Chapter 6: The Mighty Disassembler and the Forging Furnace

In her urgency, Joy instructed her eldest son to stay at home while she herself drove straight to the town’s police station to report the incident. This, too, was what happened in the original plotline, showing that the inertia of the story continued to guide its development.

Watching Joy leave, Lin Xiao turned and walked back inside the house. It was time to calm down and explore the functions of the system, to figure out how to enhance his strength as quickly as possible.

Returning to his room, Lin Xiao summoned the system panel. After checking his personal information, he opened his inventory. Neatly arranged were eight magic hound icons, two submachine guns, and three handguns.

“I still have ten points of source energy left. Let’s start by disassembling a magic hound corpse and see what comes out.”

He tapped the disassembler icon, and a massive machine appeared in the game interface. Clicking on the magic hound icon placed it into the machine, prompting a small window to pop up, indicating that one point of source energy was required to activate the disassembler.

He confirmed, and the machine began to operate. Light flashed, and another window appeared, displaying two icons and two lines of text:

[Essence of Flesh: Level 1 material, weighs 0.1 kg. Can be used to craft life-restoring potions or consumed directly to restore 20 HP and accelerate wound healing.]

[Essence of Magic: Level 1 material, weighs 0.01 kg. Can be used to forge equipment or concoct potions, or consumed directly to restore 20 MP and speed up magic recovery.]

After reading the descriptions, Lin Xiao was surprised. He hadn’t expected the items disassembled from a magic hound to be so practical. Not only could they be used to forge equipment and brew potions, but they could also replenish both health and mana directly—essentially serving as both red and blue potions.

Pleased with the effect, he disassembled another magic hound and obtained two more essences.

“Well then, let’s try disassembling a submachine gun and see what I get.”

With anticipation, he moved the submachine gun icon into the disassembler. Another window popped up, requiring another point of source energy.

He confirmed, and the machine operated at high speed. Soon, three icons appeared:

[Refined Alloy Steel: Level 1 material, weighs 3 kg. Can be used to forge weapons or equipment.]

[Refined Synthetic Material: Level 1 material, weighs 0.2 kg. Can be used to forge weapons or equipment.]

[Refined Gunpowder: Level 1 material, weighs 18 g. Can be used to craft potions or explosives.]

Lin Xiao now understood the principle of the disassembler. It was not much different from a game—different items yielded different materials, and the results depended greatly on the original materials of the items, rather than being conjured out of thin air.

Since things could be disassembled, they could be forged as well. Lin Xiao considered whether he should craft a piece of equipment for himself to further enhance his strength.

With that thought, he opened the forging furnace interface. A large furnace icon appeared at the top, with two buttons beneath it: weapons and equipment.

Clicking the equipment button brought up a directory: shoulder, upper garment, lower garment, belt, shoes, necklace, ring, title, bracelet, auxiliary equipment, and so on.

Clicking further, equipment was divided into six grades: common, advanced, rare, artifact, hero, and epic. Common equipment was available to the Cleric class, while advanced and above required a class change.

After some thought, Lin Xiao selected common shoes. Five categories appeared: cloth, light, heavy, leather, and plate.

Clerics tended toward cloth, plate, and heavy armor. Given his current slender build, he didn’t dare risk the punishment of heavy or plate armor. For now, it was safer to stick with cloth. He could consider becoming a powerhouse after his class change.

Selecting cloth shoes, only three options were available: coarse cloth slippers, simple cotton slippers, and Celia’s Loving Short Boots.

“Hunting monsters in slippers? Isn’t that a little too much?” Lin Xiao was speechless. He’d never noticed before how playful DNF’s new player equipment could be, but this was likely just to prevent being left bare-footed at the start.

Clicking on Celia’s Loving Short Boots not only displayed the equipment's stats but also listed the materials required for forging—remarkably convenient.

“One piece of cotton cloth, one synthetic material, one essence of magic, and five points of source energy. Lucky—by chance, I already have two of the materials.”

He was a little excited. These boots not only increased physical defense by five points but also gave a four percent boost to movement speed. If he encountered a monster he couldn’t handle, at least he’d be able to run away without getting killed.

Cotton cloth wasn’t hard to find. After rummaging through the house, he found a bedsheet with a decent texture. He stored it in the system’s inventory, which identified it as cotton cloth.

With everything ready, he tapped the forging furnace icon again, placing the three items in. A new window popped up, requiring five points of source energy to craft the equipment.

He confirmed, and a dazzling light flashed. A shoe icon appeared—the forging was successful.

Celia’s Loving Short Boots:
Equipment Type: Cloth Armor
Equipment Slot: Shoes
Required Level: 1
Grade: Common
Weight: 0.6 kg

Movement Speed: +4%
Durability: 18/18
Physical Defense: +5

Lin Xiao clicked to retrieve them. A ray of light flashed, and a pair of extremely cute-looking boots appeared on the bed before him.

The boots were true to their name: short boots, black and white in color, with a somewhat ridiculous design—a large rabbit’s head on the toe and two tall, upright ears. Adorable... or maybe not so much.

The thought of having to hunt monsters in such embarrassingly cute shoes made Lin Xiao’s heart ache. Had he known, he would have simply forged slippers; better that than drawing attention in such flamboyant footwear.

Helplessly, he took off his shoes and put on the girlish boots. Immediately, he felt a subtle sensation—a strange power connecting with the magic in his body, strengthening it.

With a thought, he stepped outside. His speed had indeed increased. The four percent boost seemed small but was actually quite noticeable—especially when sprinting, the effect would be even more pronounced.

To test the boots, Lin Xiao went to the backyard, an overgrown garden behind the house.

The Jonathan family lived at the edge of town, with a deserted forest behind them. The protagonists called it the Gloomy Thicket, where they often played. Few people ever went there, which contributed to the brothers’ solitary, quiet personalities.

Striding forward, Lin Xiao could clearly feel an invisible force supporting his feet; he was almost as fast as a rabbit.

“Dashing Slash!”

With a thought, he channeled the magic inside him and used the Dashing Slash skill, surging more than six meters ahead—about half a meter farther than before—a decent improvement.

After testing, he returned to his room and, with a sigh, took off the boots and stored them in his inventory.

Given the boots’ peculiar appearance, he would save them for battle. There was no sense in attracting attention by wearing such outlandish shoes in public.

He had now experienced firsthand the power of the disassembler and forging furnace. As long as he had materials and source energy, he could continually forge all kinds of weapons and equipment.

According to the system’s instructions, it was even possible to forge epic-level gear. Even if he never repaired Starfire Destruction, he would always have weapons to use and need never worry about being under-equipped.