Chapter 590: 9400 Magical Pressure and Acquiring Two Luxury Magical Artifacts |
One month later.
Inside Rex Bronze Furnace Workshop, Locke found the trader he had signed a contract with last time and came with them to a quiet room.
This trader had two fox-girl maids carry forward trays covered with black cloth. Locke glanced at the jet-black, smooth and lustrous special woven cloth. It should be magical fabric woven from matte spider silk.
It had the special function of isolating magical energy to achieve [surface magic prohibition]. This was a type of fabric that shops in Cloud Marsh Wetland often liked to use because surface magic prohibition could minimize the influence of the external environment on items.
This allowed many commodities to be preserved for long periods, especially those precision magical artifacts in alchemy workshops.
The trader lifted the matte spider silk cloth. On the trays below lay a bronze furnace and a silver wooden magic wand flickering with magical brilliance respectively.
Every detail of the bronze furnace seemed to have been tempered a thousand times. As Locke actively dripped a drop of blood on it, the Thousand-Fold Furnace automatically transformed into a beam of light that flew out and entered his soul, penetrating deep into his soul, becoming a bronze magical artifact equipped on his soul.
As the bronze magical artifact entered his soul, Locke's magical pressure suddenly jumped directly from 9200 to 9400.
Saving at least three months of bitter meditation out of thin air!
This was the special characteristic of Soul Bronze.
It could grow together with its master!
Thus, he was equivalent to increasing his soul limit growth speed by double out of thin air.
Moreover, in the future when his soul limit reached 9999, he could also rely on the soul furnace to enhance the additional strength limit of his personal soul, preventing situations like what Grand Wizard Sulla encountered.
Locke shook his head slightly. "Grand Wizard Sulla didn't leave the Land of Six Towers for a long time, so his experience was limited. If he had spent 500,000 or even one million magic stones to purchase a bronze magical artifact and bind it to his soul, he could at least have alleviated his symptoms at that time and bought himself an extra half year."
"If he had been in Cloud Marsh Wetland at that time, given his situation, it wouldn't necessarily have been a dead end."
"However, bronze magical artifacts really cannot be purchased outside Cloud Marsh Wetland."
But Grand Wizard Sulla would never leave the Land of Six Towers. He had quite a few enemies. If he left the Land of Six Towers, he would likely be intercepted and killed by those enemies he had accumulated over five hundred years.
Only by staying in the Land of Six Towers would he be completely safe.
And soul artifacts required the wizard himself to arrive on site, leave a soul signature, and accept some tests.
The related technology required complete technical industrial chain support, making it difficult to forge in the Land of Six Towers.
However, the main point was that soul artifacts (bronze magical artifacts) were something Locke himself had read about in Cloud Marsh Wetland's free library.
Many wizards didn't even know soul artifacts existed.
The Eastern Border Zone had fifty-three wizard lands. Each wizard land was extremely vast, and each wizard land was separated by special impassable natural barriers.
Except for the Three Marsh Lands, which could gather large quantities of commodities from various wizard lands due to Cloud Lake and special geographical advantages, most other wizard lands were relatively isolated.
Combined with some other reasons, the more backward a wizard land was, the more isolated and backward it became, making it difficult to access the rolling torrent of the wizard world.
Thinking of this, Locke became increasingly curious about why the wizard world was different from other worlds, with impassable natural barriers separating different wizard lands.
Moreover, from past history, these things didn't exist in this world before.
Perhaps when he had the opportunity, he could explore this. Then he might have some clues.
The trader saw the bronze magical artifact enter Locke's soul and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Even Rex Bronze Furnace Workshop still had the possibility of making mistakes.
After all, manufacturing bronze magical artifacts required enduring the toxicity of Soul Bronze while painstakingly forging special magical artifacts with dedication.
So forging this kind of magical artifact required up to hundreds of people, most of whom were wizard apprentices coming to help with work.
It also required large alchemy equipment—bronze alchemy high furnaces costing ten million magic stones each!
If Locke couldn't use the bronze magical artifact, they would have to rework it, meaning this set of bronze magical artifacts would essentially be sold for nothing.
Fortunately, no accidents occurred.
The trader smiled at Locke. "As long as the bronze magical artifact can bind with your soul, it means there are no quality issues. Moreover, your magical pressure has increased by 200 out of thin air..."
"So our bronze furnace transaction is complete."
"Soul artifacts have no warranty period, because there can't be any warranty issues. The soul domain is very mysterious."
The trader paused. "Generally speaking, a First Circle crystallization stage wizard who has never bound a bronze magical artifact will immediately increase their magical pressure by 100 to 200 after binding. Your soul growth almost reached the growth limit, which shows you have very high soul potential."
