Chapter 70: Iron II Blacksmithing! The Godmammoth Dagger and the Blood-Moon Longsword
"I asked Chairman Welt," Sylvia said with a cheerful smile. "He gave me the exact location of the mansion."
"You know him?"
"Yes," Sylvia nodded. "We met by chance, and he helped me out around Fortis City."
"Oh." Caelus nodded. So it was like that.
"But why are you here at this late hour? Do you not have a place to go back to?" Caelus asked speechlessly.
"Nope. I officially dropped out of Fortis-01 High too. I just came from the administrative office after getting my transfer certificate," Sylvia blinked and spoke casually. "My older brother was with me as well, but he had to leave urgently."
"Oh. Did you manage to settle everything with him? You had a pretty distressed face when you left earlier," Caelus inquired.
"Yes. What I thought would happen did not actually happen," Sylvia replied, clearly in high spirits.
She had initially thought her strict brother was here to forcefully drag her back home, but luckily, that did not come to pass.
"This brother of yours. Do I know him?" Caelus figured since he technically knew Sylvia from the past, he might know her sibling as well.
"You do. Technically." Sylvia hesitated slightly upon hearing this. "He recognizes you, but I highly doubt you will recognize him."
"Hm," Caelus nodded, not pushing the subject. By now, Sylvia knew all about his memory loss, and she clearly did not mind it at all.
"Okay, so you are here to visit me? But I think you should probably go look for houses and settle in somewhere before it gets too late."
Hearing this, Sylvia paused. She blinked innocently and looked down. Caelus followed her gaze, finally noticing a large luggage trolley resting right beside her feet.
"Chairman Welt told me I could stay here with you," Sylvia said with a brightening, beautiful smile.
"..." Caelus flinched hard.
"What the hell?!" Caelus almost slammed the door shut in panic.
Living completely alone with a beautiful girl his age? Was that not a bit too scandalous? He was already famous on the local news. If rumors got out that he was living together with a girl... and not just any girl, but someone with a flawless face that would make ninety-nine percent of men on the street turn their heads in awe.
"Please, Caelus. I really do not have anywhere else to go. Are you going to abandon me after all we have gone through together?" Sylvia looked up at him with a perfect pleading face.
"Fine," Caelus sighed in defeat.
He was incredibly flustered right now. Cohabitation. With a girl.
Caelus shook his head helplessly. He let Sylvia inside and quickly arranged one of the luxurious master suites for her. She thanked him and immediately excused herself to take a warm shower.
By that time, his express logistics delivery had arrived. The heavy anvil and the crates of mana crystals were safely transported into one of the two empty rooms on the ground floor. He would officially use this space as his dedicated blacksmithing workshop from now on.
"Let’s begin."
Caelus’s mind was still slightly distracted by the fact that Sylvia was right down the hall, taking a shower in his house. As a perfectly healthy young man, it was only natural for his thoughts to wander. But he forcefully suppressed the distracting thoughts and focused entirely on the heavy anvil in front of him.
He took a single Common-grade magic crystal and placed it on the anvil. The specialized anvil immediately began to heat up, rapidly melting the crystal down.
As soon as the ore turned a blinding, bright red from the intense heat, Caelus activated the Rainbow Light Forge. A multi-colored hammer of pure energy materialized in his grip. He mentally loaded a longsword blueprint directly into the hammer’s system.
[Ding!]
[System: Successfully loaded "Longsword" Blueprint into the Rainbow Light Hammer.]
Without hesitation, he struck the melted crystal fiercely.
Boom!
A shockwave of air and sparks erupted as he simultaneously activated his Chaos Perception Eyes. The Rainbow Light Forge worked strictly by triggering timed critical hits. If he wanted to succeed, he had to be extremely attentive and incredibly fast. His dynamically enhanced vision from the Mythical eyes would help him track the exact forging sweet spots.
And there he saw it. A faint rainbow light flickering rapidly across the surface of the heated ore.
The instant he spotted the glow, he brought the hammer down with immense speed.
Clang!
The ore began to twist and fold rapidly under his power.
[Critical Hit!]
The instant those golden words appeared, another rainbow light emerged on the side of the blade. Caelus shifted his grip on the handle and struck it fiercely once again.
[Critical Hit!]
With the second fold, one more light appeared, and then another. He successfully managed to hit the rhythm, but right at the very end, his timing was slightly off.
[Failed to land a Critical Hit.]
Caelus did not mind. By now, the glowing crystal had already taken the flawless shape of a sharp longsword. Right then, one final rainbow light pulsed at the hilt. Without hesitation, he struck it with all his might.
Boom!
A blinding, multi-colored light erupted from the anvil as a cascade of notifications rang out.
[Ding!]
[System: You have successfully forged a Longsword (Legendary, 1-Star).]
[System: The Domain is assigning it a "True Name".]
[Ding!]
[System: Name assigned. You have created the Northern Wolf Longsword (Legendary, 1-Star) (Iron I).]
[System: You have received +500 Blacksmith EXP.]
"A Legendary weapon right off the bat!" Caelus broke into a massive grin.
[Item: Northern Wolf Longsword (Legendary, 1-Star)]
[Effect: Greatly increases Combat Score. Possesses a passive Bleed effect. Whenever damage is inflicted, the opponent obtains the Bleed debuff. Additionally, the status effect ’Wolf Terror’ is inflicted, passively decreasing the enemy’s movement speed.]
This was incredibly impressive. But Caelus was far from done. He wanted to mass-produce these until he managed to reach Iron II in his profession, which would finally allow him to forge an Iron II weapon for himself.
