"I see. I'll be waiting for you in a week, otherwise I won't give you your sister back," the old man chuckled.
"Then I'll tear down the entire Mu family to get her back," I said sternly, which left the old man standing with a frozen face, full of bewilderment and slight fear. I just decided to tease him. Jiaxing Er is beautiful, kind, talented, and I like her personality, but she is not so dear to me that I would make the Mu family my enemies. Also, I must not forget that she is by all means mine, bound by a spiritual contract.
Leaving the Mu Family Estate, I went to the airport and took the first available flight to Xiamen, where the meeting with the dealer was scheduled. On the plane, I was able to sleep a little again. I arrived around two in the afternoon, closer to three. The meeting with the dealer was scheduled for two days later, so I successfully rented an apartment and went to bed. I was unbearably tired these three days; a little more and I would have literally started to fall on my feet. I woke up only the next day, around lunchtime.
While waiting for the appointed hour, I went to the market to buy some small things necessary for forging artifacts, and also replenished my stock of herbs. In total, I spent about five million, mostly on tools. After that, I went to the Hunter's League. I needed to find out about renowned blacksmiths to whom I could apprentice. Based on all the information I gathered, the most preferable option lived and worked in Nanjing. He needed strong young people knowledgeable in artifact crafting and various materials, capable of working day and night. So, initially, I decided to try to become his apprentice.
The rest of the day, I spent studying books on artifact forging, which were quite boring, and I constantly felt like I needed to try it in practice to fully understand. But I grasped the basic concepts and information; after all, if you want to become an apprentice to a good blacksmith, you need to know the subject, at least a little.
At the appointed time, early in the morning, I arrived at an alley that carefully concealed everything happening inside. The dealer was already waiting for me there, dressed in a simple t-shirt and jeans, and a wide-brimmed hat that covered his face. I was also dressed in ordinary clothes and a cap that covered my face, and I wore glasses, a long-forgotten trait of Yu Ivan. When I leaned against the wall next to the dealer, he spoke.
"You've given me a difficult task. This is no longer just about creating fake documents, but about rewriting a person's life," he chuckled. "But as they say, nothing is impossible for knowledgeable people."
"Here, here is five million as a deposit, and another million for the purchase of five decoys and the cursed seal I mentioned," I said, handing him a pre-prepared bank card.
"Yes, that was the easiest part of the order. Here you go," the dealer said, handing me a package with five steel boxes and one wooden case. "Be careful, otherwise the authorities might become interested in you, and having these items guarantees housing for at least ten years, if not eternal peace."
"Ha, I think I know much more about big under-the-table games than you do," I chuckled, putting the package into a spatial bracelet. "You don't need to worry about me. Better tell me when everything will be ready?"
"About two weeks, a month at most," the dealer shrugged. "To write such a well-directed story, I'll have to stand before many mid-level officials."
"I believe in your skills. I will await your message," I said, walking away from the alley.
"And don't forget to prepare extra money; the gifts that those people demand can be quite substantial," the dealer said after me.
"Certainly," I replied only, disappearing around the corner.
I had already bought plane tickets to Nanjing, which was in an hour. So I headed there immediately. Yesterday, I had called that blacksmith and arranged a meeting to be hired as an apprentice. On the plane, I continued to study the books I managed to obtain, so as not to embarrass myself. I needed forging skills not only to forge Zhou Ming's swords but also because artifacts made from monster bones and parts, without special treatment, have their limits. Most often, they are useless at a high level; my artifact is an exception, but its effectiveness is still extremely low. Even if I use parts of an emperor's body, without processing and forging, using an alloy of metal and monster, I cannot overcome this barrier.
In order for an artifact to wound or defend against monsters above pack leaders, it is necessary to use good, unique resources, alloying them with special magical metals. This way, the problem of the three-eyed wolf's teeth, namely the inability to conduct and contain magical formulas, can be easily neutralized. It is enough to mix it with a metal that conducts magical energy well and retains magical formulas. Using the special fire of a magical furnace, as well as a small decoction, one can, so to speak, break down the strong parts of the monster's body and mix them with metal. Upon solidification of the mixture, a substance is obtained that combines the properties of both materials.
This process is very complex and can take from one week to several months for a single item. The more unusual and incompatible the materials, the more complex the process, and the time also depends on the number of different materials and their total weight. After obtaining the ingot of the required material, forging follows, which is not much different from ordinary forging, except that magical forging has special techniques, which are most often passed down from master to apprentice, as well as the use of special hammers for all occasions.
