Forging

Chen Ming's movements were fluid and natural. After defeating his opponent, he sheathed his sword and walked away with a flourish—truly, the most lethal form of showing off is the kind that looks effortless.

"Damn! Old Chen, you're such a show-off!"

Huo Tian stared in disbelief; he hadn't expected his usually quiet and reserved friend to be such an expert at grandstanding.

"Low profile, low profile. I originally wanted to interact with you all as an ordinary person, but I'm done hiding. I'm showing my hand!"

Chen Ming crossed his arms over his chest, standing proudly before the group. Lei Yuan was filled with envy; he was only level nine and hadn't even obtained his first soul ring yet, so he couldn't show off like his friend.

"Old Chen, that's not cool, man. Look at how those girls' eyes are glued to you. How are us brothers supposed to live like this..."

"Yeah, Old Chen. And to think we were just about to help you out."

Feng Rulang was also envious of the attention his friend was receiving—envious to the point of turning purple. Hearing this, Chen Ming pondered for a moment before saying with a serious expression:

"How about I act as your sparring partner later? I can help you improve your combat techniques and such."

The three of them hesitated, their words stuck in their throats. They thought about how a single punch from Chen Ming left them bruised and battered, and they immediately shook their heads.

"Forget it... we can't handle your natural-born strength..."

"It's not that bad... it's just average."

Hearing this, Chen Ming looked at a large tree nearby and stepped forward, throwing a punch. With a loud bang, the tree, which was a meter in diameter, was snapped clean in two.

Seeing this scene, the others were petrified. This was no longer a matter of being bruised; it was a matter of being scattered in pieces.

After the physical education class ended, the group had no more classes for the afternoon. Chen Ming checked the time and, seeing he still had some, headed out.

He felt his mastery over his strength wasn't quite strong enough, so he decided to go and forge some weighted gear for himself.

He soon arrived at a metal shop and bought several pieces of metal, intending to do some forging.

In truth, whenever Chen Ming threw iron, gold, or copper into a furnace to smelt them, his forging skills would improve.

However, the efficiency was very low, and since the furnace would stop burning the moment he left the main world, his forging skill level was still only around "Ordinary."

"Hello, boss. Do you have any empty forging rooms here?"

Chen Ming asked the clerk at the front desk. The boss glanced at him—he was just a half-grown kid, likely here to experience forging for fun.

"We do. One thousand Federation Credits per hour. You'll have to pay extra if you break anything."

"I'll take one. I'm interested in forging."

After renting a forging room, Chen Ming began to research the ins and outs of the craft.

He first examined the forging furnace. He didn't seem to know how to use it... was he supposed to throw some coal in and then pull the bellows to heat it up?

Chen Ming looked around the forging room. He had always relied on the furnace for direct smelting, so he found himself at a loss when faced with a real-world forge.

"Forget it, I'll study it later. Time is money—let's get to work!"

Chen Ming switched to his Silver Dragon King martial soul. With a lift of his hand, the Silver Dragon Spear appeared in his palm. As he focused his intent, the spear transformed into a staff.

He placed the metal on the anvil and used the staff to spray fire, heating the metal until it turned bright red.

Chen Ming picked up the forging hammer hanging on the wall and struck the metal. It immediately dented, and a large amount of impurities were expelled.

So this is forging? I wonder how far my "Ordinary" level skill can take me.

Chen Ming relied entirely on his instincts. With each hammer blow, the luster of the Tungsten Steel became increasingly translucent.

Feeling it was about right, he delivered one final strike. The volume of the Tungsten Steel had shrunk by a third, but its luster had become dark and translucent—it was clearly purified with great success.

[Forging Skill +20]

"That was actually pretty simple."

Chen Ming picked up the piece of Tungsten Steel to inspect it and checked his forging skill progress. The rate of increase wasn't bad.

After an on-site inspection, Chen Ming confirmed he had completed a "Hundred-Refinement," likely around the third grade.

To achieve this on his first attempt was truly genius. Since he was on a roll, he decided to go for another!

At the same time, Chen Ming finally figured out how to use the furnace: throw in coal, light it, and pull the bellows!

"Cough, cough, cough! Forgot the ventilation..."

Just as Chen Ming pulled the bellows, black smoke rushed into his face. He realized he had forgotten to open the exhaust, so he hurriedly activated the ventilation channel and used his wind element to blow the smoke away.

A small mistake left him covered in soot, but it was normal to have some hiccups on his first try.

Afterward, Chen Ming threw a new piece of raw metal ore inside and pulled the bellows. It took him half an age to get the metal red-hot, and he immediately felt annoyed.

"I should have just kept using the fire element. It takes forever to heat up like this, and it's all money... I won't have enough to eat later..."

He regretted using the furnace to smelt the metal; it was too slow. If he used the fire element from the Silver Dragon Staff, the speed would be twice as fast.

Chen Ming used iron tongs to clamp the metal and place it on the anvil, then hammered away. Three hours passed, and Chen Ming had forged nearly five pieces of Hundred-Refinement metal.

He successfully promoted his forging skill to the "Good" level, and along the way, he improved his strength control and elemental mastery.

Each of the five pieces of Hundred-Refinement Tungsten Steel weighed three hundred kilograms. Chen Ming turned four of them into weighted gear and one into a forging hammer.

He then checked the quality of the forging hammer—it was of "Ordinary" quality. He also noted that forging a third-grade Hundred-Refinement metal granted twenty points of forging skill, while a second-grade granted thirty.

In other words, the higher the quality of his forging, the more forging skill points he would gain per attempt.

After working for so long, it was time to eat. Chen Ming used water-elemental energy to wash the dust off his face, then turned around and shifted back to his original form.

After paying the fee for renting the forging room, he went straight to his "My World" to harvest a batch of crops, then enjoyed a delicious meal while incidentally improving his cooking skills.

In the evening, since he had nothing better to do, Chen Ming headed to the small grove to practice his control over Soul Power and his spear techniques.

He didn't return until around eight o'clock at night, then showered, hung up his laundry, and got into bed to type out his manuscript. A month passed in the blink of an eye, and everyone welcomed a minor examination: a physical fitness test.

Chen Ming received a plus sign in strength, speed, mental power, and the quality of his Soul Power.

His overall score was first in the entire grade, though regarding his Soul Power Level, Chen Ming had played a little trick and hidden his level at twelve.

Just as he was thinking that a Soul Power Level of fifteen would be too conspicuous, he saw the person with the highest level in the freshman grade.

Lan Mengqin was at level sixteen. Chen Ming was suddenly rendered speechless. Wait, what? There's an even bigger expert?! It had only been about two months since they awakened their martial souls, right?

And that name... wasn't she one of the important supporting characters in the main cast? But it made sense that she had a large family backing her, using marrow-cleansing pills and consuming heavenly treasures to level up. She was a pay-to-win player, after all...

ps: The third update for February 22nd, six thousand words.