Chapter 618 - Refining Observation
The girl sized up Han Fei and nodded. “Alright, the refiners are divided into five levels, from one star to five stars. Of course, there are also apprentice refiners below the one-star refiners, except that they can only build lesser weapons and will go to the 36 towns in the end. The one-star refiners can forge low-quality and mid-quality spiritual weapons. The best one-star refiners can even take their chances to forge high-quality spiritual weapons…”
Han Fei interrupted her, “Wait a moment, if I want to be certified, do I have to start as an apprentice refiner?”
The girl shook her head. “No. If you know what you’re doing, you can have an exam immediately after paying the fees. However, you have to build a low-quality spiritual weapon, a mid-quality one, a high-quality one, and so on.”
Han Fei grinned. “Understood. Please continue.”
The girl said, “Starting from the two-star refiners, their odds of success in crafting high-quality spiritual weapons can be more than seventy percent, and those in crafting ultra-quality spiritual weapons can be as high as fifty percent.”
“The basic requirement for a three-star refiner is the ability of sealing souls that are below level-30 with a success rate of fifty percent. Also, their success rate of building ultra-quality spiritual weapons can’t be lower than fifty percent, or they will be demoted.”
“The four-star refiners must have a success rate of more than seventy percent in crafting ultra-quality spiritual weapons, and a success rate of more than sixty percent of sealing creatures above level-40, or they will be demoted.”
“The five-star refiners must have a success rate of higher than ninety percent in building ultra-quality spiritual weapons, and a success rate of no lower than seventy percent in sealing creatures below level-50. They have to help the customer seal the creatures for free if they fail three times in a row. Their success rate on creatures between level-50 and level-60 is above thirty percent. If they fail ten times in a row, they must help the customer seal the creatures for free.”
Han Fei looked weird after hearing that. Didn’t it mean that he was already a five-star refiner?
But he had to give all the credit to the Demon Purification Pot. All he needed to do was to throw materials into the Demon Purification Pot! He didn’t really know the first thing about refining.
Old Bai asked him to learn refining probably in order for him to cover that up.
Han Fei immediately said, “Can I visit the refining workshops inside the Refining Hall?”
The girl was briefly stunned. “If you want to learn refining, this place recruits apprentices in refining. You can visit the workshops and get paid.”
Han Fei shook his head. “I don’t have the time. I need to check it out before I make any decision.”
The girl simply replied, “You can, but the three-star refiners and above generally refuse visitors during their work unless you have an appointment. So, you can only observe the apprentices and the one or two-star refiners. Their charges are different. The prices are ten high-quality pearls, fifty high-quality pearls and five hundred high-quality pearls for each visit respectively.”
Han Fei thought for a moment. “Arrange me a visit to all three levels. I have the money.”
After that, Han Fei took out a bag of high-quality pearls and gave them to the girl.
“You can count them up.”
Apparently, the price for the two-star refiners had soared, and that for the three-star refiners would probably be higher.
Han Fei didn’t intend to pay any more money. He only wanted to find out how ordinary people did refining and what kind of equipment was needed…
After that, Han Fei would decide how he could master this skill.
After all, refining was a technique too, and it could probably be deduced by the Demon Purification Pot.
After following the shopping guide through the lobby, Han Fei instantly sensed a storm of spiritual energy coming at his face. The whole inner hall felt dozens of degrees hotter than outside.
But surprisingly, Han Fei didn’t hear any noise of tempering. This place was absolutely quiet except the noise of the surging spiritual energy.
Han Fei saw rows of chambers made of black rocks. On the door to each chamber was a misty ventilation hole which Han Fei couldn’t see through with his naked eye.
Han Fei was stunned. “All of them are refining workshops?”
The shopping guide smiled. “There are altogether 1,082 refining rooms here. Among them, eight hundred are powered by spiritual energy, and the rest are founded on the burning magma from the bottom of the sea.”
Han Fei couldn’t help but ask, “Is there any difference between them?”
The shopping guide replied, “It’s more popular and convenient to refine weapons with spiritual energy instead of flames. All you need to do is to temper the weapon with violent spiritual energy as flames. Those who use undersea magma and other unusual heat sources are mostly more sophisticated experts that have discovered the shortcomings of refining with spiritual energy.”
Han Fei was tempted. “Then I’d like to see something else. I want to observe how the weapons are tempered with undersea magma and other unusual heat sources after I watch the refining with spiritual energy.”
