Chapter 143: Enchantment Stone
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 143: Enchantment Stone
Once Predation reached Level 10, a Level 10 evolution effect was added, just like with Safe Base and Base Invincibility.
– The probability of predating a Mode in a Dungeon increases by 20%.
This was the new effect.
For Safe Base:
– The territory of the Safe Base can be expanded to external areas. The Safe Base will expand upon dominating or dismantling at least 1 Medium Faction, or dominating/dismantling at least 5 Small Factions in the target area.
For Base Invincibility:
– The Host acquires 10% of the dungeon rewards obtained when a "Resident" clears a dungeon. (Starting from Level 2 Dungeons, a minimum of 1 Point and 1 Normal Mode Point is acquired.)
Looking at these, it seemed that Level 10 evolution options generally granted effects that aligned with the nature of that specific Cheat Mode.
I thought it was pretty good.
I didn't have much use for it right now, but as I'd already experienced in the Level 3 Dungeon, encounters with Level 4 Zombies would only become more frequent. The Modes obtained from Level 4 Zombies might actually turn out to be quite useful for me.
And if there was ever a Mode I absolutely had to have, I could just drag the target into a Dungeon and snatch it with a 20% higher success rate.
[Lowest-Grade Enchantment Stone (★)]
– An Enchantment Stone extracted from low-quality items.
– When applied to an item, there is a 5% chance the item will be enhanced.
– Cannot be used on items of 4★ or higher.
And this was the Enchantment Stone that popped out after I predated about ten items.
"Wait. Enhancement? What the fuck?"
An enhancement stone that upgrades items had actually appeared.
No, strictly speaking, enhancement and enchantment meant different things.
Even if I wasn't much of an RPG gamer, I knew the difference between the two.
Enhancement usually upgraded the item itself to raise its stats, while enchantment added extra options, didn't it?
If the item was enhanced with a 5% success rate, would it add an option?
I wasn't very knowledgeable about this kind of stuff.
Since it wasn't a system that existed in the original Zombie Apocalypse.
Actually, wait. It did exist.
Come to think of it, there was nothing that didn't exist in Zombie Apocalypse.
The genre was supposed to be zombie apocalypse post-apocalyptic survival, but because so many mods had branched out over the span of ten years, users had mass-produced mods that basically turned the game into an RPG.
I remembered once considering installing a mod that gave Zombie Apocalypse an RPG feel—categorizing items into grades, allowing up to +15 enhancements, and adding potential options—but I ultimately decided against it, thinking it would ruin the game's immersion.
Honestly, back then, I thought the level-based item option scaling in Zombie Apocalypse already provided plenty of farming fun. Adding enhancement on top of that would just turn the game into a mindless grind of killing zombies just to upgrade gear... But of course, my perspective was different now.
Because this was reality.
"Let's try it."
The best way to find out was to do it.
Fortunately, there was no warning that the item would blow up if the Enchantment Stone failed, so I could just apply it without worry.
Besides, the drop rate for the Enchantment Stone itself was incredibly low, so it wasn't like I could just spam them anyway.
"Hmm."
Now that I was actually about to use it, I hesitated over which item to choose.
Obviously, I should apply it to an item I used frequently.
The first thing that came to mind was my best item: the Level 4 Scalpel.
But since the Lowest-Grade Enchantment Stone couldn't be used on items of Level 4 or higher, I had to turn my attention to Level 3 items.
Well, it made sense.
If I could just infinitely predate Level 1 items to churn out Enchantment Stones and upgrade Level 4 or Level 5 items, that would probably break the balance in its own way.
The next thing that came to mind was my sub-weapon, the "Fang of the Millennium Viper."
But since it was strictly a backup to my Scalpel, I didn't really feel like using it on that.
It didn't have to be a weapon, either.
I had my backpack and my survival belt.
In fact, since those were the things I used more often and for longer periods, they felt like more appealing choices.
"Let's go with the belt."
My backpack was also Level 4, so if I wanted to upgrade a backpack, I'd have to use a Level 3 one, which felt like a waste. So, I decided on my trusty "Multi-Purpose Survival Belt."
I'd eventually have to replace it or farm a Level 4 one when the Visiting Black Market Merchant brought one, but...
For now, this was just a test.
Above all, this whole dilemma might just be a classic case of counting my chickens before they hatched.
I only had one stone, and the success rate was a measly 5%.
Like that was actually going to work.
I believed in numbers.
With a 5% chance, I'd need to prepare at least twenty of them.
[Enchant Failure!]
"Fuck."
