IRM Chapter 93

Ji Chi wasn’t aware of the overt and covert struggles surrounding the betting pool. They were methodically taking out materials from their magic pouches one by one, arranging them on the workbench in front of them according to the order they would be used.

The refining position they were assigned wasn’t very good—it was in a corner on the south side of the arena. Not far away were the spectator stands, and cheers, noise, and discussion filled their ears without them even trying to listen.

Bard frowned. He preferred to forge in a quiet room. Although the noise wouldn’t affect his work, it would affect his mood, especially with a dwarf’s short fuse—a bad mood could easily lead to conflicts with others.

He placed his forging tools in convenient positions, then looked up at the kids and said, “If I say anything harsh later, please don’t take it to heart. Don’t let me influence you.”

Bard had thought things through thoroughly, but he momentarily forgot that while normal people might indeed be affected, not one of these three little bastards was normal.

Ji Chi pushed a piece of liquid metal that kept trying to slide off back onto the workbench and answered with an indifferent light hum from his nose.

Linton was still muttering with vacant eyes, mumbling something over and over under his breath.

Chloe, annoyed to the point of shutting down by him, didn’t even want to imitate walking movements anymore. She glided around the workbench stiffly without even bending her knees.

Bard took a deep breath and immediately exploded: “DID YOU HEAR ME!!!”

The three of them were startled by him, glanced at him in confusion, and without catching anything he said, just responded with a few “oh oh oh”s.

Several gambling addicts stood on the stands not far from them, rubbing their hands with joy on their faces as they eyed the piles of gold coins, as if they had already pocketed them.

They pointed at Bard’s ugly expression with gleeful laughter. “They’re already having conflicts, how can they cooperate well during refinement!”

“Exactly, exactly! Hey, let’s make our own little bet? I bet they won’t even make it into the top three.”

“Hahaha, sure! Then I bet they won’t make it into the top five!”

“I’ll go big…” An old gambling addict tilted his head back to gulp down some alcohol, slurring his words, “Maybe they won’t even make it to the third round of selection…”

A deep bell sound rang from the arena’s towering dome. The competition officially began. This refining competition would continue until the sun descended upon the kingdom’s emblem due west of the arena, and before the sun disappeared into the rolling suburban forests, ten of the finest pieces of equipment would be selected to enter the final round.

Ji Chi looked up to judge the sun’s position and roughly calculated, “We have about eight hours to complete it. Our practice record was six hours, but this time we need to factor in the time for Chloe to connect the crystal wires.”

Chloe immediately calculated the exact time and added, “It’s eight hours, sixteen minutes, and thirty-two seconds.”

Bard nodded. “Don’t rush too much. We’ll go with our six hours, and two hours will be more than enough for Chloe.”

Chloe reminded, “It’s two hours, sixteen minutes, and thirty-two seconds.”

Linton finally settled his mind and agreed. “If everyone controls their steps to two hours, we should be able to make it just in time.”

Chloe interjected. “There are still sixteen—”

“Shut up!” All three of them turned their heads and shouted simultaneously.

Chloe stopped talking, spread her hands to indicate they should continue, and walked alone to a corner, picking up a bundle of crystal wires and slowly lowering her head to wind them around her fingers.

William’s refining location was more toward the center of the arena. He heard vague sounds of arguing and looked in that direction past the shifting shadows of people.

Already unable to hold back internal conflict so quickly…

He curved his lips upward and happily picked up a carving knife and a section of ironwood, about to start carving on it—

“Your Highness.” A gentle voice stopped William’s action. A young dwarf with delicate features bent his eyes and said softly, “Let me do the carving. Be careful not to tire yourself out.”

Look at that—this was what a teammate should be! Gentle and considerate, this was what could be called perfect cooperation!

William smiled with genuine feeling, looked at the young dwarf with satisfaction, and readily put down the carving knife. “Then I’ll trouble you, Master Hess.”

The young dwarf smiled and shook his head, continuing kindly, “If Your Highness has time, could you help adjust the furnace fire? That would be of great help to us.”

William felt thoroughly comfortable listening and nodded without hesitation. What was so difficult about this? The easiest step in refining was temperature control—you just had to throw enough black crystal carbon into the smelting furnace—

BOOM! Misty carbon ash erupted from the furnace opening like a volcanic explosion. If one wasn’t careful, it could completely blacken any unlucky person who didn’t retreat in time.

“Your Highness must be careful with temperature control…” The young dwarf looked up to see the pitch-black prince and paused, “Oh my, I was just about to say that this batch of black crystal carbon is of very good quality, so you must be careful not to get burned.”

When the dwarf master’s eyes looked over seriously, they were a deep golden color. At this moment, they concealed mischievous amusement, though his words sounded innocent. “I’m truly sorry, Your Highness, for not reminding you earlier…”

Be friendly, be harmonious, cooperate… William took a deep breath, suppressing the anger about to erupt, standing there with a literally black face, stiffly squeezing out a few words through his teeth. “It’s fine… I’ll leave the rest to you, Master.”

The rather comical scene drew quite a bit of snickering from the stands. They pointed at the center of the field. “Is that Saint Trilley’s first prince? Hahaha, how embarrassing!”

The king sitting in the VIP seats heard a few remarks, his face as black as William’s. He snorted heavily, gripping his scepter tightly in his right hand, and cursed under his breath. “Disgraceful thing.”

Second Prince Louis looked up at his brother, then lowered his head disinterestedly to wipe the longsword in his arms.

