Chapter 509: Chapter 285: Forceful Transaction! Divine Rune Etching
In reality, he didn’t actually have any real connection to people like Duke Phil or Rooney. He had simply used Yak’s identity to get in touch with them quickly.
Yak’s status as a noble also meant he wasn’t ostracized, which saved him from a lot of danger and risk.
Fang Zhen’s real objective was still to trade.
He was very interested in this world’s Divine Runes. This power seemed to exist independently of alchemy and other rune systems.
His Longsword and other equipment all derived their Extraordinary Abilities from different systems. He wondered if he could stack a layer of Divine Runes on top to increase their power and upgrade his gear.
Additionally, if the Divine Runes here were truly as powerful as they seemed, he planned to acquire a large batch of Divine Rune Weapons. He could then use them to arm the Curse Sealers when he returned to the Curse Seal World.
That would make taking down a Hell-level dungeon much easier.
"Good. For every 500 Divine Rune Weapons forged, I’ll give you 150 in trade."
"Additionally, I’ll have the army’s top Divine Rune Masters enchant your weapons with Divine Runes—this includes armor or any other gear. Do you agree?"
Duke Phil was very direct, laying out his terms immediately.
Fang Zhen thought it over for a moment.
’A longsword or saber for a soldier requires about three catties of steel. A ton of manganese steel alloy is 2,000 catties, enough to forge nearly 700 weapons. Even if Duke Phil re-equipped his entire legion, it wouldn’t take even ten tons of steel. The cost isn’t that high. And in return, I’ll get thirty percent of the resulting gear—over 2,100 Divine Rune Enchanted Weapons. Plus, my own equipment will get a significant upgrade.’
"Deal," Fang Zhen said. "I’ll give you 4,000 catties of these steel ingots first, then follow up with another 16,000. The deal will be done before dark tomorrow."
"Good. I also promise to have all the High-tier Divine Weapons you want forged within two days," Duke Phil, a straightforward man himself, replied without hesitation.
As it turned out, both Fang Zhen and Duke Phil were true to their word.
That same day, Fang Zhen returned to his own world and acquired a total of ten tons of manganese steel alloy.
He was able to source it locally in Xiahai.
Xiahai had a steel market, where Fang Zhen bought ten tons of manganese steel alloy and two tons of electrolytic manganese. The metals came in 100-kilogram ingots.
He transported these materials to the Divine Rune Realm and completed the trade with Duke Phil.
Duke Phil and his men quickly converted the steel into strategic assets, forging them into Divine Rune Weapons.
Fang Zhen had the opportunity to witness how Divine Rune Weapons were forged in the Divine Rune Realm.
He went to a city square that served as a weapons foundry and witnessed the power of the Divine Runes firsthand.
He had originally assumed there would be blacksmiths smelting the steel and then hammering out the weapons piece by piece.
But that wasn’t the case at all.
The Divine Rune Masters simply set up something like a magical Array in the square.
They then tossed the steel ingots into the center of the Divine Rune Array and activated it with special materials and an energy source.
The Divine Rune Array would begin to glow.
The steel ingots at the center of the Divine Rune Array melted into a liquid state, then flowed into a series of molds as if guided by an unseen force.
In less than 30 minutes, they had produced about 300 crude manganese steel alloy sword blanks.
Next, these sword blanks were gathered inside another Divine Rune Array.
At the center of this Divine Rune Array was a prototype steel sword. The Divine Rune Masters placed this prototype at the very center, while the other sword blanks were arranged in individual, separated Divine Rune Spaces within the greater Array.
This confined each sword blank to a specific area. Then, the Divine Rune Array was activated once more.
The Divine Rune Array began to automatically break down the impurities and excess material in the rough sword blanks, transforming them into perfectly formed, usable steel swords.
Then, the Divine Rune Masters began the final step: enchanting them with Divine Runes.
This was another eye-opener for Fang Zhen. He had assumed that Divine Rune enchanting involved carving patterns onto the steel swords.
Instead, the Divine Rune Masters set up an enormous Array and began to lay out the Divine Runes.
Then, powered by an enormous, bright yellow crystal, the Divine Runes laid out with special materials began to glow with a rainbow-colored light. As if they had come to life, they began to automatically etch themselves into the steel swords.
The swords’ appearance didn’t seem to change, but Fang Zhen could sense a peculiar power now hidden within each one.
The Divine Runes seemed to have come alive, burrowing into the steel swords like a swarm of tadpoles.
The process was incredibly fast; in just over twenty minutes, they had finished the Divine Rune etching for hundreds of swords.
After watching the whole thing, Fang Zhen fell silent for a moment before turning to Duke Phil, who had been observing the Divine Rune enchanting process alongside him, and asked:
"Duke, what if I don’t want to enchant steel swords, but something more complex? Like armor, for instance. Is that possible?"
"Of course. This kind of mass Divine Rune enchanting is possible."
"You can even mass-produce armor. In fact, if you provide a complete prototype of a device, we can use the same method we use for these swords to perfectly forge replicas," Duke Phil said.
"Also, this process isn’t called ’Divine Rune enchanting.’ The proper term is ’Divine Rune Etching.’"
Fang Zhen chuckled.
’The name doesn’t matter. What’s important is how similar this production method is to industrialization. It’s practically more modern than the modern era.’
An idea suddenly sparked in his mind.
’Once Engineer Chen, the man he’d hired, finished designing the mechanical parts for the Exoskeleton Armor he wanted, why bother going back to his own world to manufacture it?’
’He could just have it made in the Divine Rune Realm!’
