In the 17 days that I have to work with, my productivity soars. The first thing to be aware of is my schematic crafting. Now that my manufacture schematic is done, the next schematic I make is the divine inspiration schematic, which I dedicate to improving my operate magical devices skill and dramatically increasing the success rate of both my magical crafting and my spell release imbuements. The next day? Competence. Competent Crafting is next, followed by Invisibility, Suggestion, and Invigorate.

I do occasionally fail to activate one of my schematics, a little over 50% of the time for my first skill boost of the day, but as soon as I succeed at any of my skill boost uses, my success rate for everything else jumps up to about 90%, and when I am able to activate a second skill boost success becomes a given, so I almost always have at least one and usually more major bonuses to my magic item creation, because 3 of my schematics in total translate to one form of crafting buff or another.

With successful magical boosts running, my spell release to magical helper combination is almost always running 4 craftsmen helpers to brew potions, create paper, and craft ammunition.

On the days where my competent crafting boost is active, which is the 3rd one I will attempt to activate and is thus almost always successful since my attempts to activate it benefits from any success rate improvements from the first two schematic activations, I make sure to take the minute to craft a superior quality nonmagical item via Manufacturing.

With Manufacturing, all I have to do is gather all of the needed materials and then activate the manufacturing schematic. From there I “Will” the desired nonmagical item to form, with the quality of the finished product matching the quality that I would have been able to produce based on the detail and clarity of my vision for the completed item. It is much harder than you might expect to be able to perfectly envision anything all at once, flawlessly, and with all required details in place, but I've gotten quite good at it.

Although my nonmagical crafting is a continuous and ongoing effort right up to the last moment, magical item production is another matter, because I can't feasibly scavenge most of the things I would need for it and have to purchase everything required in areas where they'll have a stock of appropriate materials, such as the Diamond Lake market.

In only 12 days I have completed every one of the magical items I previously purchased materials for. These items are magical and thus inherently complex, but they are also extremely simple by the standards of magical items, so they are not very time consuming.

For nonmagical items, I am a one man factory. I complete the second set of Quicksilver armor on the 5th day, and from there nonmagical production becomes a breeze. All 3 sets of the retractable light quicksilver shields, as well as the quicksilver buckler, and of course, Regina’s new bow are the first things I complete.

The next several days I rework existing equipment: I improve the crafting quality on Bucky’s falchion that he looted from the Orc patrol, then I improve Regina’s long sword, then I make a superior quality crossbow for myself, then another for Joaqim, then I create a new and greatly improved composite longbow for Bucky, one that can take advantage of his full strength without sacrificing accuracy, and finally I realize that Joaqim only has a club, so I use some scrap steel to produce a high-quality mace for him.

Finally, although it is not an amazing improvement, I have my magical helpers put together a couple dozen bolts for mine and Joaqims new crossbows, and as well as higher quality arrows for Bucky and Regina. Regina gets the bulk of the ammunition, with her share alone the equal to the quantity I provide for the whole rest of the group. She is primarily a ranged fighter, after all, so her getting the majority of superior quality ammunition makes the most sense.

I think I would benefit from making us higher quality repeating crossbows at some point, but I would need to come up with a design first, and since we are on a timer I don’t want to halt production to come up with a prototype and work out incremental improvements from there.

Another thing that came as a surprise to me is the quicksilver armor that I crafted for Bucky and Joaqim. Remember, it is full suit of plate armor. By its very nature it's bulky and awkward and it covers you from head to toe. I don’t see how it could classified as anything but a heavy piece of armor. But I am pretty sure, after trying out a few pieces that were cut for Bucky, I could probably wear it.

Does it count as a medium armor because it is made from Quicksilver? I don't know, but it's my running best guess, and at the least believing as much makes more sense to me than believing that everything I'd previously heard about the armor categories, which came from many people who actually wear armor, was wrong. It might even be as simple as the reference to armor categories being based on literal weight, in which case the categories used really would make sense. It seems that I will need to buy even more quicksilver, because honestly, better armor means I am less likely to find myself dead, and as ambivalent towards life as I'd become in my last life, I find myself somewhat attached to it this time around.

