Chapter 108: Entering the ice cave!

"The only downside is that this skill consumes too much mental energy."

Su Ming had only maintained this temporary blood sword for a little over a minute, and he felt nearly half of his mental energy was gone.

This consumption rate was indeed a bit too high.

But after all, it is a powerful skill that creates objects out of thin air; it is extremely refined and its mechanism is complex.

Theoretically, it is even harder to achieve than the simple destructive effects of some combat-type skills.

It is normal for the consumption to be high.

"When this skill evolves further, reaching Epic or Ancient grade, is it possible to create thousands of swords out of thin air with a wave of my hand?"

"That would be the Return of Ten Thousand Swords!"

Su Ming couldn't help but feel his heart race.

Afterward, he flicked his wrist.

He dispelled the temporary weapon.

Clatter!

The blood sword instantly shattered and dissipated, turning into a pile of blood-colored iron-stone that fell to the ground.

He felt no attachment; after all, it was a temporary weapon that would eventually be dispelled.

With the per-second blood loss and the massive mental energy consumption, Su Ming naturally couldn't maintain it forever.

Now that there were no enemies, maintaining it was a waste.

This temporary weapon-forging skill is best used only in combat.

Su Ming decided on his profession, then took out all of Wang Yanghui's loot.

He used 【Sublimation of All Things】 on all of it, performing a wave of upgrades.

【Sublimation successful!】

【Sublimation successful!】

【Sublimation successful!】

The sounds rang out continuously.

Their values had all increased several times over.

That staff also upgraded to Diamond-mid grade quality.

It could be sold for a good price.

Then, Su Ming came before the deep pool and took a deep breath.

"The preparations are mostly done... It's time to go in."

He took out the Ancient Snake Poison Gall, tilted his head back, squeezed out a drop of juice, and poured it down his throat.

Several minutes had passed since he last swallowed the bile, and the effects were about to fade.

The poison immunity provided by the bile only lasts for a short while, so for safety's sake, Su Ming swallowed another drop.

This was the only way to ensure nothing would go wrong.

【Obtained temporary BUFF: High-level Poison Immunity, lasts for a short period!】

There might be intense poison underwater as well, so Su Ming was very careful and made this preparation.

Afterward, he took out another piece of equipment.

【Qi-Returning Mask (Silver-mid grade)】

This was equipment dropped by Wang Yanghui; wearing it increases the recovery speed of mental energy.

"Let's see if I can modify it into an underwater diving mask."

Su Ming had just changed his profession to Cursed Blacksmith.

He used 【Forging Power】 to dismantle the elements and materials within the mask.

He stripped away the useless parts.

This formed the basic substrate.

A grayish-black mask appeared in mid-air, surrounded by many white fluorescent lights—that was the Forging Power.

Subsequently, Su Ming took many beast materials from his personal space.

Including 【Mutated Wild Boar Lungs】, 【Venomous Fish Gills】, 【Cartilage Tendon Ropes】, and so on.

These were all materials he had long possessed but hadn't been able to sell.

He didn't expect them to come in handy today.

Su Ming had once leveled up in beginner dungeons and killed many different types of mutated beasts, so he had plenty of beast materials.

He carefully used his Forging Power to combine these materials.

This was a task that required extreme caution.

A slight mistake, and all the materials would be ruined.

Other professional blacksmiths generally have hammers, furnaces, machine tools, and other equipment to assist in forging.

That would make the work twice as easy.

A blacksmith's machine tools, hammers, and furnaces are just like a swordsman's sword—they are their weapons.

But Su Ming currently had no forging tools; he could only modify it purely with Forging Power, without using any auxiliary tools.

One can imagine that it required even more consumption.

In the end, covered in sweat, he succeeded!

【Forging successful!】

【Obtained Gill-Breathing Mask (Silver-high grade)】

【After wearing, grants you the ability to breathe underwater.】

【Has requirements for water quality; if the water area has too many impurities or toxins, it cannot extract oxygen from water molecules.】

The effect was acceptable.

"Success is success."

"However... the mental energy consumed to combine and forge equipment is a bit too much..."

Su Ming muttered.

He was somewhat shocked that formally forging equipment consumed several times more mental energy than the 【Extraction Technique】.

It seems he must never forge equipment during combat, or it would be suicide.

