Chapter 24 Apron

Jekyll led Eisen and Bree to another room in the back, filled with piles and piles of different types of leather.

"Alright, so here is where you'll be workin' for a bit. We got a big order of leather armor, some kinda rank 7 monstrosity appeared near the capital so there'll be a huge raid. What you'll be doin' now is to prepare the necessary materials. There's a bunch of templates with numbers on 'em over there, you'll cut that shape out that many times for one piece of armor. Just repeat that till you're Rank 1, should be enough for the apprentices to make a bunch of 'em. I'll pay ya as well, of course. "

[New Quest - Armor Bases]

[Description] A Monstrosity threatens to destroy the capital and they are in need of a large number of leather armors. Because of that, Jekyll Jackson asked you to use the templates to cut out pieces necessary to craft them. Make as many of them as you can.

[Reward] 20 Copper for all pieces of a single armor

[Failure] Loss in reputation with Jekyll

[Time Limit - Until your Leatherworking Skill reaches Rank 1]

Eisen read the quest description slowly and nodded. "Sounds good. Thanks, Jekyll!" He exclaimed and smiled.

"Use this leather here. It's rank 2, but ya should be able to cut it at least. And here're the templates." He explained and placed all the materials in front of Eisen, on a small table in the corner.

"I'll get to work right away!" Eisen smiled and sat down in front of the table and grabbed the first piece of leather, as well as the first template.

He placed the template onto the leather and assembled his Exacto Knife, activating A Dwarf's Hands and Tool Connection, before cutting into the leather as he slowly traced the template.

Cutting through the leather was considerably harder than Eisen expected, and he had to push into it way harder than he had expected. Sure, he was still able to cut it, but he was having problems with it. With higher strength, then maybe he would be able to…

Eisen suddenly got an idea, and activated a skill he hasn't used at all up until now. A skill with even lower proficiency than Leatherworking, a skill he literally just got a few minutes ago.

Eisen felt his body fill up with energy and veins all over his body popped out as he activated his second racial skill, A Giant's Strength. It wasn't a great difference in strength, but it was better than nothing, and Eisen could continue working with the leather a little bit easier than before.

And like that, Eisen activated both of his racial skill till they ran out, and then activated them again once their cool-down was over, giving Eisen a little bit of proficiency every time.

The materials he had to work with seemed to be two different types of leather. One of them was thin and flexible, and Eisen figured that this would be for the different joint areas to allow proper movement even when wearing the whole armor.

The other type of leather was thicker, harder, and considerably harder to work with. This would probably be the main protective surface. Just looking at the shapes and sizes of the different pieces of leather, Eisen learned a lot about what actual leather armor was supposed to look like.

Sure, he did work with leather a lot before, but that was usually for decorative purposes. Sometimes he worked on the surfaces for armchairs or couches, and other times he made horse saddles or leather jackets. And this wasn't the first time he made leather armor either, but when he made it, it was decorated with a bunch of technically unnecessary parts, and probably was also not very useful in an actual fight. After all, it was supposed to be a copy of a game character's armor.

This was the first time Eisen worked on purely utilitarian leather armor, and he quickly took mental notes for his own armor, already changing the design he planned for it.

Eisen spent a whole two hours only cutting out piece after piece, getting together the pieces for 10 whole armors, and just when he finished cutting the last piece for the tenth one, he got a few notifications.

[Leatherworking reached Level 100 in Rank 0, upgrading to Rank 1]

[It is now easier to work with higher-ranking leathers]

[Due to Ranking-Up your Leatherworking Skill, you gained +1 STR and +1 END]

"Great!" Eisen exclaimed smiling and stood up, cracking his knuckles to get the tension out of them.

He stood up and went to get Jekyll, who seemed to be working away on some leather armors on his own.

"Huh? Don't tell me you're finished, old man." He exclaimed when he saw Eisen come over with one of the baskets holding the pieces of leather.

Eisen laughed and nodded, placing the basket down. "Sorry, Jekyll, but I'm finished. There are another two baskets, I'll get them."

Sighing loudly, Jekyll nodded and followed Eisen to grab one of the baskets, and then carefully looked over the pieces for the armors.

"They're pretty well made. Wouldn't have expected ya to be so good at working with Rank 2 leather, or even to finish your work until the day is over. But well, a promise is a promise, and I keep my word. Ten armors, eh?" He asked and grabbed a small bag out of his pocket, pulling out two silver coins.

"Here ya go. Two Silver. There's still two hours left before I close down the shop, so you can go ahead and work on whatever ya want. But ya better be sure to pay me for the materials, got it?"

"Of course! There is actually something I was planning on making today. Do you have any leather that is especially heat resistant? Of the ones that I can work with, that is." Eisen asked with a smile after looking over the notification that his quest was successful, and Jekyll began to think.