Similar to myself, after discussing her class abilities with Regina, I would like to equip her with a quality medium armor as well. Perhaps not quicksilver full plate, even with its comparative lightness and even if it counts as a medium armor, I am not terribly hopeful that its range of motion would be up to the task of keeping up with her, though I could be wrong about that.

It's worth experimenting with when we get back, but from what I see of Regina, Rangers seem to be a strange class that is something of a weird hybrid forest-based fighter that has some rogue elements included. Apparently, their defining features are that they naturally progress both in ranged combat and two weapon fighting, they are also able to do things like track enemies, detect and disable traps, and land critical strikes and sneak attacks effectively.

As far as I can tell, the biggest drawbacks to being a ranger are that they are less lethal in surprise than a rogue, they develop their skills less quickly than the rogue, and they don’t get as many talents that support either stealth killing or conventional battle as rogues or fighters do. They also don’t get quite as good of top end armor as a fighter, and they only have the 2 major tracks of development, most of which is automatic and is generally a few levels behind what a fighter who chose that fighting style would be able to accomplish.

Rather than thinking of Rangers as fighters or rogues, I think they would be more fairly characterized as scouts, survivors, and skirmishers. With Joawim and Bucky's defenses handled, and because I want to keep her alive, too, I decide that we'll revisit her armor situation when we're in a position to pick up appropriate materials in Bhan Dhorul. Retiring or not, it would be good to be prepared.

To go over some basics for the newly crafted non magical items; superior quality weaponry tends to be more accurate, or have a sharper cutting edge, and perform notably better than normal versions of their base equipment. Not as good as magical equipment, but they actually come pretty close to a weakly enchanted weapon. Superior quality armor is easier to move around in, providing benefit by being a better fit and generally more flexible for comparable armor types, and without sacrificing any of their standard protection to get that added flexibility.

For the specific items crafted here, let's talk next about the shields. Retractable shields can operate in a number of different ways, but most of them, including my own, operate via a series of plates that get deployed with a switch. Just look up “retractable riot shield” or “wrist mounted fold out shield” and you will see similar designs.

My shields are spring/latch operated and smaller than most of the designs you’ll see, but it’s a relatively easy thing to design and build, and by using quicksilver as the base material it’s sturdier than any of the versions I had seen prior to coming to this world, as well as being lighter weight. Without power we have to manually fold them back up when we want to put them away, but deploying them in the first place is very fast, and folding them back up is still not particularly difficult, it just takes enough time that it is not something you would want to do during a fight.

At this point Bucky and Regina are getting bucklers rather than a light shield; it’s not as good for protection, but even deployed they will lose almost none of her ability to fight with either a bow or their swords. For maximum combat effectiveness I have the shields strapped directly to the forearm, and aside from when we are sleeping they are wearing their shields the entire time we are traveling. The retractable shields are a bit of a hassle to put on in the morning, but it is no worse than any other type of armor; and the ability to go from unprepared to a fully deployed shield should be a noteworthy increase in our combat preparedness.

For the crossbows? Nothing special beyond being superior quality, with uncommonly high accuracy and penetration. Finally, the bows. As mentioned, Buckys new bow is a composite long bow, sporting better range, accuracy, and penetration than his old bow offered; and perhaps most significantly, it is specifically designed to allow him to use his full, prodigious strength, without sacrificing that accuracy. A lesser man (like me) cannot even draw that monstrosity.

As for Regina’s bow? This thing is beautiful. Everything that is true for Bucky’s bow is true for hers, even being custom designed to allow her to use her strength to its fullest degree; she is not as strong as Bucky, but she is stronger than an average human. The next major upgrade for her bow is that this one is crafted in the fashion of the elven rangers, allowing her to use it as a staff when an enemy gets sufficiently close.

