“Lil’ Ou, it’s actually best to have only one Skill Rune on a piece of equipment.” Bai Zhiyi chuckled and continued after a short pause, “Normally, the easiest way to smith a piece of Dual Skill Equipment is to find a treasure ore with a unique rune. Once the treasure ore is embedded in the equipment, there won’t be any problems.”
Ou Yangming touched his waist sash, which had unique abilities. The reason it became a magic tool was treasure ores were embedded in it.
Therefore, the way of embedding treasure ores was also the right path to upgrade a piece of equipment’s power.
Bai Zhiyi sighed. “It’s the easiest way and has the highest success rate, but it’s also the toughest way.”
Ou Yangming could not help but laugh. “It’s because it’s too difficult to find treasure ores.”
“Yes, suitable treasure ores are too hard to find.” Bai Zhiyi smiled bitterly. “That’s why we usually acquire treasure ores first and design pieces of equipment according to their attributes instead of finding treasure ores according to requirements for pieces of equipment.”
The young fellow nodded and asked, “Should we adopt another method then?”
His face changed slightly as he spoke because he had a suitable treasure inside his interspatial bag.
As long the poisonous pill refined from Ghost Mo’s inner core was slightly processed, it could be attached with a powerful poison-series Skill Rune, and it would be way more effective than one could imagine.
Nonetheless, it would be impossible to think that Ou Yangming would use the poisonous pill here.
Bai Zhiyi responded, “That’s right. The second method is to merge 2 runes and carve them on the equipment, but it’s extremely difficult to achieve that.”
He had a terribly bitter look on his face. It was already challenging to engrave a Skill Rune, but if the number was doubled, the difficulty would be more than doubled; it would be at least 10 times harder.
Taking a piece of white paper as an example, it would be easy to doodle on it, such that anyone with an artistic background could easily draw something beautiful on it.
However, it would be incredibly tricky to produce an entirely different masterpiece on top of that drawing.
Needless to say, the Humans had a long story in smithing art as it had been around for an unknown period. Throughout the endless years, there were numerous miracles.
People would sometimes stumble upon rune paths for dual skills, or one would accidentally comprehend the wonders behind it and become reputable.
Nevertheless, every Dual Skill Rune was not simple, and they would not be easily circulated. This was because they would become core skills for sects or families. Apart from loyal direct disciples and descendants, one would not be able to see them.
Bai Zhiyi continued in a deep voice, “The rudimentary poison-series Skill Rune that I grasped is the Stun Art, which allows one to release some poisonous gaze to stun one’s enemy. Hehe, it’s the most basic poison-series spell, but it yields the same result as the Poisonous Gas Diffusion through a different approach. These 2 should be able to match with each other, and it’ll be less difficult to make it work.”
Ou Yangming nodded in agreement.
There were countless dual skill combinations, but they also varied in difficulty.
A combination between 2 poison-series runes was comparatively easier, whereas the difficulty of merging fire-series and water-series runes in a piece of equipment would force one to go mad and commit suicide.
Bai Zhiyi also retrieved an ordinary ore and smithed it into the model requested by Poisonous Gas Gentleman. His fire flickered as the Stun Art Rune was slowly attached to the equipment.
The Stun Art was a general name for runes because there were many ways to create a similar effect.
Not only the poison series, but the water series, light series, and even earth series also had Skill Runes for the Stun Art.
Perhaps the only disparity between them was the stun period and effect.
Ou Yangming stared quietly at the fire in front of him. Bai Zhiyi was returning the favor by not concealing the changes in his fire, hence the young fellow could sense everything clearly.
Unlike Bai Zhiyi, who could not apprehend the changes in Skill Runes, Ou Yangming had a rather deep impression of the Stun Art Rune after observing the process once. The Military Fire in his sea of consciousness flickered as a faint rune was secretly formed.
Of course, the rune was far from perfect at the moment. Ou Yangming must keep working hard to have a deeper impression of it to achieve perfection.
Even so, he was the only one that could accomplish this after only watching the process once.
After Bai Zhiyi was done smithing, he handed the saber to Ou Yangming. “Take a look at it first. Once you have an idea of it, I’ll show you again.”
Ou Yangming nodded and examined the saber carefully.
He might not be able to learn the Skill Rune by only looking at it on the equipment. After all, Skill Runes were too mysterious, by which even the most rudimentary rune had its features. If he could not spot those key points and only copied a rune exactly, he would not be more potent than ordinary blacksmiths.
