Chapter 449: Style and Smelting

Perfect timing.

In the evening, the half-elf Virgil would come by to check on the development of the White Dragon Tomb.

Rod simply lay in wait.

Saved him the trouble of going to find anyone.

But just waiting around dry was a bit boring, and the style didn't quite feel sufficient either.

While there was still some time.

When Rod returned to the surface, he called Tally and Wenner out, and the three sat in a circle to discuss the matter.

Wenner's face was full of question marks.

How does one wait for someone with style?

Is this really something that important? Isn't the important thing how to defeat an eighth-tier expert?

What's wrong with this man? Why is he so flashy?

Tally, meanwhile, was the first to excitedly raise her hand.

"Of course it's the enemy's corpse as the backdrop! What Tally likes most is the picture of Master standing alone after making all those forest guys collapse and twitch, surveying his surroundings with pride!"

Rod nodded, thinking it was pretty good.

He looked at Wenner.

"What's your proposal?"

"Uh, do I really have to say it?"

"Of course, use your imagination. If I didn't know any bards, I'd have wanted to call a few over early to secretly watch from the side."

"Alright then. How about a knight riding alone on a white horse, wielding a golden weapon, blocking the road by himself? It has that fairy-tale feel, clean and crisp. I think Mr. Rod could pull off that kind of bearing."

As Wenner spoke, she imagined it.

The knight-hero in her mind gradually merged with Rod's image.

Suddenly, a succubus with demon horns appeared with a wicked smile in the knight-hero's arms, and a beautiful Naga coiled around him from behind, her features stunningly gorgeous, her chest's proportions astonishingly grand.

The next moment, the three in her mind stripped off their clothes and tangled together.

The actions, postures, and words all matched up with the scenes she'd seen over the past five days.

Wenner hurriedly dispersed the images in her mind, rubbed her temples, and felt that her thoughts had been polluted by someone.

"Very good, both your proposals are accepted. Tally, bring the corpses from the White Dragon Tomb up."

"Okay~"

Rod thought for a moment.

He activated the shared skill of 【Flame Domain】, 【Myriad Phenomena Furnace】.

With the addition of the Dragon-Slaying Greatsword, the blunt damage of the Black Gold Warhammer seemed a bit redundant.

Fusing it together with the Black Slime Sword might produce an even better weapon.

No choice.

Major incidents had been happening frequently lately; it was already a world for the power-creep crowd.

The Offering Body Sword was the poster girl, so it stayed put. Its materials were already subpar to begin with, and mixing it into the Black Gold Warhammer risked dragging down the finished product's quality. The more malleable Slime Black Sword was a better fit.

But of course, the best outcome would be if the fused weapon turned out cool enough.

Rod didn't throw them straight in to fuse.

Instead, he ran several rounds of Slime Black Sword smelting first.

Same old routine.

What came out of the furnace was either a Flame Black Sword, a Flame Dagger, or a Flame Fleshlight.

What a sick joke.

The materials were lacking.

The only interesting one was a black dagger that came with the 【Flame Leap】 skill.

Neither Rod nor Tally could use it, so he gave it straight to Wenner.

Watching her face light up with pleasant surprise, eager to try it out.

He had to remind her: "Just a heads-up, this thing doesn't provide any protection against fire."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"It means that when you use it, you can leap between flames, but at the same time there's also the possibility of being burned to death."

"."

Rod smiled and didn't bother with her further.

He tossed the Black Gold Warhammer and the Slime Black Sword into the 【Myriad Phenomena Furnace】.

After thinking for a moment, he tossed in another Slime Black Sword.

Two swords, one hammer.

The odds of getting a sword were higher that way!

Before long.

The 【Myriad Phenomena Furnace】 belched.

A cold, black-gold longsword stabbed into the ground with a hiss.

The Black Gold Longsword was slightly wider and slightly thicker than the Offering Body Sword, its main body a deep black, trimmed with gold.

Pretty good-looking, but a bit understated, not as eye-catching as the poster girl Offering Body Sword.

Just like you, you pretty little piece of junk.

Rod nodded, fairly satisfied.

"I told you a few extra shots would come in handy."

Saying so, he went to retrieve the black-gold longsword.

However, the moment he touched it, there came a splat — the entire weapon swiftly went soft into a puddle of sticky matter, unable to even maintain a basic sword form.

"?"

Rod froze.

Uh.

Could it be that I added too much slime?

If I add some water, can it still be salvaged?

At this moment.

Slime Little Black sent through the 【Heart Link】 a craving for that puddle of black-gold sticky matter.

Wen Na walked over and glanced at the ground.

She let out a disgusted "eew—" and then looked at the 【Myriad Phenomenon Furnace】.

She said hesitantly, "Is this the fireball's vomit?"

Rod glared at her, displeased.

He bent down and let Slime Little Black make contact with that blob of black-gold sticky matter.

Little Black moved onto his palm, then spread out four or five little tentacles, like straws, slurp slurp sucking the stuff on the ground into its own body.

Immediately after.

Little Black shared new information with him through the 【Heart Link】, which appeared on the panel as:

【Black-Gold Adhesion: Slime Little Black has activated a new skill. This skill can adhere to weapons or magical items (cannot affect treasures or living beings), granting the following enhancements;

'Reinforcement', granting the adhered object +2 skill enhancement;

'Power Boost', granting the wielder of the adhered object a 10% increase in strength;

'Master Recognition', granting the adhered object the ability to recognize a master;

'Black Gold', raising the sharpness or thickness of the adhered object to 80.】

There you go.

Even without a new weapon, at least I got something to buff weapons.

The 【Black-Gold Adhesion】 skill is quite practical, and more importantly — as long as Rod feeds 【Growth Spirituality】 to Slime Little Black, this skill still has room to evolve!

As long as luck holds.

Sharpness/thickness 200, power boost 200%, skill enhancement +50 — none of it is a dream!

When that time comes, which weapon in my hands wouldn't be a divine artifact?

Rod was very satisfied, his eyes gleaming.

At this moment.

Tally had already hauled the corpses up and was arranging them with great enthusiasm.

She even deliberately left a central spot as a stage for Rod.

The sea breeze blew.

The slanting evening sun sank downward; on the open flatland by the cliff, the sparse trees and weeds leaned eastward.

The smell of blood, rot, and sulfur drifted across Rod's skin along with 【Spider Sense】.

"Almost here, huh? There are still some Purgatory fellows."

Not exactly unexpected.

The Scarlet Monastery was already in cahoots with demons to begin with.

"Wen Na, come here."

Miss Miss Puwei's eldest daughter, having heard that the Scarlet Monastery and the demons were about to arrive, was a little nervous and still looking for somewhere to hide.

But upon hearing Rod's call, she obediently stepped over the corpses and walked to the center of the "stage."

"What is it? Mr. Rod."

"Kneel down, then place both hands on the ground."

"Huh?"

"Didn't you say so yourself — a knight, and in haste there's no horse, so you'll have to make do with what you have."

Rod was dead serious.

Who told you to call my 【Black-Gold Adhesion】 vomit?

Wen Na's face was full of disbelief: "Mr. Rod wants to ride… ride me?!"

"Of course not — you're a girl, it'd be so rude of me to ride you. It's sitting, just sitting on your back. I'm being gentle, right?"

"How is that any different!"

(End of chapter)