Locke glanced at this trader and asked indifferently, "How is soul potential tested? What is it related to?"
The trader was stunned, then apologized to Locke. "I'm very sorry, Mr. Augustine. Perhaps I shouldn't have spoken carelessly. I'm not a wizard researching soul studies, just an alchemist, so I really can't explain this. I just said your soul potential is relatively high earlier without being rigorous."
The trader explained in a low voice, "My teacher wrote a Second Circle Tier 3 article specifically describing the relationship between magical pressure growth amplitude when binding standard bronze magical artifacts and soul potential, believing there's a proportional relationship."
"Unfortunately, my teacher is also an alchemist, not a soul studies wizard, so matters regarding souls are really hard to explain clearly. But according to Rex's statistical feedback, those wizards with bloodlines and ancient esoteric knowledge have somewhat stronger soul potential than many others."
Locke nodded, thinking of the mysterious dragon bloodline in his body.
The trader said, "Your Thousand-Fold Furnace will continue to improve with your soul until you reach the Second Circle. After you become a Second Circle wizard, if you want to replace your soul artifact, you can go to any alchemy workshop with soul artifact business and spend some money to replace your original furnace."
"Or you can directly fuse it on the foundation of your original furnace."
Locke looked at this trader with confusion.
When talking about his professional matters, this trader's confidence increased. He smiled and explained, "Soul Bronze has the characteristic of fusing with the same material while maintaining structural integrity when encountering similar materials."
"So when replacing furnaces, you actually just need to install a new one inside."
"This is your magic wand. The wand body is made from Longevity Peach Melting Branch, with three sections of Water Cloud White Jade connecting it. The wand core is dragon sparrow tail feathers. It was completely crafted according to your personal characteristics and soul signature."
The trader seemed to have heard something from his Second Circle teacher and said to Locke, "This wand is full of natural life energy. The Longevity Peach Melting Branch symbolizes longevity and life force, while the three sections of Water Cloud White Jade represent flowing spirituality."
"My teacher said that if you had purchased a million-level wand, the wand core might have used a dragon crystal for you. But at the current price point, we could only choose the dragon sparrow tail feathers most compatible with your soul signature. Dragon sparrows are the emperors among avian magical creatures, very fitting for part of your soul characteristics."
"The entire wand length is 23cm, suitable for one-handed grip without affecting your own speed."
Locke held this dragon-holding-peach-shaped magic wand in his hand. The wand head was a half-split longevity peach with the tip slightly upturned. The interior was hollow, leaving a position for embedding a small gem.
Unfortunately, this spot was currently empty.
The wand body was composed of a complete Longevity Peach Melting Branch tree branch, with three sections of Water Cloud White Jade embedded using special inlay craftsmanship, looking very elegant.
It also resembled a giant dragon holding a peach.
Locke felt that this wand's appearance, texture, size, and various details seemed tailor-made for him.
Like his natural companion object.
Holding this wand in his hand, in just an instant, he felt as if this wand was one of his arms, moving as freely as his limbs, his own magical power fusing with it.
Its power increased by about one level out of thin air.
'Indeed, purchasing a wand before participating in the spell combat competition was the most correct choice.' Locke thought. 'This wand greatly enhances my magical power. If I participated without a wand, it would be like fighting barehanded against someone wielding a weapon.'
'Moreover, according to the spell combat competition materials I borrowed from the library's free section over the past month, the spell combat competition prohibits the use of permanent defensive fields!'
'And every spell combat competition has professional members from tens-of-millions-level clubs from the major combat leagues participating. The competition is very fierce.'
Locke gripped this Dragon Holding Longevity Peach wand and swung it once. Energy vortexes formed by natural magic appeared in the air.
He looked at this scene with satisfaction, then said, "Not a bad wand. It comprehensively enhanced my power. But what's the situation with this wand head position?"
The trader said, "Oh, this is the case, esteemed customer. When my teacher was custom-designing your wand, he thought hard and constantly pondered how to better design your wand. Unfortunately, you only spent 500,000 magic stones, so many of his ingenious designs had to be abandoned for cost reasons."
"And this was one of the ideas he had remaining at that time. He really couldn't bear to see such an ingenious idea castrated, so he left a blank position on your wand that can be embedded with a rune stone."
"If you have any needs, you can find us to embed rune stones."
The trader said with a sincere smile.
Locke was somewhat speechless but didn't know what to say.
After all, in alchemy workshops, having someone open an embedding slot position for rune stones on your magical artifact also required 10,000 magic stones per slot.
The other party essentially gave him a free function.
However, the other party was obviously waiting for him to come find them and conveniently embed a rune stone.
