Starlight Crafting Plate

After lessons ended, they have gathered in a small restaurant. After they have eaten Nie Li took out the soul crystals he had brought. He explained, "These are new, unused soul crystals. I want each of you to take one and inject your soul force into it."

"What? Why?" asked Du Ze. Their soul force was evaluated when they enrolled in school. Why would Nie Li want to test them again?

"Unused soul crystals show more information than just the amount of soul force in your bodies. It will also show your aptitude, which would allow me to find the best technique for each of you," answered Nie Li patiently.

"Okay," Each of them took one crystal and began injecting their power into it. One by one 5 crystals started glowing. Nie Li inspected each crystal and wrote down their aptitudes.

"Tomorrow, I will bring you your techniques," Nie Li said, "I have some business right now. See you tomorrow"

"Okay, Bye," boys said their farewells, and Nie Li set off towards the library. He wanted to look through the books on cultivation. Both in current and ancient languages. He wanted to know the level of cultivation techniques they offered. He didn't need the cultivation techniques themselves. He had thousands of cultivation techniques for all situations, but they might be useful if he wanted to share outside his group of friends or when he expanded his "study group".

He had spent half an hour looking through them and it was as he expected. Most of the techniques were poor, but there were some, that stood out. They weren't comparable to what he had but they still were better than what Glory City offered. They would also help him obscure somewhat the source of his techniques. Many people would assume that he had found them in Ancient Books.

He had some time before his meeting with Xiao Ning'er, so he decided to visit the market

He wanted to see the prices for inscription equipment and look around a bit. Maybe he will find something interesting. During the Age of Darkness, people flocked to the city with everything they could carry. Many of them were powerful and rich demon spiritualists and they had many treasures. After so many years many of their descendants were impoverished and sold those treasures.

Of course, if it's something interesting, big families quickly buy it off. But sometimes it's not easy to recognize the treasures, especially with so much knowledge lost. And Nie Li is an expert on treasures. But right now he doesn't have much money so he won't be able to splurge.

As he expected Inscription tools and materials were very expensive. So he decided to visit the flea market. That part of the market was a bit jumbled and poor. Glory City has millions of citizens so even though this wasn't the only market in the city it was big.

He didn't have time to explore it, so he just randomly looked around hoping to find something interesting. He bought some interesting demon crystals. They later could be used for enchanting. Most of the things were junk. He decided to leave when he heard shouting.

"You lied to me! You said It's a star metal and could be made into a good breastplate," A big man was shouting at a merchant. Merchant's stall looked better than his neighbors and he had better wares too.

"Don't blame me if you can't work with a metal," Merchant answered indifferently "If you were a better blacksmith, it wouldn't have been a problem."

"A better blacksmith?" shouted the man again throwing a thick square metal in front of the merchant. "My master couldn't melt it."

"Well, your master must be a poor blacksmith as well" replied the merchant unperturbed. It looked like he was experienced in refusing his angry customers.

"Poor blacksmith!?" The man was even angrier now, "Master blacksmith of the Secret Treasure Pavilion?"

Now the merchant looked worried. Insulting some no-name blacksmith was one thing, but insulting a high-ranked member of the Secret Treasure Pavilion is completely another thing. They were force comparable to the Alchemy Association just below three Major Families.

"Of course not, how could I say that" he changed his tune quickly to respectful, "If Secret Treasure Pavilion's Master Blacksmith himself said it then it must be true. I'll take it back" He took out from his interspatial ring 20 cards of thousand spirit coin nominal "Would a customer buy something else?"

"Hmph," man simply took the money and left.

The merchant looked downcast as he took the metal plate. It looked like today wasn't his day. That's when Nie Li approached him.

"Is it true that metal can't be melted?" he asked.

The merchant turned professional in an instant, "Absolutely! Even The Secret Treasure Pavilion's best blacksmiths couldn't melt it."

"If it can't be melted, it must be very hard, right?"

"Naturally. It's the hardest metal you can find."

"Then, can it be used as a shield?" Nie li asked.

The merchant looked at an unwieldy 15 cm thick small plate and Nie Li's small stature dubiously and said, "Of course! It is an ideal metal for that."

"Okay, I'll give you two thousand for that."

"What? It's twenty thousand, not two" shouted the merchant.

"Well, I have to get some metal added to the sides it's too small" answered Nie Li "And I don't have twenty thousand anyway"

In the end, Nie Li was able to trade it down to six thousand. He paid and left with a plate in his hands. Truly his luck is wondrous. If it's like this always he should become a permanent resident of flea markets and auctions.

This plate was an artifact called Starlight Crafting Plate. It was an Ancient Divine Artifact like the Nightmare Demon Pot. It was the tool of artificers. In another word, it could create artifacts. Granted, not in this world, because it requires Heavenly Energy to create artifacts. But it can be used to create enchanted objects!

It will only require materials, knowledge of inscriptions, and soul force. Even though it's not as autonomous as Nightmare Demon Pot, it can create artifacts up to the Divine level if the user has the skills. Right now Nie Li can create Bronze rank equipment maximum, but considering the cost of the Bronze rank armors begin from 100 thousand Nie Li won the jackpot.

'Why wasn't it bought out before?' thought Nie Li. Even though they couldn't use it, it looked mysterious enough. Powerful and rich liked to collect mysterious things. Maybe because of its inertness. It required a certain level of knowledge of Inscription Patterns to activate. Without activation, it was just a useless metal plate. It was something like an exam for the user. If the user can't activate it, then they are not worthy to use it.

What Nie Li didn't know was that a couple of hours later after he bought it, that blacksmith returned to the market to buy the plate back. His master and the Secret Treasures Pavillion were really interested in this mysterious metal. But by then it was already late. The plate had a new, more deserving owner.

Nie Li tried to put the plate into his bag, but it didn't fit. He should buy an interspatial ring. Or to make one, he thought excitedly. There was a couple with a minor space-time affinity among the demon crystals he bought. He could extract it with the help of the Starlight Crafting Plate and create an Interspatial ring. He just has to create an Inscription pattern for that or copy it from another ring. The plate had an internal pocket space that worked as a 3D printer from Robert's world. It didn't create artifacts itself. It just streamlined the process for the artificer.

He had to return to his dorm to leave the Plate because he didn't want to carry a big lump of metal to a meeting with a Xiao Ning'er. So he was a bit late.