Chapter 89: Improving Weapons

When a weapon smith reaches level twenty-four, they can begin to learn the advanced technique of "refinement," which allows for a certain degree of improvement in a weapon's level and attributes.

However, this does not mean they can easily transform a level-one "notched blunt sword" worth a mere twenty copper pieces into an invincible dragon-slaying blade. You must understand that you cannot endlessly repeat the refinement process on a single weapon; every weapon has a maximum number of refinement attempts. For a pile of level-one scrap metal, the best expectation we can have is for it to be upgraded into a pile of level-three scrap metal, and the cost of doing so might be even higher than simply buying a mediocre level-three weapon. Only low-level weapons with decent base attributes can be improved to achieve greater power.

Therefore, before you commit to refining your weapon, you had better consider carefully whether it is worth the cost.

When I found Longbow Shooting Sun, he was standing by a furnace, busily and nervously at work. A large firearm, nearly as long as a person and with a barrel thicker than an arm, lay before him—I recognized it immediately as "Sera-Jiong," the powerful long-range weapon belonging to the Elven beast tamer, Yan Zhen.

Yan Zhen and String Song Elegant Intent stood nearby, watching Longbow Shooting Sun’s actions with great anticipation. In addition to them, the Half-Orc shadow thief Long Triangle and the white-clad swordsman Buddha Smile had also arrived upon hearing the news.

Longbow Shooting Sun used the furnace to melt several pieces of metal into liquid, then cast it onto the firearm using his tools, followed by gently tapping it with a small hammer, changing the shape of the metal bit by bit. Soon, a warm, dark red luster spiraled around the firearm before quickly fading away, signaling that the modification was complete.

"Phew..." Longbow Shooting Sun let out a sigh of relief and presented the firearm to Yan Zhen. "I told you I would help you refine your weapon; I’ve finally fulfilled my promise."

"Thank you so much!" Yan Zhen happily cradled "Sera-Jiong," stroking the gleaming barrel with affection, her beautiful eyes sparkling with excitement. In her joy, she habitually turned her head and beamed a brilliant smile at the Elven marksman, as if sharing her delight with him. String Song Elegant Intent wore a knowing smile, nodding back at her in silent understanding.

Between their gazes, a warm flame seemed to be flickering.

Yan Zhen's joy was entirely understandable. Under the meticulous care of Longbow Shooting Sun, the firearm "Sera-Jiong" had been upgraded to level forty-five—exactly what Yan Zhen could use—and its power was far superior to before: its attack bonus had increased to 160, accuracy +15, health +120. The 30% knockdown chance remained unchanged, and the attack speed had increased by 20%. If there was any downside, it was the loss of the previous scatter effect, meaning it could no longer perform group attacks. However, as our levels increase, enemies become harder to deal with, and powerful single-target attack capabilities are far more practical than flashy but ineffective group attacks.

The weapon's attributes had improved significantly. I was envious and felt a sudden urge to ask Longbow Shooting Sun to refine my own weapon as well. However, as a seasoned veteran who had successfully endured the baptism of failure—having once spent ages grinding a mountain peak only to accidentally produce a single glass lens—that painful experience made me pull back just in time: this newly learned skill always carried a high degree of instability. Until Longbow Shooting Sun’s refinement skills were reliable, I would do well to wait and see.

As it turned out, my caution was incredibly prescient...

Witnessing a random success often leads people to overlook potential dangers. This common tendency to ignore rational thought applies not only to many humans but also to the green-skinned, tusked half-orcs, for instance: Long Triangle.

Seeing Yan Zhen’s weapon successfully upgraded, the portly half-orc shadow thief became instantly excited. He clutched his "Corpse Poison Dagger" and eagerly approached Longbow Shooting Sun, begging for his help in refining it. His face was wreathed in a friendly smile, blooming like a "vibrant Venus flytrap" on his massive plate-like face.

