Chapter 150: Steel Friend

"Ta-da—work complete!"

Xiang Guangtai made an exaggerated gesture, holding one arm diagonally and spreading his hands, as if displaying some excellent "work of art"!

And the object being displayed was, of course, Registeel!

The Steel Titan's body had been polished until it was spotless. The originally somewhat dull body was now gleaming, the steel shell reflecting the faces of the people and Pokémon like a mirror. Because it was too round, the reflection was stretched and distorted. Under the gaze of everyone, many protruding large faces appeared on the Steel Titan, looking quite comical!

"Yo-woo~"

Doublade's ribbon touched the Steel Titan's body.

It's too smooth; I can't get a grip!

"Beep-beep-beep—" The circular dot-matrix symbol on Registeel's face flashed in a circle, and its two hands waved around, seemingly trying to express the degree of incredibility of Xiang Guangtai's technique!

Although as a Black Gold Pokémon, its hard steel body would never be injured no matter what, steel also has a fatigue value. Exceeding the limit would cause damage. It's just that because Black Gold is hard enough and the recovery speed as a Pokémon is fast enough, it's usually not visible.

The Steel Titan had never felt as comfortable and relaxed as it did now. Endless power surged from within its body, just like the feeling when it was first created and born!

"Sah-sah-sah-li—Regi—" Regirock waved its stone arm.

How about it, brother? You've calmed down, right? Do you feel very comfortable?

This human is a mysterious craftsman living nearby, possessing craftsmanship even more powerful than the ancient Shinto people, and can also be considered their successor. Items polished by his technique will receive bonuses and enhancements, which is super effective for us "Titans"!

"Beep-beep-beep—Regi?"

Registeel was first puzzled, then suddenly realized!

If that's the case, it's no wonder it lost this battle!

It's just a pity. Since you have such strong power, I can no longer protect the Earth Plate, and the dream of turning the bottom layer here into an iron production area is ultimately like a flower in a mirror or the moon in the water—completely ruined...

"Don't be so depressed!" Xiang Guangtai patted the iron giant: "If you really followed your idea and changed the geological structure here, it would actually be very dangerous!"

"Did the ancient Shinto people do this kind of thing?"

"Beep-beep-beep—" Registeel admitted that in the era when it was active, the ancients who held the Earth Plate did indeed do such things.

They moved land suitable for survival and made the produce abundant. Otherwise, given the natural environment and climate of "Shinto," it would be difficult to support human survival. Even Pokémon would fight each other in this environment because nature here was very cruel.

"Changing the geological structure—suppose the area under the Black Gold Temple all turned into iron ore. Once the iron ore is over-mined, it could lead to surface collapse. The removal of iron ore would weaken the structural stability of the strata, subsequently causing ground subsidence or groundwater intrusion."

"At that time, the temple might even collapse. And if there is too much iron ore, it will cause the strata to be too rich in iron elements, which will acidify the soil, causing damage to plant roots, leading to slow growth or even death. In the laws of nature, everything has its limits; exceeding those limits can bring negative effects."

The circular symbol on Registeel's face flashed in a circle.

It didn't understand these things; it just wanted to make this temple run again. But hearing that the temple might collapse, Registeel became uneasy.

"If you don't understand these things, it's indeed easy to do things that cause trouble. The ancients were able to do these things because they understood the situation of the land and made corresponding adjustments and plans."

Xiang Guangtai touched the Steel Titan's body, feeling the annoyance and confusion in its heart, and snapped his fingers:

"How about I teach you a unique forging craft?"

"Beep-beep-beep?"

Registeel had felt from the beginning that Xiang Guangtai, like itself, was someone who excelled at iron-forging. Now that Xiang Guangtai said he wanted to teach it special forging techniques, the Steel Titan, which had been somewhat dejected, immediately perked up, although its facial expression couldn't be seen at all from the outside!

"Mood improved; is this guy a workaholic?"

Xiang Guangtai sensed the Steel Titan's inner fluctuations and found it quite peculiar. Without further ado, he found some forging tools in the temple that humans could use—evidently, these were tools left behind by the ancients who had built the temple.

In the distant past, the Black Gold Temple was probably really used by the ancients as a large blacksmith shop.

The technique Xiang Guangtai wanted to teach the Steel Titan was naturally the Fire Forging Craft. This was one of the first forging techniques Xiang Guangtai had obtained and also the forging technique he used most smoothly. Under the Steel Titan's gaze, Xiang Guangtai took a stone box from his backpack. After opening the stone box, he poured the scorching charcoal inside into the furnace.

"Beep-beep-beep!" The charcoal is a bit scarce, Registeel muttered.

Xiang Guangtai: "This is special charcoal, oh. It's scorching charcoal burned from huge oak trees from the Oak Forest using a unique burning process. It has more powerful firepower than ordinary charcoal and, because of the material, is also more durable!"

"Lurantis, use Fire-type Weather Ball."

Under the Steel Titan's gaze, that slender and beautiful Pokémon used its ultimate move on the furnace. An illusory sun appeared inside the furnace, followed by three fireballs summoned by Lurantis, leaving the Steel Titan's head full of question marks!

