The light-blue progress bar crept forward slowly, the decoding speed growing ever slower. After reaching 90%, it would advance by barely a sliver every ten-plus seconds.
"It shouldn't fail, right?" Shi Feng watched the nearly complete progress bar and couldn't help feeling a knot of tension in his chest.
A blank Sub-profession Blueprint generally guaranteed a 100% improvement to items produced by that profession. But attempting to enhance just a portion of a composite blueprint like this — nobody had ever tried it before.
After all, a blank Sub-profession Blueprint could only be used once. If it failed, the blueprint would be gone for good. No one was willing to take such a gamble lightly, since it concerned a profession promotion — advancing a single rank could elevate one's standing by a huge margin.
After waiting for more than ten minutes, the progress bar finally finished decoding.
At that moment, a system notification chimed in Shi Feng's ear.
System: Congratulations! You have successfully enhanced the Hell Chariot's Power Source. You have obtained the Dark-Gold-rank Hell Chariot Power Source Blueprint.
System: Congratulations! You have created a Dark-Gold-rank Hell Chariot Power Source Blueprint.
"Excellent! It finally worked!" Shi Feng watched the blank blueprint as the schematic and text began to materialize on its surface, his heart swelling with elation.
Now that the Dark-Gold-rank blueprint had been created, all he needed was to push his forging proficiency to 100,000 points and he would be able to advance to Intermediate Master Blacksmith without any trouble.
In the Divine Realm, most Master Blacksmiths had long since met the proficiency requirement but simply couldn't create three Gold-grade items or one Dark-Gold-rank item, which was why they couldn't promote to Intermediate Master. His situation was the exact opposite…
Shi Feng immediately opened the Dark-Gold-rank Power Source Blueprint's stats and eagerly inspected them.
Enhancing the Power Source could dramatically improve the chariot's energy transmission, which would not only boost its movement speed but also amplify the power of its magical cannons.
"As expected — the enhancement is incredible!" Shi Feng stared at the improved Power Source and inwardly marveled.
The original Gold-grade Power Source had an energy output of 200 to 300 points per second, which was distributed across the entire Hell Chariot for defense, movement, attacks, and everything else. After the enhancement, the output had jumped to 320 to 400 points per second — a performance increase of over 30%. Moreover, the energy flow was far more stable, rivaling the Power Source of an Advanced Chariot.
An Advanced Chariot's Power Source was Dark-Gold-rank, but the materials required for one were far more precious and rare. The enhanced Hell Chariot Power Source still used the original materials, with only an increased quantity — yet it could rival an Advanced Chariot's Power Source. That was an astonishing feat in itself.
After all, Advanced Chariots were weapons the great empires deployed against Legendary monsters. They were not something players could just get their hands on.
"Guild Leader, I've gathered all the materials you requested through Black Wing City. Also, Zhuo Yuan and the others have already returned from Seaside Town. Shall I have them come over now?" Melancholy Smile suddenly walked into the Forging Room, saw the delighted Shi Feng, and reported in a measured tone.
"Mm, have them come over right away." Shi Feng nodded.
The blueprint had been enhanced — all that remained was to actually build the Hell Chariot.
During this period, the Candlelight Trading Company had leveraged the Titan Holy City and the meticulous guidance of Zhuo Yuan, that genius Engineer, to train three Engineering Masters. That met the minimum requirement for constructing a Hell Chariot. As for Shi Feng himself, although he wasn't yet an Intermediate Master Blacksmith, the effects of the Philosopher's Hand had already granted him the capabilities of an Intermediate Master. On top of that, since he was the one who had created the Power Source, his success rate would be even higher than other Intermediate Masters.
Before long, Zhuo Yuan and the other two walked into the special-grade Forging Room where Shi Feng stood.
Looking at Shi Feng beside the stone table, the group felt a mix of nervousness and excitement despite having already become Engineering Masters — though Zhuo Yuan handled it a bit better than the others.
Out there in the wider world, as Engineering Masters, even the leaders of top-tier guilds would treat them with the utmost respect.
But within the Candlelight Trading Company, they knew full well how formidable Shi Feng was. Master-class lifestyle players were all well and good, but to Shi Feng, they were nothing special. With the Candlelight Trading Company's strength, producing even more Masters in the future would be no problem at all — and they themselves were living proof of that.