go outside of the simple and slightly baggy sweater design I had made cut-outs for open backed vests of dusk imp skin and shortly treated them by dunking in a giant vat of boiling water in the middle of the workshop for eight seconds.

Long enough to let the thick skins soak in the boiling water and expand but not enough for them to completely harden after removal so that they still retained ten or twenty degrees of flexibility in most areas. For the very outer layer I made and open-fronted vest of goblin skin and treated those vests the same as the dusk imp ones. Then I let them dry.

Once the vests were dried and cooled to their 'tempering', I used a pair of square-bodied measuring sticks to measure and trace half of the weaving slits and lacing holes on the outsides of each vest piece before flipping them over to trace out the other half. The reason I did things this way was because the hardened leather was tougher to work and this shop used a chisel-like hammer tool with a cleaving edge for notching the hardened leather.

I knew from experience in the tutorial that this chiseling would cause the opposite sides of the slits to poke outward. This way, the slits were puckered in the same directions that the weaving and lace would flow. This also helped to create a subtle patterning under and around the layers of weaving to be more aesthetically pleasing.

Once the hardened leather pieces were all readied in bulk in less than an hour, I spent over an hour Quick Crafting through the process of tracing and slitting the soft leather jerkins before going back into normal speeds to start weaving the individual pieces of the inner dusk imp vest to the suit with goblin weaving material. It was also during this time that I worked the notched and holed claws of hobgoblins into the weaving for more penetration protection.

Surprisingly, throughout this process I gained two points in Agility and Endurance while constantly moving about my station while stooped at all sorts of angles and positions for the past couple of hours. If I had not used Quick Crafting, I would probably have gained a few more points.

Taking a short break to walk around and stretch my b/ody after the long period of work I had put in, in which the others were already mostly finished with their entire suits of simple two-layer goblin skin with the outer layer woven for padding and shape retention. I was not even done with the first set of upper body pieces.

However while weaving the goblin pieces on from front to back with dusk imp claws, instead of weaving them into the previous vest or the jerkin I simple wove the pieces together to the previous inner vest to seem its open back with a thick lace spiral before weaving outward to seam the side pieces all together with the dusk imp weaving from the outer goblin layer.

Moving quickly forward with my work now that the others were done, I put them to work helping me by having the experienced Go and Lil handle hardening the rest of my cut-outs ahead of time. The others just helped me start putting all the soft leather pieces together that we could while waiting. This included the inner goblin and imp layers of bracers around the forearms of the jerkin sleeved.

By the time all of the jerkins were outfitted with built-in bracers the outer layer pieces and other hardened leather pieces were ready for work. Since we were still completing the upper bodies I could only leave the others to fit their own suits together for the sake of being Crafty while focusing on my own suit and the other suit ordered by Skooma.

Over the goblin skin bracers went long hardened pads of dusk imp leather that were worked into the braces with the longitudinal weaving of the bracers that was done in goblin skin. The opposite of this was done to the dusk imp skin bracers with goblin pads and dusk imp lateral weaving.

[Successfully Created: Dusky Goblin Slayer's Jerkin x2]

[Saved Quick Crafting Recipe: Dusky Goblin Slayer's Jerkin]

[+70XP*2]

[+70*2 Leather Work XP]

[Leather Work Leveled]

[+15XP]

Thankfully it only took another hour and some spare change to complete the rest of the suit since everybody was working on their own pieces. Since they were also made in the same alternating half-and-half scheme of goblin and imp materials, after making the more complicated jerkins everything else went smoothly. It probably helped that my stats kept rising.

Slowly but surely, one set of notifications after another steadily rolled in, bringing with them varying but very useful benefits.

[Successfully Created: Dusk Slayers Goblin Leggings x2]

[Saved Quick Crafting Recipe: Dusk Slayer's Goblin Leggings]

[+70XP*2]

[+70*2 Leather Work XP]

[Successfully Created: Dusky Goblin Slayer's Waders x2]

[Saved Quick Crafting Recipe: Dusky Goblin Slayer's Waders]

[+50XP*2]

[+50*2 Leather Work XP]

[Leather Work Leveled]

[+15XP]

[Successfully Created: Fingerless Dusk Slayer's Goblin Gauntlets x2]

[Saved Quick Crafting Recipe: Fingerless Dusk Slayer's Goblin Gauntlets]

[+50XP*2]

[+50*2 Leather Work XP]

[Leather Work Leveled]

[+18 XP]

[Successfully Crafted: Dusky Goblin Slayer's Masked Helm x2]

[Saved Quick Crafting Recipe: Dusky Goblin Slayer's Masked Helm]

[+60XP*2]

[+60*2 Leather Work XP]

[Successfully Created: Dusk Slayer's Goblin Belt x2]

[Saved Quick Crafting Recipe: Dusk Slayer's Goblin Belt]

[+60XP*2]

[+60*2 Leather Work XP]

We did not currently have enough imp hides to start putting out coats, but these newly improved belts alone gave me a whopping twenty defense and all of their names were the blue color of Rare quality equipment. The top and leggings both provided twenty-five defense apiece while the helm matched the belts. The boots, or knee-high waders, and short-sleeved gauntlets both provided sixteen defense.