On the other hand, everything would be different if there was a clear description or if he witnessed the smithing process.
This was akin to a skyscraper; without the structural drawing and the distribution diagram for the circuits and pipes inside, it would be hard to grasp the building’s exact situation.
If one had those pieces of information where one knew the distribution of every wire and pipeline, it would be much easier to reconstruct or renovate the building.
Ou Yangming was the latter at the moment. After observing the process closely, he already had a rough idea of the rune. As such, he held the saber and compared the rune with the mark in his mind.
The rune paths became deeper and finally turned into a complete rune, which was successfully engraved in the depths of his mind.
He curled his lips into a faint smile and put down the saber as he was pleased.
Bai Zhiyi asked, “You’re done studying it?”
Ou Yangming nodded and answered, “I’m done.”
“Okay, I’ll smith another time, so watch closely again,” Bai Zhiyi noted sternly.
The young fellow was stunned, and he reached out his hand to stop the elder. “Elder Bai, I’ve grasped it already, so you don’t need to demonstrate it again.”
“What?” Bai Zhiyi looked up and stared at the young fellow strangely. “You’ve grasped it already?”
“Yes.” Ou Yangming grinned. “This is a Rudimentary Skill Rune, so it’s not that hard, is it?”
Bai Zhiyi twitched his mouth and mumbled, “Yes, Rudimentary Skill Runes can’t be compared with Intermediate Skill Runes indeed.” While he said so, he shouted internally, ‘What do you mean it’s not that hard? Back then, I spent 3 months learning this Stun Art Rune but only managed to scratch the surface!’
He shook his head and replied to the young fellow, “Okay, since you’ve learned it, give it a go.”
Following that, the elder retrieved an ordinary ore and tossed it to Ou Yangming. The young fellow chuckled and accepted the material, then he melted it into a treasure saber with a flash of thought.
Although Ou Yangming had somewhat restrained himself to not smith at his fastest speed, the time he spent to smith the treasure saber was the same as the time taken by Bai Zhiyi. Given such an ability, he could be proud among his peers.
As his Military Fire flickered, the Stun Art Rune was easily carved on the equipment.
It was Ou Yangming’s first time engraving the rune, thus he was not too familiar with the technique yet. Despite that, the rune that floated in his sea of consciousness swayed in front of him as though it was tangible. Besides, under the Military Fire’s control, the rune even turned into the treasure saber’s style and produced the most beneficial and right carving plan.
Everything seemed to have happened automatically, allowing Ou Yangming to reach his target effortlessly.
At last, when Ou Yangming curbed his Military Fire and handed the saber to Bai Zhiyi, the elder was already in admiration.
Yes, the look in the elder’s eyes showed that he was convinced.
Ou Yangming managed to replicate the Skill Rune after seeing it once. Moreover, he made subtle adjustments to the rune when he carved it, causing the Stun Art on the weapon to be more powerful.
Bai Zhiyi sensed it himself, so he was even more surprised.
If he was not certain that Ou Yangming had not learned the poison-series Stun Art before this, he would have doubted the fellow for pretending to be inadequate.
The elder sighed and finally understood that some beings could not be treated with conventional reasonings and morals because they existed to attack other people.
“Good fella, since you’ve learned it, think about how you can carve the 2 Skill Runes on the equipment. They must merge and be mutually dependent, but their independencies must also be preserved, where they won’t crumble due to some unreliable reasons,” Bai Zhiyi stated seriously.
Ou Yangming responded loudly, but he was dazed when he stared at the treasure saber in his hands.
He had smithed innumerable pieces of equipment before this, but he knew nothing about pieces of Dual Skill Equipment. After thinking carefully, the young fellow lifted the saber and gently stroked with his finger to draw another wonderful power to carve it on the weapon.
Having said that, Ou Yangming was forced to stop after a brief moment.
This was because he realized that no matter how careful he planned, the Stun Art’s rune paths would inevitably be ruined.
If Ou Yangming forced his way through, the only result would be the disappearance of one of the skills, and it could not be recovered.
It was certainly not easy to make the 2 Skill Runes coexist.
Seeing as Ou Yangming furrowed his eyebrows and stared at the saber as if he was deep in his thoughts, Bai Zhiyi could not help but grin. “Young fella, I really thought that you’re almighty. Hehe, you finally need me now, don’t you?”
