Chapter 1
3
Equipment is important.
You know it, he knows it, even the hopeless youngest son of Baron Farguson next door knows it.
Gloves, pants, accessories, clothing. Hell, around here, even underwear is called equipment.
Makes sense, I suppose. It's the clothing that stays attached to your body the longest.
Then.
When choosing equipment, what is the most important factor?
The equipment's grade?
The material?
The shopkeeper next door insists it's all about the maker's touch, but craftsmen like that are best avoided.
In my opinion, there's only one thing that matters most.
Compatibility with the wearer.
The wavelength and rhythm of mana.
No matter how top-tier a piece of equipment is, it's ultimately meaningless if it doesn't suit its user.
Conversely, the moment the compatibility clicks, the synergy can elevate the user's standing by several levels.
Even if it's only compatible with a single piece.
Some people call it superstition.
I understand.
Because there isn't a way to determine compatibility anywhere in the world.
That's why only a tiny handful of lucky people ever get their hands on equipment that perfectly suits them.
This is a post from an online community.
[✪] [Fact: We might all be wearing equipment that has absolutely no fucking compatibility with us lol]
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Honestly, we only look at the equipment's abilities.
So we just compensate by stacking the highest grades we can.
Actually, I think the equipment might be harmful.
Compatibility theory may be superstition, but you can't honestly deny there's something fishy about it.
I heard no one even noticed when the Sword Empress and Laevateinn swapped equipment during the last attempt to clear Floor 201 lol.
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ㅇㅇ: Guess you couldn't tell because their builds were similar lol, honk lololol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ1: For real lololol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ2: But I'm a newbie on Floor 7. Is there really no way to check compatibility? I'm seriously suspicious of my equipment.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ1: If you're a newbie, just raise your grade. Compatibility itself is superstition.
Not a single word of that is wrong.
But what if.
What if there were a way to see that compatibility?
If you didn't need to buy a hundred pieces of good equipment, or try them on one by one and rely on a vague gut feeling.
“Behold. This is a top-grade chestpiece I personally received from the royal family's vault.”
Its surface looked like red-hot lava that had solidified.
Mana was visibly overflowing from it.
The problem was.
[Compatibility 3.1/100][★★★★★]
[Slot: Upper Body/ Lava Full Plate Armor]
[The user's innate fire mana and the properties of lava as a material are fundamentally incompatible. Continued wear will cause mana backflow. Long-term wear will inflict a guaranteed internal-injury debuff. Are you seriously going to keep wearing this?]
“Apparently, the rabble have been saying suspicious things about my equipment lately. How laughable.”
So, to sum it up in one line.
‘Take it off, for fuck’s sake.’
My role was to phrase this hopeless incompatibility as subtly as possible.
Or make something new for them.
There was one thing that surprised me.
“Take it off.”
“What?”
“That thing makes your skin sting, doesn't it?”
“How did you know?!”
The equipment compatibility of top rankers was an even bigger mess than I had expected.
“Are you not going home?”
“I'm never leaving until you make my gloves and necklace too!”
They even pitched tents and staged sit-ins as if it were perfectly normal just to get a single piece of equipment.
“Go ahead and kill me. Do you think I'm moving from here?”
“If you don't leave, I'll go on strike.”
“…Be careful when you sleep. When you open your eyes, you'll be in the bed in my room.”
“Craftsmen aren't public property.”
“Hmph, what a joke.”
Powerful figures with nothing to fear… don't even hesitate to make threats.
I became the only equipment maker.
No, more precisely.
A blacksmith, attuner, enchanter, and….
Anyway, thanks to that, I haven't had a quiet day since.
I had no idea.
I didn't know it would be this bad.
[Custom Crafting]
[Don't trust your current equipment too much. I'll check your compatibility.]
[Payment: 1 kg of special mineral]
I never should've advertised.