Chapter 270: The ARES Guild's Official Equipment and Weapon!

'It seems like there's really not much information about creating ships. What much more about workshops or factories for making such! It's great that I have a ship-making manual… But I still lack almost everything needed to make a ship. And from my estimate… I would even need to build a Kingdom near the sea to be able to start such a project… But something is suspicious… If the sea merchants can easily travel from one continent to another, won't selling ships be a huge market? If that's the case, there should be a few ships sailing around—other than the ships that belong to the BHO members.' Pedro thought deep inside. 'In any case… The ship-making operation would be on hold for now. I'll see if I can get more info from Duke Albert and his underground connections. If that's not enough, I have no choice but to find the answers through BHO in the trade event.'

Then, Pedro nodded towards Blacksmith Prodel and said, "Thanks for the info, senior!"

"That's nothing! That's nothing!" Blacksmith Prodel said in response as they shifted back their focus in crafting weapons and equipment.

They used a black and cloudy metal ore known as the Black Mountain Rock Metal Ore that is often obtained on the deepest part of the caves and is known to be just a rank lower compared to titanium like Metal Ores in terms of strength and durability.

It was hard and was difficult to melt, thus, it often needs at least five minutes in the Ore Oven—two minutes longer than the ordinary metal ores. Molding and shaping it was not an easy task. It would take them minutes of continuous hammering before each blade was formed.

But because Pedro and Aldo were just novice blacksmiths and the fact that the metal that they used is dark and cloudy in appearance, the weapons lack elegance even on the final output and are not eye-catching just like the newbie swords.

That said, its durability and sharpness are on another level and could even be compared to the swords wielded by officials in the Kingdom's Military. On the other hand, Blacksmith Prodel, together with some NPC slaves under Pedro were crafting the Armors for everyone in the ARES Guild.

Unlike the traditional full metal breastplates, they cut Black Mountain Rock Metal Ore in separate pieces and attached them to chainmail as Pedro instructed. This way, their movements won't be restricted even if their sword art techniques came from Clara and were designed to adapt with the restrictions that a breastplate provides.

With elegant black cloth sewn in between each Black Mountain Rock Metal Ore to hide the chainmail, together with golden linings as design, it looked like a metal bulletproof vest with a bit of a luxurious vibe. Add up the cover to the shoulders, the neck, the groin area, and the thighs, the armor could also be mistaken to be similar to Japanese Samurai's Armors as a whole.

There was also protective equipment for their limbs, hands, and feet that were made using a similar style of crafting, but the Black Mountain Rock Metal Ore were cut into way smaller pieces so that the protective equipment won't restrict much of their movement when worn.

As for their helm, it was crafted as thin as possible using the Black Mountain Rock Metal Ore. Only by placing another layer of the metal strip on critical parts like the forehead, the top of the head, the back of the head, and the chin area. As for the design, they simply imitated the design of an ordinary helm and just made a diagonal opening near the ear area, for hearing enhancement purposes.

The helm itself was designed to be lightweight and fit while ensuring that its defensive properties won't be compromised. With the addition of cloth inside, it was comfortable to wear for anyone. Their vision was also not affected that much, so, other than the hot environment in extended periods of use—especially during combats where perspiration and body temperature was inevitable to rise, there was not much of a backdrop in wearing the helm.

With that, the ARES Guild member's armors were made. And Pedro participated in the crafting together with his slaves because he wanted to give it to everyone else so that they can familiarize themselves in fighting with their armor equipped. There's a huge difference after all because although the amount of the metal ores used were reduced, the weight of the armors was still heavy on that point.

And considering that almost all of the parts of their body have specific protective equipment to be worn, it was completely a different experience from not wearing armor. It was as if they were trying to fight with 'weights' attached all over their body. The only difference from the ordinary armors available was that their movements were not much restricted.

The details and design of the armors were just overkilled because of the support that Duke Albert provided to Pedro. From the quality of the cloth that was used to the expert seamstress that accompanied them all through the crafting process, it was all provided to Pedro to ensure that the craft of their Guild's First Official Armor would look as good as it could be.

In fact, their Guild's Logo was even engraved at their shoulder guards, at the forehead area of their helm, at the lower left guard of their thigh—near where the scabbards of their sword were placed, and at the handle guard of their swords—similar to where the bird was located on , Clara's sword.

