134 Silver Lake

After seeing the system notification, a faint smile appeared on Shi Feng’s face.

He finally received the promotion to Intermediate Forging Apprentice after making over 400 Advanced Whetstones. However, to obtain the promotion to Advanced Forging Apprentice, he needed 3,000 Proficiency Points. He could not achieve such an amount in a short period.

Shi Feng looked at his experience bar. It was currently at 94% of Level 9, only 6% away from the Level 10 threshold. As long as he strived a little further, he would break through that threshold.

In God’s Domain, there was a huge boost in Attributes every ten levels.

When players obtained their first ten levels, it was an indication that they could enter a city. In a city, players could enjoy various benefits. Not only could they purchase resources not sold in towns, but they could also obtain plenty of high-leveled quests. Players could even purchase Bronze Equipment at a low price, though that depended on the player’s luck. It would also be much easier for players to make money once they reached a city. Furthermore, players could use the Teleportation Gates available in the city to transfer to high-level monster areas; they would not need to waste a huge amount of time on travel, quickly arriving at Level 10 or higher monster areas.

Moreover, the game of God’s Domain only truly began after entering a city.

When that time came, the players from tens or hundreds of towns would gather in a city. A single city would have, at the very least, over 100,000 players. Moreover, White River City was one of the five largest cities located in Star-Moon Kingdom. The number of players that would gather there would exceed a million. At that time, the various Guilds could centralize their influence completely, displaying the true strength of a Guild. This would also increase the competition between Guilds. It would be a lot less peaceful when the various Guilds competed over the limited resources available.

This was the case with all virtual reality games. The resources available were limited, and the best resources and leveling spots would only number so many within a city’s region. However, with the huge amount of players, if one wanted to level up and upgrade themselves quickly, they needed to compete over said resources. As a result, those without strength would be eliminated and left behind.

Not to mention an independent player, even a small Guild would have absolutely no chance of surviving inside a city. The large Guilds would all monopolize the various high-level resources and valuable leveling areas, while the small Guilds and independent players could only hole themselves up in locations with inferior resources.

Hence, if one could set foot in the city even a moment earlier, the competition they would face would greatly lessen.

However, that did not necessarily mean that one would be safe just by entering the city ahead of others. Instead, the more advantages a person possessed before entering the city, the better off one would become afterward.

Take Blackwing City for example. If an average player were to enter the city, they would only be there to gain some knowledge and experience, a purely time-wasting endeavor. However, if it were one of the upper echelons of a large Guild, things would be quite different. Aside from being able to form a relationship of mutual exchange with Guilds from other countries, they could purchase items unique to Blackwing City in bulk. Such benefits would lead to huge improvements of a Guild.

Right now, Shi Feng’s level was ranked number one in White River City, and the others would need at least two or three days before they could catch up. During this time, Shi Feng wanted to increase the gap further. Only then could he carve out a place for the Zero Wing Guild he wanted to establish in White River City.

_So this is Runic Steel? As expected, this is a treasure._ Shi Feng took out a piece of blue steel, filled with magic, from his bag, joy filling his entire being.

In Shi Feng’s previous life, many Forgers competed madly for just a piece of Runic Steel. Even if they managed to buy one, they would treat it like their baby; they would not use it lightly.

Meanwhile, Shi Feng possessed ten pieces of Runic Steel right now.

[Runic Steel] (Fine-Gold Rank Consumable)

When used to forge Level 50 Fine-Gold Equipment or below, increases success rate by 10%. There is a fixed chance to increase the forged equipment’s rank by one, up to a maximum of Fine-Gold Rank.

No matter how one looked at it, Runic Steel was significantly better than the Hundred Refinement Steel. Moreover, it could even increase an equipment’s rank.

“Hahaha! With this Runic Steel, my success rate for forging the Silver Dawn will be even greater now!”

Shi Feng had purchased all the materials required to forge the Silver Down at the Auction House. In addition to the materials he had purchased before, he could forge a total of 16 Silver Downs. Just the cost alone for a single Silver Dawn was over 37 Silver Coins. Even an elite party needed to raid a Hard Mode Party Dungeon half a dozen times before collecting such an amount.

Hence, Shi Feng only chose to forge the Silver Dawn after he was promoted to Intermediate Forging Apprentice.

Shi Feng took out the Forging Design for the Silver Dawn, clicking to learn it. He began the process of forging his first Silver Dawn.

