Second World

Jack followed what Hedite had done and activated the panel on Therras' stall. The same holographic image appeared around Therras. Jack then worked the hologram and had the box with the helmet part came before him. He inserted the helmet and then the neck part, copying Hedite's sequence.

The linking bar appeared. Jack readied his hammer. He paid attention to where the pin and triangle passed and then struck. He had plenty of experience blacksmithing as well as hitting something with a one-hand weapon, so his accuracy could be considered high. He was successful with his first hit. The blue areas appeared at the edges. Jack then readied himself to make the second strike.

The speed of the pin and triangle increased. Jack was concentrating to make a perfect hit, so he took his time. He let the pin and triangle pass one another a few times without making any hit. He wanted to get familiar with the rhythm before he hit.

"The blue area will reduce if you wait too long," Peniel informed.

"What?" Jack looked at the part where the blue and red areas intersected. It was indeed as Peniel said, the red area was pushing the blue area back.

'Crap! That means I don't have the luxury of taking my time,' Jack thought. He struck when the pin and triangle next passed one another. Success.

With urgency, he continued striking. At an unfortunate time when his strike missed, the red area expanded a large portion, nullifying his several attempts. Jack felt like crying seeing that. So, not only that he was not allowed to take his time, but he was also not allowed to make a mistake.

Jack stole a glance at Hedite. She never missed a hit. He thought, Damn! In terms of striking accuracy, he couldn't believe that he lost to a blacksmith.

Jack had a few mishaps during the minigame of linking the armors. Luckily, there was no failure for this pet armor crafting. The mishaps just meant that he took a longer time to complete the process.

Hedite had completed the process. Once the linking was done, the nine parts flew to the Crimson-maned Lion and strapped themselves on each part of the pet's body.

During the beginning of the forging process when Jack learned about the different design options for the pet armor. Jack asked if Hedite had also prepared different options for Jet's pet. Hedite had. She asked if Jack wanted to see and choose the option or let her decide as she originally planned.

Jack asked to see. While checking the options, Jack sent Jet a message asking him if he wanted to come and choose himself. Jet said that he trust Jack was a better expert in the game matter, so he let Jack decide the whole thing. Jack knew the guy was just lazy to come back to the workshop.

After studying the designs, Jack had chosen an armor design that balanced offense, defense, and speed. The end product looked both durable and flexible. Jack had even requested the armor to be colored golden during the finishing touch. When the nine parts armored finally attached themselves to the Crimson-maned Lion, it was dazzling enough to make Jack stop his armor-linking operation.

"Hey, the red area is growing back!" Peniel warned.

Only after Peniel's alert that Jack hurriedly returned his focus to linking his pet armors.

The Crimson-maned Lion, who had just gained a new armor, uttered a triumphant roar. The armor accentuated its already majestic presence to further height. The Crimson-maned Lion was visibly proud of its new look.

Jack was glad that Jet was not around at the moment. Otherwise, that old geezer would surely boast non-stop. It would just disturb his concentration then.

"Do you need me to take over?" Hedite asked when she saw Jack still had halfway to go.

"I got this!" Jack replied and concentrated.

Hedite open the gate of the stall that held the Crimson-maned Lion. As she did, the runic diagram around the stall faded. Once the restrain was gone, the Crimson-maned Lion vanished. Jack assumed it must have automatically unsummoned since Jet was not nearby, but that old beastmaster should be getting a notification at this moment.

Confirming his speculation, he received Jet's message not long after.

"Woo-hoo! Jack boy, did you see my lion? It's so cool! I bet my pet is the best there is amongst current players!"

Jet continued to send a few more messages containing only ramblings. Jack had the urge to block the guy's messages. In the end, he just focused his mind to ignore the messages.

After a long struggle, he finally completed the last linkage. The nine armor parts flew and slapped themselves onto Therras' body. The parts adjusted themselves following Therras' contour. The edges where the parts met reshaped and merged, forming an interconnecting full body armor.

When the process was completed, Therras also uttered a thundering roar similar to Jet's Crimson-manned Lion. Jack could feel Therras' excitement through the link with his pet. The runic diagrams inside the stall died down and the gate opened. Therras strutted out. It wasn't unsummoned since its owner was nearby.

