11 I Also Practice Artifact Refining (1/2)

Since the Hall of Affairs was so close to the Training Grounds, and his test had concluded, Jam decided to return to the Training Grounds to test his potential for Refining Artifacts. The line for testing his potential for Artifact Refining was even longer than the one for Alchemy.

Several hours passed before it was Jam's turn, where he had the a similar conversion to the one he had with the supervisor at the alchemy testing formation, but with a different supervising elder.

After Jam entered the room for testing his Refining potential, a familiar looking table appeared before him, this time it had a furnace, though. There was also a familiar set of instructions written on the walls, much like the test for alchemy. However, the handwriting was somewhat uglier this time around.

The first step was identical to the alchemy test, Jam also got the same result; his stellar fire and purification fire could create Tier 3 Artifacts. However, just like for alchemy, Jam was restricted by his cultivation and could only make Tier 1 artifacts and pills; at least until he reached the Palace Creation Stage.

The second step is where the process for testing potential differed. In the alchemy test Jam received the formula for the Energy Gathering Pill, but for Artifact Refining, Jam didn't receive specific instructions to make one type of artifact. Instead, he received a jade slip which contained the basic principles of augmentation and suppression; a handy guide Jam could use for Artifact Refining, Spiritual Cooking, and Alchemy.

The principles of augmentation and suppression was a dogma that worked for all secondary occupations. However, it showed itself most prevalently, in Artifact Refining, Alchemy, and Cooking.

To condense the principles of augmentation and suppression rules down to the most basic level, it involves of controlling multiple spiritual objects, be they ingredients for alchemy, metals for refining, or food for Cooking, all in the interest of augmenting positive effects, while suppressing negative effects.

Think of it like this: If you want a sword and you have several different types of metals, you should pick a hard and a soft metal when creating the alloy. Why? You want the hard metal, as it is sharp and strong, but it's also not very flexible and will break easily. By adding the right amount of soft metal in the mix, the sword will be more powerful as it will be usable for longer.

The jade slip also had the most basic blueprints used for all kinds of artifacts, showing how to form each part of any type of artifact, be it a weapon, piece of armor, or an accessory. It would still be up to Jam to determine what materials he would use, as well as the amount he used for each type of metal, when making his artifact.

Jam finished digesting all the knowledge within the Jade slip, and there were a variety of metals and refining materials around him. For this test, the academy didn't hold back on resources as they only needed to use the most basic materials which could at most produce Tier 1 artifacts.

Jam was happy that he could chose which type of artifact to make since he was currently in need of a bow. Even though Jam had to work with the most basic metals, he could still use his stellar energy to make his bow suitable for his Styles of the Cosmic Bow. Even if he couldn't, as long as he had a bow in his hands, his cultivation of the Styles of the Cosmic Bow, the Stellar Dao, and the Dao of Bows, would undoubtedly skyrocket.

The process for artifact refining, according to the jade slip was also composed of three steps. First, one would pick several different metals, or refining materials, and combine them to produce a unique alloy for their finished artifact. Then the alloy would be refined and shaped at the same time. The final step was to engrave runes into the artifact.

The runes created on the finished piece were all based on a cultivators experience, and each refiner had their own set of unique runes, so Jam would have to experiment for this step. The only ”instruction” written for that part of refining, was for the refiner to infuse his artifact with elemental energy when starting out.

Ever since Jam took the alchemy test, his proficiency in controlling fire had risen to a formidable degree, which could be seen from his perfect Energy Gathering Pills. For this refining test, Jam only ran into problems in the last part as he had no idea what runes to inscribe; It couldn't truly be called a problem as his ”experimental choice,” let him create a suitable bow anyways.