Zeke was still fuming as he stalked through the city, a mindset that must have been imminently readable in his expression because the other pedestrians were quick to get out of his way. Of course, that might have been aided by the pony-sized dire bear at his heels. More than one gasp of surprise or tremble of fear followed in his wake. Zeke ignored all of it. Pudge was harmless – at least until he wasn’t.

His conversation with Abby had served to both stoke the fire of anger within him as well as briefly mollify him. On the one hand, the anger and frustration came from the confirmation of his suspicions. It was one thing for him to conclude that Einar had sent him to die, but it was something altogether different for Abby to agree. He considered her the smart one, after all. And she knew how Beacon’s society worked. So, if she agreed that Einar had sent him into the sewers to die, then Zeke was more than willing to let her confirm his own conclusions.

But on the other hand, her mere presence – coupled with the fact that she had barely even hesitated to set herself on a path that would soon see her abandoning her guild – was gratifying, if only because it was further confirmation that she had no intention of leaving him. He was willing to walk through the world alone, and he was more than able to survive. But that didn’t mean he didn’t fear the solitude. For two years, he’d climbed through those troll caverns without another soul for company, and it had taken its toll on his psyche. He still hadn’t fully recovered. And he had no desire to revisit that state of mind.

More than that, though, Abby was his friend. Even before his death and subsequent reincarnation into this new world, Zeke hadn’t been inundated with genuine friendships. He had a lot of acquaintances that masqueraded as more than they really were, but they were mostly circumstantial in nature. Teammates. Classmates. Neighbors. They’d hung out with him because they had been forced together by a shared goal or mere proximity. And the moment either of those things disappeared – like when his injury had prevented him from continuing along in his baseball career – his so-called friends had all but abandoned him.

With Abby, it would be different. Zeke wasn’t so naïve that he didn’t see a foundation of self-interest in Abby’s act of befriending him. He knew how valuable their partnership was for her. And it was valuable to him, too, if for different reasons. He could fight and level and eventually climb his way into the next world, and he could do it alone if necessary – or rather, with only Pudge as a companion. He was more than strong enough. However, he suspected that, with Abby, his ceiling was much higher than it would be if he were to go it alone. Even so, the companionship was more important to him than anything else.

And his crush might have had something to do with it as well.

Zeke had tried to suppress it, but on more nights than he cared to admit, he had found himself lying awake and fantasizing about taking their friendship to the next level. And why not? She was capable, beautiful, and they functioned on the same wavelength. They had similar goals, and they understood one another on a very fundamental level. He didn’t even mind her teasing jokes at his expense.

But there were roadblocks in his way. Not only was Abby twice his age, regardless of her appearance, but there was also the delicate balance that was their partnership. If he went for it, and his attention was unwanted, there was every possibility that it would ruin everything. He didn’t want to be that guy. So, he suppressed his feelings and focused on what they did have, as opposed to what he wished they could develop. Whatever the case, he refused to jeopardize their partnership and friendship for something as fleeting as a crush.

Eventually, he made his way to the second tier of the city and to Luigi’s smithy. It was much the same as it was when he’d commissioned his armor, which is to say that the building’s façade was ragged, ratty, and far less impressive than that of his neighbors. Not that something so inconsequential mattered. Luigi had Abby’s recommendation, and even if he didn’t, Zeke had looked around the rest of the smithies in Beacon. None of the other smiths had Luigi’s high level, and most looked as if they were far more concerned with appearances than the quality of their work.

The moment Zeke stepped through the door, he began to sweat. Even with a wall between the front counter and the actual forge, it wasn’t enough to contain the burning heat or the cacophony of hammers against malleable steel and other materials. He called out, and a few moments later, Kayla, Luigi’s daughter and apprentice, pushed through the swinging door in the center of the wall. Behind her, Zeke saw Luigi himself hammering a red hot piece of metal atop an anvil. The smith didn’t even look up.

