Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Heh, hehehehe…” Nordilus laughed oddly. His mustache trembled with his voice. However, he seemed rather wary of Lin Jie’s Wind Rider Blade Aura Executioner, and he added on quickly, “I am just an insignificant Engineer. Sure, I can create Mechanical Lifeforms, but if you want me to forge a gun, and a Superior-grade one at that, it will be rather difficult…”

Lin Jie retorted, “Well, you can create even Mechanical Lifeforms, why can’t you create just a gun too?”

“Well, you yourself can create intelligent offspring like ‘human’, why can’t you just lay an egg too?”

“…” Lin Jie was dumbfounded. ‘Oh well, this NPC’s not bad at retorting back at people!’

“However, if you are willing to teach me the Wind Rider Blade Aura Executioner, I will be glad to explain some theories to you,” Nordilus changed topics suddenly, and commented, “I believe my experience will be great for you.”

Ding~

—’Do you accept the mission Teaching of Skills?’

Lin Jie’s pupils constricted. It was rare for NPCs to request to learn skills from players. In Lin Jie’s previous life, he had only encountered this situation once for the whole of the seven years of playing the game. It was during the time when he had been fighting against the Dark Shrine, and he had encountered a Dark Shrine captive who had claimed to be a Guild of Light member. He had requested to learn Lin Jie’s skill so that he could save himself—but once Lin Jie had accepted the mission, his skill had disappeared from his Skill column completely! That Warrior then revealed his status as a Dark Shrine follower. Even though Lin Jie eventually had killed him and gotten back the skill, his Proficiency levels could not be regained.

This familiar tactic… It seemed like only those from the Dark Shrine would use such underhand means?

Lin Jie pondered for a while, and an idea came to his mind. He smiled and said, “Okay, this transaction is beneficial for us. I will accept it. However, I want to see whether you are up to it or not first.”

“Of course,” said Nordilus smilingly. His wrinkled face was screwed up due to this smile.

At this moment, Zheng Ziliang came back, bringing large amounts of materials for making the Mechanical Gargoyle. All of those materials were the leftover bits of other old Mechanical Gargoyles, and they were now piled up into a small mountain.

“Young lad, look, and listen carefully. Our transaction will be considered completed once you learned from me.” Nordilus looked at Lin Jie and stretched out his right arm. The flesh on his right arm faded away, changed to metallic bones, and he raised the Azure Heart high up into the air. “Both Engineering and Forging go hand in hand, and both work by extracting the energies from other materials and then merging them together to form new items. The difficulty in creating Mechanical Lifeforms is that it is very complicated to merge the different required materials together, and in fact, the internal structure of a Mechanical Lifeform is even on par or more complex than that of a human body…”

Lin Jie nudged both Qiu Yuan and Zheng Ziliang, commenting, “Take out your pen and paper and record every single word he said. Record his exact words!”

Qiu Yuan and Zheng Ziliang nodded. They quickly took out paper and quill pens from their backpacks, and immediately started taking down notes faithfully. Lin Jie did the same thing. As he observed Nordilus’ actions carefully, he also recorded down every word of his lecture, and a series of neat, cursive handwriting appeared on the white paper. It was unbelievable that Mr. Lin Jie here could have such good handwriting… cough, cough, okay, actually this was the beautified version of his handwriting by the system. It was much faster than typing—as long as one had a change of thoughts, his character in the game would be able to record down his thoughts in words.

It’s extremely rare to see NPCs giving lectures. For Battling jobs, it was more efficient for them to learn through practice and understanding the fighting tactics by themselves. For instance, Lin Jie wouldn’t be able to gain any proficiency for his skills if his Berserker mentor decided to lecture him for the whole day. However, if he bashed Lin Jie up, the latter would naturally gain more proficiency if he reflected upon the fight later.

Yet the case was different for Living jobs. Living jobs placed a lot of emphasis on theories, and each school of thought had their unique ideologies and tactics. Take for example both the Dwarvish and Goblin Engineering that Zheng Ziliang was learning: the previous was more focused on producing Engineering products of high attack power such as fire weapons, grenades, explosives, while the latter emphasized more on creating transport tools and gargoyles, etc.

