Apprentice Combat Artificer of the Silverwood Spear

"Miss Etila, I can't afford it..." Fang Heng said quietly.

But Etila shook her head at him and secretly gave him a meaningful look, telling him to keep watching.

Fang Heng had no choice but to watch Tianlan continue her performance.

Tianlan slowly walked past the luxurious equipment and stopped beside a Kingfisher α Magic Furnace. It was also an AE type Magic Furnace, produced by the Kingfisher Workshop of the Kingdom of Kaolin, famed for its stability and mature design.

She placed her little hand on its blued steel casing and said, "Then we'll choose this Magic Furnace."

The dwarf froze. "Wait, didn't you say you wanted to buy—?"

He suddenly trailed off.

Tianlan put on an innocent expression and asked, "What did we say we wanted to buy?"

For a moment, the man stood there like a wooden chicken before finally realizing he had been played. The expert-grade Kingfisher α series Magic Furnaces were priced at tens of thousands as well, but they were long-established products with no real premium left on them. If he sold one at an eighty percent price, he would take a serious loss.

"That's against the rules!" the little dwarf said, flustered and angry.

"Don't look so surprised," the little girl said with a shrug. "If you hadn't tried to take advantage of us, it wouldn't have come to this. Besides, isn't this a win-win situation?"

"A win-win?"

Tianlan answered solemnly, "As a qualified merchant, even unrealized profit must be considered part of the profit. At the same discount, you would lose far more on a Central Nervous System than on a Kingfisher α, while we don't want to bear such an unnecessary premium. So compared to a lose-lose situation, I'd rather choose a win-win—"

The dwarf stared blankly for quite a while, then actually nodded. "What an absurd argument, but very interesting, very interesting. Fine, you've convinced me. I accept this deal."

Then he looked at Fang Heng and said in a shrill voice, "This thing is yours now, poor boy."

But Fang Heng felt as though he were sitting on pins and needles. He wanted to tell Tianlan—even a few tens of thousands of Liselle was beyond his means. His original goal had been an ancient Type II Magic Furnace. Who would have thought things would turn out like this?

It would be great if a Type II Magic Furnace were eighty percent off. Then I could save the rest and buy that Silver Blaze Forest Eyeball...

Fang Heng thought rather pathetically.

Just as he was blushing furiously and had no idea how to speak up, Etila stepped forward and said, "I'll pay for it."

Fang Heng froze.

Before he could react, Etila had already briskly completed the transaction. She held the Kingfisher α Magic Furnace in both hands and said to Fang Heng in a deliberately stern tone, "This is team property, so take good care of it, Ed."

But she winked at him, signaling for him to come take it.

Fang Heng opened his mouth. He knew Etila and the others were not particularly well-off either. Otherwise, when Tianlan had wanted to spend a little more earlier, the elf lady would not have said something like, "Just this once."

A few tens of thousands of Liselle was probably this entire team's wealth—the price of this Magic Furnace. And he was not even truly a member of their team, so how could it be called team property?

He said hesitantly, "Miss Etila, I..."

But Etila walked over, lowered her head, and whispered into his ear, "Don't refuse so quickly. This was everyone's unanimous decision."

Fang Heng was stunned again.

"You saved everyone's lives. You deserve this," Etila said as she looked at him, her emerald eyes calm. "I can make the decision for Parker, and no one else objected."

"But..."

Etila placed the item in his hands. "Take it. Everyone has difficult times. In the forest, there is one rule: everyone must support one another to survive. It is also the goddess's teaching—kindness and helping others."

Fang Heng felt the weight settle into his hands and asked in surprise, "You... how did you know...?"

"Your privacy settings are open to the team. Fuli and the others can all see them."

"Huh?" Fang Heng jumped and hurriedly opened his privacy page, only to discover that team visibility was the default setting. His face reddened. Fortunately, there was not much visible—mainly his financial status and the equipment he carried.

Etila looked at him, shook her head, and sighed. "You really are exactly like him, muddleheaded. Be careful in the future. Don't casually show others your financial situation."

Fang Heng nodded with a red face.

But he thought, Was that 'him' her younger brother?

The group left the Kaolin Merchant Alliance office one after another.

In the end, the Kingfisher α Magic Furnace was sold for thirty-eight thousand Liselle. Though the little dwarf was sly, he at least had a merchant's decisiveness and rounded off the change for them.

