There was no indication from the start that anything was different. Applying the ice magic stone dust went as before, filling in the grooves and gouges in the bracer's pattern, and even applying the Aqua Magia went just as before.

But there was no reaction.

Not even a sense of wrongness with the enchantment, just it was as though nothing was there at all. James felt he might as well be trying to enchant some random pebble, not a prepared bracer. He continued for some minutes before realizing that all the Aqua Magia he had applied had disappeared, and the dust was once again just sitting in the etched pattern.

After another application of Aqua Magia and pushing his mana as hard as he could, James had to give up. Something wasn't working.

Eventually, he decided to compare the [Frostbite] and [Water Resistance] enchantments, not just in his memories, but by etching then on two iron strips just to compare them. He gazed at the lines and squiggles for some time and in the end…

Couldn't figure it out.

The Enchanter had reached the limits of his knowledge, which is entirely unsurprising.

Remember, James had never been educated about Enchanting. He had merely been given experience and materials for the purpose of gaining an Enchanter class. He knew nothing of even elemental runes. Everything that had been accomplished up to this point had been done entirely based on the application of memorized patterns.

Undoubtedly impressive, especially in his circumstances, but there are limits. And this is one of them.

James had to give up on developing an [Ice Resistance] pattern.

But that didn't mean he didn't discover something useful.

During his testing, he noted that his [Frostbite]-enchanted cooling strip was less effective on his [Water Resistance]-enchanted bracer than it was on the regular one. The regular one frosted over instantly, and even started accumulating ice in the slightly humid air. The enchanted bracer took time to frost over, and barely started accumulating ice after several minutes.

It seemed that [Water Resistance], at least somewhat, did improve resistance to [Frostbite].

James considered his current armor set.

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Cuirass, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15, Enchantment: Water Resistance (14)

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Armored Skirt, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 8/8, Enchantment: Water Resistance (16)

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Codpiece, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/10, Enchantment: Water Resistance (15)

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Greaves, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/10, Enchantment: Water Resistance (15)

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Cuisses, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 8/10, Enchantment: Water Resistance (17)

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Left Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15, Enchantment: Water Resistance (16)

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Right Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 9/9, Enchantment: Water Resistance (18)

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Bracers, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/10, Enchantment: Water Resistance (17)

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Studded Boots, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 12/12, Enchantment: Water Resistance (14)

Wearing the Water Amulet increased the strength of his [Water Resistance] enchantments by roughly half, as well. Thinking about it, it was highly likely that his armor set had been putting in work in the snowy passage even without his realizing it.

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And although his experiments with undine essence had been somewhat derailed, he pulled out the three knives he had made in the past.

[Appraisal]: Iron Knife, Quality: Very Low, Durability 8/8, Enchantment: Frostbite (10)

[Appraisal]: Blue Iron Knife, Quality: Very Low, Durability 8/8, Enchantment: Frostbite (14)

[Appraisal]: Ice Knife, Quality: Very Low, Durability 8/8, Enchantment: Frostbite (21)

The Ice Knife had been created with Blue Iron soaked in one of the nearby pools and had absorbed plenty of undine essence before being forged and enchanted.

And enchanted with just a Blue Magic Stone at that.

The Smith put the pieces together and realized that he still had a way to improve his overall Water Resistance, and to some extent, his resistance to the ice-element attacks of the monsters in the snowy passage.

First, he considered some long put-off improvements he wanted to make to his armor, ever since he acquired his [Product Testing] skill. Other than some minor improvements for comfort and ease of movement, he wanted to reduce the noise his armor made while moving. Effortlessly he identified a number of places where his armor scraped and banged against itself as he moved in different ways, and he came up with ways to mitigate this noise.

He also wanted bulk up the back of his armor. His cuirass had taken more damage than expected from the bird monsters tackling him in his blind spots. And the specter had managed to get the drop on him as well.

Without any kind of [Danger Sense] skill, he suspected that he would be eating surprise attacks for a long time to come. Protecting his back was a good idea.