Even though I knew it was coming, there was no helping the shitty feeling that came with a failure message.
"Let's just get one success."
I still had plenty of Level 1 items.
Granted, these were things I'd farmed over a long period and might need to sell or use later, so I couldn't predate all of them. Still, wanting to test out this new feature at least once, I began predating.
Just how low was the drop rate?
This time, a Lowest-Grade Enchantment Stone popped out after only five items.
"Maybe it's not that low?"
Was the rate around 10 to 20%?
I'd have to predate more to be sure, but that didn't seem too bad.
Of course, that was only because Level 1 items were easy to get anywhere. The thought of having to find and predate five to ten Level 3 or 4 items made my head spin.
I immediately applied the Lowest-Grade Enchantment Stone to the survival belt again.
[Enchant Failure!]
"..."
It had only been two tries, but I immediately started wondering if there was something wrong with my luck.
I predated more items.
One dropped on the seventh try.
I applied it again.
Emptying my mind.
With the mindset that if it failed, I'd just predate more.
[Enchant Success!]
It succeeded on the third try.
"Whoa!"
My thoughts of having bad luck instantly flipped to feeling incredibly lucky.
Getting a 5% chance on the third try was definitely lucky.
With a racing heart, I checked the item.
[Multi-Purpose Survival Belt (3★)][+1]
– Weight Reduction (3★) = 70%
– Can store up to 3 items.
– Adds an extra pocket of 15cm x 15cm x 15cm.
The option on the successfully enchanted item was better than expected.
"Wait, this is a rare option."
This was an option usually found on rare backpacks, now attached to my survival belt through enchantment.
Of course, because it was a belt, the capacity was a bit small, but that wasn't a problem at all.
It would be ridiculous to put a massive storage capacity on a belt anyway.
I would have been perfectly happy even if it had just added one more regular pocket.
But a subspace pocket?
It wasn't huge, but it was by no means small either.
I could cram several magazines in there, or carry simple emergency rations and water.
"...Well, damn."
This was the true class of a Cheat Mode.
Providing every possible option to stand out and grow strong all on my own in this new world.
My value would rise even further because of this.
I could predate low-level items that others had no use for, turn them into Lowest-Grade Enchantment Stones, and use them to upgrade gear into something far superior.
I could keep them all to myself, but I could also distribute these enchanted items exclusively to the people of Paradise, making our faction even stronger.
It was only because this had attached to a survival belt.
Imagine if this was applied to a rare weapon or piece of armor.
What if an item got two rare options?
Would that make it a rare item, or a special one?
On top of that, there didn't seem to be any limit to enchantment enhancement.
If there was a +1, there could be a +2, and even a +3.
I couldn't resist.
I had started out just wanting to succeed once, but now that I had a +1, how could I resist going for +2?
I predated a few more items.
Once a Lowest-Grade Enchantment Stone dropped, I tried to enchant the +1 survival belt.
[This item is already enhanced to +1.]
[Enhancement success rate is reduced by 50%.]
"Ah, fuck. No easy shortcut."
Though, I suppose it made sense.
No matter how low-grade the stone was, if these options could be added to a single item two, three, four times... infinitely, that item could no longer be considered a normal item of its level.
If you could get a Level 1 item to +10, you'd start wondering if there was even any point in wearing Level 5 gear.
So, if enchantment meant adding these rare options, it meant a +1 enhancement was 5%, +2 was 2.5%, +3 was 1.25%... and so on, making it progressively harder to add extra options.
"It's well-designed."
This was actually much better than simple enhancement where only the stats went up.
Considering efficiency, it seemed best to just get various items to +1.
Since a 5% chance was relatively high.
Or maybe Level 2 Enchantment Stones would have a higher success rate?
But in the end, as time went on, my main gear would inevitably become fixed, so I would eventually have to aim for high enhancements.
It was the perfect justification for endless farming.
"If I can get a Level 5 item to +10..."
By then, I could probably just lounge around in Paradise doing absolutely nothing, asking "What now?" while living a life of pure leisure.
[Enchant Failure!]
I had tried to sneak in a +2 enhancement attempt while putting on a serious face, but as expected, a 2.5% chance wasn't easy.
"I'll do this later."
I'd save the thrill of enhancement for when I got items I absolutely needed, taking my time to apply enchantments then.
After all, Level 3 items were far from being considered end-game gear.
There was no need to waste Enchantment Stones.
More importantly, there was something else I needed to check quickly.
"The new Cheat Mode."
Not a Base-Type, Hunting-Type, or 19+ exclusive one, but a "Host-Exclusive" Cheat Mode.