A Pokémon that looks like a Grass-type used a Fire-type move?!

And using it in the furnace—is that "Sunny Day"?!

Xiang Guangtai picked some materials at random and began forging! Unlike what Registeel had imagined, the human's forging speed in front of it was very fast, and even those flames burned particularly vigorously. The huge firepower reminded it of the scene when the Black Gold Temple was still prosperous. In a trance, the figures of those ancient blacksmiths gradually overlapped with the human in front of it.

The iron billet was quickly shaped, forged, and processed through several procedures until it became a usable tool!

This was a small hammer. Xiang Guangtai thought that when forging iron, one usually uses two hammers, one large and one small, each with its own important function. The large hammer is mainly used for hammering and forging ironware, while the small hammer is used to guide the striking of the large hammer and simultaneously perform fine corrections on key parts of the ironware. And the small hammer left behind by the ancients had no special use, only a 10% forging bonus.

Therefore, Xiang Guangtai decided to forge a new small hammer to give to this Steel Giant to establish friendship between the two sides.

【Craft Item: Bullet Forging Hammer.】

【Description: A tool made using Pokémon materials and scrap iron with special fire forging and processing techniques. It can increase Steel-type and Fire-type energy.】

【Craft Function: Rapid Forging—Forging speed +25%, unique usage "Bullet Punch."】

Huh? Xiang Guangtai held the steel small hammer, rubbed his chin, and handed it to the Steel Titan.

After Registeel received this small hammer, a wonderful feeling welled up. This small hammer seemed to be integrated with it, and a faint warm current flowed within its steel body—that was Fire-type energy. It couldn't provide a boost to it, but it could make it more heat-resistant.

Also, its Steel-type power had increased a bit. Registeel swung the small hammer lightly and suddenly realized its correct usage! So, it swung it suddenly toward an empty space!

With one swing of the hammer, a silver radiance flashed straight ahead!

Bullet Hammer?

"Beep-beep-beep—!" Registeel's tone rose!

It wanted to learn this unique forging technique!

"Good, then from now on, are we friends?"

"Beep-beep-beep! Regi!" Registeel agreed. It was very happy, knowing that this new tool hammer would be of great help to its forging technique. Regirock had disappeared from the Steel Titan's side at some point and had come to Steven's side.

Regirock tapped lightly on Steven, who had forgotten the time while studying minerals, then rummaged through the pile of minerals and took out a few black-and-silver-colored minerals that looked like scrap iron.

This is the thing! Regirock tucked those minerals into its arms and also handed one to Steven.

Steven was initially puzzled and couldn't see any problem, but after simply touching the mineral in his hand for a while, he suddenly realized the extraordinary nature of this mineral!

It looked plain, but the hardness was outrageous, and the Steel-type energy emanating from within...?!

"Beep-beep-beep—" Registeel discovered Regirock rummaging through things in the temple and muttered unhappily, but then looked at Xiang Guangtai. It walked to Regirock's side with the small hammer, picked up a piece of mineral, and handed it to Xiang Guangtai.

【Precious Material: Black Gold!】

【Description: A special mineral obtained by melting various minerals according to a unique ratio and aggregating them under high pressure. It is considered an unknown metal.】

【Effect: Can significantly increase the Steel energy of Steel-type Pokémon! Black Gold is very hard; only Pokémon with the "Hard Press" or "Crush Grip" moves can forge and cast it!】

【Obtained Craft: Smelting Craft (B+)—A craft of smelting known materials to obtain brand-new materials. The craft contains corresponding smelting formulas, but even with the formula, the probability of smelting failure is still very high. Use this craft with caution.】

【Items or materials that can be made through the craft: Black Iron Ball, Volcanic Rock, Mysterious Stone.】

【Obtained Knowledge: Superpower—Your strength has increased significantly, Strength +100%.】

Legendary Black Gold, obtained!

Xiang Guangtai talked to Registeel and found that it possessed the move Hard Press!

However, Xiang Guangtai hadn't decided what to use the Black Gold for yet. In short, he would put this precious material away first. So, he put the Black Gold into his backpack. At this time in the temple, He Yue had been waiting anxiously.

"Sorry, although I really want to set off now, I still need to leave something behind."

Xiang Guangtai asked He Yue to wait a little longer, then found some nearby soil and iron ore from the temple, had Doublade fly outside to record the appearance of the entire Black Gold Temple and inform him, then drew a sketch with spiritual paper, and used soil, iron ore from the Black Gold Temple, and stones to make a mini temple figurine.

Then, he used ordinary carving tools to carve patterns on the ground outside the Black Gold Temple, let Doublade use Psycho Cut to help, and soon created ground textures like a magic circle. Taking stones and iron blocks from the Black Gold Temple, these ancient stones filled with powerful spiritual power became the catalyst to lead everything.

Xiang Guangtai pressed his hands on the ground and felt the flow of some kind of energy within the earth!

"Doublade, Unown, use Secret Power and Hidden Power on the temple and the model simultaneously!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 151 =====