The Almighty Ring

“I don’t have doubts about your physical conditioning. But you’re no use in a fight. No battle awareness, no instinct. We’ll have to work on that!” Chen Xi said to Jiang Fei.

“I understand!” Jiang Fei nodded. He had already prepared himself for this long ago. After all, he had absolutely no experience in such matters. If he wanted to achieve something, he would have to work harder!

“Mmm! Let’s not even delve into technique just yet. Today, I’ll help you develop some combat awareness and hone your instincts!”

Chen Xi smiled knowingly.

“How?” Jiang Fei asked stupidly.

“Do you watch martial arts movies?” Chen Xi smiled and asked.

“Yes!” Jiang Fei nodded, but he did not know what Chen Xi had in mind.

“Then you have probably heard this phrase before: Before you learn how to hit others…” Chen Xi said slowly.

“Learn how to get hit first…” Jiang Fei subconsciously followed.

“Bingo! You got it right! Your reward… Starts now!”

Chen Xi laughed and charged at him.

“Damn! Slow down!” Jiang Fei had a bad feeling about this. He quickly took a step back, but she had gained far too much ground. Although Jiang Fei was faster than Chen Xi, his mind was a mess and did not know how to command his body. Her elbow struck Jiang Fei’s shoulder as she once again swept his legs from beneath him.

Jiang Fei went down to the ground with another ‘ah.’

“Get up! Again!” By then, Chen Xi had already entered her instructor state. The smile on her face was gone, and she was barking orders at Jiang Fei.

“Okay!” Jiang Fei nodded. Chen Xi knew how to hold back. Her attacks were painful, but Jiang Fei remained relatively unharmed. Moreover, Jiang Fei knew that one could never pick up martial arts without suffering.

The training course went on. Most of it comprised of Jiang Fei’s back slamming on the mat and him working to get back up.

Jiang Fei could not tell if it was the additional ten points of Intelligence and Spirit or if he was born with talent. He started making vast improvements. In the beginning, he seemed to fall to the ground upon Chen Xi’s intent. Eventually, he was able to make use of his sheer speed and dexterity and evade Chen Xi for a short while. Although the skill gap between both of them was still cavernous, Jiang Fei’s progress came as a huge surprise to Chen Xi.

Four hours of merciless beating later, Han Tianyu finally came to pick him up.

“Ah Fei, how was the training?” Han Tianyu asked smugly.

“F*ck you…” Jiang Fei could not even spare the strength to rant at him about his little trick…

“Ah Fei, when you get home, take a hot bath to loosen up your muscles. I’m usually always here on the weekends. If you have time, you can come over and receive more training!” Even Chen Xi had started breathing hard. Her nose and temple dripped with sweat. After all, beating a human punching bag up for hours straight was no cakewalk. Moreover, she had to constantly hold back, and it was actually more tiring.

“Okay!” Jiang Fei nodded. The few short hours had taught Jiang Fei much about combat. His technique was just as sloppy as before, but Jiang Fei could now sense danger, even from the unseen.

“Let’s go! I’ll send you home!” Han Tianyu gestured for Jiang Fei to leave. Then, he turned to Chen Xi and said, “Silly, you should go shopping more often. Stop staying in this practice room all day. If you become that good at martial arts, who would dare to marry you in the future?”

“Why do you care? You’re not the one marrying me!” Chen Xi rolled her eyes at Han Tianyu.

“It’s for your own good!”

Han Tianyu smiled, then turned to Jiang Fei and said, “Let’s go!”

When they returned to Han Tianyu’s car, Jiang Fei finally regained the energy to open his mouth.

“Big brother Yu, you’re really mean. You conveniently neglected to inform that Xiao Xi was that good, huh?”

“Hoho, if I warned you beforehand, what surprise would there be for you?”

“Your sister…” Jiang Fei rolled his eyes.

“Yeah! Xiao Xi’s my sister!” Han Tianyu said innocently, mimicking Xiong Er from the other day. Then, he began to laugh his head off.

“Quit laughing… just drive already, my mother needs me home soon!” Annoyed, Jiang Fei gave Han Tianyu a shove. The man was laughing so hard that he was almost out of breath. Although Jiang Fei had informed beforehand, it was already getting rather late. His mother was worried, so she had given him a call, urging him to go home!

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop laughing…” After what seemed like ages, Han Tianyu finally stopped laughing. Then, he started the car and sent Jiang Fei home.

When he got home, Jiang Fei rapidly gobbled down a small serving. As he had spent quite a lot of time today at the Martial Arts Center, it was already late by the time he got home. It was already past ten o’clock. While eating, his mother nagged at the top of his lowered head. Then, he quickly went back to his room.

Jiang Fei gently touched the mysterious ring on his hand and logged into the game once again.

As soon as he logged in, Jiang Fei went straight to the bank and extracted the materials handed to him by the Magithieves. Jiang Fei had promised Lady Casanova 50 Blue grade shoes, so Lady Casanova had given him enough materials of 15 sets of that. A total of 750 sets of materials!

With that large number of materials at hand, Jiang Fei got to work on the anvil.

“Ding! You have successfully crafted Crystallized Boots! Profession Experience +20!”

“Ding! Smithing failed…”

“Ding! You have successfully crafted Crystallized Boots! Profession Experience +20!”

…

“Ding! Congratulations Player Verdure Glider for leveling up your Profession! Your current Profession level – Divine Blacksmith (Apprentice)!”

“Ha! My Profession actually leveled up!” Jiang Fei was happy. He immediately tried to read up on more information.

It took some time before Jiang Fei’s Profession level rose from Apprentice Divine Blacksmith to Novitiate Divine Blacksmith. His Smithing and Jewelry Crafting Success Rates had shot up by 10% and his Upgrade Bonus Rate gained another 2% success rate.

Also, Ice Burst’s cooldown had been reduced by one second. It was not much, but it still improved Jiang Fei’s combat effectiveness! After all, Divine Blacksmith was a Profession. So, when he leveled up, the improvement of his production skills was far more significant than the increase in his combat effectiveness!

After he finished reading the details of his Profession advancement, Jiang Fei continued to craft more Crystallized Boots. Sure enough, there was a visible increase in his success rate.

The equipment’s high level meant a horrendously low success rate but Jiang Fei was still churning them out at close to 30% success rate, and his Upgrade Bonus Rate was about 15%!

As he smithed and smithed, time flew by. Crystallized Boots was a Level 25 Blue grade equipment, so he needed half a minute to craft one. By the time Jiang Fei used up all 750 sets of materials, six hours had passed!

“Damn! No wonder all the major guilds recruited so many Profession players. If one equipment takes 30 minutes to make, only a few could be produced a day!” Jiang Fei complained.

“Fortunately, Luck is on my side. If I had the Success Rate of an ordinary Profession player, I might have died of frustration!”

Having learned of the challenges of craftsmen, Jiang Fei was grateful for not having been put through the experience.

Jiang Fei stepped back to survey his work of the day. Out of 750 sets of materials, 240 pieces of equipment had come out whole. After all, such fine equipment had a low rate of success. Fortunately, Jiang Fei’s Profession level had increased. Otherwise, one could only dream of getting 200 pieces from him!