Chapter 281: Promotion to Master Level

Chapter 281: Promotion to Master Level

The accommodation prices were so shocking that they had to stay in this world for at least 16 days, and the lodging expenses alone were overwhelming.

As a result, the group could only afford to book three rooms.

Rong Xincheng's team took one room, Lu Heng, Lin Zeyu, and Xie Shi En shared another, and Su Muyu had a room to herself.

Fortunately, the most notable feature of the Elven architecture was its spaciousness.

The rooms in the inn were estimated to be around 200 square meters, easily accommodating even a Celestial Phoenix.

However, the vastness of the room made Su Muyu feel a bit uncomfortable.

The empty room felt lonely with only her and the Celestial Phoenix, which she had released and was now talking to. "This room in the Elven Capital is several times larger than our home. I'm going to sleep now, and you, Celestial Phoenix, will keep watch. Tomorrow, we'll go to work at the Gem Workshop."

...

The night passed uneventfully.

The next morning, the group headed to the industrial district of the Elven Capital and began working in the forge.

Lu Heng started with a level 6 tempering process for a long-handled Elven weapon.

This weapon resembled a spear and could be thrown, but most of the time, it was used as a close-quarters combat weapon.

Kael Zorne observed from the side, ensuring Lu Heng's capability to perform the tempering independently before leaving him to manage other tasks.

Lu Heng, starting with level 6 tempering and working in harmony with his assistant, simultaneously tempered three weapons, efficiently completing the process.

His Tempering Mastery secondary profession experience also increased rapidly during this process.

After completing the level 6 tempering for this batch of weapons, Kael Zorne came to inspect the results.

He was astonished, "You finished so quickly?"

The Elves' lifestyle was leisurely, and their work pace reflected this, as they had a thousand years to live and no need to rush.

Initially, Kael Zorne was concerned that Lu Heng's tempering speed might result in a low success rate.

He checked the tempering materials in the box and found that the consumption was not excessive.

If a weapon's tempering failed, the Tempering Master would continue to invest materials and repeat the process.

Therefore, when tempering weapons on a large scale, a lower success rate meant more material consumption.

Kael Zorne, the on-duty Master Tempering Master, was experienced and could estimate the success rate by glancing at the remaining tempering materials.

With a quick look at Lu Heng's material box, he gauged that Lu Heng's tempering success rate was around 90%.

A 90% tempering success rate was considered top-tier in the Elven tempering workshop.

As a Master Tempering Master, Kael Zorne could only guarantee a 90% success rate for level 6 tempering.

Lu Heng, with his Advanced Tempering Mastery, had achieved this success rate, showcasing his exceptional skills.

What was more terrifying was Lu Heng's tempering speed, three to four times faster than other Elven Tempering Masters. By the time they finished tempering one weapon, Lu Heng had completed three.

Initially, Kael Zorne had been concerned about Lu Heng's low success rate, assigning him only level 6 tempering tasks. However, he now realized that Lu Heng's skills far exceeded his expectations.

Pointing to the batch of weapons that had just undergone level 6 tempering, Kael Zorne said, "Then carry on. Bring these weapons up to level 9."

Lu Heng nodded in agreement and then asked, "Can I receive daily wages? The accommodation is a bit expensive."

The previous day, Su Muyu had paid for the room with inscribed gemstones, but there weren't many, and using them for lodging seemed extravagant.

Moreover, their stay in the Elven workshop wouldn't be long, at most three to five days.

Once the Abyssal Summoners appeared, completing the battlefield missions would take priority.

Daily wages would be more convenient.

Kael Zorne considered for a moment, knowing that the Summoners wouldn't stay long, and agreed, "Sure, come find me after work today."

Lu Heng was pleased and continued tempering, raising the weapons' tempering level from 6 to 9.

By evening, most of the Elven Tempering Masters had left, and only a few craftsmen remained in the workshop.

After completing the final level 9 tempering, Lu Heng requested Kael Zorne to inspect the results.

Kael Zorne selected a few weapons for inspection and was highly satisfied with the results, "Excellent! I didn't expect you to finish in one day what other Tempering Masters would take three to four days to complete. Your help is truly invaluable.

