Chapter 560: Chapter 284: Silver Ingots, Longsword, and Wooden Staff
"Ding!"
The blade of the metal axe whistled in the air, drawing a sharp arc. The gleaming silver light flashed by and suddenly fell upon the piece of darkness ahead.
The Dark Snake Scale, seemingly thin and fragile like smooth glass, showed nearly no reaction to the axe’s strike except for a flash of sparks and a crisp sound.
With the powerful force honed by countless swings and strikes while gripping the Forging Hammer, the Double-handed Giant Axe could directly cleave a tree stump.
And yet, it couldn’t even leave a trace on the arm shield’s surface.
Its impact, mitigated by the triple cushioning of Snake Scale, Corpse Erosion Pattern Steel, and High-level Leather, was greatly diminished.
With the shield held horizontally in front, Xia Nan felt only a slight tremor in his forearm and easily blocked the attack from the front.
"Hahaha, what do you think? Not too bad, right!"
A hearty laugh reached his ears.
Barn’s whiskered cheeks swayed as he withdrew the Dual Handed Axe from the arm shield, a distinct sense of accomplishment on his face.
"The scale you provided is of excellent quality, scarcely needing any modifications beyond simple polishing to make its defensive capabilities outstanding."
"This arm shield, even within the circle of professionals in the entire Pan Yun Province, is considered high-quality."
Knowing the other was simply being modest, Xia Nan smiled but said nothing.
The quality of the scale was, of course, exceptionally high.
From the fragmented description of the arm shield on the attribute panel, he learned the scale’s origin — an enormous snake that, despite being dead, was far too difficult to extract any materials from, a creature of Legendary Level during its lifetime.
It was a being stronger than ordinary adult giant dragons.
He wondered how the original owner of the Wooden Sword [Green Pine] managed to kill it back then.
Considering the sword’s "Blue Rare" quality, its owner’s power level shouldn’t have been too high.
Perhaps it was due to the powerful secret technique noted from his school’s "Bamboo Spring Temple," or some trump card given by elders before he descended from the mountain, or perhaps there was another third-party force involved?
Lacking sufficient evidence to verify his hypotheses, all information merely came from a few scattered words on the attribute panel, Xia Nan was just wildly guessing.
But anyway, without proper processing, materials remain just materials, never truly becoming equipment.
He wouldn’t dismiss the importance of the blacksmith simply because of "Rock Hammer" Barn’s self-deprecation.
Xia Nan had already received the invoice for 1000 Gold Coins and thus knew the allocation of every copper coin in this large sum.
Various auxiliary materials with names he hadn’t even heard, but if he asked professionals, they would surely affirm their necessity, along with necessary processing fees and other miscellaneous forging expenses...
High-quality materials can only achieve their maximum effect with a sufficiently skilled craftsman, turning them into usable "equipment" for people.
Whether for the blacksmith "Barn" or the finished equipment [Dark Scale Guard], Xia Nan was very pleased.
"Besides its physical defensive performance, this arm shield also has certain enhancements against corrosive elements."
Barn looked at the rhomboid black shield on Xia Nan’s left forearm, supplementing the equipment’s additional effects.
"If you wish, I could get Ms. Edwina to provide some corrosive potion for comprehensive testing and verification."
"No need," Xia Nan waved his hand, "I trust you."
Of course, he said this because if he didn’t trust Barn, how could he have entrusted the precious snake scales brought from the Secret Realm to him for forging?
Yet more importantly, Xia Nan trusted his own attribute panel.
Since it already listed the arm shield’s effect of "immunity to corrosive/acidic damage below Legendary Level," he didn’t need to expend any further trust with Barn on this matter.
Speaking of which, he remembered the previous attributes of the [Temporary Snake Scale Arm Shield] were just "Strong Tenacity" and "+300% Corrosive Resistance," and now the defense strength had upgraded directly from "Strong" to "High Level," with corrosive damage below Legendary Level being directly immune, which was a significant improvement.
Moreover, it came with two extra effects that even the blacksmith Barn hadn’t mentioned.
"Toxin Resistance" is self-explanatory and needs no further elaboration.
The charm (intimidation/persuasion) bonus towards snake-like creatures is quite interesting, potentially playing an important role in the future.
Though with Xia Nan’s personality, he’d prefer to resolve conflicts with the edge of a sword rather than relying on persuasion.
"Well, I’m very satisfied with the quality of the arm shield, I’ll take it."
"Apart from that, I need a set of Good quality armor, perhaps sacrificing some quality advantage for enhanced defensive capabilities."
"Do you have any in stock?"
Facing Xia Nan’s inquiry, Barn’s expression uncommonly showed some hesitation.
"Uh... We have plenty of light leather armor in the warehouse, and there are also two sets of Full Body Plate Armor in the store."
"The former doesn’t meet my defensive expectations, and the latter is too heavy, impacting combat," Xia Nan replied with a slight frown, "Do you have any Plate Chain Composite Armor like last time? I think that would be just right for me now."
Upon hearing this, Barn’s expression suddenly became somewhat awkward.
"We do have Plate Chain Composite Armor, but the batch made from Maran Pattern Steel has been completely sold; only a few pieces made with ordinary steel remain..."
"But rest assured, quality won’t be an issue. They are hammered out one strike at a time by me, definitely offering better defense performance than typical armor!"