Adrenaline Junkie [Book 2 Complete]

Placing down his Runic Scriber, Archie reached over and grabbed the crucible filled to the brim with four activated Thornback Render Beastcores. Eyeing them with Vital Sight, he confirmed they still retained his vital energy. Swapping to Gaze of the Forgefather, he scanned them for impurities.

None.

That put one of his worries to rest – the possibility that leaving activated cores unattended for too long might lead to contamination or degradation. He hadn't been as concerned when he was assembling the leg guards, as he only left them aside for an hour, potentially an hour and fifteen minutes, before he used them to finish the leg guards.

Then again, he mused, I only left these alone for a couple of hours. Maybe that's not enough time for anything to happen. Or maybe my Perception stat just isn't high enough to pick up on the changes.

It wouldn't have been the first time he'd missed something due to his Perception stat being too low to notice certain details. Definitive answers on whether activated cores could gain impurities would have to wait until he could consult an expert on the matter, aka Bralmir, or until he was able to see it himself.

As he began pouring the gel-like activated cores onto his chestpiece, a memory surfaced in his mind: back as a kid, he remembered reading that bacteria could grow on soap.

As a kid, curious and stubborn, especially so in his case, according to his parents, he called bullshit and decided that he'd test the book's claim.

That night, he took a purple bar of soap that smelled like lavender from the bathroom cabinet, ran it over with some water, and left it in the basement for two days. And sure enough, when he checked, it had grown a slimy coating that looked nothing like how it normally did.

Or maybe it could be like rubbing alcohol and bacteria, he mused, flicking the underside of the crucible with his finger, trying to get the last gel-like drop out.

As the last gel-like drop of the four activated Thornback Render Beastcores landed onto the chestpiece, the gel-like splotch of the cores began to spread across the chestpiece and mold itself around it before sinking into the Nature-Attuned Deepiron plating.

He watched as the chestpiece was absorbing the four activated Thornback Render Beastcores, and couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia at the scene as it reminded him of a certain parasitic blob of goo that hated being called a parasite.

After a few seconds, he received a system notification. Upon looking at it, he realized he'd ignored five others.

*Your Profession has reached Lv 92 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*
*Your Profession has reached Lv 93 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*
*Your Race has reached Lv 98 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*

Skill Upgrade: [Core Resonance Forging (Uncommon → Rare)]

*Your Profession has reached Lv 94 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*

Skill Upgrade: [Mana Smithing Mastery (Common → Uncommon)]

When did I… Archie thought to himself in confusion, trying to remember why he hadn't looked at his notifications after dropping the legguards into the vat of dye.

As he got out of his seat, turned around, and leaned on the edge of his desk, out of his peripheral vision, he caught sight of the campfire. Ah… Yeah, guess I was too hungry to care about the notifications that I received. That sounds about right.

Glancing at his side, Archie identified his finished chestpiece.

Wardenplate of the Briar (Rare):
Crafted with thin, supple yet resilient hide belonging to a peak E-Grade Reedbuck, tanned, dyed, and treated by Vess Grak'th, a D-Grade Expert Seamweaver of Neo-Eden, then plated with Nature-Attuned Deepiron and four Thornback Render Beastcores by Archie Gracefield, an E-Grade Novice Forgesmith. The hide beneath the Nature-Attuned Deepiron plates retain their flexibility, while the runic plating atop it offers exceptional physical defense and offense with a multifaceted set of abilities. Effects: Soul-Bound (Lesser – Lesser), Self-Repair (Lesser – Lesser), Impact Absorption (High – Low), Thermal Regulator (High – Low), Physical Reinforcement (High – Moderate), Greater Physical Resistance (High – Moderate), Spatial Storage (Minor) (Lesser – Low) & Atmospheric Shielding (Moderate – Low) & Shroud of Thorns . Provides: +100 End, +90 Str & +40 Vit. Status: Excellent. Requirements: Lv 95+, Humanoid Race & Nature Affinity.

Shroud of Thorns – When activated, black-tipped white quill-like thorns sprout randomly across Wardenplate of the Briar. Upon being struck, the thorns embed themselves into the attacker's limb, inflicting minor paralysis. This effect can stack up to five times. The paralysis duration and onset speed scale with the target's Vitality.

Wait, what? Archie blinked, confused. It wasn't until he reread his System Notifications twice that he finally noticed that two of his skills had upgraded.

Mana Smithing Mastery (Uncommon):
Mastery over the forge begins with understanding the basics. Now you have learned to channel your mana into your smithing, enhancing both the physical and magical properties of your craft. This skill allows for the crafting of various Uncommon-quality mana imbued items.

Core Resonance Forging (Rare):

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With this skill, you are able to use cores in your craft. This skill allows the smith to attune their forging process to the natural frequency of various cores, allowing for smoother energy transfer between the core and the crafted item. As your skill improves, you learn to create resonant patterns in your items that can even draw on the emotions, instincts, or abilities of the being within the records of the core.

"Wait, so how – what did I do differently that caused both Mana Smithing Mastery and Core Resonance Forging to upgrade?" Archie stared at the skill descriptions in front of him, scratching his head.

He mentally replayed the crafting and forging sessions of both the Plated Legguards of Fortitude and the Wardenplate of the Briar in his mind.

The materials were good, sure. The process wasn't really anything different, other than him experimenting on new ways of creating armor – using thin leather clothes as a base and improving it immensely in the defensive department.

Maybe I was just teetering on the threshold for them to upgrade, Archie thought to himself, tilting his head slightly to the right. I mean, I have been making a bunch of new stuff lately; Obscuring Stakes, a total of three bike modifications and upgrades, the Steel Cube of Expansion, new pieces of armor, and so on.

