Speaking of equipment crafting, Ge Zheng had two "secret weapons" in his hands, which came from the yellow iron ore and meteorite iron from the remote mountains outside the Roland Village. The last time in Wanshan City, the sword he had crafted for that mysterious person had surprisingly outstanding performance, precisely because it contained a small amount of yellow iron ore and meteorite iron.
Later, Ge Zheng carefully collected the several pieces of yellow iron ore and placed them together with the meteorite iron. He had also analyzed the composition of the yellow iron ore, but with his current appraisal level, he still couldn't identify its constituents.
The purchased materials were all set out in front of Ge Zheng, along with some basic processed raw materials from before. After much thought, he still felt that he should keep a trick up his sleeve. After all, with his current level, even without adding these two materials, he could successfully craft a quasi-magical item. It was just for making money, and there was no need to risk everything he had.
The Blast Flame Tiger was a fire-type magic beast. The shoulder pads naturally had to maximize the abilities of the magic beast. Firstly, it had to be a fire attribute magical equipment. However, a seventh-level magic beast could at most only produce a level six magic. Even if the magic equipment enhanced it by three levels, it would only reach the damage level of a level nine magic. To craft it into a quasi-magical item, it would require adding some additional damage.
The blue platinum that Ge Zheng had previously purchased had excellent conductivity, and was prepared for this additional damage.
Miss Feifei looked at the materials on the ground and pointed to one of them, asking, "Teacher, what is this bone-like thing for?" Ge Zheng acted seriously in his role as an educator, "That's a raptor eagle bone, it has excellent electrical touch properties." Since Miss Feifei had decided to seriously study alchemy, she asked about anything she didn't recognize. After all, her father was paying a high fee of a thousand gold coins per hour to Ge Zheng.
Ge Zheng explained one by one, "Don't touch that dark and nasty thing like a crooked dog dung; that's the Flame Bat King's carcass. When it was alive, it was an eleventh-level magic beast. Even though it's dead, the magical elements on its body are still very active, and you may accidentally cause a big fire.” Upon hearing this, Miss Feifei quickly put down the glass rod she was using to poke it and said, "Eww! It's hot!" Ge Zheng showed a smug smile, "I haven't finished speaking yet. You can move it around; it's just a bit hot."
Miss Feifei was greatly annoyed and glared fiercely at Ge Zheng.
Ge Zheng laughed and said, "These two materials should make you understand that entering an alchemist's laboratory, one must not rummage around."
"What is that eye-like thing? It's so disgusting!" Miss Feifei, who had become obedient, carefully pointed to another magical material and asked, even though she kept a distance of two meters from it. Ge Zheng smiled and took it, "This is an electric eye python's eye. This kind of magic beast doesn't have a magic core, and all its magical power is concentrated in its eye, so these two eyeballs actually count as the magic core of the electric eye python. Magic cores are generally stable, you should know this."
Miss Feifei was regretful and initially patted her own bangs: why did both things she touched have to be so dangerous, while the things Ge Zheng got were so safe?
"The last two items," the glass rod was like a teacher's cane in Ge Zheng's hand, "This is a Phantasmagoria Alloy used to increase the strength of metal. Its effect is of course not as good as Sunken Iron, but as long as the heat is controlled properly, the items made from it won't be much worse than those made from Sunken Iron—this theory is a bit profound for me to explain to you now, but you just need to remember that mastering the heat is the most important in metal crafting, sometimes it may be more important than the raw material ratio."
Ge Zheng was somewhat playing a trick with this statement. If it weren't for discovering that using spiritual power to induce magic flames would cause the temperature of the flames to soar to an unimaginable level, he wouldn't have dared to boast like this.
"Ah," Miss Feifei nodded earnestly at this point. The Phantasmagoria Alloy was colorful, like a tangle of colorful threads, very beautiful. Miss Feifei couldn't help but take a few more glances at it.
"Finally, this is a Deep Sea Fish Crystal, the most commonly used magic lubricant. This type of fish crystal is produced within the body of deep-sea fish. Although fire and electric magic are not mutually exclusive, adding this type of magic lubricant enhances their cooperation."
