When constructing a building, the first thing needed to avoid problems in the future were the plans of that future site. The dimensions, the partitions, where each support beam would go, and so on.
With blacksmithing the process was much less cumbersome. It was not imperative to draw a draft plan of the general idea that was to be built. But even then, Bai Zemin preferred to sketch out the shape and type of object he wanted to create; this made the process of creating the object much easier for him.
After about ten minutes, the sketch of a sword had appeared on the previously pure white sheet. The drawing was only in black and white, without any color. However, although Bai Zemin was not a genius-level draftsman, he still considered himself quite decent.
"Now I can start."He declared as he walked towards the pile of metals.
Rather than metals, these items were actually mutated and evolved monster material. The Noble Citizens had worked hard to dismantle the armor of various high defense monsters such as the Iron Reinforced Boar. While they still had a lot of work to do, the amount of materials Bai Zemin had received was considerably large.
At the very least, he would have no problem creating several dozen pieces of equipment.
There were materials with metallic properties of black, red, silver, blue, and various other colors. All of them from different monsters. Bai Zemin need to first understand the material before starting to work.
"Let's start with this one."
First he took a pair of tongs, which he used to pick up a large scale with metallic properties that was more than thirty centimeters long and belonged to a First Order snake.
With a wave of his hand followed by a thought, the Blazing Ring glowed softly and a crimson red flame flew out into the smithing furnace. Just as the flame seemed to want to devour everything, Bai Zemin hurriedly threw five Unclassified Soul Stones into the furnace.
Surprisingly, the flames seemed to calm down a bit and instead of going wild they made an effort to devour the Soul Stones.
"Fortunately this actually worked." Bai Zemin sighed in relief as he saw that his temporary workroom was not turned into a raging hell.
Normal flames would definitely have trouble melting metal that was enveloped by mana. Therefore, he had no choice but to look for a more powerful flame.
The crimson flame of the Blazing Ring was quite strong, but Bai Zemin could not control it. Fortunately, Lilith had come up with the idea to "entertain" the flames with the Soul Stones and this idea was working to perfection.
"The Soul Stones contain a mixture of pure Soul Power and wild mana." Lilith calmly said, "If you eat a Soul Stone you will undoubtedly get a boost of power depending on the degree of purity and Order of the stone. However, this is only temporary as your body will definitely suffer a backlash that could even cost you your life. Unless it is a case of life and death where all hope is lost, you should never eat a Soul Stone. "
Bai Zemin nodded silently. His current strength was enough to resolve almost every dangerous situation he encountered and temporarily, unless he met a high-level Second Order enemy, he believed that no one could force him into a corner .
Like a small child finding a new toy, the crimson flame engulfed the five Soul Stones inside the furnace in an effort to eat away at the energy inside. Although little by little the Soul Power and wild mana from within the Soul Stone was being consumed, the crimson flame would need a long time before it succeeded, and while by the time such a thing happened the flame would become more powerful, Bai Zemin planned to mitigate it long before such a thing happened.
Bai Zemin pulled the tongs towards the furnace while surrounding them with his own Mana to protect them from the fire. On the other hand, the mana that remained in the red-colored metal should fight against the crimson flames.
After a total of thirty minutes, the mana in the scale finally surrendered to the relentless attack of the crimson flame, allowing the fire to slowly begin to surround the material.
So far, the flame of the Blazing Ring had demonstrated great power; this was an undeniable fact. However, against enemies with heavy armor or shells with metallic properties it was not especially useful. Its power could mainly show up against enemies with fur skins and the like.
Even after thirty minutes, the red scale showed no signs of overheating. Bai Zemin could only sigh secretly and wait patiently.
"This is a magic flame but it's already so hard. I don't even want to imagine how long it would take me to be able to red-hot this scale with a normal flame." Bai Zemin rejoiced.
"You'd probably have to spend days. Even then you wouldn't necessarily make it." Lilith said from beside him.
Time passed as the two chatted with each other. Before they knew it, two hours had slipped by. The sky was practically completely red at this point, proof that the sun was at its final point for this day.
The only thing that made Bai Zemin happy was that his Mana consumption to protect the crimson flame metal tongs was not high at all. At most, he consumed 1 Mana point every ten minutes; and considering his high Mana reserve, he would have no problem doing this all practically all day without feeling the slightest setback.
It had been an hour and a half since Bai Zemin had put the reddish scale from a First Order beast called Flaming Snake which had been defeated some time ago by Shangguan Bing Xue. It was only then that the material began to overheat.
"Finally!" Bai Zemin could not help but cheer.
Bai Zemin was not an expert in blacksmithing, but at least he knew how to defend himself in this matter. When he saw the blood red color of the material turn fiery red, he removed the tongs from the fire and while still holding the scale firmly between the tongs' teeth, he held it on the anvil without letting go.
"Hammer."
"... When I called you master I expected other kinds of orders from you... In any case, here you go."
"Please put another scale in the fire."
"Yes sir ~"
With the large scale of the Flaming Snake now reaching an exponentially higher temperature, Bai Zemin covered the hammer with his Mana to make it even harder and more powerful before beginning to swing it with a serious expression.
It was a bit challenging at first. After all, Bai Zemin didn't know how hard the scale was at its melting point. He swung the hammer with some softness at first, but as time went on, the Strength he used for hammering increased more and more until it came to a point where he found himself hammering with all his Strength.
I think I can do it. Such a thought flashed in his mind, relieving him greatly as he noticed how little by little the scale with metallic properties of the Flaming Serpent began to change its shape under his will.
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Thanks a lot to all those who use their Golden Tickets to vote for BW <3