A Sinner’s Chance

With my recent molt and enhancement of my Skills, my base combat power had risen significantly, the only obstacle was spending the time to get accustomed to the new Skills, as unlike one's I'd learned naturally, they weren't as intuitive to use or control. For Parallel Soul this wasn't a massive issue as the Skill itself was more of a passive type of ability anyway, but knowing the limits of the Overlay was an important factor as well.

The Overlay was vastly superior to me in regards to dealing with magic and while I was still limited by my small Domain, the ways I was able to utilize the space had increased. Mana consumption wasn't something I was concerned with in any aspect, even if my Wisdom was no longer considered EX, I still had a massive pool that would give even the strongest mages a run for their money. As such I wasted no effort in trying out all manner of spells I'd been avoiding due to their complexity to see how much the Overlay could take.

It easily outperformed anything I'd imagined even in my wildest dreams, basically allowing me complete control inside my Domain. Things I had once thought impossible due to both the complexity and specialized knowledge required were now rather simple, such as short range teleportation, targeted sonic attacks, among others, mostly from the Vibro, Space and Life/Death magics.

My other new Skill, Creation, was an entirely different bag of beans, and it took me quite some time to figure out the best way to use it.  For simple crafts, such as arrows, I could build them nearly instantly so long as I had mana to spare. Things that were more complex or required very specialized knowledge took far too long, or simply failed to come into being if I lacked any critical information. Such had been the case with some weapons I'd tried to replicate from Velen's world. While I was able to find and view the designs, many of the concepts were far too difficult for me to understand, something that could be rectified, but not something I was willing to spend large amounts of time in Seshat's Library for, at least for now.

Things I'd made previously or were more familiar with were faster and easier to make, and raw material was also pretty simple if I understood its composition well enough. The first thing I did after figuring out Creation was to build a new workshop, I'd built one before, but this one was better and more streamlined, I was also able to create some more of the complex designs I'd been saving as I didn't plan to move the components, rather I'd just build a new workshop when I needed to do so.

With a new permanent workshop I could start working on upgrading everyone's gear, Neyla included as it was a form of repayment on my part. Since I was able to train my magic by leaving it to the Soul Overlay, I focused heavily on everyone's equipment, as I thought a proper combination of weapons and armor for everyone would be more helpful than a few levels in my polearm Skill. Even better was that I could try out all kinds of materials that were normally hard to acquire as everyone else went out to hunt monsters to train and gain Experience, bringing back the corpses for both food and to see if I could get any use out of them.

One of the better discoveries was the creation of healing potions that were far more effective than what was normally available through the use of herbs and other common materials. Utilizing highly toxic and corrosive troll's blood, along with a mixture of herbs and strangely gold, I  managed to make a deep red healing potion that, while bitter, healed almost as good as some higher power healing magic, the downside being that unlike magical healing that used mana to power the process, the potion really only sped up the process tremendously, making it lethal on some weaker creatures, and exhausting to most average ones. On the plus side, it worked on undead too, and allowed the organic tissues to be rebuilt and repaired and since the undead were typically tireless due to the magic that made them, the downside didn't affect them at all.

With the new workshop I spent much of my time making and adjusting the equipment I made for the others, using any spare time I had to improve mine. I didn't plan to have Renae partake in any fighting, but there was always a chance she could end up in some kind of trouble so I made her a dagger she could wear at all times along with a glaive and a bow as those were the weapons she'd been learning from Neyla and Arya.

Alongside that she also received a set of Communication Jewelry that connected to a new set I was wearing, both Steria and Neyla got a set as well, though they only connected to me since the additional work to make more connection wasn't currently worth it. Steria would absolutely be getting a set, but I needed to make all the sets at the same time to connect them to each other, something currently impossible as Marian wasn't nearby. I figured it would be best to make those when everyone was together once more, something that I was desperately missing.

Aside from Arya's bow which I only made some minor improvements and some maintenance, she got an entire new set of equipment. As she had typically fought as a mage when in close quarters I made a plain looking staff that could be used both as a melee weapon and as a mage's staff, the shining feature was that it could collapse to about a fourth of its normal size making it much less awkward to store or carry. For armor she got a skintight bodysuit made from nearly transparent silken threads, a task that had proved more difficult than I'd expected. To go on top of that was plate armor made from Glasteel, a transparent metal from Velen's world that had been enchanted to be lightweight and even more durable than it was originally.

When I'd first shown her the prototype she'd been unsure as she felt that despite the face it was covered and protected, she would still feel exposed, but I eventually managed to convince. The point of the armor was to maximize the amount of skin shown so that Photosynthesis could work at peak capacity. Despite typical Elven disregard for embarrassment or shame from a naked body, I'd still made sure to leave opaque areas where humans would consider it to be immodest. Better to live by their standards and be ignored than be singled out, something that would probably happen if anyone saw the armor regardless.

Neyla got a set of heavy plate armor that I'd made special enchanted straps that were essentially automatic so she didn't have to have someone help her get it on every time, along with a a few enhancements to her glaive as she was attached to it and didn't want to change for now. She was now far more defended and could take more straight fights with foes she'd been unable to deal with before.

Steria's was the most difficult equipment to make as not only did I want to play into the strengths she currently had, I wanted it to be able to either shift forms with her, or otherwise not inconvenience her like normal clothing did when she shifted. I eventually managed to create a bizarre set of armor that was closer to a living creature than armor. With the help of alchemy, enchanting and a strange parasite monster they'd brought back one day, I finally managed to make armor that was capable of shifting forms at will, however, it was still a prototype and took me and Steria several weeks of collaboration to get it just right for her.

For weapons, she got a single edged longsword that was good for fleshier enemies and an offhand stiletto that could be used to puncture deep into hide or enemy armor. I'd almost given in to her demands for a shield but I knew that unless the shield was small or unrealistically lightweight it would only slow her down and make her that less effective.

As for myself, I didn't do that much, just some part replacement on the naginatas turning them more into staff blades as were now part mage staff, along with the enchantments needed to channel Desiccating Yin through them. Other than a few minor adjustments to my harness, my equipment didn't look all that different, but the output I would be capable of was much higher now, the only thing that would make it better was if I could figure out how to properly dual wield the naginatas, as they had been built complementarity to each other. Unfortunately, the secrets of Itoryu that Ashara practiced remain hidden, even with all my searching through Seshat's Library.

It had taken just over five months for us to finish training and were able to beat nearly all the monsters in the Lesser ring. It was time to head into the inner ring and cross it as quickly as possible.