Chapter 103: A Worthwhile Enchanting Core

Chapter 103: A Worthwhile Enchanting Core

In the workshop, the mana crystal forging furnace roared to life.

Su Nan's face lit up with a joyful smile as he gazed at the neatly arranged rare metals on the workbench.

"Finally, after all that time and effort, I've gathered all the materials!"

After taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Su Nan focused his mind and began preparing to create the Enchanting Core.

He had long memorized the necessary techniques, so his hands moved with practiced ease.

As his palm swept over the workbench, the rare metals and various auxiliary materials instantly melted like snow, eventually forming a fist-sized silver liquid that floated above his palm.

Su Nan extended his finger and tapped the silver liquid, then with a flick of his wrist, a fine silver thread as thin as a hair emerged. Following his movements, it began to trace out a complex and profound enchanting rune in the air.

The second and third enchanting runes quickly followed, their numbers increasing visibly with each passing second.

Almost every second, a new glowing enchanting rune appeared in the air before Su Nan.

The intricate runes intertwined and gradually formed a hollow sphere. As time passed, more and more runes filled the sphere, gradually filling its interior.

After an unknown amount of time, when the last silver thread transformed into an enchanting rune, the original silver liquid had vanished.

In its place was a perfectly smooth silver sphere.

It looked like a sphere crafted from pure silver, but if observed under a magnifying glass, one could see that it was composed of countless microscopic, exquisitely detailed enchanting runes.

This fist-sized silver sphere actually contained over a hundred thousand enchanting runes!

Gazing at the Enchanting Core before him, Su Nan let out a long, relieved breath, his face breaking into a genuine, heartwarming smile.

As he relaxed, an indescribable fatigue washed over him.

He had spent over twenty hours drawing enchanting runes, even his formidable mental energy had been severely drained.

After carefully storing the Enchanting Core, Su Nan first took a nap, then meditated for several hours until his physical and mental energies were fully restored. Only then did he begin the process of merging the Enchanting Core.

Compared to the intense and meticulous process of creation, the merging was relatively simple.

Su Nan directed the Enchanting Core to merge with the center of his chest, where it sank beneath his skin and disappeared, leaving only a coin-sized silver circular mark on his chest.

"Done!"

Su Nan snapped his fingers and left the workshop, heading to the spell training area.

Now it was time to test the power of the Enchanting Core!

Standing at the center of the training ground, Su Nan focused his mind, and countless silver threads of liquid metal emerged from his pores, twisting and writhing to form a gleaming knight's sword.

In the next moment, Su Nan flung the sword.

With a sharp whistling sound, the sword shattered and dissolved into a cloud of liquid metal, which then rapidly reformed into numerous metal spikes as long as chopsticks. They shot out like bullets, piercing the distant humanoid target with a series of thuds.

In the blink of an eye, the target was riddled with holes.

The next instant, the silver metal, now broken down into countless microscopic particles, reformed in front of Su Nan, this time into a half-man-tall metal shield with an unbreakable, heavy texture.

Metal domes, armor, hammers, arrows—Su Nan manipulated the liquid metal to form various weapons, experimenting for a while before finally stopping, a satisfied smile on his face.

There was no denying that the Enchanting Core's ability to shape-shift at will was incredibly useful.

It could be used for both offense and defense, making it a versatile tool.

Especially its high level of flexibility, which could catch enemies off guard in battle!

When an enemy thought they were attacking a metal shield, the next second they would face a storm of metal spikes.

Unless they were prepared, they would be caught completely off guard!

Su Nan then tested the attack and defense capabilities of the Enchanting Core.

His diligent partner in these tests was the Iron Golem.

The results were highly satisfactory.

When he used the Enchanting Core to its fullest potential, the weapons it formed nearly pierced through the Iron Golem's arm in a single strike!

Such a powerful attack, if it hit a vital spot, could instantly kill a First-Class Legendary Knight!

Even Aura Shields and Elemental Powers couldn't withstand it!

Additionally, the defensive form of the Enchanting Core was extremely sturdy, even surpassing the Extreme Protection Ring in terms of defense.

In terms of defense rating, it was approximately between 1500 and 1600.

The key was that the Enchanting Core's defense rating, unlike that of the Extreme Protection Ring, wouldn't be diminished by attacks.

