Chapter 165: Earning My Own Money

Chapter 165: Earning My Own Money

The eighth of August.

Levi withdrew from the dreamscape.

[Crystal Meditation Method (Tier 2)] 312/10000

[Fireball Spell (Tier 1 Grandmaster)] 9456/10000

[Basic Alchemy (Tier 1)] 0/10000

...

Lately, Levi had spent his days deducing the Fireball spell and practicing basic alchemy, hoping the former would soon reach perfection.

On the other hand, he was also preparing for the refinement of mithril.

By now, Levi felt his preparations were sufficient.

The elemental furnace could now run steadily and successfully refine metal.

Over the past few days, Levi had experimented with refining ordinary iron ore.

Through trial and error, he had already succeeded.

Today, Levi intended to begin refining the mithril ore.

For safety's sake, he requested an alchemy laboratory from the Mage Tower.

Lest an unforeseen accident occur and blow his own room to nothingness.

The magical steward spoke: "Please proceed to Alchemy Lab No. 6. The usage fee for the alchemy laboratory is 3 contribution points per day."

Levi paid the 3 contribution points and arrived at Alchemy Lab No. 6.

He checked the room once over to ensure there were no surveillance magic eyes.

He then began using the pyrometallurgical method to extract the mithril ore.

Casting the Fireball spell, he conjured an elemental furnace spanning half a meter in diameter.

The temperature within the elemental furnace could reach several thousand degrees.

Levi took out the smallest piece of mithril ore and placed it inside the elemental furnace.

Sizzle!

Instantly, a burst of flame erupted from the mithril ore.

After a moment, the flames actually died down.

The ore crumbled and pulverized, bit by bit.

Levi utilized the high temperatures to temper the mithril ore, while simultaneously removing the impurities produced after combustion according to the pyrometallurgical method.

Three hours later, the room was covered in a layer of black powder.

These were all the impurities generated during the tempering process.

A portion was soil, rock, and sand, while another portion consisted of other metallic minerals and detritus.

After three hours of smelting, the fist-sized mithril ore was reduced to a bead-sized globule of liquid silver metal.

This was the mithril initially extracted from the mithril ore.

Its purity was exceedingly low.

It required further processing before usable mithril of 999 purity could be obtained.

If it could achieve 9999 purity, the value of the mithril would double.

Seeing that the ordinary impurities were mostly removed, Levi began the second step.

The pyrometallurgical method dictated different refining techniques for the second step based on the characteristics of different substances.

Levi had consulted the alchemy reference materials recommended in basic alchemy.

He understood the method and principles of refining mithril.

Utilizing mithril's characteristic of having an extremely high affinity for magic elements, he poured a massive amount of fire elements into the mithril.

Mithril could withstand the infusion of a vast quantity of fire elements.

The deeper impurities would be further destroyed by the immense volume of fire elements.

Before refining the mithril, Levi paused to rest for a moment, meditating to recover his mana.

Three hours of continuous smelting had drained his mana to nearly nothing.

And this was merely a fist-sized piece of mithril ore.

The remaining three pieces of mithril ore were all larger than this one, requiring even longer to smelt.

The burden was heavy and the road was long.

Half an hour later, Levi's mana was completely restored.

He then began refining the mithril.

As he infused the fire elements into the mithril, it emanated a strange silver radiance.

The more fire elements infused, the higher the temperature of the mithril rose, and it began to melt.

The surface also began to gradually exude some black impurities.

Using his spiritual power, Levi separated the impurities.

After repeatedly refining it more than twenty times, the mithril metal finally revealed its natural texture.

Faint lines resembling magical runes appeared upon the mithril.

This signified that the mithril had reached 999 purity.

Mithril was a peculiar metal.

It could fuse with the vast majority of metals, and after fusion, it could enhance the characteristics of those other metals.

In its elemental state, the arrangement of mithril's microscopic particles was very distinct, creating faint magical patterns upon its surface.

The higher the purity, the clearer the magical patterns became.

The manifestation of magical patterns meant the purity had reached 999. It could already be used to forge magical equipment.

If one wished to forge superior magical equipment, they naturally had to use mithril of higher purity.

Levi continued to attempt the purification of the mithril, hoping to obtain mithril of 9999 purity.

Regrettably, after refining it more than twenty times again, the magical patterns did not grow any deeper.

The impurities that could be refined out also became fewer and fewer.

With his current method, he could not purify the mithril to 9999 purity.

He had to employ a better method of purification.

This was merely the most basic method of basic alchemy to purify mithril ore.

A more advanced purification method was always in the hands of alchemists, a closely guarded secret.

Li Wei could never find such knowledge for free within the library.

After eight grueling hours, Li Wei finally obtained a piece of mithril metal, no larger than a fingernail.

Weighing it on the scale inside the alchemy laboratory, the mithril came to 45.56 grams.

This tiny fragment was worth 341.7 gold coins.

Such was the allure of mithril!

Most crucially, unlike other goods, mithril never faced the fear of being unsellable.

No matter how much one produced, the market would always absorb it—absolute hard currency.

No mage would ever refuse mithril; they only cursed themselves for not having enough coin to buy it.

A smile spread across Li Wei’s face as he exhaled deeply.

“It wasn’t easy!”

Had he not attempted to refine mithril to a purity of 9999, wasting extra time,

he might have completed the process in roughly six hours.

For the next several days, Li Wei remained locked inside the alchemy laboratory, purifying mithril ore day and night.

Without sleep, through four long days and nights,

he finally refined all four pieces of mithril ore in his possession.

Upon finishing, he collapsed onto the floor of the lab and fell fast asleep.

It was the first time since acquiring the Great Dream Soaring Technique that he did not enter a dream.

His sleep was deep and peaceful.

Only when the magical steward repeatedly reminded him that his time in the alchemy laboratory had expired did Li Wei awaken.

Before leaving, he took care to weigh all the refined mithril.

Altogether, 442.76 grams.

Worth over three thousand gold coins.

Satisfied, Li Wei departed.

“Hahahaha!”

Walking down the path, his face lit with joy.

He ran into Guze, who, noticing Li Wei’s unusually good mood, asked curiously, “What happened? Why are you so happy?”

Li Wei grinned and replied, “Good news.”

“I made a fortune!”

Guze looked puzzled. “You’ve been inside the Mage Tower these past few days? Whose money did you earn?”

“My own,” Li Wei said.

Guze shook his head, not quite understanding.

Li Wei had calculated earlier: if the refined mithril exceeded four hundred grams,

then spending gold to learn basic alchemy would not only break even—but turn a profit.

Now, there was no doubt—he had gained.

Saving was earning.

If he had handed these mithril ores to someone else for refinement,

he would have had to pay ten percent of the mithril as commission—over three hundred gold coins’ worth.

Yet he’d spent only three hundred gold coins to purchase the basic alchemy manual.

He’d actually earned dozens of coins extra.

Of course, Li Wei was delighted.

Now that the mithril was refined, he began pondering the crafting of the Sourceheart Necklace.

The necklace required three hundred grams of mithril.

He had more than enough.

“Now, the question is—who should I ask to craft it?”

(End of Chapter)