Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 144: Stalker's Set

After coming up with a goal to gain the resources necessary to build the so called Stygian Iron Works which he could use to make new materials that were required for his equipment. Zane got down to work and crafted the remaining portion of his armor set.

The individual pieces of the armor all had roughly the same type of stats, insofar as increasing his critical hit chance and evasion chance, in addition to have a +20% stealth bonus per armor piece. The only real difference between them was the actual armor rating of each piece.

The Stalker's Cuirass had the highest individual armor rating, with that being fifty. While the second highest piece was the leggings with an armor rating of 25. Both the vambraces and greaves had an armor rating of ten each, while the helmet had one of fifteen.

When combined with his legendary cloak, and the set bonus of +10 armor, Zane's current armor rating was a whopping 135, which was significantly higher than his previous equipment which had been scavenged from the ruins of the old world, equipment that didn't even give him an armor rating

Armor rating not only decreased the amount of damage taken from an attack, whether that be an undead or an awakened survivor, including weapons of all kinds utilized by survivors. But it also increased his HP.

For every 10 Armor that Zane had, he gained an equal amount of health points. Meaning that since his armor rating was currently 135, Zane gained 130 additional health point. Overall bringing his current HP to 280, that is, of course, only when he was wearing his full armor set.

This amount of health points was slightly more than an Abomination had, but was substantially lower than a Stalker which Zane could easily dispose of with his blood manipulation powers, and his heightened dexterity.

While messing around with his new gear, Zane also discovered a hide helmet feature built into the system, which allowed him to hide his Stalker's helmet. This was useful to him, since the helmet had a tendency to obscure his peripheral vision when it was set to visible.

Naturally, this was something Zane would rather avoid. After all, with his glass cannon style build, he relied on speed and perception to efficiently take down his enemies with a single surgical strike. If he were to miss an oncoming attack because the helmet was blocking his sight, such a mistake could prove fatal.

After getting accustomed to his new armor, which not only was highly flexible, but was also aesthetically pleasing to Zane's sense of fashion, Zane took a look at his two short swords, curious by their appearance.

Zane had crafted two short swords. Normally forging anything made of metal would require the Stygian Iron Works to convert Stalkers Claws and High Carbon Steel into Revenant Iron, but Zane had a few thousand gold left over from his shopping spree, and decided to spend it on precisely enough Revenant Iron Ingots to craft his short swords and recurve bow.

The effects of the Stalker's Short Swords were rather appealing to Zane, who examined the weapons' features intently for some time.

---

[Stalker's Short Sword]

[Item Quality: Rare]

[Item Type: One-Handed Sword]

[Item Slot: Melee Weapon]

[Item Effects:

Slashing Damage: 7-17

Damage: +15% (while Health is above 50%)

Life Draining: 3

Health Regeneration: -1

Health: +30

---

This was the combined effects of both of his short swords when they were equipped at the same time. Ignoring the Damage bonuses, Zane's attention was almost immediately attracted to the rather unique features of life draining.

This meant that for every time Zane successfully landed a hit on an opponent, it would steal 3 of their health when his short swords were equipped, instantly restoring those 3 hit points to himself.

Of course, there was a tradeoff for this effect, and that was for every second which passed. Zane would lose one HP when the short swords were equipped. This was balanced by an additional 30 HP, bringing his total HP when the daggers and armor set were equipped to 310.

Still, 7-17 damage, + an additional 3 damage per strike, which ended up adding to his health bar. Those were some decent features. Considering how quickly Zane could attack right now with his 24 Dexterity (that is when his gear was equipped) Zane could gain more health per second than he lost assuming he evaded any oncoming attacks.

After equipping the weapons and watching his health drain, Zane examined their appearance was surprised to replace that they were indeed short swords, but of a curious type, one that had not really been seen on Earth since the bronze age.

These two short swords were what were known as "sickle swords" like those used in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. However, unlike those in the past, they were jet black, with an almost glossy finish to them.

The grip appeared to be finely wrapped in Leaper leather, while the handle itself appeared to be beneath manufactured from Walker bone. It was uncertain though, as Zane could not see what exactly the handle was crafted from.

After putting his swords away, because they were taking up too much of his HP, Zane shifted to his short recurve bow, where he also examined its stats.

---

[Stalker's Short Recurve Bow]

[Item Quality: Rare]

[Item Type: Short Bow]

[Item Slot: Melee Weapon]

[Item Effects:

Piercing Damage: 15-28

Damage: +15% (while Health is above 50%)

Life: Draining: 5

Health Regeneration: -1

Health: +30

---

The effects of the recurve bow were quite similar to the daggers, but were amplified to some extent. It was also a ranged weapon, making it particularly interesting to Zane. Unfortunately, he had to continue to manufacture arrows for the bow, arrows which he only had a full quiver of at the moment.

Until Zane could build the Stygian Iron Works, he would have to rely on the store to purchase Revenant Iron, which was not cost effective in the slightest.

With this in mind, Zane's new goal was to build get the gold necessary to get the recipe for the Stygian Iron Works so he could continue to supply himself with arrows, while at the same time focusing on building Madison her birthday present, entirely unaware that she wanted something different from him now.

Regardless to do both of these things, Zane would have to go out on the hunt, and that's exactly what he planned to do tonight when everyone else was asleep.