Zheng Ziliang’s proficiency in Engineering heightened with Nordilus’ lecture. Originally it would only grow by a mere three or five points after he created tens of explosives, but now he was absolutely delighted to see the speed at which his proficiency grew!

“The basic method of creating a Mechanical Gargoyle is to molten all the materials and then create a body. After which, we can then use the strong powers of the Azure Heart to give it life. However, this method is super clumsy. Other than wasting large amounts of energy from the Azure Heart to provide it with life, one still needs to use multiple layers of thick skin to wrap around its body to prevent the large amounts of energy from exploding out. This is such a waste of precious materials!” Nordilus heaved a sigh. With a wave of his sleeves, a gem which was totally opposite of the Azure Heart rose up into the air!

Inspect!

Scorching Titan’s Heart (Scorching Heart): Can be used in Engineering, core item. When the object is used to create an Engineering product, the fire resistance of the finished product is increased by 40%. Other than that, it has additional attributes of Fiery Breath and Flame Diversion. It also has an additional skill: Fire Armor, which allows it to add 70% fire attack power to the finished Engineering product.

Lin Jie gaped. ‘Good chap! This NPC is really willing to give up so much just to learn the Wind Rider Blade Aura Executioner? Although this Scorching Heart is not as strong as the 100% pure Azure Heart, it is still an extraordinary item!’

“During desperate times, human beings would sometimes exhibit amazing godlike strength. This logic works the same for Mechanical Lifeforms!” Nordilus put the Azure Heart on top of the Scorching Heart and then placed them where the heart should be positioned within the body of the created Mechanical Gargoyle. He then dismantled all the leftover bits of the other old Mechanical Gargoyles and mixed them together with Water Alloys so that it became something like a pile of metallic slag. In the sky, a soft, gentle light appeared and gradually changed the shape of the metallic slag, forming it into the four limbs, wings and torso of a new Mechanical Gargoyle…

This was the power of the Goddess of Elements.

No matter how powerful an Engineer was, they would not be able to change the shape of an item without destroying some of its properties. As such, one would need to rely on the powers of the Goddess of Elements to help them achieve this motive. Using her Mana, the Goddess of Elements could help to change the shape of any item without destroying its properties. After all, Mechanical Lifeforms were extremely complex objects—even the tiniest glitch could cause it to be unable to move around effectively, and hence, greatly reduce its attributes!

Unfortunately, Engineers wouldn’t be able to win the favor of the Goddess of Elements before they got to the advanced levels. This was also the reason why other ordinary Engineers could not create Mechanical Lifeforms.

With a metallic build, angular wings and sharp claws, coupled with glistening eyes made up of Water Alloys, the Mechanical Gargoyle was finally in shape! However, the most important part of its formation was still missing—life! It needed someone to give it life!

The moment the gargoyle took shape, Nordilus sent a minuscule amount of the Law of Life into the Mechanical Gargoyle. Lin Jie felt this almost undecipherable magic, and was puzzled—he daresay that such little power would be unable to hatch even the tiniest chick, so how could it put life to the massive Mechanical Gargoyle?!

At this moment, a miracle happened!

The Azure Heart felt the powers from the Scorching Heart, which was beneath it. The long-time hatred between the water-based Azure Heart and the fire-based Scorching Heart was evoked—the Azure Heart started attacking the Scorching Heart! Although the Scorching Heart countered this attack gallantly, the Azure Heart was still about one-third stronger than it, and hence, it seemed like the Azure Heart would soon overpower it and achieve the final win… At this moment, the Scorching Heart felt the energy from the Law of Life. It absorbed a wisp of energy from it desperately, and with the great Powers of Life backing it up, the Scorching Heart made a comeback and balanced out the situation with the Azure Heart!