Wanting to return the favor, Fang Heng used his remaining money to buy a Silver Blaze Forest Eyeball from the man at full price. This earned him endless praise from the little dwarf, who even gave him a set of Used Core Crystals of this specification, usable from levels three to seven.

This displeased Tianlan greatly. She secretly told him those crystals were nearly scrapped and practically worthless. But Fang Heng did not mind. The Magic Furnace itself had not come with Core Crystals, so the other man's unintentional gesture had actually solved his urgent problem.

After all, even a brand-new set of the worst crystals would cost at least one or two thousand.

"Still, I never expected you to be this amazing, Tianlan," Fang Heng said.

Honestly, he could hardly put down the Kingfisher α. Although it was far inferior to the Imperial Workshop Magic Furnace, thirty-eight thousand Liselle still made it the most expensive piece of equipment he had ever used.

Everything he had earned over the past half year, together with all the gear on him, probably did not even amount to half the value of this Magic Furnace. Never mind anything else—if someone spent tens of thousands on a Magic Furnace in Dawnstar, Miss Scarpe would probably beat them half to death for such wastefulness.

.

"Of course," Tianlan said smugly. "You haven't even seen what I'm really capable of yet, Brother Ed."

"Miss Fuli may know how to spend money, but she really is good at making it too. If only, if only... she weren't so willful. Some money is spent completely unnecessarily," Jita quietly added.

"Ha, what did you say?" Tianlan raised her voice and looked at her.

Jita was so frightened that she did not dare say another word.

Etila glared at Tianlan and reiterated, "Don't bully Jita."

Tianlan made a face at her. "Bleh, bleh, bleh..."

Fang Heng gently stroked the blued steel dome of the Kingfisher α. Its edges were covered in silver ivy reliefs, while five ports were arranged below: one large mana-storage crystal port, two medium recharge ports, one medium primary port, and one small auxiliary port.

The Kingfisher α's casing made it slightly heavier than the Imperial Workshop model, at around 2.7 kilograms, but it also improved its durability.

The Kingfisher's defining feature was its refined cooling system. This was an incomparable technological advantage of Kaolin-Ishurian over Ausch. Its design pursued stability and endurance, vastly different from the radical genius design of the Central Nervous System.

Fang Heng compared this professional-grade Magic Furnace to his original one and found there was simply no comparison. Its performance was at least three times better and more than fifty percent above the Type II Magic Furnace he had originally planned to buy.

Holding it gave him the feeling of trading a shotgun for a cannon.

As the primary core equipment, improvements to a Magic Furnace brought the greatest benefits to any profession—and Combat Artificers were naturally no exception.

An important measure of a Combat Artificer's strength was how many Flexible Constructs they could control, but this actually involved two standards.

One was the Combat Artificer's personal talent.

The other was the Combat Artificer's level and equipment.

A Combat Artificer's talent was naturally the foundation of everything, but level and equipment were equally important.

Among them, level—including skills and knowledge—determined the value and efficiency of the "computation" attribute, which in turn determined how effectively the Chosen System could assist in controlling Flexible Constructs. The higher the efficiency, the lighter the burden on the Combat Artificer, and without question, the more numerous and more complex Flexible Constructs they could control.

That was only the factor of level. As for equipment, the true focus lay in the performance of the Magic Furnace.

One basic rule was that however much mana a Flexible Construct's Core Crystal output, the Combat Artificer had to output an equal amount of mana while controlling it. Therefore, a Magic Furnace's output limit effectively determined the Combat Artificer's limit for controlling Flexible Constructs.

Fang Heng had previously experimented with five-way control, but if it had been five actual Clockwork Sprites, he would have been unable to control them—not because he could not manage the operation, but because his primary Core Crystal could not support such enormous mana expenditure.

Moreover, superior Magic Furnaces did not merely improve basic attributes. Their more varied ports also allowed Combat Artificers to use more auxiliary Magic Devices in battle.

For example, the common Magic Balancer could reduce a Combat Artificer's mana expenditure while controlling Flexible Constructs, effectively increasing the Magic Furnace's output power.

Then there was the Balance Compensation Framework, which could further increase the bonuses from a Combat Artificer's perception and intelligence attributes on Flexible Constructs. (Note: Non-Mind Flexible Constructs have no mental attributes and use the controller's mental attribute bonuses.)

There was also the Engineering Shield Generator. This kind of shield generator was not for the Combat Artificer's own use, but could remotely charge Flexible Constructs equipped with shields.

