Bringing Irin along for his shopping trip was definitely the best decision he could have made, as there was no fucking way he would have found all the good stores she knew about on such short notice. She gladly pointed out all the shit ones that overcharged customers, had untalented hacks working there, or those who had just recently had a change of ownership and were still untested.
Jake had never really considered it, but items could still be kinda shit even if they had a high rarity. Jake had not run into it yet due to all his gear usually being system rewards or crafted by talents, but sometimes items just didn’t live up to their rarity. As one example, Jake saw a pair of leg armor with an epic rarity, good stats, and overall good-looking, but Irin pointed out that the string used to sew together the seams was of extremely low quality. The rest of the materials were good, and the item would work as advertised… until after a few battles when the threads would simply give out. With its lack of a self-repair enchantment, that just made them duds.
How exactly Irin spotted all these things, Jake had no idea, and her answer didn’t exactly help either, as she just looked at him with a teasing smile and said she had a great ”attention to detail” in a flirty tone. Jake could not deny that Irin had gotten even bolder with her advances after his evolution to C-grade, but he still didn’t give her an in.
He was too mentally occupied with thinking about Nevermore and the upcoming ceremony.
Anyway, on their shopping trip, they had not wasted their time. The first place they went to where Jake found something he liked was a place dealing with high-end clientele only that sold leather armor of different sorts. It was an entire crafting house with crafters all the way from early E-grade to the peak of B-grade. Irin had looked into them before coming and knew their best D-grade crafter had evolved only three years ago and was now in early C-grade, crafting high-quality equipment.
Jake had gone in with high expectations after hearing Irin’s introduction of the place, and he didn’t leave disappointed. The crafter had recently finished a set with a chestpiece and legguards from a powerful peak-level C-grade monster, and even if the price was steep, Jake truly didn’t care as he picked up both matching pieces of gear.
[Shadestalker Chestpiece (Ancient)] – A leather chestpiece made from the hide of a peak-tier C-grade Shadestalker Monarch, infused with high-rarity shadow crystals to further increase the quality. The armor is incredibly resilient to all types of attacks and, due to its nature and the ability of the crafter to bring out the natural abilities of the Shadestalker, passively nullifies a portion of any physical damage taken. This effect is further amplified if both the chestpiece and the legguards are equipped. Is able to self-repair. Enchantments: + 500 Toughness, +400 Agility, +300 Vitality, +200 Strength. Shadestalker Nullification. Self-repair.
Requirements: lvl 200+ in any humanoid race
[Shadestalker Legguards (Ancient)] – Leather legguards made from the hide of a peak-tier C-grade Shadestalker Monarch infused with high-rarity shadow crystals to further increase the quality. The legguards are incredibly resilient to all types of attacks and, due to its nature and the ability of the crafter to bring out the natural abilities of the Shadestalker, passively nullifies a portion of any physical damage taken. This effect is further amplified if both the chestpiece and the legguards are equipped Is able to self-repair. Enchantments: +500 Agility, +400 Strength, +200 Vitality, +200 Toughness. Shadestalker Nullification. Self-repair.
Requirements: lvl 200+ in any humanoid race The descriptions of the two items were effectively identical, and they did the same thing, but even so, Jake did encounter something here he hadn’t before. A set bonus of sorts. If he wore both pieces at once, the passive ability to nullify some of all physical damage taken was amplified, making the items better than the sum of their parts. Irin explained this was only seen with products from incredibly skilled crafters and rarely from dungeon drops.
Commenting on the armor itself, it was everything Jake was looking for. The design was black leather with little decorations, the crafter having gone for utility over appearance. The stats were definitely great, too, with the best thing being the Shadestalker Nullification enchantment. According to the crafter, Shadestalker Monarchs were near-invulnerable to physical attacks as their bodies were half-ethereal, making them incredibly powerful variants. Jake now having some of that utility was definitely nice, and maybe his armor would actually prove useful as more than just stat boosters now.
After the leather store, Jake rejected going to another kind of leather store that Irin tried to make him visit. He expertly managed to dodge her teasing innuendos and instead made her bring him somewhere he could get some bracers.
Even as they walked, Irin worked in the background, telling him that she had several people working with her behind the scenes to assist his quest for sweet loot. These other employees of the Humanoid Resource Department tracked down which shops had recent creations that fit Jake and were of sufficiently high rarity. So when Jake asked about bracers, she already had a place in mind that they had to teleport through two gateways to reach.
