Chapter 563 Upgrading Something Essential
At the very moment those words left the young man's mouth, he had fully opened the simple-looking box, revealing what was within. In it was an orb that looked similar to the Shadow Serpent Orb Valyr had gotten back then, though there seemed to be a tinge of color to it.
Aside from that, there seemed to be an oppressive feeling being faintly emanated by the orb, something Valyr was already expecting due to the orb's origin. After admiring the orb for its appearance and presence for a bit more, the young man moved the opened box to the side as he planned out his steps.
"As far as I can remember, I should upgrade the chestplate first." Recalling the guide he followed back then to upgrade his armor, the young man eventually remembered the step that came after the armor's current form. Taking his time to make sure that he had recalled everything, only did the young man start moving.
"Out of all the pieces making up this upgraded version of the armor, only the chestplate needs the Wyvern Core." Taking his chestplate off, Valyr allowed his memories of the upgrade process to linger in his mind, reminding himself as to why he had to upgrade the chestplate first.
As it was the only piece that would need the Wyvern Core in its upgrade process, the chestplate would act as the power source for the entire armor set once it was all upgraded, giving Valyr's armor the ability to do more things than it already could.
With the thought in mind, the young man wondered how much of an improvement these abilities would undergo, considering that the guide mentioned that the upgrade involving the Wyvern Core would upgrade his armor set to Epic rarity.
With a fortuitous encounter improving his current armor set to that same rarity already, he was extremely curious on what kind of changes would happen to those abilities if the armor set had finished upgrading to Epic+ rarity.
Or, if he was lucky enough, Legendary rarity.
"Alright." Mustering up the courage to do something incredibly stupid, the young man took in a deep breath as he chucked the chestplate into the furnace. Increasing the temperature of the furnace after that, he then began to lay out the materials he would need to upgrade the chestplate to the next rarity.
"First off, True Wyvern Scales." Bringing a long wooden table near the entrance of the workshop to somewhere beside the anvil, Valyr began to arrange the materials he would need by step. "According to the guide, once the chestplate reaches its optimal temperature, I should begin replacing the Nascent Wyvern Scales on it with True Wyvern Scales."
"Then..." After making sure that the number of True Wyvern Scales he had on hand would be enough to upgrade the entire armor set, he then grabbed a couple of materials that reminded him of his forging duel with Theraldine. "Materials that are highly attuned to the four basic elements."
At those words, the young man gently placed down four items to the right of the pile of True Wyvern Scales, arranging them in a way that make sure their energies would neutralize each other for the meantime. Of course, to make things easier for himself and cut down a bit of time, Valyr decided to use the same elemental materials he had used to forge his Hammer of Beginnings.
"Aside from those things, the only things left needed to upgrade the chestplate would be..." Going through the guide in his mind, the young man briefly scratched the back of his head as he bitterly smiled.
"My blood and mana, huh."
"Eh. I'll think more about it later." Placing thoughts regarding the last step of the upgrade process to the side, the young man went ahead and retrieved the chestplate out of the furnace, placing it down on the anvil.
"Huuu..." Taking in a few deep breaths, Valyr gradually composed himself as he went over the various steps in his mind one more time. Once he felt like he had gotten a good grasp of it, it was only then did he begin work on the chestplate, feeling as if all of the distractions in his surroundings had disappeared all of a sudden.
'[Flow] again, huh...' Sensing that his concentration had been heightened and his movements had become more refined, the young man inwardly let out a chuckle as he grabbed the True Wyvern Scales, beginning to place them on top of the scales that were already there.
Hissssss!!!
At the very instant the scale touched the chestplate, a loud hissing sound resounded throughout the room, causing the young man to inwardly think that the Shadow Serpent had been revived in spirit somehow. Letting out a faint chuckle in response, he focused his attention towards the scale he had placed, which seemed to be melding with the previous scale, eventually taking its place.
Hissssss!!! Hissssss!!! Hissssss!!!
Seeing that the first step of the upgrade process looked to have no issues, the young man proceeded to make the most out of the time he had, placing multiple True Wyvern Scales on top of the chestplate at once.
Slowly but surely, he was making progress in replacing all of the scales on the chestplate, having to chuck the chestplate into the furnace a couple more times before all of the scales were replaced with the new ones.
"[True Prodigious Blacksmith's Sight]."
"[Hunter's Tracking Eyes]." After making sure that no imperfections had appeared after the first step, it was only then did Valyr proceed onto the next step, prompting him to focus his attention on the elemental materials he had arranged earlier.
"Now that the scales have been replaced with True Wyvern Scales, the next step is to infuse the energy of the four elements into the chestplate." Muttering these words to himself, the young man made light work of the materials he had chosen, refining all of them into their purest forms within an hour or so.
"I wonder why there's a step like that." Feeling like he had been making good progress so far, the young man decided to take a short break to recuperate his energy, pondering a few things about the guide he was following in the meantime. "From an element to effect standpoint, having the four basic elements make sense since it's considered an all-around boost."
"However, since the armor's final state is to become an incredibly close replica of the Empyrean Dragon Armor, including the four elements into it doesn't seem right," muttered the young man, faintly tilting his head to and fro in confusion. "Is it going to act as a replacement of some sort? A foundation for something else?"
"Well..." Understanding that he would only be heading down a rabbit hole if he were to continue his train of thought, the young man decided to discard the question altogether, returning his attention to the chestplate. "Whatever purpose it may serve, it wouldn't be in the guide if it was to achieve something else."
"Alright, time to continue." Placing the chestplate into the furnace, Valyr gently picked up the four items and placed them around the chestplate in a unique pattern. Then, after making sure that all of them were in the right spot, he increased the temperature inside the furnace to a level near its limit, causing the energy from the materials to gradually seep out.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Surprisingly, within seconds of these energies beginning to seep out, the chestplate began to devour these energies as if it hadn't eaten for decades. In fact, the chestplate was actively siphoning the energies from the refined materials at some point, leaving only dregs by the time it was done.
"Two more steps left." With both skills still active, the young man took a look if any imperfections had appeared during the infusion of energy, nodding in satisfaction after he had made sure that there were none. Taking out the chestplate from the furnace once more, he gently placed it onto the anvil, grabbing a chisel and Hammer of Beginnings as he proceeded to the second to last step.
"[Breath of Beginnings]." Taking in a deep breath as he mentally steeled himself for what he was going to do, the young man changed the energy of his artifact, making one feel as if it had the ability to be everything yet also be one thing at the same time.
Tightening his grip onto the chisel, Valyr then positioned it above the center of the chestplate, only to then...
Bang!
With great strength, the young man caused a nick to appear on the chestplate's surface, clicking his tongue as he thought about the durability of the True Wyvern Scales. Undeterred, he continued with his hammering, causing the nick to gradually grow larger as a small hole eventually appeared on the chestplate.
"And with this, the final step." Finding the previous step nerve-wracking, the young man let out a long sigh of relief after it was over, going over through it with [True Prodigious Blacksmith's Sight] and [Hunter's Tracking Eyes] to see if he had caused any imperfections.
After righting all of the imperfections that had popped up, the young man went ahead and grabbed the Wyvern Core before placing it where he had created the hole on the chestplate. After that, he slit his wrist with a chisel, allowing his blood to flow above the Wyvern Core while his other hand touched the core directly, infusing it with his own mana.
For a while, a gruesome sight could be seen in the center of the workshop as a considerable portion of the chestplate was now dyed in the color of Valyr's blood. Thankfully, a couple of minutes later, all signs of that instantly disappeared as a notification sound resounded in the young man's mind.
"And with that... the upgrade is done."
Ding!
