Death... and me

The first part of the forging process occurred, as Rean mentioned. Calamara spent most of his time infusing his own Fire Element into the shield. Rean also offered a few of his thoughts to Calamara about the design, changing it to better adapt to Calamara's traits.

Of course, the only thing Calamara saw was the Fire Element he was gathering being taken away. Rean made sure that he couldn't see anything else regarding the forging process, just in case. Once that part was over, Rean brought Calamara outside the private workshop and continued the forging process.

Rean wasn't afraid of other people seeing him either, as the workstations were protected by formations that prevented Divine Sense and Soul Power Scanning. Not to mention that Sister Orb could at least check if any other kind of formation was being used there.

However, Rean reached a part of the forging process where he was at a crossroads. 'Hmm...should I use the Earth's Remnants on this first piece? Using the normal alloy material is enough to bring my Golden Initial-level equipment to being almost equivalent to something at the Golden High-level in power. If I do that, then this shield would just be like Roan's scythe and my new Black Star. It would definitely be strong enough to butt heads with Golden High-level equipment, which was much better.'

The problem was that Rean didn't have much Earth's Remnants left. After all, the Cosgles Race had been getting rid of it as they had no use for the material. 'I wonder if they were able to accumulate more in the meantime. However, they did tell me that it was a quick process. If they did, it probably wouldn't be more than a few kilograms either.'

It was then that Rean had an idea. 'Right! Why didn't I think of it before? It's the perfect advertisement. Hahaha!' With that in mind, Rean immediately took some of the Earth's Remnants he had and used it to create the alloy. Sure enough, it worked perfectly fine with Calamara's Amaka's Vulcan Ore, just like it did with his other tests. 'This is really the god's component.'

Rean came out of his workshop around a day later. He wanted to make the best shield he could, so it took longer than normal. Calamara, obviously, was there. "Oh, you're finally out!" He immediately noticed the shield on Rean's hand, and his eyes lit up in response. "Quick, quick, give it to me."

"What 'give it to me'? You must be dreaming! Aren't you forgetting something?" Rean then extended his hand and said, "100 Rank Two Divine Stones! Pass it over."

"100!" Calamara almost vomited blood. That was more or less the entire income of three years taking missions for the Sacred Land. Sure, this was the Sacred Land. Nevertheless, Divine Stones at Rank Two or above were hard to get. "You're the crazy one! There's no way this shield is worth so much!"

Rean smiled in response. "So much? Hahaha! Do you know how lucky you are? I decided long before that the first three pieces of equipment I forge would be 'Special Editions.' Believe it or not, I'm charging you the price of common equipment. This Special Edition would normally cost 300 Rank Two Divine Stones! But since you and the other two guys are my first clients, I'm making an exception."

"What?! You must be out of your mind! Do you think someone will pay you 300 Rank Two Divine Stones? It doesn't matter how good your Elemental Gathering method is. It's definitely not worth such a value. With that amount, I can even buy real Golden High-level equipment. It's just that it would be useless since I don't have the necessary cultivation to use it."

Rean nodded and asked in response, "And what if I tell you that this shield of yours is equivalent to a High-level one even though it's at the Initial-level? Can you imagine how much of an advantage you would have in a battle against someone of your own level?"

Calamara couldn't help but laugh out loud after that. "Hahaha! Bullshit! There's no way this shield is that good. If it was, let alone 300, I would give you all the 453 Rank Two Divine Stones I have!"

Rean smiled in response. "Oh! Is that so? Well, it seems like the difference between a piece of equipment that can display the power of a High-level while still being in the Initial-level is worth a lot more than I predicted." Rean heard from Ghihara that his evaluation of that sword should be around 100 Rank Two Divine Stones. That's why he thought his special edition would be worth around three times more. It seems like he underestimated the value of Golden Initial-level equipment that could match Golden High-level equipment in power.

Rean then offered, "Let's do it like this. I'll let you test this shield of mine so that you can comprehend its power firsthand. If it turns out that it really is as good as a High-level one, then you will have to pay me that."

"This..." Calamara was taken aback by Rean's confidence. However, he quickly recovered. "And what if it doesn't?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I'll give this shield to you for free."

Calamara thought it to be weird. He could just lie and say that the shield didn't reach the level Rean mentioned. However...

"Oh, and by the way," Rean added. "You better not try lying to me. After all, I'll be making more Special Editions. You don't really think you'll be able to hide the truth when the other Special Editions show that I wasn't wrong, right?"

Calamara couldn't help but feel a chill on his back after that. Reputation meant a lot in the Sacred Land. At least it did for the righteous path cultivators. If that really happened and others found he lied... "Hm-hmph! I'm a Sacred Land disciple. If it's at the level you mentioned, I'll definitely pay the price." He couldn't step back anymore.

Well, Calamara also didn't see how he could end up on the losing side. If Rean's shield was really as good as he said, 453 Rank Two Divine Stones would still be a bargain! "Give the shield to me. I'll invite a friend to test it out and let you know the result."

Rean nodded and passed the shield over.

Around two hours later, Rean became 453 Rank Two Divine Stones richer.