Since he still had all of his materials out, Thomas decided to try making another ring. Honestly, he wanted to slap himself for not thinking of sothing like a 'Ring of Invisibility' sooner. It was such a common trope in fantasy gas and novels that it should have been one of the first things he thought of instead of the armor and pants he'd made. Who gave a damned how good his Stealth skill was if he was just plain invisible? Though there were obvious flaws to invisibility, it was still a powerful tool to have at one's disposal.
It took minimal effort for him to make another gold inlaid ring that matched the one he'd just given to Lexiana. Seeing him produce sothing so swiftly and easily was still baffling to the two won. It should be known that even as a princess, Selena only had limited access to Rare quality items. If Thomas continued to progress and ended up making Epic, or even Legendary items, he would beco one of the most powerful individuals in the world! Were there no ends to the power immortals could obtain?
Oblivious to the shock he was bringing to the two won, Thomas continued his work by purifying another Troll crystal and grinding it into powder. Every ti he perford this action it brought a pang of pain to Selena's heart. Such a pure mana crystal being used for sothing as simple as enchanting? It was unthinkable! Seeing that he could make them out of thin air was the only thing that kept her from yelling at him for being so wasteful of resources.
Once the enchanting dium was created, he wasted no ti in summoning an engraving tool and beginning the enchantnt process. The intent was plain and simple 'invisibility'. The wearer of the ring should be capable of turning invisible and visible at will. He ran into zero issues carving the enchantnt and within just a few minutes he'd wrapped the engraving completely around the ring and connected the ends of the enchantnt together. The ring emitted a bright flash of light shocking both won one again. Could Thomas churn out Rare items any ti he wanted? What the hell?
Things went differently from there though. The ring being gripped between his fingers rapidly disintegrated into dust that was blown away by the wind.
System Notice: You have failed in the creation of your item.
Thomas froze. Failed? He had failed to create the item? He had never failed at creating anything within AoG before! Even if what he made was a piece of crap that barely worked, like his welder, it still never failed before! Even worse the system didn't bother to even give him an explanation! The absolute worst was that it had even destroyed the materials he had been using! What if it hadn't been a little ring? He couldn't imagine what the losses would be if he'd been making sothing like a set of armor. The least the system could do for destroying his materials was to give a detailed explanation for why.
In a fit of frustration and anger, Thomas punched the deck of the ship with his full might. The whole ship seed to jolt as his fist easily plowed through the thick planks of wood. The two won and one Garou leaped in surprise at his sudden outburst. Snowlily looked at Thomas with concern while Selena and Lexiana simply looked surprised. Once Selena regained control of herself she imdiately yelled, "Stop smashing my ship!"
Thomas at least had the presence of mind to look abashed at what he'd done. He gave Selena and apologetic smile as he used his Transmutation to quickly patch over the hole. The wood grain no longer matched but the hole was completely repaired and solid in just a few monts. Selena arched an eyebrow but said nothing else about the damage to her ship. Instead, she asked, "What was that all about?"
Thomas sighed and actually felt a bit embarrassed as he explained, "I've never failed to make sothing before so I was a little upset at the wasted materials."
It was true. He'd failed hundreds, if not thousands, of tis over his gaming career. Failure was not sothing that bothered him in the least. Wasting precious materials though? That really pissed him off! He didn't care about the Origin Steel or the mana crystal. Those were easy enough to replace in near-unlimited amounts. It was the Sunshine Gold he cared about. He had very little of that material and every bit of it was precious. Losing even the small amount needed for the ring was a large blow and irked him to no end.
On the other side, both Selena and Lexiana looked surprised, again. Lexiana asked the question on both of their minds, "You've never failed to make anything before?"
Thomas glanced between both won and noticed the look of shock on their faces. He nodded, "That's right."
Lexiana may be just a rather average adventurer that made her living running dungeons while exploring the world but even she knew that was a big deal. Every person in a professional field had failed to make a magical item. It was common and sothing expected. No one was perfect. To hear that Thomas had never failed to make anything up to this point was pretty inconceivable to any of the locals within AoG. Other players wouldn't have found it all that surprising.
The two won continued to look shocked while Thomas got busy putting everything away. If he had to guess, there were a couple of reasons that he might have failed in his attempt to make the ring. The first was simply that his rank in Magitech Engineering was too low. His second guess was that the materials he used were unsuited to the purpose he had in mind. Materials for crafting were pretty flexible but if you pushed them to do sothing they simply couldn't then they would fail. It could even be a combination of both things or sothing completely different. For all he knew, making a Ring of Invisibility was simply impossible and would never succeed no matter what. This is why the lack of information in the system notice was so goddamned annoying to him.
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He decided to just let it go. The romance of a 'Ring of Invisibility' would have to remain just a distant dream for the ti being. Since he was still low on materials and didn't have a forge or crucible to check the black ore, he decided to simply relax. There was still no sign of pursuit by the pirates so there wasn't really anything for him to do for now. He was free and reunited with Snowlily. Life was looking much better now.
