Chapter 97   - New Equipment

Ray had decided to wake up earlier than usual today. The others had come back later than him and were out all night training. They needed good rest for the fights that they had in front of them. Meanwhile, Ray knew he had no opponent, meaning there was nothing for him to worry about.

Ray was originally meant to go up against Killer. Well with Killer now being a pile of ashes, that was impossible. Ray's injuries had healed up through the night but his equipment was still in poor condition.

Ray decided to head down to the blacksmith to see if there was anything he could do. After entering the shop, this time to the owner was nicer than ever to Ray. As soon as Ray entered, the owner bowed down and greeted him. Something he had never done before.

It frightened Ray to think what Slyvia must have done to him. It also made him realise that her family must hold great power and sway throughout the kingdom to even have influence in the Academy.

"Is there any way you can fix this?" Ray took at a single right pictorial piece and a bunch of other shattered pieces and laid them out on the table.

The owner rubbed his glasses to see if he was seeing things.

"Sir you must be joking. This thing is beyond repair. All though we did just get this new Armadillo advanced chest piece if you would like a new one?"

The owner couldn't help but think what on earth Ray had done to get his equipment in a state like this. The fanged boar piece wasn't weak. Even a cannon shot wouldn't have damaged it this badly. The owner grew even more suspicious of Ray.

The owner shuffled over to the showcase against the right wall of the shop to take out the Armadillo chest piece and let Ray examine it. The shelves holding armour on the side wall were currently encased in reinforced glass so no one would be able to steal the highly valued armours and if someone did manage to break the glass, steel bars would immediately drop down from the ceiling.

The armadillo piece had a beautiful orange shine with cone-shaped interlocking scales. It had been refined down to give it a sturdy strong defence.

The piece looked nice and Ray was due for an upgrade on his equipment. As Ray got closer to the piece, he could see the price tag "10,000 Coins". Ray currently held Ten intermediate crystals so he would be able to trade for the amour piece but a student couldn't get their hands on that much coin or that many crystals.

The owner also knew Ray was a student of Avrion academy and had already suspected him once of stealing basic tier crystals. If he was suddenly to pull out ten the owner would have a heart attack.

"It's okay I could never afford that," Ray said.

The owner smiled; he knew that the student in front of him had no way of paying for the equipment. The owner simply wanted to boast about the new piece of armour that had come in.

"Could you fix these for me then?" Ray asked as he placed his two gauntlets on the table.

The owner took a good look at them, again wondering what Ray had been through to get the gauntlets in this type of condition.

"It will take me a while but I think I can work on it." The owner replied.

Ray was happy. The gauntlets were a gift from the old man. He currently didn't have his own set and gauntlets were a rare item so the shop didn't sell any. He relied on the gauntlets a lot these days, since he mainly used martial arts to fight rather than his sword.

Ideally, he would have loved for Killer to have dropped a sword instead of a spear. The spear was currently useless to him and was hidden under Ray's bed with a whole load of other things. Ray currently didn't have anywhere to put them so this was his only option.

Ray could buy a spatial manipulation bag, but they costed a fortune. A tier ten mage had to inscribe the bag with a specific advanced tier crystal. So not only were they expensive but also rare.

Ray decided to go for a walk around the academy while waiting for his gauntlets to be repaired. While walking around, he saw one of the red sash squires giving a tour of the academy to a crowd of people. The crowd was filled with parents, nobles, merchants and even adventurers.

"And further down the hall, we have the blacksmithing area. Inside the blacksmithing area, there is a shop where students are able to buy and sell equipment. It is also a space used by students of the blacksmithing club who wish to learn how to forge beast equipment." The red squire knight said as he walked past.

As the nobles walked past Ray, they couldn't help but start to whisper to themselves.

"Isn't that the red-haired boy who was in the tournament?"

"Yes, I think your right, how scary."

Ray walked past the crowd of people and decided to ignore them. As he walked past, he noticed the adventures carrying really nice equipment. The upside of being an adventurer was you often went out on quests to slay magical beasts giving you many opportunities to obtain strong crystal cores.

Then a light bulb moment came to Ray's mind as he saw the adventurers walk past. Ray quickly rushed back to his room and went looking under his bed. Everyone else had already left the room in preparation for their upcoming match which was perfect for Ray.

Underneath Ray's bed, he pulled a small chest and with the touch of his finger, the chest unlocked. The chest was inscribed with magic so only the user was allowed to open the chest. Of course, if you had greater Ki or magic then the spell inscribed, someone could break it.

Ray opened the chest and took out the ten intermediate beast crystals.

He went over to the girls' side of the room where they had a long full body mirror.

Suddenly, a white mist surrounded Ray's entire body. Then slowly the mist started to disappear. Out of the mist came a black-haired handsome man wearing all sorts of high-end beast gear. Although Ray currently looked impressive and looked like a strong adventurer, everything was currently an illusion created from his skill, transform.