Lord of Prayer

Following his hints, later Players charged the Royal City after leveling up, but the power gap was still too great. They were either wiped out by the Gatekeeper Knights or picked off one by one by the outer city’s generals. No one could even enter the true Royal City, let alone venture into its depths…

Even with the ability to constantly respawn, they still got stuck where they were meant to get stuck.

A few years ago, one generation of Players did manage to fight their way beneath the Royal City. However, they didn’t find the Abyssal Incarnation there. The underground was empty, save for a massive, terrifying cavern and the dense, lingering traces of a sinister aura.

This indirectly confirmed the Sun King’s theory: there had indeed been something under the Royal City, but it had long since fled, its whereabouts unknown.

Now, the exploration of Zone 009 has reached a stalemate.

A century passes in-game between each server launch, a period long enough for heaven and earth to be overturned. Information from the previous exploration is rendered completely useless, forcing Players to gather intelligence from scratch every time.

But gathering critical intelligence requires strength, and few could ever again reach the heights of the Sun King. Lacking many crucial clues, clearing the game became even more difficult for the Players.

As a result, many Players now treat Zone 009 as a leveling instance. After all, the stat boosts gained inside are real and permanent, many Artifacts can be brought out, and there’s no fear of death. Where else in the world could you find such a perfect place?

As for clearing the game… you couldn’t say everyone had forgotten about it, but most people never even gave it a thought.

“Wait, that’s not right. Hermes can enter and exit the Restricted Area freely. As a Crowned King, can’t he help unseal Zone 009?” Zhou Chen suddenly had this thought.

“That, I don’t know.” Jiang Che shook his head. “Perhaps there’s some hidden reason why he can’t intervene.”

Hermes’s character is respectable. Though he’s the world’s most famous pot-stirrer, meddling in every affair and annoying everyone to no end, it’s undeniable that he possesses a noble Soul.

If he could truly save the suffering masses in Zone 009, he would undoubtedly act without hesitation. Since he hasn’t, there must be another hidden reason.

Jiang Che took a sip of his coffee and said calmly, “My advice is to not get fixated on clearing the game. Zone 009 is only open for a limited time. It’s best to focus on increasing your strength and collecting Artifacts.

Also, the natives inside are incredibly powerful. Don’t provoke anyone you don’t have to. Players can respawn, but the natives’ hatred won’t disappear. Once they become hostile to you, exploration becomes exceptionally difficult.

In the past, there was no shortage of people who treated it as just a game, committing all sorts of atrocities like rape and plunder. They were basically corpse-camped by the natives until the game ended.”

“Don’t worry, I’m the type of person who reloads a save if I pick an option that makes an NPC sad. Besides, the game doesn’t start for another six months. No rush.” Zhou Chen rubbed Xiao Ju’s head and stood up. “I’m going to head back and rest. I’m a little tired after the Advancement.”

“I’ll give you half a month off. Just remember to come back to work after,” Jiang Che said.

「Back at the dorm.」

Zhou Chen entered Meditation for two hours to recover his energy, replenishing the Essence he had used up during the test as well.

Afterward, he left and headed straight for the Alchemy Department.

“I’d like an Alchemy Room, for four hours to start.”

“Card or QR code?”

“QR code.”

Zhou Chen paid the room fee without hesitation. He was loaded now and wasn’t short on cash at all.

With the subsidies from several missions, plus the money Old Yang had paid back, he now had a whopping thirty million in his account—a fortune an ordinary person couldn’t spend in a lifetime.

However, for an Ascender and Alchemist who had also just changed his profession to Blacksmith, that amount of money probably wouldn’t last long.

Alchemy Materials were just too expensive.

Zhou Chen had come to the Alchemy Department this time to test the abilities of the Hammer of Forging.

Alchemy and Forging had many similarities, so he could use his identity as an Alchemist to hide the existence of the Hammer of Forging.

