Chapter 104: The Opening of the Alchemy Fire

“Lord, there is the most hematite and copper here, which can be used to make farming tools and daily necessities. Next is black iron, which can already be used to craft high-quality weapons. There are also rare metals like refined copper and cold steel—we don’t fully recognize them all, but we’re sure they’re quite precious. Adding them to weapons yields various beneficial effects!”
Donald nodded in approval upon hearing this. He picked up a small piece of refined copper and found its color similar to brass from his past life, quite close to gold. However, since it was much lighter than gold, it couldn’t be used as a substitute.
It was said that the refined gold produced from copper ore after certain transformations had a golden hue with a shiny silver tint. Though just as light in texture as refined copper, it was one of the strongest and most durable metals in the main world. It also had excellent magic conductivity, making it ideal for crafting offensive magical weapons and equipment.
Donald nodded in satisfaction and waved his hand to collect these rare metals.
“You’ve done well. Now, I have a new task for you!”
With that, Donald took out two pieces of ore: black iron ore and hematite ore.
“You must be familiar with these two ores. There’s also a small amount of a third rare metal mixed in, but it’s extremely valuable. I hope you can extract this metal for me. This is a territorial secret—you must not reveal anything about it to anyone outside!”
Originally, Donald planned to refine it himself, but then he thought that although the Book of Truth could instantly extract all metal components from an ore, it had two unsolvable drawbacks.
First, the purification process consumed some energy. Although only a small amount each time, the sheer number of ores to refine would add up over time.
The second drawback was that anything extracted using the Book of Truth had to be transformed into a finished product. For example, iron ore could only be converted into iron swords or similar items. If it were turned into pure iron ingots, it would remain just pure iron, lacking the superior properties of those finished materials.
In his past life, steel products were also classified based on the content of elements like carbon to create different products. Pure iron, without the addition of other elements, couldn’t be used to forge high-quality weapons and equipment. Thus, although using the Book of Truth seemed convenient on the surface, the actual forging process became even more complicated. It was better to let these blacksmiths forge it slowly on their own.

After all, the Book of Truth is merely a rigid artifact that lacks the ability to think, not a true god. Thus, it’s impossible to exchange everything through it; some things still need to be crafted manually. Donald knew that the two private blacksmith shops in his territory were far from enough to process these minerals, so he spent energy and materials to build a new blacksmith shop in an undeveloped area of the town, where two blacksmiths and their apprentices could work. This was a real blacksmith shop, unlike the human-built ones in the game that only served to upgrade weapon and equipment technology—it was a fully equipped blacksmith shop manifested by the Book of Truth. With all the necessary equipment for processing ores and crafting tools now available, the two blacksmiths were overjoyed when they saw the blacksmith shop prepared for them. They immediately took the two pieces of ore from Donald and started heating the furnace with their apprentices, ready to test the new smelting furnace. Soon after, the two blacksmiths came back, looking anxious. “Lord, the black iron and red iron have been melted, but the rare blue metal you mentioned hasn’t been extracted!” Magical metals like Blue Vein Gold are extremely rare; even knowledgeable scholars are unaware of them. While the more well-known magical metals, such as Fine Gold and Secret Silver, are somewhat familiar, they remain legends for most people, who may never even see them in person. “The ore containing that metal hasn’t melted. We suspect it’s due to insufficient flame temperature. Unless we have special heating alchemy potions or the furnaces rumored to be built by dwarves near geothermal heat, we can’t separate it from the other two types of iron ore.” Hearing the blacksmiths’ apologetic explanation, Donald thought for a moment and said, “Creating heating potions is complicated and takes time. As for the issue of insufficient temperature, I wonder if magic flames could solve it?” The blacksmiths’ faces lit up at this suggestion, and they replied, “We’re not sure either, but as long as you can melt the ore, we’ll be able to extract the pure metal!” So Donald went to the smelting furnace in person. After the two blacksmiths finished preparing, he stretched out his hand and unleashed his magic flames.

His Magic Flame was a ability he acquired from the Fiery Demon. After being absorbed through the abilities of a Demon Hunter, it became a spell-like ability of his own that he could use at will. With a mere gesture, it could exert the power of a second-level spell, making it perfect for heating furnaces and melting metals.

Although the Magic Flame might not reach the extremely high temperatures of the industrial-grade flames from his past life, it was a combustion reaction rooted in magic power and fire elements. Under the combined effect of magic power and high temperature, it was better suited for breaking down substances without destroying their original structure and properties. Even the heat-resistant Blue-veined Magic Gold could not withstand prolonged exposure to the Magic Flame, and soon the surface of the ore turned red, showing signs of melting.

