Chapter 30: Reforging Blood Fang
He woke naturally at seven-thirty in the morning.
Several consecutive days of early rising had reset Liu Kongkong's internal clock. In the past, he'd been just like Wang Di — sleeping past noon and not going to bed until after midnight.
He grabbed a quick breakfast, logged into the game, tossed the equipment the shop manager had crafted overnight into storage, then sat quietly in the courtyard waiting for opening time.
"This courtyard is actually pretty nice." Liu Kongkong gazed at the rustic yard, surrounded by lush greenery and fresh air. Compared to the bustling world beyond the shop's front door, this place had a certain otherworldly tranquility to it.
Right — he needed to deal with that thing. With a flicker of thought, a blood-red dagger leapt into his hand.
[Blood Fang] — the equipment that had dropped from the Stone Wolf King. After Heart and Soul lost it on the Path of Reincarnation, it had found its way into his hands.
"Selling this as-is will definitely tip off Night's Gentle Chill and the others, but as for reforging it…" Liu Kongkong didn't have a great plan. Still, a weapon with a bleed effect would naturally fetch a high price.
The two biggest spenders in the Starter Village were both Warriors, so turning it into a longsword seemed like the obvious choice. But converting it to a longsword would inevitably weaken the bleed effect. Liu Kongkong studied the effect's description.
"Stacks up to five times, one stack per hit…" The longswords he'd sold so far all had an attack speed of 1, which was half as efficient as a faster dagger. Unless this premium weapon could maintain its green quality after reforging, there'd be no way to boost its attack speed through enhancement. And he had no idea what materials the enhancement would require — if it needed another Blood Fang, he wouldn't even know where to get one.
Still, reforging was inevitable.
Liu Kongkong gripped [Blood Fang] and walked to the workbench, pulling an iron longsword from storage. Whatever it turns into, first things first — take a hammer to it!
Clang!
Liu Kongkong's eyes lit up and he immediately stopped.
"This equipment was forged by the Divine. Confirm reforge?"
The Divine, huh — even if the Jade Emperor himself showed up, the answer would still be confirm! Liu Kongkong didn't hesitate for a second. He'd heard the name "the Divine" thrown around plenty lately. It was just a system-generated item. If it couldn't be turned into money, it wasn't worth a damn!
Another interface popped up.
"Reforge successful. Please select a weapon effect."
Oh? He got to choose? Liu Kongkong perked up.
Effect 1. [Alpha Wolf Aura]: While equipped, increases all party members' Attack by 20%. (Limited to level 20 and below)
Effect 2. [River of Blood]: Each attack has a 50% chance to apply one stack of "Blood Erosion." Each stack deals 1 HP per second to the target, stacking up to five times, lasting 6 seconds.
Effect 3. [Midnight Sword Saint]: During nighttime combat, Attack Speed increases by 300%. During daytime, Attack Speed decreases by 50%. (Time is defined by the current zone. Note: this equipment must be worn for at least 2 hours during the day to charge. Selecting this effect fixes base Attack Speed at 1.)
Liu Kongkong immediately ruled out the second option — the effect was too similar to Blood Fang's original. Better safe than sorry; no point giving Heart and Soul reason to be suspicious. He didn't want the first option either. One person equipping it and the whole party benefiting — he currently had a good stock of +5 [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick] weapons with 25 Attack each. A 20% boost on top of that would make the weapon downright terrifying.
"Third one it is. One person being overpowered is way better than the whole party being overpowered. Besides, big spenders deserve big-spender treatment — what's the point of dropping cash if not to be awesome?" This weapon's price tag was going to be anything but low. The only people who could afford it were Big Dumb Duck and Night's Gentle Chill. He could tell those two were both the type who loved to show off. Though — was 300% really not too high? With this weapon equipped, the attack speed would surpass even an Assassin's.
Liu Kongkong didn't understand why the system would offer that option — until he finished selecting and pulled out the longsword.
"No wonder the attack speed is so fast…" He stared at the sword in his hand. For some reason, the blade was radiating a blinding glow.
At night, holding this thing would be like carrying a flashlight. Once a fight broke out, anyone who didn't know better would think someone was waving a lightstick at a concert! Now he understood what "charging" actually meant. Not a huge problem though — he could just keep it in his bag and pull it out right when a fight started.
"Whipping it out suddenly would probably work like a flashbang." Liu Kongkong was already half-regretting his choice. This weapon was a bit too strong — and it was still green quality.
He gave it a casual name.
[Sword of Radiance] — Attack 20, Attack Speed 1, Durability 500. (Equipment Requirement: Level 10)
Special Weapon Effect: [Midnight Sword Saint]: During nighttime combat, Attack Speed increases by 300%. During daytime, Attack Speed decreases by 50%. (Time is defined by the current zone. Note: this equipment must be worn for 2 hours during the day to charge.)
A level 10 item. These players had been grinding all night — they should be getting close to that level soon enough.
While thinking this, Liu Kongkong curiously opened the enhancement menu. Sure enough, enhancing the Sword of Radiance required one Stone Wolf King fang and five iron ingots. But he quickly noticed there was another option.
"This equipment is a special item — insufficient materials can be supplemented with in-game currency?!" Liu Kongkong stared at the amount displayed below: 40 silver coins. Holy hell, that's expensive! He then added 5 iron ingots and watched the price drop to 39 silver and 50 copper.
So a Stone Wolf King fang was worth 39 silver and 50 copper?!
He immediately thought ahead — this was only the first enhancement. Based on past experience…
"So the second enhancement would cost around 80 silver… who could actually afford to play this way?" He opened the trading exchange and checked — today's exchange rate had returned to 1:1. Even at that rate, enhancing to +5 would cost over 12 gold, which, rounding down, was still 120,000…
But if it really were enhanced to +5, this weapon's Attack would reach 50. Based on current baseline weapons, it could practically carry someone all the way out of the Starter Village. It might even remain useful for a while in the early stages beyond.
What the world outside the Starter Village looked like, Liu Kongkong had no idea. And neither did any other player. In Hunt Heaven, the Starter Village seemed to be a completely self-contained world — no one had found a way out yet.
If enhancement costs that much, pricing this at 1 gold coin seems perfectly reasonable, right? Liu Kongkong glanced at the crafting list. As his blacksmith level had risen, quite a few basic blueprints had unlocked, including level 10 weapons.
Compared to the Sword of Radiance, a standard level 10 weapon only had 10 Attack — on par with the [Skull-Cracker Hammer] — and was priced at 1 silver coin each. Normally, players leveling at a steady pace and selling materials here and there could afford that.
"That's that, then. I wonder how much of the enhancement money I'd actually get to keep — or if it all goes to me." So far, Night's Gentle Chill and the others hadn't come to ask him about this, though they'd been pretty busy the past couple of days and probably hadn't had the time.
He checked the time — just hitting eight in the morning. He listed the Sword of Radiance along with the other equipment and weapons.
Open for business!
But the moment he opened the door, Liu Kongkong was dumbstruck.
The familiar faces were all there, sure — but the levels floating above their heads were still stuck at 7…
They hadn't gained a single level in an entire night?! Can you people please take this game seriously!