Book of Forging

Shi Feng took the key to the intermediate forging room and headed to the second floor, ignoring the bewitching young girl entirely.

The first floor of the Blacksmith Association was filled with ordinary forging rooms; only the second floor housed the intermediate ones.

Compared to the first floor, the second was much quieter. Only NPCs paced back and forth, as no players ever came here. Furthermore, there were only twenty intermediate forging rooms, unlike the fifty ordinary ones.

Stepping into the intermediate forging room, Shi Feng found the space larger and more refined. The equipment was also superior to that of the ordinary rooms, especially the forging hammer and the flame—neither was simple.

Shi Feng casually picked up the small, silver-white hammer resting on the anvil.

Hundred-Refined Hammer (Bronze Rank)

Forging Item: Increases success rate by 3% when forging items.

Usage Requirement: 4 points of Strength.

The Hundred-Refined Hammer alone was difficult to obtain. At most, one could buy an ordinary iron hammer from an NPC, which provided no success rate bonus. As for taking this hammer away, it was impossible; items belonging to the forging room could not be removed by players.

The flame here was also extraordinary. It did not burn with a crimson-yellow hue, but rather a crimson-blue. It was not a mundane fire, but an exotic flame.

Shi Feng immediately scanned it.

Crimson Demon Fire (Tier 1 Exotic Flame)

Special Item: Possesses extremely high temperatures, allowing for more refined smelting. Provides a certain success rate bonus when refining Magic Essence and forging items.

Exotic flames were powerful, rare fires found in the world. Depending on their capabilities, they were divided into nine tiers, with Tier 1 being the weakest and Tier 9 the strongest. Even a Tier 1 exotic flame was not something a player could easily acquire.

In God's Domain, the rarity of exotic flames made them incredibly valuable. Since both alchemy and blacksmithing required them, their worth was staggering.

Once, a single Tier 4 exotic flame caused over a dozen top-tier guilds to clash. After millions of player casualties, it was finally seized by Dominating the World. Shortly thereafter, one of their alchemy masters advanced to the rank of Grandmaster, causing the guild's power to surge significantly.

Seeing the burning exotic flame, Shi Feng felt an intense yearning; it was the ultimate desire of any blacksmith.

Just as Shi Feng was lost in thought, a realization struck him.

In the second month after God's Domain launched, the third-rate guild Glory of God discovered a Tier 2 exotic flame, the Ice Blue Demon Flame, in the Hundred Ghost Forest. It was the envy of many guilds. At that time, countless life-profession players flocked to join Glory of God, causing the guild's strength to skyrocket and making them the overlords of their small city. Many guilds secretly inquired about it, hoping to obtain an exotic flame, and the Shadow Guild was no exception.

They learned the location and acquisition method from within Glory of God, but unfortunately, that exotic flame appeared only once and never surfaced again, leaving many guilds to toil in vain.

Thinking of the Ice Blue Demon Flame, Shi Feng immediately set his sights on it. If he could get his hands on it, it would be a massive boon for the future development of his own guild, not to mention a great help in his own advancement as a blacksmith.

However, to obtain the Ice Blue Demon Flame, Shi Feng would need to plan carefully and prepare quite a few things before he had a chance of success.

Shi Feng stopped wasting time, took out the design for the Guardian Armor, and chose to learn it.

System: You have learned how to forge Guardian Armor.

Afterward, Shi Feng placed all his materials on the stone table, brought out the incredibly precious Book of Forging, and began to work.

As a junior blacksmith apprentice, Shi Feng's success rate for crafting Level 0 ordinary equipment was only 20%, with a 40% chance to gain 1 point of proficiency upon success. If he were to craft the Level 3 Bronze-rank Guardian Armor, his success rate would definitely be under 5%. However, Bronze-rank equipment provided an extra bonus to proficiency, guaranteeing 2 points upon success.

To reach the rank of intermediate blacksmith apprentice, one needed 1,000 proficiency points. This required a massive amount of resources that a solo life-profession player could never afford.

Guild life-profession players always started by forging ordinary equipment. No guild dared to let these players craft Bronze-rank equipment from the start. Even if they had the blueprints, they wouldn't do it; the success rate was too low and the materials too expensive. A single failure cost over a silver coin—a price no guild could sustain—and they couldn't acquire enough materials to support it.

Shi Feng, however, had no such concerns. With the Philosopher's Stone, he lacked no resources. Moreover, the materials for the Guardian Armor were cheap, requiring only 5 bottles of Magic Essence, 5 pieces of Bronze Ore, and 20 pieces of Copper Ore. The cost was barely eighty copper, over 20 copper less than other Bronze-rank equipment. With its superior stats, it was highly popular and would have no trouble selling.

Most importantly, there was the Book of Forging.

The Book of Forging increased the success rate for ordinary equipment by 70%, Bronze by 50%, Mystic Iron by 30%, Mithril by 20%, Adamantite by 10%, Dark Gold by 5%, and Epic Equipment by 1%.

It was precisely because of these attributes that players could easily and smoothly advance to become Master Blacksmiths.

A junior apprentice normally had a 20% success rate for ordinary equipment. Adding the 70% bonus brought it to 90%. With the equipment in the intermediate forging room, excluding the possibility of human error, the success rate was over 99%. Unless one was a pig, failure was impossible.

The terror of the Book of Forging was evident.

As for the Guardian Armor, Shi Feng had a base 5% success rate. Adding the 50% from the Book of Forging, the 3% from the equipment, and the effect of the exotic flame, he had a 60% success rate. Even for ordinary equipment, a 60% success rate would drive forging players mad, let alone for Bronze-rank gear. This was something no forging player dared to imagine.

Shi Feng followed the blueprint's requirements and began to slowly craft the Guardian Armor. He first placed the Copper Ore and Bronze Ore into the fire to quench. After five minutes of burning, the ores melted and gradually fused into a single mass. He then added the Magic Essence. After another minute of calcination, he removed the glowing red ore and placed it on the anvil. The intense heat of the ore made Shi Feng break into a sweat, but he dared not be careless; the most critical part was yet to come.

After preparing himself, Shi Feng picked up the Hundred-Refined Hammer and prepared to strike the scorching ore.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Sparks flew in all directions, the sound echoing throughout the spacious forging room.

Shi Feng was extremely cautious with every strike.

In his previous life, he hadn't studied blacksmithing, only gathering skills. However, he knew quite a bit about the craft; having chatted with a Master Blacksmith, he had gained some insights and wouldn't make any amateur mistakes.

After striking over a hundred times, Shi Feng felt it was perfect. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, carefully tapped the interface of the crimson ore, and pressed the "Complete" button.

The glowing red ore began to change. In less than five seconds, it transformed into a suit of silver-gray armor. On the surface, it looked fine, but whether a piece of equipment was successfully forged depended not just on appearances, but on quality—which included its stats and rank.

Some poorly forged Bronze-rank equipment would drop in rank to Ordinary, or fail to meet the baseline stat requirements.

Shi Feng opened the armor's data to see if he had succeeded.