"By the way, here's your daily wage as we discussed. It's three hundred crystal coins, as per the Tempering Workshop's standard."

He handed a bag to Lu Heng and added, "Come by tomorrow. I'll also assign you the Soul Infusion work. Can you handle it?"

"Of course, I can do one or two Soul Infusions, and the success rate should be around seventy percent," Lu Heng replied, eager to try Soul Infusion.

The reason was simple—Soul Infusion provided more experience.

With today's work, his Advanced Tempering Mastery secondary profession experience had reached 2750 out of 3000.

At this rate, two or three more days should be enough to reach the Master level.

...

Night fell.

The group left the workshop, gathered, and returned to the inn in the commercial district.

Lu Heng held up the bag of money and handed it to Su Muyu, saying, "Use this to pay for the accommodation from now on."

The group was surprised to see Su Muyu take out crystal coins from the bag, and they asked, "Where did you get Elven currency?"

"Daily wages, didn't we mention it?" Lu Heng blinked.

Lin Zeyu's mouth twitched, and he smiled, "They didn't ask me to pay, so I'm already grateful."

His job as a blacksmith assistant didn't offer much in terms of income.

Of course, while it didn't provide monetary benefits, the secondary profession of Blacksmith Assistant helped improve fire resistance, it was still worth leveling up.

Due to differences in forging processes, Lin Zeyu made several mistakes during work, wasting a considerable amount of materials.

Fortunately, the Elves didn't mind and didn't ask him to compensate.

The others were in a similar situation.

Rong Xincheng was still an Apprentice Runesmith, and this secondary profession required a lot of investment at the beginning to gain experience. It was already good to be able to gain experience in the Gem Workshop.

Xie Shi En was an Apprentice Enchanting Scribe, and it was the same for him.

Only Su Muyu was an Advanced Runesmith, and her work efficiency was higher than that of the other Elven Runesmiths, which qualified her for a reward.

However, this girl was very honest and didn't mention daily wages, thinking that she would only ask for payment at the end.

When Su Muyu heard that Lu Heng could receive daily wages, her eyes widened, and she pounded her fist, saying, "No way, I want daily wages too, starting from tomorrow. And I want to collect today's wages as well."

...

For the next three days, the group worked in the forge of the Elven Capital.

During these three days, several other human Psionics gained access to the inner city.

There was also a Psionic who entered the Tempering Workshop.

This Psionic originally wanted to show off his skills in the workshop, but upon entering, he found many Elven Tempering Masters surrounding a tempering furnace.

And standing in front of this furnace was none other than Lu Heng.

The Elves were so leisurely that they found it interesting to watch a human Tempering Master work so efficiently that they put down their own tasks to gather around and watch.

Before Lu Heng's arrival, they were very busy with their work due to a tight deadline.

After Lu Heng came, he could do the work of three people alone, and now he was even more impressive, tempering five weapons in the furnace at once.

Since these weapons were of the same model and required the same tempering level, the process was identical, and they could be done in one batch.

The only drawback was a slight decrease in success rate, but due to the increased speed, this minor decrease in success rate was manageable, resulting in only a slightly higher consumption of tempering materials.

With Lu Heng's help, the need for overtime in the Tempering Workshop was significantly reduced, allowing the Elven Tempering Masters to return to their leisurely ways, elegantly observing from the side.

The Psionic who had sneaked into the Tempering Workshop saw this and couldn't help but twitch his cheeks.

He had originally planned to gain some secondary profession experience and improve his reputation with the Elves, but now those plans were ruined.

...

After three days, Lu Heng finally gained enough experience to become a Master Tempering Master.

The closer he got to the end, the more challenging it became to gain experience, so Lu Heng decided to grind it out.

Comparatively, the Soul Infusion process provided more experience than the Tempering process.

So for the last 100 points of experience, Lu Heng used Soul Infusion to reach the goal.

After completing the final Soul Infusion, Lu Heng smiled as he saw the gained profession experience.

[Soul Infusion completed, Tempering Master profession experience +10]



[Advanced Tempering Master experience reached (3000/3000), promoted to Master Tempering Master.]



