After a bunch of testing, Alex put down the shield.
"It works about as well as you thought it did, senior," he said. "Although, I'm now realizing that maybe we should have blood-refined the shield."
"It's better if you don't," the Artifact God said without looking toward him. "The blood refinement helps in forming a direct bond with the artifact and gives it a higher chance of forming a spirit. But you don't need that with this. You don't need to refine it in the first place, though you can if you want to. And given the materials used, it's bound to form a spirit anyhow."
"What about tribulation, though?" Alex asked. "Does blood refining improve that by any chance?"
