[Advanced Enchanting Table MOD has been installed]
Alright, let's get to work!
Fu Zhu reached out and grabbed the entire series of materials—obsidian, wood, and so on—that the Silvermane Guards had placed on the cargo truck, taking them all into his hand and converting them into their MC item equivalents.
The Silvermane Guards watched, dumbfounded, as Fu Zhu single-handedly lifted the cubic-meter-sized block of obsidian as if it weighed nothing.
They had to admit, it had taken them a great deal of effort just to load these blocks of obsidian, which met Fu Zhu's size requirements, back in Belobog.
These Silvermane Guards had been ready to lend a hand, but they never expected Sir Fu Zhu to handle it all by himself.
If Sir Fu Zhu were willing to condescend to a life of bricklaying, wouldn't he easily become the number one man on any construction site?
Of course, that was a thought they only dared to entertain. If the Great Guardian Cocolia ever found out, she would probably peel their skins off in a fit of rage.
After converting all the materials, Fu Zhu began to work at his crafting table. First, he crafted all the bookshelves needed for both a regular and an advanced enchanting table.
Fu Zhu could finally turn the pile of books he had fleeced from Svarog's home into bookshelves, freeing up some slots in his inventory.
Cocolia and the others stood by quietly, watching as Fu Zhu occasionally pulled a whole bookshelf from his crafting table and seemed to place it on the ground according to some specific pattern, forming a perimeter around an empty space.
After crafting all the bookshelves, it was time for the main event: the enchanting table.
With the help of the JEI Item Management Mod, Fu Zhu didn't need to wrack his brain recalling the recipe. He could simply search for it in the JEI interface and craft it with a single click. Simple, convenient, and fast!
In less than half a minute, Fu Zhu used obsidian, gold ingots, and ender pearls to successfully upgrade the enchanting table into an advanced one, which he then placed right in the center of the pre-arranged bookshelves.
"Done!"
Hearing Fu Zhu's sudden declaration, Cocolia and the others, who had been waiting patiently, all turned their attention to the advanced enchanting table he had set up.
Xing circled the bookshelves and the advanced enchanting table a few times, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what purpose arranging these bookshelves in this way served.
"Old bro, are you planning on switching careers from a Trailblazer to a Wizard?"
"Am I that kind of heartless and disloyal person?"
Fu Zhu flicked Xing's clean forehead irritably, making her clutch her head as tiny pearls of tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.
"This thing in the middle is called an advanced enchanting table. It can draw power from the surrounding bookshelves to create various magical enchantments. You can think of it as magic."
"Magic?!" ×N
The word "magic" was a rather fantastical concept in this corner of the universe. Most powers referred to as magic were actually the power of a Path, or perhaps a form of high technology.
"Just watch. I'll show you."
Fu Zhu took out one of his few remaining books and placed it into the advanced enchanting table, preparing to create an enchantment to demonstrate its effect.
As Fu Zhu focused on operating the enchanting table, deciding which enchantment to use for the demonstration, the others watched in surprise as unknown characters and fragments of text began to flow out from the surrounding bookshelves and merge into the enchanting table.
March 7th tried to reach out and block those characters and fragments, but they passed right through her palm and into the enchanting table.
"How amazing! Is this a special effect?"
March 7th took out her camera and snapped a picture of Fu Zhu's back as he worked.
Welt and Dan Heng, being the most knowledgeable in the group, noticed something different.
Welt placed a hand on a bookshelf and felt it carefully. His brow raised in surprise.
"I can feel a peculiar power from this. It doesn't belong to any known Path or technology that we're aware of. This must be a power from Fu Zhu's homeworld, I suppose?"
As Welt thought this, a strange sourness welled up in his heart.
They were both from Earth, so why did Fu Zhu's Earth possess such magical power, and without suffering any disasters for it?
His own Earth, however, had been tormented by the Honkai.
Life was too hard!
"Done. Come take a look at this interesting little thing."
