Chapter Sixty-Six: Enchantment, the Secret Art of Leather Armor

Watching the girl clinging tightly to him, she seemed to relax considerably, and soon fell asleep from both emotional exhaustion and physical fatigue. Yet the perfect, enchanting little face would occasionally furrow its delicate brows, evoking a deep sense of pity in the observer.

Looking at this goddess sent straight from heaven, Liang Jing was overjoyed. She was his, his woman—someone he could never have dreamed of possessing before the apocalypse. How could his heart not be stirred with excitement and happiness? Still, Liang Jing quickly reminded himself not to indulge too deeply in these feelings. Everything he now possessed was only because of his own strength; no matter the time or circumstance, only power could secure more. Now that he had obtained the key to unlock the door to greater strength, he could not afford to slack off—he must make good use of it, and strive with all his might.

At this moment, Liang Jing’s mind was exceptionally clear. He knew he wanted to return home, but his strength had to reach a certain level first. What he had to face now were the forces led by Master Tu, whom he had provoked several times already. Sooner or later, he would have to confront them directly, and his current strength was still somewhat insufficient. He needed to keep improving. In short, everything was a matter of strength—everything must be measured by power.

With that in mind, Liang Jing took out the item dropped by the Defense Enhancer, Brother Huang. With it, Liang Jing was certain he could rapidly boost his power.

[Leather Enchantment Secret Technique]

Description: A life skill, leatherworking, accompanied by a special technique—enchantment. It allows the user to craft equipment from the hides of monsters, and using the enchantment technique within may yield unexpected surprises.

Looking at this blue skill book, Liang Jing was thrilled. With this book, he could use monster hides to craft various styles of armor. Just the toughness of these mutated monster hides alone would make the resulting armor highly defensive. Liang Jing had always kept the hides of the Steel-Spined Beast (elite monster) and the Pink-Named Rare Monster (Steel-Barbarian Rat). Their hides were so tough that even rifles struggled to penetrate them.

Reluctantly, he left the warmth and softness behind, gently prying the pink arms from around him and covering her properly with the quilt. He couldn’t resist giving her rosy lips a tender kiss before turning to leave—he still had important things to do.

Clapping his hands together, the blue skill book [Leather Enchantment Secret Technique] transformed into a stream of light, entering Liang Jing’s head and embedding itself deep within his consciousness as a rune.

[Leather Enchantment Secret Technique]: Integrates an enchantment secret into the life skill leatherworking. The success rate is low; the crafted equipment has a 1% chance of being a higher-tier item. Beginner level: 0%.

Instantly, Liang Jing’s mind was flooded with information. Even with his current mental power, more than twenty times that of an ordinary person, he felt a slight ache in his brain. His mind was filled with countless equipment designs, rules, dimensions, and methods for processing and making gear from various materials, hides, leather, and skins.

“To use [Leather Enchantment Secret Technique], you need three basic materials: monster hide, beast tendons, and crystal cores.”

“As long as you have these three materials, you can activate the skill [Leather Enchantment Secret Technique] and directly craft equipment.”

Liang Jing kept organizing and summarizing the information. The skill provided an enormous amount of data—even a single material could yield countless clothing designs, just like giving a designer a piece of fabric and having them make many styles according to demand. There were divisions for helmets, armor, leg guards, gloves, shoes, and so on. More importantly, there were specific pairing and cautions; ideally, beast tendons, hides, and crystal cores from the same monster should be used together for the best and most reliable results. Other combinations were also possible, and might even produce equipment with stronger or more unique attributes, though these were not fully explained and needed personal experimentation. For instance, combining fire-attribute hides with water-attribute crystal cores was difficult and had a low success rate; the resulting equipment was likely to have poor attributes, though there was a slim chance of creating a rare masterpiece. It was like cooking, where the mix of seasonings and ingredients could produce a delicious dish or a dreadful concoction.

