What happened over at the Wizard Union wasn’t major, but it did make Abel give up the idea of exposing his human identity. It was just as Wizard Dolan said. The Moon Goddess did acknowledge his elven identity, so no one was going to doubt that. Also, no one was going to bother the most influential potion master on the entire central continent. That didn’t stop him from not going out anymore, though.

Abel’s stopped going out recently. He had been shutting himself inside the golden castle. The only thing he could improve on was himself, whether it was his combat ability or his potion-making skills. Right now, what Abel wanted to achieve the most was to reach the bottleneck stage of his alchemy. He didn’t know if he was too impatient, or if he didn’t possess enough potential. He was stuck in the same spot for three months. It was already April now, but he had not been anywhere yet.

Inside the dark world, Abel spent an entire day fighting inside the Fire River. Finally, he brought his exhausted body back into the Pandemonium Castle. He didn’t choose to train immediately. Rather, he went ahead to the Rogue’s Encampment to check on the priest’s bone card. He wasn’t in a rush, but he estimated that it would only take one or two days for the damage on the card to recover on its own.

Abel had been waiting for the card to recover for a while. He wanted to see if the legendary sacred knight would be resurrected to turned into his own contract creature. However, among the mana gathering circle, he could see that there was only a trace of the damage on the bone card. He had no choice, so he thought that he should just come back tomorrow.

Abel turned his head around to look at the Horadric Malus that was placed at the Blacksmith Store. The Horadric Malus was always placed here, and every day, he would use the Horadric Malus to punch holes on his equipment, which was built by none other than himself. That, or they were trophies he picked up from corpses of hell creatures.

Abel realized something when he picked up the Horadric Malus. Ever since he became an elf, he’s almost never thought about using his blacksmith skill to craft any weapons. He even forgot about his title as a grandmaster blacksmith. Watching the Horadric Malus in front of him, he even felt sorry for not having ever used it.

He laughed and talked to the hammer, “Come with me, you! Make a sword for me!”

Abel’s forgotten about all the exhaustion he’s felt for the day. He just wanted to forge a blade, something that he knew he was crafting on his own. He knew that he wasn’t going to make something as good as what he’s made himself, but here, he could feel that he was feeling more enthusiastic than ever before.

Abel didn’t use Chasi’s blacksmith shop. Instead, he went ahead to pick the hell furnace that he cleaned before. The offering altar there was originally the best place for doing this. Although it was already getting pretty dark, it was glowing red where the hell furnace was. The lava that was surrounding the furnace was as clear as day. Standing in front of the offering altar, he took out the fine steel that he forged a while ago. He placed it amidst the lava that was beside the altar. The flame quickly melted the metal. His power of Will grasped the glowing hot metal.

Abel held onto the Horadric Malus. He could feel something very real when he raised the hammer with his arm. It had been a while since he had made any weapons, but the sensation was the same as when he was dedicating most of his time to his blacksmith job. If he was to include the times he spent inside the dark world, it’d be about ten-something years since he’s started forging. When he slammed the Horadric Malus downward, he could feel that his soul was merged with the fine steel. The Horadric Malus was almost like his hand in the sense that it could mold the fine steel into whatever shape that he wished.

Abel forgot some of the quicker methods he learned, so he only used the basic techniques as when he first became a blacksmith. A sense of joy came out of him. He smiled. Instead of saying that he was forging a weapon, it was almost like he was playing for fun. It was the purest form of joy. He was not forging for the sake of forging. Not for fame or wealth, either. This was just his hobby. While he was forging, he could feel that his mind was entering into quite a strange state. Since his soul was already purified many, many times with his water spirit fruit juice and the rabbit essence dishes, his soul should be the most stabilized inside the entire world. That being said, he shouldn’t feel much of a difference when he was doing anything like this, but it was different today. Every time he struck onto the fine steel, he could feel a tremble on the fine steel. He could feel every bit of change that was occurring to it.

The fine steel was meld into a long sword, a knight’s long sword that was seldom used on the central continent. The long sword was just like the one he’s always forged when he was on the Holy Continent. Before he knew it, the lava that was floating nearby started projecting red lights towards the offering altar. Of course, he didn’t notice since he was too focused.

After 500 strikes, Abel could feel that his entire body becoming a lot more refreshed. The knight’s long sword that was secured by the power of the Will was also starting to emit a very strong golden light. Followed by the emitting of the golden light, the energy was sucked in by the sword, and the final form of the sword was appearing right in front of him.

This was a golden-quality knight’s long sword. It had his name on it. This was the very first golden-quality long sword he had ever crafted with his own hands.

Hell Plague

2 fire skill

77% increase damage

Increase 25-75 fire damage

Increase 28-56 poison damage, last for 6 seconds

5% mana steal when hitting

5% life steal when hitting

The weapon was nowhere close to the oak tree’s heart that he was holding, but this was something that he made himself. It had got a very fine attribute. If he was passing this to any fire element knight’s head commander, or a fire element wizard, he didn’t think that he would be turned down.

