Several hours passed and the night wore on. During that time, Sonja and Branwen trained and kept watch while Blackthorne spent time synergizing their loot. Multiple trips were made before they set up camp, and all in an effort to haul the materials to the pile of trash that rested nearby. At one time it was something of a minor mountain, but by now there was little left.

Most of the items that he combined were taken all the way to the base material level. The purest of each material item remained. He now possessed several large ingots of premium grade steel and iron, something beyond even the technology of Earth to produce through basic science and metallurgy.

There was a small pile of premium grade leather next to those metal ingots. Death essence crystal spheres, five in all, sat next to those piles. Those little spheres were worth more than the other items combined. In the end, it was a considerable haul.

“Now, what should I do with you?” Blackthorne looked at the pieces of Girtablilu’s carapace that he kept with him.

It was the strongest metal that he currently possessed. Now that his attributes and skill levels were a bit higher, combining organic monster parts was not only possible but far easier. He was certain that he could combine the material.

A thought struck him. Blackthorne investigated his precious metals sack and considered what he had there. He had a few small platinum ingots but had mostly left the rest of their nest egg as little oval shaped bits of metal.

Silver could be mixed with death essence crystals to make dark silver, a material far beyond even high-grade premium quality steel. Platinum, while considered mostly useless in this world outside of jewelry, was used to make alloys that allowed for lesser quality versions of magical materials.

He stroked his chin thoughtfully. The steel ingots would make wonderful items, but they were also worth a good bit of jerin. Were he to sell all his gathered materials; he probably would not earn half of the value that the platinum would earn. However, there were at least two more levels to explore in the tomb. They might also be able to find some loot in his gloriously divine poop.

The treasure chest was also interesting given its possibilities. Of course, he also held it in the same regard as a digital loot box. It was probably going to be full of crap and not worth getting.

Given the fact that he knew platinum was used to make items that were better than steel, did he save it and go for the sure things or did he use synergy in the hopes of creating a true masterpiece?

The question burned inside his mind. There was a sense of destiny about this moment. Was it a risk worth taking?

In the end, he decided to go for it. Money could be earned easily enough in the tomb given his synergy skills. With his little display of power filling the heads of various people, he needed the edge that powerful equipment would grant.

More so, appearances were important. Until the trial he did not particularly care about his appearance. However, that had proved to be problematic. Were he attired in a manner befitting his supposed station, there would have possibly never been a trial. That did not mean that they would not have been attacked, but the legal system would not have been involved.

Blackthorne gazed thoughtfully at the bits of carapace. It was time to make something iconic, something that would cause people to pause. Though he was a dark master of the abyss, he chose to live in the light. He chose not to hide who he was from the world. Just as he had done with Sonja, he now knew that it was time to live up to the name that he had begun to make for himself in appearance as well as deed.

How would he do it, though? What item could he possibly make that would make a truly lasting impression on people?

The platinum and the death essence crystals were going to be part of it. The leather would not be worthwhile, but as his eyes roved over that pile, he was reminded of something that he had crafted previously. Beast iron.

“Could there be something like that for silver or platinum?” he mused to himself.

What would he use it on, though? What did he have that would warrant such a thing? Slowly, his eyes roved over to his breastplate. The almost obscenely fanciful armor that he had lost for quite some time. It was great to have it back, but in all honesty he had long since outgrown it.

Yet, that sense of something momentous increased when he looked at it. Blackthorne rose up and claimed his old armor. “It’s you. It has to be.”

“Only the highest-grade materials that I can make should be used,” he said softly.

Blackthorne exerted far more of his life force than he would have guessed, but he was able to combine his pieces of shell into a single piece that practically glowed in the moonlight. The pure and refined piece of material was no larger than his palm, but it held a weight to it that went well beyond its mass.

“I can see why this would have been used in an offering, now,” he whispered.

His next move was to combine all his platinum into ingots, and then use those ingots to make one large highly refined ingot. It reflected the moonlight brightly in a way that was beyond any metal that he had seen. It was a clear sign that it had reached its ultimate stage of refinement.

Blackthorne was forced to rest for a while, even his life force had been taxed by such high-grade refinement. Once he recovered, he tried to combine one of the crystal shards with the platinum ingot, but he soon realized that it was not enough. He extended his synergy aura a bit and three more of the crystals were caught up. His growing exhaustion caused him to lose his focus for a moment before the end, however, and one of the steel ingots was caught up in the events as well.

“Seriously? Abyssal Steel Ingot?” It seemed entirely too appropriate as a name, but in a way, it made sense. It contained the essence of death, extremely high-quality steel, and platinum’s nature both in its capacity to remain untarnished and its mystical nature.

“I exhausted myself to make this. I hope it’s something good, despite the name,” he said.

He knew that he should not be trying to use such materials at his skill level, even if he could synergize them. The drain on his life force was simply too high due to his lack of ability. Still, while it was not what he had been going for when he started his efforts it was better than regular steel!

Once he recovered, Blackthorne began his attempt to combine the glowing shell piece with his abyssal steel. From the moment it started, he began to sweat profusely. The drain on his energy was intense. Soon, he found that he needed to supplement his efforts by drawing on the life force of the grass nearby. As the life left it, the grassland nearby began to dry and wither away. A large brown circle of death formed around him.

Branwen immediately turned to look at him, curious about the prickling sensation on her skin. Sonja noticed what she was doing and halted her latest attack. She looked toward Blackthorne; eyes filled with interest. “He’s up to something again,” she told Branwen.

The dragon girl looked to her, but all Sonja did was smile at her. She would learn about his weird skills over time, just as she had done.

While he worked to synergize the materials, something odd happened. Perhaps it was a hallucination, but a semi-transparent wisp of energy flowed out of the shell piece. It took on the form of Girtablilu and attacked the piece of metal. The metal produced its own illusory image, one of chains that whipped around.

He could not afford to lose concentration at this critical step, but this was almost too much for him. He had sensed that materials sometimes seemed to fight each other but it had always been a metaphor before!

Somehow, the abyssal steel won the duel. Girtablilu was speared several times with the business ends of multiple chains then dragged into the metal. Not long after that the two materials fused together quickly. The result was a marble sized piece of material that pulsated in his hand even while a black and gold mist swirled around it in the shape of phantasmal chains.

“Man, almost lost it there,” he whispered through trembling lips. He was pale, rather more pale than usual. Even with the supplement of the grassland’s energy, the combination had taken its toll on him.

“Looks like I’ll have to take a few precautions,” he said while battling his newest round of exhaustion. Blood trickled from his nose, a sign of the stress on his body.

He checked the result of his efforts then blinked. “Whoa!”

Superior Abyssal Steel

Class: Legendary

Quality: Premium+

Material Value:

Acquired through synergy refinement, this material can be used via synergy to upgrade items, or to create new ones. The effects added to an item will be based on the original nature of the material from which the ingot was created.

He rubbed his face gently, then opened his eyes once more and stared at the message window. “This is… Oh, this is gonna be good!”

While Blackthorne was not entirely certain what the plus sign next to premium meant, the fact that the class had abandoned the letter designation and simply called the piece of metal, ‘legendary’ said everything he needed to know.

Given how much of his life force, and the death of the surrounding grassland, that it took to make it he was certain that such materials were hard to come by in this world. His obscene levels of life force and regenerative abilities had allowed him to force the construction of something akin to a dark miracle. His combat skills were well below the capacity of the elite combatants of this world, but his ability to use his life force to brute force his way into the possession of materials such as this might be among the best in the world.