Sweaty, exhausted, famished, thirsty, but satisfied, James took up his cup of the remaining Aqua Magia and tossed it. Yes, it cost him some mana to create, but at the moment having a cup to drink from took priority. Yet, as he moved to splash the Aqua Magia on the ground, it vanished from the cup, as though responding to his intent to discard it. James was too worn out to care overly much. Magic continued to be this strange force in his life that sometimes did what he wanted but was generally inexplicable and arbitrary.

James drank his fill of water, and then used his cup to feast on porridge. He wanted to celebrate with some dried meat, but worried about his stores, he forced himself to eat more roasted mole monster meat. Once finished, he barely managed to top up the wards before passing out.

What followed were days of peace and experimentation. Suspecting that the two mole monsters he had killed might have been all of them, James occupied himself with forging. Experimenting with his [Joinery] skill, he developed a two part rivet that worked well. He also experimented with various types of latches, and after two days of this, he had figured out a design for armor that was more securely fastened, easier to put on, lighter, and still offered the same or better range of motion. He also designed full boots with cleats to better anchor himself on the ground.

He also tried to develop chainmail, but he didn't know the technique for producing metal wire. He had heard of it before, something called "wire drawing", but he had never heard how it worked or seen it done. Attempts to produce wire with hammer and anvil produced, at best, short overly thick misshapen rods before one hit too many broke them to pieces. For now, James had to settle for plate armor, but now cushioned by somewhat stiff monster leather reeking of coal smoke.

During the smelting process for the green iron ore he had harvested, the Smith kept a close eye out for essence contamination and pushed his [Smelting] skill to the utmost to produce the best green iron he could. And now, outfitted with proper tools he had had the time to make (including new iron tongs with a proper rivet, giving him much more control over his forging), he produced his second set of armor.

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Bucket Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Cuirass, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Armored Skirt, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 8/8

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Codpiece, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/10

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Greaves, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/10

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Cuisses, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/10

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Left Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15

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[Appraisal]: Green Iron Right Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 9/9

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Bracers, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/10

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Cleat Boots, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 12/12

James' efforts to produce gauntlets failed entirely. He had managed to create a system where plates of green iron would slide against each other around rivets, enabling him to join several of the pieces together, like the cuirass to the pauldrons, cuisses, and codpiece. But even with his improved toolset and time to focus, he just couldn't forge the delicate pieces needed for proper gauntlets. As such, his hands remained exposed. However, his new designs for the cuisses and greaves were now fully enclosed, thanks to a hinge and latch system.

Perhaps most importantly, however, was that the Smith ensured that even if he fell over, he had enough range of motion to remove pieces of his armor as needed. His [First Armor], joined only with primitive hooks and loops, had lacked this problem, but now using latches it was possible to design armor that could only be removed from a standing position, or with assistance. Assistance James expected to lack for the foreseeable future.

Still, James was quite pleased with his [Green Prototype Armor]. It was less than half the weight of his [First Armor] and offered even more coverage, thanks to the use of lighter Green Iron and by selectively thinning pieces in places where protection was less important than flexibility. The entire armor set used less than half of his total stores of Green Iron, so he felt comfortable using much of the rest on a new, slightly smaller, Tower Shield.

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Tower Shield, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 14/14

Significantly smaller, thinner, and made of lighter Green Iron, the tower shield otherwise kept the same overall design, now as tall as James' shoulders when standing, and about three inches shy of three feet wide. It also retained the spikes for digging into the earth to resist a charge. The durability was reduced, but having seen how little damage his previous tower shield had taken, he was willing to trade some durability for the ability to pick up the shield and walk with it. Finally, he affixed some scraps of monster leather to the inside of the shield in places he though impact likely, mainly around the upper half where he imagined the shield might strike his helmet, arm, and pauldron. Even almost a week later, by his estimate, his arm and shoulder were still bruised and tender.

The problem came at this point. The Smith had wisely supposed that, given that the mole monster blood had contained Earth essence, that the monsters were themselves Earth aligned. Although he hadn't seen any flashy magic, he had witnessed how effective the monster's claws had been at cutting through stone and earth. And the Smith had memorized the template for a Basic [Earth Resistance] enchantment. And he still had leftover Earth Crystal dust.

However, despite an entire day spent enchanting his tower shield, he failed.

Let me repeat: the Smith failed to enchant his Green Iron Tower Shield with a basic earth enchantment. He did not think better of the idea. Remember, dear readers, that the Smith had never been educated at all in enchanting, and so he was unaware of the exponential increase in difficulty and general futility of enchanting elemental materials with enchantments of an opposing or resisted element.

In this way, the Smith squandered his remaining supply of Earth Crystal. But, as many know, he had plenty of Light Crystal available from the abundance of glowshrooms. After repairing the Tower Shield from the failed enchantment etching, the Smith chose to attempt a Reflect enchantment, rather than a Glow enchantment. Why? For no reason other than that he felt a glowing tower shield would be redundant in the cavern already lit by glowing mushrooms. Again, this was not a sign of great wisdom on the part of the Smith.

But it was still a decision that would save his life in short order.

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