Best of all, each of the six pieces granted four percent of fire and darkness resistance with three percent of magic resistance. This was much better than the previous belt I was wearing. And only increased my hopes for when I finally made an armored coat of the same style.

Next, though, came the part that hurt the most. After everybody came together with their imp cores, we did not eve have half of the cores needed to enhance our armor. This left me with no choice but to run up front to find the armorer and buy expensive cores from him for thirty-five gold apiece.

I even checked out of curiosity, goblin cores were the same price. Since there were six pieces of armor for seven people that each required two cores, we would be using an overall eighty-four cores. If I had hunted all of these and sold them for profit, I would be raking in around twenty-five-hundred gold!

Assuming I somehow managed to sell them to the armorer at thirty gold apiece even though he sold them himself for only five more, but if I sold them for thirty-five I would make almost three thousand gold.

After putting the first pair of cores inside the body of my own jerkin, I received a system prompt asking if I wanted to destroy the cores by using them on my armor. Before I said yes, I put more cored in the sleeves under the bracers. Sadly, they did not get their own prompts.

"Yes," I say simply as the others start following suit, causing a blinding flash of light from within the jerkin. When the light was gone the leathers and claws of the jerkin all had a smooth, sleek, and shiny appearance as if they were art their healthiest points in life. As well, the jerkin's details changed to include a box that read.

[Inherited Affects: +2 Agility/+2 Endurance]

Right this moment, my Agility and Endurance were respectively thirty-six and forty-eight. If I put on all six pieces of enhanced gear, my Agility would go up by twelve to forty-eight and my Endurance would hit sixty. I did not know about the others, but for me that would be an insane boost with just twenty-four points added to my health bar.

The names did not change words or color, so the overall effect probably was not outside the Rare range. But I could only imagine that it would not be until later on down the road when quests and hunting brings in more gold for the average person that they would acquire armor like this. I DESIGNED a suit of armor like this.

The armorer, though, did not seem impressed by my work when he came by to check on all of us since he knew we'd be finishing up soon. "You did not use any of their fangs or tendons or other parts, so the enhancements to your own stats are not very high. Creating a six-piece suit was very thorough, though, well done. Will you be making coats in the future?"

Smiling inwardly because I knew I had the man's attention, I say, "Yes, sir, I will be making them once we finish hunting up the necessary parts. Why do you ask?"

"Sell me the rights to sell your Dusky Goblin Slayer and Dusk Slayer armor designs in my shop," he states frankly, not beating around the bush. "Not only will I improve your design, but I will give you and your people free access to my workshop and free suits of the improved equipment. I'll pay you three hundred gold per article design, including the coat."

"Five hundred gold and I'll be sure to think of you first whenever I make new designs for new materials while in the region," I argue to raise the value from twenty-one-hundred gold to thirty-five-hundred for seven articles. I even sweetened the pot the same way he tried to do me with workshop access and free gear. Those are basically the same values and terms that I gave Canley!

His eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he took on a pensive look, but then the NPC seemed satisfied with a slight smile and says, "Deal. I'll write up some terms and bring you some paper to write up your designs. As well as the money."

Watching the elven armorer walk away, I cast Papi a sidelong glance and ask, "How much gold did you buy at the start with real money?"

"Fuck off," he mumbles irritably, hating the fact that I often found my way into situations just like that one. Either that or I created those situations myself.

Switching into my new armor then and there, I walk around to get a feel for its overall mobility before outright strutting in front of Papi. "So, your armor, does it buff your stats? How much? Is it all one piece or are there more than just one tin suit? I know it came form the item shop for beginners, so if it does any stats they can't be that high."

"Four pieces that raise my Endurance by three apiece but grant me seventy defense overall," he points out with an annoyed look on his face. "As a paladin's armor, it also boosts my Smite skill by fiver percent apiece. How much defense does your leather and keratin suit give you?"

"You made one, didn't you check the stats on it?" I ask curiously even as I do the math in my head. "It gives twelve Endurance overall, twelve Agility overall, four percent resistances to darkness and fire apiece, three percent to magic apiece, and gives and overall defense of one-twenty-two. It really is good starting armor to grant an overall rating of seventy."

"I could totally kill you," Papi warns me, as if his being a higher level could be considered a threat to me. While I did not have magic to rely on, fighting him would be good practice but that was all it would amount to. Practice.

"Join us and switch suits, big guy," I inform him with a consoling pat to his shoulder. "At this rate, once I'm done making all of your new weapons the rest of us might end up leaving you behind. Don't start lagging because you got confident in your wallet, Papi! In this game, a smart player can make better gear than the item shop provides!"

Looking to Lil, Papi says, "I'm going off to finish my class quests, I'll be busy til around midnight if the guide is right. If he makes me a weapon, please make sure that he doesn't sabotage it." Then, he turned and started leaving the workshop.

"Thank you for going the whole nine yards to ensure the success of your tutorial missions for the sake of the team," I call out honestly, knowing he would misconstrue it as me being condescending and smiling because of it.

*