Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The honest man gasped, while the old blacksmith snatched the dagger. His movement was quick and stealthy, without a hint of senility. Compared to his listless expression before, it was as though he was another person.
When he held the dagger, the old blacksmith understood everything at once.
It was neither sharpened nor polished, and had an extremely rough surface. Yet, the sky-blue veins on it were utterly clear and defined.
Since the old man was one of the top blacksmith in Alanna, he realized the reason just with one look at the markings.
Genius… he’s a true genius.
Other than that word, Old Hoyer could not think of anything else to describe Lin Li.
It was those veins on the dagger that made it so precious.
Coating a weapon with navy sand after forging it was a very natural action for it to have a martensitic property. However, it was the same navy sand that made the process a profound one.
While giving the weapon a martensitic quality, the navy sand would also seep through the markings on it. Since the positions of these markings were carefully calculated to form the outline of the Ward of Badluck, a few more strokes, and it would turn into an authentic one…
The old blacksmith looked at the dagger in his hands, and then at the young mage. All of a sudden, it was as if he felt the high heat from that dagger…
“Master Hoyer, when do you wish to collect that batch of minerals from Eternal Adamantine?” Lin Li asked with a smile as he brushed off the astonishment of the two men casually.
To be honest, Lin Li played a small trick in the forging process.
After all, that was a normal piece of iron embryo. Even if it underwent the Hundred-Folds Forging Technique, it would still be an ordinary iron embryo. It was too troublesome to use it to create a dual-attributed magical weapon. Although Lin Li could do it, he wouldn’t want to waste his energy on it. Hence, he made use of the markings left behind by the Hundred-Folds Forging Technique by adding the navy sand that would permeate through it to construct a Ward of Badluck.
With one Ward of Badluck, and one with martensitic properties, he fulfilled the requirements of creating a dual-attributed magical weapon.
“Eternal Adamantine?” Before the old blacksmith could reply, the middle-aged man interrupted. He glimpsed at the old man distastefully, and complained, “Old dude, you are too selfish. We have known each other for so many years! How could you not tell me that you have gotten ahold of the Eternal Adamantine? Do you have any conscience or morals?
“Shut up!” the old blacksmith barked as he glared at him. Then, he pointed at Lin Li, and said, “I don’t have any with me now. You can look for him instead since you have what he needs too.”
“What do I have…?”
“The skin of Fire Salamandrids. Didn’t you give me a few sheets if it the last time?”
“The skin of Fire Salamandrids?” The middle-aged man grinned, and stopped pestering the old man. He went up to Lin Li with a smile beaming with passion, and asked, “Young man, do you want to exchange Eternal Adamantine for Fire Salamandrids’ skins?
Lin Li was uncomfortable due to the middle-aged man’s sudden friendliness. He went two steps backwards cautiously. After pulling a little distance away from him, he nodded his head in a daze and replied, “Yes, I do…”
“That’s great!” The middle-aged man reached a hand out to Lin Li, and introduced himself politely, “Hey young man, I’m Azalez. Nice to meet you.”
“Azalez?” The moment the middle-aged man ended his speech, Elijah nearly jumped. With an expression filled with fright, and a pair of eyes opened as wide as a bull’s, he stared at the middle-aged man blankly and stuttered, “H-h-he… he’s Azalez?”
“Yeah, that’s the pervert.”
“…”
Azalez’s name was not only familiar to Elijah—even Lin Li had heard countless people mention him.
He was a legend.
In the recent 100 years, there were two Legendary-level Warriors from Alanna. One was the level-21 Sword Sage of the Storm—Al’Akir, the only one in charge of Alanna’s Adventurers Guild.
The other man was Azalez. As a noble, he entered the army when he was just 16 years old. After serving Felan Kingdom passionately for 20-odd years, he attained numerous meritorious military achievements. At 40 years old, he took up the role as the leader of the Sky Knights.
Sky Knights were one of the three imperial guards of Felan Kingdom, and had the best military might. As the leader of the troop, it meant that Azalez was the number one force of the military in Felan Kingdom.
Lin Li glanced at Azalez, and then at the old blacksmith. He got confused for quite a while.
From their conversation with each other, Lin Li had already observed that the middle-aged man and the old blacksmith were no ordinary people.
