Chapter 119: Raising the War Hammer

Lei En's mind flashed with many pieces of information about Affinity Element.

All Affinity Elements belong to the psychic type and are at least Rare grade, for example Wind Element Affinity is a kind of Rare Element.

Psychic‑type elements have a trait: they cannot be strengthened by merging identical elements like Physical Elements, nor can they be enhanced by investing soul power to raise ring count like Arcane Elements.

He has two psychic elements, namely Metal Touch and Truth Will.

Other elements have progress bars and can be directly upgraded with energy, but these two psychic elements have not changed since they were merged.

Only during the Soul Transformation ceremony can psychic elements possibly advance.

This advancement is not a level increase but a qualitative change.

For example, advancing from a common element to a Rare element, or from Rare to Superlative element, but the chance is extremely low; the vast majority of transcendants never encounter it in a lifetime.

Nevertheless, even with such low odds, after millennia of trial, transcendants have long discovered certain traits of psychic elements and put them to use.

Psychic elements cannot be strengthened, so just merge more of them.

For instance, Fire Element Affinity: if you have two, they will not stack like Physical Elements into a stronger one; they remain two independent elements, both active.

Each time a fire spell is cast, both Fire Element Affinities take effect.

One Fire Element Affinity equals a primary affinity level; two equals intermediate; three reaches high affinity.

Above high affinity, before humans had transcendants, other races called it Ultra‑High Affinity. Some gifted individuals, such as certain high elves, are born with Ultra‑High Affinity and are innate casters.

Humans of the previous era also produced such geniuses, but after being cursed by the Lord of Darkness, these innate casters almost vanished.

Today, those who wish to obtain Ultra‑High Affinity can only do so by merging Superlative Elements.

And Superlative Elements of the Affinity type are generally obtained in Soul Transformations.

When performing the Soul Transformation ceremony, the more identical psychic elements you have—e. g., two or three Fire Element Affinities—the higher the chance of advancement.

Many psychic elements have fixed advancement paths.

After Fire Element Affinity advances it becomes the Superlative Element "Flame Furnace", and if it advances again it becomes the famed Legend Grade element "Flame Demon Crown"!

Fire Element Affinity, Flame Furnace, Flame Demon Crown.

These three psychic elements are successive, belonging to the same series; each advancement greatly raises the affinity with fire, making fire spells reach unimaginable power.

Similar sequences exist for Earth Source, Earth Pulse, and Heart of Earth.

However, in the Earth series, only the first Earth Source has Earth Element Affinity; the latter two elements cannot further raise affinity.

Lei En's Truth Will also has a series.

"Indomitable Will" advances to "Steel Will", and advancing once more yields Truth Will.

He lacks the first two elements, directly obtaining the highest level Truth Will, equivalent to possessing the abilities of the first two.

Lightning Affinity is a Rare element, the first element of the Lightning series.

After advancement, the second element is "Lightning Form".

Lightning Form is a Superlative Element, extremely rare; among all Superlative Elements it is very scarce, and the Book of Thousand Souls records that its occurrences are few.

Elementalist and Swordmage, these two transcendent professions' advancement conditions are merging various Affinity Elements.

People often see Fire Elementalists or Gale Swordmages, but rarely Lightning Elementalists, let alone Thunder Swordmages; the entire Empire may have only a handful.

The reason is that Lightning Affinity is so scarce.

Perhaps luck allows one to merge a Lightning Affinity, but finding a second Lightning Affinity is far too difficult for ordinary transcendants.

Without two or three Lightning Affinities, how can one advance to Lightning Form?

As for the third element of this series, the Legend Grade Lightning Affinity is not even recorded in the Book of Thousand Souls; its existence is unknown.

Lei En thought of this and shook his head helplessly.

The conditions to raise the war hammer are too stringent.

Are Superlative Elements that easy to obtain?

Whoever obtains a Superlative Element first considers self‑fusion; only if it truly mismatches do they trade or auction it—such opportunities are rare.

Lei En cannot imagine how much the Lightning Form could sell for; anyway he cannot afford it.

In comparison, merging several Lightning Affinities to advance into Lightning Form is somewhat more reliable, but still very difficult, requiring countless effort and money, and cannot be achieved in the short term.

