Early the next morning, Gargamel dragged his exhausted body before Du Wei and presented him with a clumsily crafted ring… … Well, you could call it a ring of some sort.
It's not that Du Wei doesn't appreciate what the mouse did, but the craftsmanship is just so bad. No matter how he looked at the ring, it is nothing but a metal rod looped into a circle shape.
"This thing is the ring you made?" Du Wei looked at the thing with a wry smile… … Instead of a ring, it's better to call it a finger thimble used by tailors to push needles… … Du Wei literally cried out in astonishment: "Dear Gargamel, fortunately you're not a jewelry businessman, or else you will definitely face bankruptcy."
Gargamel felt somewhat dissatisfied as he coldly retorted: "Cut the crap! It took a lot of effort to craft this! In this ring, I added a bit of Mithril to make it stronger. But since it is a secret weapon, I covered it with a layer of ordinary iron to hide this fact. Anyways, it's a weapon and not a real ornament, so why bother making it so beautiful? If your foe pays attention to this thing during battle, the first idea they would have is to cut it off your finger! Get it?"
Du Wei nodded in agreement: "I was only kidding."
But when Du Wei checked his inventory next, he froze!
For this little ring, the mouse actually used up a large portion of his precious Mithril! Not only is it hard to come by, it is extremely expensive!
"It is very much worth it." Gargamel spoke in a serious manner: "Metal usually has a excluding effect on magic, but Mithril doesn't. This means that you will be able to hide this thing from your opponent in battle. All the while, Mithril can also increase your absorption rate, understand?"
"All right." Du Wei sighed, but he is already thinking how he could get his hands on more of this good stuff!
Magic union?
Du Wei pondered for a moment before deciding to make a trip back to the union's headquarter. After all, there is still that old Alley waiting for him from yesterday!
Packing his things away, Du Wei puts on his newly forged ring and thought: The design of this ring really is subtle… Even the grain sized gemstone is sandwiched between two layers of metal; thus, making it invisible to the naked eye!
Coming out of his room, he had some of the servants ready a coach for him so that he can ride to the magic union. But out of his expectation, Captain Alpha still tagged along with him. Unable to do anything about it, Du Wei decided to let it be and not say anything.
Upon arriving at the magic union, there was already one of Alley's disciples waiting for him at the entrance. Probably the doing of the old monster, this person had a sympathetic expression on his face as he came up to Du Wei…. "Aigh, poor guy, it seems like you don't recognize teacher's true face yet!" This was probably what the guy was thinking.
Despite being looked at with a sympathetic gaze, Du Wei still didn't feel any change in his emotions.
Struck with a thought, he gingerly asked: "Oh yes, yesterday, master Alley gifted me with that stone. Do you know what it is used for?"
The guy stumbled on his question. Letting out a sigh, the guy looked at Du Wei with frustration: "I'm not too sure either, but teacher said it is a magic crystal with high energy storage capacity. Compared to an ordinary magic crystal, it is at least 10 times better! Aigh, we already asked teacher several times before, but he always denied us….. Now, consider it your fortune to get your hands on it."
Hmm, Du Wei nodded. It seems that this guy does not know the real use of this five colored gemstone either.
Du Wei felt relieved.
Entering the building with his guide, Du Wei didn't dare to provoke those two mage enforcement monsters again. As such, the trip this time around went much smoother than his previous and it wasn't until he came into the inner tower that his guide decided to part ways. Standing there, the person said: "Well then, you can continue on inside by yourself. As long as you position the crystal dial to the number 'nine', you will be able to get into teacher's place….. I must remind you though, don't try to dial any other number! Each layer here lives a grand magician, without the owner's permission, you won't be able to enter the floor even if you dial the other numbers!"
Du Wei nodded and memorized the info. As he was doing this, the other guy ran away as if he was afraid to meet his own teacher.
Du Wei went into the Tower alone and came up to the ninth floor.
The moment he came out of the magic transfer circle, the scene in front of him immediately shocked him!
Such a big place!
The room is the size of a basketball court, but it was filled to the brim with piles of various materials!
Even for someone as knowledgeable as Du Wei, he is completely stunned by the multitude of stuff in front of him! Ranging from the bones of magical beasts to magic cores, there were even precious magical plants in.... No matter how he thought about it, all these amazing things were piled up like garbage everywhere!
"Hmm… … This is the roots of an 'Abakalie Cannibal vine'. EH, didn't rumor say this stuff is already nearing extinction? Ah, this is Noyigaloe grass! Oh god, this is a top grade material capable of refining gold!" The more he looked, the more surprised Du Wei became!
His title of being an old monster of the magic union is not for show! To be collecting so many good things!
Continuing to walk inside, Du Wei came out of the crowded room and into a narrow channel. Not only could he hear a thumping sound further inside, smoke started to waft out towards him….
Du Wei knitted his brow as he went inside.
What he saw next was an image like that of a typical magic laboratory. However, the metal platform in the middle of the room nearly caused him to faint when he glanced over at it!