The Dwarven weapon smith did not refuse Long Triangle’s request. He carefully examined the dagger, retrieved several high-quality bone materials from his pack as needed, and then meticulously embedded them one by one. He then polished the dagger thoroughly with his tools and carved several fierce patterns onto the back of the blade. Before long, another dark red flash appeared in Longbow Shooting Sun’s hands, and the refined Corpse Poison Dagger finally made its debut before our expectant eyes.

After the modifications, the dagger’s appearance became even colder and more sinister. The handle, constructed from finger bones, twisted together like the struggling hand of a dying person, full of that cold, desperate, and magnificent style of post-modern, non-mainstream decadence.

In all honesty, the refined Corpse Poison Dagger did look much better. I would almost prefer to call it a deadly work of art rather than a weapon.

But regrettably, that was about the only thing worth praising.

"Corpse Poison Dagger: Damage +88, Agility +19, Health +99, 30% chance to deal double damage on a hit..." This was what I saw in its attribute panel. Does it look familiar? You guessed it; all its main attributes were exactly the same as when it was first crafted. No changes whatsoever.

I couldn't imagine how Longbow Shooting Sun, having just learned the weapon refinement skill, managed to achieve such a flawless balance between "adding" and "subtracting," rendering all his previous efforts completely futile.

And that wasn't even the worst of it.

Under the "Additional Skill" column for "Corpse Poison," I saw this note: "...Skill: Corpse Poison. 30% chance to release corpse poison every 15 minutes, dealing at least 30 points of damage to the enemy for 30 consecutive seconds, while the user suffers 3 points of corpse poison backlash..."

If I recalled correctly, the previous damage was at least 20 points per second, and the backlash was only 2.

Upon discovering this single difference in attributes, I immediately envisioned the bleak scene of Long Triangle’s health dropping at a rate of 90 points per second until he was shriveled into a mummy—unless his health was so overflowing that it was practically spilling out, he surely could not withstand the lethal toll of such a suicidal attack.

This was a miracle that was great to the extreme, and yet stupid to the extreme. I even wondered if the great Supreme God had used Longbow Shooting Sun’s hands to accomplish this, just to prove He was so omnipotent that He could leave people speechless at any given moment.

"Long... Bow... Shooting... Sun..." The half-orc shadow thief gritted his teeth as he called the Dwarven weapon smith’s name, as if he wanted to grind the name and its owner into pieces between his molars to express his indignation. "...What do you call this? Weapon refinement? Exactly which part of this damn thing has been 'refined'?"

"Um..." The dwarf stroked his messy red beard and pondered for a moment, finally managing to squeeze out an answer that avoided the main point: "...At least the damage of its Corpse Poison skill has increased."

"You second-rate cripple with a tail on your face, what the hell is the use of increased damage like that! Besides making me die faster when I commit suicide, what else have you done?" Longbow Shooting Sun’s answer clearly lacked any persuasion. Faced with this mind-shattering "magical" weapon, Long Triangle showed clear signs of mania. He erupted like someone who had swallowed a barrel of gunpowder, grabbed the dwarf by the collar, and shook him violently, roaring angrily—he had to expend a great deal of effort to fold his large belly and squat down just to successfully grab the dwarf’s collar.

Facing the half-orc’s fury, Longbow Shooting Sun shrank back timidly, his already short stature appearing even smaller than usual. He aggrievedly pressed his two index fingers together in front of his chest and, head bowed, argued pitifully:

"...It was clearly even prettier than before, though..."

Indignation, numbness, disappointment, sorrow... countless negative emotions appeared on Long Triangle’s face simultaneously, making his expression look like a series of dramatic ups and downs. I had never seen anyone capable of such a complex expression; it was the perfect embodiment of the abstract psychological state of "conflicting feelings."

Clearly, he was beyond furious!

Perhaps the larger the face, the richer the expressions one can make?

