Chapter 151: +3 Enhanced Delicate Longsword (Only Level 2 on Paper...)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 151: +3 Enhanced Delicate Longsword (Only Level 2 on Paper...)
Now that the enhancement shop was built, I decided to check it out.
Even if I didn't have any items I wanted to enhance, I had to see what it looked like.
And there was one thing I was most curious about.
"Welcome, Owner of Paradise."
Upon entering, I saw two enhancers wearing black hoods similar to the Visiting Black Market Merchant, each sitting in front of an enhancement anvil.
Do these guys even commute?
The Visiting Black Market Merchant also stays in his designated spot all day, only to vanish the moment you look away.
I wondered if there was some system-level restriction preventing me from questioning their identity.
Well, I decided not to dig too deep into that.
Even if I questioned the nature or plausibility of this world, what would I gain? Besides, digging into the secrets of this server—which was nothing but a benefit to me—might just mess things up.
Instead, I asked the enhancer.
"How much is the enhancement fee?"
"Level 1 enhancement is 50 Coins. Level 2 enhancement is 200 Coins."
"Wow. That's insane."
Honestly, I had thought, How expensive could a fee actually be?
After all, when it comes to enhancing, the real issue is the enhancement stones. The fee is just a one-time cost per attempt.
I figured they'd just charge a token amount so it didn't feel completely free.
I was wrong.
But is it too expensive? Well, if you consider the value of an item once it's enhanced, it might actually be reasonable.
In theory, survivors can source enhancement stones themselves and farm items. From the perspective of a survivor manually enhancing their gear, the only actual out-of-pocket expense is the enhancement fee.
If spending 50 Coins to enhance a Level 1 item boosts its performance, it could easily yield more than 50 Coins' worth of value.
Of course, with a 10% success rate, the expected cost is actually 500 Coins.
Honestly, I doubted whether enhancing a Level 1 item was worth 500 Coins.
For that many Coins, wouldn't they be better off buying a Level 2 item—maybe even a rare one—from me?
Ultimately, to reach a conclusion, I had to try enhancing an item myself.
To see just how much the item's options would improve.
People would calculate the efficiency based on that.
So, there was no point in bickering over whether the fee was too high.
It wasn't like I could change it anyway.
I didn't really have any complaints either.
Sure, it costs a lot of Coins, but enhancement isn't content meant for just any random Joe.
It simply offers those with excess Coins a way to spend them and increase their chances of survival.
Even I would have to spend Coins to enhance, but if I didn't want to, I could just choose not to.
"Level 3... Level 4 will be even more expensive."
Right now, I didn't have any items worth enhancing.
I had a few Level 1 enhancement stones, but using them only gave a 5% chance to enhance up to a Level 2 item.
What was the point?
For someone like me who already possessed Level 4 enchanted items, this content wasn't very appealing yet.
I'd need to get at least a Level 4 enhancement stone to even consider using it on my scalpel.
But sometimes, you have to do something even if it's inefficient.
Just how efficient was enhancement?
I wanted to see it for myself once.
"Something decent..."
Since the item's level determines the enhancement cost anyway, it was best to enhance something with the best possible options.
Of course, this was also a gamble.
Considering the risk of failure, there was a 50% chance the item would be damaged, so it might actually be safer to enhance a trash item.
If it succeeded, an item with good options would obviously hold much higher value, but if it failed, the loss would be devastating.
The epitome of high risk, high reward.
I preferred the latter.
[Delicate Longsword (2★)]
- Damage to zombies +2
- Sharpness (2★)
- Upon Sword Draw, Agility increases by ★ for 30 seconds.
A longsword with decent options.
For a Level 2, this was actually quite good.
It even had a rare option.
Even if it was a bit tricky to use due to the condition, people would still line up to buy it.
I took it back to the enhancement shop.
"Enhance this."
I pulled out a Level 1 enhancement stone.
A 5% chance.
I'd succeeded on my first try before, so why would this be any different?
Actually, since this was mostly an experiment, I felt it might even be better if it failed.
What did "damage" actually look like?
I lamented the reality of having to spend my own Coins for an experiment, but at least my success rate was higher than others.
With my 10% bonus added to the base 5%, I had a 15% chance of success.
Would this apply even if the enhancer did it for me?
The enhancer took the Coins and began the process.
[The "Enhancement" effect increases the enhancement success rate by 10%.]
[Enhancement Success!]
"Oh!"
"Congratulations."
A 15% chance.
A success rate 5% higher than what others would get using a Level 2 enhancement stone—it didn't let me down this time either.
With a fluttering heart, I took the item.
