The next morning, Eisen stepped down the stairs wearing his crafting outfit, his Backpack slung over his shoulders. Behind him, something that looked exactly the same as him when he was wearing his suit, the only difference being that he seemed as if someone pulled all color out of him. He also was wearing a backpack on his back that, like the rest of the colorless Eisen, was completely white. In its arms, it was carrying a wooden crate, filled with rolls of thread and fabric.
Everyone was eyeing the pair as Eisen walked up to the front desk to return his room key, and then went to the restaurant, sitting down at a corner table. Even the colorless Eisen sat down on one of the chairs, albeit far more clumsily than the real one.
It was then that the cheerful Bree walked up to the table to greet Eisen, her face just slightly twitching as she now looked at two of the same person. She stood there with her eyes narrowed down, looking back and forth between Eisen and his Double, as if deeply thinking about something. At last, she nodded her head and smiled, turning to the Double.
"Good morning Eisen! Want to eat the same as always~?" She asked, and Eisen couldn't help but laugh.
"Bree, you're talking to the wrong guy." He laughed and scratched his beard. Immediately, Bree froze, and slowy turned to the real Eisen.
"R-Right… So, the same as always..?" She stuttered out embarrassedly, and Eisen nodded with a smile on his face. "Yes, please. I'll explain to you what that guy over there is later." Eisen said and pointed over at his Double, that was sitting there with a blank face, the crate on its lap.
"Okay…" Bree turned around and hurried back to the kitchen. A few minutes later she came back with two plates, and after thinking about which Eisen to give it, she closed her eyes and gave it to a random one. Luckily, it was the real Eisen, who thanked Bree and began to eat.
"So, last night I was practicing Mana Manipulation. And I have the skill Mana Copy, which I used to copy my hands before to learn Mana Hands. This time around, I instead tried copying my whole body, and manipulated it, changing my Mana Hands skill into the Mana Double skill. And that over there is my Mana Double." Eisen explained, and then made his Double wave at Bree. She looked at the Double with wide eyes.
"Whooa! That's so cool!" Bree yelled out and looked at the Double, extending a hand to feel its skin. It may have looked completely like a person's, but it felt like smooth, cold glass.
"Yeah, I know. I thought, for now, that would help my problem with carrying all the stuff I need to. And I'm curious what other effects it's going to get once it ranks up, so I'm keeping it around for the day at least."
"Yeah! You have to show me how to get a double later!" The Fey-kin exclaimed happily and both of them continued to eat.
After finishing their breakfast, the two, or three including the Double, made their way out of the Inn and back to Jekyll's Hides to start their day of work.
When they stepped through the door, they only saw the scowling young man from the day before sitting at the counter again. He looked up and waved them toward the door to the back, signaling that they should just go through.
In the workshop, they saw Jekyll working on Armors again. He looked up, and immediately his ears slightly perked up. "What the… Oi, old man. Who's your friend?" Jekyll asked and pointed over at the Double.
Eisen laughed and shook his head. "Don't worry about it. He's a Mana Double I made of myself. He'll just be standing around all day, so don't pay too much attention to him."
"Got it…" Jekyll muttered and moved back toward the armor he was working on.
After sitting down at the table he would work on, Eisen made his double set down all the items he had onto the ground, then began having him do menial tasks, such as doing sit-ups and push-ups. While it didn't cost him any mana, he also didn't get any proficiency by having his double stand there and do nothing. Only through moving it around did some of his mana drain and his proficiency for the skill go up.
Thus, so that he wouldn't run out of mana while crafting, Eisen turned over to Bree, asking her if she could give him some mana again.
She agreed happily while Eisen got to work. He grabbed some design paper and began drawing up the templates for parts of the Leather Armor. For the chest piece, Eisen decided to split it up into two main parts. His chest, and his abdomen. For each part, he drew up two templates, one for the back and one for the front.
For the shoulders, Eisen drew up a few more templates. There was the part which Eisen would place over his head, that would protect his neck and hold the shoulder protectors, which were each made up of four parts. Three that would be layered together like scales, and then one that would partially prevent an attack aimed at the neck from the side.
Eisen decided to leave his arms mostly free, as this would allow for the most freedom of movement while wielding a weapon. But to still protect some important areas of his arms, Eisen drew up templates for two pieces, one for his upper arm and one for his forearm. For his upper arm, Eisen simply drew up a template in a rough diamond shape, as well as something for a strap, and for his forearm, Eisen prepared the templates for a simple Bracer.
At last for the chest piece, Eisen drew up a template for something like hip protection, the could protect against attacks in gaps between the chest piece and the pants.
And then, Eisen moved on to those pants.
For its base, Eisen drew up the same template he always used when making pants, but for higher defense decided to add certain other elements. He added templates for thicker leather to add to the ack and front each, making sure to leave space so that he could still move properly around his knees.
Once that was done, Eisen began looking through the storage to find good leather to use.