"Yeah, we do. We've got Rank 2 Salamander Leather. It doesn't have a great defense rating when you make armor out of it, but it's got amazing heat resistance. If ya don't mind it havin' a red tint, ya can grab it and work with it without needing to dye it."

Eisen nodded and made his way to the Leather storage, where Jekyll showed him what Leather he was talking about. There were a few different base pieces, out of which only a few were the right size to make the apron out of. He needed a large piece of leather for the base, after all. Of course, he could sew together smaller pieces, but it would be preferable in a single piece. He ended up choosing to go with suede leather for the apron.

After making sure it's okay for him to take one of those larger pieces, Eisen brought it out of the storage over to the table on which he made the simple Bracer as well.

He grabbed some design paper and a pencil and began sketching out the shapes he needed. Besides the template for the base of the Apron, he also made small, square templates for the pockets, as well as some thin and long templates for the straps of the apron.

Eisen placed the different templates on the leather and activated the three skills that he had been using since before, his two racial skills and Tool Connection. He pushed his Exacto Knife into the leather and felt some resistance, although considerably less than when he was cutting out those other pieces. Whether this was the case because of his higher skill level, or the animal the leather came from was unknown to Eisen, but he was glad that he was able to easily cut the pieces he needed to out.

After cutting out all the pieces he needed to, Eisen grabbed some pre-waxed thread, as well as one of his needles so that he could start sowing the pockets on, so they could hold his blacksmithing tools. He pushed his needle through the leather just like he was used to from the past few days of working at the Tailor, although this was considerably harder due to the tough leather he was working with. It was weird, really. When he held it in his hands, it mostly felt completely like other leather that he was used to, but for some reason when he began working with it, it felt like a completely different material.

This slightly threw his senses off, of course, but nonetheless, Eisen continued tirelessly working on his Apron.

He finished the first pocket in the chest area, and then added three more going down from the chest all the way to the bottom.

After that, Eisen simply sewed one end of the first strap on his right shoulder and connected it to the main part of his leather apron where the upper end of his left hip would be, and then repeated this, connecting the strap for the left shoulder to the upper part of his right hip. And then, Eisen sewed two more, even thinner straps on the back on each side so that he can bind the apron shut.

Eisen set the finished Apron down on the table, crossed his arms, and nodded in approvement. "Done."

[You created a Fireproof Leather Apron]

[Fireproof Leather Apron]

[Quality - Perfect] Rank - 2]

[Description] A high-quality Leather Apron made by the Leatherworker Eisen. Since the leather used to create this came from a Salamander, it adopted its Fire Resistance. There are multiple bags covering its front to hold different tools.

[Effect] +3 STR; +7 END

[For creating an overwhelming quality item, you gained +1 STR and +1 END]

[You overcame the limits of your skills]

[You have broken through the limits of three different skills. Limitbreaker II Title is changing to Limitbreaker III]

[Title - Limitbreaker III]

[Description]By Breaking the limits of three of your skills, you showed the gods you are closing in on them.

[Effect]+3 to all basic stats

[For using it to create a great item, your body is pleased. Extra proficiency to A Giant's Body Skill]

With a smirk on his face, Eisen smiled and looked over the onslaught of notifications. If this with the Limitbreaker Title continued with different crafting skills… It would end up quite overpowered, wouldn't it?

Bree looked over the Item as well, with a big smile on her face. "Woow! So cool~ And the Red looks super pretty!"

"Haha, yeah, it does! But how about you? Do you want any items? I could think about making some shoes as well?"

"Y-You've done enough! The dress is already more than enough! Really!" Bree insisted, but Eisen just laughed. "But what if I make some shoes to practice? Do you want me to just throw them away?"

The Fey-kin looked away and started fidgeting slightly, "I… I guess if you make them anyway, it would be a waste to throw them away…"

"Haha, that's more like it!"

"But… Eisen? You're so nice, but I've barely been helping you… I've got an idea of how I could, but… Well… For that, you would need to make an item for me… A bag…" Bree muttered out uncomfortably. She already felt bad enough that Eisen was treating her so well, so asking him for his help before she could help him was a horrible feeling.

Eisen tilted his head, slightly confused. "A bag? A Backpack, like mine?"

"W-Well, something like that... But bigger, like, a lot bigger. You want to make armor, right? So you want to go out and fight… So… I want to work as your carrier, and carry all of your items so that you don't have to!" She explained, fidgeting with her hands while looking away. She really hoped she could help Eisen.

He began scratching his beard and closed his eyes. "I see… That's a pretty good idea, for sure. Sounds like a deal!"

"Really? I'm so glad!"

"But… I won't let you just follow me because you feel obligated. If you think you owe me something, then don't come with me. Although if you want to come with me, for whatever reason you have beside obligation, then you are free to come along for a great ride."

Bree looked at Eisen with a soft smile, that only grew wider and wider, until she nodded happily.

"Yeah!"