The Blacksmith's Association, inside a forging room.
Shi Feng casually pulled out a batch of stone materials and dumped them onto the stone table.
A single batch contained a hundred pieces of stone, completely covering the large round table, with some even falling to the floor.
"Now it's time to see what you can do." Shi Feng took out the bright crimson Philosopher's Stone and smiled faintly.
If anyone else saw the Philosopher's Stone, the consequences would be absolutely disastrous. That was precisely why he had rented a private forging room—without his permission, no one could possibly get inside.
Shi Feng grabbed a stone from the table and touched it with the Philosopher's Stone.
System: Would you like to use the Philosopher's Stone for Elemental Refining?
Shi Feng immediately selected yes. The Philosopher's Stone then emitted a faint crimson glow, and a mysterious power flowed into the stone.
Crack!
The fist-sized stone instantly crumbled into a pile of yellow sand, scattering across the floor. Nothing was obtained.
However, Shi Feng simply smiled and didn't seem to care at all. He picked up another piece of stone and tried again.
Ore was, after all, precious. Even a common Copper Ore had a purchase price of 2 copper, and selling it to NPCs was worth 1 copper. A batch of 100 copper ores sold to guild members would fetch 200 copper, and people would fight over the chance to buy them. That was vastly more expensive compared to a batch of stone materials worth only 10 copper.
Elemental Refining essentially extracted metallic elements from stone materials. But some stones simply didn't contain any metallic elements, so they naturally turned into piles of yellow sand. Failure was completely normal.
Crack, crack, crack...
After ten consecutive attempts without producing a single piece of ore, Shi Feng was a bit frustrated. The success rate seemed rather low.
He even suspected that these stones had been picked up by players in some desert, which was why every single one turned to dust.
"Relax, relax. There are plenty more stones." Shi Feng took several deep breaths and encouraged himself.
Then he picked up yet another piece of stone and tried again.
Crack!
This time the stone crumbled into a pile of yellow sand, but nestled within the sand was a purplish-red metallic chunk—Copper Ore.
Having obtained the first piece of Copper Ore put Shi Feng at ease, and he began to speed up his movements.
Before long, every piece of stone on the table had been reduced to yellow sand. In total, he extracted 23 pieces of Copper Ore and 2 pieces of Bronze Ore. Bronze Ore was worth three times more than Copper Ore—3 copper when sold to NPCs. Because Bronze Ore was rare, guilds would pay 7 copper per piece to acquire it.
Looking at the ore on the table, Shi Feng felt that the Philosopher's Stone was truly a treasure chest. Even though it was still damaged, its power was extraordinary. No wonder so many kingdoms had mobilized massive forces to fight over it. With the Philosopher's Stone, one had access to abundant funds, and it would be difficult for any kingdom not to flourish.
Shi Feng cleared the ore from the table, then placed another batch of stone materials on it.
Batch after batch of stone was consumed. The discarded yellow sand alone had piled up into a small mound. Fortunately, the forging room had a one-click cleanup function. After pressing the clean button, the mountain-high pile of yellow sand vanished without a trace.
After spending a full hour, Shi Feng had refined 40 batches of stone materials, obtaining over 7 batches of Copper Ore and over 1 batch of Bronze Ore. If sold, that would be worth over twenty silver coins, while the cost had only been four silver—a price difference of more than fivefold. The profit was absolutely staggering.
Most importantly, ore output was scarce. Purchasing it in bulk was simply impossible.
Just as Shi Feng stepped out of the forging room, he received a system message.