Previously, before he had obtained the Ice-Blue Devil Flame, his success rate for forging the Silver Dawn was only 32%. After the addition of the Ice-Blue Devil Flame, the success rate increased to 42%. If Shi Feng used the Runic Steel, he could further increase it to 52%. A mere Intermediate Forging Apprentice’s chance of successfully forging a Secret-Silver Weapon was just over 50%.Even a Master Forger would be flabbergasted at this success rate.

The reason was that a Basic Master Forger only possessed a 30% success rate when forging a Secret-Silver Equipment, and only a Grandmaster Forger had a 50% success rate.

Shi Feng carefully read through the process of making the Silver Dawn before refining the materials.

Shi Feng first used the Philosopher’s Stone to obtain a high-purity refinement of the materials. He then placed the materials into the Ice-Blue Devil Flame, waiting for them to merge. Shi Feng possessed 100% control over the Ice-Blue Devil Flame; so he could merge the materials together to an exceptional degree.

However, Shi Feng chose not to include the incomparably precious Runic Steel in the forging process this time.

The first attempt was only for Shi Feng to familiarize himself with the forging process of the Silver Dawn. Moreover, he only possessed ten pieces of Runic Steel, and each one of them was worth at least 1 Gold Coin. The Runic Steel was extremely hard to obtain, and using it now would just be a waste. If other Forgers knew that Shi Feng intended to use the Runic Steel to forge the Silver Dawn, they would curse at Shi Feng in anger.

The Silver Dawn was only a Level 10 Secret-Silver Weapon, yet, Shi Feng actually thought of using the Runic Steel to forge it. Such an action was simply maddening.

Ten minutes later, the refinement process was complete. Shi Feng looked at the product of his refinement with satisfaction. He then placed the piece of metal on the anvil, using the Runic Hammer to pound at it.

Sparks flew about as the sounds of the hammer striking the metal resounded throughout the Forging Room.

Shi Feng was extremely careful with every strike, afraid that a single misstep would affect the final shape of the Silver Dawn.

After striking at the metal hundreds of times, sweat drenched Shi Feng. Satisfied, he clicked the Generate button.

Following which, the red-hot metal began to take shape, transforming into a silver-colored longsword.

He investigated the weapon’s information.

After a full 5 seconds…

System: Forging of the Silver Dawn has failed.

Shi Feng looked at the weapon’s Attributes, discovering that it was only a Level 10 Mysterious-Iron Weapon. Indeed, the forging failed. However, Shi Feng was not overly disappointed at the results. Although the success rate stated was 42% on the surface, due to it being Shi Feng’s first time forging the Silver Dawn, the actual success rate was much lower. Success was impossible, no matter how one looked at it. If he succeeded, it would be a true miracle.

With a failure in hand, Shi Feng summarized his experience into a lesson for himself.

The reason Shi Feng could lead a third-rate Guild like Shadow to become one of the top second-rate Guilds was not due to any inborn talent of his. Instead, it was because Shi Feng always summarized and learned from his experiences.

If others gained experiences from success, Shi Feng gained experiences from failure.

After reviewing for over ten minutes, Shi Feng started forging a second time.

However, after twenty minutes or so, it was another failure. The weapon he forged was still Mysterious-Iron ranked, though with a slight improvement; the Attributes of the weapon were slightly better.

Shi Feng continued forging, and failing, for a total of six tries, taking a loss of over 2 Gold Coins.

Feeling that he was mostly familiar with the forging procedures, Shi Feng started his seventh attempt of forging the Silver Dawn. He even used a Runic Steel this time.

Soon after, Shi Feng refined, hammered, and shaped the lump of metal.

Clicking Generate...

Suddenly, an exquisite-looking light blue-colored longsword formed. There were even mysterious runes carved on the blade of the sword, the runes possessing faint traces of magic circulating within. With a glance, one could immediately tell that it was no ordinary weapon.

Shi Feng immediately grew excited. He knew that he lucked out this time, and it was not as simple as a mere success.

_I wonder what the Attributes are?_ Shi Feng clicked to check the weapon’s Attributes.

He had to wait a total of ten seconds before the system could give him a conclusion.

System: Runic Steel’s effect triggered; rank increased by 1.

System: Blacksteel Insignia effect triggered; Attributes increased.

System: Silver Lake has been successfully forged. Forgery Proficiency increased by 3 points. Obtained 10,000 EXP.