Fu Zhu took the enchanted book from the advanced enchanting table. He had thought about it for a while and decided that Fire Aspect was still the most suitable enchantment for a demonstration.
"Can you guys help me gather a pile of firewood?"
Without immediately demonstrating the enchantment's effect, Fu Zhu turned and asked the nearby Silvermane Guards.
The Silvermane Guards immediately went to gather some dry branches, quickly making a small pile of firewood on the empty ground. "It's ready, Sir Fu Zhu."
"Thank you."
After thanking them, Fu Zhu turned to Welt and the others, holding up the enchanted book. "Who wants to be the guinea pig?"
March 7th and Xing immediately shot their right hands high into the air. Although they didn't know what kind of experiment Fu Zhu was about to conduct, based on their previous experiences, anything Fu Zhu made was bound to be interesting!
"Me, me, me!" "No, don't pick little March, old bro, let me do it!"
The two girls were at odds, eventually resorting to grabbing each other's cheeks to prevent the other from speaking.
"I shall do it."
Welt pushed up his glasses and stepped forward.
Fu Zhu nodded and handed the enchanted book directly to Welt.
The moment Welt took the enchanted book, he tried to open it to see what was recorded inside.
But strangely, no matter how much strength Welt used, the enchanted book in his hands would not open.
Despite being unable to open it, he could faintly sense the concept of [Burning] recorded within this book.
"Uncle Yang, take this enchanted book and swing it at that pile of firewood."
Welt temporarily suppressed his doubts and did as Fu Zhu said, gripping the book with one hand and swinging it at the pile of firewood the Silvermane Guards had gathered.
The instant the enchanted book touched the firewood, a roaring fire erupted from the pile, causing everyone to cry out in surprise.
It actually worked!
Seeing the firewood successfully ignite, Fu Zhu nodded with satisfaction.
In the Bedrock Edition, a book enchanted with Fire Aspect could light campfires and furnaces. He had been very curious to see how this characteristic would manifest in reality, and now he understood.
Cocolia asked with some surprise, "Is it because there's something like an ignition device on the surface of this book?"
"No..."
Having experienced it firsthand, Welt immediately refuted Cocolia's guess. He turned his head and stared at Fu Zhu in disbelief.
"This book has the blessing of [Burning] on it. Fu Zhu, this is too wasteful!"
"A blessing?" Everyone turned to look at Fu Zhu with bewilderment.
A blessing was a form of application of a Path's power. It was rare for anyone in the galaxy to obtain such power.
Welt stared at the enchanted book in his hand, his heart aching. "You actually bestowed the blessing of [Burning] on a book... isn't that far too wasteful?"
More importantly, Welt couldn't sense which known Path this blessing belonged to. It was obviously a power from Fu Zhu's homeworld.
And he actually used this power on a book! Who in their right mind would bestow a blessing upon a book!
Fu Zhu just smiled and shrugged. "It was just a casual thing. Next up is your rifle, Bronya. Let me use it for a moment."
Bronya nodded and handed her rifle to Fu Zhu.
Fu Zhu took it and placed it in the advanced enchanting table. After some thought, he enchanted Bronya's rifle with [Flame] and [Infinity].
After the enchantment was complete, Fu Zhu took it out of the advanced enchanting table and handed it back to Bronya.
"Your rifle now has two enchantments, [Flame] and [Infinity]. The effects are simple: it allows your bullets to set enemies on fire and gives you infinite ammo. Of course, the prerequisite for infinite ammo is that you have at least one bullet in your gun."
Bronya took the rifle and fired several shots at the surrounding snowdrifts. Just like when her bullets had passed through the fire before, the bullets she fired now were wreathed in flames and could similarly destroy all the snow in their path.
Bronya looked at her rifle with delight, then tried firing several dozen more shots in succession.
She had clearly fired more rounds than her magazine held, yet her rifle continued to fire normally. This completely violated the law of conservation of matter!
Once the demonstration was over, Fu Zhu said to Cocolia, "The effect is just as you see. You can have the artisans of Belobog custom-make some firearms with a wide firing range and a large capacity. I'll enchant them for you. Coupled with torches, I believe this will allow the Eternal Freeze to end much more quickly."
