The Legend of Fangren

Chapter 168 Book of Artifacts

Generally speaking, learning weapon crafting is tedious. The materials used in teaching cannot be made into finished magical artifacts, making it difficult for novice weapon crafters to gain a sense of accomplishment.

But the situation was different for Fang Shi. The more he swung the hammer, the more he felt that the square man was born to do this. The phantom image that appeared in his mind made the speed, accuracy and ruthlessness that Lao Zhang talked about come to fruition in one step. With only a very short time of trial and error, he could adjust the force to the precise range.

After a few claps of the billiard ball, the iron material took shape. The rest was just a matter of technique. Old Zhang and the other apprentices were amazed by what they saw and hurriedly asked Fang Shi if he had practiced before. When they learned that this was Fang Shi's first time, Old Zhang was astonished and said that he should find a high-level weapon refiner to be his apprentice instead of wasting his time in this large classroom.

However, Fang Shi really only wanted to lay a foundation. After Luo He left, he was determined to start his own business. If many tools and weapons were synthesized using formulas, the amount used would be too large, which would be a waste of resources. He could save some money by forging iron himself.

In just three days, Fang Shi mastered the skill of forging ordinary tools. He could shape a farm tool in a few strokes and quickly passed the first stage, moving on to the subsequent carving of the energy channels.

Despite paying a large sum of money, what he learned in the first two days only accounted for less than 10% of the total amount paid. This shows how high the technical content of the second stage is. At this stage, there are no ordinary people among the apprentices; at the very least, they are all cultivators with first or second-level cultivation.

The others present were quite surprised to see this new student who had gone to the next room just yesterday. Even the old teacher who was giving the lecture narrowed his eyes, thinking, "Our Fire Palace has a crash course now? When did we start offering this service?"

"Young man, why don't you make a rough draft first? Don't let that old guy, Gang, be too eager to make money off you and just dump you here. Carving the Qi path isn't as safe as before. If you don't carve it well, ruining the weapon is a minor issue. If it causes a Qi explosion and you get seriously injured, that would be terrible."

The master craftsman named Lao Liu brought iron that was harder than the iron used in the novice class next door; otherwise, it wouldn't be able to withstand the carving.

Fang Shishi tried it out a couple of times, tapping lightly with the hammer. Everyone was about to laugh at his cautiousness when suddenly he raised his arm and increased the force dramatically, bang! He dented the red-hot iron. Each subsequent hammer blow was faster and more forceful, seemingly reckless, but actually hitting the target in one strike. What others needed two hammer blows to achieve, he dared to hit in one. A short knife exactly like the mold was quickly formed under his hands. If it weren't for the faint red-hot marks on it, it would be almost impossible to tell which one was the original.

"Hiss—" Old Liu was greatly shocked and finally understood why Old Gang had such a cheerful face when he brought his men in. Now, looking back, it really did seem like a fox borrowing the tiger's power.

"Young man, your technique is as skillful as a master craftsman who has been practicing for many years. If I keep watching you, I'll start to think that your face is covered with a fake."

Old Liu handed over a book, very thin. Fang Shi took it and looked at it; it was about the explanation of artifact patterns. Each book only recorded one type of artifact pattern, and the one in his hand was called "Diamond Pattern".

It sounds as imposing as the Golden Bell Shield, but it's just a common artifact pattern used to reinforce the toughness of mystic artifacts. It's usually engraved on the artifact blank and has a weak presence, but it's indispensable. This made Fang Shi immediately think of durability [enchantment].

That's how this enchantment is; it's the one thing I least want to get randomly, but when I don't get it, I often think about it.

Thinking about those axes that lose all their durability after only a few swings, Fang Shi really misses durability enchantments right now.

He wondered if the book in his hand could be transformed into an enchanted book item. Maybe this thing was the real-life version of an enchanted book. He asked Lao Liu if he could take the book out to read. If he wasn't in class, where should he go to read the book of artifact patterns?

Old Liu said, "It's rare that you're so eager to learn. Let me tell you, although you can memorize artifact patterns by practicing a lot, there will always be times when you can't remember them. If you want to look at them in your spare time, you can go to the Artifact Book Pavilion upstairs —"

He paused halfway through his sentence and then addressed all the apprentices, saying, "However, don't think that you can find all the weapon patterns you need in the future at the Pattern Book Pavilion. A true weapon-refining master can develop and adjust weapon patterns on his own. If you just copy from the book all day long..."

Sooner or later, mistakes will happen. For those of us who forge weapons to make big money, we need to be able to customize mystical weapons for others. If we can't do that, even if we forge blacksmiths our whole lives, we'll only be doing manual labor.

"Yes—" the apprentices nodded in approval.

Fang Shi, however, was already distracted. Upon hearing the name "Wen Shu Ge" (纹书阁), he immediately thought of the bookshelves in the ruins of the game, and his blocky nature of plundering everything in sight began to stir again.

After finally calming down, he wanted to see what kind of intricacies this book on artifact patterns contained. If a single artifact pattern required an entire book to record, then this thing must be quite complicated.

The book contains many records of vessel patterns. It turns out that to adapt one vessel pattern to multiple vessel shapes, various changes must be made. In addition to common swords, spears, and clubs, there are many other strange and odd vessel shapes that are quite a headache to look at, such as fans and hooks.

Indeed, every skill has its own difficulties; as a skill, there are aspects that are difficult to master.

After finishing a class, Fang Shi immediately went to the Inscription Pavilion. Here, bookshelves stood in rows, a stark contrast to the pavilion piled high with hammers. He approached the old gatekeeper and asked, "Can I buy the books on artifact inscriptions here?"

The old man said, "Buy? You can buy a copy, but the original is not for sale."

"Alright, I'll buy a few copies and practice using them."

When the old man heard that he really wanted to buy it, he finally opened his eyes a little: "You really want to buy it, kid? It's not like you can't look inside. Don't think that a copy is cheap. Even the most ordinary first-tier artifact pattern costs several thousand yuan."

"Sure, I'll buy it anyway." Fang Zi's main skill is making money quickly. Even if he doesn't have any money in his pocket right now, he can run down to the fire platform and make ten thousand yuan on the spot.

The old man took the money, looked at the few books the man was holding, picked out the originals and replaced them with copies, and then let him take them.

After buying his goods, Fang Shi habitually returned to his room, only to realize that the guest room for the Longhe Sect disciples had been cancelled. He was now just an ordinary passerby. There were apprentice dormitories, but none of them were single rooms. So he simply ran to a corner of the fire platform and set up a tent himself using a wool blanket and wooden sticks. Many merchants had done this before, which saved a lot of money and allowed them to secure a good business location.