Chapter 105: The Vampire’s Glamorous Forging

When the shop owner emerged from behind the curtain and handed the equipment back to her, Chen Zixuan tossed three silver coins onto the table and headed straight into the adjacent forging room.

Perhaps due to the game just having launched and its functions not being fully refined, the room, less than ten square meters in size, appeared rather simplistic in décor.

A small black furnace squatted low against the wall, its firebox icy cold, without the faintest spark inside.

Then there was a short stone table that appeared to serve as a workbench, with a few tools like anvils and other blacksmith implements scattered messily across it.

Looking at these tools he had never handled before, Chen Zixuan was momentarily taken aback.

Has this game always been this hardcore?

Are they really going to make me light the fire and forge the iron myself?

Glancing at his own delicate, fair hands, Chen Zixuan couldn’t help but imagine the scene in his mind:

A cramped room, vividly red under the flickering flames…

A silver-haired girl, less than one meter sixty tall, untied her twin-tails and braided them into a thick plait like Lin Wei would, then looped it around her neck. Bare-armed and flat-chested, she hefted an iron hammer taller than herself, and swung it down hard onto the glowing knife blank atop the anvil…

“Let’s not go that far.”

Shaking his head helplessly, Chen Zixuan stepped up to the workbench. After a few uncertain glances, not really knowing what to do, he simply took out his pitch-black dagger and placed it on the table.

The next second, a radiant glow illuminated the workbench.

Immediately after, a translucent, light-blue interface appeared in front of the silver-haired girl, floating in the air.

[Weapon Name: Blood Moon Slayer’s Dagger]

[Current Level: Lv1]

[Max Enhancement Level: Lv.5]

[Upgradeable: No]

[Enhancement Materials Required: Mithril x2, old Leather x5]

[…]

Looking at the interface that had suddenly popped up, Chen Zixuan finally breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Luckily, there’s an interface for equipment enhancement—which means he didn’t have to switch professions and become a blacksmith just yet.

This concept of equipment enhancement was new to Chen Zixuan, but the interface was rather straightforward. After examining it for a while, he understood how to enhance weapons and gear.

To level up his current weapon from Lv.1 to Lv.2 wouldn’t take much material, but the requirements would multiply at higher levels.

Chen Zixuan was already preparing to craft the Lv.15 [Rose Maid Set], so he wasn’t planning on further upgrading the Lv.5 [Blood Moon Slayer’s Set].

He would soon have no use for it, so further strengthening it would be too much of a material waste.

Besides, he hadn’t even seen a trace of [Mithril] material yet, so even if he wanted to enhance it, he couldn’t.

Not wanting to waste the three silver coins, Chen Zixuan took back his weapon, then carefully examined every corner of the forging room.

A few minutes later, a voice from the system rang out in his mind.

“System Notice: Your comprehension of Smithing has reached 60%.”

“System detected and has automatically replaced your [Advanced Smithing] skill with the [Vampire Artisan’s Glamorous Forging] skill.”

Vampire artisan? Did I become a senior craftsman?

Hearing the system’s sudden announcement, Chen Zixuan was a little confused.

Upon opening his character panel, he indeed saw that the [Advanced Smithing] skill had been replaced with a brand new one—[Vampire Artisan’s Glamorous Forging].

Clicking on it revealed a line of text to Chen Zixuan:

[Vampire Artisan’s Glamorous Forging]

Skill Description: Since ancient times, vampire artisans have been exceedingly rare, each possessing extremely unique talents, able to forge vampire-exclusive equipment of powerful quality and elegant design.

Current forging bonus: Durability +20%, attack +20%, magic +20% …

Three silver coins for a skill like this—not a bad deal at all.

Though he still couldn’t directly craft epic-grade equipment, having extra attribute bonuses was already quite the advantage.

After confirming there was nothing else to explore, Chen Zixuan opened the door and left the forging room, then casually found an inn to log off.

In the game, sharing information could only rely on global announcements and private messages between players, with abysmally low efficiency.

Almost a whole day had passed; he wondered if anything new had happened in the Mutant Jungle.

Having held back his curiosity for so long, Chen Zixuan could no longer restrain himself—he wanted to check the forums to see how far other players had progressed.

After all, the first kill of this world-class boss was extremely important for him.

If he missed this chance, who knew how long it would take to encounter it again?

As his consciousness returned to his body, Chen Zixuan impatiently took off his helmet and grabbed his newly bought phone.

The screen lit up, and the first thing to catch his eye was a WeChat message from Gu Yanxi.

[Gu Yanxi: Are you home?]

[Gu Yanxi: I just remembered, I have something else to give you.]

Gu Yanxi wants to give me something?

Seeing this, Chen Zixuan’s expression flickered with surprise. His first thought went to that damnable VR helmet beside him.

A few days ago, when Legend of Kaloran was about to launch, this helmet was personally handed to him by Gu Yanxi.

But honestly, one couldn’t blame the girl for this—after all, in her eyes, the box just contained a package she urgently needed to deliver.

Besides, even if he hadn’t received the helmet back then, a year later, the Angel would arrive in this world as promised anyway.

And as for himself, he’d probably still be scrambling around for a dirt-cheap summer job, barely struggling to get by.

At this point, Chen Zixuan had long since come to terms with everything relating to Legend of Kaloran.

If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be; if it’s not, it’s not. If it’s trouble, there’s no dodging it anyway.

With that thought, he composed himself and replied to the message.

[Chen Zixuan: I’m here. What do you want to give me?]

Seeing the time on his phone, Chen Zixuan estimated that Gu Yanxi should be about to head out for her tutoring class.

A few seconds later, the girl replied.

[Gu Yanxi: #OK, don’t go out yet—wait for me, I’ll bring it over.]

After those words, there were no more replies.

The two lived just next door, so it took less than half a minute before there was a knock at the door.

Much like when he went out shopping earlier in the afternoon, Chen Zixuan opened the door to see Gu Yanxi standing there, hands behind her back.

Even though she tried to block it with her body, Chen Zixuan could just make out the corner of a paper bag behind her—he recognized what Gu Yanxi was hiding.

Isn’t that… the women’s clothes just bought today?

…….

These days, I’ve been up late too often—my head’s been fuzzy all day, and I only managed two chapters in front of the computer. I’m asking for a day off, but I promise five chapters tomorrow.

Also, a quick appeal for medical advice.

Has anyone experienced persistent swelling and inflammation of the lower gums for several days? Should I see a doctor?

Chapter 106: Gu Yanxi’s Gift

***

**New Names, locations, skills, techniques**

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep