Chapter 12: Hey Kid, Want to Upgrade Your Weapon?
"Master Liu? Dear Master Liu, are you still there?" The discount coupon from before had earned Lonely as a Song a windfall of 80 silver coins, and his tone had grown noticeably more fawning whenever he called out to Liu Kongkong. First kills? Bosses? What was the point of any of that? He'd figured it out — the NPC standing before him was the most broken existence in the entire game.
Hearing someone call for him, Liu Kongkong poked his head out from behind the door. "Why haven't you left yet?"
"I wanted to ask if there's anything else you'd like me to do," Lonely as a Song said, gazing at Liu Kongkong with hopeful eyes. If he could actually enter the blacksmith shop, he'd probably already be hugging Liu Kongkong's legs and kissing up to him shamelessly.
Anything to do? Liu Kongkong glanced back at the forge. Stones and wood were piled on top — he had plenty of those two materials for now, but the variety was still far too limited. Still, he had leveled up, and among the players there were now people at Lonely as a Song's level.
He pulled up the quest panel. Sure enough, a good number of new quests had appeared.
"Go gather 300 iron ore for me first." He spotted a quest for collecting iron ore, but each individual quest only required submitting 5 pieces. Finding it too tedious to run back and forth, Liu Kongkong used the custom quest function to combine them into one — and the EXP reward instantly multiplied by 60, jumping straight to 1,200 points!
Another terrifying quest?! Lonely as a Song stared at the familiar numbers, then glanced at the reward. Honestly, he didn't mind these kinds of quests at all — taking one big job meant he didn't have to keep running back and forth, saving him a ton of time.
Besides, a quest like this was clearly no ordinary one. Who knew what strange hidden quest it might trigger!
"Yes! I'll get on it right away!" Lonely as a Song dashed off. Liu Kongkong, meanwhile, went back to his own business. His blacksmith level had already reached Level 3, and for the past half hour he'd been studying which skills to invest in.
Yesterday's scare had left him too rattled to think straight, and when he logged back in, the system reminded him he still had unspent skill points.
He looked over the skill icons and descriptions on the skill page.
1. Time Is Money: Sold out in an instant? No worries! Crafting two pieces of equipment simultaneously might just solve your problem.
2. Looks Are Justice: Equipment stats will eventually become obsolete, but a dazzling appearance never will. Let your crafted gear change with the times and always stay on the cutting edge of fashion.
3. Life Needs Miracles: Still struggling to craft high-quality gear? Would you be satisfied if one out of every hundred pieces was guaranteed to be a masterwork?
4. Let's Upgrade: Equipment has a life of its own — can it keep growing? Upgrade it! One hammer brings life, one hammer brings death! The path of an ordinary weapon ascending to godhood!
"Hmm, all four of these skills are actually pretty solid." Liu Kongkong studied the four icons. He currently had two skill points. "Comparing them, the one that lets you craft two pieces at once — the efficiency booster — is actually the weakest of the bunch."
The second skill was clearly oriented toward appearance customization. Liu Kongkong understood perfectly well how valuable that kind of skill could be.
The third guaranteed a masterwork. He'd crafted so many [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick]s before, and they all had identical stats with no color change to the item name. Masterworks seemed incredibly rare — or maybe his blacksmith level just wasn't high enough yet.
As for the last one — well, there was no need to even explain. Weapon upgrading was something most players simply couldn't resist. In the late game of most titles, weapon stats were already terrifying on their own; add upgrades on top of that and you'd be obliterating everything in sight. But there was one issue: he was currently in the Starter Village. Would anyone really spend big money to upgrade basic weapons here? And how much in-game currency would he even earn from doing upgrades for others?
"Wait, why am I always thinking about having other people come to me for upgrades? Can't I just craft weapons myself, upgrade them, and then sell the finished products?" Compared to collecting service fees, selling finished goods was obviously the better play. Of course, that also meant he'd have to absorb the risk of failure himself...
Decision made!
Liu Kongkong took a deep breath and spent his skill points on [Looks Are Justice] and [Let's Upgrade]! With a system chime, the four skill icons underwent subtle changes — the two he'd selected each displayed a small number "1" beneath them.
"These skills can level up?" Liu Kongkong's eyes went wide. "If I'd known that, I would've picked the third one. If I'm guessing right, leveling up that skill would probably let me craft higher-quality gear!"
But the choice was made and there was no changing it. Besides, leveling up wasn't slow in the early stages — he could always invest in it next time.
First, try out the upgrade system.
Liu Kongkong casually crafted a [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick], then pulled up the weapon upgrade panel.
"It needs one wooden stick? Does every upgrade consume the same materials used to craft it?" Fortunately, the stick only required a single piece of wood, so he didn't mind at all. He swung the hammer down.
Clang!
With a faint flash of light, [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick +1] appeared before Liu Kongkong.
He quickly opened the weapon panel.
Deadly Strike of a Single Stick +1 — Attack 11, Attack Speed 1, Durability 1
Liu Kongkong raised an eyebrow. Only one point of Attack gained, with no change to Attack Speed or Durability? What if he went again?
He opened the upgrade panel once more. This time, the required materials were two wooden sticks!
Doubling each time? Or adding one more per upgrade?
"Who cares — just keep hammering until it fails. Do it enough times and I'll figure out the pattern!" Liu Kongkong tossed in two wooden sticks without a second thought and swung the hammer again.
Clang!
Deadly Strike of a Single Stick +2 — Attack 13, Attack Speed 1, Durability 1
Again!
This time it needed four wooden sticks!
So it was doubling after all. At that rate, the materials needed later would be absolutely insane. Liu Kongkong did the math — upgrading really wasn't something the average person could afford to do.
Three more upgrades in a row!
Deadly Strike of a Single Stick +3 — Attack 16, Attack Speed 1, Durability 1
Deadly Strike of a Single Stick +4 — Attack 20, Attack Speed 1, Durability 1
Deadly Strike of a Single Stick +5 — Attack 25, Attack Speed 1, Durability 1
"I've got the pattern figured out now. But this upgrading seems almost too easy — I made it all the way to +5 without a single failure..." He tossed in 32 wooden sticks and gave it another casual swing.
Crack!
Holy shit, he'd literally just said that and it shattered?! Staring at the weapon that had vanished into thin air, Liu Kongkong froze. So when it fails, you really do lose everything with no refund?!
Whatever. It was just a few sticks. The item was gone, but at least he'd gained some experience from it.
Liu Kongkong checked his EXP bar — each upgrade attempt gave 10 EXP, and the amount needed to reach the next level was now 800 points.
"Craft a few stone weapons and do some quick upgrades on them. Should hit Level 4 pretty fast."
He pulled materials from the storage, and the blacksmith shop immediately erupted with the frantic sound of hammering.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the map, Lonely as a Song — sent off by Liu Kongkong to mine iron ore — had already descended into despair...
"This stuff is so heavy, and it takes up so much inventory space." Lonely as a Song trudged forward with great effort. His bag currently held only 34 pieces of iron ore, yet he was already struggling to move. "If it comes to it, I'll just head back first and ask Master Liu if I can deliver in batches. There's no way I can carry 300 pieces all at once..."