TL : GoldenLung
Everyone’s gaze followed that silver light and looked up. The silver light soared into the sky and in the blink of an eye, it had already reached a height of three meters. It looked solid and a low dragon roar resounded. That mithril itself was emitting a dazzling luster and there were faint dragon patterns on its surface as though there was a giant dragon hidden inside.
“Fusing your bloodline power into the forging process and infusing your spiritual perception into every strike. What a great Thousand Refinement Soul Forging and first-grade Thousand Refinements,” the youth in the red uniform praised.
Lan Xuanyu wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Thank you for your praise, president.”
The president smiled. “You’re truly worthy of being a fourth-rank blacksmith. Also, your success rate is amazing. You completed all five pieces of metal forging and two of them were first-grade thousand refined. When I was at the fourth rank, my success rate wasn’t as high as yours. I agree to the loan and the association will approve it for you as soon as possible. But junior, can I ask what you want to do by borrowing so much?”
Lan Xuanyu laughed. “I want to earn more emblems. Senior, I am from the Interstellar Commanding department. In the future, I not only want to have my own mecha, but I also want my own soul fighter, or even a warship. I want to earn money and start from a young age.”
The president laughed. “Good, you have ambition. With your forging skills, as long as you can continue to grow at this speed, I wouldn’t be surprised even if you own a warship that belongs to you in the future. In the future, if you have anything you don’t understand about forging, you can call me. I’ll leave my number to you.”
“Thank you, president.”
The two exchanged contact numbers and the president said, “Can you sell me your two pieces of first-grade thousand refined mithril you completed today? I heard from Yingming that the attributes of your Thousand Refined metal you completed are extremely stable and can greatly increase the success rate of Spirit Refinement. I’ll bring it back and give it a try.”
“Then I’ll give them to you.” Lan Xuanyu was very generous, especially after getting some benefits from the president. He didn’t lack rare metals anymore.
“That won’t do, the academy has its rules. Furthermore, I am your senior. I’ll buy them according to the market price, with a rise of 30%. I will get Yingming to give you the money later. Alright, that will be all for now.”
The president didn’t stay any longer and left with the two vice presidents.
Yang Yingming looked at Lan Xuanyu as though he was looking at a monster. “I’ve been learning forging since I was young and it has been almost 10 years since then. Even my teacher said that I was gifted for being able to achieve Spirit Refinement in just 10 years and enter the ranks of fifth-rank blacksmiths. But you’ve only been here for less than a year and you’re almost catching up to me! Why is this world so unfair?”
Lan Xuanyu ignored his lament. “Senior, when can I get my loan? Time waits for no man. Our match will begin tomorrow.”
Yang Yingming furrowed his brows. “Junior, I have to remind you about this. Your gambling instincts are too strong. With such a huge amount of emblems, if you lose…”
Lan Xuanyu smiled. “Senior, don’t worry. I will consider the worst consequences before doing anything. If I can bear it, I will try. Otherwise, I definitely won’t. I only do this because I am confident. Look at the odds, our odds are lower than the second years. We only have 1: 0.5, and the second graders have 1: 0.9.”
Lan Xuanyu was actually quite helpless with regards to the odds. The reason for the odds was very simple, it was because they had defeated the third years last time!
Hence, although it was a year-skipping challenge, in a 2v1 situation, those who were optimistic about them far surpassed those who were optimistic about the second years.
Lan Xuanyu was helpless about this, but the truth was right in front of him. He had no other choice!
Right now, they only hoped that when they would challenge the higher years, the odds would increase and they would earn more.
For the past few months of the new term, he had been working hard on cultivating. His forging was mainly for refining metals and he had also tried forging with rare metals. He had achieved a certain amount of results and after accumulating experience, he was finally able to achieve a certain success rate of first-grade Thousand Refinements. His success rate was about 20%. The 40% success rate today was probably due to the stimulation of the president being here. He was quite lucky.
Although his success rate of first-grade Thousand Refinements wasn’t high, his success rate of Thousand Refinements was very high. It was close to 100%. This meant that the value of his rare metals would definitely increase greatly.
For the past few months, because he didn’t have much income, he only had expenses and had to support his teammates. Lan Xuanyu didn’t spend much of his own emblems neither.
The match was about to begin and Shrek’s Gambling Center was open in the academy, so how could he miss out on such an opportunity? After careful consideration, Lan Xuanyu decided to borrow from the Blacksmith’s Association. He used a ton of Thousand Refined rare metals as collateral and over 10% of them were first-grade Thousand Refined.
And the amount he wanted to borrow was also very large—50 purple emblems.
One must know that he was only in his first year ! It was also because of this that the president came personally to witness his Thousand Refinements efficiency and his stock of rare metals to ensure that he had the ability to repay.
Of course, Lan Xuanyu wouldn’t be as straightforward as before, but with these 50 purple emblems, he could do many things. If he performed well, he would definitely earn a huge sum.
He had actually thought it through very clearly. These 50 purple emblems were only used for the first round of the competition that he had the most confidence in. Although it was only 1: 0.5, if he won, he would gain 25 purple emblems. After that, he would get back his capital and use his earnings from the first round to participate in the rest.
This way, he would definitely earn and not lose. Even if he lost, it would be just zero gains.
He didn’t tell his teammates about this as he was under the pressure of all the loans. If he could earn money in the end, he would give some to his teammates. If he couldn’t earn money, then forget it.
“Junior, are you guys really confident in the first round?” Yang Yingming asked.
Lan Xuanyu said, “In the first round, I will bet all the emblems that I got from the loan this time. What do you think? I suggest that you place your bet before I bet. Otherwise, after I bet, the odds will probably fall.”
“Alright, then I’ll make a small profit off you,” Yang Yingming said with a grin. “Also, junior brother, forget about first-grade Thousand Refining. I’ll reserve 10 pieces of your Thousand Refined metals first. Speaking of which, when your works will be listed in the market in the future, the price will definitely increase. As your senior brother, I won’t cheat you, I’ll give you a number. After these few months of experimenting, your Thousand Refined metals have increased my success rate by Spirit Refining to 30%. Do you know what this means?”
Lan Xuanyu was stunned. “What does that mean?”
“This means that your Thousand Refinements should be twice as expensive as the other Thousand Refined metals on the market. If a Spirit Refinement fails, the metal will be crippled and that’s why increasing a success rate by 30% is quite impressive. I’ve analyzed this matter with the president and he said that your bloodline should be affecting the metal’s internal activity, causing the metal to be more intelligent and less active, making it more stable. Hence, Spirit Refinement becomes easier and it isn’t easy to fail.”
Lan Xuanyu’s eyes lit up. “In that case, there is indeed more space for earning. Thank you, senior. How about this, if you need some for yourself in the future, you can buy metals from me and I will give you a 20% discount. Thank you for your help and support.”
Yang Yingming’s eyes lit up. 20% off, that would save a lot of money! It wasn’t much more expensive than the Thousand Refined metals in the market. More importantly, it was very useful! His success rate would be high!
“Then I won’t stand in ceremony with you. I’ll take advantage of this.”
“Of course, you’re the one who introduced me to forging. Senior, I’ll take my leave first. I’ll look for you later to get the loan so you can place your bet first. I’ll go back and formulate a strategy with my classmates.” Lan Xuanyu smiled.