Moreover, even with three Lightning Affinities, advancement in the Soul Transformation is not guaranteed.

It may require four or five to be safer.

If one really does this, the pool of selectable demon souls will narrow, and to obtain Lightning Affinity one must abandon many better, stronger demon souls.

Of course, if one can raise Thunder God's Hammer and become the master of this Legend Grade weapon, all that effort is worthwhile.

Yet even with Lightning Form, there remains a problem.

Lei En looked at Zuo Ertan and asked expectantly, "What is the war hammer's rune spell?"

"I don't know either."

Zuo Ertan spread his hands and said, "The clan most familiar with the spell is the Iron Beard Clan, but they withdrew back to the Shi Jie Shan Mai because they have no own fortress and had to rely on the Copper Ring Clan of Rongyanbao; later they gradually vanished."

"Now the Iron Beard dwarves in Rongyanbao may be only a few dozen, long past their former glory."

Zuo Ertan's eyes were full of regret; he patted the ancient book at his waist and said, "Otherwise they wouldn't have sold this book to me."

"Does the book not write it?" Luo Jue was also curious.

"I've flipped through this book hundreds of times; it never records any spell, otherwise I would have found it long ago," Zuo Ertan declared confidently.

Lei En nodded, believing Zuo Ertan's words.

He guessed that the Iron Beard Clan did not record the spell, perhaps also did not spread it outward; it concerns the clan's treasure, so they would not easily tell others.

But how did Emperor Alfa know the rune spell back then?

To know, Emperor Alfa obtained Thunder God's Hammer over a thousand years after the Iron Beard dwarves left; at that time he was a little‑known young human, unable to go to Rongyanbao to ask the Iron Beard dwarves for the war hammer's rune spell.

The Iron Beard dwarves also had no motive to tell Emperor Alfa the spell.

By then the Iron Beard dwarves were already in decline; the spell may have been lost long ago.

The usurper Waldon from over a thousand years ago—so the gap is even longer—how did he know the rune spell?

Historically, Waldon has always claimed to be the successor of Ai Er Fa Da Di, not a blood descendant, let alone a royal member, so the spell could not have been passed down from Ai Er Fa Da Di.

Whether Ai Er Fa Da Di ever passed on the rune spell remains an unknown.

Lei En's thoughts turned quickly, and he soon formed a hypothesis.

People from different eras, separated by great spans, all raised a war hammer, indicating the spell is not transmitted orally but recorded somewhere.

Obviously, the rune spell is hidden within this vault!

Lei En voiced his conjecture, and Zuo Er Tan and Luo Jie listened with bright eyes, finding it very reasonable.

"Let's look for it right away,"

Zuo Er Tan leapt onto the forging anvil and wandered around the vault.

Luo Jie also searched everywhere; his eyesight was sharp, his cat‑pupil eyes occasionally contracting and dilating as he carefully examined the wall murals.

The three searched for a while but found nothing.

Zuo Er Tan focused on the rune array but uncovered no useful clues.

Lei En's gaze finally rested on the war hammer, paused a few breaths, and suddenly noticed that the hammer's handle pointed directly at a mural.

He looked along the direction of the handle.

The mural depicted a tall, imposing dwarf deity clad in battle armor standing there, beneath its feet a massive circular rune array containing a forging anvil, and a strange war hammer gradually taking shape under the deity's strikes.

Lei En immediately recognized it; wasn't the scene in the mural exactly this vault?

This is Moladin's forging of Thunder God's Hammer!

His eyes, like the most precise microscope, scanned the mural inch by inch, missing no detail.

He immediately discovered that the war hammer in the mural bore a string of tiny characters on its handle.

Those characters were dwarf numerals, five in total.

Lei En could identify the five numerals; he stepped to the platform edge, grasped the handle of Thunder God's Hammer, and read them aloud clearly.

But nothing happened.

Zuo Er Tan and Luo Jie watched his action, both completely baffled.

"Lei En?" the dwarf asked, his face full of doubt.

Lei En had to explain it once; the two were first delighted, then, like Lei En, fell into contemplation, trying to uncover the mystery hidden in the five numbers.