"Alright, all the raw materials have been explained. If you have any questions, you cannot speak casually during the crafting process; you must maintain silence because I need to focus." Ge Zheng instructed.
Miss Feifei nodded, "What if I have a question about something I don't understand?" Ge Zheng thought to himself, you surely have many things you don't understand. "Write it down yourself. When I feel you're ready to ask questions, I'll let you speak." "Okay," Miss Feifei was somewhat unwilling.
The magical forging started. The pre-processed iron crystals were first put into the furnace. The Fire Cloak magic controlled the temperature of the magical flames. Under the golden fire cloak, the iron crystals quickly melted.
Ge Zheng successively added the blue platinum and the Phantasmagoria Alloy, quietly converting the magic power into spiritual power. The color of the flames jumped to the most basic red. Miss Feifei opened her mouth, but managed to hold back.
The color of the fire cloak continued to rise, changing from red to orange, and slowly turned into yellow. The alloy in the furnace had completely melted, and the impurities were further refined. Under the extremely high-temperature flames, the alloy solution presented a unique orange color.
The carcass of the Flame Bat King was thrown in. A burst of flames surged up, and the jumping fire-type magical elements easily merged with the alloy solution under the magical mosquito king egg's effect. Then, the fire sea crystal was added.
After these two materials were completely fused, Ge Zheng slowly lowered the temperature of the flames. Miss Feifei was curious again: how did the red flames suddenly turn into gold?
The temperature of the flames continued to decrease, slowly turning blue. This temperature was a critical point; once it fell below this temperature, it would be difficult to melt the metal.
Ge Zheng began to arrange a magical array in the solution, drawing each magical array with his mental power, and the electric eye python's eyeball also sank in as the eye of the electric-type magical array. At the moment the two attributes' magical arrays were completed, the Deep Sea Fish Crystal melted into the solution, perfectly blending the two magical attributes.
Ge Zheng cast an ice-type magic to shape it. A large patch of white mist rose in the furnace, and a huge shoulder pad was frozen in a large block of ice.
Throughout the process, Ge Zheng did not utter a word. It seemed like a short time, but in reality, Miss Feifei had already had three meals. According to the hourglass timings, this process took a day and a half.
Embedded within the shoulder pad were three fire-type magic arrays and two electric-type magic arrays, with a maximum damage value that was absolutely comparable to a twelfth-level magic, or even surpassed it.
Because Ge Zheng used a combination of alchemy and elixir methods, and the materials added to the shoulder pads were the Phantasmagoria Alloy, second only to Sunken Iron, the defensive effect of the shoulder pads was also extremely strong, comparable to the armor Ge Zheng had previously crafted for that mysterious person using Sunken Iron.
Miss Feifei had endured for a long time. As soon as she saw Ge Zheng finish, she couldn't help but ask, "Teacher..." but Ge Zheng didn't hear at all. This intermediate success didn't make him stop the ongoing process.
He took out the iron-sinking wood-carved lining and took out the shoulder pads from the block of ice, then started a new round of alchemy. This time, it was also a delicate operation.
By substituting equations, a portion of the iron-sinking wood was exchanged into the shoulder pad, and a part of the shoulder pad was exchanged into the iron-sinking wood. It couldn't be too much, otherwise it would interfere with the magical array within the shoulder pad; it couldn't be too little, otherwise both sides wouldn't combine perfectly. Moreover, this time's equation couldn't be completely finished, otherwise the two would become separated.
With the semi-complete status of the substitution equation, he made the two parts of the shoulder pad "grow" together, forming a whole.
Ge Zheng didn't dare to be careless in this process and left Miss Feifei aside, fully focusing on it. Miss Feifei had nothing to do but watch Ge Zheng operate. This process took a whole day, and Miss Feifei had already confirmed by then: being an alchemist was the most boring thing in the world.
Three days' worth of dry rations, apart from the first day, Ge Zheng did not eat much afterwards. In fact, once the alchemy started, he was completely engrossed and indifferent to anything else. The preparation of dry rations by Dunk was entirely due to Feifei; he wasn't heartless.
Miss Feifei wasn't polite either. Honest Dunk had prepared three days' worth of dry rations: meat pie for the first day, oatmeal bread for the second day, and baked potatoes for the third day. The portion for each day was for two people, and at the beginning, Feifei still upheld the mindset of "respecting the teacher," leaving some for Ge Zheng. However, after the first day, when she noticed that Ge Zheng showed no signs of wanting to eat, Feifei no longer held back and finished them all herself.
Without snacks, the meals made by the teacher's house's cook were better than snacks.
Ge Zheng didn't know that there would soon be an addition to the "freeloader" in the courtyard.
"Ah woo!" Miss Feifei reluctantly swallowed the last bit of potato. Meanwhile, Ge Zheng let out a long breath and said, "The great work is complete!"
The shoulder pad was large and square, with only a hint of ferocity on the shoulder for charging attacks, otherwise, the entire shoulder pad looked plain and unremarkable. It didn't look like the other "quasi-magical items," which were usually adorned with many totems, both fancy and intimidating.
Miss Feifei considered herself to have good "visual acuity" and had seen many "good items" inside the Grand Mansion, but in her eyes, this shoulder pad was neither beautiful nor mighty; it was completely ordinary. Unfortunately, Miss Feifei's experience was limited to the works of those self-conceited alchemists, and regardless of the quality, they would at least do something to make it look presentable.
Ge Zheng saw Miss Feifei's disdainful expression and felt slightly relieved in his heart. This was the effect he wanted. He said to himself, "Don't go back to your father and boast in front of him, little girl."
"Alright, do you have any questions?" Ge Zheng looked at the empty cloth bag and felt hungry. He quickly changed his mind, "Let's go out, we can talk while eating."
Honest Dunk cooked a fragrant camel meat soup, one big bowl for each person. Honest Dunk was a honest farmer from the Roland village, and he always chose big bowls and plates. Even the small bowls were bigger than Miss Feifei's head. Ge Zheng watched in surprise as Miss Feifei poured all the meat soup and bone residue from the big bowl into her stomach, and asked her in amazement, "What kind of race are you?"
Miss Feifei patted her round belly and said, "I'm full... Teacher, I don't understand why the temperature of the flame jumps so much?" Ge Zheng, while drinking the soup, replied perfunctorily, "As I said, the most important thing for processing metal materials is the temperature. You're still at a shallow level, and these things are too esoteric for you. You better focus on learning the basics."
Outside the door, Dunk's voice was heard, "Sir, Mrs. Mary from the Duke's mansion has come to take the little princess back."
"Miss Feifei, Miss Feifei, have you been mistreated?" Before Honest Dunk could finish, Mary, who was concerned for little Feifei, rushed in with her chubby body. Feifei rubbed her mouth in satisfaction and said, "I'm fine, I'm good."
The atmosphere in the dining room was quite different from three days ago, now filled with a sense of harmony. Mary was a little puzzled, but as long as Feifei was fine, it was okay. She took the little princess's hand and said, "Let's go back, the Duke has been missing you." Feifei looked longingly at the dining table, but eventually decided to go back and be intimate with her father before coming back for dinner.
After Feifei left, Gronia visited and informed Ge Zheng that the Dark Temple was already searching for the soul fire of the Bone Spirit, and once found, they would immediately send it to the Oba City.
Ge Zheng was surprised, "There's still a month left before I have to go to the Delson Royal City, I wonder if I can make it in time..." Gronia's mind was stirred. She had just received a report that due to the events of the other day, the Bright Odin Temple had already learned Ge Zheng's true identity. It was said that they had sent a dignified person to Oba City to compete for Ge Zheng. If she took Ge Zheng to the Delson Royal City and evaded the Bright Odin Temple, it would be perfect!
"No problem," Gronia said sweetly, "I can accompany you to the Delson Royal City. I am very familiar with the place and will make sure you feel at home..." Diora felt threatened and sensed trouble.
After returning, Gronia decided to immediately inform the temple. Even if they found it, they shouldn't rush to deliver it. She also felt it was unsafe and encouraged, "Master, the scenery on the way from here to Delson Royal City is magnificent. Why don't we set off early and enjoy the trip? By the time we reach the Delson Royal City, it will be over a month later." Ge Zheng thought for a moment, and it seemed like a good idea. Staying here, Maris the Grand Duke might have some new orders.
