Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!
Bringing the forging hammer he held down onto the Azure Iron Essence above his vambraces, Valyr put all of his focus into spreading out the metal over the vambraces' surface, making sure that every nook and cranny was covered with the rare material. As he did this, he recalled the guide he followed in forging the Half Wyvern Armor set back then, setting his sights onto the steps that listed down how he could upgrade the separate pieces to the next tier.
'First, spread the Azure Iron Essence evenly over the front surface,' muttered Valyr to himself as he placed the vambrace and the rare metal into the furnace from time to time, increasing the heat within the furnace to make sure they would fuse properly. 'After that, lay the Half Wyvern Scales in a pattern that spreads out from the center of the armor piece, augmenting the defensive properties of the armor in certain areas.'
'Then, once all that is done, heat up the armor a bit before dropping a vial of Young Wyvern Blood on it, allowing the blood to seep into the armor, which would allow the latter to gain the blood's properties.'
"Yeah. That doesn't seem too hard." Taking in a deep breath to compose himself as he affixed his gaze onto the furnace, Valyr then went over the upgrading process for the other pieces of armor, eventually finding the part of arranging the Half Wyvern Scales on the armor's surface tedious. Fortunately, with the eagerness he showed in upgrading his armor, the focus he placed in the process, and the overall calm he exuded as he took the vambrace out from the furnace and back on the anvil, the system decided to help him out a bit.
Ding!
[You have entered the Flow state.]
Although the notification sound resounded in his mind, Valyr did not put any attention on it, instead focusing it all back on making sure that the vambrace and the Azure Iron Essence melded together. Though, if one looked closely as he worked on the vambrace, a faint smirk could be seen on the edge of his lips.
Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!
With purpose and intent behind each of his blows, the Azure Iron Essence on top of the vambraces gradually flattened out to cover the entire surface, taking on the slight details Valyr had placed on the vambraces' surface in the process. Eventually, after a couple more passes through the furnace and the forging hammer, the Azure Iron Essence had finally covered every inch of the vambraces' surface, causing Valyr to nod in satisfaction as he chucked the vambraces back into the furnace, prepping them for the next step.
Staring at the furnace in silence for a bit, Valyr eventually shifted his gaze onto the advanced forging machinery that was in the workshop, realizing that he had not used any of them yet. A faint bitter smile briefly appearing on his face, he thought about what he was doing at the moment did not warrant the usage of the advanced machinery in any way, finding them more fitting for when he would forge weapons instead.
Aside from that, he thought about how he had gotten used to forging with simple tools, finding the entire forging process more enjoyable since his control over the hammer dictated the quality of the resulting outcome.
Surprisingly, by the time he shifted his attention back to the furnace, all of the tangential thoughts in his mind faded away, instead being replaced with thoughts related to the upgrading process as he took out the vambraces out of the furnace once more before placing it on top of the anvil, giving the vambraces a bit of time to cool down as he grabbed the Half Wyvern Scales he had picked out for this step of the process.
Grabbing something from the rack of tools in the workshop that looked like an enlarged pair of tweezers, Valyr eventually returned in front of the vambraces with the item and the Half Wyvern Scales in tow, glancing at the vambraces for a bit to plan out where he would place the limited number of scales he had.
Once he had an idea of his placement, he then held one of the scales with the enlarged tweezers before gently placing the first scale on the vambraces' surface, nudging it in a few areas to make sure that it was roughly in the center before setting it in place with a light tap of the forging hammer.
As he prepared the second scale he would put on the vambrace, Valyr inwardly let out a sigh of relief as the fear of messing up the placement of the first scale gradually disappeared. After that, he returned his focus once more on what he had to do, continuing to place the scales on the vambraces' surface that blended well with where the first scale was placed.
Gradually, Valyr found a rhythm and pattern to work with while he was placing the scales, only noticing by the time he was halfway through the scales he had allocated for the vambraces that he had inadvertently formed a lattice pattern of scales on vambraces' surface. Faintly smiling at the realization, Valyr continued to place more scales on the vambraces, eventually dropping the enlarged tweezers in slight exhaustion and relief as he took a look at what he had done.
