Elemental Refining

Inside the Intermediate Forging Room of the Blacksmith Association.

Shi Feng casually took out a stack of stone material and piled it onto the stone table.

A single stack consisted of one hundred pieces of stone material, which completely covered the large round table, with some even spilling onto the floor.

"Now, let's see what you can do." Shi Feng took out the bright red Philosopher's Stone and smiled faintly.

If the Philosopher's Stone were seen by others, the consequences would be dire, which was why he had specifically rented a forging room; without his permission, no one could enter.

Shi Feng picked up a piece of stone material from the table and touched it with the Philosopher's Stone.

System: Do you wish to perform Elemental Refining using the Philosopher's Stone?

Shi Feng immediately selected yes. The Philosopher's Stone emitted a faint red glow, and a mysterious power flowed into the stone material.

Bang!

The fist-sized stone turned directly into yellow sand and scattered across the floor; nothing was obtained.

However, Shi Feng smiled faintly, unbothered, and proceeded to pick up another piece of stone material to try again.

Ore was precious, after all. A single piece of ordinary copper ore had an acquisition price of 2 coppers, and even selling it to an NPC was worth 1 copper. A stack of 100 copper ores could be sold to guild members for 200 coppers, and they would scramble to buy it—far more expensive than the 10 coppers per stack he paid for the stone material.

Elemental Refining was essentially extracting metallic elements from the stone. Since some stones contained no metal, they naturally turned into a pile of yellow sand; failure was perfectly normal.

Bang, bang, bang...

After ten consecutive attempts without extracting any ore, Shi Feng felt a bit frustrated; the success rate was slightly low.

He even began to wonder if these stones had been scavenged by players from some desert, which would explain why they were all just sand.

"Relax, relax, there's plenty more stone material," Shi Feng took a few deep breaths and consoled himself.

He picked up another piece of stone material and tried again.

Bang!

This time, the stone turned into a pile of yellow sand, but within the sand lay a piece of purple-red metallic ore—it was copper ore.

Having obtained the first piece of copper ore, Shi Feng breathed a sigh of relief and began to speed up his movements.

Before long, all the stone material on the table had turned into yellow sand. In total, he had extracted 23 pieces of copper ore and 2 pieces of bronze ore. Bronze ore was three times as valuable as copper ore; selling it to an NPC fetched 3 coppers, and because it was rare, player guilds bought it for 7 coppers per piece.

Looking at the ore on the table, Shi Feng felt that the Philosopher's Stone was truly a treasure basin. Even in its incomplete state, it was extraordinary. It was no wonder so many kingdoms would go to such great lengths to fight over it; with the Philosopher's Stone, one had abundant funds, and it would be difficult for any kingdom not to prosper.

Shi Feng put away the ore on the table and took out another stack of stone material.

Stack after stack of stone material was consumed, and the yellow sand alone piled up into a small mound. Fortunately, the forging room had a one-click cleaning feature; after pressing the button, the mountain of sand vanished.

Over the course of an hour, Shi Feng refined 40 stacks of stone material, obtaining over 7 stacks of copper ore and over 1 stack of bronze ore. If sold, they would be worth over twenty silver coins, while the cost was only four silver coins. The price difference was over five times—he was making a killing.

The main issue was that the yield of ore was quite low; it was impossible to acquire it in large quantities.

Just as Shi Feng walked out of the forging room, he received a system notification.

System: The Violent Bear Armor you listed on the auction house has been sold. After deducting the handling fee, 31 silver and 53 copper have been deposited into your bag.

System: The Dark Star Boots you listed on the auction house have been sold. After deducting the handling fee, 3 silver and 21 copper have been deposited into your bag.

A series of auction house notifications made the corners of Shi Feng's mouth curl upward.

"As expected, the more people competing, the higher the price." Shi Feng was very satisfied with the sale prices. He hadn't expected a Mystic Iron Grade plate armor for a Shield Warrior to sell for over 30 silver coins; there were certainly many wealthy people in the White River City area.

After selling these pieces of equipment, Shi Feng suddenly became a wealthy man. With over 50 silver coins on him, he walked with a different kind of confidence.

While ordinary players were still happy to have twenty or thirty coppers on them, he already had over fifty silver coins. Plus, Bai Qingxue still owed him over ten silver coins, and if he sold these copper ores, he would soon become a tycoon with gold coins.

However, he wouldn't sell the ore; these ores were the foundation for him to make a fortune.

Shi Feng immediately rented the forging room for another hour and turned the remaining stone material into ore. His luck was good this time; 45 stacks of stone material yielded 10 stacks of copper ore and 2 stacks of bronze ore.

With this, a total of 17 stacks of copper ore and 3 stacks of bronze ore would be enough for a long time.

Now that he had money, Shi Feng returned to the association's central hall service desk. At this moment, many forging players trained by guilds were renting forging rooms.

"It's such a rip-off, 5 coppers for an hour! The guild only gives me 30 coppers a day for forging funds; it's not enough at all."

"That's not so bad, at least the tools are complete. Look at those forging tools—even the most ordinary equipment costs several silver coins, and a full set costs over thirty silver coins. It's a total scam!"

"You haven't seen the Intermediate Forging Room; that's one silver coin per hour, and it only increases the success rate by 3%. Even top-tier guilds can't handle that price."

Several forging players complained incessantly, expressing their deep resentment toward the Blacksmith Association's prices. Yet, their words carried a hint of showing off; after all, they had guild support, while ordinary life players probably couldn't even afford to rent a basic forging room, let alone improve their forging level.

Shi Feng bypassed these players and walked up to the association administrator. "I want to rent an Intermediate Forging Room."

"How long would you like to rent it for?" the dark-skinned young association administrator asked happily.

Most adventurers were penniless and only rented ordinary forging rooms, and even then, they were reluctant. Seeing a wealthy adventurer like Shi Feng, his service attitude was completely different.

Shi Feng checked the time. It was already morning in the real world, and he couldn't stay in God's Domain for too long using the virtual helmet.

"Two hours," Shi Feng said after a moment's thought.

"Very well, here is your key. That will be 2 silver coins." The administrator smiled as he took out the key and handed it to Shi Feng.

Shi Feng took out two gleaming silver coins, placed them on the table, and turned to leave.

The players who had previously been complaining about the Blacksmith Association's greed had their eyes bulging out of their sockets, convinced they were seeing things. Yet, the coins on the table were undeniably silver, not the reddish-yellow of copper.

"Damn, he's loaded! A total whale!" a male Elementalist player exclaimed with envy.

"Big brother whale, please let me cling to your leg! I can keep your bed warm," another flirtatious female player said, batting her large eyes as she fawned over Shi Feng.

"Tch, it's just a bit of pocket change. I'll definitely become an Intermediate Blacksmith Apprentice before him," a male Priest muttered sourly. Although he knew it was impossible, the equipment in the Intermediate Forging Room was far superior to that of a standard one. While it officially boasted a 3% increase, with these facilities, the actual success rate would rise by at least 5%.

For forging, an extra 5% success rate made a world of difference.