After an hour, with the efforts of the three of them, the ores were refined. From roughly 200 pounds of ore, they obtained nearly 10 pounds of hematite, 7-8 pounds of black iron, and a tiny piece of Blue-veined Gold smaller than a fingernail.

“Lord!” “It worked!”

The two blacksmiths exclaimed excitedly. They poured the separated metal solutions into crucibles and waited for them to cool.

A few minutes later, after Donald took the Blue-veined Gold in his hands, he excitedly extracted gold from it and ordered the Book of Truth to create a magic coin based on the template he had designed earlier.

Since Blue-veined Gold was the only magical metal available, it was only suitable for casting magic coins with a single property. Using almost one-third of the small piece of Blue-veined Gold, Donald’s magically crafted Dalarn coin was finally created.

The coin was entirely golden with a blue glow. On the obverse was the Merlin family crest featuring a griffin, while on the reverse were two words inscribed in elegant Old Elvish script, resembling patterns: Arcane and Truth. Just its appearance was enough to be considered a work of art, attracting attention. Even without any unique properties, nobles, scholars, and artists would surely want to collect it.

Donald tested it by holding the magic coin in his hand and channeling magic power into it. It took up one-tenth of his magic power to fully energize the coin, which had a diameter of just one and a half inches.

After a rough estimate, considering his dual-class status and heroic innate traits, his mana level must be at least three times higher than that of an ordinary Bronze-level beginner mage. This meant that a single magic coin could store nearly one-third of a Bronze mage’s mana. This capability far surpassed those of the magic coins created by the Ancient Magic Empire of Banai—truly a masterwork of arcane magic devised after the Truth Book absorbed the structure of Silver Moon coins, offering superior performance to the core magic arrays in regular coins.

“It’s a shame there’s no other magical metal like mithril or refined gold; otherwise, magic coins for attack, defense, and support could be mass-produced.”

Next, large-scale ore extraction was needed to accumulate Blue Vein Magic Gold. Once refined gold and mithril were obtained, magic coins specific to Dalaran could be mass-produced.

So, Donald stored all the remaining ore—about thirty tons—in the blacksmith shop, assigning two blacksmiths the task and promising them ten Gold Sol each upon completion.

It wasn’t that Donald was stingy; it was simply that for a family of five, one Gold Sol was enough to ensure a prosperous year. Thus, ten gold coins was a substantial sum for an ordinary family. Giving more might not only be unnecessary but could even bring trouble.

Moreover, Donald didn’t want to foster a culture of greed among the people in his territory. After all, people have their flaws, and greed is a universal desire. If you give someone a hundred Gold Sol today but only one next time, they won’t be grateful—they might even develop resentment.

As for melting the ore with magical flames, Donald didn’t need to do it himself. He sent for his first elf subordinate and entrusted this important and honorable task to him.

Kaelthas’s flame abilities were similar to those Donald had acquired from the Fire Fiend—after all, the legendary Blood Elves also gave up their innate ice magic due to hatred and chose to focus on flame powers related to demons.

From then on, aside from studying the mage spells of this world every day to become a dual-classer like his master and strengthen his own abilities, Kaelthas spent his time in the blacksmith shop helping the two blacksmiths melt the ore. Meanwhile, Donald took time to plan his next step: opening a magic item store.

A couple of days ago, he had already ordered William to arrange everything, opening a mysterious shop in a busy area near the center of town. Using this building as a base, a store specializing in magical alchemy items was established. Today, all the goods were exchanged, and everything was practically ready, so they decided to open early rather than wait, taking advantage of the fact that the adventurers and mercenaries who returned yesterday hadn’t left yet. The shop, named by Donald as the Alchemy Fire Mystery Shop, welcomed its first customers today—those adventurers and mercenaries who had taken on Donald’s bounty mission in Dalaran. This shop’s target customers were not ordinary civilians but adventurers, professionals, merchants, and nobles with higher demands and purchasing power. Therefore, it wasn’t located on the busiest Crossroads Commercial Street but rather on a quieter street behind it, near the lord’s mansion. Before arriving at this mysterious building, these adventurers felt excited and curious. They had been to stores selling magical items before, but most of the goods there were something they could only look at but not afford. Now, with the young and powerful lord promising to sell them at cost, everyone wanted to take the chance to make a big profit or acquire the equipment they desired.