[Delicate Longsword (2★)] [+1 Enhanced]
- Damage to zombies +2 [+1]
- Sharpness (2★)
- Upon Sword Draw, Agility increases by ★ [+★] for 30 seconds.
"Oho."
The damage to zombies increased by +1.
The Agility boost upon Sword Draw also went up by 1 level.
The other options remained the same.
Maybe because it was only a +1 enhancement.
But considering the cost, this seemed pretty decent.
"If at least two options get boosted, it seems worth enhancing."
After all, people who keep using Level 1 and Level 2 items don't do so because they lack the will to upgrade; they do so because they lack the ability.
Obviously, if you asked someone, "If you had a Level 2 item and a Level 3 item, which would you use?" anyone would choose the Level 3.
But if you asked, "Then why aren't you using one?" you'd get the reply: "Because I don't fucking have one, you asshole."
In any case, for those who grew attached to their Level 1 and Level 2 items simply because they had nothing else, enhancement might actually be a pretty good upgrade option.
As for Level 1 items... I wasn't so sure.
Unless you succeeded on the very first try, the efficiency was questionable enough to make you wonder if it was even worth enhancing. But then again, that's just how the system is.
Not everything can be highly efficient.
If it's inefficient, people will naturally just stop using it.
Finding a good Level 2 item and moderately enhancing it wouldn't be a bad choice.
That was my exact assessment.
Honestly, if you're going to use a Level 2 item like this, the realistic advice would be to save your Coins and buy a better Level 3 item...
But that's where the "car-buying dilemma" comes in.
Everyone wants to buy a nice car, but they can't because of their realistically limited budget.
It always comes back to the same problem.
"It's not bad."
Well, it didn't matter if it became a system that nobody used.
Honestly, my primary reason for adding the "enhancement" system was to set up a mart through the black market dealer and skim a 10% commission off the top. My secondary reason was to experience a double dose of dopamine by combining both enchanting and enhancing.
Even if nobody else used it, as long as I did, it was fine.
Since the enhancement succeeded, I decided to try failing too.
What would damage look like?
First, I handed over an enhancement stone for the successfully +1 enhanced item.
A -1 damage penalty after a successful +1 enhancement.
Or just a straight -1 damage penalty on a regular item enhancement.
I needed to check both cases.
"For a +2 enhancement, the success rate is halved to 2.5%. The cost is the same: 200 Coins."
"Damn."
The "Enhancement" mode was, as expected, insanely broken, even if I had designed it that way on purpose.
Because the mode activates whenever an enhancement is attempted, it completely ignores the 50% penalty that cuts the success rate in half for +2, securing a flat 10% bonus right off the bat.
What could be more fucking broken than this?
I could confidently call it cheat-mode tier. This was exactly how the 5% "rare" farming rate from the cheat mode "Base Invincibility" and the 10% "rare" farming rate from "Hunting Expert" worked.
No matter how low the base drop rate for "rare" items was, it flat-out boosted it by 15%. While others might hunt for an entire month just to get a single "rare" item, I could scoop them up by the dozens in a single day and pile them up in my warehouse.
This was no different.
Whether it was +1 or +2.
+3 or +4.
Even if the success rate plummeted to 1%, 0.5%, or 0.25%, I wouldn't be affected at all.
Because my minimum success rate was always a guaranteed 10%.
In theory, if I was lucky enough, I could even reach +100 enhancement.
Though you might wonder if that's really possible with just a 10% chance.
For now, that 10% was still a pretty hardcore rate, unless my host-exclusive "Server System Administrator" level went up and boosted the probability further.
[Enhancement Success!]
"Huh?"
Why the hell did the enhancement succeed when I threw it in specifically to fail?
I handed over another enhancement stone.
The success rate was 1.25% + 10%.
[Enhancement Success!]
It succeeded again.
"Congratulations."
Congratulations?
Sure, it was something to be congratulated for.
Since I had just beaten the odds of 15%, 12.5%, and 11.25% three times in a row.
"Oh, for fuck's sake!"
But why the hell did that luck have to waste itself on a trash Level 2 item I brought just for an experiment?!!!!!!!
I snatched the +3 enhanced Level 2 longsword back.
[Delicate Longsword (2★)] [+3 Enhanced]
- Damage to zombies +2 [+6]
- Sharpness (2★) [+2★]
- Upon Sword Draw, Agility increases by ★ [+2★] for 30 seconds.
The decent little trash item was gone. In its place was a monstrous weapon that could slap my scalpel across the face... well, maybe not that far, but it could definitely stub its toe.