"Alright Luna, it's finally time to make some equipment for you"

"Are you sure that you want my help with this? I've never done anything like this before"

Because I do not own any equipment I'm not as effective in battle as my level would suggest, so Arana said that she's going to enchant some objects for me and that if I help her she can make them powerful enough for someone of my level.

Until now I didn't think that I needed any more power than I already had, but now we're probably going to walk into a confrontation with some dangerous people, so I should probably do everything I can to make sure that they won't be able to beat me in a fight at least.

"You know how to make magic circles and how to place spell effects on a target, don't you? Turning a common object into equipment is just that with a few extra steps, I can take care of those steps, so don't worry"

Arana takes out a few silver rings from her pocket and gives one to me.

"Try to cast 'darkness boost' on that ring, then create a magic circle to make the effect permanent"

What's that supposed to do? 'Darkness boost' increases the power of dark spells used by the target, but I don't think a ring would be able to cast a spell since it's an inanimate object and all... well if it does it will be quite a surprise, I guess I'll do it since I want to see what happens.

"There, done"

"Alright, let me engrave this"

Arana uses a strange tool that looks like a long needle with a glowing tip to make the magic circle made of my mana merge with the ring, leaving the markings engraved on it.

"Is that how equipment is made?"

The process is a lot simpler than I thought, although it took her some time.

"Let's take a look with the appraisal stone, these work on equipment as well"

 

Greater ring of deep darkness
Increases magic by 80 when using dark magic
Required level: 200
Equipment burden: 10%
Enchantment rank: 20

 

"Oh! As expected of Luna's spell, this is some high-quality equipment, If someone had ten of these they could increase their magic by a total of 800, that's amazing! And since the rank of the enchantment is the same as your rank in dark magic the rank of this ring is probably higher than that of any other equipment you can find"

Since the magic in different pieces of equipment interferes with each other, there's a limit to how much any one person can wear, that is called 'equipment burden', the burden of 10% of this ring means that someone can use up to ten of them at once.

An average level 200 mage has just over 600 magic, so an increase of 800 would be rather significant, but I'm not sure if it's all that useful for me, mostly because I'm already unwilling to use my full power, so what's the point of increasing it even further?

"I know what you're thinking, but don't worry, this one was just a test, now we'll make something more useful"

"What do you mean?"

"Here, try using that flying magic of yours on this cloak"

"That is complex magic created by me, made of three different spells, can something like that be made into equipment as well?"

"Of course it can go ahead"

This time the process seems more difficult than before, she uses her tool to somehow sew the mana of my spells into the fabric of the cloak, I don't know much about sewing but I can tell that it must take a lot of skill to do something like this.

 

Sky terror cloak
Allows its wearer to manifest wings and fly for up to 5 minutes, recharges after 45 minutes.
Required level: 280
Equipment burden: 20%
Enchantment rank: 20

 

"Since flying always tires you out so much you cannot make a lot of use of that magic, but with this cloak, you'll get 5 minutes of flight for free, no use of mana or stamina required"

"Oh! That's great! But... what's the deal with the name?"

"If you ever saw what you look like when you fly with those pitch-black wings you would understand..."

Uh? What's that supposed to mean?

"Anyway, next I want to try to make a piece of equipment with two entirely separate spells, try to cast 'Paralysis' and 'Mana grudge' on each of these gloves"

'Paralysis' can make someone the caster touches unable to move while 'Mana grudge' leaves a mark made of mana on anyone who tries to attack the caster, combining the two resulted in...

 

Stunning vengeful gloves
Inflicts a powerful paralysis effect on anyone who attacks the wearer.
Required level: 250
Equipment burden: 30%
Enchantment rank: 20

 

"This can be very useful, the best part is that it can cause its effect without having to hit the opponent, so it's a perfect counter for opponents with high evasion"

"Oh... that really makes me wish we had made these before I fought the ant..."

"See? I told you that you needed to get some equipment, so next, we should..."

Before we can continue I notice that Nera has returned from her stroll.

"Hey, Luna! I found something interesting! You need to come and take a look"

"Really? What is it?"

I suppose we can take a short break from making equipment.

---

 

Nera takes us to a place not far away from where we were, there's a pond of water that seems... warm?

"Hey, is this a hot spring?"

"Exactly! I was really lucky to find something like this just by wandering around"

I had never seen a hot spring before, to think that it's possible to find hot water in nature, this is amazing.

"That's weird... this does not seem like the kind of place where you can find one of these"

Arana is looking at the spring with a bit of suspicion.

"There's nothing weird about a hot spring, we have a lot of these in the Agua kingdom, I used to visit them quite often"

Is that so? That makes me a bit jealous.

"So, can we take a bath here?"

"Yeah, that's the idea, no?"

"Oh! Great! Ever since I started this journey I've only been able to use cold water, this should be nice for a change"

Looking forward to the bath I take off my dress, but when she sees what I'm doing, Nera covers her eyes with her hands.

"L-Luna! What are you doing!?"

"Eh? I'm just taking off my clothes before entering the water"

"Don't do it in front of us!!!"

"Why not? Is that wrong?"

I thought that since we're all girls and are going to take a bath it would be ok to undress here, but I guess I just don't know much about social norms...

"I think it's fine"

Arana seems to agree with me.

"No! It's not fine! A lady should never let other people see her naked! We need to enter the water one at a time! Luna, since you already took off your dress, you are first"

And with that she grabs Arana by her wrist and drags her away, she got really worked up over this, even though I didn't even take off my underwear, I guess that must be because of her upbringing as a princess.

Well, since I'm all alone now, I'll finish undressing and get in the water.

"Oh! This really feels nice!"

I close my eyes and relax for a bit...

...

This is even better than I imagined, it makes me want to stay here the entire day.

However, I should probably not make them wait too long, I need to get out of here soon.

But I cannot remember where I left my clothes, I don't see them anywhere...

No, really, I don't see them anywhere, where did they go? They disappeared without a trace...

Mmm, I guess I can just take some other clothes from my storage.

"Eh!? There are no clothes here!"

All the clothes that I had inside my storage are gone as well, what in the world is going on here? The only thing I can do to cover myself is to wrap my towel around my body.

"Ribbit"

"Uh? Who's there?"

A bit further away I see a group of really large frogs, actually, I think that they're monsters since they're standing on two feet and they are holding...the clothes I had in my storage.

What!? How!? Taking something out of someone else's magic storage is something only a highly skilled mage should be able to do, how did a bunch of frogs manage to do it? And why!?

"How did you get that?"

"Ribbit"

"Please, give me back my clothes"

"Ribbit"

"Hey! That was rude! Take it back!"

I don't really understand what they are saying, but I'm going to assume that they were insulting me.

"Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit"

Ah! They are running away, I can't let them escape.

"Come back here!!!"