First, James set up his smelter and built it to produce heat enough to melt Red Iron. He had some raw ore he had collected earlier, and after confirming that, he tested out a sample of white iron ore.

A small sample. While his ward covered half the room and there were a few large veins of white iron ore accessible, it wasn't infinite, and he had never worked with it before. He couldn't afford to waste any of it, especially saturated with lux essence as it was.

As it turned out, to his delight, it melted at roughly the same temperature as regular iron ore.

That done, he created a small ingot from the smelted White Iron, and was pleasantly surprised by an intrusive thought.

Smith Class Skill: [Smelting] has reached level 5.

It had been a long time since that skill had improved. But he turned from smelting and started constructing his forge, again making sure it could produce enough heat to work Red Iron, but confident it would be more than enough to work White Iron. While his hands worked slowly and carefully, the Smith's mind turned to his armor design.

His first armor design had simply been plates of metal to protect him from mole monster claws.

His second armor design had incorporated latches and joined the pieces together and covered up more gaps.

Later armor designs had focused on increasing coverage and reducing the noise he made as he moved around.

And then he had fought a dragon and his skill in [Product Testing] had shot up all at once. There was a certain mental damage one took when, after taking the physical damage of a hit and inspecting a bruise, one could trace the bruise to exactly which piece of armor had been hit and why it had transferred that impact into one's own body.

And James had spent a lot of time ruminating.

James' goal for this set of armor was to ensure that each piece fit together just so in such a way that, upon taking a strike, the strike was either deflected to the side, or the force of the impact was dispersed into other adjoining pieces of armor.

He also had plenty of Fire Lizard hide to use for cushioning.

He knew, vaguely, that Knights had skills for wearing armor which made them more adept at taking strikes, but the most he could hope for was to crudely imitate their Skills and rely more heavily on the design of the armor.

James finished the forge, having generally thought of a number of improvements to the design of his next armor set, and sat down to focus more heavily on the last decision to make before he started designing: how heavy to make the armor. Thicker armor meant more protection, generally, and while his Fire Armor had successfully protected him from being torn to shreds by the Fire Dragon's claws, it had been close. Far too close.

He wanted thicker, heavier armor. Especially after seeing how fast the kitten monster, and even the Fire Dragon had been. He was simply not going to be able to keep up with the speed of boss monsters, so his only choice was to tank the hits and strike back with counters. If that meant a tougher time navigating floors and walking around, so be it.

The Smith turned and gazed at the walls with a calculating eye. After a minute trying to estimate how much white iron ore there was in the walls, how deep the veins probably went by their shape, how much White Iron he would get after smelting, and the effect of changing his designs on material usage…

He smacked his palm into his forehead and got to his feet. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the kitten monster perk up, and he pushed a little more magical power into the ward. Thinking about the materials he had wasn't going to make more materials come into existence. He would simply mine out everything he could and smelt it down and see what he had.

And so the Smith got to work [Mining].

Pick pick pick pick…

After about a day's worth of mining, James found himself with a large pile of white iron ore. But, seeing as he hadn't slept in about two days by this point, he continued mining a little deeper into the white stone and cut out a sleeping alcove, out of sight of the kitten monster, and put down another small set of wards there as well. Just in case.

James slept the deep sleep of those who have put in more than a good day's work.

When he awoke, he was ravenous. He hadn't done that much physical labor in weeks. He ate his fill of crab meat, even though he was aware of his dwindling supplies, because today he would be [Forging], and he needed the energy.

First, James dug a pit. He was going to be [Smelting] quite a lot, and the slag needed to go somewhere in his limited space which was already crowded with ore and stone.

Then he spent several hours smelting, cycling the molten white iron through several times to get the highest quality possible. The heat felt like nothing after his time on the fourth floor. Sadly, he did not improve his skill again. But he did produce some good iron.

[Appraisal]: White Iron Ingot, Lux Essence 10/10

Normally James could see the essence as a sort of vague aura or light, but with lux essence he couldn't. He pondered this a scant moment before putting it out of his mind as irrelevant since his skill still worked, completely forgetting he was under the effects of a Dark type [Blind] enchantment.

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Once all the ore was smelted and after a break for lunch, James sat down at his Green Iron Anvil and began the process of forging himself some Heavy White Iron Armor.

The process took several days, which James tried not to begrudge himself because it was important and vital that he have a good set of armor for his impending fight with the terrifying kitten monster. But he was incredibly aware of his dwindling supplies and the energy he was spending on this project.

If he didn't find another edible monster soon, preferably a lot of them, he was in big trouble.

Smith Class Skill [Forging] has reached level 5.

Smith Class Skill [Stubbornness] has reached level 4.

Smith Class Skill [Ambidextrous] has reached level 2.

The levels were well earned: trying to forge with one barely usable hand had been immensely difficult, and had made the entire process take far longer than it should have, given the Smith's monstrous Dexterity.

