The Great Thief

”Qum…” Elon thought a moment before asking, ”Did that Dwarf know how to Enchant?”

There was a hint of taunting and envy in that sentence; there weren’t many Dwarves who knew how to Enchant and Qum had inherited the technique from Aegwynn’s Enchanting Arts. It wasn’t something that most people could do, but in Elon’s eyes, it was possible that hehad tainted their profession.

”He was someone who was very knowledgeable in Strengthening Equipment,” Lu Li said, continuing to spout his nonsense.

”Strengthening Equipment is a science. Those who try to just throw a piece of equipment into the furnace are stupid.” After hearing that an Enchanting master couldn’t study Casting, Elon looked much better.

”So, can you help me? I have come from the distant Moon Shadow Valley.”

Lu Li had actually just used a Transportation Portal, but he wanted to get more sympathy.

Elon didn’t continue to shirk his responsibility and nodded, ”Very well. I will teach you the skills of Strengthening Equipment.”

Strengthening Equipment in a cast was one of the things that players were the most excited about.

This could improve the quality of equipment, thereby increase a player’s strength. However, all players who did this had to face the possibility of the Strengthening to fail.

What they needed to invest in was a Strengthening Stone, some gold coins and their mental fortitude.

The poor mental fortitude of most players meant that they simply did not dare to strengthen their equipment. It was great when you succeeded, but when you heard sad sound of a Strengthening Stone breaking, it was truly heartbreaking.

The NPC’s strengthening skill involved many things – there were specialized techniques for equipment, materials and so on.

For a player, the process wasn’t that complicated as the game was made to be playable. You just needed to put the equipment into the furnace, then pay a Strengthening Stone and some gold. In the future, rare materials may also be required, but the player could then confirm the process and see the results.

Elon’s so-called advice was actually teaching Lu Li a skill.

In his previous life, Lu Li had learned a skill named ’Strengthen Equipment’. There were several places that it could be learned, but the quest in Thelsama was the easiest way to do it, especially because of its low level.

The other quests were for players who were level 50 and above.

The description of the Strengthen Equipment skill was simple. It increased the strengthening process to somewhere between 10% to 15%. In his past life, the number that he gotten was about 13%.

Elon waved his hand at Lu Li and the System prompted him to learn Strengthen Equipment.

He couldn’t want to open his skills panel to see how much he had received this time. The difference between 10% to 15% seemed small, but was very noticeable in application.

Many players with a 10% success rate would choose to find a 15% success rate player to Strengthen their equipment.

The price was worth it compared to wasting a Strengthening Stone, so there were certain players that just strengthened equipment all day.

When Lu Li saw the number on his skills panel, he was dumbfounded.

20%!?

It wasn’t that he didn’t want more, but how could he get a number higher than the maximum?

Lu Li was a little compulsive, or perhaps he just liked being in control, but he didn’t like it when something happened and he couldn’t understand it.

”For the sake of Old Cresso, I’ve taught you a little bit more,” Elon said with a look of exhaustion.

”Thank you. I will not bring shame to Cresso’s name.”

It turned out that it was the NPC that had given him a little extra. This time he really was sincerely grateful.

The System had set it up such that Elon could only give between 10% to 15%, no matter how lucky or charismatic a player was. However, Lu Li was the exception because he had used Cresso’s Hammer to trigger a deeper story. If he was a luckier person, perhaps his gains could have been even higher.

Even so, Lu Li was satisfied. He now had a 20% success rate, which meant that his trip wasn’t in vain.

Thelsama was a place famous for Forging, Fishing, Logging and so on. Naturally, there was no shortage of strengthening furnaces for his equipment. The quests here also involved monsters that weren’t as difficult, which meant that there were fewer players. As such, Lu Li decided to strengthen his equipment here.

The strengthening furnaces weren’t the same as the casting furnaces – they were vertical structures with many more complicated runes inscribed on their surfaces. The casting furnace was a horizontal structure that only had a few runes on its top and bottom.

Although Thelsama was just a small town, the furnace was from the Ironfroge workshop and was no different from the ones in the large blacksmith workshop there.

Lu Li looked at the equipment he had and first removed his necklace.

Pamela’s Gift. This was a memorable piece of equipment, from the little girl in the Darong County. Lu Li hadn’t been back there ever since, so as to not arouse those sad memories.

He put the necklace into the compartment of the strengthening furnace, placed in a Strengthening Stone and inserted some gold coins into the corresponding slot.

The first strengthening required a Strengthening Stone and ten gold coins.

He confirmed the process and after a few seconds, Lu Li heard the System prompt.

System: Congratulations, you have successfully strengthened Pamela’s Gift for the first time.

The first time really was the easiest, not to mention that Lu Li had the skill which gave him an increase in success rate of 20%. All of these factors added up meant that it was likely his chance of failure was not more than 20%.

After removing the necklace, Lu Li looked at it and found that the Pamela’s Sweet Water Tea effect had been enhanced. It originally regenerated 20% HP, but this had been increased to 21%.

For Lu Li who currently had 3200HP, 1% was 32 HP, which was better than nothing. Perhaps at a crucial time, it could save his life.

He repeated his last few actions and put in two Strengthening Stones and 20 gold. This was definitely something that only a rich person could do; each strengthening cost a couple of thousand dollars.

The second strengthening also upgraded the Pamela’s Sweet Water Tea effect. Now, the effect could immediately regenerate 23% HP.

Lu Li stopped and walked around the furnace three times before starting the third strengthening. This kind of seemingly stupid behavior would become more and more common in future. Everyone would develop their own strategy for when they strengthened their equipment. Some, like Lu Li, would walk around the furnace a certain number of times. Others would stand on their head, or roll on the floor, or even cry and howl. If you could think of it, there was probably some player doing it.