Chapter 2618: The Golden Jade Heart and the Mother Stone
After learning the full story, Jing Shi came over to express her thanks. Their conversations over the past few days had made her appreciate Xu Huo greatly, and she even offered him a special ore that someone had given her, saying it was an indispensable auxiliary material for crafting high-level items.
Xu Huo thanked her and took the ore to Old Mr. Xi.
The two old men had spent the past few days pondering what items could be forged from those stones. Even among Subclass Stones, the power contained within each stone varied. Crafting items based on the stone's inherent inclination yielded better effects and higher success rates. Sometimes, materials would even produce strange combination reactions, unlocking effects that the Artificer had never anticipated.
"Perfect timing that you're here." Old Mr. Xi called him over. "We've tested the properties of the stones you gave us. Two are suitable for making Mental-type items, but they can't produce anything particularly good. I suggest using one of them together with the other Space-attributed ores to add some Spiritual Interference effects to Space attack items."
"Do you have a direction for the Space attack item?" Xu Huo asked.
"The two most common uses of Space power are cutting and blasting. The principle is the same—both utilize the lethal force released after folding and compressing Space. But using these stones for such items would be a bit wasteful." Old Mr. Xi pulled out a hand-drawn blueprint. "We discussed it and think we can create a field-type attack item. Ideally, once the item activates, the Space power within a city-sized range will automatically condense into high-energy Space Rays, cutting any objects or people that enter that range."
The blueprint depicted a "#"-shaped grid, appearing to divide a certain Space area into uniform small cubes using Space Rays.
"With the quality of these Subclass Stones, the condensed Space Rays should be able to cut items of the same grade."
It wasn't unusual for an A-grade item to cover a city-sized area, but Xu Huo still wanted to control the range. "Can the item's coverage area be set in levels? Most of the time, I don't need such a large-scale lethal attack."
Players mainly operated within cities. There was no need for such indiscriminate mass killing just to deal with a few enemies.
"That's a minor issue." Old Mr. Xi chuckled. "Do you have any other requirements?"
"Make it flexible," Xu Huo said. "Ideally, I won't need to directly control the Space Rays, and it shouldn't interfere with my movements."
The old man shot him a sideways glance. "You're dreaming big. Where do you find an item that's both highly lethal and can distinguish friend from foe? Show me one if you can make it."
"If you can't make it, forget it." Xu Huo smiled at him. "Don't be so irritable."
Old Mr. Xi snorted and turned his head away. "Alright, alright. Don't bother opening your mouth with such trivial demands. You lack imagination. Hurry up and leave. We can handle the rest."
Xu Huo had no objections. He left professional matters to professionals. But as he reached the door, he added, "Make it easy to carry. I already have too many rings, buttons, and badges on me."
Old Mr. Xi waved his hand dismissively, not even giving him another glance.
When Xu Huo came down from the second floor, he found the Painting Woman crouching at the stairwell corner, peering downstairs. She was hiding half her body in a futile attempt at concealment, but her head was practically sticking out, making her instantly visible to anyone below.
"What are you doing?" he called to her.
The Painting Woman hurriedly turned back to tell him that she had discovered the female player actually had far more than just one Primordial Stone on her. She also had two "Golden Jade Heart" medals.
The "Golden Jade Heart" medal was similar to the "Light Gentleman" medal, just with a slightly different focus. Yan Jiayu had once obtained one, but she thought Xu Huo would prefer the "Light Gentleman" medal, so she exchanged it with a friend she met in the game before giving it to him.
Now it seemed the Painting Woman also really liked the "Golden Jade Heart" medal.
Given their previous friction, offering to buy or trade was out of the question.
Although the Painting Woman occasionally said offensive things, she wasn't generally easy to dislike. The female player hadn't held a grudge over the earlier incident. Seeing the Painting Woman staring at her medals, she took the initiative to tell Xu Huo that a certain type of Primordial Stone was used in the crafting materials for these rare medals in the game. That Primordial Stone naturally carried energy, which could improve a player's physical condition to some extent, though most people couldn't sense it. The Painting Woman's fondness for such medals likely indicated she was more sensitive to this kind of evolution.
Xu Huo guessed that the Painting Woman might also have this Primordial Stone material mixed into her body, so he asked for more details about the Primordial Stone.
The female player didn't deliberately keep him in suspense. "That type of Primordial Stone is already extinct. The only remaining ones are all collected by the Game Government, used to craft special game items, like medals or some Instance's additional rewards."
"It should be very difficult to buy an original Primordial Stone, but you can get them through Instance rewards. That's a relatively simple method."
"Does that Primordial Stone have a name? Or just a number?" Xu Huo asked further.
The female player smiled. "Its original name was Female Stone, later changed to Mother Stone. It's on the same level as the Time Origin."
"Just for assisting player evolution, and it's on the same level as the Time Origin?" Xu Huo was genuinely surprised. The Time Origin was a Primordial Stone with Time attributes, the rarest of all Primordial Stones. It was said to be a cornerstone of the game. Someone had once traded a Time Origin for an entire district.
Such ores had long surpassed the category of consumable materials. The Mother Stone was monopolized by the Game Government for making medals and items, yet it was only used to assist player evolution?
"As far as I know, other game items generally don't use Mother Stone as a material, even good items from A-grade wormhole points." The female player said, "Perhaps it has other uses, just not as prominent as assisting evolution."
No one believed that.
If that were true, the Mother Stone wouldn't be classified as a Primordial Stone.
"The higher a player's evolution rate, the greater the limitations. When a player becomes an A-grade player, this kind of assisted evolution might become the dividing line between ordinary players and Super Evolvers. Do you still think it's unworthy of being called a Primordial Stone?" The female player raised an eyebrow.
Xu Huo understood her meaning. She was implying that the Game Government controlled the number of Super Evolvers through this method. But the emergence of Super Evolvers was ultimately a matter of chance, and not every Super Evolver relied on such assisted evolution. He was more inclined to think there were other reasons.
The Mother Stone... he wondered if it was related to the Painting Woman's ability to think.
"Those two medals were ones I just bought," the female player said. "Players in District 001 like to stand up for justice. There should be quite a few of these medals around."
"I see you're familiar with the District Government people. Maybe you can get a few through their channels."
Xu Huo didn't mind her probing words. He thanked her and left with the Painting Woman.