Jack observed his pet's new look. Therras was now covered by layers of sturdy plates, held together by elastic material that looked both leather and metal. The backpack with the small wings that Jack had seen in the hologram representation looked more like a jetpack in its final form. The armor didn't appear to hinder Therras' movements. It accentuated the pet's majestic appearance.

Jack had chosen to use light blue color with gold lining for the armor. The armor brought more life to Therras' dull dark grey color. Jack knocked on the armor. It sounded hard. Jack used Inspect on it.

*

Therras Supersonic Armor (Unique pet armor)

Physical defense: 1978 (43x pet level)

Magical defense: 1472 (32x pet level)

All attributes +30%, Movement Speed +50%

When HP is below 50%, reduce all damage received by 20%

Nullify movement restriction (Response-ability), cooldown: 30 seconds

Supersonic Mode (Active ability): Increase speed by 500%. All melee damage dealt during this mode is increased by 20%. Moving without hitting any enemies during this mode will accumulate 100% damage per second, to a maximum of 1000% damage. Duration: 1 minute. Cooldown: 3 hours

Special condition ability: When Therras damages an enemy, place a mark that lasts 45 seconds. If Storm Wind damages an enemy with this mark, the damages are increased by 30%.

*

The defenses were so high, Jack thought. It was much higher than his combined Sword Fiend's Gears defenses. Considering this armor was unique while his Sword Fiend's Gears were only super-rare, this was not surprising. Additionally, the defense of this pet armor scaled up as Therras increased its level. So, there was no need for him to level up this armor by blacksmith process.

Still, Therras' original defense was already high, with this extra defense, it was now a real tank. He wondered if he had chosen the armor version that prioritized defense, wouldn't his Therras be unkillable then?

Hedite also checked the armor. She said, "You know, this special condition ability appears because you fully craft this armor yourself."

"Really? Are you saying the Crimson-mane Lion's that you've crafted doesn't have this special ability?" Jack asked.

"No. That lion's armor has four abilities as any other unique grade equipment," Hedite answered. "This fifth ability is all due to your effort. You can see from this special ability that it highlights your relationship with your pet. However, I can't help but notice that the overall ability in this armor is slightly stronger than normal. That must be the effect of the runestone you used when forging."

Jack had used his Runestone of Enhancement when he did the finishing step for each nine armor parts. This act further improved the armor's stats.

Jack unsummoned Therras after he was done admiring it. "So, I can use the workshop for my own stuff?" Jack asked.

"Sure thing," Hedite replied. "After you do one thing for me."

"Didn't you say you will let me use your workshop tools once I completed the pet armor? Why add another requirement?" Jack protested.

"I never said I let you use it. I said I think about letting you use it. This is me thinking about letting you use it."

Jack sighed. "What do you need?"

Hedite handed Jack a green-colored pickaxe. Similar to the ones she gave to Jack and Jet before. "Get me another runic metal of at least the unique grade, I will let you use my workshop."

Jack received a notification of a quest, Recover a runic metal for Hedite.

"That's all?" Jack asked Hedite

"That's all," She replied.

"You could have given me two of this pickaxe and I would have gotten the runic metal for you when I get ours," Jack said, accepting the green pickaxe.

"I never thought you outworlders are capable enough to get the unique grade one," Hedite said. "I admit I have underestimated you."

"Wait, didn't you say that the mined runic metal formed a link with its miner? If I give it to you, won't it be useless then?"

"See the runes on that pickaxe?" Hedite asked and pointed to the pickaxe he had just given Jack. Jack observed and saw that there were indeed some rune carvings that were not there in the previous green pickaxe he used to mine his runic metal.

"It's an enchantment that allowed it to link to me despite you being the one who mined it," Hedite explained.

Jack nodded. He then said confidently, "Don't worry, you will get your runic metal tomorrow morning. By the way, do you have another green pickaxe to spare? Maybe I can get an extra runic metal for myself?" He remembered the metal's description mentioning that it was for special usage. So he thought he probably could use the metal for some other purpose.

Hedite replied by shaking her head. "Sorry."

Jack shrugged. Worth a try, he thought. He then checked his newly acquired quest's description on his quest page.

*

Recover a runic metal for Hedite

Difficulty: S

Rewards: 1,200,000 exp, 30 gold coins, permission to use Hedite's workshop

Get a runic metal of at least the Unique rarity