Outer Gods invade, stuff them all into your equipment inventory.

The Forge Child drops three items, but the Monster's Lair Heart is not among them.

The drop rate of Monster Nest Hearts is extremely low; it's normal for them not to drop at all. Many adventurers may spend their entire lives conquering Monster Nests and still not find a single one.

Sean's ability to obtain a monster's lair heart from the Silver Plains was itself a stroke of incredible luck.

The first of these three items is a dark gold quality arm guard.

The arm guards haven't been authenticated, and Sean can't determine their properties yet.

The second item is a crystal about the size of a thumb – [Furnace Energy Crystal].

Sean had never heard of this thing, but judging from the energy fluctuations it emitted, it shouldn't be junk.

The third item was very familiar to Sean; it was the large iron hammer that the Son of the Forge had used before.

He will never admit his mistake.

The shape of the hammerhead and the fine forging patterns on the handle were exactly the same as the giant hammer that had knocked him back several times during the battle.

However, the size of the hammer has shrunk considerably at this moment.

The hammerhead is about the size of two adult fists, and the handle is of moderate length, just right for holding with both hands or swinging with one hand.

It lay quietly in Sean's palm, its weight just right, as if it were just an ordinary blacksmith's hammer.

However, strangely enough—

This hammer requires no identification, yet it doesn't reveal any attributes.

Sean tried to inject energy, tried to probe with his mind, and even tried to wave it a few times, but the feedback he received was still zero.

There is no quality label, no attribute bonus, no skill description, and no hints whatsoever.

It sat quietly in his hand, like an ordinary lump of iron, and even putting it in the equipment slot had no effect.

That's quite unusual.

Sean looked at it over and over again, and then tried to put it into his storage pocket—successfully.

But nothing changed after it was removed.

Sean placed the hammer separately in a corner of the storage space, not mixed with other items.

He had a gut feeling that this iron hammer was no ordinary item. After all, this was the first time he had ever seen an item that remained unchanged after being placed in his inventory. He just hadn't figured out how to use it yet.

"Rare objects are worth keeping..."

The location where Sean is is the entrance he used to enter the monster's lair.

The monster's lair has disappeared.

The vast majority of monster lairs disappear once they are conquered. Only a very few monster lairs will not disappear after being conquered; they will be transformed into permanent or semi-permanent monster lairs.

These permanent or semi-permanent monster lairs are often key strategic resources marked by major settlements in the Federation.

Because they can be repeatedly explored—although the benefits decrease with each exploration, they are stable and sustainable.

Some large settlements even assign people to regularly clean up these nests, using them as an important channel for raising new people and maintaining the supply of basic materials.

"After a while, we will also turn the body of the Elite King's Corpse Sword Tomb into a rare artifact."

To be honest, the attributes provided by the Elite King's Corpse Sword Tomb Body are not very strong.

The only thing that's worth considering is the special effect of the core feature, the switching of royal authority.

Sean wanted to try transforming it into a wonder object to see if he could retain its additional abilities.

........................

Two months later, Sean appeared at the entrance to a monster's lair.

"Finally arrived..."

Sean's main purpose in entering the wilderness this time was to go to this monster's lair to find the Soul of Twilight.

According to his original plan, he intended to reach his current position within a year.

Unexpectedly, he reached his destination in less than four months.

Sean descended slowly from the air, his feet landing firmly on the ground.

The pair of steel wings on his back, which were several meters wide when unfolded, began to fold at this moment.

Those metallic feathers, like blades, folded and contracted inwards, layer upon layer.

As the last feather returned to its place, the pair of steel wings completely retracted, transforming into a metal backpack that fit snugly against his back, quietly resting against the back of his armor.

Steel Wingsuit

Type: Curiosities

Quality: Excellent

Effect: When activated, the metal backpack on the back unfolds into a pair of steel wings, granting the wearer the ability to fly.

During flight, movement speed is increased by 40%, and rapid aerial maneuvers and dive attacks are possible. The backpack automatically retracts after flight.

Negative effects:

In backpack form, the wearer's back bears increased weight.

In addition, the steel wingsuit can only be activated after carrying the load for eight consecutive hours.

When the user is Sean, they are immune to negative effects.

Remarks:

Fly, but don't forget to land.

Sean was able to get here so quickly thanks to this strange object.

He created this strange object using the remains of a flying mechanical monster.

While it cannot yet rival real flying monsters in terms of speed and agility, it is more than sufficient for traversing terrain obstacles and undertaking long-distance aerial maneuvers.

Sean has created a total of fifteen strange items in the past two months.

Although the vast majority of these are ordinary quality junk items with terrifying negative effects.

Only a handful of items, including the steel wingsuit, can truly be considered top-tier rare items.

Even so, the ability to mass-produce rare items alone is enough to make anyone take notice.

If Sean wanted, he could even use this ability to build his own family of heroes.

In order to get here as quickly as possible, Sean didn't bring a single Blade Demon with him.

All the Blade Demon summons, relying on their soul connection with him, are constantly approaching his current location.

However, Sean could sense that the number of surviving Blade Demon summons was decreasing.

"67 Blade Summoning Creatures are still alive..."

These Blade Demons are very strong, incredibly strong. However, tracking Sean across more than a dozen maps is no easy task.

Every living being they encountered along the way, whether hero or monster, was considered an enemy. Those blade demons were constantly dwindling in number as they fought, broke through enemy lines, and overcame countless obstacles.

"67..."

Sean repeated the number, paused for a moment, and said, "It's already quite an achievement that 67 of them survived."

"I wonder how many of them will ultimately reach me?"

However, Sean didn't care about the losses during this period. He could simply summon the dead Blade Demons again. What he cared about was quality—the final quality of those individuals that had survived the rigorous selection process.

Only the truly strong are worthy to walk alive before him. It's like raising a venomous insect—these razor-sharp summoned creatures are Sean's venomous insects.

Sean made them fight each other, struggle on their own, and traverse dangerous maps to reach him.

In this process, the weak die, the stupid die, and the unlucky die.

Those who can ultimately traverse more than a dozen maps, break through the encirclement of countless enemies, and arrive alive before him are the true elite core of the future legion that he should invest resources in cultivating.

"Come on, let me see which of you has the potential to become a true 'king'."

"Even if there's only one elite soldier like that, I'll still be making a profit..."

That's Sean's real purpose in doing this.