By the time Jiang Ziliu left Dungeon Space No. 1, it was already eight in the evening.
"Oh no, Mom and Dad must be worried sick."
Although he had left a letter saying he was going to venture into the Dungeon Space, he had essentially sneaked off while his parents were away.
Jiang Ziliu sold all his spoils at the instance exit.
As for the mysterious metal disk, he hid it inside the Azurite Rock Man's mouth and had it come out with him.
The Azurite Rock Man was small, but its mouth could open wide enough to fit the mysterious object inside.
Fortunately, no one at the instance entrance noticed that he had hidden something.
People with spatial equipment were not searched, because they were either rich or influential and not easy to offend.
Only bottom-rung beast tamers like him were liable to have their valuables discovered and be given a hard time, with no way to safeguard their own interests.
From this day's journey through the Dungeon Space, Jiang Ziliu earned a total of 23,597 yuan.
That income was comparable to what his parents currently earned from two or three months of hard work.
It made Jiang Ziliu reflect that becoming a beast tamer truly brought tremendous improvements not only in strength, but also in status, income, and every other aspect.
Things were just as he had expected. As soon as he arrived home, he saw his anxious family.
His mother sat on the sofa, staring blankly out the window, worry plain on her face.
His father, Jiang Yuan, was smoking, but his cigarette had long since gone out, and he was still taking drag after drag.
They had even forgotten to lock the front door properly. Jiang Ziliu pushed it open with a light touch and saw the two of them looking worried.
Jiang Ziliu felt the urge to cry. Only then did he realize how much anxiety his trip into the Dungeon Space had caused his parents.
"Dad, Mom, I'm home!"
Jiang Yuan glanced at him without saying a word, took out a cigarette as though breathing a sigh of relief, lit it, and began smoking in a much more relaxed manner.
His mother rushed over and looked him up and down, examining him carefully, afraid she might find even a single new injury.
Only after finding him completely unharmed, apart from his clothes being somewhat dirty and smelly, did she relax.
Although his father, Jiang Yuan, said nothing, he kept watching them out of the corner of his eye.
Jiang Ziliu did his utmost to reassure them.
He then volunteered some of his experiences inside, showing his parents that he had been extremely cautious and had certainly not been arrogant like most young people.
Moreover, although he lacked experience, he had a brain and had acted carefully throughout.
Sure enough, only after hearing their son's experiences did both his parents feel at ease.
His mother even felt a little proud.
Look! This is my boy! He really is different from those arrogant, conceited children!
He has always been this clever and insightful, ever since he was little. He will definitely live far better than the average beast tamer!
Parents always unconsciously magnified their children's strengths!
"As long as you're all right. Remember, protecting your own life must always come first for a beast tamer!"
His father, Jiang Yuan, said little else, merely reminding him of this once more.
"By the way, since your contracted beast Kong can use weapons, come to our workshop with me tomorrow. Your mother and I will forge an earth-attribute short blade suited to it. A weapon with the same attribute will be easier for it to wield, and it will save more power when using skills!"
Jiang Yuan was an experienced beast tamer, after all, and had noticed some shortcomings in Jiang Ziliu's actions.
For instance, the blade he had prepared did not match the Azurite Rock Man's attribute very well.
The blade was metal-attribute, whereas the Azurite Rock Man was an earth-attribute contracted beast.
It could bring the metal-attribute short blade along when using its skills, but doing so consumed more dark energy.
With an earth-attribute weapon, not only would control be easier and dark energy consumption lower, but the compatibility between the contracted beast and its equipment would also be higher.
If the contracted beast was satisfied, its affection toward its beast tamer would increase a little as well.
The keys to deepening the relationship between beast tamers and their contracted beasts lay in many inconspicuous little details.
And this sort of practical knowledge about the finer details was precisely what Jiang Ziliu lacked.
While Jiang Yuan was speaking, Jiang Ziliu's mother went into their bedroom and soon returned with three notebooks.
"These are records of some of our adventures back when we were beast tamers, both your father's and mine. After our contracted beasts fell into slumber, I wrote them down. Your eldest brother used them back then and achieved some success. Now I'm giving them to you, and I hope your path will be steadier than his!"
Jiang Ziliu solemnly accepted the three thick notebooks.
These were the fruits of his parents' painstaking efforts!
Life experience and beast-taming experience recorded specifically to help their children grow were an extremely precious inheritance!
His mother was an outstanding person as well, thinking so far ahead for her children and making preparations so early!
The next day, Jiang Ziliu went with his parents to their family's weapons workshop.
The Jiang family's weapons workshop was called the Jiang Armaments Workshop.
His father had rented the premises from the Base Resource Management Office through an old friend's connections. The rent was low, and the lease lasted a full thirty years.
Not a single shop in the base's inner market was privately owned. They were all property of the base itself.
However, all these shops were rented out, and the rents were not particularly high. As long as you had some connections and were willing to slip the official handling the matter some money in private, you could rent one.
