For the next few days, Valyr had spent most of his time in the private workshop Julian gave him, putting all of his attention towards upgrading the other pieces making up his armor set. Learning from the mistakes he made while making Braum's Aegis Armor, he made sure to allow his body to get proper rest, extending the amount of time needed to finish the entire set.
Nevertheless, with the increased productivity and focus proper rest brought, alongside the fact that [Flow] had never deactivated ever since it activated while he upgraded his chestplate, the quality he was able to achieve for the five other pieces of armor was top-notch.
In fact, if Valyr were to think about the time he had taken to upgrade the pieces of armor individually, he felt that the amount of time he took considerably grew less with every subsequent piece. Then again, such a thing was to be expected, considering that his experience with the chestplate was his first time.
With [Flow] gradually dissipating on its own as he was finished with the final piece, Valyr allowed himself to take a small break, munching on the food he had an attendant bring to him while he was busy. While doing so, he also went ahead and grabbed a health potion from his spatial bracelet, downing all of its contents in one gulp.
"That was a close one." Inwardly letting out a long sigh of relief, the young man wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead, recalling what had transpired while he was upgrading the helmet to the next rarity.
With it being the last piece of armor he had to upgrade, Valyr was more or less confident that he would go through all of the steps smoothly. For the most part, that statement was true, having gone through most of the process that upgraded the helmet without any mishaps.
However, on the final step, which involved letting himself bleed to turn it into Lifebound equipment, the young man had done something he had already reminded himself many times not to do.
Cut the artery on his wrist.
Though the amount of pain he felt from it was negligible at most, the amount of blood that poured out of the wound he made was surprisingly greater than the amount of blood he spilled back on the chestplate. Of course, it did not take long for him to realize he fucked up, prompting him to apply a bit of pressure as he controlled the amount of blood the helmet got.
"At least, I don't have to do that… for the meantime." Bitterly smiling as he thought about the remaining steps the armor would have to go through in the future, Valyr went ahead and grabbed the helmet he had just upgraded and put it on.
While doing so, he was reminded of the mishap once more, thinking that [Enhanced Vitality] and Vigor was a great reason as to why he hadn't fainted yet.
Whoosh!
As his mind continued to bring up thoughts regarding the upgrade process, a great surge of strength flowed throughout his body at the very moment he had put on the helmet, only to be followed up by a far greater surge of strength soon after.
'Must be the armor set's effect kicking in.' With this thought in mind, the young man took in a few deep breaths as he began to do a few basic movements, nodding after finding out that the upgrade hadn't hampered his movements whatsoever.
Moving outside the workshop, he then brandished the spear behind his back and did a few basic combat movements. Unsurprisingly, he nodded in satisfaction once more, feeling that the force behind his spear was far greater than ever before.
"System, show me my status." Now that he had finished upgrading his armor to the next rarity, the young man went ahead and did what he initially planned to do, affixing his spear behind his back for the meantime.
Ding!
Hearing the notification sound resound in his mind, Valyr focused all of his attention on the screen that appeared before him, greatly curious as to how much of an increase his strength had undergone.
"What the…" Unexpectedly for him, his strength had grown far greater than he had expected.
[Valyr Zeihardt]
Class: True Prodigious Blacksmith (Rank 2 — Mythic)
Subclass: Shadow Serpentine Manalancer (Rare)
Species: Human (2nd Unsealing)
Level: 40
Power Level: 17,590 (A+)
Unused XP: 227,949,326
HP: 19,158/19,158
MP: 20,485/20,485
Shadow Energy: 89/89
Mystic Energy: 1/1
Attack: 5,493 - 5,889
Defense: 5,157 - 8,595
Stats: 723 VIT, 543 STR, 604 AGI, 996 DEX, 824 INT, 288 WIS, 408 PER, 186 LUK
Hidden Stats: 5 Mana Purity, 5 Vigor
Remarks: Hello???? Is this still balanced????
"Have I… have I really grown that much?" By the time the young man had more or less come to terms with the information he was seeing, Valyr began to doubt whether it was real or not. After all, compared to the last time he looked at his status screen, the difference was incredibly stark.
Fortunately, after thinking about it for a bit more, the young man gradually calmed down, eventually coming to the conclusion that such an increase made a lot of sense.
After all, not only had he increased his level to the peak of Rank 2, he had also upgraded his subclass and his armor set to the next rarity.
But most importantly, he had consumed the items Mystia gave him, which brought a massive boost to his stats.
"These stats are already comparable to those at the peak of Rank 4 with Rare or Epic grade classes," said the young man, continuing to look at the screen for a bit longer. "In fact, I could even probably give weaker Rank 5 beings a run for their money with my current strength."
"Of course, I'd still lose if they make use of their Intents," added the young man soon after, chuckling as he decided to head back into the workshop for the meantime.
"In any case, this strength has got to be more than enough to assure my safety inside the inheritance, no?" While he was pondering whether or not there were other things he still had to do before the inheritance began, the young man's train of thought was unexpectedly interrupted by Julian, who could only look at him with a surprised expression.
