Remnants of the Furnace Village

clang!clang!clang!

Beneath the towering mountains whose peaks are invisible lies a ruin, now reduced to charred foundations.

This place was called Luxiang, and now it is probably called Luxiang Ruins.

Yet, from this seemingly desolate ruin, the sound of metal clashing against metal could be heard, and from a newly built, dilapidated house, a faint light shone through.

clang!

With the final hammer blow, Herren used pliers to throw the shaped cylinder into a bucket of water for final quenching.

The sweltering heat splattered onto his face, mingling with the beads of sweat.

He wiped his sweat, picked out the meticulously crafted object, then took the prepared iron chain from the table, the end of which was connected to a wooden handle, and threaded it through the pre-drilled hole.

After some more hammering and tinkering, a ruggedly shaped flail was finally formed.

Herren breathed a sigh of relief, excitedly watching the entries that popped up on his masterpiece.

[Forged: Bloodthirsty Battle Axe - Normal]

[Bloodthirsty Battle Axe: Greatly increases the wielder's strength and health, allowing them to draw nourishment from blood to restore stamina]

[Reward: Golden Life Fragment]

Heron immediately felt a warm current flow through his body, which made him groan softly.

After a moment's pause, he picked up the flail on the table and felt its weight and texture.

That's right, the Bloodthirsty Battle Axe is actually a flail... Heron didn't know why either.

However, after getting his hands on it, Herren clearly felt a force seemingly transmitted through the chains to his hands.

He walked out of the room, onto the open ground, and into the ruins of Luxiang.

The scorched foundations here originated from the demigod war thousands of years ago... and after a thousand years of sedimentation and the baptism of wind and snow, they have become solid and indestructible.

Herren spread his legs, gathered his strength, and swung Thirst Blood with all his might, slamming it heavily onto the foundation.

The immense force pierced through the hard ground, but because Herren himself lacked sufficient strength, the ground was only smashed into a shallow crater, which then extended into a large crack.

But Herren is already quite satisfied with this result.

This is already enough to be called a divine weapon.

Herren was overjoyed. This was the first time in his more than ten years of transmigrating that he had created such a masterpiece, even if it was just "ordinary".

He is a descendant of the people of Luxiang. It is uncertain whether they share the same bloodline, but since his transmigration, he has had knowledge of forging techniques, building crafts, brewing techniques and other skills that have been passed down for thousands of years by the people of Luxiang.

At the very least, he is a successor in spirit.

This is also the reason why he was able to master the knowledge without a teacher and transform it into his current master-level skills.

How can someone who can create such a weapon not be considered a master?

Herren was somewhat smug. Back when he first transmigrated, he was thin and small, with nothing to eat, drink, or wear. If it weren't for the attribute forging tool he received as a newbie reward, which allowed him to forge a golden magic resistance fragment, he probably would have frozen to death long ago.

It has truly been a difficult journey to get to where we are today.

He closed his eyes and looked at his task panel.

[Cutting-edge inventor: Forging 1 out of 10 pieces of equipment]

[Master Forging: Forging Ten Different Pieces of Equipment 3/10]

[Strengthen Your Heart: Forging a Steel Heart 0/1]

[Resilience: Forged five tank equipment pieces 0/5]

[Ancient Treasures: Finding the Right Owner for Their Masterpieces 0/5]

"The road ahead is long and arduous..."

Helen was not lazy. On the contrary, for the past ten years or so, he had lived alone in the desolate ruins of the furnace village. Every day, apart from eating, sleeping, hunting for food and finding ore, he had only been blacksmithing and honing his skills.

But there was nothing he could do. He had set up the small furnace himself, and with limited resources, he only had the most ordinary ores, so he couldn't forge any good equipment.

Even if he tried to take shortcuts and only create a similar appearance, he could not gain the system's approval at all.

Even with a rugged appearance like Thirst for Blood, Herren went through countless trials and tribulations before finally succeeding, and this was only at the "ordinary" level.

The other two pieces of equipment are far inferior to Thirst for Blood.

[Herren Ring: Slightly increases health and magic perception, and slowly restores stamina]

[Lightweight Boots: Increases movement speed and reduces terrain obstruction]

When these two pieces of equipment were forged, they were only given silver attribute fragments; they weren't even given a rating on their stats.

However, Herren was not discouraged. He considered the past ten years or so as a time to lay the foundation and hone his skills.

But after creating a work like Thirst for Blood with the limited resources at his disposal, Herren knew that he had reached the end of his stay here, and there would be no improvement if he stayed any longer.

"Freljord..."

After learning the name of the village and the vast, boundless snowfield, Herren understood what kind of world he was in.

Perhaps it was sentimentality, or perhaps it was the desire for more materials to forge and improve his craft, but Herren always yearned for the outside world.

Moreover, perhaps it was the thousand-year-old furnace-making skills in his mind that were at play. At first, Heren wanted to use forging as a cheat code to improve himself, but after more than ten years of hammering, he found that he had fallen in love with forging.

They even developed a sense of belonging to this once-ruined town.

if you can……

Heron looked around, hoping that the ashes of the ruins could be rekindled.

Therefore, he had to go out and make his way in the world...

Of course, before that, Herren needs to do one last thing.

He looked up at the mountain, a mountain so high that its top was nowhere in sight.

He wasn't an insecure person, but he knew that gaining the approval of the one in the mountains was never an easy thing.

Over the years, he has gone there many times, but without exception, he has returned empty-handed each time.

Even though the flail had been approved by the system panel, Herren still lacked confidence.

But he knew he had to go.

Herren looked at the section of the panel that belonged to the main quest:

[The Successors of the Furnace Village: The people of the Furnace Village are called such because they possess exquisite skills and a unified faith... Go and gain His approval, and officially embark on your own path of inheritance.]

Herren swallowed hard, but he didn't back down; his eyes held a certain determination.

The flail he had just cherished was no longer so important.

He made up his mind that if his work was rejected again, he would not hesitate to rework it.

Even if he has to go through more trials and tribulations, he will bring his ultimate skills and truly step onto this land.

Just as Herren thought, he no longer did this simply for the sake of the mission and the reward; forging had become his life, his faith.

Back in his cabin, Herren put on his worn-out leather coat, wrapped his thirsty blood in cloth, and resolutely embarked on his journey to the mountaintop.