In the end, Eisen chose to go for the leather of something called an Earth Bull. A simple bull infested by too much ambient Earth Element Mana, changing its bodily structure. While it had a layer of rock and dirt covering its body, its hide was still that of an animal, albeit many times stronger, but just as flexible and light as normal leather coming from a bull. Of course, Eisen didn't just know this, and Bree had to explain to him what it was.
Eisen chose two different types of leather of that origin, one being thin and more flexible, and the other a bit thicker and harder, although both from that same Monster.
First, Eisen chose to cut out all parts of the armor, and then assemble them later. He deliberately placed his tools further away, so that he could make his Double grab them for him. Thus, it went over to Eisen's bag and grabbed the wooden boxes containing needles and blades for the exacto knife, as well as the Knife's handle. Carefully, as he was trying to heighten his control over the Double, Eisen had the Double assemble the Knife as well.
And although this proved quite hard at first, after a little bit of fiddling around, Eisen managed to push the blade into the handle and close the lock.
After the Double handed the real Eisen the knife, he slowly began to cut out the pieces of leather with the help of the templates he made before, dividing them into piles depending on what part of the armor they belonged to.
After cutting each part out using the three-skill-combo of A Dwarf's Hands, A Giant's Body and Tool Connection, Eisen cut small holes into some parts of the pieces, and then disassembled the Knife and made his Double grab thread and his needles.
Once the Double managed to put the thread into the needle's hole and gave it to Eisen, the craftsman began to sew the pieces of leather together using the strong, waxed thread.
After the main parts of the chest piece were sewn together, Eisen put thread through the lower front of the abdominal part like one would for a shoe, so that he could later properly close it, leading to a nice and tight fit.
Next, he made two of the shoulder pieces, simply by overlaying three of the scale-like pieces together for each part, and then sewed the piece meant to protect against sideways sword slashes, before sewing both parts onto the circular neck-protection.
For the upper arm protection, Eisen simply sewed the straps onto the diamond-shaped pieces of leather. As for the bracer, Eisen cut out the template twice for each one before and sewed the two pieces together on one side, and once more traced the thicker string through the other sides in a way similar to a shoelace, so that he could close it tightly.
To decorate arm protectors, Eisen simply sewed the pattern of his coin onto them, giving the Armor his trademark.
After that, Eisen began working on the hip protectors. For each side, left and right, he cut out two pieces which he then simply sewed together, and sewed those two pieces together in the back, adding more string in a shoelace-like way in the front so he could close it.
At last, Eisen moved onto making the pants. He sewed the four base pieces made of the thin leather together, leaving a gap where the fly would later be, but instead of button-holes added the laced string.
After finishing the base, Eisen sewed the thicker leather onto it in four main pieces per leg. The front and back of the thigh, the shin, and the calves, each piece slightly curving around the outside of the leg.
Now, the only piece left would be boots, that Eisen would make once he found a Shoemaker.
But for now, the armor was finished.
[You created a Leather Cuirass]
[You created two Leather Bracers]
[You created two Leather Pauldrons]
[You created two Leather Spaulders]
[You created Leather Faulds]
[You created Leather Pants]
[For creating nine overwhelming quality items, you gain +3 STR and +6 END]
[You created the Item Set 'Grounded Leather Armor']
[Grounded Leather Armor]
[Description]An extremely high-quality Leather Armor created by the Leatherworker Eisen. It is completely made up of Perfect Quality, Rank 2 Items. Due to the Leather's Origin, it has retained some of its Beast's peculiarities.
[Effect (When all Items worn)]+25 STR; +35 END; +30 AGI; Grounded Trait;
[Items]Leather Cuirass; Two Leather Bracers; Two Leather Pauldrons; Two Leather Spaulders; Leather Faulds; Leather Pants
[For creating an overwhelming quality Item Set, you gain +1 STR and +1 END]
[Trait - Grounded]
[Effect]Makes it harder for the User to be pushed away from his standing point
[Activation]Both soles of the feet fully on the ground
[Leatherworking reached Level 100 in Rank 1, upgrading to Rank 2]
[It is now easier to work with higher-ranking leathers]
[Due to Ranking-up your Leatherworking Skill, you gained +1 STR and +1 END]
Eisen laughed loudly and looked through the notifications, waving away those that he expected, and keeping the item set and trait descriptions open. Proud at what he made, he nodded and looked over at his Double. The easiest way to store this Armor was very obvious. Wearing it would be the best option!
Eisen slowly made the suit jacket, shirt, tie, and handkerchief disappear, and put the Cuirass, Bracers, Pauldrons and Spaulders on it.
After that, he made sure that nobody was looking in his direction and told Bree to look away as well, and made the suit pants disappear as well, and quickly made the Double put on the Leather Pants. Eisen wasn't sure if the effects of Items also counted for his Double, but he made a mental note to try and find out soon.
"Whooa! That looks so cool!" Bree exclaimed with a wide smile and looked closely at the armor which the Double was wearing.
"Yeah, haha. It did really turn out great!" Eisen laughed and scratched his beard, moving the scraps of leather which he didn't need anymore away, then began preparing to make Bree's Backpack.