Chapter 53: Chapter 53: New Armour

He eventually settled on choosing between four sets of armour.

Interestingly, their sigils' effects were as varied as their gold, black, red, and silver colours.

The gold armour had the most straightforward effect for armour. Using materials from a gold-attribute spiritual beast and having a sigil to boost defence when injected with spiritual power, it would make the wearer practically immune to physical attacks beneath the orange-grade.

It would be a huge help if the Dark Moon exam once again requires successful applicants to withstand a beast tide.

His chances of not being eliminated due to an injury would be much greater.

However, it had its limitations. For one, it would only protect his upper body, he could still be injured in other areas.

Additionally, it was a hard armour and much heavier than what he was used to wearing. Its weight would likely impede his movements with the spear or if he had to dodge an attack aimed at an uncovered area.

Finally, it only offers protection against the most basic physical attacks. Kain would still be vulnerable to poisons, the heat from flames, and more.

Therefore, Main eventually decided to eliminate it because he did not think it'd provide a significant boost to his chances of passing the exam.

The black armour was a soft armour with a very unique effect. Created from the materials of a rare shadow-attribute spiritual creature, and enchanted with a corresponding sigil, it led to a miraculous effect.

When injected with spiritual power at night or in a suitably dark environment, the wearer would become invisible.

He wanted it! Just looking at it, his mind was full of ninja and assassination fantasies starring him.

However, his immediate need is to pass the entrance exam…which would most likely occur during the day.

Therefore, although it was an overpowered piece of equipment in certain environments and circumstances, it really wouldn't be much help in passing the exam.

So, with great reluctance, he turned towards the other two pieces of equipment.

The red armour had a passive effect of granting its wearer a massive boost in their resistance to heat and fire-attribute attacks.

Additionally, when injected with spiritual power, 70% of the energy obtained from recent fire-attribute attacks can be released.

Therefore, it not only provided defensive but also offensive capabilities.

Furthermore, fire-attribute contracts are the most common initial contract for 1-star beast tamers.

Additionally, fire-attribute spiritual creatures are some of the most common in the whole empire, only rare in the North.

Therefore, he would likely be able to make great use of its functions.

Although the beast-tide will likely have creatures with a variety of attributes, not having to worry about those with one of the most offensive attributes is a huge advantage.

Additionally, he could take the energy from fire attacks he receives and use it against attackers with other attributes.

This armour would increase the tactics he could use. Therefore, it was the one he was leaning the most towards out of the four.

However, he still had some hesitation with selecting it due to the fourth armour. The wild-card.

The fourth armour was really not something he ever expected to see here, in a small city.

It also definitely wasn't something that someone of his level should have ever had the opportunity to obtain.

It was made from the materials of a member of the Protean species. The lowest member of this species begins at Gold-quality, while the levels of its future evolutions reach a level beyond Kain's knowledge.

Proteans are one of the most difficult species to track and hunt due to their shape-shifting abilities, able to assume the forms and abilities of pretty much any creature at or below their level in spiritual power that they lay eyes on.

As such the characteristics of the weapons and armours made from their materials are similarly variable.

The one in front of Kain only had one effect. To absorb the spiritual power of a spiritual creature and give birth to an armour with the abilities of that creature as the basis.

Therefore, it's not yet a final product. Its appearance and abilities will differ depending on the wearer's spiritual beast.

Bea was a water-attribute, but also a super rare mental-attribute. Although it was a huge gamble to not know what abilities the armour he buys may have if the armour can inherit a mental-attribute from Bea he would have made a lot of money.

Mental-attribute equipment often will cost several times that of other attribute equipment due to the rarity of the spiritual creatures needed to obtain the materials and how troublesome it is to deal with such creatures.

If he walked away from it now, he knew he'd be constantly questioning 'what if?' for months to even years.

'But there really is not guarantee that the armour effects that are manifested would even be useful' Kain was in agony over this difficult choice.

'How did this armour even get here? And why is its level so low? Most equipment made from Proteans should require at least 4-stars to operate. No matter how shoddy the workmanship is, its level should not drop to 2-stars. What's the catch?'

Realizing that it'd be impossible to decide between the 2 sets of armour alone, he knocked on the door to the back room to request some more information.