The shop's main piece of equipment was an ultra-high-temperature furnace nearly five meters tall.
Some exotic beast materials and metals from Dungeon Spaces were special-grade metals resistant to extremely high temperatures. Ordinary low-temperature furnaces could not process them at all, so the workshop had to have such a facility.
There were also two forging presses, a combined cutting machine tool, and a manual casting bench.
The back room was a storeroom holding many raw materials used as auxiliary ingredients.
Jiang Ziliu could forge some metal weapons himself, having learned from his father, Jiang Yuan, but he was not very skilled at processing weapons with attributes other than metal.
What the Jiang family made most was still semi-metal armor.
For low-level beast tamers, their own safety was often extremely important. Their strength was low and their ability to withstand risks was poor, making defense particularly vital.
Those with money would choose premium leather armor made from the hides of high-level exotic beasts, offering greater defense and lighter weight, fitted with runes that could form energy barriers.
What the Jiang family could offer, however, was semi-metal armor, which could hardly provide full-body protection and could only protect vital areas.
It was heavy, and its only advantage was its low price.
The powerful aristocratic families disdained such meager profits, and the upper ranks of the Human Alliance had opened this business up so ordinary people could have a way to make a living.
After all, humanity had many enemies and no shortage of traitors. Driving the common people at the bottom into a corner could lead to serious trouble.
After arriving at the shop, his father, Jiang Yuan, began making a short blade for the Azurite Rock Man.
He fetched a material called red-veined steel rock, a special rock found in certain volcano- and lava-sea-type instances.
Although it was rock, its toughness was no worse than that of ordinary metals.
However, its structure contained numerous ultramicroscopic gaps. Special filler had to be added after shaping before it could be made into an earth-attribute weapon.
Jiang Yuan started the furnace. Rather than charcoal, it used the beast core of a Lava Fish Fire Crocodile that lived in magma, and a Bronze Rank beast core at that, a rank above Black Iron.
The beast core's power was channeled out and transformed into terrifying flames and heat, then concentrated by the furnace's special structure to create ideal smelting conditions.
After the heat brought the red-veined steel rock to a sufficiently high temperature, he cut it while it was hot, selecting a suitably shaped section and cutting it into the rough blank of a short blade.
Then he reheated it and finely ground it at high temperature!
Red-veined steel rock could only be worked at high temperatures. At room temperature, cracks could easily form, leaving hidden flaws in the weapon that might cause it to break during a critical clash.
Once the blade blank was shaped, Jiang Yuan melted some of a supernatural metal called multicolored crystal copper and poured it into a high-temperature trough.
He then took out a Black Iron Grade earth-attribute Elemental Crystal and placed it inside. Jiang Ziliu's mother added a small amount of auxiliary ingredients to blend and disperse them evenly at an ultra-high temperature.
Next came the final step. Jiang Yuan immersed the finely worked red-veined steel rock blade blank in the mixture and subjected it to high-frequency vibrations, allowing the liquid metal to enter the ultramicroscopic gaps in the red-veined rock steel. The multicolored crystal copper seeped evenly throughout, forming a stabilizing metal filler.
The last step was to let the blade cool naturally, then polish and sharpen it.
But since Jiang Ziliu needed a nonreflective blade for Rock and Earth Sneak Stab, the polishing step could simply be skipped.
While Jiang Yuan worked, Jiang Ziliu's mother assisted him, supplying various auxiliary ingredients.
Working in tacit harmony, the two successfully forged an earth-attribute short blade over the better part of a day.
Jiang Ziliu summoned the Azurite Rock Man to try it out. It was very satisfied and felt that this blade was much more comfortable to wield.
"What a pity we don't know how to inscribe runes. Otherwise, this blade could be upgraded to Bronze Rank!"
Jiang Ziliu was very satisfied, but his father, Jiang Yuan, felt some regret.
They had never had the opportunity to learn rune knowledge based on Contract Marks, so they could not inscribe runes on weapons to further improve their performance.
The two short blades and shield Jiang Ziliu had taken into the Dungeon Space had all been made at home, so he did not need any special equipment himself.
Even so, his mother used a Rock Armor Beast hide from their family's collection to make him a simple set of inner armor, which offered a measure of bodily protection while remaining very lightweight.
This beast hide had bony scales that were extremely small, making it suitable for turning into leather armor.
Such leather armor was comfortable to wear and offered good protection.
Slime skin could actually be made into armor as well, but its defense was relatively low and could not compare to his Rock Armor Beast hide.
This set of leather armor came from a bargain Jiang Ziliu's parents had picked up at the informal market and had always kept tucked away like a treasure.
But now they had taken it out for Jiang Ziliu to use.
The couple also prepared tough leather boots that protected against poison and punctures, along with leather trousers, before finally letting him go in satisfaction.
Parents always hoped to prepare something for their children, and Jiang Ziliu inevitably enjoyed this treatment as well.