Although a single hit from a staff is usually not as devastating as what her longsword could perform, she won’t need to switch weapons when converting from ranged to melee, and quarterstaffs are well suited to users of a two weapon fighting style.

Banding can effectively turn both sides of the weapon into their own weapon, which will effectively allow her to utilize the two weapon fighting style she already prefers as it has superior capabilities in terms of switching up the angles and directions of strikes to come from different directions. In other words, she can wield the bow as though it were a quarterstaff, and doing so will allow her to operate without fear of a second weapon revealing her probable class. I still think she's being overly paranoid about keeping her class hidden, but I'll equip her according to her own thoughts on the subject rather than my own.

The piece de resistance for Reginas bow is the materials. One side of her bow is banded and capped with a dark, electrically charged metal called Nyzequil, which discharges when it is struck with significant kinetic force. In other words, it provides a small amount of additional electrical damage due to using a special material rather than through what this world recognizes as magic.

The other side of the bow is banded and capped with adamantine, making it heavier on one side which will make it easier to use as a weapon in melee, as well as providing additional weight and strength which will make it better for taking on larger and sturdier creatures such as golems, who you would normally not want to try and hit with wood.

Finally, the riser and limbs of the bow itself are made of druid grown green-wood, which makes her bow resistant to fire damage and, perhaps more significantly, allows the bow to mend itself back to its crafted shape in the event that it becomes damaged; even reconnecting in the event that it is sundered entirely.

Amazingly, all of these benefits count as being nonmagical and are instead derived from the materials and the preparatory steps in utilizing them rather than as any form of magic, which means that her bow will be capable of providing its current advantages, such as releasing electrical damage on a strike, even if she finds herself in an area where magic is being disrupted or restrained. Her bow truly is a masterpiece, and it is by far and away the item I am most proud of having created up to now.

Each of the items I have given to my comrades has been well received. Everyone in the group was thrilled with their quickly deployed and light weight shield. Another example, Bucky and Joaqim absolutely loved their new quicksilver plate armor, and spent days showing it off and bragging about it at every opportunity. Regina’s response to the bow was… It was kind of scary. I am beginning to suspect that she might be interested in me, but the possibility of that being true is just so bizarre that I simply can't help but believe it's entirely in my head.

When I presented Regina's bow to her she embraced me, holding me tight, and gave me a series of kisses on the side of my chin-shields, which is probably roughly equivalent in her eyes to giving some pecks to the cheek on a human. That is not specifically what has me so out of sorts; as far as I am concerned, that is just a human woman being so excited she does not know how to contain or express her enthusiasm. Maybe it means something, but in a vacuum I would guess probably not.

I mention it simply because it is an observable example of how her behavior is a bit different from everyone else’s. The reason I suspect that there may be more to it is not easy to explain: There is something in her eyes that is a bit disquieting for me, almost as though when she is looking at me, she is contemplating devouring me. She didn’t used to look like that. She originally looked at me with contempt and pity, and then her expression began to seem more… Neutral. Friendly, even. Appreciative, perhaps, some of the time. But what I have seen in her eyes since giving her that bow? It is a greedy look. Those eyes are not something I have seen directed at me since having been reborn as a Lizardfolk.

I am uncertain what to make of it, or even if I am correctly interpreting her thoughts: I was out of the loop on human society for a decade, it should be no surprise that I am not as skilled as I used to be at correctly reading a person’s emotions. The whole “cold blooded” thing certainly plays a part as well. I might see similar expressions, but they are harder to identify than they were back when I was a human; and beyond that my emotions are rather muted compared to the passion of a human youth.

I can definitely see her as being attractive, more so than I find the average lizardfolk woman at least, despite their magnificent tails and razor-sharp teeth. But the simple truth is that there are several serious biological considerations that would need to be accounted for if I were to pursue this, and I am not sure if I would ever be ready and willing to do so, or if she would, or if such a thing would even be possible. For now, I plan to continue along just like we have been, and hope that I am never actually placed into a position where I have to put serious consideration into whether or not I would want to, or whether or not it would even be possible, to progress in this area with this person.