“Ha, ha ha!” He laughed as he could feel the sword still sending off heat as he was holding it. He felt very happy. It was the purest form of happiness there was. A blacksmith was the first thing that he’s ever done, and it was the basis of his career on the Holy Continent. After coming to the central continent, he realized that the grandmaster blacksmith wasn’t treated so well on the central continent. It kind of led him to neglect his training.

Now that he was getting back to it, he could feel that he was making progress very quickly. He also felt something very real, both physically and spiritually. As he laughed out loudly, he could feel a strange light that was produced from the alchemy rune inside his body. He didn’t feel afraid. If anything, he felt especially happy. The strange change that was taking place inside the rune meant that a breakthrough was close. A promotion qi was already rising out of him.

Abel noticed something, “No! I can’t promote myself in the dark world.”

Abel trusted his intuition when he said this. The promotion qi was already rising out to affect his main spirit, but his druid spirit still had some control over his power of the Will and activated a Town Teleportation Scroll. It was controlling his body to enter into the teleportation portal and back into the Pandemonium Fort. After that, the druid spirit controlled him to activate the waypoint and teleported him back to the Rogue’s Encampment. He opened the teleportation portal again and went back to the training room inside his golden castle on the central continent.

It was still dawn. The half-even servants were busy. The two chefs were preparing breakfast. Butler Meyer was just treating the first batch of guests that were inside the dining room. It should just be another regular morning, but a strong promotion qi was rising out the main building of the golden castle. The ten guests that were inside the golden castle were amazed by it.

Today, Druid Conrad was just bringing his student here. They were just enjoying themselves as they looked at the fresh morning light, and now they were waiting inside the dining room for their food. They waited for 40 days to be here, all so that there was a higher chase for his disciple to receive promotion.

Another law-defying wizard asked, “What is this promotion qi? Why is it so strong?”

The other law-defying wizard asked, “It’s over at Master Bennett’s residence! Did his dragon druid rank just increase?”

Druid Conrad gave a certain reply, “No! This did not come from the druid!”

It would be impossible to recognize that incorrectly.

One law-defying wizard was uncertain, “Could it be someone else other than Master Bennett?”

During this time, all the circles inside the golden castle were emitting light. It wasn’t that the circles were activated. The core of the circle was the work of the alchemist, and the works were only created to respond to this promotion qi. As though awaiting for themselves to be called, the alchemy items were responding very strongly to this promotion qi.

Druid Conrad stared blankly towards the magic ring on his finger. The magic ring was the only defensive item he had on him. He wasn’t the type to participate in a lot of fights, so he didn’t care too much for it. Still, the ring on his hand was already starting to shine. The ring was already connected with the power of the Will, but in front of him, he couldn’t feel anything strange with the magic ring. The light that was emitted from the ring, however, seemed to be telling him that something strange was happening. It was the same for the other law-defying wizards.

One law-defying wizard screamed, “What happened here? Why are the alchemy items coming alive?”

All the ground, walls, and roofs were starting to shine. There were no telling how many circles that golden castle set up and how many precious ingredients were used. Everything was meant to be made with alchemy ingredients. On most days, no one would recognize the spell circles that were hidden. Now, everyone was starting to see just how terrifying the golden castle was to have so many reactivated rare ingredients used to build it.

Druid Conrad thought of a possibility, “Was Master Bennett going to be promoted into a grandmaster? Bless the Goddess!”

No one here was too weak to not recognize how different this promotion qi was to promotion qi of any regular combat class. This was a valid guess. However, there hadn’t been any potion grandmasters ever before in history, so no one was really there to validate any of their thoughts.

If anything, whatever’s in front of them was already very clear. Within the area that could be sensed, all the alchemy items were responding very strongly towards this promotion qi. They were all shining and waiting for someone to arrive.

Abel had no idea what was happening outside. He could feel the alchemist rune inside of him shattered and transformed into pure alchemy energy. He needed to recreate the grandmaster’s rune with this energy. It shouldn’t be an easy job, but anything’s easy with his world stone fragment.

Something different happened, though. No matter how much he tried, he just couldn’t activate the alchemy energy. When he tried many times more, he could feel that small light sparks were shining around him. The light spots were flashing to affect the alchemy energy inside of him. As a matter of fact, it was always very dangerous for alchemists to make progress whenever they were inside the advanced rank.

Throughout the whole central continent, there hadn’t been many master alchemists at all. The reason had definitely to do with the risk of it. Ever since a major war that ruined everything in ancient times, no one could really try to go from being a master alchemist to the rank of a grandmaster alchemist. As for the exact reason, that was already lost in history.

Abel was really lucky to come all the way here. That, or he was cursed in a very special way.