I'm not just human!

Everyone: ...

Xiafa: ...

At that moment, Xia Fa suddenly felt that this Norton Dragon, who seemed reckless and impulsive, was actually a bit wicked.

No wonder He didn't activate the circular light shield; it turns out He wasn't creating the secret treasure in the first place!

Norton seems to be the name of the Crystal Flame Starry Sky Dragon inside Norton Dragon's body. No wonder Norton Dragon forged that strange metal ingot into a crystalline form; it turns out it was to feed that Crystal Flame Starry Sky Dragon!

Shafa even suspected that Norton Dragon had always known that someone was secretly learning his secret artifact crafting techniques, or at least observing how he crafted them.

That's why He could speak so naturally to the various circular light shields, whose contents were completely obscured, just to prank everyone.

"I'm truly impressed..."

Xiafa muttered to himself, feeling both annoyed and amused, and finally realized that he still had to rely on the hammer blow he had stolen from Nidhogg.

Unfortunately, the creation of secret treasures essentially relies on the various abilities of the "Secret Treasure Apprentice" (a common secret contract) and the "Secret Treasure Craftsman" (a high-level secret contract).

In other words, there is no difference between a superhuman who can create secret treasures and a superhuman who can breathe fireballs; they both rely on the secret abilities of their respective signed contracts.

It is said that the [Forge of All Things] in the Overlord-level Secret Contract can also provide an indescribable boost to the crafting of Treasure Artisans, but that is on the premise that the Treasure Artisan has signed either the "Treasure Apprentice" or "Treasure Artisan" Secret Contract.

In other words, if you only sign the "Forge of All Things" contract but not the "Treasure Apprentice" or "Treasure Craftsman" contract, then you cannot forge treasures.

By signing the "Treasure Apprentice" and "Treasure Craftsman" contracts, and then signing the "Forge of All Things," one has the opportunity to become one of the top treasure crafting masters in the entire universe, and even be a guest of honor when visiting the nine major churches and various divine families.

“Nidhogg… doesn’t seem to have signed the Forge of All Things. That hammer blow of his seemed to be a manifestation of the fusion of the various secret abilities of the Treasure Apprentice and the Treasure Craftsman…”

Xia Fa analyzed that, under these circumstances, the fact that he was able to capture the essence of that hammer blow and unleash it was already quite extraordinary.

"Wait a minute, could it be..."

He suddenly realized something, and with a wave of his hand, he placed over a hundred kinds of materials for crafting secret treasures on the anvil.

Immediately, Xia Fa raised the metal hammer in his hand, twirled it, but this time he didn't rush to smash it down, nor did he imagine the essence of Nidhogg's hammer blow in his mind. Instead, he chose to use the [Miracle Imagination] ability, a master-level contract, to construct Nidhogg's hammer blow.

This time, Xia Fa used both the "Miracle" and "Imagination" secret abilities at the same time. His hand holding the hammer changed from having long, slender fingers with clear joints to each finger being as thick as a carrot, and the joints becoming as firm as iron balls, swelling up.

On the back of the hand, countless veins protrude, crisscrossing like the gnarled roots of an old tree.

This hand looks remarkably like Nidhogg's hand.

At that very moment, Xia Fa suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze resolute, and slammed down that hammer.

when--!

A crisp, clear sound was followed by an explosion of colorful light.

Xia Fa suddenly felt that most of the extraordinary power in his body had been drained, but he couldn't care less about that now and quickly looked down.

There, the hundreds of materials used to forge the secret treasures—most of which he had specially selected and were similar to those used by Nidhogg—actually fused together in the chaotic sea of ​​light, turning into something like glue.

At first glance, this clump of glue looks almost identical to the clump of glue formed from the materials of the secret treasures that Nidhogg was forged before it was successfully created!

Xia Fa paused his breathing for a few seconds, his expression tense and focused to the extreme, his eyes fixed on the sticky mass that began to float into the air.

The sticky mass floated higher and higher until it finally appeared not far in front of Xia Fa's head. Then, it suddenly shrank and burst out with a strange light!

With a "clink," it sounded like some metal object had fallen back onto the anvil. Xia Fa quickly looked over, but his expression froze for a moment.

On the anvil, there was a "half" of a metal sphere covered with small holes.