Diora also encouraged, "Yes, I haven't been back to Delson for a long time, let's go early." Ge Zheng nodded, "Okay. But the shop..." The alchemy shop made a lot of money every day, it couldn't be closed just like that. Diora irresponsibly mentioned Conmins, "You finish the production, leave Conmins behind."
"If that's not enough, Sorgviren can also stay." In passing, the female warrior also injured her biggest enemy at the dining table.
Honest Dunk had to come along no matter what.
Ge Zheng nodded, "Alright."
Diora looked at the time and showed a fawning smile to Gronia, "It's getting late, Master Alchemist, stay for dinner." Gronia was used to agreeing, "Sure." Ge Zheng looked at the sky. It seemed like there were still over two hours until dinner.
Diora treated Ge Zheng to a meal, but didn't have to pay for it herself. Ge Zheng wasn't around for the past three days, and with no competition, she felt that her relationship with the beautiful Gronia had progressed rapidly. However, as soon as Ge Zheng returned, she immediately felt threatened.
"Sir, the Duke requests your presence at the mansion."
A carriage was waiting outside, and Ge Zheng went to the Duke's mansion. The Imperial decree had arrived, commanding Grand Duke Maris to send an outstanding alchemist to the Delson Royal City. The three southern duchies were to showcase their alchemical skills at the royal family contest, and this also determined the final outcome of an event.
The Grand Duke looked worried as he stared at the document for a long time before speaking to Ge Zheng, "Master, it has been a long time since the incident. Although I haven't fully investigated the truth of the matter, based on various sources of information, I can guess roughly what happened." After pausing for a moment, he seemed to consider whether to tell Ge Zheng.
In the end, the Grand Duke chose to trust Ge Zheng, "Master, it's likely that someone is plotting against me in this matter. The mastermind may very well be within the Delson Royal City." Ge Zheng was surprised, "How could this be?"
"The Emperor is sixty years old this year, and his time is running out. The four princes below him all have their own plans. The three southern duchies are located outside the capital and, apart from the border garrisons, are the most important forces." The Grand Duke had already revealed enough for Ge Zheng to understand, "Someone is pressuring you to make a statement?" Maris, the Grand Duke, nodded sadly, "Master, apart from the contest, there is another important matter for you in the capital—please observe the four princes and determine who is worthy of support."
Ge Zheng was surprised, and the Grand Duke added, "Master, you don't need to feel pressured. You just need to go and observe. Although I am far away in the south, I have a good understanding of the situation in the capital. Your assistance on this matter is just for reference." Ge Zheng breathed a sigh of relief and then asked, "Why doesn't the Duke go to the capital to see for himself?" The Grand Duke smiled helplessly, "I am the lord of the duchy, and I cannot leave my domain without the Emperor's orders. This is a rule set by the Emperor's ancestors, fearing that the princes would conspire and create chaos."
Ge Zheng laughed, "Princes can't leave the capital, and the lord of the fief can't enter at will, and this is supposed to prevent internal and external collusion? This rule is simply a decoration."
"I will send a staff member to accompany you in the capital, and he will handle all matters on your behalf in the capital, so you don't have to worry." Maris said. Ge Zheng thought to himself: I'm afraid this staff member is the real observer of the four princes.
"Sir, I'm ready to leave soon." Ge Zheng said. After a moment of contemplation, the Grand Duke nodded, "It's best to leave early. I'll have them prepare for departure in three days."
After discussing with the Grand Duke, Ge Zheng bid farewell and went out. Princess Feifei was already waiting outside. "Teacher!" Seeing Ge Zheng come out, the little princess greeted him sweetly. Ge Zheng was a little surprised. Since when had this little witch become so obedient? "Is there something you need?" "I want to have dinner at the teacher's place." Miss Feifei was quite straightforward.
"Well..." Ge Zheng frowned. There was already someone else freeloading at his place, and now there was someone else wanting to join in. "Teacher, you wouldn't refuse to give your student a meal, would you?"
"Feifei!" The Grand Duke came out and scolded. Ge Zheng felt embarrassed, "How could that be, Your Grace, tonight Miss Feifei will be my guest. You can rest assured."