As long as the instantaneous damage didn't exceed 1500 defense points, no attack could breach the Enchanting Core's defenses before Su Nan's mental energy was depleted.

It's worth noting that even a second-level spell's power is less than 100 defense points.

In other words, as long as Su Nan had enough mental energy, he could withstand any second-level spell without taking any damage.

"The only issue is the massive mental energy consumption."

Ordinary shape-shifting required very little energy.

However, when used for attacks and defense, the Enchanting Core's energy consumption skyrocketed.

Even with Su Nan's mental energy exceeding 34, he felt almost drained after just a short test.

"In an all-out battle, my current mental energy can probably only sustain me for about 2 minutes."

"If the attacks are too intense, that time would be even shorter."

"But in a balanced fight, 2 minutes is more than enough to secure victory."

Su Nan reabsorbed the Enchanting Core into his body, feeling extremely pleased.

The Enchanting Core was difficult to gather materials for and had strict fusion requirements, but it was worth it. Its final power did not disappoint.

In the past, when dealing with the Hundred-Armed Monster, he wouldn't have wasted so many high-level rune gems if he had the Enchanting Core.

"Although it still can't match the innate abilities of a wizard, it's already quite impressive."

Su Nan had seen how powerful a formal wizard's innate abilities could be.

The Enchanting Core was formidable, but it still had a long way to go to match those innate abilities.

The author of "Enchanting Core" might have exaggerated a bit.

However, Su Nan was confident he could enhance the Enchanting Core's power to match, or even surpass, the descriptions in the book.

After all, the Enchanting Core could be synthesized and upgraded.

Just produce enough Enchanting Cores and then synthesize and upgrade them!

"Perhaps the energy consumption could be reduced after synthesis?"

"If that's the case, it would be a huge bonus."

"But materials are a problem."

Su Nan sighed.

He had invested a significant amount of effort, time, and money to gather the materials for the Enchanting Core.

While he had found suitable substitutes, which reduced the financial burden, many rare metals were still hard to come by. Collecting a second, third, or fourth set of materials would be no easy task.

"Let's take it one step at a time."

The day after he finished crafting the Enchanting Core, Su Nan received some good news.

Koy's wife was pregnant.

He was about to have a niece or nephew.

To celebrate, Koy invited Su Nan over for a dinner.

After the dinner, once the servants had helped his wife to her room, Koy's expression turned serious.

"Was the attack on the Starfire Cult your doing?"

Su Nan raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think that?"

Koy smiled and handed him a battle report.

Su Nan took it and read it, a smile spreading across his face.

The report detailed the recent attacks on the Starfire Cult by unknown assailants.

Since the Starfire Cult had gone public, their secret bases had transformed into church branches in local towns.

However, in the past few months, these church branches had been attacked one after another, resulting in heavy casualties.

Many nobles who had considered joining the Starfire Cult's faith were now having second thoughts.

As a result, the Starfire Cult's reputation among the common people had suffered a significant blow.

Thanks to these attacks, the Starfire Cult's previously promising missionary efforts had been severely hindered.

"The Starfire Cult has suffered a significant loss," Koy said with a smug look. He then repeated his question.

Not long ago, Su Nan had said he would handle the matter of hindering the Starfire Cult's missionary efforts.

It didn't take long for this incident to occur.

Koy found it hard to believe it wasn't related to Su Nan.

Su Nan knew that it was the Night Owls who had started their operations.

From the report, it seemed they had achieved considerable success.

It looked like he would be able to obtain a good amount of divine blood amber at the next gathering.

"It's somewhat related," Su Nan admitted.

Koy's expression confirmed his suspicions. He chuckled. "I knew you would find a way."

"Such a significant loss will likely stall the Starfire Cult's missionary efforts for a long time."

After a few more words about the Starfire Cult, Su Nan shifted to another topic.

"I plan to establish a knight academy to recruit students from the commoners and peasants and train them into knights."

Koy was puzzled. "If you need knights, you can just draw them from the army. Why go through the trouble of training them yourself?"

“Once or twice is fine, but I can't keep drawing people from the army, can I?”

“The base needs its own knight guard. It will make things much easier in the future.”