They appeared in a new neighborhood different from anywhere Jake had been before. Floating structures and massive towers and spires lined the horizon, and the mana was so heavy in the air he felt it faintly suppress him. Irin was even worse off, but she managed to keep steady as she explained where they were.
This was somewhere filled with mages, magic researchers, and crafters of the magical kind. No one below C-grade could live there due to the formation amplifying the environmental mana, and even if you were C-grade, it took a special visa of sorts to be allowed to stay long-term. Well, a visa or having the Blessing of the Malefic Viper. That one was kind of a free pass to anywhere in control of the Order of the Malefic Viper.
It had to be mentioned this place was only under the control of the Order and wasn’t actually part of it. Jake saw that this neighborhood was primarily inhabited by elves, and Irin mentioned that roughly half of those living there had ties to the Altmar Empire or were members.
The reason they had come there was that a certain crafter had recently created a new pair of bracers that suited Jake nicely but, as with many eccentric crafters of high skill, did not want to simply sell them. In addition to payment, he wanted someone with a unique or special kind of defensive magic to allow him to analyze and record them and use the data for research purposes.
Jake saw no reason to not trust Irin and gave it a shot. The crafter lived in a large magic tower, and upon entering, Jake felt the mana be even denser. So dense that Irin chose to stay outside as Jake conducted business.
No one was inside the tower’s entrance area, even as Jake walked in. The place was pretty big, the diameter easily more than a hundred meters, with nothing there being spatially expanded. Apparently, the high mana density tended to mess with expansion, and even if it was possible, the upkeep would go through the roof, not making it worth it. For this same reason, these towers did not have teleporters either but usually just used stairs.
After standing within the empty tower and inspecting the place’s interesting design, he felt movement as a person began walking down the long winding stairs leading further up the tower. It was an older-looking gentleman wearing a mage robe.
The mage looked at Jake up and down before scoffing. ”You don’t look like a mage.”
Jake could see what he meant, considering he had taken on his leather armor, clearly making him look like a melee fighter of some kind.
”I wouldn’t call myself one either,” Jake shrugged. ”I am here for the bracers I heard you were offering.”
”You have come to the wrong place, then. I am looking for barrier mages with unique classes and types of magic,” the man politely explained. ”That is my requirement for selling the bracers. Your information must have been lacking, seeing as you came all the way here.”
”No, I know,” Jake nodded. ”I would say my barriers aren’t all too shabby, and I think they would be of interest to you.”
The mage seemed almost resigned. ”Fine, follow me upstairs. You are the third person this week, so be aware my requirements are high.”
Jake nodded as he walked up the stairs after the mage. He felt the other man was only in early C-grade despite how old he looked. Jake got the feeling his appearance was not one he had chosen to adopt either, like with the Sword Saint. This man was truly old. Considering he was an elf, too, he was probably even older than Jake guessed.
On the upper floor, Jake saw a giant magical circle filling the entire thing. He felt complex magic at work, but his skill in identifying this kind of formation was way below his skill level in rituals, so he couldn’t really tell how it worked.
”The formation is made to record your flow of mana and analyze any barriers created within it, giving me data I can use to improve my own magic,” the old mage explained, though his tone made it sound like he was just going through the motions. Clearly, his hope in Jake showing something interesting was near nil.
”Go ahead and enter the formation to display your magic whenever you feel ready,” the mage motioned.
”Can I see the bracers first?” Jake asked.
The mage looked to be thinking for a second before just nodding. ”Fine.”
He waved his hand as a pair of what looked more like wrist wrappings than bracers appeared. However, Jake instantly felt the dense mana within and used Identify.
[Wrappings of Immutability Magic (Legendary)] – Wrappings created from fabric woven from special fiber, interwoven in a complex pattern forming an array. The bracers themselves offer little protection, as they will automatically fuse with the user if affected by anything that could destroy them. The magical array created by the pattern serves to empower certain forms of magic from the user. Increases the resilience of all magical constructs. Greatly increases the effects of all barriers made to protect your person. Enchantments: +500 Wisdom, +300 Willpower, +300 Intelligence. Resilient Magic. Immutable Barriers.
Requirements: lvl 200+ in any humanoid race.