Looking at Long Triangle’s face, with its green skin folds twisted like a giant cactus, I thought to myself, while subconsciously touching my own cheek, which was only half his width—no matter what, I could never make such a rich and colorful expression.

...

To make up for the loss his mistake had caused his friend, Longbow Shooting Sun offered to refine Long Triangle’s off-hand weapon: a level twenty-five warhammer called "Insidious Striker."

For a half-orc shadow thief about to break through level fifty, the level of this warhammer was pitifully low. However, shadow thieves rely more on their powerful traps in battle, and even in melee combat, they are more adept at using daggers and short swords in their right hand. The main reason Long Triangle had kept this low-level warhammer until now was its additional 5% stun chance—as you would understand when fighting a shadow thief: a brief stun often implies a powerful trap and an invisible opponent, and either one could be the cause of your death.

Since the weapon itself wasn't high level, Long Triangle agreed without much hesitation. It seemed he had come to terms with it: it wasn't anything valuable, so how much worse could it get?

Just like the previous two times, Longbow Shooting Sun diligently completed his work. After a bright flash of light, a reborn "Insidious Striker" made its debut.

Attack Power +120, Battle Qi +100, 15% stun chance, attack speed +10%... When I first saw the attributes of this warhammer, a suffocating tremor ran through my heart: the attributes of this warhammer had increased to a dizzying level, and its most important stun attribute not only hadn't disappeared, but the attack power had also been greatly enhanced.

Faced with such a "deadly weapon" that everyone feared, even the pickiest person could only drool and say with envy: "Wow..." I even began to think about re-learning warhammer skills—if only this warhammer belonged to me.

At that moment, everyone present genuinely felt that Long Triangle had truly hit the jackpot.

However, he himself did not seem to think so.

"You short-legged junk-maker, can't you make something actually useful?" Long Triangle grabbed the red-bearded dwarf, who was feeling pleased with himself, and picked up the newly refined warhammer, gritting his teeth as he slammed it down onto the dwarf’s head again and again, looking as if he wanted to hammer the dwarf's head into his stomach.

"Stop... stop it! What are you doing! The attributes of this hammer can only be this strong, what else do you want from me?" Longbow Shooting Sun struggled desperately, waving his arms helplessly while shouting back, interrupted occasionally by the "clanging" sounds coming from his skull.

"Strong my foot! This piece of junk has only one durability point. You call this a 'weapon'? Pah! A flyswatter is sturdier than this..." Long Triangle was enjoying his tantrum when suddenly his hand felt light. The gleaming warhammer suddenly lost its luster, turning into a severely rusted, dilapidated lump of pig iron.

The attributes were instantly reset to zero.

Longbow Shooting Sun finally managed to escape from Long Triangle’s furious retaliation, though he looked even shorter now—his neck was noticeably compressed.

Hearing Long Triangle’s words, we refocused our attention. Sure enough, in the corner of the weapon attribute panel that is easily overlooked, there was a line of text so bleak it was heartbreaking:

"Durability 0/1"!

Just from those few light taps earlier, the warhammer had been completely destroyed.

Although Long Triangle had already witnessed Longbow Shooting Sun’s absurd refinement results and was fully prepared, at this moment, no matter how much you are prepared to accept anything, Longbow Shooting Sun’s refinement skills were so mysterious that no matter how mentally prepared you were, he could always easily break through your psychological bottom line and push you to the edge of a breakdown.

For instance, now: feeling one way about a pile of useless junk is one thing, but being faced with a top-tier weapon with stunning attributes that you simply cannot use is quite another...

Looking at the suicidal dagger in his hand that was always ready to take his own life, and the warhammer with amazing attributes that was always ready to go on strike, the shadow thief’s deep eye sockets finally moistened.

He realized one thing deeply:

Uh... today was probably not his lucky day...

A Void Traveler once told me this profound philosophical truth: life is full of unknown sorrows, and you never know which step will land you in a pile of dung.

Now, Long Triangle had stepped in dung twice in a row, verifying the mystery and profundity of the word "impermanence" with his own experience; it could be described as suffering upon suffering.

