Marcus took a good minute to simply look through the bag and take in what he had just been given.
‘I cannot believe they are giving me this much.’
Still, he was not about to complain and graciously accepted.
“Now I believe we have taken up enough of your time. Mrazivy has told me that you are going to be going on an extended trip with your group soon and that you are here to prepare for it. We have said what we needed to and given you your reward for your invaluable help. Though if you need anything else, feel free to ask.” Gwyneira said as she began ushering Boreas and the king out.
Boreas for his part actually looked like he wanted to speak with Marcus more but relented as his wife pushed him out of the room.
Of course, the main reason hey all left so quickly and readily was the look in Marcus’ eyes.
He kept glancing towards the furnace in the room and it was clear that he wanted to get it going and start swinging his hammer.
Practically the second the room was sealed and he was alone, Marcus moved to start up the furnace and get started on his work.
He had not been expecting to get five more amethros ingots to work with, but now that he had, there was something that he had been planning to make for himself when he got the chance.
‘I figured it would take several years before I would be able to get enough to make myself a set of amethros armor, but this has been an unexpected boon. It is moments like these that I am glad I decided to work with the kingdom. I never would have gotten this far on my own.’
When the furnace was finally hot enough to work with amethros Marcus got started.
The first thing he wanted to create was the amethros sword that the viceroy of Lethallan had commissioned him to make for his second son.
Honestly this was the piece that he least cared about making, since it was not going to be helping him or his companions in anyway.
This did not mean he did sloppy work, just that he did not put his entire heart and soul into it. When the blade was finished it would still be considered one of the best weapons in the kingdom.
‘Hm, it has a good balance, mana conductivity is top notice, and I imagine it can cut through just about anything in the hands of a strong warrior. This should do perfectly for what was ordered.’
Once he had finished up on testing out the sword he had just completed, Marcus moved onto what was likely to be the most tedious part.
He needed to make a number of accessories for the members of his party.
‘I guess I will start with the ear protectors Lyra wanted, then the two pins and ring that Quillon requested, and a circlet similar to the one I made for Frostine for Mrazivy.’
Pulling out the ingot that his friends had given him that they got from their foray into Tralenstein’s dungeon, Marcus placed it into a crucible and melted it down.
After that he sectioned off what he needed into different ingot molds before letting them cool.
Days then went by as he completed the meticulous work of crafting each and every item that had been requested by his group.
When he finally finished the circlet for Mrazivy he wiped the top of his brow pretty much instinctively and looked down with pride.
‘This might be some of the best work I have done. I do feel a little bad though since I definitely made Mraz’s circlet stronger than Frostine’s, but well she is going to be my wife.’
Picking up the circlet he just finished Marcus went through numerous tests with it to make sure it functioned properly. Thankfully all the magical formations had come together, and it did all that it was expected to.
Finally, with the last of the items he needed to make for others finished, he pulled out the five amethros ingots he had received for capturing the empire soldiers and got to work on his new set of armor.
He spent the next few hours in a complete trance as he continually heated up the amethros hammered away at it and repeated the process.
This was likely to be his armor for a very long time to come, and he needed it to be the best it could.
Even as strong as he had gotten there were still plenty of threats out there that could harm him, and he wanted to be as well prepared as possible.
Eventually, after an amount of time Marcus had wholly lost track of, his new set of amethros armor lay before him completed.
It had not received the system’s recognition like his scythe, but this was simply for lack of supplementary materials from beasts or monsters that were above level ninety.
‘Time for a test.’
Quickly he took off the pendant that contained his current armor and replaced it with the new one and activated it.
Seamlessly it spread out around him and fit exactly like the previous set.
Still, he could feel just how much more powerful the amethros armor was over even the system recognized adamantine set.
The power of the strongest metal on the plant truly was far an away greater than anything below it.
Marcus began pouring his mana into the armor and soon found that he would run out before he even reached the peak of what his new armor could hold.
It was simply that strong that he could not even bring out its full capabilities just yet.
Nevertheless, it was clear how impactful this armor would be and Marcus was certain that it would keep him protected against anything but the most devastating attacks.
Then to finish up on his testing he pulled out his scythe and held it so that the blade was facing him.
‘Embodiment of eclipse, dark form.’
Activating his supreme skill Marcus brought his power up as high as he could normally and struck down against his shoulder.
‘Perforation strike.’
He even went so far as to activate his armor piercing skill and jammed the tip of the scythe full force against his armor.
The room shook and sparks flew as Marcus made this attack against himself, but he received barely any damage from his own full powered attack.
‘Hm my shoulder got a little messed up from the force of the attack, but the damage only took a second to heal thanks to high-speed regeneration. Even my best hits cannot really harm me through this armor.’
With his experiment complete, Marcus took the amethros scale mail off and inspected the area he had hit.
On a close inspection he could see that his scythe did do a bit of damage to the armor and there was now a hole in the outer plating.
However, the damage was not too bad considering that Marcus had hit himself just about as hard as he could without using any of his limited skills.
‘Looks like the auto repair function is working well. In just a minute the damage should be gone.’