It is called half a sphere because this metal sphere is actually only half, as if the other half was smashed.

Countless metal fragments flew in and out of the densely packed holes, looking neither intimidating nor particularly dangerous.

Although Xia Fa didn't know how to create secret treasures, he did know how to appreciate their value—this was a compulsory course for every extraordinary person in this extraordinary world, both to occasionally find a good treasure and to avoid being ripped off by unscrupulous merchants.

Therefore, at this moment, he could almost immediately tell that the flawed treasure he had created was worth at most a few tens of thousands of gold pounds.

What Xia Fa didn't know was that even those highly talented treasure craftsmen could only sell their treasures for a few hundred or a few thousand gold pounds in the early stages of their careers. If they could create treasures worth over ten thousand gold pounds, they were already considered to have entered the inner circle.

Moreover, this was done on the premise of signing two secret contracts at the same time: "Treasure Apprentice" and "Treasure Craftsman".

Therefore, it was already astonishing that he was able to successfully create a treasure worth tens of thousands of gold pounds on his first attempt without signing any "treasure apprentice" or "treasure craftsman" contracts.

Unfortunately, this is not the time for the apprentices to forge the secret treasure, but a crucial moment to compete for the Rhine Horse-Slaying Blade.

“I understand… I tried to use the two secret abilities of ‘Miracle’ and ‘Imagination’ in the ‘Miracle Imagination’ to recreate the scene when Nidhogg successfully created the secret treasure. Theoretically, this should have been successful.”

"But there's a prerequisite: I must at least become an Outer God, or even a True God."

"Only by reaching that level can one slightly imitate the secret abilities of other secrets using the secret abilities of 'miracle' and 'fantasy'. Moreover, it is estimated that one cannot imitate the secret abilities of the overlord level, but can only imitate ordinary secrets and high-level secrets."

"Therefore, at most, I am in a situation equivalent to a veteran extraordinary monarch. My attempt to simulate the secret abilities of a treasure apprentice and a treasure craftsman using the power of 'miracle' and 'fantasy' has failed."

"In fact, I didn't imitate the secret abilities that the apprentices and craftsmen of the secret treasures possessed. Instead, I imitated the secret abilities that Nidhogg painstakingly developed over many years."

"On the other hand, since I imitated His crafting techniques, I can only create the same treasures as Him, but this is obviously very difficult for me."

"Is this... the reason I created this strange and unique treasure?"

Having analyzed the situation in his mind, Xia Fa had already figured it out.

In fact, if he were to imitate a treasure craftsman's treasure worth less than 100,000 gold pounds, he might actually be able to succeed in imitating it using the [Miracle Fantasy]. This shows the power of this overlord-level secret contract that must be signed to become a true god.

However, what he was imitating was a Sovereign-quality artifact crafted by Nidhogg, worth a full three million gold pounds, which was already beyond the scope of his current status.

This resulted in the creation of a half-finished product.

But now, there's no way around it. Each person can only forge one secret treasure per day; they can't forge a second one.

Even now, Xia Fa can feel that the hammers, anvils, and other tools on this treasure forging platform are repelling him, making them unusable.

"In any case, it's finally done. I can only pray that the others are weaker than me..."

Xia Fa estimated that this hemispherical treasure was worth about 35,000 gold pounds, which would be highly sought after by superhumans at the whale level and below.

But this time, among the ten contenders, Nidhogg and Norton Dragon are almost certain to advance.

Ruscondra is no ordinary being. Although he only holds the rank of angel, he has signed two secret contracts: "Apprentice of Treasures" and "Craftsman of Treasures." He is likely a master of treasures in the outside world as well.

As for the other contenders, there's the always solitary and expressionless Ai Luo Tong, another middle-aged person who doesn't belong to one of the three great divine families, plus the three members of the Gilgamesh family...

Xia Fa always felt that he was likely to rank outside the top five.

In that case, they wouldn't even make it to the second round; they'd be eliminated in the first round.

"No matter what, let's wait for the results and see..."

Xia Fa murmured to himself, "No matter what, I won't give up until everything is settled."

Therefore, seeing that he had exhausted most of his extraordinary power in the process of forging the treasure, he simply sat down in front of his treasure-forging platform and rested.