“Back for the armor, huh?” she said, wiping some soot from her plump cheek. It was a futile effort. Not only was the black mark stuck in place, but her hands were also covered in the stuff, so she only served to smear a bit more onto her skin. She didn’t seem to notice. Instead, she grinned as she continued, “Dad won’t ever say this, but he would’ve probably done just about anything to work with that drachnid carapace. He might’ve even worked for free just for the experience.”

“Oh,” Zeke said. “Um…”

“Nope – deal’s already done!” she said. “No take-backs!”

“Sure,” he responded. “Can I see it?”

“Oh, right – duh!” Kayla said, shaking her head. “Of course you want to see it. As much as you paid…”

With that, she disappeared back into the smithy and was gone for a couple of minutes. When she returned, she was carrying a bundle of rust-red armor. Carefully, she set it on the long counter, one piece beside the other in a line. In all, there were seven pieces – helm, breastplate, pauldrons, gauntlets, a pair of bracers, and tassets. Each piece was constructed of the same material, which matched his greaves perfectly.

Zeke reached out for the largest piece, the breastplate. It was all a single piece of chitin, molded into the rough shape of a torso, with no decorative details. That suited Zeke just fine – armor was for protection, not fashion. He inspected it:

Drachnid Breastplate – Chest armor fashioned from the carapace of a drachnid queen by a talented armorsmith. Special Functions – Self-Repair (minor), Self-Cleaning (minor), Well-Fitted (minor), Arcane Resistance +2. Drachnid Set Bonus (Arcane Resistance +3)

“This is…this is amazing,” he said, looking up to see that Luigi had finally made his way out of the smithy. “How durable is it?”

Luigi harumphed. “Better than steel in every way. Stronger, lighter, more flexible,” he said. “A bitch to work with, too. I can guarantee you won’t find a better set of armor unless you complete some ridiculous quest.” Then, as if he’d just noticed the bulky form of Pudge in the corner of the shop, where the bear was busy sniffing a polearm, he added, “That bear better not make a mess in here.”

Pudge obviously understood him, because he sent the thought, I’ll make a mess of him.

Ignoring Pudge’s intrusive thought, Zeke focused on the armor, and he agreed with the smith’s assessment. It was already on the same tier as his greaves, as far as he could tell. Items didn’t have a level; instead, they gave off a subtle sense of their power. And Zeke could tell that the drachnid set of armor was comparable to the quest reward he’d gotten from killing the queen. His mace was at least a tier higher, but he suspected it was fairly unique.

“What about the arcane resistance?” he asked, turning the breastplate over to see that it had a segmented backplate that would allow for almost full range of motion. The piece was much lighter than he’d expected, too. That, coupled with his incredible strength, would mean that the weight wouldn’t be more noticeable than a normal shirt for him.

“Drachnids are naturally resistant to most magic,” the smith stated. “I had a choice between a few different resistances, so I chose arcane.”

“Why?”

The man shrugged, answering, “Arcane is more common, especially from humans. Most skills utilize multiple schools. Like a lightning bolt, for instance. It uses mostly nature energy, but it also uses a portion of fire and wind. Almost all magical skills use a bit of arcane energy, if only to give the skill shape. So, armor with arcane resistance casts a much wider net than anything else. It won’t stop a lightning bolt, but it’ll damn sure take some of the bite out of it.”

That made sense to Zeke, so he let the discussion drop as he inspected the other pieces. The tassets that would protect his hips and thighs were attached to a carapace-plated leather belt, from which descended the segmented armor that would extend almost to his knees, where the greaves would take over. The pauldrons covered his shoulders, falling down to mid-bicep, while the bracers would protect his forearms. Then there was the full helmet, which had an additional effect. Zeke studied the description:

Drachnid Helm (G) – An armored helmet fashioned from the carapace of a drachnid queen by a talented armorsmith. Special Functions – Self-Repair (minor), Self-Cleaning (minor), Well-Fitted (minor), Arcane Resistance +2. Drachnid Set Bonus (Arcane Resistance +3), Eyes of the Arachnid – Enables a full field of view as well as improved night vision.

