Just like that, two days passed. Lin Yun helped run the smithy and took care of everything that needed doing, including refurbishing the Steel Plate Scale Armor and the chainmail. As it turned out, the chainmail smelled of nothing but metal and blood. Well, don't ask Lin Yun how he knew.
Then, with the Bard's arrival in mind—and because young warriors could also use heavy crossbows to help in battle—Lin Yun ultimately spent another 85 Gold Coins to buy a heavy crossbow and a Light Crossbow. Naturally, there was no need to modify these weapons.
He also spent 5 Gold Coins on 100 crossbow bolts. They could recover some bolts after each battle, but some were bound to get damaged. In fact, after the last fight, the Female Mage and the Goddess Priestess didn't have many bolts left, so they needed to stock up.
As for the young warrior's weapon, he seemed to be good with longswords and little else. Lin Yun suspected he had the Weapon Focus feat for longswords, so all he did was sharpen the sword he already had until it looked like new. That was all. Forcing himself to use other weapons would only end in... the same sort of embarrassment as before.
On the fourth day since Lin Yun had arrived in this world, the Dwarf blacksmith finally appeared in Lin Yun's room looking as though he had just emerged from secluded cultivation. His face was gaunt, and dark circles shadowed his eyes. He told Lin Yun that the armor was finally finished.
Lin Yun sprang out of bed and hurried to the smithy. There, hanging from a stand, was a suit of armor that fit his build perfectly. It looked rather dark—so dark it almost gleamed. Well, that couldn't be helped.
Though he couldn't see any Magical Aura, Lin Yun's knowledge as a blacksmith let him sense at once that this armor was no ordinary piece of work.
"D20+2+5=18, success." The successful blacksmithing check flooded Lin Yun's mind with information. In the end, it boiled down to this:
It wasn't technically a magic item, but this masterwork armor had the same effect as a +1 magic item. And thanks to the properties of black iron, it granted +5 acid resistance and +5 electricity resistance. It was incredibly powerful.
And that was before it had been enchanted. Once it was, it would be downright godlike.
But with Lin Yun's current funds, he couldn't afford even the cheapest +1 enchantment, let alone anything better. He would just have to make do and craft things himself. What a shame—if he'd chosen the Forging Master cleric archetype, he'd have been utterly unstoppable.
Just as Lin Yun had said, the armor had no fancy patterns. If it weren't black all over, it would have looked no different from an ordinary Flexible Breastplate.
Lin Yun opened the fasteners at the bottom and tried it on. The inside had a layer of fur lining, so it didn't chafe and felt very comfortable. The Dwarf blacksmith had clearly put some thought into it.
Lin Yun checked his stats. His AC was now 16, two points higher than it had been with his old scale armor. The main difference was that this suit was sturdier; it didn't cover much more of him, since it was a Flexible Breastplate. He could still move around quite freely, although... his Dexterity was only 8.
It was a little less than perfect. Still, combined with the +4 shield bonus from Shield and the +2 Deflection Bonus from Protection from Evil, Lin Yun's AC now reached 22. Ordinary goblins probably couldn't even touch him.
"So, what do you think? I didn't ruin your work, did I?" Though the Dwarf blacksmith looked utterly spent, he seemed excited. Lin Yun figured the man would probably tell everyone he met that he'd made a suit of armor alongside a Clan Craftsman.
The armor could be called Lin Yun's work, but it could just as easily be called the blacksmith's. Lin Yun had handled the most important parts, while the blacksmith had taken care of tasks that were, to put it mildly, almost inconsequential.
Lin Yun had worked the Dwarf blacksmith hard, but the man had gained something from it too: skills, for one, and a bit of prestige. From a certain point of view, the blacksmith had actually come out ahead. It was all rather mysterious.
Incidentally, since wearing black armor with a gray helmet looked a little too jarring, Lin Yun had decided to make the helmet black too. Of course, he'd only used a special solvent, spending 10 Gold Coins to turn the helmet black like it was dyed. And just like that... Lin Yun was dressed in black from head to toe. Wait, hold on. Something didn't seem right.
Someone let out a question worthy of an unlucky soul.
With the armor taken care of, it was time to set out on a new adventure. He'd already made arrangements over the past few days, so Lin Yun headed out wearing his black iron Flexible Breastplate, a black helmet, black boots, black leather pants, and a black cloak. He carried a Lantern Staff that wasn't black, a black Heavy Mace, and a shield that wasn't black...
