The Legend of Fangren

Chapter 109 Refining Gray Iron

"We don't have any good iron on hand, so we'll just have to burn it for now."

Fang Shi had just mined over 120 pieces of crude ore, which he planned to burn, but then he realized that the furnace also needed upgrading.

Flipping through the text, the main component of the stone wall in this deep secret realm is gray essence stone, mixed with gray essence iron ore, which can be regarded as an advanced version of gray iron ore, grade one.

These two are perfect for upgrading tools and blocks, so let's quickly craft them with the left hand.

"Wait, we haven't tested the blast furnace's capabilities since we didn't have any ore. Why don't we try it now? If it's just a pure enhancement like the smoke furnace, we can't let it go to waste."

First, use the excavated gray cobblestone to make a furnace [Tier 1]. Then, use the furnace to smelt three gray cobblestones twice to turn them into smooth gray cobblestones. Next, smelt five gray iron ore to obtain five gray iron ingots. Finally, combine this Tier 1 furnace with the two materials it produced to form a Tier 1 blast furnace.

It is worth mentioning that high-level furnaces do not have requirements for the grade of fuel; however, if the grades differ too much, the fuel can only be ignited for a very short time.

Fang Shi could make do with ordinary charcoal here; charcoal is one of the more durable items of its grade, so it would hold up fairly well.

In this way, with a first-stage blast furnace, second-stage materials can also be burned.

However, for now, he needs to test the blast furnace's capabilities with gray refined iron—he'll just throw in a piece and see how it goes.

When the gray iron ingots were produced, they were indeed extraordinary. They were completely different from those produced in the furnace. Not only was the surface more lustrous, but when held in the hand, although the size remained the same, still as big as a thick brick slab, they were several times heavier than ordinary gray iron ingots.

"They are all gray iron ingots—we might as well call them refined gray iron ingots."

It's a bit of a mouthful, but it's simple and clear.

And to be fair, this metal ingot is indeed made from a thick, long ingot, no wonder nine ingots in the game can be combined to form a metal block with sides of one meter. This is something that can be done in real-world objects as well.

Calculating the total volume, the actual volume of a metal ingot is approximately 0.33*0.33*1 meter. If Fang Shi hadn't been strong, he might not have been able to hold it steady with one hand.

It is evident that while many items and blocks possess powerful abilities, they also consume a tremendous amount of materials. Such a large metal ingot could be used to forge a dozen swords in reality, but when put into a recipe, it takes two ingots and a stick to synthesize a single Gray Iron Sword.

I don't know how durable or sharp the sword will be after this process, but I hope it's worth the cost of the materials.

Immediately afterwards, Fang Shi threw the remaining hundred or so pieces of gray iron ore into the first-class blast furnace for smelting. He then sat down to search for the texts, but unfortunately, after flipping through the entire text, he found no record of what grade or level the refined gray iron was.

It's impossible for them not to make any progress at all.

"Let's start with a level one tool kit."

With good materials, it's natural to upgrade the tools: swords, axes, pickaxes—get one of everything, and then make iron buckets to hold the lava.

The lava lake wasn't large, and it probably wasn't very deep either. When I was filling it with ordinary iron buckets, the lava disappeared for a moment, revealing the stone surface underneath. I estimated it to be less than half a meter deep. The lava lake, which was eight or nine meters in diameter, seemed like it could hold a set of lava buckets, but in reality, it would probably only hold about twenty buckets.

After using up more than sixty ingots, there were still more than thirty ingots left. Fang Shi calculated that it was just enough to make a set of armor [item].

This armor is divided into four parts: head, body, legs, and feet. Its function is damage reduction, but it doesn't directly block damage like real armor. Instead, it reduces the impact of external collisions on the opponent's body by a certain percentage.

Fang Shi had considered making a set of armor from ordinary gray iron ingots, but the damage reduction effect of ordinary gray iron armor was not good and was very limited. Moreover, although it made one invisible after wearing it, the tactile feedback all over the body became abnormally strange due to the damage reduction, which seriously interfered with daily activities and was even more of a loss in battle.

Therefore, Fang Shi decided not to rely too much on armor in normal times, but only to use it in emergencies, so as not to dull his senses.

"However, once my cultivation level is higher, I'll definitely need armor when facing a bunch of powerful enemies. I'll have to practice my combat habits under armor protection more often when I have time."

With his mind made up and his distracting thoughts cleared, Fang Shi took out a first-class iron bucket, preparing to scoop up the lava.

"Whoosh~"

This time there were no problems. The lava was successfully scooped up, and the empty space in the lake was immediately submerged by the surrounding lava. The entire lava lake surface became slightly shallower, revealing the pile of rocks protruding in the center of the lake, which was presumably the dead stone monster.

It appears that the amount of magma was less than previously thought.

It doesn't matter. If the stone monster's body is still there, its crystal core might still be there too. That would be a good thing, and we can't waste it.

Then several more buckets were used to scoop out every last drop of lava from the entire lava lake. The temperature in the secret cave plummeted, and the light disappeared. Fang Shi quickly lit several torches to illuminate the darkness, but he couldn't stop the temperature from dropping.

"This is not a place to linger—"

After only a short while, the temperature in the cave dropped a few degrees. If a cultivator below the second level of cultivation were here, they probably wouldn't be able to withstand it even if they used their profound energy.

"Got it—"

I almost forgot about leather armor. Like other armor recipes, leather can be used to craft helmets, breastplates, leg guards, and boots. However, compared to metal armor, leather armor offers almost no damage reduction, but it does have one advantage: it provides warmth.

Fang Shi quickly took out the beast hides from his backpack, made a set of leather armor, and equipped it into the cube space in his torso. Instantly, the coldness around him dissipated, and he only felt a slight chill.

This level of leather armor, combined with his own level three physical strength, was just right to withstand the cold of this level two secret realm.

So, we can continue working, and moving around will help us stay warmer.

Upon reaching the center of the lava lake, the stone monster's body had been completely melted into one piece by the lava, its surface covered with many reddish-brown stains, like bloodstains.

This is very likely due to the incorporation of magma material, or perhaps minerals.

Adhering to the principle of not wasting anything, Fang Shi dissected the stone monster's remains, unexpectedly finding a large piece of crystal rolling out of it.

"Good heavens, that whole bag of crystals has actually been fused into a crystal core by the stone monster."

Fortunately, the lava was scooped out in time, otherwise the stone monster's crystal core would have been burned. He really got a great deal and put it all into his Heavenly Ring, waiting to find someone to appraise its quality when he got back.

"Baby~ Let me see what other babies are there~"

After a thorough search, it seems only the surrounding stone walls remain, especially the bottom of the lava lake, which is entirely brownish-red, completely different from the surrounding dark gray stone. It must also be related to lava material. Take it all!

"The last bit, hurry up and finish." As they neared the end, Fang Shi also wanted to return to the ground as soon as possible to check on Fellow Daoist Chu's condition. If they lingered too long, and the Ministry of War came to investigate and ran into him, wouldn't that be embarrassing and ruin Fellow Daoist Chu's future?