A rune stone was quite expensive, from the most basic 10,000 each, but even practical First Circle rune stones could reach an exaggerated level of around 500,000.
If you wanted to play around with something fancy, a million magic stones could also be spent.
The trader asked Locke, "Customer, do you need to look at the rune stone catalog again? My teacher suggests you embed a Peach Blossom Rune Stone, which can disperse the power of magic you cast using this wand, making each of your strikes feel like hundreds of strikes attacking the enemy."
Locke was stunned and said, "That means giving your spell a skin, but the essence and spell model haven't changed?"
The trader nodded. "But even just changing the skin can be very useful. First, it will prevent your enemies from seeing what your spell actually is. Second, it might also have some unexpected effects."
"Moreover, if you want more practical rune stones, we also have options. For example, resilience runes, tranquility runes... Of course, my teacher recommends you choose the Peach Blossom Rune Stone."
The trader picked up a catalog and handed it to Locke. "So, would you like to take a look now?"
Locke picked up the two magical artifacts, turned around, and left. "No, no need."
Rune stones were the masterpieces of enchanters. If magical artifacts were the main industry of alchemists, then rune stones were a major industry in the enchanter field.
But he wasn't wealthy enough yet to put a skin on his spells.
With his current money, he could at most buy basic functions to satisfy his usage needs.
The rest of the money had to be saved for preparing to advance to Second Circle wizard.
Without money, how could he advance to Second Circle wizard?
Moreover, Wizard Kelt had failed five times, only becoming a Second Circle wizard on his sixth attempt at constructing Grand Magic.
Although he later said that a large part of the reason for his first five failures was insufficient money.
This showed that advancing to Second Circle wizard required enormous resources.
Locke left the shop.
The trader saw Locke leave and sighed slightly. Then a moon ring stage wizard walked out from the second floor of the quiet room.
The badge this wizard wore represented his identity as an expert-level alchemist and expert-level enchanter.
The trader looked at this moon ring wizard. "Vice shopkeeper, I'm really sorry. It seems I'm still not very good at doing business. The reason I was able to complete a million-level transaction last time was probably just because this customer was generous."
"This time I wanted to get him to do a 500,000 magic stone rune stone enchantment business, but it still failed."
This moon ring wizard was a dwarf with a long white beard. "Don't be discouraged, little Morgan."
"I just wanted you to practice. In our alchemist business, you know, many people are impoverished. Why? It's because they don't know how to make money, so they don't have money to do research. Without money to do research, they can't produce good things to earn money. Then it becomes a vicious cycle."
"Money is the most important thing!"
Dwarf Master Simon stroked his beard and glared. "Why are other alchemists living miserably while I'm so wealthy? It's because I developed the disposition of how to make money from childhood. You shouldn't just bury your head in researching alchemy."
"You also need to learn how to make money. Do you know where the problem was just now?"
Wizard Morgan shook his head slightly. "Shopkeeper Simon, I already followed your requirements to create needs for the customer. Why still couldn't I sell it?"
Master Simon shook his head slightly. "Actually, doing business and doing research follow the same principle. You just made a critical mistake. You did create new needs for the customer, but you didn't create trust with the customer."
"My view is that doing business means giving the customer a signal they can trust. I mean, you weren't sincere enough just now. You didn't consider problems from the customer's perspective, so you could propose that ridiculous new 500,000 enchantment rune stone proposal to buy a spell skin."
Master Simon took out an ordinary wand embedded with a Peach Blossom Rune Stone from his astral ring. He elegantly drew several elegant runes in midair with the wand. First, a spell model formed by an ordinary fireball curse appeared floating in midair.
It was a huge fireball.
The next moment, the Peach Blossom Rune Stone at the bottom of the wand flickered. The fireball's energy remained unchanged, its temperature remained unchanged, but it transformed into thousands of countless small fireballs, like countless firefly balls filling the sky, revolving around a point in the void, continuously attacking, dazzling and overwhelming.
"The Peach Blossom Rune Stone was carefully recommended by me based on his situation. It was originally a very good choice, but in your mouth, it became a ridiculous sales pitch."
"Do you really think I'm just doing business?" Wizard Simon said, "My way of doing things is that to make money, you must completely stand from the customer's perspective and recommend the most suitable things for customers."
Wizard Morgan quickly bowed to him. "Teacher, I understand. Next time that customer comes again, I'll try."
Wizard Simon nodded while looking in the direction Locke left, falling into contemplation. 'Worthy of being a wizard from the Dragon Blood Society. He actually has such a rich dragon aura.'
'Designing wands for these dragon blood wizards is actually quite interesting.'