It’s just getting stained with some dirt, what’s so surprising about it… Back when he trained with the Countess, he’d been beaten until he lost consciousness, lost blood, and even lost control of his bladder, yet never cared about his appearance.

Because he knew that to climb desperately to heights, dignity was the most useless thing.

“Dignity is the most useless thing.” Catherine, who had been sitting quietly beside him, suddenly said softly, “As long as you stand at the pinnacle in the end, you can make everyone forget the embarrassment of the beginning.”

Louis, having his thoughts spoken aloud, couldn’t help but glance sideways at his sister.

This sister of his wasn’t born of the queen—she was the child of the king and a common maid in the palace.

That common maid was very clever. Not only did she seduce the king without anyone noticing, she also made her own child a princess above all others. Even when the queen wanted to harm her, she was instead the one who designed the queen’s downfall, causing her to lose her life.

Unfortunately, the king eventually discovered traces of her schemes. The king didn’t order her killed, but instead imprisoned her in a dark, damp cell.

But what no one expected was that such a clever and patient woman would commit suicide in that cell just a few days later.

Louis’s thoughts had wandered far. He didn’t resent Catherine, nor could he manage to care much for her.

They weren’t familiar, but Louis inexplicably felt that something was off about Catherine now. A trace of unease was plucking at the warrior’s keen nerves.

“Hahaha look! Why does that team look like they’re about to fight!” The laughter bursting out around him interrupted Louis’s train of thought. He turned to look and spotted familiar figures.

“Are you done yet or not! It’s just cutting the liquid metal according to the shape! Why are you being so cautious—are you weaving a wedding dress!” Bard couldn’t stand Linton’s dawdling manner. While hammering hard at the armor covering the body, he shouted loudly.

Linton didn’t even look up as he shot back. “Don’t disturb me! If I cut it crooked, this outfit will only fit you to wear! Which judge would even look at it favorably!”

Bard was so choked by this that his eyes widened, and his hammering became even more forceful, as if he wanted to grab Linton and hammer him fiercely. He inadvertently glanced to the side and got even angrier. “Ji Chi! Are you here for afternoon tea! What is that on the smelting furnace!”

Ji Chi had placed a crucible-like clay pot on the smelting furnace. The high temperature escaping from the outside of the furnace made the water inside bubble and boil. He took advantage of the heat to add a few cool flowers, and a cool, sweet fragrance quickly spread.

Ji Chi carved the conversion device in his hands, occasionally picking up a teacup to take a sip. He glanced at Bard indifferently. “Didn’t your teachers and parents tell you? You should also properly hydrate during exams—it helps maintain clarity… Ah, people who haven’t experienced exam-oriented education shouldn’t talk too much. Here, have a cup of cooling tea to calm down.”

Bard was so angry at them that his mouth went dry. He really did grab the teacup and gulped it down, and actually felt quite a bit more comfortable, his mindset becoming much calmer.

What he didn’t notice at this moment was that with over a hundred smelting furnaces burning in summer, the arena had long become an even larger smelting furnace, burning everyone’s patience within it.

Not just Bard—many contestants were becoming restless. A small accident, a shouted command, a furrowed brow—all were fuses that could ignite emotions.

This emotion even spread to the stands, causing a massive disturbance that was finally suppressed by the king ordering the guards to intervene.

Aside from the occasional bickering and arguments, Ji Chi and the others still cooperated quite well. Linton drew various depths of magic patterns all over the outfit. Bard was responsible for adding armor defense. Ji Chi was more familiar with conversion—he kept using magic power to sense things, ensuring that different elements could freely surge and transform within the converter.

Chloe sat to one side, chin propped on her hand, boredly waiting for them to finish.

Most of the time had passed, and many competing teams had already completed their refinement. They couldn’t leave yet, so they stood in place laughing loudly, trying to break down other teams’ mentality.

A team near Ji Chi began mocking Chloe, who had finally walked to the workbench.

“Is that girl really participating in the refinement? I thought she was just a decorative vase haha!”

“Right! Look at her technique—it’s too direct! Doesn’t she need to sense the materials’ aura? How could this possibly—”

When Chloe’s hands started moving, they all fell silent.

To allow magic power to flow through the entire outfit, thousands upon thousands of crystal wires that transported magic power were embedded within. They were countless times more complex than modern circuit diagrams, though principles like series and parallel connections were almost identical.

Chloe didn’t need to struggle with those laws named after people. She only needed to know the general direction, and she could derive the entire electrical theory herself.

Her hands were steady and fast. Her slender white fingers wound around the hair-thin, snow-white crystal wires, rapidly embedding them into the liquid metal that hadn’t yet solidified.

Her hands had moved so fast they left afterimages. No naked eye could see her movements clearly, nor understand what exactly she was doing. They only knew that this beautiful girl with an indifferent expression was performing operations that not a single equipment engineer present could imitate.

Ji Chi held his tea and leisurely took a sip, sighing. “Mechanical industrialization truly is a blessing for liberating labor…”

Chloe didn’t pause even once. In less than two hours, she installed the last crystal wire on the conversion device.

The moment it was completed, purple light shone from the outfit—the unique special effect of epic-grade equipment.

Seeing the glow, Bard knew they had succeeded. He sighed with relief, his eyes reflecting the rippling purple light, which also contained some tears.

Linton stared blankly as he stroked it. Great excitement made his body tremble slightly, his eyes carrying a hint of disbelief and deeply hidden ruthlessness.

However, before the dazzling purple light in front of them faded, two more purple lights lit up in succession not far away—

Three pieces of epic-grade equipment flickered across the field, like the most conspicuous stars in the night sky.