So, it wouldn't be a toss in the dark that I was just teetering over the edge of getting an upgrade for them both, he reasoned to himself.

Grabbing his finished chestpiece, Archie walked over towards the vat filled with the Charcoal Black Alchemical Dye and dropped it on the opposite side of where he laid his Plated Legguards of Fortitude.

He paused, eyes drifting between the two pieces of armor. His brows knit together.

Wait…

The chestplate had gained a bonus skill – Shroud of Thorns – but the legguards hadn't. Both had been crafted using beastcores. Both were made while channeling mana. So why the discrepancy?

Was it because the skill upgrade came after I made the legguards? Or… was it just the luck of the draw?

…Only one way to find out, he reasoned with himself as he reached into his spatial storage and pulled out his Runic Surveyor – the drone that he purchased way back when he was in the System Bazaar.

Runic Surveyor (Common):
A mana-powered flying-surveyor-type drone crafted by a Runesmith. Made from reinforced steel and etched with various runes and simple runic scripts. Must be recharged periodically after use with Unattuned mana along with its Runic Controller loosely attached to the bottom of its base. Status: Excellent. Requirements: Lv 70+ & Humanoid Race.

Holding the small, light grey runic flying drone up to his face, he slowly rotated it around, scouring its surface with his own eyes, taking in the design before he would activate Gaze of the Forgefather and break down the runes used on it to create his own drone.

The outer plating was reinforced steel, curved at the edges – for aerodynamic purposes, he mused. On the four corners of the drone, there were four large, symmetrically rounded ends that had fans in the middle.

Attached to the bottom center of the drone was a large camera lens wrapped in a brass casing. Omni-directional movement, too, he noted as he moved the large camera on the bottom of the drone up and down and side to side.

Upon fiddling around with the omnidirectional movement of the camera, he found its controller. Nestled in the space between the bottom of the Surveyor's bottom frame and the top of the camera was the Runic Controller.

It was a hexagonal slate half-clipped into one of three sockets. Archie detached it with a quiet click and flipped the drone over with both hands and brushed his left forearm across the table, brushing aside the mandrels and other items cluttering his desk before placing the drone atop it.

Let's see how you fly before anything else, he thought with a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Morning light filtered through the tall canopy above, dappled gold catching on dew-wet leaves and the pale silver edges of the Surveyor's runic frame, and unknown to him, it highlighted the dried honey mustard and ketchup sauce on his beard.

With a tap of the controller, a pulse of Unattuned mana surged into the drone.

The runes etched along its limbs flared to life, glowing a soft, steady blue. A faint hum rose as the fans started to warm up, their propeller rings spinning up with barely an audible hum.

He moved his bottom right thumb upwards slightly on the Runic Controller as though he were using his gaming controller back in his old apartment.

Then, with a brief, shimmering lift of light from its base, the Runic Surveyor rose off the table, smooth and stable. It hovered within the Basic Workshop – Blacksmith, bobbing slightly as it adjusted to the rush of wind that was currently threading it's way through the forest.

Archie stepped back, eyes alight with excitement. Pale rays of dawn slanted through the canopy above, catching in the Surveyor's polished casing and tracing soft shadows around and within his Basic Workshop – Blacksmith.

Without more than a thought of fancy, he bent his knees and jumped – mana flaring underfoot as he conjured a stable, translucent mana platform just beneath his boots. He crouched at eye level with the hovering drone, grinning like a kid being told that magic was real.

This is so cool, he thought, shaking his head with a breathless chuckle. I knew I should've bought that drone that was on sale last winter – twenty percent off, and I didn't bite. Who cares if it would've dipped into my savings? It would have been just a couple of weeks' worth of overtime, and I would have gained it all back.

He inched himself towards the right slightly, the platform shifting gently along with him to maintain balance. The Runic Surveyor's camera lens followed him with perfect synchronicity, making a quiet click as it refocused on him.

Having one of these would've been cool as shit. He reached out and lightly tapped the side of its casing with his knuckle.

Looking back down at the Runic Controller, all he could see were buttons covered in symbols along the left-hand side. Turning it over in his hands, he paused for a moment and nodded. Things never change.

There, inked into the back of the controller in tight, near-microscopic writing, was an instruction manual.

He traced the tiny text labeled Live Recording Playback in USL with his thumb, found the button sequence beside it, then tapped the corresponding sequence on the controller's face. The runes on the controller blinked red once before the camera lens on the Runic Surveyor opened, along with something else on his Runic Controller.

A small projection screen blinked into view, suspended just above the controller, reminding him of the projection Smokecall paper made when he spoke with Xelgar back in the Group Tutorial when the both of them watched the iguana fight the jaguars, but without the smoky-like background surrounding the screen.

The clarity was shockingly good. Far better than the 4k monitors he'd see at work.

And on that screen?

Himself.

Blinking in surprise, tousled hair a mess, crouched with a controller in hand and an expression that shifted instantly from fascination to awkward self-awareness.

Oh wow, he thought, watching himself stare at the camera in fascination. I look like shit, he chuckled as he brushed his scraggly beard with his fingers, trying to clean it.

He leaned slightly to one side, watching the projection mirror him perfectly, with only a whisper of latency. The lens on the Surveyor twitched and refocused, keeping him framed dead center.

I think it's time for me to see if I can make one myself, he thought as he activated Gaze of the Forgefather. I've got a couple of hours until the dye properly stains my new armor charcoal black.