But it was done. The Smith ate a smaller lunch, trying to stretch out his food as much as he could, though he knew he needed to keep his energy up for what would follow: enchanting, and then a fight.

[Appraisal]: Heavy White Iron Cuirass, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 30/30

[Appraisal]: Heavy White Iron Armored Skirt, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 24/24

[Appraisal]: Heavy White Iron Codpiece, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 20/20

[Appraisal]: Heavy White Iron Greaves, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 24/24

[Appraisal]: Heavy White Iron Cuisses, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 28/28

[Appraisal]: Heavy White Iron Left Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 30/30

[Appraisal]: Heavy White Iron Right Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 24/24

[Appraisal]: Heavy White Iron Bracers, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 25/25

[Appraisal]: Heavy White Iron Cleat Boots, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 30/30

[Appraisal]: Heavy White Iron Tower Shield, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 36/36

The Heavy White Iron Armor set was entirely saturated with lux essence, and much thicker than previous sets, with a design to better disperse impacts and additional padding with Fire Lizard hide, and still retained previous improvements to minimize the sound of his movement.

James put it on and felt the weight of it, and found it comforting. It reminded him of his First Armor set, how heavy it had been, and how it had been proof against the very first mole monster's claws. At his level, he was strong enough to move around in it, though he could tell it would slow him down quite a lot.

He hoped this floor was small, like the first floor had been.

He had had enough White Iron left over to forge himself a large tower shield as well, even heavier than his first iron tower shield, but not so heavy that he couldn't pick it up and walk with it.

Then James spent several days etching. He went all out on his armor and shield, because if there was one kind of magic stone he had plenty of, it was White Magic Stones, from the glowshrooms on the first floor.

Smith Class Skill [Ambidextrous] has reached level 3.

Smith Class Skill [Filigree] has reached level 6.

Smith Class Skill [Stubbornness] has reached level 5.

Enchanter Class Skill [Persistence] has reached level 4.

James was too focused to worry about how fast his [Stubbornness] and [Persistence] skills were increasing. The entire time, the kitten monster watched and waited.

After a day of Enchanting, the Light Armor set was complete. Although it was actually quite heavy…

[Appraisal]: Light Cuirass, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 30/30, Enchantment: Reflect (82)

[Appraisal]: Light Armored Skirt, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 24/24, Enchantment: Reflect (84)

[Appraisal]: Light Codpiece, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 20/20, Enchantment: Reflect (73)

[Appraisal]: Light Greaves, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 24/24, Enchantment: Reflect (79)

[Appraisal]: Light Cuisses, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 28/28, Enchantment: Reflect (80)

[Appraisal]: Light Left Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 30/30, Enchantment: Reflect (75)

[Appraisal]: Light Right Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 24/24, Enchantment: Reflect (75)

[Appraisal]: Light Bracers, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 25/25, Enchantment: Reflect (79)

[Appraisal]: Light Cleat Boots, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 30/30, Enchantment: Reflect (71)

[Appraisal]: Light Tower Shield, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 36/36, Enchantment: Reflect (95)

The results were astounding. Especially the shield. These were the kinds of things James had wanted to create, all that time ago, when he had chosen his classes.

He ignored the Quality rating as he celebrated the durability and enchantments.

More importantly, he took the rest of the day off and relaxed, ate dinner, and slept.

When he awoke, he would be fighting the kitten monster after all this time.

After a light breakfast and some stretching, James armored himself with his new Light Armor set and took up his trusty Earth War Hammer in his left hand and his Light Tower Shield in his right. He took a few test swings, and the kitten monster watched him intensely. Satisfied, he hefted his shield and started taking measured steps towards the ward's edge.

The kitten monster jumped up and then crouched down, ready to pounce.

James would have felt a little silly at his over-preparedness and his caution if he hadn't seen the kitten monster viciously slaughter a serpent monster, and hadn't fought the dragon. He would never let his guard down again, or so he hoped.

Like with the mole monsters, the kitten waited until James was fully out of the ward before pouncing. James, as then, was focused on watching the kitten monster and taking careful steps, but unlike then, he didn't even see the kitten monster move. There was simply a flash of light, a small physical impact, and a loud boom as the kitten monster was [Reflect]ed and accelerated into the wall at the far end of the small cavern room.

Meooowww!

The kitten monster roared cutely before launching itself back at James. He barely registered the impact of the second strike before there was another flash of light and another impact.

Then another.

And another.

And another.

All in the span of less than a breath.

It was like someone was drumming on his shield as fast as they could.

Dust filled the air on the far side of the cavern where the kitten monster was continually getting blown into the wall.

Several seconds later, as best as James could tell, having not actually done anything other than belatedly anchor his shield in the ground with the spikes at its bottom, the kitten yowled again and stumbled towards him, no longer lunging, but swaying side to side like a punch-drunk boxer. It leapt forward and to the side, around his shield, and clumsily swiped at his greaves with glowing claws.

James was ready.

[Technique: Hammer Strike]

[Heavy Blow]

BOOM.

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