[Secondary Profession: Master Tempering Master (0/5000)]



[Master Tempering Master: +40% Tempering Success Rate, +30% Soul Infusion Success Rate, +40% Fire Resistance]



After reaching the Master Tempering Master level, Lu Heng finished the remaining work and gained profession experience (80/5000).

In the evening, Kael Zorne came to inspect the results and was surprised to see Lu Heng performing the final Soul Infusion.

"Friend from the human world, has your tempering skills improved again?"

Lu Heng nodded gratefully, "Yes, there's been some improvement, and I have Kael Zorne to thank for his help."

Kael Zorne was a Master Tempering Master, equivalent to Lu Heng's current tempering level.

Of course, Kael Zorne had already gained more than half of the Master Tempering Master experience, so he was still more skilled than Lu Heng.

Even so, he was still astonished.

He was also very pleased with Lu Heng's work over the past few days, as it allowed their Tempering Workshop to complete the weapon upgrade task for the Elven Guard ahead of schedule.

...

Since the weapon upgrade task in the Tempering Workshop was complete, Lu Heng didn't need to return to the forge after receiving his final payment.

The group of seven had stayed in the Elven Capital's forge for four days, and although they hadn't heard any news of the Abyssal Summoners' invasion, being inside the city meant they were a bit out of touch with the outside world.

Therefore, after finishing his work in the Tempering Workshop, Lu Heng spent the next two days outside Colossus City, taking on demon-hunting bounties.

The Quel'dorei Continent had been under Abyssal invasion for seven hundred years, and the Elves had been offering bounties on demons as a regular practice, with new bounties being posted at regular intervals.

This was also the primary way for other human Psionics to improve their reputation with the Elves.

As a result, when Lu Heng arrived at the bulletin board outside the city, he saw several human Psionics waiting for bounties.

Fortunately, before coming to the Elven Capital, he had defeated a Lich and obtained Augustus's Magic Codex, or else he would have had to wait for bounties like the others.

As Lu Heng watched the commotion, a voice called out from behind him.

"Anka, I didn't expect to see you here. What a coincidence."

Hearing this voice, Lu Heng recognized the speaker and turned to see Chen Zihang petting the mechanical tiger Anka's head.

Chen Zihang waved and greeted him, "I heard you had entered the inner city, but I couldn't get in touch with you."

Lu Heng hadn't left the Elven Capital since entering it, so he didn't know that Chen Zihang had also been summoned. He was a bit surprised to see him.

"You were summoned too? Alone?"

Chen Zihang shook his head, "No, this time the scale of the summons was quite large. Our entire squad came, and we fought our way out of the Dark Wolfmen."

Lu Heng suggested, "Let's sit down and exchange some information."

"Good idea. I also want to ask you how you got into the Inner City. Come with me, I'll introduce you to the others." Chen Zihang led Lu Heng to an inn in the Outer City.

Upon entering the spacious room of the inn, Lu Heng saw nine other people, all ordinary soldiers, and to his surprise, Zhuo Hong Jun was leading them.

As their eyes met, a complex expression flashed across Zhuo Hong Jun's face.

In fact, he had heard about Lu Heng's entry into the Inner City a few days ago, which left him feeling slightly annoyed.

Ever since he met Lu Heng, he had been outshone in every aspect.

Growing up, he had always been the top student among his peers, the most outstanding one. Now, being overshadowed by Lu Heng made it difficult for him to develop any positive feelings towards the other man.

Even when the Dragon Valor Mercenary Group was established, he was appointed as the Deputy Commander, which he thought was impressive enough.

However, when Lu Heng appeared, he was directly appointed as the Honorary Commander, seemingly stepping on Zhuo Hong Jun's head.

And it wasn't just Lu Heng who was above him; even Su Muyu and Lin Zeyu had become Honorary Commanders, all seemingly trampling on his position.

The person he resented the most was Lin Zeyu. Despite being just a wealthy young master, he had become Zhuo Hong Jun's superior.

Whenever he saw Lin Zeyu, he had to stand at attention and salute, which made him feel like his lungs were about to explode.