Su Nan didn't reveal the true reason just yet; the time wasn't right.

Fortunately, Koy didn't think too much about it and instead asked, puzzled, “Then why not recruit from the nobles' children? Their potential and talent are far better than those of commoners and peasants.”

“Wouldn't that just be competing with the territory for soldiers?” Su Nan waved his hand. “And have you forgotten about our Dragon Blood Fruit? Poor potential isn't a problem.”

Koy thought about it and nodded after a moment.

“Alright, I'll take care of it. You just choose the location for the academy, and I'll handle the rest.”

If the knight academy could train more knights, it would be a good thing for the Spark Territory as well.

The stronger the base, the more benefits for the Spark Territory.

Late at night.

The third gathering at the Forest Cottage.

Su Nan slowly opened his eyes and looked around the long table.

To his surprise, this time only five people, including himself, were present:

Night Owl, Scepter, Heart, and Skeleton.

Rose was absent.

After the usual opening remarks, the gathering quickly entered the trading phase.

Heart was the first to place five Divine Blood Ambers on the table, his eyes fixed on Su Nan.

“As agreed, I've brought the Divine Blood Ambers. Now it's your turn to fulfill your end of the deal.”

“Of course.”

Su Nan smiled and handed over a hundred mana stones to Heart.

Seeing this, the other three also took out their Divine Blood Ambers.

Su Nan scanned them, his smile growing wider.

As he had expected, the Forest Cottage's harvest this time was quite bountiful.

Skeleton had three Divine Blood Ambers.

Scepter had seven Divine Blood Ambers.

To Su Nan's surprise, Night Owl produced a whopping eighteen Divine Blood Ambers!

“Just how many Starfire Cult branches did this guy raid?”

Su Nan was secretly amazed. Indeed, the person who founded the Forest Cottage was no simple figure, with both depth and strength.

According to the agreed-upon purchase price, Su Nan paid each of them in mana stones.

In the end, he acquired a total of thirty-three Divine Blood Ambers, more than he had initially plundered from the Starfire Cult's stronghold in Stone Bell City.

“With this many Divine Blood Ambers, I can at least double the original effects!”

The thought of soon improving his meditation efficiency made Su Nan's mood much brighter.

On the other side, the four who received a large number of mana stones were also overjoyed.

However, their joy was tinged with surprise at the player's generosity.

In just a short while, the player had handed over more than six hundred mana stones!

It was a display of wealth that left them in awe!

Who knew how many mana stones he had in total?

“Everyone, the acquisition of Divine Blood Ambers remains in effect,” Su Nan smiled. “If you can bring more next time, I'll still buy them at twenty mana stones each.”

The group exchanged glances and nodded slightly.

After the Divine Blood Ambers transaction was completed, they returned to the normal trading mode.

Unfortunately, this time the items Night Owl and the others brought out weren't particularly appealing to Su Nan. In the end, he only traded for a few valuable materials and two micro soul crystals before calling it a day.

Once the gathering ended, Su Nan immediately returned to his meditation room and started synthesizing the Divine Blood Ambers.

Divine Blood Amber, contains 2.95 milliliters of divine blood. Upon contact with air, it attracts free-floating energy particles, forming a high-concentration energy field.

From the description alone, it seemed the effects of the synthesized Divine Blood Ambers hadn't changed much. The minor side effects of auditory and visual hallucinations were gone, and the pollution was completely eliminated.

Not seeing much difference, Su Nan decided to conduct a practical test.

The final results were highly satisfying.

When combined with a high-grade Transcendent Elixir, his meditation efficiency increased by about twenty-five percent.

This was still under the condition that the Divine Blood Ambers couldn't be kept on him at all times, especially during potion-making, magic item creation, and puppet refining, as they would interfere with the enchanting rune drawing. Otherwise, with the Transcendent State's '24-hour passive meditation,' the efficiency would be even higher.

Even so, Su Nan's daily Star Ring Meditation proficiency now soared to over 2,900 points.

“At this rate, I'll be able to construct the twelfth Star Ring by the Autumn Veil Festival.”

Su Nan caressed the Divine Blood Ambers in his hand, a smile playing on his lips.

It seemed the reward for Divine Blood Ambers would have to remain in effect.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end