Chapter 35: The Hidden Profession

Chapter 35: The Hidden Profession

"Welcome, my friends. It's a pleasure to see you again."

Lu Heng and Su Muyu crossed the Ninth Arch of Century Bridge and arrived at the front courtyard of the Tempered Castle. They were immediately greeted by Gulu's distinctive, peculiar voice.

Gulu was still dressed in his cloak and cat-faced mask, his entire body concealed within clothes and socks, making it impossible to discern his appearance. He exuded an air of mystery.

"Hello, Gulu. Did you manage to escape the Abyss safely?" Lu Heng asked with concern.

"With your help, the escape was very smooth," Gulu replied, his tone noticeably more relaxed than when they were in the Abyss.

"That's good to hear. We're here today to see if we can temper our weapons. I recently obtained two pieces of tempering essence," Lu Heng said as he took out the two tempering essences and handed them over.

Gulu accepted the tempering essences and praised, "These are excellent tempering materials. My tempering furnace has just been repaired, so we can test its effectiveness. Follow me."

Since Lu Heng had helped Gulu's Tempered Castle escape the Abyss, he could have his weapons and equipment tempered for free at the castle.

Of course, the materials had to be provided.

Gulu led the two through the ancient corridors of the castle and into a forging room, casually sharing the history of the Tempered Castle along the way.

Upon entering the forging room, they approached a tempering furnace. Gulu introduced, "This is the tempering furnace. First, you'll need to place the tempering essence inside. Once it melts into a liquid state, you can then insert the weapon to be tempered."

"The tempering furnace was damaged during our escape from the Abyss, and I've just finished repairing it. Therefore, I don't have accurate data on the success rate of tempering yet."

"However, based on my experience, it should be fine. Do you want to give it a try now?"

Lu Heng had prior tempering experience, so he decided to try it himself.

He asked Gulu to start the tempering furnace and prepared to temper the Aurora Blade.

After the furnace finished heating, the tempering essence was added.

Under high temperatures, the tempering essence slowly melted into a semi-transparent orange liquid, emitting an orange-red glow.

Immediately after, the Aurora Blade was placed into the furnace for heating. Once it emitted a faint light, the liquid tempering essence was poured over the blade.

The tempering essence gradually infused into the sword's blade and continued to be heated in the furnace.

When the heating was almost complete, Gulu spoke up, "It's ready."

Lu Heng used a long-handled iron clamp to remove the Aurora Blade and quickly cooled it in water.

Sizzle!

The fiery red Aurora Blade instantly caused the water to boil and flames to surge forth as it entered the water.

After the cooling process was complete, several lines of data prompts appeared before his eyes.

[Successfully tempered the Aurora Blade, increasing its grade by +1]



[First tempering completed, gained the secondary occupation "Apprentice Tempering Master"]



[Performing tempering work, Apprentice Tempering Master experience +10]



The data panel also displayed the secondary occupation section.

[Secondary Occupation: Apprentice Tempering Master (10/1000)]



[Secondary Occupation Skill: Tempering]



[Apprentice Tempering Master: Tempering Success Rate +10%, Fire Resistance +10%]



Lu Heng was pleasantly surprised to have gained a secondary occupation.

Furthermore, this secondary occupation increased his fire resistance, a very useful attribute.

He then took out the Aurora Blade to examine its attributes.

[Aurora Blade +1 (Synthesized)]



[Item Grade: C-Rank]



[Specifications: Length 132 cm, Blade Width 3.6 cm, Weight 1.6 kg]



[Attribute: Attack Power 40]



[Evaluation: A weapon forged from Aurora Ore, causing cutting damage when attacking. It has excellent quality and is a rare sword-type weapon.]



The tempering was successful, increasing the Aurora Blade's grade to +1, and its attack power rose from 30 points to 40 points, a significant improvement.

Moreover, cold weapons differ from hot weapons.

Hot weapons deal fixed damage and cannot benefit from the user's strength attribute bonuses.

Even metahumans with off-the-charts strength attributes wouldn't gain any advantage in shooting damage compared to ordinary people.

Cold weapons, however, are different. The higher the strength, the greater the damage inflicted by cold weapons.

After the successful tempering, the blade of the Aurora Blade emitted a faint glow, clearly indicating its extraordinary nature.

In total, two tempering essences were obtained from hunting the Abyssal Worm Queen. Lu Heng had used one, and there was still one left.