...

To this day, none of us knows what laws a weapon smith’s refinement results follow. In that dark void above, whose strings of fate are the gods plucking, presenting this puzzling outcome before mortal eyes?

Could it be...

Could it be as Buddha Smile once said: beyond all the knowledge we know, beyond all the truths that science and magic can reach, beyond the surface of this world that our eyes can see and our hands can touch, the sacred will of the gods is actually perched above every insignificant life, using another vast and complex system to determine our destiny!

This vast system where divine will determines destiny is called "Character."

How to measure and calculate the hidden attribute of "Character" is probably a secret kept by the gods, an eternal, unsolvable mystery of this world.

Through field observation, the only thing I can be sure of is: Long Triangle’s "Character" value doesn't seem to be very good...

Looking at the two classic examples of trash weapons, every glance Long Triangle took seemed to show the world-weariness of someone who had seen through the vanity of life. In just a short moment, this bloated half-orc shadow thief seemed to have aged significantly.

"I have something to do, I’m logging off..." he said, feeling utterly discouraged.

"It’s only noon, why are you leaving so early?" Longbow Shooting Sun’s nerves seemed thicker than his thighs, as he actually managed to ask such a suicidal question.

"I’m going to find a psychologist to ask how to treat reactive depression after suffering a major blow!" Long Triangle glared at the red-bearded dwarf.

"Are you sure it’s not secondary depression induced by obesity?" Although Longbow Shooting Sun felt guilty and his face flushed slightly, he couldn't help but retort.

Long Triangle threw a murderous look at him, which made the dwarf shut his mouth immediately.

"Yeah, yeah, it’s a bit too early, isn't it..." String Song Elegant Intent, who was standing by, tried to persuade him. "...In any case, your dagger is still usable, and the hammer wasn't anything great to begin with. Why don't you just let Longbow compensate you with a new one? No need to be this depressed..."

Long Triangle hesitated for a moment, sighed, and explained, "Actually, that’s not the reason. I signed up for a yoga class last week to lose weight through exercise, and it’s almost time for today’s session..."

"Yoga? You?" His explanation immediately caused an uproar. Longbow Shooting Sun, Yan Zhen, String Song Elegant Intent, and Buddha Smile all looked at Long Triangle from head to toe (drawing an arc because of his protruding belly), their eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. I really don't understand what this "yoga" is, that it could cause such a huge sensation.

"Hey, who says fat people can't do yoga? Is it so strange that I practice yoga?" Long Triangle’s face turned slightly red, and he shouted in a mix of embarrassment and anger.

Nod...

"I protest! This is body discrimination!" Long Triangle was frantic.

They nodded in an unusually synchronized manner, adding four "we are discriminating against you" expressions of agreement...

"I..." Under the piercing gazes of the crowd, Long Triangle’s momentum was greatly suppressed, and his arrogance gradually faded. He muttered a small explanation:

"...So far, I’ve only practiced the meditation part..."

"Oh..." Every face showed an "I see" expression, as if this key explanation was very much in accordance with natural law and common sense.

"Vulgar people! A bunch of vulgar people!" Long Triangle looked at their mocking expressions and cursed cynically, "The essence of yoga lies in that completely open state of mind; it’s about sudden enlightenment. The various physical movements are just the superficial stuff, mere fur! It’s not that I can't do them, it’s that I don't deign to..."

I felt that what he said was very profound and mysterious, and it seemed to make a lot of sense. However, my companions did not seem to think so.

They rolled their eyes at Long Triangle, showing great contempt and distrust.

"Believe it or not, my instructor even praised my high comprehension, humph..." The half-orc fat guy’s self-esteem was clearly dealt a huge blow, and he angrily puffed a cloud of waste gas out of his nostrils, which were tilted toward the sky.

"...She said she had never seen a 'strong man' who started snoring five seconds into meditation..."