He knew the main reason the critical hit failed at the last moment was simply because his proficiency EXP was too low. It was time to grind it up!
Without a shred of hesitation, he began hammering like a madman.
[System: You have successfully forged a Bow (Legendary, 1-Star).]
[+500 Blacksmith EXP]
[System: You have successfully forged a Dagger (Legendary, 1-Star).]
[+500 Blacksmith EXP]
[System: You have successfully forged a Greatsword (Legendary, 1-Star).]
[+500 Blacksmith EXP]
[System: You have successfully forged a Magic Staff (Legendary, 1-Star).]
[+500 Blacksmith EXP]
The notifications continued repeating in a rapid-fire loop until he finally breached the 10,000 EXP threshold on his profession. Suddenly, a blinding, transcendent rainbow light erupted from the anvil.
[System: You have successfully forged a Dagger (Mythical, 1-Star).]
[System: You have received +1,000 Blacksmith EXP.]
"Yes!" Caelus grinned from ear to ear. He actually managed to force a Mythical mutation from a Common ore!
But he kept the momentum going. By now, there was a literal pile of weapons radiating a supreme golden hue casually tossed on the floor behind him. He carelessly tossed the priceless rainbow-hued Mythical dagger onto the pile and grabbed his hammer again.
And soon...
[System: Level Up!]
A brilliant golden light washed over Caelus as his status window forcibly updated.
[Blacksmith Rank: Tier 1: Iron I -> Tier 1: Iron II]
[Blacksmith Rank: Tier 1: Iron II (0/25,000 EXP)]
Seeing this, Caelus laughed loudly in triumph.
Off to the side, leaning against the doorframe, Sylvia was calmly observing him with a gentle smile on her face. She had already finished her bath and was wearing a loose, comfortable nightgown. She had heard the rhythmic hammering and came to check in, making sure not to disturb his focus.
When her ruby eyes landed on the careless mountain of Legendary and Mythical weapons piled up behind him like absolute garbage, she simply stared in pure speechlessness. Every single day, Caelus managed to shock her in entirely new, logic-defying ways.
Seeing his profession rank finally rise, Caelus pulled out three fresh Mana Crystals graded at the Iron II level. They were commonly known as Tier 2 ores. They were still of Common rarity, as that was all his remaining budget could afford, but his forge did not care about base rarity.
He fiercely began to strike the Tier 2 crystal. It rapidly folded and stretched, soon taking the sleek form of a small dagger. A supreme golden hue immediately flared around the blade.
[Ding!]
[System: You have successfully forged a Dagger (Legendary, 1-Star) (Iron II).]
[System: The Domain is assigning it a "True Name".]
[Ding!]
[System: Name assigned. You have created the Godmammoth Dagger (Legendary, 1-Star) (Iron II).]
[System: You have received +500 Blacksmith EXP.]
[Item: Godmammoth Dagger (Legendary, 1-Star) (Iron II)]
[Effect: Massively increases Combat Score. Possesses a passive Bleed effect. Additionally, the status effect ’Pressure’ is inflicted when the opponent falls below 30% HP. The opponent will physically feel as if they are being crushed under the weight of a Godmammoth, restricting their movements.]
Caelus checked the time immediately after admiring the blade. The Domain servers would soon open up, precisely in a few minutes. He did not have the time to forge a full armor set or patiently wait for a Mythical proc. For now, this Iron II Legendary was more than enough to skyrocket his lethality.
He then turned around and noticed Sylvia.
"Sorry for ignoring you, I was a bit too focused on the forge," he apologized, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead.
"I do not mind. It was honestly very fun watching you work from the sidelines," Sylvia said with a soft giggle.
"Do you need a new weapon too?" Caelus tilted his head and asked. "We still have a few minutes before the Domain opens."
"Your Progenitor Sword will not evolve until you officially hits Iron II inside the Domain, right?" Caelus did not even wait for her to answer before getting right back to work.
He knew she favored longswords, so he loaded the specific blueprint back into the hammer and immediately began striking the next Tier 2 crystal.
[Ding!]
[System: You have successfully forged a Longsword (Legendary, 1-Star) (Iron II).]
[System: The Domain is assigning it a "True Name".]
[Ding!]
[System: Name assigned. You have created the Blood-Moon Longsword (Legendary, 1-Star) (Iron II).]
[System: You have received +500 Blacksmith EXP.]
[Item: Blood-Moon Longsword (Legendary, 1-Star) (Iron II)]
[Effect: Massively increases Combat Score. Possesses a passive Bleed effect. Additionally, the status effect ’Leech’ is inflicted when the opponent falls below 30% HP. The opponent will feel their physical stamina being rapidly leeched away and transferred to the wielder.]
[Blacksmith Rank: Tier 1: Iron II (1,000/25,000 EXP)]
Caelus took the beautifully crafted crimson blade into his hands and casually tossed it over to Sylvia. She caught the hilt masterfully, her eyes shining as she inspected the flawless edge.
She looked at the deadly weapon in her hands with pure delight and smiled brightly at Caelus. "Thank you, Caelus. I love it very much."
"You are very welcome," Caelus smiled back.
Right on cue, the final system notification rang out across the world.
[System: The Origin Domain is now open.]
Caelus and Sylvia shared a determined look upon seeing the prompt.
"Then, shall we head out?"
Today, they had a massive checklist to complete. They needed to conquer the newly merged servers once and for all, establish a foothold in the Manapunk Era, and finally step foot into the Endless Expanse. The Endless Expanse was the only grand stage capable of accommodating both of their heaven-defying talents.
It was finally time to prepare for their grand ascension.