Reinforcement
I woke up around afternoon as usual, after sleeping in like a slob.
Solo Instance
By day three, I figured at least one other player would show up, but nope—the tower was still just me today. Nothing had really required a party so far, so it was fine, but maybe newbies just didn't come to this server much.
I pulled up the open community to check how many newbies were entering other servers. Looked like variance was huge between them. Some days, over a hundred got dumped in at once; other times, a whole month went by with zero news. Our country had a lot of population relative to the number of towers, so gaps like that were rare. Three days with nobody? Not that weird, apparently. They'd show up eventually.
"Alright, then... time for some reinforcement today."
I ordered the 200G breakfast at the inn to tide me over, then headed to the village blacksmith.
The Tower of Trials was structured a lot like an RPG game overall. The weapon and armor reinforcement system using materials was pretty similar too.
That was the stats on the Steel Straight Sword I was using right now. As a shop-bought weapon, no equip restrictions. Attack power showed base damage, and the (Slash) next to it indicated attack type. Slash meant full power only on slicing attacks—if it were a hammer, it'd say (Blunt). Types had extra effects too; Slash had a chance to inflict bleeding.
Critical damage below that was the multiplier when crits popped, like with those goblins yesterday. 2.0 meant roughly double, but the community said don't trust the numbers blindly—same crit could hit different based on where it landed. Higher was always better, though.
Durability? Self-explanatory. Hits zero, and steel or mithril, it snaps the same.
Most important: reinforcement attempts at the bottom. Weapons could only be reinforced that many times, period.
"Come on in~ What can I do for you!"
I approached the blacksmith spouting his emotionless lines and held out my Steel Straight Sword. Shop weapon with 5 attempts—failures still consumed them, so straight +5 was no joke. Base success rate was exactly 50%, so all five succeeding? About 3%. I'd never beaten odds like that in my life.
But I wasn't worried. Why? 'Cause I had a massive stockpile of reinforcement materials from yesterday.
Adding materials boosted success rate accordingly. Maxed out? 90%. Unless I was cursed with shit luck, at least +4 was guaranteed.
I dumped in the mats, hit reinforce. Option? Obviously Sharp for attack power. Result? Clean as could be...
...A perfect +5. Even as a shop weapon, it outperformed most boss drops now. And I still had mats overflowing.
I maxed out all my armor too while I was at it.
Just gear reinforcement made my stats jump noticeably. Factor in unlisted attack power, and my effective level was over 20. No way to hit that on day three.
I screenshotted my equipment and status windows, uploaded straight to the open community.
"Heh, it's blowing up."
My lips curled at the community's ghost reactions. But my day three was barely started. Gear done—time to grind levels in the labyrinth again?
No class meant zero skills, but labyrinth hunting was no issue. Yesterday I massacred normal goblins like a civilian slaughter; today I took on elite mobs like Goblin Soldiers and Goblin Squad Leaders.
They moved way sharper than basics, but fast and nimble? So what.
"Hyaap!"
-Slash!
The +5 Sharp Steel Straight Sword swung once, and a Goblin Soldier's head went flying. Two in the back lunged with spears, keening, but my forward shield—World Rabbit Encyclopedia—blocked easy.
Hell, I didn't even need the shield. Armor and shield options applied constantly. Weapon attack doubled via reinforcement? My defense was now quadruple, piece by piece.
-Thud!
The Squad Leader behind them bullet-rushed with his axe, but felt like a pillow hit.
"What're you waiting for? Come at me!"
I roared at the goblins and charged. One body slam toppled two. I stomped the downed ones with my sword, EXP flowing as they croaked.
Squad Leaders looked like normal goblins but punched way above—newbie killers, cause of over half Floor 1 deaths.
"You fucking shithead!"
A day-three newbie like me was laughing them off while butchering. Overwhelming. All thanks to solo-monopolizing Tower #2661 resources.
Entering the tower, I thought hunter life meant dirt-poor grind. Wrong. I was living the perfect gold spoon dream now.
Ah, this was life reversal.
Labyrinth hunting was sweet today too. Levels up, but especially treasure chests—eight medium ones, two larges.
Other servers' rankers barely saw large labyrinth chests; I'd cleared two already.
Large drops: overflowing reinforcement mats, massive gold, and a unique with special option.
◈ Defense +5
◈ Intelligence +2
◈ 20% chance on enemy kill to recover 5% HP
◈ Reinforcement Attempts Available: 2
Floor 1 ring accessory—impossible normally. Stats plus unique option, reinforceable. Few rings had non-defense base stats or reinforcement slots. Special options like this? Rare even beyond rings.
Insane rarity.
"Kya... this is the real jackpot."
No immediate use, but sell to ranker hopefuls or high-grade hunters later? Big bucks.
Got some shop-outclassing armor too, cleared quests for solid rewards. Stuff that'd drive other towers' newbies nuts—but pocket change to a tower monopolist like me.
"This is life."
Every moment since entering the Tower of Trials was dopamine overload. The rush and thrill I'd never taste dragging my dirt-poor life forever.
And this dopamine peaked at community shitposting.
I rented the priciest inn room like yesterday, flopped on the bed, and dove into community trolling. Comments raging "how in 3 days?!" even calling fakes? Pure joy.
I binged till dawn again, slept in till afternoon next day.
Solo Instance
No other challengers again. Still solo, but whatever. Looking back, this was the last day of pure fun.
What I'd thought that insane drop day was right.
Yeah, my life was fucked.