The dull gray vambraces from before had now been replaced with one that shone a deep azure whenever light touched it, serving as a backdrop to the dark gray scales that were neatly spread throughout the vambrace. If one looked at the vambrace for long enough, one would think that the armor was mimicking how the skin of a wyvern looked to a certain extent, only for them to notice that deep inside the vambraces was the power of the exact creature they were thinking of.
Chucking the modified vambraces into the furnace one last time, Valyr went ahead and infused a bit of mana into the furnace, setting the temperature within the furnace to a set level mentioned in the guide he was following, a temperature that would allow the Young Wyvern Blood to settle in properly within the armor.
Attentively watching the modified vambraces reach the optimal temperature within the furnace for the final step of the upgrade process, a thought gradually surfaced within Valyr's mind, prompting him to think about the two blacksmith skills he had gained from the ascension, specifically the one that did not involve the creation of two new limbs.
"[True Prodigious Blacksmith's Sight]." Activating his new sight-related skill, Valyr shifted his gaze towards the vambraces within the furnace, wondering if he would see anything different, thinking of another skill he had used often back when he was a player as reference.
[Blacksmith's Sight] had a description that was more or less similar to the description [True Prodigious Blacksmith's Sight], mentioning about how the skill allowed one to find the areas within the item being forged that were in disarray, giving one the ability to resolve them as long as they knew how to do so.
Whenever that skill was activated, he would see thin lines of bright white sprawled all over the surface of the item, something he quickly realized was something [Gambler's Discerning Eyes] already gave him access to, only without making the lines obvious by highlighting the imperfections.
With that, he grew more curious as to what kind of scene the skill would show him, only to be left at a loss for words as he took a few steps closer to the furnace, focusing all of his attention onto the item being heated up within it.
Gone were the lines of imperfection [Blacksmith's Sight] had made obvious to him back then. Instead, [True Prodigious Blacksmith's Sight] showed the vambraces covered in one unified color, with multiple areas having a color that stood out from the majority. With the sight before him, Valyr finally understood what the skill meant by its description, focusing his attention on one of the areas that was of a different color from everything else.
The scales.
Deciding to experiment a bit more, Valyr activated the hyperfocus ability [Gambler's Discerning Eyes] granted him in conjunction with [True Prodigious Blacksmith's Sight]. Surprisingly, the combination had worked, allowing him to see the areas of mismatch on the item in greater detail, prompting him to focus his attention once more on the scales.
Though a great portion of the scales were still of a different color to the color that took over the majority of the vambraces, with the aid of the hyperfocus ability, Valyr was able to find out that the discoloration was gradually shrinking the longer the vambraces were in the furnace, prompting him to focus his attention onto other areas that were of a different color than the rest.
Fortunately, those other areas were also being resolved the same way the discoloration on the scales were, gradually disappearing the longer the vambraces stayed in the furnace. With that, he stabilized the temperature within the furnace with a bit of his mana, giving the discoloration time to go away before removing the modified vambraces out of the furnace to proceed with the final step of the upgrade.
Pulling out the stopper from the vial of Young Wyvern Blood he held, Valyr then allowed the blood to slowly trickle down onto the surface of the vambrace, which didn't sizzle off into blood vapor, surprisingly. Instead, it spread through the grooves between the Half Wyvern Scales he had placed out, gradually melding with the Azure Iron Essence underneath as it slowly took on a crimson tone.
Eventually, by the time all of the Young Wyvern Blood within the vial had been dispersed throughout the vambraces…
Ding!
[You have successfully modified the armor 'Half Wyvern Vambraces'.]
[Due to the immense modification done, the armor has gained the ability to tap into a far greater expanse of power it initially couldn't, thus increasing the armor's rarity to Rare+.]
[Thanks to this change, its name has been changed to 'Refined Young Wyvern Vambraces'.]