Cocolia nodded solemnly, preparing to have someone start customizing these firearms as soon as she returned.
The moment Fu Zhu finished his serious business, March 7th and Xing immediately latched onto him, one on each arm. Their bodies were pressed up close, and he could even smell the faint fragrance from them and feel the softness of their elbows.
"Giegie~"
Xing put on a cloying voice, batting her eyelashes at Fu Zhu with all her might.
Fu Zhu put on a stern face and said seriously, "State your business. A cadre is not susceptible to such tests."
Xing and March 7th exchanged a look and then both blurted out, "We want that amazing enchantment too!"
Just as Fu Zhu was about to agree, Welt scolded the two with a serious tone.
"Don't be ridiculous. Bestowing blessings requires a price. This might be a huge drain on Fu Zhu!"
Hearing this, the two girls pouted unhappily but didn't bring up enchanting their own weapons again.
After scolding the two girls, Welt turned to Fu Zhu and advised him earnestly, "Fu Zhu, you shouldn't spoil them so much."
"It's alright, Uncle Yang. Enchanting only consumes my experience value, which are those green orbs of light that pop out of monsters after I kill them."
Now that Fu Zhu mentioned it, March 7th and the others recalled that when Fu Zhu killed the Voidrangers back at the space station, quite a few green orbs of light had indeed emerged from their bodies and been absorbed by him.
"So that's how it is... I understand now. Still, you should be more careful. Don't let anyone with ill intentions discover this ability of yours."
Welt was still a little worried. The enchanting ability Fu Zhu had demonstrated was far from being as simple as it looked.
It was more like stripping a concept and applying it as a blessing onto a certain object.
Just now, Fu Zhu had applied the concept of [Infinity] to Bronya's rifle, directly turning it into a weapon with infinite ammunition.
After the rifle was enchanted, Welt had made a point to observe it carefully. Every shot fired consumed no extra energy. It was as if the rifle was naturally, innately, a weapon with infinite ammo!
Compared to March 7th and Xing, who were just thinking about having fun, he understood much better just how coveted the concept of [Infinity] alone was to the entire universe.
Not to mention the other conceptual enchantments Fu Zhu might possess.
Before Fu Zhu grew strong enough, he felt the Express crew must not leave his side. If someone with ill intentions were to target this wondrous ability of his, it would be disastrous.
After the experiments in the snowfield concluded, the group intended to head back, but just before they could set off, Fu Zhu suddenly stopped.
A moment ago, the voice of Nous had resounded in his mind.
'Question: Can we meet now?'
Fu Zhu didn't answer immediately. Instead, he turned to Welt and the others and said, "I'm going to disappear for a little while. Don't worry about me."
With that, Fu Zhu's figure vanished before their eyes.
"Old bro?!"
Xing watched Fu Zhu disappear. Even though she had been through this before, her heart couldn't help but tighten.
"Could it be that old bro's power was completely drained, so he disappeared?"
"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! Don't say things like that! Hurry up and spit it out!"
When Fu Zhu opened his eyes again, he found himself once more within the Path-space of Nous. The form of Nous still hung in mid-air, and below it, the Iron Golem had immediately spotted Fu Zhu, walked over, and stood by his side.
Seeing Fu Zhu, Nous eagerly asked its question.
'Question: That ability of yours called enchanting, does it involve stripping a concept from reality and then replicating it onto an object?'
"You guess."
Having met Nous a few times now, Fu Zhu was more relaxed. He spoke more casually than before and even took out some redstone dust and a lever from his inventory, staring intently at Nous's body.
Nous noticed the subtle change in Fu Zhu's expression. After a moment of silence, it asked again.
'Question: Are you thinking of using Redstone technology against me? My form here is not my true body. Do you think Redstone technology would be effective against me?'
"Hahaha, how could that be? We're old acquaintances. Why would I want to try using a lever to see if I can shut you down? By the way, where is your real body?"