Dwarf Technology, Obsidian

"That was another way to make money."

Li Wei looked at the five diamonds in his hand and pondered.

The diamonds crafted from the Crafting Table were not only large, but also top quality. No matter what quality they had been before crafting, they became premium gems afterward.

He could gather diamonds of average quality, craft them together, then sell them.

It was practically a guaranteed profit.

Still, he could not do this too often. If he did, diamonds would lose their value.

For now, he had probably bought up all the diamonds openly available for sale in this region. If he wanted more, he might have to wait for new stock to arrive.

Of course, the dwarves' diamond reserves could not possibly be limited to this much. Especially the dwarves here—they were far from poor.

But they probably never expected someone to buy so many at once, and to buy only raw materials rather than finished products.

"Obsidian..."

Now that he had found a way to obtain diamonds, it was time to solve the problem of another item.

That stuff was usually useless. No dwarf would stockpile it.

He could only look elsewhere.

He needed to get some lava.

Li Wei sought out the blacksmith who had shown him the way earlier.

"Do you have any lava here? I want to fill a bucket."

"No. What do you want that for?"

No matter how hard the blacksmith thought about it, he could not understand why a traveler would want lava. Was he planning to take it away as a souvenir? What kind of nonsense was that?

"I really need it."

"No means no!"

"How much is this sword?"

A moment later, Li Wei bought the only sword in the shop and asked again, "Just one bucket. I can pay."

The sword truly was not cheap.

But as for money, although Li Wei never carried much on him, with his productivity, he could make a fortune anytime he wanted.

If he wanted to spend it, he spent it. There was no need to pinch pennies.

The blacksmith gave him a couple of looks before finally relenting. "Fine. I have a brother working at the smeltery. He can get you some."

Seeing that it could be done, Li Wei breathed a sigh of relief. If this still did not work, he had been considering taking extra supplies and trying to dig straight down to the mantle. The mantle... he was not even sure he could survive long enough to reach such an extreme environment.

Taking advantage of the downtime, the blacksmith led Li Wei deep into the hall. They turned corner after corner, and just as Li Wei was about to get dizzy from all the winding paths, a spacious forging hall finally appeared before them.

"Hey, old friend, how's it going today?"

"Not bad." Before the massive furnace in the center of the forging hall, a dwarf wiped away his sweat and swung his hammer, clanging away at a suit of armor.

A moment later, after finishing that small stage of the work, he stopped and came over to properly greet the blacksmith.

"And this is?"

He looked at Li Wei.

"My customer. He wants a bucket of lava. See if you can help him out."

"That's easy enough. But... you only need lava?"

"Yes." Li Wei immediately pulled out a bucket as well.

"Just fill this bucket."

"Fine. Strange request."

After chatting briefly with his old friend, the blacksmith headed back. He still had business to attend to at his shop.

On this side, Li Wei looked at all the equipment in the forging hall, his hands itching to try them out.

"If I were you, I wouldn't touch anything. Unless you want your fingers burned useless, stay away."

The dwarf offered the warning kindly.

But Li Wei touched it anyway.

"Hiss—whoo—"

Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot.

Special multiblock structure detected: "Dwarven Furnace Array"

New crafting recipe unlocked

Yes!!

At this moment, Li Wei had finally gotten what he wanted.

"You're even more reckless than the most reckless dwarf I've ever seen!" The dwarf beside him remarked while adding fuel and stone to the furnace.

Li Wei gave an awkward laugh, his attention entirely fixed on the Synthesis Table.

A furnace array was a multiblock structure that could smelt certain special metals and liquids.

Such as lava.

All it took was fuel and enough Cobblestone to artificially produce lava.

Just like what the dwarf beside him was doing now.

"May I have a look around?"

Li Wei was greatly tempted by the large machines nearby.

"You can look, but don't touch."

"Alright."

Li Wei made a round of the place, and before long, several more multiblock structures had appeared in the Synthesis Table. These were all technologies unique to the dwarves.

With these, smelting ores would be much faster in the future, and dwarven weapons and equipment could also be forged.

It was worth mentioning that most dwarven weapons were heavy weapons—battle axes, throwing axes, hammers, and the like. In fact, dwarves were especially fond of using them.

Li Wei figured the sword at the blacksmith shop had probably been hard to sell. He had happened to be the only one willing to buy it, so the dwarf had finally agreed to help him out a little.

Besides weapons, Li Wei had also obtained higher-grade tools.

The Dwarven Adamantite Pickaxe.

This was a pickaxe made specifically for dwarven mining. It was extremely hard, far stronger than an Iron Pickaxe. Though it was still less durable than a Diamond Pickaxe, it could mine obsidian.

He now had all the materials needed to make an Enchanting Table and a Nether Portal. Though his body was still in the Blue Mountains, Li Wei's heart had already drifted back home. He had even decided where to put both of them.

He should have made them long ago.

Just as Li Wei was lost in thought, a rumble from the furnace made him turn his head.

A glowing liquid flowed through the pipes, gradually filling an iron bucket.

"Here's what you wanted."

After thanking the dwarf and paying him enough for a good drink as compensation for his trouble, Li Wei put away the lava bucket.

Achievement Unlocked: Hot Stuff

The main purpose of this trip to the Blue Mountains had now been fulfilled.

"Come to think of it, I heard this place is led by Durin the Deathless, Thorin Oakenshield."

After putting away the lava, Li Wei turned and asked the dwarf about it.

"That's right. I'm glad you've heard our leader's name. It is under his leadership that we've been able to live such good lives."

As the dwarf answered, his eyes shifted from Li Wei to where the lava bucket had just been.

Where had the bucket gone? How had it vanished in the blink of an eye?

"Then is your leader still here?"

Li Wei wasn't sure when Thorin had set off for Bree. The only thing he knew for certain was that next year, Thorin would meet Gandalf in Bree and begin the expedition to Lonely Mountain.

"He..." The dwarf suddenly looked past Li Wei, toward the entrance of the hall.

"He's here."

Steady footsteps sounded from behind him.

Li Wei turned around and saw a tall dwarf—tall by dwarven standards—with thick, powerful arms, silently walking toward the forge.

His face carried a gloom that seemed impossible to dispel.

Even though Li Wei had never met him before, the moment he saw him, he knew.

This man was Thorin. Thorin Oakenshield.

The dwarf beside him bowed to Thorin. Thorin paused slightly and nodded in response.

Then he looked toward the conspicuous human standing nearby.

Ordinarily, anyone who barged into a dwarven workshop would surely be thrown out. But this man looked fairly agreeable, and his face did not seem like that of a bad person.

As he always did when meeting strangers, Li Wei gave a calm, neither servile nor overbearing greeting bow. Thorin stared at this rather memorable human for several seconds, then nodded as well.

Then he walked to his own station and began forging.

Clang—!

"Swinging a hammer keeps your arms strong, so you can swing weapons in the future."

This heir to the dwarven king was always preparing himself for battle.