Chapter 37: Equipment Enhancement (1)

[Transmission complete. Player has returned to their exclusive room.]
[Player has returned to their exclusive room. Settlement of derived world rewards has begun.]

Derived World: Dark Fairy Tale
World Difficulty: 5 - ??
World Exploration Progress: 38.2%
Number of Quests Completed: 12 (Main Quest x1, Side Quests x11!)
Comprehensive Rating: SSS!

Starting settlement of exploration progress rewards.
Reward statistics complete. Distribution initiated.
Rewards Obtained: Golden Attribute Point +1, Attribute Points +5, 100,000 Paradise Coins! World Origin x20 units.
Comprehensive Rating reached SSS, Player Level +5, reaching LV10!
Player Level reached LV10, personal space area increased.
Settlement complete. Quest rewards have been deposited; please check them yourself.

The gratifying settlement process ended quickly, and Mu Rongxun treated himself to a full-body restoration.
Because he had a powerful ally to rely on this time, the combat was not overly difficult, yet his harvest was truly staggering. Not only that, but a new function had also been unlocked.

Among his gains this time, there were not many pieces of equipment; the Magic Mirror had been taken by the Myth Squad. Mu Rongxun mainly obtained various miscellaneous items, all of which were quite valuable. As long as he put them on the market, he could quickly exchange them for a large number of Paradise Coins. As for equipment, there was only one piece worth noting.

[Little Red Riding Hood's Vintage Shotgun: Carry it, and you shall fear no wolf.]
[Quality: Golden Rare]
[Attribute: Fatal Blow – Has a chance to instantly kill the hit enemy!]
[Attribute: Hit Damage +30%!]
[Skill 1: Snipe – When sniping from a distance, consumes energy to imbue the bullet, doubling the damage.]
[Skill 2: Little Red Riding Hood's Wrath – Summons the power of death to imbue the shot. Upon impact, if the target does not die, they will be eroded by the power of death.]

Seeing the attributes of this gun, Mu Rongxun raised an eyebrow; the first attribute was quite fierce! He hadn't seen it, but Little Red Riding Hood had used this gun to take out a member of the Myth Squad in one shot. If they hadn't possessed life-sharing capabilities, they would have been finished off by her long ago. Even so, it required a massive amount of divine power afterward to compensate for the cost. If the instant-kill effect were triggered, even the most powerful being would be helpless.

Without the energy to check his specific harvest in detail, Mu Rongxun threw himself onto his soft bed and immediately fell into a deep sleep. During his time in the derived world, he had been constantly on the move, and he didn't even know how long he had been rushing about. Moreover, because danger could be encountered at any moment, he had to constantly monitor his surroundings even when resting, so naturally, he hadn't been able to rest well. Now that he was finally back in an absolutely safe place, he intended to sleep until the world turned dark.

When he woke up again, over ten hours had passed. After first satisfying his hunger, Mu Rongxun took the city bus to the center of the Magic Tower and activated the enhancement chamber to bolster his attributes.

Mu Rongxun's current attributes were:
Constitution: 3.5
Qi: 3.5
Spirit: 3.6

Having obtained five attribute points this time, he didn't hesitate to distribute them evenly.

[Warning: The maximum attribute for Tier 0 is 5.0. Please break through the boundary before adding more; any excess will be wasted.]
"The maximum for Tier 0 is five points?"

Mu Rongxun was curious; this was something he was learning for the first time. Since that was the case, he increased all three core attributes to five points, leaving him with 0.6 attribute points and one Golden Attribute Point. According to the description, a Golden Attribute Point could increase any attribute without any requirements. He didn't know the specifics of that yet and decided not to touch it for now; besides, he had no use for it at the moment.

After experiencing the sensation of body enhancement once more, Mu Rongxun's physical attributes finally reached the peak of Tier 0. At least in terms of raw attributes, he had reached the summit of his current stage.

[Attributes have reached the peak of Tier 0. Further improvement requires reaching Tier 1.]
[Please initiate your promotion trial within the next three worlds at the latest. After three worlds, you will be forcibly entered into a promotion trial world.]

Seeing this, Mu Rongxun's expression became peculiar. Does this mean he has three more worlds to accumulate strength? He was not in a hurry to start the promotion trial. Although his attributes were now up to standard, his equipment and skills were still lacking; he truly needed to consolidate his foundation.

Currently, the skills he could improve were his Swordsmanship, Sword Heart Clarity, and Demon-Sealing Shadow-Severing Slash. In this world, if it hadn't been for the Demon-Sealing Shadow-Severing Slash, Little Red Riding Hood might not have been defeated. However, he couldn't improve that move yet; the ones he could improve were the first two.

He headed straight to the Skill Enhancement Hall and began his upgrades. First was his Swordsmanship, which he raised in one go to Proficiency LV25, increasing his damage by 10% at the cost of five units of World Origin and 10,000 Paradise Coins. While Sword Heart Clarity didn't require World Origin, the Paradise Coins it consumed were truly substantial—a full 50,000—to reach Proficiency Level 10, which significantly increased various success rates.