Aside from Zhuo Hong Jun, there were three others in this group who were familiar to Lu Heng.

They were part of the team that had ventured into the Suichuan Mist Zone together, and one of them was a Mystic Warrior with the Flame Messenger source quality.

Upon seeing them, Lu Heng immediately understood their situation.

When a Mystic Warrior with a rank like Zhuo Hong Jun's was summoned, the military would search for other warriors with the same countdown within the military sequence and assign them to work together.

Lu Heng scanned the room and asked, "Isn't Jian Qing here?"

Chen Zihang nodded. "No, Captain Jian wasn't summoned. It's just us ten. We were teleported into the Dark Wolfman's territory and spent several days trying to escape."

These Mystic Warriors from the military sequence might not have exceptional individual combat strength, but their teamwork and coordination in battle were undoubtedly the best.

Moreover, they underwent specialized Mystic tactics training, making them formidable opponents even for many high-level Mystics in an encounter.

However, upon seeing Zhuo Hong Jun, Lu Heng couldn't help but furrow his brows slightly.

Due to their past interactions, Lu Heng was well aware that the current Deputy Commander of the Dragon Valor Mercenary Group was a notorious gilded war god, and he was the biggest wildcard in this team.

But with Chen Zihang present, along with three other Mystics who had fought alongside him to protect the nuclear power plant in Suichuan, Lu Heng felt obligated to help them.

So, Lu Heng sat down and exchanged information with them.

Chen Zihang asked curiously, "I heard a few days ago that a team had entered the Elven Capital, and after asking around, I guessed it must be you. Come on, tell us, how did you manage to get in?"

Lu Heng didn't go into details and simply replied, "We killed a Lich, obtained the Archmage Augustus's Arcane Grimoire, and returned it to him, earning us entry."

Chen Zihang exclaimed, "What a pity! We've been waiting for a few days, but there haven't been any significant targets for bounties."

Lu Heng asked, "By the way, have you been pursued by an unknown force in the past few days?"

Chen Zihang countered, "Are you talking about the second main quest? It's strange. After we arrived here, we heard that other Mystics were being pursued by an unknown force, but we haven't encountered them."

"Moreover, since we've been here, we haven't heard of any other Mystics being attacked. It seems like this unknown force suddenly disappeared."

Lu Heng furrowed his brows, deep in thought after hearing this.

Combining this with the information Xie Shi En had mentioned earlier, some things started to become clearer.

Xie Shi En had previously shared that the mysterious assassin pursuing him was after the Lifesphere on his body.

Chen Zihang also confirmed that this mysterious assassin hadn't been seen in the past few days.

Putting these two pieces of information together, it seemed that the mysterious assassin had realized the Lifesphere was with Xie Shi En and had stopped targeting other humans.

His sole target was Xie Shi En.

To be precise, the assassin's objective was the Lifesphere.

As Xie Shi En had been staying in the Elven Capital for the past few days, it was natural that the mysterious assassin wouldn't pursue him into the city, hence the lack of sightings.

Lu Heng couldn't reveal the information about Xie Shi En possessing the Lifesphere and the assassin's interest in it.

The fewer people who knew this secret, the better.

Lu Heng changed the subject, "By the way, did you obtain the Dark Wolfman's Bloodline Rank when you escaped from their territory?"

Chen Zihang blurted out, "Yes..."

Before he could finish, Zhuo Hong Jun interrupted, "Chen Zihang, go check if there are any new bounties."

"Me?" Chen Zihang pointed to his nose, looking a bit surprised.

He wasn't Zhuo Hong Jun's subordinate, as he was a student at the military academy and was only assigned to Zhuo Hong Jun's team after being summoned.

Therefore, Zhuo Hong Jun usually didn't speak to him in a commanding tone.

Clearly, Zhuo Hong Jun's request for Chen Zihang to check the bounties was a pretense to keep him from talking.

Another Mystic Warrior stood up and said, "I'll go check instead."

Chen Zihang remained seated.

He turned to Lu Heng and asked, "By the way, since you can enter the Elven Capital, can you take us there?"

"Well... I could," Lu Heng replied, leaving the sentence unfinished as he was still considering whether to take them there.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end