Just as he had used Identify, the mage took them away again. ”As I said, they can be bought only if you manage to convince me with your barriers. I don’t care about any amount of Credits you can offer me.”
Jake nodded and smiled. ”Just basic barriers are enough, right? I don’t have any skills to summon barriers. I just free-cast it.”
He saw the expectations of the mage drop even lower as he just nodded. ”Whatever you think is best.”
”Alrighty.”
Jake still stayed optimistic as he went into the middle of the magic circle. Without further ado, he condensed his magic as he formed a barrier of pure, stable arcane mana in front of him. He held it as he stared at the barrier mage.
The mage just looked at the barrier for a few seconds before looking confused. ”Wait a second, please.”
He went over to the formation and squatted down to touch it. He closed his eyes and frowned deeply. ”It works as it should…”
Standing up, the mage looked at Jake holding the barrier. ”Would you allow me to check out the barrier in person?”
”Sure,” Jake shrugged.
The mage walked over and began to inspect the barrier that just looked like a pink-purple-hued plane of glass. Jake felt him infuse some mana into it, forcing Jake to respond by also infusing a bit. The mage just seemed even more confused, and he looked it over and even took out something that looked like an icepick. He stabbed it into the barrier, making cracks form all over it, but they rapidly repaired and pushed the stick back out.
”What affinities are behind this barrier?” the mage asked, his demeanor changed from bored to extremely interested.
”I don’t know exactly. It is based on my arcane affinity,” Jake explained. ”But I call this kind of mana stable arcane mana.”
”Arcane affinity?” the mage nodded, impressed. ”Marvelous. It registers as a physical object to my formation, yet when I inspect it in person, it is undoubtedly made of magic. Can you show some more variants of your barrier and make changes to it? Even if I can’t tell anything right now, the formation is still gathering data I can use for later analysis.”
Jake complied as he spent the next half an hour just summoning stable objects of arcane mana, even showing off the destructive part a bit here and there to show its ability to change. The more time passed, the more enamored the old elf was as he repeatedly praised Jake’s mana and became the friendliest dude Jake had met in a long time.
After all was said and done, he practically threw the bracers at Jake, but even so, he seemed hesitant as he stopped Jake before he left.
The mage smiled as he shook his head and spoke. ”I feel like I am almost taking advantage of you for showing me this. Tell me, is there anything else I can help compensate you with?”
”Probably not,” Jake declined politely, adding on. ”Not unless you have a ring for newly evolved C-grades with a lot of Perception on it.”
”Something like this?” the mage said as a ring appeared in his hand.
[Opal Eye of Farsight (Ancient)] – A golden ring faceted with an Opal Eye Gemstone of ancient rarity, created by a talented crafter. The Opal Eye Gemstone is a natural treasure only found in environments with potent mana and is a favored item by all who seek to perceive the world better. Further improvements by the crafter bring out the innate power of the gemstone, allowing the user to temporarily infuse it with energy and greatly increase the effect of Perception on their visual organs. Enchantments: +1000 Perception, +200 Wisdom, +200 Intelligence. Opal Eyes of the Farseer.
Requirements: lvl 200+ in any humanoid race. Must possess physical visual organs.
Jake stared dumbstruck for a few seconds. ”Exactly something like that. How did you…?”
The mage smiled. ”A close friend of mine is a talented jeweler, and I stocked up on rings I could offer in case someone showed me barriers not quite good enough for bracers but still worthy of reward. Do you want it?”
”Hell yeah,” Jake grinned, having just spared himself going ring shopping with Irin, something that would no doubt have led to many comments from her.
The two of them chatted for a bit longer before the mage politely told Jake that he was eager to get on with the further analysis of all the data the formation had gathered. Jake said his goodbyes and walked down the stairs, leaving the elated mages to his business.
Jake exited the tower a happy man with a new ring and bracers before meeting up with Irin again. They had some time to spare now that he didn’t have to go ring shopping, and Jake took stock of what he still needed to look into improving.
With four good upgrades in a day, this left Jake with his necklace, boots, gloves, and second ring yet to be upgraded or replaced. All of which had a bit more of a complicated replacement process. Irin had some ideas for this, but for now, they had other plans because – with permission from Jake – she had booked a table at a restaurant.
But not just for the two of them. A certain white-scaled danger noodle and her friends would also join them, allowing Jake to finally check up on how Scarlett was doing.