Chapter 149

Previously, when he first received the snake scale from Xia Nan and suggested to the other that it be made into an arm shield.

Ba En had already judged the extraordinary nature of this material through his many years of forging experience.

And later, during simple processing, he further noticed the toughness and hardness of the snake scale itself.

He could even infer that the scale itself, in addition to physical defensive capabilities, likely possessed magic resistance in some aspect.

It was just that the processing time was too short, and the ownership of the snake scale was not in his hands, so he couldn't perform a complete and comprehensive test.

To some extent, if he hadn't really processed so-called "dragon scales" and known the texture, appearance, and quality characteristics of such materials.

Ba En would even have suspected whether this scale was plucked by Xia Nan from some adult giant dragon.

In short, in his view, using the black scale as the main material, supplemented by metal bone materials of the same level or slightly inferior, combined with his forging craftsmanship.

Not to mention any epic artifact, forging a piece of high-quality magic equipment would still be very easy.

It was just that at the time, Xia Nan had not yet obtained a professional level, was short of money, and his financial resources were not enough to pay the high bill, so there was no follow-up.

He just borrowed the hardness of the scale to make a temporary arm shield to "make do" with.

Now, there seemed to be a turning point.

"You mean, use this bone as an auxiliary material for the scale to upgrade the arm shield into magic equipment?"

Xia Nan looked at Ba En, who was carefully examining the bone club in front of him, with a look of surprise on his face.

Learning the expensive cost of magic equipment from the other, he had thought he would need to save money for a while before the snake scale could exert its proper performance.

He didn't expect there to be a turning point now.

"It's still just an idea." Ba En stroked the surface of the bone club inch by inch with both hands, carefully feeling its texture, "The specifics still depend on how well it fits with the scale, and its actual performance during forging."

As he spoke, his expression suddenly became serious; he put down the bone club in his hand and looked at Xia Nan.

"You need to be mentally prepared for failure first."

"After all, the material itself has not undergone detailed testing, and there are always some strange little accidents during forging."

"If it is discovered later that the scale and the bone are not compatible, then I suggest not to continue making it; forcibly fusing two unsuitable materials together will not only fail to guarantee stability in the equipment forged, but the defensive strength will also drop significantly."

"Instead, it would waste two precious materials."

"So..." Xia Nan's gaze scanned the pale, shimmering surface of the bone club, "Should I prepare a second plan?"

Ba En nodded, not intending to keep him in suspense, and directly explained his thoughts to Xia Nan.

"Excluding what I said before about using the bone as an auxiliary material for the arm shield."

"Now I can offer you a total of three processing plans."

Three calloused fingers were held up in front of Xia Nan.

"The first one, and also the simplest—just leave it aside for now."

"If it is determined that the scale itself is not compatible with the bone, and you don't want to dispose of it just like that, perhaps you can leave it alone for now and find a place to store this bone club safely."

"Wait until you find a craftsman proficient in related techniques, or have suitable materials, and then handle it yourself."

Hmm... he really wasn't in a hurry to convert the material into combat power.

If there was no suitable way to handle it, perhaps he could consider storing it in the bank first and talk about it later?

Xia Nan nodded: "And then?"

"The second one." Ba En lowered a finger, his dull voice echoing among the ironware on the surrounding shelves, "Sell it to me."

"I won't take advantage of you; I can hire a professional appraiser to value this bone club, and I will pay the appraisal fee."

"In the vast majority of cases, the price of such materials that can be made into magic equipment will not be too low, you can rest assured about that."

Hearing this, Xia Nan nodded secretly in his heart.

The other's proposal actually coincided with his own thoughts before coming.

Rather than doing so many fancy things, being practical and simply cashing it out, converting the bone club he couldn't use at all into savings in his bank account, was the most realistic.

After all, theoretically, as long as the gold coins are in place, whether it's the snake-scale arm shield or any other magic equipment, they can be easily obtained.

Of course, although he thought so in his heart.

Whether to sell it or not still depended on the other's offer at that time.

So he didn't respond immediately and signaled Ba En to continue.

"As for the last one..."

Speaking of this, a simple and honest smile suddenly appeared on Ba En's originally quite serious, stern face.

He reached out to touch the back of his head and explained with a smile:

"Actually, a piece of equipment I've been forging recently happens to be missing some material, and I was originally thinking of going to the association to post a bounty mission."

"I just checked, and the material of this bone of yours fits my requirements very well."