When night finally fell, Selena dropped anchor off the shore of the peninsula. They would arrive at their destination tomorrow afternoon at the latest. Until then it was night ti, everyone was tired and hungry. They all went below deck where Thomas proceeded to cook a al for everyone. He hadn't cooked for himself in quite a while. Thanks to his inventory freezing ti the Orc chops he'd gotten months ago now were still perfectly fresh and sizzled nicely when placed on a frying pan.
He insisted on cooking dinner for everyone for a couple of reasons. First, even though he had his own escape plans they would have proved entirely pointless if Selena and Lexiana hadn't arrived with Snowlily. He never would have found her in the caves simply because she wasn't there, to begin with. Second, he wanted to level up his Cooking skill swiftly. Cooking in gas could provide all sorts of benefits. Aside from the food tasting great it could also give various temporary buffs. At least, that's how it was in almost every ga before AoG and he expected AoG to behave in a similar manner. A Cooking skill below twenty was obviously not going to provide much of anything though.
Along with the Orc chops, he cooked so fresh vegetables, which earned a pitiful whine from Snowlily. Hearing it he turned to look at her. She glanced away before giving a sowhat pleading look to Lexiana of all people. Thomas froze for a mont before he realized the situation. His gaze turned to Lexiana as he frowned, "Please tell you haven't been spoiling Snowlily."
Lexian scoffed and even looked a little offended at the question, though not for the 'normal' reasons, "Of course! It's only natural to give a Garou anything it desires!"
Imdiately after she spoke, Snowlily turned to look at Thomas and puffed out her chest while looking proud. Almost like she was trying to say, 'See! This is how a princess like should be treated!'. Thomas groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. Just what he needed, soone spoiling Snowlily more than he already did! He lowered his hand from his face and gave Snowlily a deadpan look, "Double vegetables for you tonight and every al for the next week!"
Snowlily's prideful look imdiately deflated. Her whole body seed to wilt as her once majestically held up head dropped down to stare at her paws. Her ears flopped down and her tail drooped. She should have known better but eating nothing but at for weeks and being pampered by Lexiana had spoiled her a bit too much. Lexiana looked like she was about to throw a fit until Thomas glared at her, "One word from you and all you get will be vegetables!"
Lexiana froze in place. She couldn't cook, at all. If she tried all she would end up with would be charcoal and burnt pans. She'd even burned water once. Not simply evaporated it all and burned the pan, she had literally set water on fire once when trying to cook. She had been surviving on rations for weeks now because none of the people on the small ship could cook. Slling the succulent scent of the cooking at was enough to flood her mouth with saliva. If she didn't get any and had to watch everyone else eat it, she would go mad! So, she swallowed her pride and kept her mouth firmly shut.
Seeing the antics between the three made Selena giggle a little while she sat off to the side firmly out of the line of fire. Like Lexiana she couldn't cook. She'd always had a well-trained expert making her als at ho and the academy had great cooks too. Like Lexiana and Snowlily, she had lived off of simple rations while on the ship and was eagerly looking forward to any freshly cooked al. She was not going to ruin that by opening her mouth at this mont!
Thomas looked between all three of them for a few monts longer while the Orc chops sizzled behind him. When he saw no one was going to say anything, he nodded and went back to properly cooking the al. He made sure there were plenty of vegetables not just for Snowlily but for Lexiana too. He had the feeling she wouldn't appreciate his 'kindness'. Once everything was cooked properly, he set it out on the plates Selena provided and set a plate in front of each person. The slabs of at on Snowlily's and Lexiana's plates were dwarfed by the small mountain of vegetables. Thomas gave both of them a serious look as he said, "I expect you to eat everything I've cooked for you or I won't be cooking for you again."
As Lexiana and her people were supposedly descendants of the Garou he was not surprised and was rather happy to see her frown as she stared at the pile of non-at on her plate. He could practically see the conflict behind Lexiana's eyes as she stared at the mixed vegetables. She was tempted to ignore his threat and only eat the at and a few vegetables. They were less than half a day away from the port so she could get plenty of good food while in the city. She knew the problem would co after that, though, when they were traveling. She didn't know how long they would travel between cities. Would she be able to store enough food? What if she ran out? She really didn't want to resort to eating rations again. They were dry and horrible. She sighed as she gave in and beca determined to eat every last thing on her plate, starting with the juicy still sizzling at!
Once dinner was over and the plates were washed, by Lexiana after a fierce ga of Rock-Paper-Scissors between her and Selena, everyone went to bed. The ship was small compared to the galleon sized ships the pirates used, but it still had a small cargo hold, full kitchen, and a half dozen bedrooms. The night passed peacefully as, according to Selena, it was very dangerous to sail at night even in 'safe' waters. Even the pirates wouldn't be stupid enough to break that general rule.
After everyone ate a nice hot breakfast cooked by Thomas, they resud their sailing. As predicted the ship arrived at the port city of Snubanes just before noon arrived. Thomas smiled and stroked Snowlily's head as he looked over the city. It took a lot longer than expected to get here but they had finally officially arrived at a new continent and would soon begin their journey to et Hekrin's master. There was much to do and another long leg of the journey left, but it was sothing worth looking forward to!
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