Chapter 319

"Devil?"

Hearing the keyword in Xia Nan's words, Ba En's expression paused involuntarily.

His gaze shifted subconsciously from the bundle on the ground to the black-haired young man who was only wearing a shirt.

"No wonder..."

No wonder that not only was his armor scrapped on this trip, but even the weapon he used was damaged.

But he remembered that when they first met last year, the other party was just a struggling adventurer who couldn't even afford equipment; how long has it been, and he can already treat a Devil as a proper opponent?

Ba En was surprised by the other party's rate of improvement, while his own professional ethics made him suppress his inner curiosity and ask no more.

With a gesture, after receiving Xia Nan's permission, he leaned over to pull a steel fork from the bundle and began to examine it carefully.

As a professional blacksmith born into a dwarf clan who had been running a shop in the adventurer frontline stronghold for many years, his experience was nothing short of rich, and he had also had considerable experience dealing with weapons and equipment from Lianyu Devils.

Ba En clearly knew the characteristics of these Lianyu equipment and understood how to process them to maximize their value.

The rough skin of his fingertips, tempered by molten fire, brushed lightly over the steel fork that refracted the cold metallic light, and a faint sound rippled through the air.

He introduced to Xia Nan the relevant information about these pieces of equipment from the Nine Hells of Baator:

"The second layer of Lianyu, 'Dis,' has rich mineral deposits that are among the best even in the entire multiverse; those vast, endless mountain ranges—even if you just randomly picked one peak, the ore contained within would be enough to make the developer a rare wealthy man."

"To put it exaggeratedly, you don't need to specifically choose a location, nor do you need to conduct geological surveys or similar activities; you could just carry a shovel over, dig into the ground a couple of times, and you might just discover the minerals hidden within."

As he spoke, a look of longing appeared on Ba En's face.

Clearly, this "spectacular" and unique geographical environment was as attractive to dwarf blacksmiths like them, who viewed forging and ore as their lives, as an oasis is to a lost traveler in the desert.

"Of course, the quality of these ores from the Lianyu mountains varies; they are not all suitable for the forging of high-end enchanted equipment, and some of them, if brought to the Material Plane, could even be called inferior types where even mining them would just be a waste of effort."

"But for the second layer of Lianyu, 'Dis,' this does not become a problem..."

Speaking of it, it just feels disjointed.

When ordinary civilians in remote areas of the Material Plane still have to rely on those barren lands to grow crops, can't even get enough to eat, and at most hitch a ride on merchant mule carts for daily travel.

The second layer of Lianyu, "Dis," has already formed a semi-complete industrial system, with massive factories and workshops spread across almost every street.

From the mining and transportation of a piece of ore to its smelting, shaping, and subsequent processing and sale, there is a corresponding standardized process.

Perhaps in terms of high-end equipment, it cannot compare to those master craftsmen who might spend years on a single piece of equipment, forging it by hand, hammer blow by hammer blow.

But if it comes to production quantity and the quality of low-level equipment, it far exceeds the vast majority of countries in the Material Plane.

Taking this steel fork in Ba En's hand as an example, to say its quality is good is, of course, impossible.

As for the lowest-level cannon fodder in Lianyu like Imps, the weapons they use can of course only be the trashiest.

But the sturdiness of the steel fork itself far exceeds the hoes and shovels in the hands of farmers in the fields, and it is even better than the weapons in the hands of some low-level adventurers.

"These four steel forks should be trophies collected from Imps, right?"

Xia Nan nodded.

"You might not know, but these weapons in Lianyu that are specifically distributed to low-level Devils actually have very low-quality ore used in their forging and smelting."

"It is only through special processing in their factories that they have acquired their current strength."

"If it were an ordinary adventurer in a dire situation who couldn't afford suitable equipment and already had experience using this type of weapon, they could keep them for their own use."

"But for you, they are definitely of no use."

"Melting them down and re-forging them is certainly possible, but as I mentioned earlier, the material quality of these pieces of equipment is very average; if I were to forge them myself, perhaps after recasting, they could be restored to the strength of the current steel fork, but the time and energy spent... it's actually not as good as choosing normal materials for conventional forging."

"It can be said to be thankless work."

When talking about his profession, Ba En's expression appeared exceptionally serious and focused, his exquisite braided beard swinging back and forth on his chest with the low, muffled voice echoing in the room.

"So I personally suggest that these four Imp steel forks be sold directly as trophy materials; there is no need to spend extra time and energy considering any unnecessary processing."

Xia Nan had no forging experience, but as an adventurer with outstanding perception, he could actually vaguely sense the strength of the material of the Imp steel forks.

If they were to really clash with the 【Ember Meteor】 longsword currently in his hand, they would likely be sliced in half on the spot.

Now that he heard Ba En say this, he felt more confident.

He nodded slightly and replied:

"Then I'll listen to you and just sell them."

"But what about this longsword from a Spined Devil? In my personal opinion, its strength is still quite good; is there any other suitable way to handle it?"

Naturally, he wouldn't miss this weapon that had directly chipped his transitional two-handed longsword, so Xia Nan asked Ba En.

Regarding this, the veteran blacksmith, who had already collaborated with him many times, also gave his own answer:

"Of course!"

"Although a Devil like a Spined Devil cannot be considered a very high-level type in Lianyu, because of its combat style and humanoid body shape, it is often equipped with weapons of decent quality."

"This polearm is also forged from Lianyu metal; the pity is that although the hilt part is also metal, the quality is very poor, almost the same as the Imp's steel fork just now."

"The only part of the whole thing that can be used is the blade part."

Just as he was halfway through his sentence, Ba En's gaze couldn't help but glance at the 【Ember Meteor】 longsword on the table behind him.

"It is usable, but if it's used to forge a weapon, it definitely won't compare to the straight sword you have in your hand now."

"I personally suggest..."

Ba En suddenly looked hesitant.

His impression of Xia Nan had gradually become complex with each collaboration.

——A young adventurer with excellent talent and outstanding combat ability.

This is the foundation.

Growing from a low-level adventurer to the point of being able to spend three thousand gold coins to forge a main weapon in just over a year is enough to prove the speed of his progress.

And as for "outstanding combat ability," the other party's "Grey Sword" reputation in the small town is one aspect, and the other aspect is naturally those pieces of armor that were scrapped one after another like consumables.

They were all forged by his own hands, so Ba En naturally knew the high strength of this equipment.

Normally, even if there was wear and tear during high-intensity combat, he could repair them when they were sent back to the blacksmith shop.

But now, according to the situation described by the other party and the few scrapped items that were sent back, these armors were broken beyond repair and could only be treated as pure iron lumps, difficult to fix.

At first, Ba En was just surprised by the speed at which the other party's armor was scrapped.

But then, when Xia Nan stood at the counter again and again, intact, to order new armor from him.

Ba En finally realized——

The armor was scrapped one piece after another, but he... why was he perfectly fine?

He hadn't even seen him seriously injured; at most, it was a minor injury with a couple of bandages, forming a sharp contrast with that exaggerated armor scrap rate.