Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 275: Forging Legacy

Morzan nodded in response to Ethan's question.

He went on, "It's true. Every being known as a Divine Forger creates only one masterpiece in their lifetime. This creation always ends up defying the natural order."

"Why?" Ethan's eyes flickered with curiosity.

"Because the heavens are jealous."

There was a hint of resignation in Morzan's eyes as he spoke, a subtle change in his expression that left Ethan momentarily confused.

"The birth of every Master Divine Forger also marks the end of their life."

With that, Morzan fell silent.

In his eyes, Ethan saw a trace of helplessness and sorrow—an unmistakable heaviness. It was enough for Ethan to sense that Morzan had gone through something profound.

At the moment, however, he couldn't afford to dwell on it.

He quickly brought up the Divine Forger's exclusive skill attributes.

[[Divine Forger Exclusive] Smelting (Novice)]

Attribute (Novice): When smelting, 10% increased chance of obtaining Premium Materials.

Description: Smelting is the foundation of forging.

[[Divine Forger Exclusive] Mining (Novice)]

Attribute (Novice): When mining, 10% increased chance of obtaining Premium Ore.

Description: Divine Forgers mine with twice the efficiency.

[[Divine Forger Exclusive] Forging (Novice)]

Attribute (Novice) ①: 10% increased success rate when crafting, enhancing, upgrading, or reforging items.

Attribute (Novice) ②: When enhancing, upgrading, or reforging items, 10% chance to prevent downgrading, damage, or disappearance upon failure.

Description: Only those who inherit the Divine Forger legacy can access these forging secrets.

All the skill descriptions were straightforward, stripped of any embellishment.

Ethan noted that while others had access to a life skill called [Blacksmithing], his avatar had been granted something called [Forging].

Not knowing if there was a true difference, he clicked into the skill and found it included equipment crafting, enhancement, upgrading, and other functions—seemingly identical on the surface.

Wasting the Wishbound Relic for a mere 10% increase in success rate? That seemed like a terrible deal.

Then again, he had transferred the Wishbound Relic to his avatar because bringing his main body into Carnage Faction territory was too risky. He was headed there to find Master Blacksmith Ryan and complete a quest with an unknown reward.

In his previous life—before he was reborn—he'd heard that Zachary had received that side quest while carrying the Wishbound Relic. But he never learned what the reward was, because Zachary hadn't completed the quest before Ethan's rebirth.

What had shocked him back then was learning that Zachary had found Master Blacksmith Ryan alive and received a side quest.

That didn't make sense.

The map that originally led Ethan to the Wishbound Relic was titled "Master Blacksmith Ryan's Burial Ground." If it was a burial ground, Ryan had to be dead.

So who had Zachary met?

Later, he heard that Master Blacksmith Ryan was actually a woman—the daughter of the Wishbound Relic's creator. Ryan was her surname. And because she had witnessed her father's final masterpiece, she had given Zachary a quest.

Thinking back on what Morzan had said earlier—that Divine Forgers created only one masterpiece in their life—could it be that Master Blacksmith Ryan's father had transcended the divine level with his final work?

Had he become a Master Divine Forger, only to die shortly after?

No wonder the Wishbound Relic seemed like a glitch in the system.

And now, Ethan had lost it again.

Even if he went to Carnage Faction territory and found the new Master Blacksmith Ryan, he wouldn't be able to receive the side quest.

She was an NPC with "Master" in her title—the quest would no doubt have been extraordinary.

Although his avatar now possessed the Divine Forger profession, the whole situation still felt like a loss.

"Ethan, Ethan... I finally know why I can't equip weapons. Check out the passive skills."

Ethan suddenly remembered how Morzan had earlier complained that his weapon mysteriously ended up in his inventory—and when he re-equipped it, it gave no attack bonus.

He opened the avatar's skills menu and checked the passive skills.

Skill: [Divine Forger Passive]

Apparently, the rogue's passive skills had been entirely replaced.

Was Divine Forger actually a combat profession too?

[Divine Forger Passive (Rogue Avatar)]

Attribute ①: Divine Forger (Rogue Avatar) can only attack using one-handed hammers. Attacks have a chance to stun enemies for 0.1 seconds.

Attribute ②: Increasing Forging, Smelting, and Mining levels will respectively improve Strength, Resistance, and Stamina.

Attribute ③: Divine Forger (Rogue Avatar) can trade any item with the main body.

Improving a secondary profession could now increase a character's strength, stamina, and resistance.

Among hidden professions, that was a god-tier trait.

And that third attribute—trading any item? What did that mean, exactly?

Could even untradeable items be exchanged?

In Ethereal, only a handful of items were considered untradeable. Ethan currently knew of three: the Wishbound Relic, Lyla's [Frostbound Reverie], and his own Druid-exclusive weapon [Twilight War Spear].

Both weapons were Legendary-tier, one-of-a-kind items.

Fortunately, they'd both already been fully enhanced.

But the Divine Forger was still only at novice level. If it could be upgraded, would the success rate improve as well?

Regardless, what was done was done. Ethan had no choice but to accept it.

"Huh? Equipment enhancement has an option for bound enhancement... with a success rate of—wait... one hundred percent?

Ethan... get over here. You've hit the jackpot..."

While Ethan was still preoccupied with all these thoughts, Morzan had casually begun using the Divine Forging skill to enhance a low-quality hammer. Since he was weaponless, he figured a basic hammer was better than nothing.

"What good is bound enhancement... wait, what did you just say?" Ethan yanked the avatar over.

He threw in a trash item for enhancement—and sure enough:

[Ding... System prompt: Using Divine Forging for enhancement. Please select [Bound] or [Unbound]?]

"Bound!"

[Ding... System prompt: Selecting [Bound] enhancement gives 100% success rate. No materials or gold will be consumed, but the equipment will become bound and untradeable. Do you wish to proceed?]

"Yes!" Ethan's excitement spiked as he saw the confirmation.

[Ding... Congratulations! Your [Worn-out Boots] have been successfully enhanced to +1!]

The enhanced boots reappeared in the avatar's inventory, now bearing a new tag: Untradeable, Cannot be dropped.

But in the very next second, Ethan used the avatar to initiate a trade—and successfully transferred the item!

"Hahaha..." Ethan burst out laughing.

"This is gold. Let's go get a drink—my treat!" He clapped the avatar's shoulder, forgetting for a moment that it was technically Morzan.

"Alcohol... uh..." Morzan's body visibly trembled. After a moment of hesitation, he said, "Never mind, you go ahead. I've quit."

As he spoke, the avatar's posture wavered, and his gaze grew distant.