“Eyes of the arachnid?” Zeke muttered to himself.

“Basically makes the helm transparent for you,” Luigi stated. “No loss of peripheral vision. It came with the side effect of improving night vision. I didn’t intend for that; it was just a byproduct of the enchantment and the materials used.”

“T-this…this is a lot better than I expected,” Zeke said, looking up. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Well, you can start by paying the rest of the gold you owe,” Luigi said, laughing. “Ah – I almost forgot. Hold on for one second.”

Zeke reached into his satchel and retrieved the coins from his spatial storage. Once he paid, he’d be a little low on funds – at least until he liquidated the cores he’d looted in the sewers. He plunked a heavy sack onto the counter. Kayla’s eyes widened, but Zeke wasn’t sure if it was because of the volume of coins or if he’d somehow flubbed his act. He didn’t precisely distrust Kayla or her father, but he suspected it would be best if he kept his spatial storage a secret for now.

A few moments later, Luigi returned with a large slab of drachnid carapace. It took Zeke a second to realize that it was a shield. The smith set it on the counter, letting Zeke look it over. Like the armor, it was made of the drachnid carapace, but instead of the rust-red, it was black, with a slivery metal along the edges. In the center was an embossed rune that would govern whatever enchantment the armorsmith had woven into the shield. Zeke vaguely recognized the rune, but without further study, he couldn’t quite figure out what it did.

“I went with a kite shield,” Luigi said. “More maneuverable than a tower shield, but more protection than a buckler.”

Zeke held up the shield. It was big – probably three feet from top to bottom and around two feet across – with its long, graceful curves coming to a point at the bottom and leading to sharp angles at the top. The backside held a pair of leather straps, though they bore a series of glyphs as well. He inspected the shield:

Bulwark of the Drachnid Champion (G) – A kite shield crafted from the carapace of a drachnid champion by a talented armorsmith. Special Functions – Self-Repair (minor), Arcane Resistance +2, Reflection – When in battle, user enters a state of enhanced clarity, minutely improving reactions and speed of thought.

“It’s amazing, huh?” Kayla said, grinning broadly. “Dad puts a similar enchantment on our smithing hammers. But it doesn’t help with fighting. Instead, it lets us feel the metal better while working. Doing something like this was kind of an experiment for him, and he went through most of the rest of the champion’s carapace before –”

“Enough, Kayla!” the smith said, cutting her off. “He doesn’t want to know all our secrets, yeah? Go get the rest of it, will you?”

“Rest of it?” Zeke asked, but Kayla had already disappeared into the smithy. “There’s more?”

“Just a little extra,” Luigi said. “You’ll see.”

A few seconds later, Kayla reappeared with a black bundle of cloth. She set it on the counter, saying, “Ta-da!”

Zeke picked a piece of the cloth up, seeing that it was a padded shirt. It looked a bit like the athletic wear he’d seen football and basketball players wear beneath their uniforms, which was to say that it was form-fitting, with pads in all the appropriate places.

“What is this for?” he asked, noting that the padding wasn’t enough to stop any real damage.

“Wear it under the armor,” Luigi said. “It’ll help absorb some of the kinetic energy. Plus, it helps with the chafing.”

Zeke inspected the rest of the bundle and saw that it included a pair of pants as well. Looking at the treasures, Zeke couldn’t help but feel a little overwhelmed. “This is way more than I expected, Luigi,” he said. “Thank you.”

“Bah! You’re a good kid,” the man said. “And I’ve got a feeling you’ll put the armor to good use. You already gained a level since the last time I saw you, and I can feel that you’ve evolved your race as well. You’ll be an elite before you know it.”

“Still…”

“No more talk!” Luigi said. “Let us show you how to put all this on so you don’t make a fool of yourself.”