"In the event that the bone club and the arm shield are indeed incompatible, perhaps you can consider selling a part of the bone to me to offset the labor costs."

"For the remaining part, I can help you make it into a piece of armor, the enchanted kind, and give you a pretty good discount on the overall cost."

After he finished, Xia Nan's heart couldn't help but stir.

In the situation where 【Gravity Control】 is difficult to develop, 【Tooth Hunting】, 【Spinning Slash】, and 【Gravity Etching】 are all combat techniques biased toward offense.

Even if the mobility is good, it cannot guarantee that all attacks can be avoided.

The physical damage reduction probability of 【Copper Tendons and Iron Bones】 is only 0.5%, which is basically impossible to trigger in ordinary battles.

Compared to other aspects, "defensive ability" is undoubtedly his weak point.

And his own aggressive and fierce fighting style makes it even more necessary for him to improve his fault tolerance through armor.

This is also the reason why Xia Nan never skimps on gold coins when it comes to equipment.

Even if it's just slightly damaged, he sends it to the blacksmith shop to pay for repairs; if it affects defensive performance, he sells it directly and replaces it with a new one.

A piece of armor with outstanding defensive performance can make up for his shortcomings and greatly improve his combat power.

If this bone club can really be made into enchanted armor, that would be for the best.

Of course, provided the price is right.

And regarding the concerns Xia Nan implicitly mentioned, Ba En just laughed twice, signaling him not to worry.

Although it is a proper piece of magic equipment, the main material is provided by Xia Nan himself, so no extra money is needed.

And most of the labor costs are also offset by the part of the bone club he sells to Ba En.

In the end, all Xia Nan needs to pay is a small amount for auxiliary materials and a small portion of the labor cost after the discount.

The overall cost was even given a discount.

"It will probably only take 300 to 500 gold, the specific amount depends on the actual situation."

500 gold... huh.

Looking at Ba En's expression in front of him, as if he were thinking for him and helping him save a lot of money.

The corners of Xia Nan's mouth twitched imperceptibly.

He only felt that his small treasury, which he had worked so hard to save, was about to face an unprecedentedly huge expenditure.

Even though he hadn't paid it out yet, he already felt a stinging pain in his heart.

Ba En's reputation was well-known, and he had many professional regulars, so he knew the other wouldn't fool him on the price.

And he had long understood the expensive selling price of magic equipment through various channels.

He knew the other's quote was indeed discounted.

Pondering carefully in his heart, he already had a preliminary intention.

The three plans proposed by Ba En were all based on the premise that the scale and the bone were not compatible.

If the two materials fit and could be combined into an upgraded version of the arm shield, then that went without saying.

If the compatibility was not high... then they would discuss it again.

Communicating a few more words with Ba En, he left the snake-scale arm shield at the blacksmith shop for compatibility testing, to be retrieved in a few days.

Xia Nan then put on the chain mail shirt he had just bought for 50 gold and turned to leave the blacksmith shop.

The matters regarding equipment were considered handled.

Next, he had to go to the grocery store.

Fairy Wind.

After a few months, this grocery store, which had become famous in town due to the shopkeeper's excellent appraisal ability, hadn't changed much.

It was still the same spacious, bright, simply decorated, and ingenious place.

The shopkeeper "Farilue" had also gradually recovered from the previous theft case, no longer anxious and depressed, and the whole person had returned to his usual serious and steady self.

Xia Nan remembered hearing other adventurers mention in the tavern before that what was stolen was an heirloom from Farilue's family; although he didn't know the specific style and value, seeing the other's restless state at the time, it was clearly very important to him.

Later, it seemed someone provided a clue, saying they saw a person in black come out of Fairy Wind and flee the town overnight.

Farilue even added a bounty because of this.

It was a pity that, until now, no one had been able to provide further clues.

Xia Nan shook his head.

Anyway, it had nothing to do with him; when he heard it, he just treated it as gossip to satisfy his curiosity and wasn't interested.

So he didn't think about it anymore and walked into the shop.

Unexpectedly, what met his eyes was a vaguely familiar figure.

It was exactly that middle-aged adventurer who had tried to scam Ba En at the "Rock Hammer" blacksmith shop earlier.

He remembered being bumped into by him on the way to escape, but it seemed he had recognized his identity through the Decapitation Longsword and didn't dare to pester him.

He had thought it was a passerby he would never see again, but he didn't expect to run into the other here.

