The amount of experience required for fusing higher-leveled talents did not simply increase linearly.

An advanced talent or knowledge cost 50,000 more experience to fuse than a basic one. Moreover, fusing a basic talent with an advanced talent also caused the base cost of the basic talent itself to increase, rising from 5,000 to 10,000. If even higher leveled talents were to be used, the fusion costs would skyrocket further.

“Confirm!”

Han Xiao stared at the fusion window with bated breath.

_____________

Fusion success!

Congratulations, you have discovered [Magnetism Armor]!

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Han Xiao jumped up with joy.

This was the blueprint that he had been aiming to get, and it was actually something that a player at Han Xiao’s current level should not be able to possess. Indeed, it was a high-level piece of armor! This would help to guarantee his safety!

Of the $300,000 that Han Xiao had spent on upgrade materials, $250,000 alone went into the making this armor.

As it was an advanced blueprint, it was much more complex to craft than a basic one, so even Han Xiao, who possessed the required knowledge to craft it, needed to spend an entire hour just to fully understand the blueprint’s contents. After learning it, Han Xiao lifted his head to reveal a bitter smile; by his estimations, it would take at least three days of non-stop work to craft it.

He quickly got started.

…

Three days later, the doors to Han Xiao’s workroom opened. Out came a tired Han Xiao with listless eyes and dark bags under his eyes. He looked as though he were in a daze, as if he didn’t even know who, or even where, he was. In fact, looking at him, one might wonder if he had just woken up from a beating.

Han Xiao received a call as soon as he turned on his phone. It was Li Ya Lin, and she did not sound pleased at all.

“Han Xiao, why were you unreachable for the past few days? You have dozens of overdue orders! You’d better not take the cash and run away when I’m putting my own reputation on the line for your business! Also, don’t forget that you promised to make a set of specially tailored equipment! Oh, right, we’ve been given a mission! We have to leave for Hesla in ten days. Leader is furious that you didn’t show up for the meeting yesterday, so you’d better keep that in mind…”

Han Xiao could barely open his eyes. Ignoring her as she rambled on, he climbed into his bed and curled up under his blanket to fall asleep instantly.

“Hey, hey, hey— why are you not saying anything? Urgh, don’t think I’ve forgotten how you took advantage of me the other day…”

…

‘What’s the first thing you do when you get out of bed?

‘Open your eyes?’

When Han Xiao finally woke up, the first thing he did was to make his way to the toilet in his dreamlike stupor. After washing his hands, he stretched, yawned, and proceeded to brush his teeth.

Afterwards, with eyes still half-closed, Han Xiao went over to the kitchen in the main workshop where he pushed Lu Qian off her seat at the dining table with his butt and helped himself to the remainder of her breakfast, all the while ignoring her feeble protests.

When he was done, he simply cast her an unapologetic glance before strolling out as though nothing had happened.

“Ah, such carefreeness reminds me of when I was young,” reminisced Old Lu aloud as he stroked his head.

“Ahhhhh! I want to change the keys…”

“Perhaps this is love,” remarked Old Lu with a profound look on his face.

“It is not!” Lu Qian yelled out in exasperation.

…

Back in his workroom, Han Xiao opened up a small box. Inside were the fruits of his labor, what appeared to be numerous thin scales of metal. They looked black, but on closer observation, they were actually an extremely deep shade of blue. Although they resembled nothing like ‘armor’, these tiny pieces of metal were, without a doubt, the Magnetic Armor—well, unassembled, and still quite incomplete, to be exact.

Han Xiao took a deep breath before placing his hand an inch above the case. He then began to summon the energy of magnetism within his body toward his arm.

What happened next was quite a sight to behold.

The metal scales began vibrating in response to Han Xiao’s magnetism, and in the next second, they actually started flying toward his palm as though they were being sucked in! Upon coming into contact with Han Xiao’s skin, they seemed to come alive and began dancing up and around his arm energetically, as though they were live fish.

“Form,” commanded Han Xiao, and the metallic scales instantly spread along his arm to form a thin, scale-patterned sleeve of armor. It was perfectly smooth and uniform.

The armor appeared to be skin-tight, but as it was controlled by magnetism, there was actually a gap of a few millimeters, allowing its user complete freedom of movement.

Han Xiao drew his Platinum Retractable Knife out and viciously slashed upon the sleeve. It produced a crisp ring, but there were no sparks, and the armor was completely undamaged.

“Good defense!” exclaimed a jubilant Han Xiao.

_____________

Magnetism Armor (Incomplete)

Type: Armor (Bulletproof)

Grade: Uncommon (Green)

Base Stats:

– Defense: 75

– Durability: 1600/1600

Requirement(s): Magnetism-affinity Energy, Intermediate Machinery Affinity

Ability: Can be controlled by magnetism to move across the user’s body and transform into armor. Costs 10 energy/min to maintain shape.

Additional Effect: High Resistance – This armor is capable of withstanding high temperatures and is not easily penetrated or damaged.

Additional Effect: Magnetic Repulsion – Damage inflicted on the user is partially negated (reduces damage by 20-30 points).

Additional Effect: Unique Magnetic Field – When worn, envelopes the user in a magnetic field that attracts electricity.

Tooltip: A friendly reminder – don’t use this on a rainy day.

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In Galaxy, equipment that required energy to use was known as Superhuman Equipment.

The material used to make the metallic scales of the Magnetism Armor was an exceedingly rare, naturally-occurring metal. Not even Division 13 possessed much of it in their inventory, and $250,000 was only enough for Han Xiao to make a partial version that could at best cover his entire back.

Nevertheless, although the theory behind the Magnetic Armor was simple, crafting it was an entirely different matter. Even if Han Xiao did possess enough resources, he would still not be able to craft the complete version, not with his current level of expertise in both knowledge and skill.

In spite of that, crafting the incomplete version earned Han Xiao 40,000 experience, even more than when he had crafted Rover 1.

Han Xiao proceeded to test his control over the armor.

While such high-level Superhuman Equipment would usually take a low-level player quite some time to get used to, Han Xiao, with his years of experience, was able to quickly get the hang of it.

With this armor, Han Xiao now felt much safer than before.

It was both inconspicuous and highly portable, and Han Xiao thought of it as a trump card. He planned to keep the armor a secret from everyone, including his allies. After all, who could say for sure that today’s friend wouldn’t become tomorrow’s enemy?

Now that he had addressed the issues of mobility, defense, as well as both melee and ranged combat, all that was left for Han Xiao to do was to prepare some art.

As Han Xiao was already quite satisfied with the bombs provided by Division 13, he only planned to make some simple modifications, nothing too fancy.