Chapter 75 - 66: A Big Bag of Gems

For the remainder of the time, Morton and Golden Hammer continued their squabble, with Golden Hammer insisting on entering the Elder Council. Finally, Morton reluctantly agreed, promising to report this request to the Elder Council. Golden Hammer was tasked to organize his thoughts on the use of the machine tools during this period. Soon, the dwarves would send a large transport flying dragon to bring Golden Hammer and his machine tools back to the Furnace Fortress.

With great difficulty, they saw off Morton and his party. Golden Hammer burst into joyful laughter, very proud of his prospect of entering the Elder Council. Of course, he also didn’t forget Long Yi’s kindness and complimented him lavishly. Long Yi, now accustomed to his gem pouch, removed a few gems from it and stared at them with a silly grin.

After being lost in giggles for a while, Long Yi suddenly realized he had no clue about how the thing worked.

"Uncle Golden Hammer, hold onto your excitement for a moment. Can you tell me how to use these gems?"

Golden Hammer laughed heartily, his mouth wide open. Still riding high on his excitement, he explained, "Isn’t simple? One way to use them is to insert them into a weapon. You can also take them to a magic artifact shop and sell them for gold coins. It all depends on what you want to do."

Is that so?

"Selling them, that’s not possible. After all, they are precious gifts from others..."

Long Yi was definitely not willing to part with his gifts. Never in his two lives had he received such valuable gifts from others. Coincidentally, the missiles worth a million dollars each that his enemies had desperately sent him in his previous life, don’t really count.

"Expensive? These things, there are several warehouses full of them in the Furnace Fortress. Although they’re costly, they are not that precious. If you’re short of money, sell a couple of them. I assume they just randomly grabbed a handful when they were leaving. They probably didn’t even count how many."

Golden Hammer said.

Looking at Golden Hammer, Long Yi suddenly understood why Morton would rather give himself an honorary elder position but stubbornly refused to offer the same to Golden Hammer.

Uncle Golden Hammer, you’re a dwarf! You should be conscious of your dwarf dignity! Don’t share such secrets with me, a human! You’ve instantly wiped out the recently growing guilt towards your Dwarf Clan from my mind!

A speechless Long Yi quickly picked up a steel plate from the ground and tried to insert a gem into it. A ’clang’ sounded, and nothing happened.

"Uncle, you tricked me."

Long Yi said.

"Silly boy, of course, it wouldn’t work. Only weapons specifically crafted by us dwarves can do it! If just any weapon works, who would we sell ours to?"

Saying this, Golden Hammer raised his hand, and his golden war hammer flew out from the corner. He took Long Yi’s steel plate, placed it on the anvil, and with a burst of Platinum Fighting Aura, the hammer fell. An unusual rune appeared on the plate.

"Try again!"

Long Yi took the steel plate and found the gem’s size perfectly matched the rune’s size. As he slowly brought the gem close to the steel plate, a force of attraction began pulling it towards the plate. With a ’ting’ sound, the gem was attached to the steel plate, with the edges of the gem enveloped by the slightly raised steel, which now had a faint red sheen.

The gem that Long Yi had embedded was a red fire gem, which added fire effects to attacks when imbued with Fighting Aura or magic.

This is amazing.

As Long Yi’s eyes grew wide in disbelief, he realized that removing a gem is also simple. By infusing the gem with a specific type of Fighting Aura, the gem would detach from the plate.

After trying it a few times, Long Yi was amazed at how convenient this was. Indeed, it was even better than the magic weapons acclaimed by the Elves.

Then, Long Yi remembered the purpose of his visit.

"Uncle, how are those knight boots for women?"

Long Yi asked.

"Are you serious? Those guys interrupted me while I was polishing the boot heels! If I hadn’t been quick enough, I wouldn’t have been able to show my face in the Furnace Fortress!"

A frightened Golden Hammer said.

"Understood, you’ve worked hard. How are the sales?"

Long Yi asked with a smile.

"Hmm, even if I’m dealing with women’s stuff when I’m on it, there’s always more demand than supply! But those women are really strange! Isn’t it just a different style of boot with a heel? Even with such a high price, they still sell like hotcakes! You could afford a couple of good Dragon-slaying Swords for that amount! The other day, I went to the shoe store and saw two noble ladies fighting for the last pair, disregarding their appearances. It was terrifying!"

"How’s that? You see, I was right!" Long Yi said, beaming with self-satisfaction.

"Yes, you were indeed right. It’s just too strange."

Golden Hammer replied.

Just as Long Yi predicted, the launch of these knight boots for women caused an immediate sensation. The sensation was twofold: on the one hand, for the design, and on the other, for the shockingly high price.

Eighty gold coins.

What did that mean?

A pair of ordinary high-end women’s boots cost a mere eighty silver coins. But just a change in style to look like knight boots, along with the addition of a heel, made the price jump to gold coins!

A hundred times price increase!

That’s ruthless! It’s profiteering! It’s easier and more profitable than forging dragon-slaying swords!