He turned to Su Muyu and asked, "Do you want to try tempering your energy crystal bracelet?"

Su Muyu shook his head, "Hmm... Can the Aurora Blade still undergo tempering? If so, let's continue enhancing it."

The higher the tempering level of a weapon, the lower the success rate of the process.

However, the Aurora Blade had only reached +1 level, so the success rate wouldn't drop significantly.

Moreover, he had just acquired the secondary occupation of an Apprentice Tempering Master, increasing the success rate of tempering by 10%.

Thus, Lu Heng ignited the furnace once more and added the second piece of Tempering Essence to temper the Aurora Blade for the second time.

He followed the tempering steps: heating, melting, fusing, and cooling.

The Aurora Blade was immersed in the cooling water again, causing it to boil.

Sizzle!

[Successfully tempered the Aurora Blade, increasing its grade to +2]



[Tempering work completed, Apprentice Tempering Master occupation experience +10]



[Aurora Blade +2]



[Attributes: Attack Power 50]



The second tempering was successful, increasing the attack power by another 10 points.

With two temperings, the attack power had risen from 30 points to 50 points, almost doubling.

50 points of attack power, coupled with strength enhancement, meant that a casual swing of the sword could deal nearly 70 points of damage.

If aimed at vital areas, it could inflict two to three times the lethal damage, enough to take down even demons with a single strike.

After two successful temperings, Lu Heng felt a slight itch in his heart, yearning to attempt a third tempering. Unfortunately, he had run out of tempering materials.

If he had higher-grade spirit-infusing materials, he could perform tempering at the 3rd level and attempt to infuse the weapon with a spirit. Success would grant him a new attribute effect.

For now, without the necessary materials, he could only wait until he gathered more.

Both temperings had been successful.

Gulu clapped his hands in admiration, "Amazing! My friend, you have an incredible talent for tempering. Have you ever considered becoming a Tempering Master?"

"Hmm, I haven't thought about it yet. But if I have the time, I'd be willing to give it a try."

Lu Heng was more concerned about his combat profession than secondary occupations.

Of course, if time permitted, he could manage both.

"The Tempered Castle is always open to you. Here's the Tempered Castle Emblem; with this, you can enter the castle anytime." Gulu took out an emblem and handed it to Lu Heng.

Engraved on the emblem was a castle engulfed in flames, the symbol of the Tempered Castle.

"Oh, thank you." Lu Heng hadn't expected to receive the Tempered Castle Emblem so soon.

If there were a reputation system, his reputation with the Tempered Castle would be almost maxed out by now.

The Tempered Castle Emblem not only represented high esteem within the castle but also served as a key to its entrance.

Even if metahumans knew the location of the castle's entrance, they couldn't enter at will; they had to wait for the castle to open.

Furthermore, the castle had multiple entrances, and only its owner knew which one would open.

The Tempered Castle Emblem was different; it granted access to the castle at any time.

Gulu suddenly remembered something and became agitated, "The Tempered Castle is facing a problem. I wonder if you'd be willing to help?"

"What's the problem? We'll do whatever we can," Lu Heng replied, sensing that a quest had been triggered.

Gulu, with a hint of anger, explained, "The lid of the tempering furnace was stolen by some damn thief, making the furnace fire unstable and causing a high failure rate in tempering."

Lu Heng's eyes widened as he thought, 'Your furnace doesn't even have a lid, and I managed to succeed in tempering twice in a row.'

Upon hearing about the missing lid, Lu Heng's mind flashed with inspiration, and he suddenly recalled a hidden quest to retrieve the furnace lid, which seemed to be the starting quest for a hidden profession.

Moreover, this hidden profession had an incredibly high difficulty level, matching its formidable power.

Lu Heng immediately responded, "Who stole the lid? I'll get it back."

"A damn Abyssal Fire Thief stole it. He tried to steal my tempering furnace, but I discovered it in time. Still, he managed to take the lid. Now, I have no idea where he's hiding. If you can catch him and bring back the lid, that would be fantastic." Gulu clenched his fist, clearly despising the Abyssal Fire Thief.

[Hidden Quest Triggered: The Lost Lid of the Tempered Castle]



[Content: During the escape from the Abyss, an Abyssal Fire Thief hid in the Tempered Castle and stole the furnace lid. Gulu requests your help in retrieving it.]



[Reward: The Friendship of the Tempered Castle]

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end