"Hello, I lived on this island ten years ago, and I even talked with some people back then."
Li Ang tried to get closer to the villagers.
"Ah, I remember you, it was you, the person who came from who knows where and went who knows where."
A villager suddenly stepped forward.
It had been ten years, and Li Ang couldn't recognize him at all, but the villager remembered Li Ang, which surprised him greatly.
It seemed that this village was too isolated, with decades like a day, so memories from ten years ago weren't replaced by new ones.
There were several people like this villager.
"You still remember me? I'm honored," Li Ang said politely.
If it were outside, a reunion after a long separation would warrant a good chat, but Satus Island truly had little contact with the outside. The villagers weren't good at conversation, and after exchanging only a few words, they awkwardly asked Li Ang why he was here.
"I'm looking for a blacksmith's shop."
As soon as he spoke, the villagers' expressions became unnatural.
At the same time, they also looked at Zoe, who was behind Li Ang. At this moment, the girl had her head down, her face hidden by her hanging chestnut hair.
Li Ang didn't know what was going on, and the scene fell into silence.
"Uh, I didn't do anything to her."
He felt it was better to explain first.
A villager came up, whispering, "Good job."
Huh? What does that mean?
"This girl is strange, and her parents are scary too. We're all afraid to provoke them. If you could make her cry, you're really something."
Do Zoe's parents have a grudge with the villagers?
Li Ang glanced at the girl, and upon hearing the villager's words, her shoulders shrank, and she retreated a few steps, turning to run into the narrow alley between two nearby houses.
Seeing the girl run away, the villagers didn't feel anything unusual, instead, they seemed relieved.
"Who are her parents?" Li Ang asked.
"Weirdos, always doing weird things."
It took some effort for Li Ang to understand.
As it turned out, right after Li Ang left ten years ago, Zoe's parents brought her to the island, almost as if they arrived on each other's heels.
They lived on the island for two years before leaving, at which time Zoe should have been just over seven years old.
In the villagers' eyes, whoever came, as long as they opened a field on the island, self-sufficiency is easy since the lands in the Nebis World are incredibly fertile and never need to lie fallow; there naturally wouldn't be any conflicts.
But not long after, people on the island started disappearing, the villagers suspected them of murder and wanted to investigate. However, when approaching their house, they heard huge strange noises and saw peculiar lights, scaring them from getting closer.
Later, before leaving, the two went door to door threatening the villagers not to bully their daughter after they were gone.
Murder? Threats?
Though Zoe sometimes misbehaved, having vicious parents could still affect their child even if they left early. She didn't seem like the child of such parents at all.
Saying goodbye to the villagers, Li Ang used the system's aerial map to locate the blacksmith's shop.
It was situated on the other side of the village, yet at a distance from other houses; it was a detached building with a yard, and the long-unused furnace and anvil appeared in the yard, covered by a shed.
On the other side of the yard was a small house, surrounded by flowers and plants, with a yard in the back, showing the edge of some fields.
The blacksmith's shop was no longer in operation, but someone still lived there.
Just as Li Ang was feeling puzzled, Zoe opened the door and came out of the house.
"Li Ang," the girl called out to him quietly by name.
"Is this your home?"
"Hmm."
"So, the blacksmith was actually your father?"
"Dad used to beat at things every day here, turning stones into swords or knives or something, so I thought you might come here, and I came here to wait."
After that earlier encounter, Zoe had become much more quiet, not as bewildered as when they first met, nor as smiling as she was before today.
And that demeanor precisely let people notice that she was actually an extraordinary beauty.
Her skin was inherently flawless, and no matter how she'd been through the winds and sun, it only added a healthy glow to her snow-white smooth texture, enhancing rather than diminishing her look, filling her with youthful vibrancy.
"Then I'll borrow your home's forge and anvil."
"Sure, although I don't know if they can still be used."
Li Ang used to be clueless about these things, and he knows even less now.
As he drew nearer, he discovered the furnace was a magic furnace, using the same principle mechanisms seen in many places, most commonly in the engine rooms of various flying airships.
He found a dimmed energy storage crystal at the back of the furnace and infused it with magic power. The flames burned brightly in no time, and the other tools also appeared intact.
Opening the equipment creation panel, the system prompted that preparations were complete and that he could start creating.
[Detected necessary tools, detected materials [Iron Ore] [Water Mist Stone], blueprint selectable]
Li Ang selected [Blueprint: Basic Standard Iron Sword].
[Blueprint confirmed, detected additional material [Water Mist Stone], add?]
Only through the system's observational knowledge did Li Ang learn that Water Mist Stone could also be smelted, and he wanted to see the effect, so he chose to confirm.
The system also suggested that the Two-legged Flying Dragon's materials could be smelted, but fearing wastage, he planned not to add them yet.
When he pressed the start manufacturing option, his mind immediately cleared, and a series of knowledge surged in; this knowledge wasn't articulated but rather became his experience, and he instantly understood how to proceed with forging.
The sensation of obtaining knowledge directly was wonderful, like he was a veteran skilled blacksmith, he picked up the tools and began operating.
Smelting iron ingots, heating, hammering…
He put the Water Mist Stone into the magic furnace, and the magic flame quickly burned away its impurities, with Li Ang elegantly and precisely blending it into the iron embryo before the Water Element escaped…
Time gradually passed, the iron sword took shape, and after quenching, he finally achieved a finished sword embryo.
After polishing and using some materials left by Zoe's father to craft the handguard and sword hilt, the final product was presented.
[Basic Standard Iron Sword [Clear Spring]]
[A sword forged through standard procedures, with attributes of Water Attribute due to the addition of material containing Water Element]
[Tier: 1]
[Category: One-Handed Sword]
[Equipment Skill: Water Flow Array [Torrent]]
Water Flow Array?
[Skill: Water Flow Array [Torrent]]
[Activation Method: Cooperative Units 5]
[Raindrops converge into streams, streams merge into rivers, rivers rush into the sea. When water gathers, it becomes unstoppable]
[Effect: Weapon tier increases by 1 upon activation]
Upon getting the sword, Li Ang even thought he was seeing things.
Equipment doesn't always carry skills, nor does having a skill make it top-notch; what matters is tier and skill effect.
He hadn't expected to forge equipment with skills, but being accustomed to the system's capabilities, he wasn't too surprised.
What truly astonished him was this skill.
Or rather, the "Array".
Equipment with array skills are called Array Equipment, as the name suggests, multiple units forming an array enhances power.
It is a skill highly favored by various Sky Cavalries. If one could gather weapons with the same skill, using them together, the team's strength could be increased.
Li Ang knew a Celestial Group that extensively equipped array weapons, achieving more with less when fighting in teams.
But finding equipment with the same skill isn't easy, and some see them as unnecessary.
But if Li Ang could mass-produce array equipment…
"In that case, if I arm my team, we could be invincible."
Excitement rose in his heart, and he immediately prepared to put the remaining ore into forging to see if there were any new discoveries.