Golden Hammer is soon going to have to step up and take his place as elder, Long Yi decided to go back and consult with Wesley about whether there is any further potential for these boots. Long Yi was not a designer in his past life, he knew what women liked, but he couldn’t constantly create things they would like. Wesley, however, was different. He came from a family of merchants. He could easily handle something like this, even if he had to learn it on the go.

This time, Long Yi brought mechanical drafting textbooks that he had compiled to Golden Hammer. These were all gems of knowledge from his past life. Although Long Yi couldn’t deeply instruct on everything, it was enough for general applications.

Golden Hammer was overjoyed by all the blueprints. It meant Long Yi considered him as an ally since he didn’t give these things to Morton, but to himself instead.

Well! This kid has a bright future!

Walking home with a pouch full of invaluable magic gemstones, Long Yi felt like a thief. The way back to the dorm seemed to become much longer. By the time he returned to the dorm, he was sweating profusely.

My goodness, if he had more, wouldn’t he have died from fear halfway? How can someone like him, a transmigrator, be so timid?

Shaking his head, Long Yi threw the gem-filled pouch onto the bed across from him, where Bajie was still sleeping. The clinking sound of the gem pouch immediately woke Bajie up. He rushed over, opened it and saw the glittering gemstones inside. Bajie was so excited that smoke started coming out of his mouth. Xiaoyou, the Shadow Dragon, was even faster. She dived straight into the pouch, and wriggled around amongst the gemstones as if having a gem bath could enhance her beauty. Bajie looked on, wishing he could shrink down to Xiaoyou’s size and join her in the gem pile. Unfortunately, Bajie was still in his infancy and couldn’t do that yet.

"Calm down, Bajie. You’re a high-level creature from another plane after all, don’t act like a bumpkin who’s never seen anything before. And as for you, Xiaoyou, don’t bully Bajie, just because you are smaller. He’s older than you, you know?"

Long Yi admonished from the side. But Xiaoyou didn’t care one bit. She kept kicking up a storm inside the pouch, shooting smug glances at Bajie. This was a bad habit of all dragons: to shrink down and curl up to sleep in a pile of coins. Almost all dragons did this. But being able to curl up in a pile of gemstones was rather unique.

In the end, with a roar, Bajie slapped the pouch with both claws. The pouch immediately disappeared into his private space. Xiaoyou, left on the bed, glared furiously at Bajie. Bajie opened his big mouth and let out a hearty laugh, returning the stare without backing down.

"Let’s be clear, no fire breathing, no touching the furniture."

Long Yi’s voice came from the bathroom.

While the dragon scale armor was convenient, it didn’t possess the same auto-cleaning ability as Ai Lin’s scale suit. After sweating so much, Long Yi still needed to take a shower.

Once he deactivated the dragon scale armor, Long Yi felt a weight lifted off him. Moving around in it felt like the physical training he used to do. Even moving a finger took all his effort. However, Long Yi decided to keep the armor on for further training. It was beneficial for his training. His giant’s bloodline was just beginning to unlock, with the next step being the bones. Long Yi had made a few attempts, but there was no progress. It seemed that he was still not strong enough. He had to keep pushing himself, otherwise he had no idea when he would unlock his full potential.

After washing and drying himself, he activated the dragon scale armor again. He opened the bathroom door and saw Bajie opening the dorm room door for someone.

Bajie was opening the door for someone?

Who?

The door opened and it turned out to be Ai Lin. After Ai Lin regained her true female form, she moved out of the male dorm and being the granddaughter of a general, she enjoyed the privilege of a private dorm. Whereas when Long Yi moved into the second-year dorm, he was the only one in a double room because no one wanted to be his roommate.

Ai Lin’s eyes widened in surprise as she saw Long Yi in his black armor.

Scratching his head and giving an awkward laugh, Long Yi said, "Well, I think it’s quite convenient, so I made a suit for myself." He scratched his head as he spoke.

Ai Lin quickly nodded in understanding. Although being shy at first, this silver scale suit brought her quite a few conveniences. For one, she no longer had to worry about washing clothes. More importantly, the scale suit was appropriate for all weather and could significantly reduce drag during aerial combat.

Of course, its defensive abilities might be somewhat compromised. Despite being flexible and resistant to cuts, the scales didn’t have the ability to absorb damage from blunt force. Generally, dragon knights wore full heavy armor made of rare metals when they went into battle. Its expense was monstrous. Some high-level dragon knights even wore enchanted heavy armor just to defend against various physical impacts.

However, these were not the current concerns as both of them were not yet combat-ready. Ai Lin was already one with the dragon, but how they would combat in the air was definitely a question.

For now, it wasn’t an issue to worry about.

Ai Lin came to have lessons with Long Yi.

Specifically, magic lessons.

Long Yi was proficient in both magic and martial arts, so he had enrolled in both courses. Starting from the second year, the dragon knights and dragon mages were separated for classes. Both Long Yi and Ai Lin had classes for both paths, so they had to make a choice. Ai Lin, a true prodigy, didn’t have to worry much about not attending some lessons. Long Yi, on the other hand, gave up some practical courses after careful consideration. After all, given his current strength, it was difficult to find an equal opponent amongst the second-year students.