Directly from the plane, I went to the meeting. This blacksmith worked in his own workshop, which was on the outskirts of the city. When I arrived at the address, I saw an impressively large building, most of which was the workshop. Ringing the bell hanging at the gate, I began to wait. After a couple of minutes, the door was opened by a young man, very athletic, with strong muscles and broad shoulders. He was a couple of centimeters taller and exerted considerable pressure with his presence alone. He looked about twenty-five years old, dressed in a leather apron and pants.
"Hello, did you come to try out for uncle's apprenticeship?" the young man asked, looking at me. He gave the impression of a very kind and cheerful young man, not corrupted by intrigue.
"Hello. Yes, where should I go?" I asked politely, bowing slightly. "I have already spoken with Mr. Tan Tao; he allowed me to come and try."
"Your name is Yu Ivan?" the young man asked, taking a notebook out of his apron pocket. I nodded in agreement. "Alright, uncle has prepared a series of tasks. The first will be a theoretical test; uncle won't let anyone who doesn't understand anything near the forge. Are you ready to take it right now?" the young man asked, putting away the notebook.
"Yes, I will complete all the tasks prepared by the master," I said humbly, bowing slightly.
"Then let's go," he said, leading me into one of the rooms not related to the workshop.
There were several tables with chairs, a board hanging on the wall. The entire room resembled a classroom, with the exception that the tables were not arranged in neat rows but haphazardly. As if they were not arranged but simply scattered around the classroom.
"Here, take this. This is your test. You have two hours for everything. If you don't pass, you can stop coming here," the young man said confidently, thrusting a rather impressive stack of papers into my hands. "You can sit anywhere. Pens and everything else you need, you can take from the table," he said, gesturing with his hand, but a large and sturdy oak table by the board could well be called a teacher's desk.
"Alright," I replied briefly, taking the pens, sitting at the nearest table, and starting the test.
It wasn't difficult and didn't require deep knowledge, but it was definitely very extensive. It covered all topics of artifact crafting, from ordinary carved artifacts to complex composite cast artifacts, from ordinary ones using standard materials to the principles of working with complex and rare ones. The entire test was divided into three sections: a quiz, matching two concepts, and written answers. If I hadn't been studying artifact crafting for over two years, since my last year of school, it would have been very difficult for me to pass this test. But at the moment, it was, if not easy, then certainly doable within the allotted time.
Towards the end of the test, my head was throbbing from overexertion. There were so many diverse questions that I had to quickly recall and write down the answers. The sheer number of questions made me dizzy, but I managed to complete everything within the allotted time. The young man returned, took the test, and told me to rest, which I did, as the fatigue from such mental strain had quite exhausted me. An ordinary person, or even not every mage, could handle this.
"Uncle is surprised by the results of your test. You are the only one who has managed to answer all the questions and score over eighty percent correct answers in all this time," the young man returned after a couple more hours and woke me up.
"I tried very hard. I didn't think I would be rated so highly," I replied modestly, although it was quite expected. If I, a mage tempered with internal energy of an intermediate level, was exhausted solving this test, what can be said about ordinary people? "What is the next task the master has prepared for me?"
"He wants to see your skills in working with ingredients," the young man said. "Follow me, I'll show you your workspace." The young man led me into one of the workshop rooms, where there was only one workbench and a cabinet with labels of various common monster parts and the tools necessary for their processing.
This is a room where senior students usually work, but sometimes we also hold exams here for admission to junior students," said the guy. "Everything in this room is at your disposal, your task is to create a protective elemental artifact, you can decide for yourself which element it will be, as well as the form, size, and type of protective artifact.
"Okay, I understand," I nodded my head. "How much time do I have?
"Eight hours, if you finish earlier, press this bell," said the guy, pointing to the button by the door, after which he left.
First of all, I checked what I had at my disposal by the stickers. It turned out to be a rather solid pile of various materials. For my artifact, I chose a fragment of the shell of a lightning turtle that lives on the coast of Thailand, as a base. I also used the bones of lightning wolves, which I was very familiar with, as an addition, so I made a reinforcing frame for the shell out of them.
After two hours, the shield was ready, it was time to engrave the magical formula on it. Both the shell and the bones belonged to the lightning attribute, so I thought it would be a good idea to incorporate a counter-attack ability into the artifact. For this, I used a lightning crystal, a more concentrated lightning energy, which due to its destructive properties cannot be used in cultivation. It was located in the center of the teardrop-shaped shield and served as a catalyst and central part for the counter-attacking spell. It also served to strengthen the shield itself, energy flows that supported the shield's structure were closed on it.
As can be easily understood, this shield is very effective against lightning attacks. I spent about four hours developing and applying the magical formula. The last stage was embedding the soul. For this shield, I chose a slightly unconventional soul, namely a lightning eagle that inhabits the Caucasus Mountains. This was done to balance the contradictory parts of the lightning wolves and turtles.