Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 135 - Forging and fragrance

Yang Yi brought the crystal ball into the witch's laboratory as well.

That way, if there were any islands nearby or other large obstacles that appeared, he could detect them immediately.

After that, he began thinking about what kind of gear he could make with the crystals.

Although the moulds were made by Suna, Yang Yi planned to design the templates himself. For example, using a fine steel longsword as the template, he could forge a crystal one.

Even a roughly made crystal longsword, once polished and refined, still counted as a quality item with improved lethality.

【Name: Crystal Longsword】

【Type: Treasure】【Quality: Fine】【Description: A longsword forged from special crystals. Lightweight, capable of rapid consecutive slashes, extremely sharp, but slightly lacking in toughness.】

The system didn’t rate the crystal longsword very highly, likely due to its fragility.

A fine-quality melee weapon like this could sell for around 1,500 Shell Coins at the moment; without polishing, it would only fetch about 1,000.

Yang Yi followed the process to make one, it took him about an hour. With more experience, he could shave off some time, but not by much.

He had tried letting the skeletal arms do the work, but they could only handle repetitive, brainless tasks. They had no concept of adjusting force or angle while grinding the blade.

So manual crafting was still the way to go.

After figuring out the production capacity and process, Yang Yi went back to the ship's hold to check on the crystal reserves.

There were a total of eight tons. Since the crystals were light, they took up considerable space — about four cubic metres — enough to forge a large number of weapons.

(For reference: one cubic metre of water weighs about a ton, while a cubic metre of iron is about eight tons.)

Yang Yi planned to take advantage of the crystals’ light weight and hardness to experiment with making greatswords and shields.

Plate armour was also a possibility, but the process was too complicated, it required numerous moulds, the moving joints were hard to fabricate, and the interior needed cushioning.

He considered it briefly, then gave up on the idea of making it.

Instead, he asked Suna to make a mold using the “Ironbreaker” sword as a template.

After pouring in a large amount of molten crystal to shape it, a rough greatsword was forged.

Then came polishing and refining, the whole process took about two hours.

Once completed, the greatsword was rated by the system as a high-quality treasure, a sign he was headed in the right direction.

【Name: Ironbreaker (Imitation)】

【Type: Treasure】【Quality: Superior】【Description: A crystal greatsword forged with reference to Ironbreaker using a special crystal. Lightweight, uneven surface, thick and durable. Sharpened after polishing, delivering impressive damage. Can be wielded with Strength 5, swung easily with Strength 6. Minor edge chips don’t significantly reduce its effectiveness, particularly good for fighting large, unarmored creatures.】

Yang Yi gave it a few test swings, it felt solid. One strike should be enough to sever a pale worm’s tentacle.

“I’ll keep one to practise swordsmanship,” Yang Yi thought.

But he didn’t plan to use it in actual combat.

If he ever needed to wield a greatsword, that meant even flintlock guns wouldn’t be effective against the enemy, so he’d definitely have to rely on the real Ironbreaker.

This imitation wouldn’t make the cut.

As for the price, Yang Yi had already decided he'd list it at a premium in Shell Coins, about 5,000 above the market average for superior-grade polearms.

Still, it wouldn’t be hard to sell, after all, it was the only greatsword on the market that only required Strength 5 to wield!

Yang Yi compared the crystal consumption of the greatsword versus the longsword and found that longswords were more profitable.

After all, the amount of crystal used for one greatsword could make more than twenty crystal longswords.

But once he factored in time and sales cycle, the situation flipped.

Crystal longswords didn’t stand out in the market. There were already plenty of fine-grade weapons like them, they’d sell slowly.

There was a good chance he’d still be stuck with them when he entered the Fertile Seas.

And by then… he would not get the chance to sell them at all!

All things considered, Yang Yi chose the faster, more profitable route of making greatswords.

He also crafted a shield.

The original design was a small round shield, but after enlarging and stretching it, it became an oval shape, about one meter long.

He adjusted the thickness several times, melting and reforging, and eventually produced a superior-quality piece of defensive gear. frёeωebɳovel.com

【Name: Crystal Greatshield】

【Type: Treasure】【Quality: Superior】【Description: A greatshield forged from a special crystal. Lightweight yet durable. Usable with Strength 5. The smooth surface makes attacks more likely to glance off.】

“Not bad at all!”

Yang Yi’s base Strength had reached 6, so wielding the greatshield was effortless for him.

He could keep it stored in his ring most of the time, and pull it out at critical moments to effectively reduce incoming damage.

Yang Yi planned to keep a few shields for himself, so even if one got shattered, he’d have spares ready.

Besides, Suna could also use this kind of greatshield, making it a solid product all around.

It was priced similarly to the greatsword since it consumed nearly the same amount of crystal to make.

Yang Yi estimated the total amount of crystal he had — enough to forge 42 greatswords or greatshields. After setting aside five shields and one greatsword for personal use, he’d still have 36 items available for sale.

Converted into Shell Coins, that would be 720,000, pushing Yang Yi’s balance close to 2 million, allowing him to go on a shopping spree!

He glanced at the time and noticed there was less than an hour until sunset.

They’d been sailing for most of the day, yet the nautical chart had barely changed, nothing had shown up. But that was normal for seafaring.

Yang Yi looked over at Suna, planning to invite her to dinner.

At the moment, she was feeding long-legged sardines with gourmet mushrooms and recording the changes.

“Any discoveries?” Yang Yi asked.

“These mushrooms seem to attract other creatures too. For example, the long-legged sardines, they’ll choose to eat mushrooms over black bread.”

Suna pointed to the breadcrumbs in the glass tank, not a single fish paid them any attention. In contrast, the bits of mushroom thrown in were snatched up instantly.

She closed the lid on the tank to prevent the sardines from jumping out, and planned to feed them mushrooms for a few days to observe further.

Luckily, those little guys didn’t eat much, one large mushroom could feed them for a whole week.

The two left the cabin and headed to the deck.

Originally, Yang Yi had planned to grill some fish, but when he pulled in the net, he was surprised to find seven or eight plump, meaty one-armed crabs tangled in it.

So, grilled fish turned into steamed crab. These things didn’t store well and had to be eaten quickly. The two steamed the crabs, then dismantled them, extracting all the crab roe, crab fat, and meat.

“Don’t you feel… not hungry?” Suna suddenly asked.

Yang Yi nodded.

He’d noticed it too.

After working all day, he surprisingly had no appetite even though he was a little hungry.

It was as if the crab roe and meat in front of him were just lumps of dirt, completely unappetising.

“It must be the effect of the gourmet mushroom. It’s non-toxic, but its aroma makes people crave it like crazy. Being exposed to that scent for too long dulls your appetite for other food. Subconsciously, you start thinking, ‘this doesn’t taste as good as the mushroom,’”

Suna speculated.

To test her theory, she picked up a piece of crab meat and put it in her mouth, chewing with a frown. The crab tasted like wax.

Same for Yang Yi.

But he was a man of action. He quickly downed a bottle of appetite-enhancing potion, and suddenly the crab meat tasted delicious again.

Suna followed his lead and drank one too, neutralising the mushroom’s lingering effects.

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