「Inside the Alchemy Room.」

Zhou Chen glanced at the camera in the room. The damn thing was standard equipment in every Alchemy Room—it couldn’t be turned off or covered. If the video feed cut out, someone would come to check. After all, who the hell knew what bizarre things Alchemists would create on a whim? It would be no fun if one of them cooked up a big bomb and sent everyone to kingdom come, or maybe a bioweapon, toxic gas, or something of that nature…

‘If it’s just simple Forging, I don’t need to manifest the Hammer of Forging…’ Zhou Chen swiped left and right on the material selection screen, quickly choosing a piece of Alchemy Metal worth thirty thousand. He tapped confirm and paid with a QR code scan.

Three seconds later, with a CLANG, the selected silver metal dropped out of a nearby chute.

‘First, I’ll try making a sword.’

The process of creating a Weapon with the Hammer of Forging could be controlled to resemble the process of deconstruction and reconstruction in Alchemy. That way, it wouldn’t arouse any suspicion.

Zhou Chen placed the metal block on the table. With a spread of his palm, the hard metal block instantly broke down into fine metallic shards.

This wasn’t the Ability of the Transformation Array, but the “Decomposition” that came from the Hammer of Forging.

With a flick of his palm, a pale cyan flame flared up, enveloping the metal shards as Power seeped into them.

Then, he clenched his fist. The “Remolding” Ability from the Hammer of Forging activated. The metal converged, expanding inch by inch, and was forged into a sharp longsword that glinted with a cold light. A pale cyan flame could be seen faintly surging along its edge.

Enchantment successful.

This was a sharp blade enchanted with the Cyan Flame effect. Every strike would inflict a spiritual burn on the enemy. Even an ordinary person without Essence could wield it, which meant it already qualified as an Extraordinary Weapon.

‘That went a bit… too smoothly.’

Zhou Chen picked up the longsword, examining it from all angles. He then grabbed an iron hammer from a nearby workbench and struck the blade.

DANG!

A crisp, metallic clang echoed through the Alchemy Room. The blade hummed without any sign of shattering. Instead, a white mark appeared on the hammer, which had been dented by a few millimeters—and this was a specially made alchemy hammer with astonishing hardness.

‘The hardness and sharpness are both decent. For a common Tier One Ascender, this would be a pretty good Weapon…’

Zhou Chen found it hard to believe. Had he really just created an Extraordinary Weapon of considerable quality so easily?

If he worked overtime, mass-produced them nonstop, and opened an online store to sell them, wouldn’t he quickly earn his first million? And then another million, and another… Wouldn’t he become a mega-billionaire in no time?

‘The Hammer of Forging is a creation of Authority, after all. Even though it’s damaged, it’s still the supreme authority in the Casting Realm. Just tapping a Weapon with it could probably cause a qualitative transformation, let alone using its abilities to forge one personally…’

Zhou Chen quickly figured out the reason. He deconstructed the longsword again, transforming it into a Long Saber, then a spear. With another wave of his hand, the metal split, turning into seven daggers.

‘Hmm… The quality of the daggers is comparable to the longsword’s, and they have the same Enchantment effect. In that case, I could use the same piece of metal to make daggers, which use the least material, or even Iron Arrows. That way, I can make a bigger profit…’

‘Hiss… If I really set up shop, I’d make an absolute killing…’

The problem was, weapons made this way seemed to lack a Soul. This Forging method had no Soul, either. And the Hammer of Forging showed no signs of repairing itself at all.

Perhaps the true Soul of a Caster lies in hammering iron in a blazing forge?

‘I remember there are Alchemists who specialize in teaching how to make Alchemy Weapons, and their process involves hammering iron. I could go learn that… But if I suddenly start learning something like this, Jiang Che might get suspicious…’

Zhou Chen stroked his chin, pondering. ‘But I have half a month off. There shouldn’t be any problem if I go into seclusion to study Alchemy, right?’