After that, Luigi and Kayla led Zeke into a side room where he was told to strip down and put on the padded clothing. Thankfully, the two gave him a bit of privacy after that, at least for long enough for him to settle into the black clothes. They weren’t as tight as he expected, but they were closer fitting than anything else he’d worn since being reborn into the new world. A quick inspection also told him that they’d been enchanted with both the self-repair and self-cleaning functions, just like the armor. For that, he was imminently thankful; the last thing he wanted to waste time on was washing clothes, and his ring only worked once a day. Between the two, he expected that he could maintain a moderate level of cleanliness.

Once he was decent, Kayla and Luigi descended upon him and showed him how to don the armor. Thankfully, the well-fitted enchantment helped quite a bit, and he only had to position the pieces in the right place and inject a bit of mana, and the straps would automatically buckle and tighten. Without that enchantment, simply putting on the armor would be at least a two-person job.

“The self-repair and self-clean enchantments are the same,” Kayla said. “Just give the armor some mana, and it’ll do what it needs to do.”

Finally, once he was armored, Zeke slipped on the full helm. It was a utilitarian design, with only a pair of eye holes and perforation around the mouth area marring the smooth, black carapace. The top came to a sweeping ridge that ran from his forehead to the back of his head. Inside, it was padded and far more comfortable than he’d expected. In fact, it was so unobtrusive that it would’ve been easy to forget he wore a helmet at all.

A moment later, he slipped his arm into the straps of the shield, and he felt it tighten into place. Then, he thoughtlessly summoned his mace and looked into the nearby mirror. Only Kayla’s gasp alerted him that he’d made a mistake.

“W-what? Where did…where did that club come from?” she breathed.

Zeke cursed himself and sighed. “It’s a mace,” he said. “And I can store and summon it at will.”

Luigi eyed Voromir, his mace, with greed. “May I?” he asked, holding his hand out.

The cat was at least partially out of the bag, so Zeke acquiesced, handing the smith his most prized possession. However, the moment Luigi grabbed it, the weapon plummeted to the floor, cracking the stone with its immense weight.

“Oh,” Zeke said. “Didn’t expect that to happen.”

Luigi strained against the thing, saying, “How the hell did you lift this, boy?”

“I have pretty high strength,” he stated. “It automatically adjusts its weight to my strength. So, it’s a lot heavier now than it was when I first got it. Also, it changes whether I use one hand or two.”

“I’ve never heard of an enchantment like that…”

Zeke shrugged. “I got it from a quest,” he said, unwilling to go into further detail. He didn’t want anyone to know all of his secrets, and besides – he certainly didn’t want to revisit the memories that came shortly after his acquisition of the mace. His nightmares of the troll larder were bad enough as it was.

Luigi stared at the mace for a moment before barking a harsh laugh. “And here I was thinking I’d given you a treasure the likes of which you’d never see again!” he exclaimed. “Who knew you already had something better? Should’ve charged you more, boy.”

“Uh…I could –”

Kayla interrupted Zeke with a hand on his armored shoulder. “He’s kidding,” she said. She glared at her father, adding, “Right dad?”

“Maybe,” the man conceded, knuckling his mustache as he studied the cracked floor of his shop. After a few seconds, he harumphed, then directed Zeke to move around in the armor to make certain that it didn’t hinder his movements. It didn’t. Like was the case with the helm, the rest of the armor set was barely even noticeable. However, wearing it did give him a sense of safety that his various sets of leather armor had never quite achieved. He’d fought the drachnid queen and champion, so he knew just how hard their carapaces were. And now he’d turned their strength into his own advantage.

Zeke glanced back into the mirror, thinking, And it looks nice and intimidating, too. Especially with Voromir.

Not impressed, came Pudge’s intrusive thought.

That, at least, prompted a laugh, which made Zeke realize that his anger had faded into the background. All it took was a few new toys, and he’d almost forgotten the inevitable confrontation on the horizon. With that dark thought, he said his goodbyes, stored his shield and mace, then left to see what Abby had discovered. Pudge followed along behind him.