Only the 【Extraction Technique】, the temporary weapon-creation skill, can barely be used in combat.

Life-type professions are indeed life-type professions.

Using them in combat really doesn't work; the consumption is too high.

After Su Ming put on the mask, he immediately felt the sound of his own breathing change.

And his lungs trembled slightly.

The air he inhaled carried a bloody scent of beast materials.

He didn't have high requirements; as long as it worked, it was fine.

"Fully prepared, I can go in!"

"Epic item, here I come."

He waved his hand and put all his swords back into their scabbards.

Then, he dove straight down.

He leaped into the ice cave.

Diving underwater, he immediately felt the bone-chilling ice water envelop his entire body!

It was as if countless steel needles were piercing through every pore of Su Ming's skin.

The temperature underwater was at least tens of degrees below zero.

Ordinary class-changers wouldn't be able to last even a few minutes in this environment before dying.

Fortunately, Su Ming's physique attribute was very high, so he wouldn't die immediately.

But he couldn't last for several hours either.

If it were normal water, it would have frozen solid at this temperature.

But the water in this dungeon had special properties, and its physical characteristics were different from those on Blue Star.

So, it hadn't frozen at this temperature.

The ice surface above was extremely thick, blocking out the sunlight.

It was extremely oppressive underwater.

Su Ming pushed forward toward the depths as much as possible.

In the ice water, he could still see many traces of blood.

These bloodstains were left behind by Wang Yanghui when he was injured earlier, and they actually provided Su Ming with a direction.

Because the temperature was so low and the water flow was quiet and inactive, these bloodstains hadn't been dispersed too much.

Following the bloodstains should be correct.

Su Ming slowly dove deeper.

He felt his speed was too slow, so he simply raised his hand and clenched his fist.

Whoosh!

The Mo Luo Sword from his personal space floated out.

Using the Sword Control skill, he manipulated this sword to fly in front of him, rotating as it moved forward.

This was Su Ming's heaviest sword.

The heavier it was, the more water it could displace, forming a small vortex.

This sword cleared the path ahead.

Su Ming was able to move forward easily without having to bear the full pressure of the water.

Su Ming followed closely behind his sword, diving all the way.

Actually, he could grab the hilt of the sword and let the sword carry his body; that way, he could dash dozens of meters in an instant.

However, the mental energy consumption for that would be immense!

Using it for even an instant was his limit!

Because the Sword Control skill, theoretically, had not yet reached the level where it could carry Su Ming's own body.

It's like how you can't pull your own hair to lift yourself up.

The Sword Control skill is the same.

This skill needs to reach a very high realm before it's possible to carry oneself for movement or flight.

What Su Ming could do for now was to briefly drive the blade to tread the air, stand on it, and hover for a short while.

He often used this move to change his orientation in mid-air.

But maintaining it for a long time was very difficult.

To save mental energy, Su Ming decided to move forward slowly.

Anyway, he had the mask and could breathe underwater.

Su Ming swam through the water, unhurried.

He held his breath for 5 minutes and felt he was reaching his limit.

"Let's test the mask's effect."

He thought to himself.

Then, he began to breathe underwater using his lungs.

Exhale... Inhale...

Swish, swish, swish.

Bubbles surged.

It worked!

This mask really could breathe underwater.

However, the conversion rate for air was a bit low.

Breathing was very heavy and laborious.

Because this water area wasn't clean; it was full of frozen mutated monster fish.

Su Ming had seen many schools of mutated fish along the way.

Many fish were highly toxic, gradually causing the water here to become contaminated with toxins.

That was why Su Ming found it very laborious to breathe.

But he didn't have high requirements; as long as he could breathe, it was fine.

After a few minutes, Su Ming reached the end of Wang Yanghui's bloodstains.

In the dark underwater, he had to activate his Eye of Insight to barely see clearly.

But... Su Ming didn't find any signs of an Epic item.

It was empty here!

There was only the silent water flow around.

It was pitch black underwater; if not for the Eye of Insight, Su Ming wouldn't even be able to see the path ahead.

"What's going on? Did I find the wrong place?"

Su Ming's heart was filled with shock.

There was absolutely no trace of an Epic item here.

"Where exactly did I go wrong?"

He frowned, feeling a bit worried.

He used his Eye of Insight to scan the surroundings.

The water area was plain and unremarkable, with nothing unusual.