"It's a pity that the treasures coming from the Soul Record cannot be modified." Bai Zemin sighed.

If he could modify the treasures coming from the Soul Record, then he wouldn't have to feel pain when abandoning old equipment as he could simply upgrade them to match the constant progress of his overall strength.

"Some can be modified, but it's very difficult." Lilith pointed out with a bitter smile. "Every treasure is made up of Soul Power, so it is extremely difficult to modify them. However, there are exceptions. In fact, you are holding a modifiable treasure in your hands."

Bai Zemin was silent for a moment before a thought appeared in his mind. His eyes glittered with a strange light as he said, "Broken Bronze Bell..."

"Correct. The Broken Bronze Bell is a modifiable treasure capable of evolving." Lilith nodded but then threw a bucket of ice water on Bai Zemin's hopes, "But this also depends since there aren't too many clues about the treasure itself. You will have to spend a lot of time investigating but even then you won't necessarily get the clues to look for or by the time you find such clues you won't necessarily need the protection of the bell anymore."

Bai Zemin naturally understood what she meant.

If by the time he knew the method of upgrading the Broken Bronze Bell his strength had already surpassed a certain threshold, then what good was the treasure? 

At the end of the day there were many things that could only be left in the hands of fate... Because the power one had was simply too insignificant in the big picture of things.

...

There were many types of armor that could be created depending on the materials. Fortunately, Bai Zemin had a certain amount and variety so he didn't have to stick to a specific type.

Lamellar armor, scale armor, shell armor, shrimp armor, plate armor, and so on. Each of these had different advantages or different disadvantages depending on the material they were constructed from and the purpose they were to serve.

"I'll go with leather armor." Bai Zemin had already made up his mind.

"A plate armor wouldn't suit you considering you use a two-handed greatsword." Lilith expressed her thoughts calmly, "If aside from the weight of a heavy two-handed weapon you add a plate armor, your movement speed will drop greatly and your overall combat ability will decrease a lot."

"That's why I say. A leather armor will have to do." He nodded.

Leather armor could be found in any fantasy setting or medieval era as it was one of the preferred and most used armor by those looking for a light defense that did not affect movement and was, above all else, cheap to manufacture.

Highly resistant to any type of attack, whether cutting, pushing, hitting or piercing. Its main weakness was that it wore out quickly after a certain number of attacks. But Bai Zemin was not worried about this as some occasional maintenance would solve the problem.

Besides, he wasn't going to make normal leather armor.

First of all, Bai Zemin crafted a dagger using one of the teeth of one of the First Order Shadow Leopards.

He sharpened the bottom, hammered times to shape it, heated the tooth, hammered again, then added a thin metallic coating to the bottom, heated the tooth again, and then hammered again.

Although it sounded like a lot of work, with the experience of having already created a greatsword, the process of making a weapon as small as a dagger took only twenty minutes in total.

[Steel Tooth Dagger -

[One-handed weapon]

[Rank: 1]

[Attack Power: 350]

[Durability: 500/500]

[Description: A type of sharp dagger capable of being mass-produced due to its rapid creation]

Naturally it could not compare to the Blazing Scale Greatsword, which was natural considering that Bai Zemin had not bothered much to forge it. Even if they were both weapons of the same Rank, the difference was simply too great to compare.

After successfully forging a second Rank 1 item, Bai Zemin's Blacksmithing skill went up from level 3 to level 4, increasing his forging knowledge at the same time as his chances of forging a better item increased slightly.

Now that he had a sharp knife, Bai Zemin began to work on the leather.

While Lilith helped him to take his measurements and communicated them to him, he used the Steel Tooth Dagger to carefully cut into the black pelt of one of the First Order Shadow Leopards.

Although he was not a tailor, the creation of leather armor was part of blacksmithing itself. As long as he was careful when cutting the animal's pelt, everything would be fine; it was precisely because of this that he forged a sharp dagger.

"What a pity that the pelt of the Second Order Surprisingly Strong Archaic Bear was completely destroyed. If it was in better condition I could have produced an armor many times better." Bai Zemin lamented as he slowly applied the last few cuts on the animal's dark fur.

During his battle against the Second Order Archaic Bear, Bai Zemin was worried about his life so naturally he had no time to worry about the monster's fur. This led to the creature's fur being completely destroyed; which got even worse after it was bombarded by the M3s.

"You are probably the only First Order existence or one of the few who dares to think of a higher Order being as forging material." Lilith didn't know whether to laugh or cry when she heard that.

Bai Zemin sighed and continued working. It was only after more than thirty minutes that he finally finished this part of the process.

Before him were two large pieces of leather; one shaped like pants and the other shaped like a chestplate.

The next thing he did was to prepare two huge pots with water and let them boil moderately. When the water was at its peak, Bai Zemin removed both pots with Lilith's help and carefully submerged the two pieces of leather. But this was not all.

In addition to immersing the leather pieces in boiling water, Bai Zemin and Lilith casually threw in several pieces of black armor from the First Order Shining Scaled Rhinos that had been defeated in the forest.

Slowly but surely, the leather began to absorb the hot water and as a result, the black armor that were hot but not to the point of melting, began to adhere to the dark leather. But since Bai Zemin did not want the scales to stay on anywhere on the armor he had to work to move the scales and place them on the points he wanted to protect the most, mainly exposing the connections between each limb to avoid obstructions when moving.

After making sure that the metal plates were firm, Bai Zemin took advantage of the fact that the hot water had softened the leather to use a bite punch and slowly began to create the holes through which his body would later enter.

This whole process was extremely arduous and exhausting. A single mistake was all it took for the leather to be ruined and all the work to go to waste.

After three hours of continuous work and extreme concentration, Bai Zemin removed both pieces from the water that had now turned blackish and brought them close to the fire.

The crimson flames inside the furnace crackled around the Soul Stones, releasing great waves of heat throughout the room. The water in the leather dried at surprisingly fast speeds and little by little, that leather that once looked weak, ugly, and pliable, began to harden and the scales that were plaguing the entire leather began to release a surprising luster, giving the armor still in the process of forming a rather nice appearance.

The drying process did not need human interference, so Bai Zemin took full advantage of the time and began to prepare the materials to create Shangguan Bing Xue's sword, a bow for Chen He, a dagger for Cai Jingyi and another for Fu Xuefeng, gloves for Zhong De, he even needed gloves for himself...

Realizing the amount of work ahead of him, Bai Zemin could not help but smile bitterly.

"I'll really have to stay in here for several days..."

"You will see the fruits of your efforts when you leave this workshop. Believe me, you will be surprised yourself when you see the changes your work brings not only on yourself, but on all those who follow you." Lilith smiled sweetly. 

Her smile was as sweet as honey and as warm as the spring breeze after a cold and stormy night. Bai Zemin felt the weight on his shoulders lighten, and his mood greatly improved just by seeing her smiling. 

He began to work and separate the materials he would use next.

Bones from First Order Frost Control Lion, teeth from First Order Shadow Leopards, poisonous teeth from First Order Jiao-Lao Snakes, parts of the hardest bones from First Order Armored Elephants, and many more.

Bai Zemin was aware that he had a great deal of work to do. But he was not worried since he was not alone and had company. But even if he was alone, it was nothing to him anyway. After all, he was already used to loneliness after spending so much time away from home.

Of course, being used to being alone and loving that loneliness were two completely different things. Being alone for a while was good, but being alone for too long was not good for anyone; therefore, he really appreciated having someone by his side.

* * * * * * *

Thanks a lot to all those who use their Golden Tickets to vote for BW <3