83: Chapter 83 Hu Gualing and Little Bird's First Meeting

Gualing remained silent. He had tested the bracer as soon as it was forged, and the results were indeed just as Master Wang Dachui had described—not very satisfactory. "Then how should a bracer be forged?"

"Actually, a bracer isn't forged; to be precise, it should be woven."

"Woven?" Gualing had just asked casually, not expecting such an answer; his face was full of disbelief.

However, Master Wang Dachui nodded and said, "Armor is different from weapons. If it's made of solid pure iron, it can only defend against Sharp Weapons. When facing the impact of blunt weapons, the damage received is actually worse."

"Moreover, solid protective gear made of pure iron is too bulky. Wearing it makes moving very inconvenient, and it has almost no practicality in the Jianghu outside."

Gualing nodded as he listened.

What Master Wang Dachui said did make sense.

For instance, after putting on this bracer, his punching speed was noticeably slower. If he were to wear full-body armor, he probably wouldn't even be able to lift his feet.

But in period dramas, generals are always clad in armor, and foreign knights are armed from head to toe in iron shells, with only their eyes exposed.

Could it all be fake?

"Then how do you weave it?" Gualing couldn't help but ask.

Master Wang Dachui said, "Use hundred-refined fine iron to cast thin iron plates, then use tough Materials like animal tendons as thread to string the plates together, eventually weaving them into a complete piece of protective gear. Protective gear woven this way is not only much lighter, but it can also deflect a lot of force when facing blunt weapons."

"Of course, this kind of protective gear is also very difficult to make. A single bracer requires dozens of iron plates, and a full suit of armor requires thousands, so I've only heard of it and have never actually done it myself."

Gualing listened with fascination.

So that's how proper protective gear is made!

However, the difficulty involved is also ridiculously high.

Hundred-refined fine iron, as the name implies, is ordinary iron that has been re-forged and hammered a hundred times, removing Impurities time and again to become fine iron.

Such fine iron is both hard and tough; with the current craftsmanship here, it is very difficult to cut it into iron plates.

In other words, one can only honestly forge them one piece at a time.

And a full suit of armor actually requires thousands of such iron plates... It seems the matter of Forging armor should be put aside for now.

Gualing sighed with some disappointment.

But that was fine; if he couldn't make useful protective gear, Forging a suitable weapon was still no problem.

As for the type of weapon.

Although he envied the sharpness of Teacher Zhang's low-alloy steel blade, he wasn't good at using a blade. Even if it were sharp, he wouldn't necessarily be able to hit anyone with it in his hands.

It would be better to forge a pair of gauntlets; used in conjunction with [Farmers Three Punches], the effect should be even better.

He mentally sorted through the Materials he would need: iron Ore, charcoal... Master Wang Dachui had all of these here, but things like soybean paste and saltpeter would have to be obtained elsewhere.

After planning what to do next, he felt he should let Master Wang Dachui know.

After all, he was an apprentice at the Blacksmith Shop, and he would have to borrow his place to forge his own things later.

"Master Wang Dachui, I'm planning to forge a pair of gauntlets for myself, so I won't be able to help you with work for the time being," Gualing said.

"You don't think gauntlets are simpler than bracers, do you?" Master Wang Dachui was straightforward, and his eyes practically screamed, 'With your skill level, you dare to try Forging gauntlets?'

Gualing, however, disagreed.

He admitted that his smithing level was, perhaps, indeed... slightly worse than Master Wang Dachui's.

But he had studied at the Su Ke University Materials Research Institute, and the few tricks he'd picked up were era-leaping, overwhelming technologies. Mere gauntlets would be easy to handle.

"Just wait and see," Gualing said full of confidence.

He believed that once the gauntlets were forged, they would definitely drop Master Wang Dachui's jaw.

Master Wang Dachui was stunned for a moment, then chuckled and said in a muffled voice, "Fine, since you're so confident, I'll wait and see. However, I won't charge extra for using the tools here, but you cannot fall behind on the payment for Materials like iron Ore and charcoal."

"Okay." Gualing had no objections.

This had been agreed upon when he became an apprentice: Master Wang Dachui would teach him smithing, provide food and lodging, but no wages.

Now that he wanted to forge his own things, he should naturally be responsible for the material costs.

"Let's settle the material costs from last time first," Master Wang Dachui said, glancing at the bracer on Gualing's hand.

This bracer used two pieces of iron Ore and some charcoal, totaling 740 copper coins.

Gualing paid the money and found that he only had over seven thousand coins left.

This was still the 10 taels of silver deposit he had swindled from Tang Yao; Tang Yao hadn't even seen a shadow of her longsword, yet a small portion of the deposit was already spent...

One could only say that whether in reality or in the game, money really didn't last long.

Gualing sighed silently, thinking that since he not only had to forge gauntlets but also prepare Materials for the longsword later, this little bit of money was definitely not enough.

Should he go to Tang Yao and borrow some more?...

Gualing had just walked out of the Blacksmith Shop when he saw a player.

He was thin and a head shorter than him, but not considered short among ordinary people.

His face wasn't exactly handsome, but one could feel a sense of youthful scholarly aura; he looked like an intellectual who had just left school, making it easy for one to develop a favorable impression of him.

"Xiao Niao!"

"Gualing, hello, hello."

Because they had their names above their heads, both of them recognized each other immediately.

"We've known each other online for so long, I didn't expect you to look like this in person; you're quite handsome," Gualing said, patting Xiao Niao on the shoulder and praising him warmly.

Xiao Niao rubbed his nose and said somewhat shyly, "I didn't expect it either; I never thought our first meeting would be in a game."

Gualing chuckled, "Come to think of it, this game is truly quite magical. Before, when I was here alone, I couldn't believe this was a game and thought I was dreaming! But now that you're here too, I finally feel at ease."

Gualing's joy was not feigned.

Although this was his first time meeting Xiao Niao, they had known each other for a long time in the game group, and meeting now in Fantasy Jianghu gave him a feeling of meeting an old friend in a distant land.

Moreover, through occasional chatting in the group, he also knew some of Xiao Niao's real-life situation.

This guy was a top student studying computer science at Shennan University and had quit a high-paying job to start a business shortly after graduation.

Both his brains and his financial status were quite good.

If it hadn't been for the coincidence of playing the same game, where else would someone like him get to know a person like Xiao Niao?

Therefore, Gualing believed that with Xiao Niao's brain, he would definitely be able to analyze at least some of the details of this game.

"Speaking of this game, it was that day after I got off the night shift and was sleeping in the dormitory, I suddenly had a strange dream..."

Gualing also wanted to know what exactly was going on with this Fantasy Jianghu, so he didn't hide anything and told him everything he knew exactly as it happened.