Afterward, Mu Rongxun stepped into the Equipment Enhancement Hall for the first time. He prepared to upgrade the gear he was carrying. He currently possessed the weapon Shadow of Slaughter (Purple), the secondary weapon Origin God Gloves (unknown grade), the accessory Morello’s Lie (Purple), the Deep Blue Orb (Golden), the gauntlet Aurora Bracers (Purple), and the clothing Mage’s Underarmor (Blue). He only had a few pieces of equipment, but their quality was terrifyingly high. Even so, there were still empty equipment slots; for instance, he had no shoes, no leg armor, and was missing a greave. He was unwilling to settle, and because his reliance on equipment wasn't high, he wasn't in a rush to find replacements.

Upon arriving at the Equipment Enhancement Hall, Mu Rongxun found it bustling with people, a stark contrast to the Skill and Attribute Enhancement Halls. There was a strong sense of "heaven in a thought, hell in a thought" here. If equipment enhancement succeeded, it was fine, but if it failed, there would be a price to pay.

Standing in front of an unused enhancer, Mu Rongxun first checked the prices. He discovered that for white-tier gear, it was 100 per use; blue was 500; purple reached 2,000; and gold was 10,000 per use. He didn't know the specific prices for higher tiers as he hadn't obtained any. However, these prices were already quite frightening. For example, a full set of ten blue pieces of equipment would cost 50,000 to upgrade to +10 even if every single attempt succeeded, which was roughly the cost of the entire set itself. Given that success wasn't guaranteed, it was no wonder this place was considered a gamble between heaven and hell. If one wasn't careful, falling a level was bad enough, but if the equipment shattered, it would be a disaster.

He placed his only blue equipment, the Mage’s Underarmor, on the device. It showed a 100% success rate. It seemed the first enhancement was quite reliable. He had received this item from his teacher two worlds ago; the potion had been used, the puppet was often used as an assistant, and this piece of gear was worn on his person. Actually, Mu Rongxun had wanted to enhance it last time at the Magic Tower, but because he had spent too much time simulating combat in the Duel Arena, he had been sent back to reality before he could.

After the first success, Mu Rongxun took a look.

[Mage’s Underarmor: You feel more secure wearing it!]
[Quality: Fine Medium]
[Attribute: Ignore 20 points of damage!]
[Attribute: -10% damage taken]
[Passive Skill 1: Thorns – Damage taken -15%!]
[Passive Skill 2: Magic damage taken -15%!]
[Enhancement +1: Defense +5]

It added five points of defense, which wasn't bad. Mu Rongxun continued the enhancement. He was wealthy now and didn't mind the cost of enhancing a single piece of blue gear; he mainly wanted to test the effectiveness of the enhancement. The second attempt was also a success, though the success rate began to drop. The third attempt already saw the success rate at 70%. However, Mu Rongxun was lucky and succeeded four times in a row. By the fifth attempt, the success rate was only 65%.

He initiated the enhancement again. Anyway, failure before level five only resulted in a level drop and wouldn't destroy the equipment. He wouldn't be so reckless above level five. However, this time he failed, and the equipment dropped back to +3. Mu Rongxun didn't take it to heart and continued. After two consecutive successes, it finally reached +5, and he stopped there. He had enhanced it seven times in total, costing 3,500 points. It felt a bit expensive; after all, that much money could buy another blue piece of equipment.

[+5 Mage’s Underarmor: You feel more secure wearing it!]
[Quality: Fine Medium]
[Attribute: Ignore 20 points of damage!]
[Attribute: -10% damage taken]
[Passive Skill 1: Thorns – Damage taken -15%!]
[Passive Skill 2: Magic damage taken -15%!]
[Enhancement +5: Defense +25]
[+5 Effect: 1% of damage received will be returned to the attacker.]

Seeing this, Mu Rongxun raised an eyebrow. This effect seemed somewhat negligible. At only one percent, it was basically better than nothing. Perhaps if he continued to enhance it further, the counter-attack effect might become more powerful, but it wasn't necessary. He wasn't a tank-type player who relied on counter-attacks to deal damage. Rather than considering this bit of counter-damage, it was more effective to think about how to land one more strike. With his damage output, one extra swing would be far more terrifying than ten thousand counter-attacks.

He didn't need to consider the blue gear anymore, but he could consider his other purple equipment. After all, he wouldn't have replacements for them in the short term, and he would be using them for a long time. Since that was the case, it was necessary to make them more powerful. However, the Deep Blue Orb didn't need enhancement; it was mage equipment that didn't fit him very well, and the cost of enhancement was simply too high. Once he had suitable equipment later, he would definitely replace it, so there was no need to waste Paradise Coins on it.