“[Leather Enchantment Secret Technique] is at the beginner level. Using the skill has a certain success rate, but it’s not high, in fact, very low. At the beginner stage, you can generally only craft white-tier ordinary equipment, with a 1% chance of making a higher-tier item. That means, at this stage, there’s a very low chance to craft blue-attribute gear, but you need luck.”

“At the intermediate level, you can craft blue-attribute gear, but the odds are still not high. At the advanced level, you can craft green-tier exceptional gear, again with low odds. If you make a hundred pieces of green-tier gear, you might get a gold-tier legacy item—something as powerful as [Baroque’s Sorrow], with various attributes and a special skill…”

“However, if you use high-grade materials, the chance of crafting higher-tier equipment at lower skill levels increases considerably. Conversely, low skill levels waste high-grade materials, as the success rate is even lower than with ordinary materials.”

The more Liang Jing absorbed this information, the more excited he became. He could finally rid himself of the trash white-tier Warrior Leather Armor set. Along the way, he had only managed to obtain this set once back in Clear Water Bay, and never again. This showed how difficult it was. Moreover, the Warrior Leather Armor set was designed for beginners, just like starter gear in games—it dropped frequently, but its defense only protected against ordinary pistol bullets and lacked attribute bonuses. Even decent white-tier gear usually had one or two points of attribute enhancement.

Now, with this skill, he no longer had to wait for monsters to drop equipment. Although this secret technique was a bit unorthodox and its success rate was lower than standard methods, it gave him a reliable way to craft gear and no longer rely solely on luck. The feasibility was far higher.

Seeing this, Liang Jing’s eyes shone with hope.

If he could just make a piece of equipment that increased his strength by one point, and wear it, he could wield the golden giant sword [Baroque’s Sorrow]. His power would nearly double, making him unmatched in melee combat among humans.

[Baroque’s Sorrow]
Quality: Gold
Attributes: Sharpness 33, Toughness 64, Weight 90kg, Strength +10, Agility +10, Constitution +15, Lifesteal 10%, Critical Chance +10%
Skill: Thunder Rift Slash, Summon Baroque
Equipment requirement: Strength 15

Description: The recently-evolved golden boss Baroque, filled with sorrow for everything about himself, transformed that sadness into strength.

Thunder Rift Slash: Gather power into the weapon, leap suddenly, and unleash the force onto the ground with gravity’s acceleration, injuring surrounding enemies and reducing their movement speed by 50%. Cooldown: 2 minutes.

Summon Baroque: Summon Baroque’s battle soul to assist in combat, lasts 60 seconds, cooldown: 24 hours.

Description: Golden boss Baroque’s sorrow; he did not perish in battle, but was killed by treachery. This is the desire for life, the hatred of enemies, and the ceaseless spirit of battle.

Just imagine—if Liang Jing’s strength, agility, and constitution were each increased by ten or fifteen points, his power would grow immensely. If he could resist attacks, he might even dare to face that serpent-like monster head-on, provided he could survive its blows. After all, monsters were overwhelmingly powerful; a hit from him might barely scratch it, but a hit from the monster could easily end his life.

Currently, Liang Jing possessed crystal cores from Baroque (golden boss), Steel-Spined Beast (green elite), Red-Haired Sting Fly (blue boss), and Steel-Barbarian Rat (pink-named rare). Among them, he could use the hides from Steel-Spined Beast and Steel-Barbarian Rat; there was also the mutated bull, but Liang Jing was less inclined to use those materials now. For beast tendons, he had Steel-Spined Beast, Steel-Barbarian Rat, and mutated bull—these were all his available materials, each from high-grade ordinary monsters at the very least.

Liang Jing believed that once he crafted equipment, the added attributes would be substantial, certainly not as poor as the Warrior Leather Armor set with no attribute bonuses—a set he considered only fit for his lowest-ranked subordinates, or to sell for a high price.

More importantly, his awakened talent, ‘Replication,’ allowed him to duplicate these crystal cores, hides, and beast tendons. He was confident he could craft gear that would significantly boost his power.

Who knew what kind of equipment could be made from the golden monster Baroque’s crystal core?

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