But, he didn’t not except that they were that extraordinary…
The man who gave off an awe-inspiring and righteous vibe was not only a perverted fella, but also a legendary level-21 warrior—the leader of the Sky Knights, Azalez!
A pervert as the leader of the Sky Knights.
That old blacksmith, Hoyer, must be something too…
“This… Mr. Azalez, how should we do the exchange?”
“If you are willing,” Azalez continued after hesitating for a moment, “I could give you all 10 sheets of Fire Salamandrids’ skins. If that’s not enough, I could go and find more for you. But you’d better give me 20 ingots of Eternal Adamantine. I need to create a set of armor, and it would be troublesome if I have a shortage of that…”
“No problem, 10 is enough.” Lin Li agreed upon the transaction swiftly after thinking about it.
Frankly speaking, even a child could tell Azalez extreme desperation for the Eternal Adamantine; not only did he not mind giving up 10 sheets of skin, he was also prepared to help Lin Li find more of them.
If Lin Li wanted to bargain with him, he could make use of this loophole to demand more—not only 10 sheets, but perhaps 20 or 30 of them too.
Yet, Lin Li did not think there was a need to do so.
From his perspective, Fire Salamandrids were not excellent material for armors. Without their strong resistance against fire element, they would not have much significance. The only reason for Lin Li to use it was because he needed to go Fire Plume Ridge to harvest ingredients for potions.
Considering Sean’s body size, two sets of armor could definitely be created from 10 sheets of Fire Salamandrids’ skin.
One should not waste effort on meaningless tasks.
“Let’s go, let’s go… I’ll will pass it to you now,” Azalez urged as he pulled Lin Li off impatiently once the deal had been set.
Before Lin Li left, he reminded Elijah, “Oh, yes. Elijah, come to the Guild of Magic tomorrow. I will give you your rewards.”
“Yes, Mr. Felic.”
After Lin Li left the blacksmith shop, he visited the fat bandit. He wanted to buy a Thunder Eaglet for research.
If not for fat bandit’s reminder, he would have forgotten the need to tame magical beasts.
When he was still at the Endless World, he battled in a high-difficulty mission as a hunter. Although he did not complete that mission, he remembered some techniques in taming. They were not any ordinary taming methods. If Lin Li were to follow the instructions religiously, he would be able to tame a level-10 magical beast.
But, for his skills as a Hunter then, the ability to tame was not important at all. Even if he could train a level-10 magical beast, it would not be able to survive the attack from the Stars of Fury.
So, Lin Li did not pay much attention to that matter then.
Yet as he transmigrated as a mage, these taming tips became extremely valuable.
The body of a mage was too weak. Lin Li felt like he was walking on tightrope in almost every battle. Especially when he was at the Shadowglen, Lin Li had the fear that any slight mistakes would doom him eternally.
If he had a powerful pet, how would the low-level creatures like Skeletal Warriors of at most level-10 be any trouble to them? One pet would be enough to wipe all of the Skeletal Warriors out without the use of magic. They would only need to sit there and enjoy the show…
Mages had pets too. They were known as Familiars.
It was a level-15 spell to summon a Familiar from another dimension.
Yet these types of Familiars were usually not equipped with battle skills.
Apart from high intelligence, they were no different from cats and dogs.
Most of the times like this, mages would treat the Familiars as their personal assistants.
For example, Lin Li saw Gerian summon his Familiar during his few-months’ stay in Jarrosus. They were at the potion room that day, and the Familiar was summoned to help the busy Gerian pick up a few test tubes.
Were there any Familiars that were to be used for battles? Yes, there were. But… there were too few of them.
In 10 mages, there might not be one with the ability to summon a Familiar.
Hence, Lin Li really valued the taming techniques a lot. Since he had been a super hunter, he knew how to instruct his pets to do chores very well. He knew better than anyone else the best time to order the pets to help them kill their enemies or create destruction.
If he were to succeed in taming any level-10 magical beast, his capability in battling would be raised by a level.
The knowledge of taming, however, was different from that of potions. Lin Li was uncertain if the knowledge would be effective in Anril. Thus, he decided to attempt it with a Thunder Eaglet…