Holy mackerel, this metal platform is definitely infused with a lot of Mithril! No need to do any tests to verify, just the glossy luster of the outside is enough to confirm his guess!
For the sole reason of avoiding magic exclusion by metal, this old guy actually wasted such valuable Mithrils for his magic experiments!
Currently, Alley is busily working away at his experiment on top of the metal platform. From appearances, his white robe is already stained with blotches of black ash and his whole body was currently playing with a weird instrument.
From a quick observation, Du Wei can tell the instrument is something used for refining magic ingredients because further below, he can see a transparent container filled with some kind of gooey substance boiling away from a green colored flame under it. Despite being tightly sealed, the container actually had a tube inserted on top to allow the smoke produced inside to escape.
But what really surprised Du Wei is the way Alley filtered the impurities out of the smoke! By using the stomach skin of a "crystal lynx", Alley was able to filter out the impurities out of the rising smoke. The idea may be ingenious, but the Crystal Lynx is an animal that spends most of their time underground, thus, making it extremely rare and hard to hunt.
With nervous looking eyes, the old geezer stared at the smoke running through the tubes leading into another container. As the green smoke subtlety pass through the layers of filter, it would gradually condense into grain sized particles at the second container!
Despite watching from the side for a while, Old Alley remained oblivious to his presence. After seeing the forming of the crystal particles, Alley started to mumble to himself: "No, no… … It would still condense… … It won't do… … It won't do..."
Du Wei couldn't take it anymore and decided to say something: "Could it be that you want to avoid having the smoke impurities condense in crystals?"
"Nonsense!" Old Alley didn't turn back to face him as he answered back: "If it crystallizes, that means the smoke has too much impurity! Unfortunately... A 'crystal Lynx's' stomach skin is still not good enough for a filter… … I need something even better for filters! I need the smoke to be even purer so that it will become a liquid and not form into crystals! God damn it! "
"Liquid? Why not try 'Ke flowers', it is the best for dissolving substances and may be able to bring the crystals into a liquid state."
"No!" Old Alley shook his head: "If I try to dissolve these crystals again once it solidifies, its properties will change and lose its use. Ah… … How can I make the smoke directly form from smoke to liquid?"
After a pause, Old Alley finally regained his thoughts. Turning around to see Du Wei, the old geezer beats his palm against his forehead: "Oh! Boy, you are here! Hmm, what you said about using 'Ke flowers' is not a bad idea. At least more useful than those stupid apprentices of mine! Hmm, not bad, not bad! It's a pity none of my apprentices are interested in magic pharmacy, so none of them can be my assistant."
Du Wei stared at the greenish colored substance inside the crystal bottle: "What are you doing?"
Old Alley revealed a mysterious, yet smug smile on his face: "Something absolutely good! That's if I can make it work….. Humph!"
Acting like he hardly ever see another Mage interested in magic pharmacy, the old geezer pulled out a scroll with a joyous expression and handed it to Du Wei: "Look!"
Du Wei glanced over the content and was amazed!
This is clearly a formula, but… … Isn't it too complicated?
Listed on the scroll are nearly all magic plants! But as he took a closer look, he noticed several of the items are either extinct or extremely hard to locate!
"What is this formula?" Du Wei frowned: "It's too complex. With more than 30 kinds of magical plants, you also need to consider if they will be in conflict if mixed together."
"Humph! This is my genius invention!" Old Alley opened his mouth and started to laugh a few times: "Let me tell you, I'm trying to refine all of this stuff into a liquid state. I intend to call it the 'blood of Alley'! Ha-ha, nice name, right?!"
Du Wei threw up his tongue… … Such a strange old geezer to use his own name.
"What use does this liquid have?"
"I intend to use it to replace Mithril!" This one sentence from Alley is enough to stun Du Wei!
Replace Mithril?!
"Ha-ha! You should know, almost all metals are exclusive against magic! So, it is very difficult to infuse magic into a weapon. As such, the only option is to use Mithril, but the ore is simply too rare to be used in mass production." Alley smiled. "But if this liquid experiment of mine succeeds, then from now on, any weapon can be infused with magic….. HA HA!"
Any weapon can be infused with magic?
Wouldn't that mean a magic weapon would become the norm in the future?
Du Wei was stunned by this amazing idea!
Right now on the continent, any magic weapon found is currently considered to be a rare treasure! If it can be mainstreamed…. Then...
But very soon, he glanced at the formula in his hand and sighed: "But I have a question."
"What? Boy, what question do you have?" Old Alley spoke in an impatient tone.
"This… … This formula contains a lot of magical plants, many either extinct or extremely rare to find! If it requires such ingredients, wouldn't it be less expensive if one just uses some Mithril?"
"Uh… …" Realizing the issue, Old Alley went into a dull like state with his jaw stuck open.
Taking the chance while the old geezer is occupied, Du Wei focused his mind and quickly memorized every ingredient on the scroll.
Rare magical plants?
As long as I have the water from "As time goes by", I can get them easily!