Well… Pedro could not refuse Duke Albert's offer, thus he had no choice but to willingly accept his aid. They might surely attract attention if they wore those armor in the exhibition games, but they can simply say that they 'paid' a hefty price to acquire such armor and it was not as if other players couldn't obtain such things with the right amount of gold coin.

and Lony's were still of a different case compared to the armors, because the two 'rare' items were something that could not be easily bought even with lots and lots of gold.

That aside, their armors only boasted high defense properties. They still have no special effects or such engraved in them. Pedro wanted to use Ragas again on this matter, but he thought otherwise because he knew that doing so would just result in the quick drain of everyone's magical energy—of course, except him and Sabrina. They can just simply add some effects later on when they start to learn the proper utilization of their magical energy.

As for the weapons, he's considering asking Ragas to place some effects based on the needs and traits of each of them. It would be good to be their individual trump card on the battlefield—purposely made so to avoid revealing any of their 'secrets' in this competition.

"This is so cool!" Aldo said as he and Pedro tried their own armors and equipment. Then, he took a 'picture' of Pedro through the system and sent it to their guildmates. "Our attempt to not stand out was futile! This armors and equipment are too cool that we'd even be celebrities after our first match!"

"Well… It can't be helped. At least, we tried!" Pedro said whilst punching in the air and occasionally doing kicks—creating his own combination of attacks. "Besides… It's not like these armor and equipment are not procurable at this stage of the game. We can use the Adventurer's Guild for a reason and it may even bring us more profit! As for the overall grasp of the armor and the other equipment, they are quite heavy, but our movements are not restricted by that much compared to ordinary armors."

Aldo simply nodded in response as he drew his sword and tried to do several swings with it—similar to what he does during his practice. At every strike, Aldo's arms seemed like it was being pulled into the ground by a magnet—slowing the recovery of his sword and increasing the interval between each of his strikes.

"I didn't think that armors would be these heavy… The Knights and Soldiers make it look like these are not heavy. But when you wore it yourself, it's like the weight of every part of your body had increased two or three folds in an instant." Aldo said. Then, he glanced towards Pedro with a worried expression and added, "Won't the girls have difficulty in wearing these armors?"

Pedro simply shook his head in response and said, "It would be difficult for everyone, but the girls are more competitive than us. I assume that either you or Roval would even be the ones who would have the roughest time with these armors."

At this moment, Pedro also drew his sword to familiarize himself with the changes. First, he was swinging the two-handed sword with his two hands, while saying, "Killer Looks [Talia] might be the youngest and probably the weakest physically but her will and desire to become stronger than her elder brother—and even me and Gentle Breeze [Sabrina}, were enough to allow her to surpass Arvedar in raw strength and combat ability. Well… Arvedar had just recovered from his injuries and his strength completely lies on his special abilities, so there was nothing much to expect as of now on his combat ability."

Then, Pedro shifted in using only one hand while swinging the sword around and saying, "As for Direction Idiot [Loren], you know her well ever since… Her physical abilities are just behind Gentle Breeze and are even more athletic than you in comparison."

"Aish… You don't need to remind me of that!" Aldo complained to Pedro.

Pedro simply chuckled in response and said, "Anyway… Since everything we need for the 'battle' is completed, and the both of you had already learned a thing or two about the basics of each of your occupations, you and Direction Idiot would join me, back to our training area and do some combat training."

"Aish… How scary!" Aldo said whilst forcing out a smile. Then, he added, saying, "I heard from the boys that their training was ten times more difficult compared to our training in the Adventurer's Guild. I have a bad feeling about this 'training'."

Pedro simply smirked in response as he stared at the blade of his sword and said, "It can't be helped! Such training is needed to obtain the strength that everyone dreamed. Nothing comes easily, my friend!"

Aldo simply sighed in response as they wrap everything up—in preparation to send the weapon and equipment through trade to everyone else. At the same time, Pedro paid Blacksmith Prodel and the several seamstresses sent by Duke Albert with his remaining coins. And when everything is done, they headed back to Pedro's Mansion in the Tarala Kingdom, together with his slaves.