The shopping guide seemed slightly awkward. “You may have to wait a moment, because few two-star refiners use the 282 refining workshops. You may need to make an appointment.”
Han Fei was getting impatient. “Then make one.”
The shopping guide spoke to someone else via her badge. A moment later, she looked at Han Fei. “The No. 821 refining workshop will be put in use by a three-star refiner in six hours. However, to observe his refining, you need to pay five thousand high-quality pearls.”
Han Fei instantly frowned. Five thousand high-quality pearls meant five thousand points! Why was a visit so costly?
The shopping guide explained, “The three-star refiners all practice advanced refining techniques, which are very precious. So, observing their work is often more expensive than buying their products.”
Han Fei gritted his teeth, knowing that he had to pay. If he wanted to learn refining, he had to learn everything well before he made a choice.
Therefore, Han Fei instantly paid five thousand high-quality pearls, and the shopping guide was rather stunned, wondering how this three-star guy was so rich.
Nevertheless, the shopping guide showed Han Fei around after taking his money.
The first place they visited was the workshop of an apprentice refiner.
After entering the workshop, Han Fei saw a young man of his own age. The young man was carrying a three-star badge and was at the same level as Han Fei himself.
The young man grinned at Han Fei after seeing him.
He said, “You probably want to learn refining. I only know the most fundamental techniques, and I’ve got nothing to hide. Allow me to prepare myself. I’ll get to work in a hundred seconds.”
Han Fei said with a smile, “Suit yourself, and good luck.”
Han Fei looked around at the workshop, which wasn’t very big but only had a coverage of about thirty square meters.
More than forty different weapons were hanging on the walls in the room. Only one of them was a low-quality spiritual weapon, and all the others were high-quality magic weapons.
At the center of the workshop was a giant table where materials such as Sea Iron Tree rinds, bamboo poles, stones, crystals, fish skins, fish bones and mystic iron were placed.
Next to one side of the table was a tank of spiritual energy. After seeing that, Han Fei raised his eyebrows and realized that refining seemed to have a high demand on spiritual energy.
The young man said, “The easiest way to refine a weapon is to do that with a technique called Spirit Fusing Technique, which can melt spiritual energy and stir it into flames.”
This young man did not use a hammer at all. He simply grabbed a piece of iron and surrounded it with spiritual energy.
Han Fei sensed that the spiritual energy that enveloped the iron was getting more and more violent and hot. In Han Fei’s eyes, spots of spiritual energy were falling apart and leaking into the iron.”
The young man roared, “This is the Spirit Fusing Technique. You can fuse the energy and the materials.”
The mystic iron was melting, but it did not reduce in size at all. Apparently, none of the impurities in it were removed.
The young man fused another five materials in the same technique. After that, the young man took a deep breath, and the spiritual energy that covered the materials got more and more violent that it was changing colors in the end.
In the next moment, Han Fei saw that a bunch of impurities were expelled from the materials by the mass of violent spiritual energy.
The young man roared, “This is the Spirit Polishing Technique, which can remove the impurities from materials, but not completely.”
About two hundred seconds later, more than half of the total materials were used. Then, the violent spirit energy bound the five kinds of materials together.
Directed by the young man’s spiritual energy, a longsword was taking shape.
The young man roared again, “Next, it’s the Spirit Forging Technique. The materials are incompatible by nature. In order to completely melt them, you must make your spiritual energy so violent that it can polish five kinds of materials at the same time.”
Han Fei didn’t say anything from the beginning to the end. He watched the independent materials melting into each other, and after only three hundred seconds, a high-quality magic weapon already took shape.
After the young man withdrew the violent spiritual energy, the high-quality magic weapon was successfully made. However, Han Fei could clearly tell that although the sword counted as a high-quality magic weapon, its edge wasn’t perfect, mostly because it wasn’t sharp enough.
The young man grabbed the longsword and smiled at Han Fei. “This is the most rudimentary way of refining.”
Han Fei crossed his hands. “Many thanks. I have two questions. Firstly, you swallowed the spiritual spring three times during the refining, so how much spiritual energy did you really spend? Also, refining seems to have a high demand on spiritual power, so how many refining sessions can you do in a day?”
The young man said with an awkward smile, “I spent about 18,000 points of spiritual energy. If I refine weapons in such a way, I only have enough spiritual power to build eight weapons in a day.”
Han Fei grinned. “Thank you very much.”
After the observation, Han Fei left the workshop. All that he could think of was how simple the task was.
