She simply nodded her head and began to walk towards the forest. She was too excited to even bid me goodbye. I'm a bit sad. Oh, well. It's time for me to give something to myself. I just have enough materials to craft what I want.
「You have begun to craft...」
「The Gods have started to watch you intently」
Sheesh. Can a man have his privacy? I can't work properly if there are people watching me. Can you guys turn your back for a second or something?
I waited for a response, but only silence came. I'm taking that as a no. I rolled my eyes in frustration and began to work. Since I only had these two materials to work with, I only had the option to create scale armor pieces.
The piece I had in mind was a scale body armor, but now that I'm actually in the process of trying to make it. I couldn't help but trash that plan in mind, simply because it was too complex to make. If I had the body of a human, it would be much easier.
I needed to think thoroughly about what I should equip myself with. Unlike Elizabeth, who had a semi-humanoid shape, I, on the other hand, don't have any human-like features at all. If the system placed a model of my body in this crafting feature, it would be perfect, but beggars can't be choosers.
My best offensive areas are my claws and tail, which utilizes my blight. As long as I'm able to land a hit on a vital spot, it becomes a guaranteed kill, more or less. How arrogant of me to say that when I've only fought two beasts.
Should I create some type of armor to hide my tail? No, that would be obvious. Prismatic Claws? Nah, I don't have the power to grind these scales into something sharp.
This is hard. I need an item that would compliment my species, but I only had human armor pieces in mind. I closed the crafting window and opened my abilities window. This should give me an idea of what to craft around.
「Skills:」
「Bite Level 1; Flee Level 1; Blight Level 1; Stealth Level 1; Keen Senses Level 2; Quick Thinking Level 1; Ambush Level 1; Beast Taming Level 1;」
Hmm...I asked for a description of each one of my skills to gain further understanding.
「Bite: The candidate buries their fangs onto their prey. Chance to make their prey bleed.」
I can't take advantage of this ability due to two fatal flaws. One, it's hard for me to get close. Two, even if I do succeed in getting close, my weak body will fail me. I read the following skill description.
「Flee: For a brief period after being hurt, you can sprint 35% faster.」
This is good in dangerous situations where I need to escape, but right now, I need a skill that would help me take down prey, not run away from it. Next.
「Blight: The candidate secretes a crimson toxin from their stinger and claws. Those afflicted by blight shall have a percentage of their HP drained depending on where the strike landed. The candidate is immune to Blight.」
My only reliable offensive ability. Now that I think about it, why haven't I read the description of my skills? This information could have been useful early on. I should remind myself to bring up the description when I get a new one. Getting close to a creature I'm hunting already proves difficult I need to pair this with a gap-closing ability.
「Stealth: The candidate's presence fades into the background. Once activated, you are less likely to be seen. Stealth does not affect those who've already kept an eye on you before activating. 」
This one. This is it. With this, I can sneak around and land a hit, and if I'm lucky, I can even land my blight on a vital spot. The only major flaw with this one is that if someone else was hunting us, it wouldn't activate because our enemy will keep an eye on me, that's for sure. The camouflage and blinding light of the armor may fix this weakness. Let's keep looking.
「Keen Senses: Your senses are enhanced to a certain degree.」
「Quick Thinking: Your ability to create plans on the spot has hastened. Your perception of time has slowed down. 」
These two abilities help me in general, but I can't build the foundation of my armor around these. But this one, on the other hand, compliments Stealth and Blight.
「Ambush: You deal extra damage to foes whom you've caught unaware. 」
Perfect, extra power. This can help me avoid relying on luck a little. The next ability beast taming wouldn't help.
Alright. With these three abilities in mind, I should create a thin suit that covers my entire body to utilize stealth. But that brings me back to the problem of not having the right mental image of my rat body.
I pondered for a few moments. I just need to take the enemy's eyes away from me for a second, and I can be in hiding. That gives me the opportunity to strike. I began to think of Elizabeth's bracers, and suddenly a thought occurred to me. Ah-ha!
I began to piece the scales and coils together to form small rings. It's impossible for the current me to create a whole suite of scale armor, so what about downgrading a bit and only making four pieces for the part of my body I'm familiar with?
After a few minutes of intense tinkering. I've finally finished it.
「Crafting Success!」
「You have crafted Nova Anklets (Unique)」
「You have introduced a unique item into the world」
「The Gods are puzzled what the item is for」
Oh, you guys will know once I wear them. Just like the bracers for Elizabeth, the anklets also entered the inventory. I proceeded to take them out of the inventory, and four small rings appeared in front of me out of thin air.
「Nova Anklets (Unique)」
Its name colored in cyan hovered over it as it laid on the ground. I began to place my feet inside one of the rings and struggled to put them on, but nonetheless, I succeeded. Time for the other three.
After a few more minutes of struggling, I stood still, trying to catch my breath. Trying to equip these anklets was no easy feat. The scales were designed to be of the same color as my fur, so it doesn't stand out like Elizabeth's. I learn from my mistakes. Sorry, Elizabeth.
Now, from what I know, these anklets had a different way of activation. I pulled on the system's description of the item.
「Nova Anklets (Unique): A unique creation by a candidate to fit their species. When the owner circulates mana into the item, a burst of brilliant light emanates from the anklets blinding those who gazed upon it. The owner is immune to the temporary blinding effect.」
I just had to pour mana into it, which I'm guessing is the MP stat. Alright, seems easy enough.
...
...
After staring at my anklets for a few moments, a sudden dose of realization hit me. How do I circulate mana? I don't know how mana works. Does it work like in the novels I've read?
With that idea in mind. I began to focus on my surroundings, trying to feel the unique sensation of mana. Oh...Oh! There! I feel it! It's gathering at the tip of my tail!
I hurriedly opened my eyes and glanced over my shoulder to see the mana I've accumulated. I couldn't help but feel disappointed as the first thing that registered in my vision when I turned my head towards my tail was Kon.
When did he get there? Kon was currently feeding on my blight. Was that feeling I felt a while ago just his tongue sucking on my blight? I rolled my eyes in frustration. I couldn't help but be disappointed. Well, it was my fault for expecting things to work even though I had zero knowledge of this world.
Wait a sec, I remember something. Didn't Kon's MP bar seem to lower every time he used his slowing toxin? Does he know how mana works then?
"Kon," I called to him.
"Mmmmm...?" Kon replied. It seemed like he was annoyed because I was disturbing his feeding session. He didn't even ask for permission first before grabbing my tail. Tch. I deactivated my blight ability so I could get his full attention.
"Whaaaat...?" Kon answered, annoyed.
"I'll reactivate my ability once you answer my question," I assured him.
"Telll...question..." Kon replied, moving towards my face. Woah, too close there, bud.
I took two steps backwards, "Do you know how to circulate mana?" I asked. Kon twitched. It seemed like he's familiar with it. I waited for his response.
He opened his mandibles and spoke, "Mana....is....thaaaat..a....poisonnsss...?"