Chapter 285: Dragonfire Steel
Shortly after Saruman left, Levi headed straight for the giant golden mallorn tree beside the castle. He knocked on Little Pink's massive head, waking the several-ton dragon from its nap beneath the branches.
Little Pink groggily rose, tilting its head at Levi in obvious confusion.
Levi got straight to the point. "Little Pink, can you breathe fire?"
Hearing this, Little Pink immediately pulled its head back, leaning away warily.
Just as Levi's hopes rose, it burped.
Then it shook its head.
Clearly, Roadside Keep's teachers had never covered fire-breathing in their curriculum.
Levi covered his face with one hand. "Then I'll have to teach you."
That was easier said than done. This clearly required expertise he didn't quite have.
Over the next several days, Little Pink had no peace. Every day, besides eating and sleeping, Levi dragged it out for intensive training.
This exhausting routine lasted about a week.
Under Levi's meticulous—chaotic, really—instruction, Little Pink finally relied purely on its fire dragon instincts to force out its first breath of scorching flames.
After that first breath of fire erupted, both Levi and Little Pink breathed huge sighs of relief.
These past days had been torturous, especially for Little Pink.
If any dragon saw Levi's teaching methods, it would definitely shout, "What kind of dragon are you to be teaching like this?"
Though Levi had indeed been teaching haphazardly, fortunately, breathing fire wasn't particularly difficult for a fire dragon.
As flames dissipated in midair, Little Pink sighed with relief.
Was it finally over?
Not at all.
That same day, Levi led Little Pink to another location entirely.
He swept a thick layer of ash off the dragonfire forge, revealing its true appearance beneath.
The cold forge was filled with smelting materials for the first time.
"Come here, Little Pink."
Levi led Little Pink over, pointing at the flame opening. "Breathe right here!"
Little Pink leaned forward, discovering this opening could perfectly channel its dragon breath. The structure was ingenious—the flames traveled unimpeded through the interior channels.
But the design made precise control difficult.
When the first breath of dragon fire went down, some flame wisps leaked out from gaps.
Levi drank a fire resistance potion, instructing Little Pink to continue breathing fire vigorously into the forge.
BOOM!
Scorching flames heated the air itself. The furnace temperature climbed steadily, reaching a terrifying level.
Levi had no doubt that if he dared reach his hand in now without drinking the fire resistance potion first, the runic shield would shatter within seconds.
Under extreme heat and the unique power carried by dragon breath, dragon blood and iron ingots fused together, their properties gradually transforming.
"Almost there, almost."
After burning for a while, just as blood and metal were about to completely fuse, the fire's intensity suddenly decreased.
Little Pink seemed unable to sustain the effort much longer.
"Hold on a bit longer. We're almost done."
Huff.
When Little Pink was thoroughly exhausted, the first dragonfire steel ingot was barely finished.
Levi held the dragonfire steel ingot, feeling its smooth texture and lingering warmth.
Dragon blood and iron had perfectly fused, creating fine swirling patterns across the surface. Quite beautiful.
"Rest well now."
Putting away the dragonfire steel ingot, Levi brought Little Pink back to its nest and personally cooked a nutritious feast.
Watching Little Pink swallow half the table's dishes in one massive gulp, Levi's gaze softened with genuine affection.
Little Pink was Little Pink—a truly thinking, living creature, not a game prop or tool.
Its age was too young, its size still developing. That limited dragon-breath reserve meant that one dragonfire steel ingot per day was already the absolute limit.
Any more would damage its growing body.
If it were an adult giant dragon of Smaug's immense size, it probably could breathe fire for an entire day without issue.
Unfortunately, only Little Pink remained as a fire dragon in this world. The others were cold drakes that couldn't breathe fire—and the kind of purely evil dragons that couldn't be tamed or used as willing labor anyway.
Little Pink would have to work hard during this period.
Thinking this, Levi gave Little Pink several additional healing potions to drink as supplements.
The next day arrived.
BOOM!
The forge continued operating with thunderous intensity.
Another dragonfire steel ingot took form.
Levi placed it eagerly on the crafting table, pulling out one wither skeleton bone from his accumulated storage to serve as the hilt, then positioning two dragonfire steel ingots above in the weapon pattern.
Thus, a brand new greatsword was crafted before his eyes.
[Dragonfire Steel Sword]
Attack +25, with special effect: Blazing Fire.
Levi picked up the dark grey greatsword with its crimson patterns running through the blade, holding it before his eyes to admire the craftsmanship.
Beautiful. Truly beautiful.
He loved this kind of simple, solid weapon with clean lines and perfect proportions.
As swords went, it was quite large and heavy—at least 1.5 meters long by his estimate.
This kind of greatsword would require even Roadside Keep's battle-hardened, excellent Rangers to wield it two-handed.
But for Levi...
He lifted the dragonfire steel sword with one hand, casually swinging it twice before shouldering it like a walking stick.
Air whistled as the blade sliced through it.
This greatsword in Levi's hands moved like an ordinary one-handed sword, swung without the slightest hindrance.
Setting aside everything else, the intimidation factor was maxed out.
Of course, not just intimidation. This sword's damage output was absurdly strong. The high base damage of 25 points, plus the built-in blazing fire effect, was enough to instantly kill most enemies with one strike.
The longer the weapon, the greater the advantage in reach and power.
This greatsword, longer than Thorin's entire body, would show enemies what true terror meant.
Holding this sword, even encountering trolls or Olog-hai again wouldn't require finding weak points or vulnerable spots. Just charge straight in with the greatsword swinging.
Good weapons deserved good enchantments.
However, enchantments didn't require much complex consideration.
Essentially, besides Unbreaking and Mending for durability, all other enchantment attributes served one purpose: making weapon damage higher.
But the base damage as high as 25 points meant this sword could crush all other weapons by raw stats alone, even without enchantments.
Moreover, it came with the Blazing Fire property—an effect identical to Fire Aspect but with double the duration.
Then there was knockback to consider.
The dragonfire steel sword, just like its imposing appearance suggested, was actually quite heavy. Heavy enough to have a built-in knockback effect, though the game panel didn't display it.
Adding knockback enchantment on top of that would make it even more devastating, giving enemies very unpleasant surprises.
After brief consideration, Levi started the enchanting process.
Besides conventional functional enchantments, for the damage bonus Levi chose Smite rather than Sharpness.
Maximum Sharpness enchantment only increased 3 points of damage, but the maximum Smite could add a whopping 12.5 points of damage specifically against undead.
Compared to the base attack of 25 points, 3 additional points really wasn't much, but 12.5 anti-undead damage was quite substantial.
After all the proper enchantments were carefully applied, this masterwork sword was complete.
From now on, [Bane] officially retired to backup duty, remaining in the inventory as a weapon with more sentimental and historical value than practical use.