Mmm, looking at the Eye of Omniscience emblem—a face split between black and white—on his shield, Lin Yun ultimately decided not to dye the Lantern Staff and shield black as well.
Incidentally, the Lantern Staff's shaft was made of silver-colored metal.
When Lin Yun arrived at the Adventurer's Guild, he was surprised to find a giant beast inside. Forgive him for calling the newcomer a beast, but the fellow wasn't human. He was a huge centaur.
The primitive-looking centaur stood at the counter of the Adventurer's Guild. He wore leather armor that left his tremendously muscular body exposed, with only an animal hide draped over his back. His hooves nervously scraped at the floor, and it looked as though the Guild would need to repair it.
"Ah, Mr. Silent, you're here. Perfect timing. This is Mr. Infeine. He wants to post a quest concerning goblins. As I recall, it's not far from one of the quests you accepted—it might even be the same place." The lovely receptionist smiled at Lin Yun as she spoke.
"Are you here alone? Hey, I'm going to rescue someone. It's not that I don't have money—I just need a little time." The centaur sounded extremely anxious. Judging by his furious temper and the shield and weapon on his back, he was either a warrior or a barbarian. Lin Yun's instinct told him barbarian.
"We're his party. Is there a problem?" The young warrior and the others stood up from the area that looked more like a tavern than anything else, then came over to Lin Yun and addressed the centaur.
"Just a bunch of kids?" The centaur seemed impatient.
"You look like an Adventurer who can fight. How about we spar, if you don't mind?" Lin Yun asked with a smile, holding a Heavy Mace in one hand and a shield in the other.
"Fine by me." The centaur glared at Lin Yun with his enormous eyes, the whites already streaked with red. Lin Yun led him to a training ground beside the Adventurer's Guild.
The centaur pulled a long weapon from his back—it looked like a lance—then gripped his shield and glared at Lin Yun, full of confidence. Then the fellow went straight into a rage...
He roared, and his already reddish skin turned even redder, until he looked almost like a giant crab. His eyes bloodshot, he raised his lance and charged at Lin Yun.
The lance was a special weapon. On foot, it had to be wielded with both hands, but on horseback, it could be held in one hand and used to thrust. And a centaur... well, he was already one with his mount, so naturally he could wield it one-handed and carry a shield.
But...
The fellow had gone into a rage. When barbarians did that, their Strength and Constitution increased by 4, which meant their modifiers each rose by 2. It was terrifying. A charging centaur was undoubtedly fearsome, faster even than an ordinary cavalryman. But the fellow seemed to have been in too much of a hurry—or perhaps his friend's abduction by goblins had left him too worked up. He failed to watch his footing, stumbled, and went headfirst into Lin Yun's shield. Yes, his head really did hit it. The centaur ended up looking rather dazed.
When Lin Yun saw the centaur preparing to charge, he'd gotten ready. He just hadn't expected the fellow to hit him like that.
Lin Yun held his shield steady and asked the somewhat woozy centaur, "So, want to keep going?"
"Huh? Are you looking down on me?" Lin Yun had been ready to leave it at that, but the centaur was clearly riled up instead. He pulled a battleaxe from his waist and swung it at Lin Yun.
Lin Yun instinctively raised his shield to block. The battleaxe struck it solidly, and Lin Yun raised his Heavy Mace and swung.
"D20+2+2=9, MISS." Just as Lin Yun was about to put his strength behind the blow, the centaur gave his battleaxe a slight twist, knocking Lin Yun's swing off course. The mace struck the centaur, but did no damage at all.
The centaur swung his axe at Lin Yun again. This time, Lin Yun's reaction was so slow it was almost painful to watch, and the axe struck his armor. Well, the saying that anything Lin Yun made was top quality proved true: he barely felt it, and the axe bounced straight off.
"D20+2+2=17, hit." This time, with nothing in the way, Lin Yun brought his mace down on the centaur's head, dealing decent damage.
"D8+2=6."
As expected of a barbarian, even that blow hadn't hurt the fellow much. He shook his head, roared, and swung his axe again.
But this time, apart from a sound like a hammer striking metal, the blow did nothing at all. Lin Yun's slow reaction meant the axe had hit his armor again. The stubborn fellow seemed incapable of aiming anywhere but Lin Yun's armor.
"D20+2+2=15, hit." Lin Yun's next blow struck the centaur on the head again, and this time it finally threatened him.
"D8+2=8." Lin Yun's mace blow to the head left the centaur dazed. Then he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
What a waste.
Before you continue