The Scorching Heart which tasted success absorbed more energy from the Law of Life yet again, and even with the Azure Heart suppressing it, it managed to push the Azure Heart to almost outside of the new Mechanical Gargoyle’s heart! The Azure Heart which felt threatened immediately strengthened its attack. The fight between the two made it difficult for either of them to absorb the little amount of energy provided by the Law of Life, and at any time only about one percent of the Law of Life would be absorbed!

Both the Azure Heart and Scorching Heart were like thirsty travelers in a desert who were fighting crazily just for a precious bowl of fresh water. Both of them would feel greatly strengthened with just a tiny drop of that energy!

“Oh, so that’s it!” exclaimed Lin Jie fervently. He finally understood now—this was about leveraging on the competition between two great powers! Only with competition, would the equipment or product created exhibit the most of its attributes! He took a look at Broken Blade and mused about how this theory could be applied to Broken Blade.

With the complete absorption of the Law of Life, the fight between the Azure Heart and the Scorching Heart was finally over. Both Titan’s Hearts had absorbed their fill of the energy provided and hence was glowing brightly. With a final collision, both of them created a loud noise.

Thump-thump-!

There were heartbeat sounds coming from inside the Mechanical Gargoyle!

From this moment onwards, it was finally given life! It spread out its wings and flew around ecstatically. The Mechanical Gargoyle’s claws ripped through the air, and sounds of wind hollowing by were heard—it was so energetic!

Normally, any Mechanical Lifeforms would require at least one day to get used to their body after their creation. Yet this Mechanical Gargoyle in front of them did not seem to need it!

Following this, they would need to proceed to the most important step within the Mechanical Gargoyle’s formation process—the carving of Runes! Unlike the real world, in The New Age, there was a power which was like a “perpetual motion machine,” which could ensure the continuous living of Mechanical Lifeforms—and that was Runes! The Mechanical Gargoyle’s legs should be carved with Agility Runes to ensure its agility and speed; its claws should be carved with Strength Runes so as to increase its physical attack abilities; its wings should be carved with Magical Elements Runes so that it could fly and release Mana attacks… The carving of Runes was an intricate and complicated job, but to Engineers, Runes were the most alluring patterns on Earth, and may even be more attractive than the bodies of pretty ladies.

With that, Lin Jie also finished recording, and he kept away all the pieces of papers which were fully written. Even though he did not learn Engineering or Forging, and technically speaking these papers were of no use to him, this didn’t mean they wouldn’t be of use to other people—for example, a certain honest guy named as Master Blue. With this Experience Handbook, Master Blue would be even more willing to obey his orders!

“It’s so strong…” Zheng Ziliang mumbled as he looked longingly at the Gargoyle. He could feel it—this Mechanical Gargoyle was so much stronger than the Mechanical Lifeform his mentor owned!

Lin Jie smiled—as long as the Runes were being carved, their main aim for this trip would be accomplished! As for the Silent Killer… Originally Lin Jie had wanted to seek Nordilus’ help to forge this, but now with this Experience Handbook, it would be great if he could employ Blue’s help instead. If Blue managed to forge it successfully and advanced in levels again, Lin Jie guessed that Blue would give him all the profits from the Blacksmith’s Shop willingly should he ever make such requests!

“This is definitely the most awesome masterpiece I have ever created! It’s even capable of upgrading to Legendary levels!” Nordilus panted while saying that. His mustache was stained with saliva all over, an obvious indication of his excitement.

Lin Jie immediately followed up with a comment, “Master, do carve the Runes then.”

Nordilus chuckled and threw a scanning look at Lin Jie. “Oh, no hurry for that, no hurry. Our transaction is not completed yet.”

Lin Jie’s heart flopped! After any Mechanical Lifeform was created, Runes would need to be carved in the next half an hour, or else the whole Mechanical Gargoyle would be rendered useless!

“Come, now it’s your time to keep your promise,” reminded Nordilus as he mentioned the mission again.

The promise… to hand over Wind Rider Blade Aura Executioner? A cold light flashed past Lin Jie’s eyes. ‘That is never happening!’