Qian Jin laid down on his bed and covered his face with the Endless World Hat just like last time. He blacked out immediately.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in an empty street. There were some houses and short buildings.
It was the same scene as the first time he entered this game world. Qian Jin was somewhat familiar with the place, and he knew that there was a blacksmith shop at the end of this street. He learned how to forge [Level 2 Refined Iron] from there.
“I only learnt some basics of blacksmithing the last time I was here, yet I initially tried to escape from this place. I didn’t really pay attention to the other buildings,” Qian Jin murmured to himself. He slid his hands into the pockets in his pants and wandered around. He was curious about what happened in the other buildings and houses.
[Eulalia Mystic Potion Shop], a black signboard was hung above the gate of a building. Qian Jin peeked in the building out of curiosity and saw a middle-aged woman in a red apron working with a lot of test tubes. The test tubes were filled with green, blue, yellow and some other colored pungent liquids.
“Mystic Potion?” Qian Jin shivered a little. In his world, there were only two kinds of potions. One was created by prestigious pharmacists. They could create potions that replenished stamina and restored warrior energy and mana. They could even experiment and create their own kinds of special potions.
The other kind was Mystic Potions! People referred to the creators of these potions as Mystic Pharmacists. They were a bunch of mysterious people! No one knew what kind of potions they made, but people did know that there were less Mystic Pharmacists than compared to dragons.
Qian Jin remembered that he read a book on these Mystic Pharmacists when he was still in his family. There was a quote from a Mystic Pharmacist, “If gods do exist, then I will create a potion that can even make a damn frog into a god after it drinks it!”
He still remembered that there were a lot of comments written at the back of the book by a lot of famous warriors and mages in the history, “This is madness! This is crazy!”
They were all comments along the same line. That was when resistance to the profession of Mystic Pharmacists grew within Qian Jin. It wasn’t normal for people to say something that daring.
[Akenash's Rune Shop]
Qian Jin peeked into the house through a small slit between the gates. There was a small girl who looked like she was about seven or eight years old. She was engraving something onto a strange metal. Her speed was very quick. A mysterious pattern was engraved onto the metal in a matter of a few seconds. She then sprinkled a handful of special dust onto different spots on the pattern, and seven different colored lights instantly shined through the engraved lines on the metal.
“What is this?” Qian Jin tugged on his head subconsciously. According to documentaries, rune artists took 100 times longer to engrave and create patterns on special metals compared to regular artists when engraving and creating sculptures. It was simply much more difficult. Only true Rune Masters could engrave as fast as this little girl.
Boom!
A small explosion occurred in the room, and the little girl was blown to the ground. It was the almost completed rune that the girl was working on that caused the explosion. The little girl got up and wiped the black dust off of her smiling face. She thought carefully, “Oh! I probably put too much of the Earthburst Bear’s magic core powder into the mix.”
Qian Jin was very excited, but he held himself back and didn’t rush into the building.
Rune Artist! If he learned this skill, he would be respected wherever he went, even if he only understood half of it. The most powerful warriors would treat him properly if he was skilled.
If he could bring his blacksmithing skills into the real world, he could probably bring back the rune skills to the real world as well. However, Qian Jin was trying very hard to control himself from doing anything stupid. He knew that every skill required strong fundamentals to learn. Runes, for example, required proficient understanding of magic arrays and special metals. It wasn’t the right time for him to learn the rune skill yet.
He continued walking down the quiet street. He was almost surprised by everything he saw. There were embedment shops, tailor shops, and more…
“What is this…”
Qian Jin stopped and looked at a building on the side as he took a deep breath.
[Enlak’s Warrior Energy House]
“Does this place sell warrior energy training scrolls or teach warrior fighting techniques?” Qian Jin blinked his eyes. The reason he came to Oakland was for the [Wind and Cloud Energy Training Scroll]. If he could become a Level 2 Blacksmith after a day of practice in the Endless World, what kind of energy training scroll could he get from here? Qian Jin could no longer contain himself and tried to push open the gate to the building.
“Eh?”
The gate looked pretty thin, but it didn’t open at all after Qian Jin pushed it.
“What’s going on?” Qian Jin took a deep breath and pushed the door again with all his strength, but it still didn’t open.
“Damn it!” He filled his arms with his Level 4 Warrior energy and pushed the gate again…
A light flashed through the black gate; it wasn’t because the gate opened, but rather because a few words popped up on the gate.
[Level 4 warrior energy is not sufficient to open the gate. A minimum of Level 8 warrior energy required.]
“Level 8 warrior energy?” The words cracked a smile on Qian Jin’s face. “So only a Level 8 Warrior can enter this building? Does that mean even Instructor Rodriguez would be blocked and there would be nothing that he could do about it?”
Qian Jin stared at the gate that he couldn’t open and wondered, “If it requires Level 8 Warrior energy just to open the gate, then what kind of training scrolls or fighting techniques would be in here?” He felt like this place was full of mysteries.
He continued walking down the street and soon arrived at the blacksmith shop where he learned the art of blacksmithing.
After pushing open the ragged door, Qian Jin walked into the shop that was thousands of times more deserted than Franklin’s Blacksmith Shop. Just like yesterday, the forge wasn’t burning, and the sparks weren’t flying. Old blacksmith Blake was leaning against the anvil and smoking out of his pipe. He blew out mouthfuls of smokes, but he would cough irregularly. When he did that, he sounded like he was going to cough his lungs out.
Blake’s eyes shined a little after he saw Qian Jin walking in. He stood up straight and dusted the dirt off his butt. He then grabbed two pieces of pig iron and threw them into the forge as he said, “Light up the fire.”
By this point, Qian Jin was already used to Blake’s personality. He put both of his hands on the bellow and started to press and pull the handle. Blake grabbed a piece of the red-hot pig iron with a pair of tongs and placed it on the anvil. His other hand reached out and grabbed a hammer. He placed the hammer above his head, but he didn’t strike down on the metal right away. He swung a full circle with the hammer in the air and struck down with his full force and a great amount of momentum. The hammer howled as if it was tearing up space as it smashed onto the red-hot pig iron. A bunch of metal sparks jumped and danced in the air as the sounds of the metals colliding echoed.