His brows furrowed slightly, but seeing the other standing behind the shelf carefully selecting goods, with no intention of looking for trouble, Xia Nan shifted his gaze and walked toward the shop owner.

"Thud."

Small pebbles fell gently onto the tabletop through a soft cloth bag, making a dull sound.

"Please help me identify these."

"Alright customer, please wait a moment."

Farilue took the bag, his eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses scanning Xia Nan's face, his tone being the distant and polite one peculiar to service personnel.

Clearly, he didn't recognize this customer who had already visited a few times.

This was quite normal.

Having to receive countless adventurers every day, let alone names, even memorizing every face was a very difficult task.

And unlike the Rock Hammer blacksmith shop, which was frequently visited due to the high replacement rate of equipment, Xia Nan hadn't had any particularly special performance at Fairy Wind.

Just an ordinary customer who had been there a few times.

Of course, if he could help the shopkeeper find the lost heirloom, he might really be remembered for a lifetime.

Professional ability remained.

Squinting his eyes to look carefully, several shiny little stones were pinched one by one.

In just a minute or two, Farilue gave a quote:

"Tiger's eye, two for a total of 20 gold, market price."

"One blue quartz, one turquoise, I'll count them as 42 gold."

"Hmm, this onyx is of good quality, the size is also okay, 47 gold."

"Adding them up, it's a total of... 109 gold."

"How about it?"

Carefully putting the black and white opaque gemstone back into the cloth bag, Farilue raised his head and looked at Xia Nan in front of the counter.

"How about 120 gold?"

"115?"

"Deal."

The huge expense that might come from the Rock Hammer blacksmith shop made Xia Nan tentatively bargain.

But after all, he wasn't good at this, and the price given by the other was considered reasonable, so after one round, he didn't waste any more breath and nodded in agreement.

Making his net worth instantly soar to over eight hundred gold.

He felt a sense of confidence again in his heart.

Not in a hurry to leave, and since it was still early, he scanned the shop shelves casually.

"Insect-repellent resin sachet—9 silver 8 copper"

"Glowing moss powder—5 silver 6 copper"

"Wolverine ointment—3 gold 7 silver"

"..."

His gaze suddenly paused.

He saw a palm-sized statue placed in the middle of the lower left shelf.

Honestly, the appearance of the statue was not unusual, far from the degree where one could identify it at a glance on a shelf piled with countless complex goods.

Dusty and unpainted, it looked like a small stone that could be seen everywhere on the side of the road.

But for some reason.

It was like an oil droplet stagnant in clear water.

When Xia Nan's gaze swept over it,

Even his brain hadn't realized it yet, still thinking about whether to buy something, his line of sight had already paused on the statue by instinct.

He felt strange in his heart.

He stepped closer to observe carefully.

"Hmm? Not a stone?"

The dark, grey-black, greenish color made him think it was carved from cheap stone.

After walking closer, he noticed the fine textures on its surface, like fingerprints.

It should be some kind of wood with a special color.

As for the specific content of its carving...

It seemed to be a deer standing on two legs, or a sheep?

It wasn't that Xia Nan lacked the common sense to identify animals, but because the lines on the wooden statue were too blurry, almost only carving out a rough outline.

If he hadn't confirmed the material of the wood, he would even have felt that what was in front of him was not a "statue" carved by an intelligent creature, but a rock naturally formed after countless years of wind and rain erosion.

But just like the subtle feeling that made him unconsciously stop his gaze among countless groceries.

When Xia Nan had doubts about the form of the "statue," his mind had also been unintentionally attracted by it, falling into an invisible vortex.

His field of vision was instantly widened.

Deepening, sinking.

Those fine textures like annual rings were like strands of hair brushing, winding, from the ends of the mental synapses, winding upward, extending all the way to that pitch-black, calm, most... of the soul.

Hum—

Suddenly interrupted!

Overly concentrated attention caused translucent characters to appear before his eyes.

Xia Nan suddenly shivered, and his originally distracted and trance-like eyes regained their luster.

Consciousness returned to reality.

In front of him was the familiar, stable, and incredibly reliable attribute panel.

【Sheep-Deer Statue】

Type: Statue

Level: /

Introduction:

Annual rings and tides, you wouldn't want to know the secrets hidden in those wrinkles.

Remark:

"Ef'tisuuHai'lot'vhuVurahkia"

(End of chapter)