Luke looked around the third sanctuary, searching for the Chapel Keeper. While fighting, he saw it standing at the altar, singing something ominous as skeletal hands came out from its cloak.
Like the previous Chapel Keeper, it summoned monsters and defended the sanctuary.
But it turned out Luke had already slain it unawares during the fight. What was left was a tattered cloak and a core.
Luke picked up the core and absorbed it. He wasn’t exhausted, but he just wanted to top himself off.
〖You have slain a Low-Tier Sigma Monster!〗x115
〖Flame +1850〗
"Past me would’ve died for this much Flame. Now it’s pocket change," Luke said, shaking his head. "Could Flame have another use I don’t know about? What am I supposed to do with this much besides keep storing it for armor?"
Luke checked his Flame balance, and the numbers were in the tens of thousands because of the volcano in the Insect World. Just that place gave him more Flame than he had ever imagined collecting in such a short time.
It was also the reason this question kept coming back to him. Could Flame be used for something else other than forging beast armor?
Speaking of armor, he had over a hundred times the amount needed to forge another piece, but he hadn’t done it. Why?
Because his soul was still at D-rank, and the rank of his soul determined how many armor pieces he could wear simultaneously.
Forging another piece wouldn’t help if he couldn’t equip it.
At this point, Luke could only manage a handful, but the system also hadn’t given him an exact number on how many armor pieces he could wear max.
This limit was set by him because he felt that was what his soul could carry.
Luke thinks, "The academy teaches us that the instincts of our soul are never wrong, and that we should listen to them. But I’d still like to try..."
He took a deep breath before opening his status screen and entering his Forge Slot after a brief navigation.
An index spread out with three boxes, each occupied by a Draft Card for an armor piece he could forge.
〖Draft Card: King Minotaur Codpiece〗
〖Requirement: 360 Flame Points〗
〖Description: A codpiece worn by the King Minotaur. Grants increased stamina and strength control〗
〖Draft Card: Titan Golem Gauntlet〗
〖Requirement: 300 Flame Points〗
〖Description: A gauntlet worn by a Titan Golem. Grants increased strength and regeneration.〗
〖Draft Card: Lightning Dragon Wing Guards〗
〖Requirement: 420 Flame Points〗
〖Description: Wing guards worn by the only Lightning Dragon. Grants flight, increased agility, lightning element, and resistance.〗
Luke scratched his head as he looked over the choices. Flame wasn’t the issue anymore, so what mattered now was whether the armor would be useful to him.
He wasn’t going to waste his time forging something that did the same job as a piece he already relied on, which was why he was very selective about choosing armor types he already had. A gauntlet, for example.
Luke had taken the Hell Ape Gauntlet too far to rely on another. He had built his fighting style around its punches and power, and he had incorporated it with an aspect. So replacing or mixing it with another gauntlet felt exhausting.
And besides the gauntlets, he wasn’t a fan of whatever a codpiece was supposed to be.
He imagined the King Minotaur wearing one.
"Just how big was your little guy to have a separate armor piece for it...?"
Luke shivered.
He looked at the index again, and after crossing out the choices he didn’t want, only one Draft Card was left—the wing guards.
It reminded him of the Dark Dragonlord Wing Guards he already owned, but the similarities ended with the type of armor.
The Dragonlord was a Mythic-grade dragon that wielded fire. These wing guards belonged to an Ancient-grade dragon that controlled lightning instead.
This was proof that Luke wasn’t limited to one beast of each type.
As long as they were different creatures, he could revive dragons or any other species more than once.
He was about to select the Draft Card and forge his fifth wearable armor, but Scarlett approached him.
She had seen him talking to himself, so she knew he was interacting with his system. She came closer to get a better look and see if she could get some clues about where his strength was coming from.
Luke raised an eyebrow and asked with a teasing smile, "Curiosity kills the cat, my lady. Do you like what you see?"
Luke only meant to tease Scarlett, but as usual, a girl like her wasn’t used to casual teasing.
"Yes, I do. You are the strongest person I have ever encountered throughout every great family in New Florence. It is a shame no one else sees that."
Luke’s interest was piqued because Scarlett had met a lot of powerful summoners. He asked, "Including our seniors and the global hunters of the Confederacy? Are you sure I’m that good?"
After a moment of contemplation, seemingly comparing Luke to them, Scarlett replied, "Right now, they are stronger than you. But you have the better talent, so if you fought at the same level, there’s no way they would beat you."
Scarlett’s evaluation was honest and true.
After seeing what Luke could do, she realized that on equal footing, hardly any summoner could defeat him. Emphasis on: on equal footing.
Luke smiled, not saying much more. He understood Scarlett’s point: at the same level, he could overcome the best of their world.
But now he was just the underdog, because the people she was talking about had the support of their families and clans. Meanwhile, he was a banished son who would forever be prejudiced.
Even the strongest could fall short to a system rigged by the powerful.
Yet, Luke wasn’t bothered by this—although he should be.
He knew his path had only just started.
With his ability to forge and sell beast armor and revive mythical beasts, he could attain the two types of power required to survive: leverage and might.
Soon enough, neither the best of the city nor the supremes of the Confederacy would amount to anything in his eyes.
On the other hand, Scarlett had taken it upon herself to protect Luke from the harsh world out there. He wasn’t a proud, arrogant jerk, even with his potential. He was calm, funny, and also serious.
After ten minutes so far, she was too focused on Luke; she forgot to take her next dose of the Mutation Elixir.
The signs of the curse started to show on her face. Luckily, Luke pointed it out before it could get any worse.
"That was the last bottle. We are out of Mutation Elixirs," Scarlett said after she emptied hers. "Didn’t this Chapel Keeper drop any?"
Luke bit his lip, wondering how he didn’t realize that sooner. "No, it didn’t. And in the next ten minutes, we’ll be cursed and mutated."
The two looked at each other and mutually refused to die this way, so they hurried into the fourth sanctuary, only to find it bereft of monsters. However, just like their initial entry, there was another creature waiting for them at what looked like a confession booth to give them their next directions
Luke walked cautiously toward it, his heart beating slightly faster.
If not for the weapon hunter’s experience, they wouldn’t have gotten the Mutated Elixirs to survive the first sanctuary. But now the hunter was dead, leaving Luke and Scarlett clueless about how to interact with this second guide monster to ensure their survival in a mutated Sigma manifestation.