As for the remaining armor and sword...
Though they looked shiny and golden, they turned out to be completely gold-plated.
The gems were just chunks of glass.
And those tempting magic items... were all broken!
“Dammit!”
Li Xiuman couldn't hold back his frustration and grabbed an ornate sword to smash it, but stopped himself at the last second.
He couldn't ruin them.
Even if they were fake, who knew if he might run into some clueless fool who couldn't tell the difference one day?
He could still scam them out of a neat sum then to make up for his losses.
The same went for these magic items—he'd fix them up first to see if they were still usable.
If they were beyond repair, he'd just find another fool to pawn them off on.
With that in mind, Li Xiuman packed the trash away again.
As for the gold coins, after counting them, he piled them into the dedicated corner of his storage space alongside his existing hoard.
All that was left was a small pouch of shed red dragon scales and the red dragon ember inside the Magic Flame Bottle.
The number of scales completely satisfied the forging requirements.
As for the ember in the Magic Flame Bottle, it far exceeded Kuntu's request.
Inside the transparent bottle floated four glowing red sparks.
They looked just like four little spirits.
It was enough for four forgings.
Even though all the materials were ready, Li Xiuman didn't immediately head to Kuntu to start forging.
He was exhausted; he'd sleep on it first.
Early the next morning, a fully energized Li Xiuman left the inn and headed toward the Red Dwarf Blacksmith.
Then, living up to expectations, he got lost once again.
Damn it, whoever designed Iron River City's urban layout deserves a beating.
In the end, Li Xiuman only managed to find the shop after catching sight of Red Dwarf Blacksmith's massive furnace from afar.
Entering the blacksmith shop, he saw Kuntu holding her pipe, puffing away beside the glowing furnace opening.
Seeing Li Xiuman, she seemed a bit surprised, then waved her hand to motion him over.
“Brat, you're back so fast?”
“...I'm thorough, not fast.”
“Don't crack dirty jokes with this old woman, brat. Did you collect the materials?”
Kuntu held her pipe with one hand and shot Li Xiuman a glance.
“...All collected.”
Li Xiuman took out the materials one by one.
Kuntu picked up the red dragon scales and the Magic Flame Bottle, inspected them, and nodded in satisfaction.
“Not bad.”
“Well then, we can pretty much start now.”
“The materials for this forging are far too precious.”
“You probably wouldn't feel comfortable letting my blacksmith apprentices handle it, would you?”
Kuntu hit the nail right on the head for Li Xiuman.
“So, what do you mean, Master Bal?”
Li Xiuman asked tentatively.
“Two people will do the forging in total.”
“Who?”
“This old woman.”
Kuntu pointed at herself.
Then she pointed at Li Xiuman.
“And you.”
“Me?”
“I've never forged anything in my life!”
Li Xiuman hurriedly tried to decline.
After all, these were his own materials and absurdly expensive. If even one got ruined, he'd be grieving late into the night.
“Relax, it's just smithing.”
“You swing the hammer—boom, boom, clack, clack, pow!”
“And boom, it's forged! Simple as that.”
“With this old woman here, even if I tied up a pig, I could still forge steel!”
Saying this, Kuntu didn't give Li Xiuman a chance to refuse. She pulled back the curtain and shouted to the blacksmith apprentices inside the shop.
“Listen up, brats! Wrap up whatever you're doing right now, pack your things, and get the hell out!”
“Don't come in tomorrow either!”
The blacksmith shop was cleared out in short order, and the exaggeratedly massive furnace slowly began to cool down.
“Master Bal, I really can't do this.”
“How can a man say he can't handle it? Get stiff for this old woman!”
“...”
Damn it, please don't drop dirty jokes while in a loli body.
Kuntu walked over to the furnace and retrieved that piece of Red-Faced Square Gold.
“Wait, Master Bal, can we smelt a few more pieces?”
Li Xiuman took out two even larger pieces of Red-Faced Square Gold one after another.
Kuntu froze mid-puff, her pipe sticking in the air.
“...There were originally a few dragon scales left over.”
“Adding these two pieces will be stretching it a bit thin.”
After processing her surprise, Kuntu took the two pieces of Red-Faced Square Gold and asked no further questions.
“Master Bal really is a good person,” Li Xiuman praised.
Kuntu let out a snort, offering no reply.
Next, Kuntu retrieved the other materials and laid them out in organized categories.
Red-Faced Square Gold, red dragon scales, mithril, pure magic steel, magic sand...
Once all the materials were sorted, Kuntu took out several magic stones and embedded them into slots around the furnace.
“Fill the furnace with magic coal,” Kuntu called out to Li Xiuman.
Li Xiuman quickly grabbed the shovel stuck in the coal pile and rapidly filled the furnace with coal.
Next, Kuntu opened the Magic Flame Bottle in her hand and guided the spark floating inside to drop into the furnace opening.
The moment the spark landed on the magic coal, it ignited the fuel instantly, sending vibrant Red Dragon Flames soaring upward.
The massive furnace instantly glowed bright red with heat.
From the outside, thick, black smoke tinged with dark red poured steadily out of the top of the furnace.
“Keep filling it with coal, don't stop!”
Hearing Kuntu's voice, Li Xiuman frantically swung his shovel, continuously shoveling magic coal into the furnace opening.
The temperature inside the blacksmith shop climbed higher and higher; the giant furnace almost seemed to warp in the intense heat.
Li Xiuman was glad he had come to Kuntu for the forging.
Setting aside other blacksmiths' skills, their furnaces probably couldn't even withstand such extreme temperatures.
But Kuntu's furnace—the finest and largest in Iron River City—was just capable of enduring the heat of Red Dragon Flames.
Kuntu was still puffing on her pipe, seemingly in no rush at all.
“That's about right,” Kuntu's voice sounded out.
Then, she dumped the Red-Faced Square Gold and all the other materials into the furnace as casually as pouring beans.
Afterward, she even tapped the bottom of the tray with her pipe, intending to knock down any tiny bits of material sticking to it.
Is this...
...supposed to be this casual?!
“Oops!”
Apparently, she had tapped a bit too hard—the tray slipped from her hand and fell into the furnace along with everything else.
“No big deal.”
Kuntu took another drag from her pipe and calmly blew a puff of smoke toward the furnace.
Next, Kuntu rummaged around and pulled out a set of molds, aligning them with the metal pipe on the right side of the furnace, which was engraved with various Fire Resistance magic runes.
【Blacksmith's Ingot Mold】A mold used to shape molten metal into ingots. It accelerates the cooling process of molten metal while maintaining its stability.
Quality: Green
This unimposing mold turned out to be a magic item.
“Melt!”
At Kuntu's command, a massive fiery-red magic circle rose around the furnace, encompassing it completely.
The temperature skyrocketed once more as the Red Dragon Flames inside the furnace churned wildly, as though a real red dragon were thrashing inside.
Li Xiuman instinctively began analyzing the magic circle.
It was undoubtedly a Fire Magic circle, engraved with fiery-red magic runes.
Which meant it was a spell of Tier 4 or higher.
As the magic circle expanded, red-hot molten alloy slowly flowed from the metal pipe on the right side of the furnace and into the mold.
Rate on N.U.