Not long after, the semi-circular light shield around the second treasure-forging platform from the left opened.

This treasure-forging platform belonged to a middle-aged man who didn't know anyone present. He was bald, wore an eyepatch over his left eye, and was dressed in a crimson cloak, giving him the air of a bounty hunter.

As for His status, it is a terrifying sovereign status, but it seems that He has not signed a hegemonic-level secret contract.

Since he didn't know anyone present, but had witnessed the conflict between the three divinely favored families outside the old forge, the bald, middle-aged man who looked like a bounty hunter kept a low profile.

It seems that He has finished crafting it and is now preparing to hurry up and continue to collect materials for crafting the secret treasures in the three primeval regions.

Xiafa didn't see what kind of treasure He created; it must have been put into the black bag before the circular light shield opened.

Seeing that He had just finished crafting and was already collecting materials to craft the secret treasure, Xia Fa suspected that He was very confident that He could advance to the second round, and even compete with Nidhogg in the final round.

Otherwise, why would He be in such a hurry to collect materials to craft the secret treasure?

"Looks like this is another formidable competitor..."

Xia Fa's heart sank, as if he had already foreseen his fate of being eliminated.

Time passed, second by second.

After resting for a while and recovering his supernatural power, Xia Fa didn't rest. He took out all sorts of occult books from his bag, most of which he had bought at the night market in the City of Ten Thousand Stars.

Unfortunately, he did not buy any books on crafting secret treasures, because he had not signed the two secret contracts of "Secret Treasure Apprentice" and "Secret Treasure Craftsman". At the time, he never considered that he might one day be able to craft secret treasures.

Fortunately, some of these occult books cover a wide range of topics, including some occult knowledge related to the creation of secret treasures. Therefore, Xia Fa decided to cram at the last minute and try to learn as he went.

Soon, he became so engrossed in learning about mysticism that he was completely unaware of how quickly time had passed.

With a loud "bang," the soul of [Rhine Calamity] suddenly appeared in the circular plaza of the old blacksmith's shop.

Xia Fa was startled, and only then did he pull himself out of the rich ocean of occult knowledge and look through the circular light barrier at the semi-transparent black figure with twelve arms.

"Everyone, it's almost time!"

The moment the soul of [Rhine Calamity] appeared, it announced it in an excited tone.

It seems that He has been lonely for too long and is obsessed with the crafting of secret treasures, so He is quite enthusiastic about this competition of crafting secret treasures.

"Soon, a miniature ritual teleportation array will appear on each of your treasure-making platforms. Just place your finished treasures on it."

"I will give the evaluation results within one minute. The top five will successfully advance to the second round!"

"Of course, even those who fail to advance can stay here until they witness the birth of the champion!"

"Whether it's my Rhine Blade or the Rhine Forging Technique, they're waiting for you to win them!"

"Alright, everyone, you can put your treasures up now. Those who haven't crafted a treasure or haven't been able to put one up will be considered to have forfeited."

As the voice of the [Rhine Calamity] faded, Xia Fa quickly placed his hemispherical treasure covered with small holes on it.

Perhaps because the Rhine Sword was so important, at this crucial moment when he didn't know if he could advance, his heart started pounding so hard it almost jumped out of his throat.

What Nidhogg placed was, of course, the supreme-quality treasure he had crafted for three million gold pounds. But to Xia Fa’s surprise, the treasure Norton Dragon brought out was no less impressive than Nidhogg’s treasure.

The next moment, the semi-circular light shields of all the treasure forging platforms contracted, and the ten people looked at each other, then looked at the center of the square, at the soul of [Rhine Calamity].

The soul of [Rhine Calamity] suddenly disappeared for a full minute before reappearing.

The ancient ruler was seen rubbing his chin with his six left hands, looking somewhat troubled.

"Hmm... Apart from a couple of people, the others did a pretty good job this time."

"Nidhogg and Norton are definitely going to advance from the top five."

"As for the remaining three... Thor Loki and Jack Falco can also advance without a doubt."

"What really troubles me is fifth place."

“Anfion, Ai Luotong, Xia Fa... the treasures you three created are all about the same, and far superior to the other three who failed to advance.”

"Let me take another look. The results will be available soon."