With all these various tools, an excellent Magic Furnace could multiply a Combat Artificer's strength.

"Mr. Ed, may I take a look at it?" Jita asked enviously from the side.

Fang Heng nodded and handed the Kingfisher α over with both hands.

Jita accepted the Magic Furnace and lovingly ran her small hands over its beautiful casing.

"Hold it steady. That's nearly forty thousand Liselle," Tianlan could not help reminding the little boy.

Jita looked at her timidly, feeling deeply wronged. Fang Heng's face grew a little hot as he quietly said, "It's fine. It isn't heavy."

But he understood perfectly well.

The envy in Jita's eyes was not because of the Magic Furnace's value, but because of his longing for the status of an official Chosen—tourists could never use such a professional-grade Magic Furnace.

Fang Heng fully understood that feeling. He could even empathize with it.

After all, only two days had passed since his own identity had changed.

Thinking of this, he could not help quietly telling Jita, "One day, you'll use one too. Maybe even something better than this."

Jita looked up at him in surprise, then nodded firmly. "Mm."

Then Jita lowered her head and softly said, "Congratulations, Brother Ed. This really is an excellent Magic Furnace."

Fang Heng noticed the subtle change in that form of address, and warmth filled his heart. Though he had known them for less than a day, they unexpectedly reminded him of his days in Dawnstar.

Tianlan noisily urged him to install the Magic Furnace and test how much it improved him. For a Combat Artificer, the main way to test a new Magic Furnace was, simply put, controlling more constructs.

Fang Heng wanted to try it himself as well.

Of course, five-way control was too shocking. He still had enough sense for that. He planned to try dual control—if people did not know his level, dual control would not attract much attention.

He was about to ask where nearby he could rent Clockwork Sprites. Since Clockwork Sprites did not require their users to possess Magic Adaptability, they were not merely tools in Aethelria, but more like toys.

Getting a Clockwork Sprite to fly was not difficult. Anyone with some magic knowledge could do it. The hard part was maintaining steady, continuous control. Thus, competing over who could control one better and longer had become a trend across the continent—especially in the Ausch Empire, where there were said to be related competitions.

Of course, these competitions were aimed at ordinary people. Ordinary alchemists, let alone Combat Artificers, were generally not allowed to participate.

And because of this fashion, one could find Flexible Construct rental shops basically anywhere people gathered.

But at that moment, two hurried youths entered from outside the inn. They seemed not to look where they were going and brushed past Fang Heng's group. Because they were moving too quickly, the youth in back crashed into Jita, making her cry out as she nearly fell to the ground.

Jita clutched the Kingfisher α tightly, clearly frightened pale. Yet the youth who had hit her not only failed to apologize, but turned around and complained irritably, "Don't you watch where you're going?"

Fang Heng immediately flared up. They had been standing there without moving at all, yet the other party had hit someone and still acted so self-righteous.

Tianlan exploded even more, raising her voice. "You sure know yourself well. Don't you watch where you're going?"

The youth evidently had not expected these idle adventurers to talk back. He blanked for a moment before asking with a dark expression, "What did you say?"

Fang Heng immediately reached toward the backpack behind him—his Walker was inside.

But Etila grabbed both him and Tianlan from behind, one in each hand, and said in a low voice, "Don't start anything here. They're from the Silverwood Spear."

By then, Fang Heng had recognized their battle robes as well—

At that moment, the youth's companion came back. But the latter did not even look at Fang Heng's group, as if they were air, and merely said, "Hurry up. We're already going to be late."

The one who had caused the trouble nodded, but before leaving, he glanced at Jita and could not help sneering. "Treating a trash Magic Furnace worth only a few tens of thousands like treasure." Only then did he turn and leave with his companion.

Tianlan was so angry she felt her lungs might burst. She wanted to go argue with them, but Etila would not allow it. She could not help saying indignantly, "Sister Etila, let go of me! I'm going to fight those two arrogant idiots!"

Etila shook her head.

But Fang Heng glanced at her instead and slowly lowered his hand. He had clearly heard the elf lady say not to start anything here. Where they should start something was self-evident—he had plainly caught the implication in her words.

But then Jita quietly said, "Their Magic Furnaces..."

Fang Heng silently nodded.

They were Central Nervous System AEM type models, military-grade Magic Furnaces for Combat Artificers.

The other side were rookie Combat Artificers too.

Both of them were.