[Steel Block (Blue): Iron-carbon alloy containing small amounts of manganese, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur, and other elements, the fundamental building material for construction and the most suitable material at the same level for crafting weapons and armor.]
He first took out the steel block he had personally refined from the furnace. Including the steel block Li Wenxi gave him, he had a total of 10 Green Steel Blocks and 19 Blue Steel Blocks.
Next, he went to the weapon and armor crafting station and opened the crafting list for inspection. Indeed, the steel armor set and steel tools were completely unlocked.
From the description, the steel suit not only offers more robust defense than the iron suit, is lighter, but also boasts a more powerful set effect; it’s essentially an enhanced version of the iron armor set.
As for the description of the steel weapon, it really caught Xu Xin’s attention.
[Steel Spear (Green): A spear crafted from steel blocks, sharper than iron spears, and the hardest and sharpest weapon at this level! Durability 1000. Requires Wood (Green)*5, Steel Block (Green)*2]
The hardest and sharpest weapon at the same level!
Isn’t this somewhat similar to the spear made from the mutated beasts’ materials? His Rabbit Ear Spear is just shy of the purple-grade, yet the strongest in the blue-grade category, isn’t it?
Goodness, so each blue-grade steel block is equivalent to an intermediate mutated beast material!
Xu Xin looked at the nineteen Blue Steel Blocks in his hand and immediately felt the scent of wealth wafting in.
This is downright exaggerated; the ability of alchemy is incredibly powerful. Coupled with the "Metal Products Auto-Unlock Contract" he obtained from the golden treasure chest, he can now mass-produce the current stage’s top weapons and armor, second only to purple-grade!
Although he doesn’t really need it, since his weapons are crafted from mutated beast materials, and his armor is directly purple-grade.
But for others in the "Explorers," or even everyone in the entire region, this ability can significantly boost everyone’s strength!
However, he seemed to notice a rather unfamiliar term in the steel block description just now. Construction?
Could it be that he can use steel blocks to build constructions other than treehouses?
He promptly checked the "Treehouse Modification" option.
The option also showed the crafting of a steel treehouse crossbow, with the steel crossbow being the strongest at the same level as well.
Additionally, he noticed a new crafting blueprint.
[Steel Frame Structure (Green): The foundational framework for all buildings, essential material when constructing buildings outside the treehouse. Requires Steel Block (Green)*1]
...Buildings can be set up outside the treehouse!
Xu Xin had previously attempted to make wooden walls outside the treehouse, but unfortunately, the crafted walls couldn’t be placed, hence making a wooden house outside the treehouse was impossible, prompting him to abandon the effort.
It turns out constructing buildings outside the treehouse requires using steel to create a framework! With this, he can set up rooms on the ground around the treehouse.
But for now, it seems unnecessary, considering his treehouse is large, sufficiently serving him internally. So he won’t use this feature anytime soon.
Xu Xin contacted Li Wenxi to inform her about the functionality of the steel blocks.
"The strongest metal material for weapon and armor crafting at the same level! That’s impressive!" Li Wenxi was notably shocked. Though she had handled steel blocks before, lacking Xu Xin’s discernment ability meant she couldn’t instantly perceive their utility from the description.
"I’ll give you some steel flames, you smelt some green-grade steel blocks, and I’ll make you something."
Because she had given Wang Lei a blue-grade iron armor in the last event, Xu Xin wanted to directly make her a blue-grade steel armor set.
Each blue-grade steel armor only requires one Blue Steel Block, while the rest of the materials could be green-grade, hence green-grade steel blocks were used more, and the ten green-grade steel blocks in hand were insufficient.
The smelting speed of green-grade steel blocks was extremely fast, and within minutes, Li Wenxi had sent over dozens of smelted green-grade steel blocks.
He immediately crafted a set of blue-grade steel armor and, instead of giving it to Li Wenxi first, he tried it on himself.
Compared to iron armor, the weight was reduced a lot, making body movements more agile, while the defense did not weaken, but rather enhanced.
Both the steel armor set and iron armor set have the same set effect of power increase, albeit the steel armor set boosts power twice as much as the iron armor set!
Truly one of the strongest blue-grade sets.
Xu Xin felt that if judging purely on defense, this steel armor set might rival his purple-grade scale armor set.
Typically in games, defensive heavy armor offers stronger protection than functional light armor, even with a one-level difference; it stands to reason. Not to mention, this steel armor’s grade only differs from purple-grade by half a grade.
Xu Xin sent the steel armor set to Li Wenxi, still feeling something was lacking. He stroked his chin and made a blue-grade steel spear and a blue-grade steel crossbow, forwarding them to Li Wenxi.
He felt Li Wenxi resembled a character in his game, upgrading to new equipment. Since she was already wearing a full set of blue-grade steel armor, Xu Xin couldn’t resist updating her weapons as well.
Watching Li Wenxi don the steel armor and wielding the steel crossbow and spear, Xu Xin nodded contentedly.