"Could the order be wrong?" Luo Jie tried reading them backwards, to no avail.

Lei En's gaze swept over the murals, and when he finally saw the stone tablet engraved with the characters, a flash of insight struck his mind, and he understood instantly.

The five numbers were not a spell but a simple code.

And the translation for cracking the code was on the stone tablet!

He ordered them by numeric size, found the corresponding five dwarf characters on the tablet; the five characters formed no special meaning, each a single syllable, all of which he could pronounce.

Taking a deep breath, Lei En grasped the handle again and shouted loudly:

"Gai, Er, Ma, La, Zi!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Lei En immediately felt the war hammer tremble slightly.

"The spell is correct!"

Lei En was overjoyed, and Zuo Er Tan and Luo Jie stared wide‑eyed.

The next second, the runes on the war hammer began to flicker, clearly activated; fine bolts of lightning burst from the hammerhead, the arcs traveling up the handle and instantly contacting Lei En's hands.

"Ugh!"

Lei En let out a muffled groan, his whole body numb, as if he had touched a high‑voltage wire, pain searing everywhere.

The pain was comparable to a Soul Transformation ritual; he could endure it for now, so he tried to lift the war hammer, but found it hard to exert force under the electric shock.

"Ah..." Lei En shouted, desperately hoisting the war hammer.

Under Luo Jie's and Zuo Er Tan's gaze, the war hammer finally moved, slowly emerging from the platform's recess, inch by inch rising upward.

As the war hammer rose, the lightning grew increasingly intense.

Finger‑thick golden bolts erupted, flowing from Lei En's hands into his body, the air smelling of something being scorched.

Lei En had already pushed his steel body to its limit and infused himself with Dragon Power Technique, boosting magical resistance and lessening the electric damage.

His complexion grew ever paler, blue veins bulging, the blood vessels beneath his skin clearly visible.

When the war hammer was lifted half a meter high, terrifying arcs nearly enveloped the entire anvil platform; the vault began to tremble, the massive rune array activating, opposing Lei En.

Luo Jie and Zuo Er Tan were forced to retreat several meters.

Lei En felt the pain intensify, his clothing beginning to char; his steel body's defense was strong and possessed some magical resistance, yet under the relentless lightning attacks it gradually became insufficient.

He unhesitatingly opened the music player on his phone.

The pain quickly subsided, becoming almost imperceptible.

The war hammer was raised higher and grew heavier; Lei En gritted his teeth, refusing to lower it, wanting to test whether he could conquer the legendary weapon without a lightning form!

Zuo Er Tan and Luo Jie had already retreated outside the rune array.

Their eyes widened in horror; Lei En's body was almost entirely cloaked in palpable electric current, Thunder God's Hammer held aloft above his head, emitting dazzling golden light, making Lei En appear to cradle a small sun, blinding to look at.

A few minutes later.

Snap!

A faint sound rang, and a piece of skin on Lei En's arm suddenly split open.

The Dragon Power Technique's boost ended, magical resistance dropped, the arc struck the arm directly; the split skin quickly blackened and burned to ash.

Pop pop pop…

Lei En, still holding the war hammer, could not re‑apply Dragon Power Technique; more and more of his body was scorched by the current, bleeding.

Zuo Er Tan shouted loudly, "Lei En, put down the war hammer quickly; without a lightning form you can't hold out."

Luo Jie also shook his head at Lei En, indicating that he should give up.

Lei En's gaze was steadfast, the battery power in his phone plummeting rapidly as he repaired his injuries.

However, he lacked any restorative Element, merely consuming battery power to heal his body, far less efficient than the damage caused by lightning; wound after wound burst open, quickly turning him into a bloodied figure, looking terrifying.

At this moment, Lei En felt no pain, his complexion calm, not even a flicker of a frown.

In fact, this became a weakness; if he didn't let go, Thunder God's Hammer's lightning would burn him to ash, leading to death.

After persisting for a few more minutes, Lei En's body suddenly swayed.

This was a sign that he might have sustained serious injury.

Although he immediately steadied himself and regained balance, his hands involuntarily loosened, the breath escaping, no longer able to grip the heavy war hammer.

Bang! Thunder God's Hammer fell, dropping into the groove.

(End of chapter)