Blacksmith: The Tempering Begins With One’s Flesh - Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Heart Tempering, Complete

Lin Feng nodded to himself and cast his gaze onto a bulletin board from the Smiths’ Association.

It stated the costs of ores and other materials in redemption points.

A Grade-1 ore was priced at 100 points, Grade-2 was 200, and so on.

He frowned slightly and recalled the Grade-3 commission he had just taken. Three Grade-3 weapons had only earned him 90 points, so if he was going to try and obtain all the ore needed to reinforce his heart using only the Smiths’ Association’s commissions, it would probably take him at least several months.

With that in mind, Lin Feng moved his gaze to the other end of the board.

For some reason, compared to ores, other things like the Mages’ Association’s secret tonics or the Warriors’ Association’s Strengthening Potions were much cheaper.

A Grade-2 Strengthening Potion was worth at least a whopping 200 gold pieces at Whitestar’s trade center, but if he exchanged his points at the Smiths’ Association for them, they were somehow only worth twenty points.

That had to be one of the benefits for Smiths’ Association members.

Higher-grade smiths would often strengthen their bodies the way Lin Feng did to Brent in order to ensure they had the strength and stamina to continue forging.

Some of them also trained in some fire-type magic to speed up the refining process when removing impurities out of their materials.

In the Smiths’ Association, there were all types of potions that could help blacksmiths like that. It really opened Lin Feng’s eyes.

Over the next few days, he continued taking Grade-3 commissions, each time spending no more than a day and a night no matter how many weapons the order required.

Gradually, many people in the Smiths’ Association became relatively familiar with him.

Half a month later, Lin Feng had 430 points.

The commissions he had taken almost all involved Grade-3 weapons. As a result, the Flame Energy in his body hit the maximum limit several times.

Lin Feng had tried using the system’s lucky draw function too.

It was a way for him to exchange Flame Energy for materials. After Lin Feng used up several hundred Flame Energy points, he began to realize something.

“Looks like the system mostly gives me Grade-2 ore…

“If I’m unlucky, I might even end up with Grade-1 ore… I wonder if I’ll ever get luckier and receive something higher…”

He shook that thought out of his head for now.

When he deducted the hundred Flame Energy points required to run the lucky draw, after Lin Feng made more than a dozen Grade-3 weapons in a row, the system provided him with a chance to pull for a high-grade ore with one thousand Flame Energy points.

“A thousand Flame Energy points…”

Lin Feng clicked his tongue. Even if he could earn more Flame Energy forging more Grade-3 weapons, a thousand points was still a little high for him.

After half a month, he only had enough Flame Energy for one high-grade draw.

Lin Feng was in no rush to pull, though. Firstly, he applied for a forging workshop of his own and walked inside alone.

The Smiths’ Association workshops were only open for the members’ use. They were far more private and secure than other buildings.

Lin Feng found a random spot and sat down, placing the ore he had saved over the past few days onto the table. Finally, he placed his hand on his chest and pressed it twice.

He had not stopped reinforcing his heart lately. As it grew steadily stronger, Lin Feng had been using God-level Forgery to simulate a certain scenario in his mind.

If he had Grade-4 ore to go with the rare Grade-3 rare metals every time he reinforced his heart, he should be able to strengthen his heart to Grade-3, matching his muscles and bones, within five rounds of reinforcement.

He had four hundred points with the Smiths’ Association now, but he could not be sure if he would need them for some other rare material later.

A dozen thoughts ran through his mind, and Lin Feng simply sighed.

“If I could get Grade-4 ore from the system’s lucky draw, I might be able to finish reinforcing my heart today itself.”

Fine. Lin Feng hesitated no more, sitting on the floor and summoning the system in a soft voice. Soon, a foggy wheel that seemed to be shining with a rainbow light appeared before his eyes.

He had already used the low-grade rolls before this, so Lin Feng was familiar with this process now.

With just the power of his will, he spun the lucky wheel. As it spun with an iridescent glow, the forging workshop was filled with the immense power of various different elements.

For a split second, Lin Feng even sensed the elemental energy of a Grade-5 material.

After a moment, there was a flash of extremely brilliant light before Lin Feng’s eyes. The light slowly faded, and when Lin Feng could finally open his eyes, the glow around his prize had completely dimmed away.

“Grade-4 ore!

“I knew it, it is Grade-4!”

Lin Feng was elated, picking up the ore and observing it carefully.

The ore he had spent a thousand Flame Energy points was emanating a chilly aura.

With Lin Feng’s knowledge and experience, he could naturally recognize it.

“It’s Coldspring Jade!”

After he exclaimed the material’s name, Lin Feng calmed himself down and placed the jade on the floor, casting his gaze across the various ores.

Now, he finally let a smile spread across his face again.

“I have materials from five different elements now, so I can use the five-elemental forging technique I learned from my God-level Forgery to reinforce my heart…”

With his mind made up, Lin Feng immediately began pumping the forge blower.

As the temperature in the workshop rose, Lin Feng pressed his hand against the forge once more.

Not long later, the flames in the forge went from orange-red to bright white.

The flames looked just right for him, so he went right ahead and poured all the rare ore into the forge at once.

The Grade-2 Holy Flame was indeed especially effective. The ores he put in were all different in quality and levels of hardness, but they all melted down to a liquid within slightly over ten minutes.

After all this time, Lin Feng was quite experienced with reinforcing his body now. When he saw that the ore had been melted down, he wasted no time using his Holy Flame to split open the skin and muscle on his chest.

That pain he felt was unimaginable for most people.

He then wrapped the liquid made of various melted elemental ores in his Holy Flame and poured them onto his heart.

In that instant, an agony several times worse than being skinned alive washed over him, making Lin Feng’s eyes spasm in pain.

He clenched his teeth and held onto the last shred of his consciousness, adding even more power into his Holy Flame.

The burning heat circulated through Lin Feng’s eighty-one times before finally coming to a stop.

The moment he removed the Holy Flame from the surface of his body, the blood in his veins surged, granting him what felt like inexhaustible power in his limbs.