Those tweaks in mind, James had to confront the biggest trade off-he was making. Blue Iron had the notable property of resisting temperature changes, which was perfect for his goal here. But it also weighed roughly as much as regular iron, which was twice as much as Green Iron.

He had to choose between weight and protection.

If he used less Blue Iron, making his armor thinner, it would weigh less and he could move faster and more easily. If he used the same amount of Blue Iron as he had used Green Iron, he would weigh more and move slower, but he would maintain the same amount of protection to physical attacks that he had now.

Ultimately, James chose protection over speed. His armor had saved his life over and over since entering the Dungeon, and speed never once had. In fact, he hadn't been faster than any monster in the Dungeon until just recently, with the snow golem. The armor would be heavy, but it was worth it.

First, James mined some of the nearby abundant Blue Iron Ore and spent an inordinately long time smelting it into ingots. While that was going on, he forged a basket with which he could dip the ingots in one of the nearby pools to absorb undine essence without having to physically sit and hold the iron in the water.

He let the iron sit in the pool while he slept to ensure it absorbed as much essence as possible, and the next day he recovered dozens of ingots of Blue Iron teeming with undine essence.

Then began the long, tedious process of heating up the iron to forge. Once warmed up and malleable, it wasn't so bad, as the Blue Iron also held its heat well and could be worked longer than regular iron before needing to be reheated. While working on his first piece, a bracer, James focused intently on the undine essence within. He wanted it spread as evenly as possible throughout the iron, because he intended to tile the [Water Resistance] pattern as much as he could to make it stronger.

[Enchanter] Class Skill [Substrate Analysis] has reached level 3.

Each tap of his hammer moved the essence throughout the material, even once he had finished forming the bracer. Eventually, he decided it was as good as he could get it, and quenched the forged bracer in a bucket of Pure Water.

The water in the bucket hissed and roiled for several long minutes as all the heat energy was pulled from the bracer. Steam billowed up in the Smith's face until he leaned back, waiting it out. Eventually the boiling stopped, and he moved the bracer to a second bucket of Pure Water, just to be safe.

Then it was done. At least, the forging.

[Appraisal]: Blue Iron Bracer, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 12/12, Undine Essence: 10/10

He had slightly thickened the bracer to provide a little more protection, even though it would increase the weight significantly. His arms were strong from swinging his hammer and holding his shield, so he felt he could take it. But boy, when he strapped it on it certainly was a lot heavier! It would take some getting used to.

He then spent the rest of the day etching the [Water Resistance] tiled pattern onto the surface of the bracer, as small as he could without sacrificing accuracy. Eventually he felt a burning in his eyes from focusing so hard, and when he leaned back to stretch and rest his eyes a minute, he heard a clacking outside his ward.

Odd, there hadn't been as many crab monsters coming by lately.

Still, he armored up, went out, slayed the crab monster, and set its meat to smoking while he ate dinner. Then he went to sleep.

The next morning James woke up, baked and ate some bread, and then finished his etching.

[Smith] Class Skill [Filigree] has reached level 4.

After applying the Blue Magic Stone dust, he produced more Aqua Magia than he thought he would need and set to applying it. Immediately, he felt tremendous resistance from the undine essence. It took a heavy push from his mana to force the Aqua Magia from the brush onto the surface of the bracer, and even required constant pushing to keep it there. But he persevered, continuing to push on the Aqua Magia he was applying and that which he had already applied…

[Enchanter] Class Skill [Essence Manipulation] has been acquired.

[Synergy] Skill [Efficient Crafting (Smithing and Enchanting)] has reached level 4.

Suddenly, the effort required to keep the Aqua Magia in place reduced significantly. It was as though the weight of his mana had increased, now easily pressing down on the undine essence in the Blue Iron, pressing the Blue Magic Stone dust in the enchantment pattern into the essence itself.

Soon after acquiring the new skill, James finished applying the Aqua Magia. Quickly, he raised his hands to finish the enchantment, given that he was still applying magical pressure on the Aqua Magia.

He gave his mana a firm push.

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