Chapter 4
#4. Enhancement
I slept in again today and woke up in the afternoon as usual.
[Tower of Trials#2661 (1/1)]
Still, I thought at least one person would come in by around day three, but I'm alone in the tower again today.
I hadn't needed a party for anything yet, so it was fine, but maybe newbies just don't come in very often.
I opened the open community and looked up how many newbies were entering other servers. The differences between servers seem pretty drastic.
Apparently, when things were busy, there were times when more than a hundred newbies were thrown in per day, while when it was slow, there were even stretches of nearly a month with no arrivals.
Our country has a relatively large population compared to the number of towers, so there supposedly weren't many such dry spells.
I guess it isn't that strange for no one to come in for about three days. They'll show up when the time comes.
“Then today…… let's start with enhancement.”
I ordered the 200G breakfast at the inn and filled my stomach before going to see the village blacksmith.
The Tower of Trials was structured a lot like an RPG overall. The system for using materials to enhance weapons and armor was game-like too.
[Steel Straight Sword]
Attack Power + 35 (Slashing)
Critical Damage : x 2.0
Durability 200/200
Enhancement Attempts Remaining : 5
These are the stats of the [Steel Straight Sword] I'm currently using. Since it's a shop-bought weapon, there are no separate equip restrictions.
Attack Power represents the weapon's base strength, and the (Slashing) mark next to it indicates the weapon's attack type.
A slashing type means the attack power is fully applied only when you make a slashing attack; if this were a hammer instead of a sword, it would say (Blunt) instead.
These attack types also have different bonus effects depending on the type, and slashing is said to have a chance to inflict bleed damage.
And the Critical Damage below that indicates the multiplier by which damage increases when a critical hit procs, like when I killed the goblin yesterday.
Since it says 2.0, that probably means roughly double damage, but the open community says you shouldn't trust the displayed numbers too much.
Apparently, even critical hits vary in power depending on which body part they land on. Of course, higher numbers are definitely better.
Durability doesn't need much explanation. Once it hits zero, steel or mithril, it all breaks the same way.
And the most important stat was the number of enhancement attempts remaining at the very bottom.
Every weapon can only be enhanced as many times as this number allows.
“Welcome~ What can I help you with!”
I walked up to the blacksmith, who uttered his line with no hint of emotion, and held out the [Steel Straight Sword].
The [Steel Straight Sword], a shop-bought weapon, had 5 enhancement attempts; since the count drops even on failure, getting it straight to +5 wouldn't be easy.
The base enhancement success rate was exactly 50%, so the chance of succeeding all five times was only about 3%. I'd almost never beaten odds like that in my life.
But that was fine. Because I had a massive pile of enhancement materials I'd stockpiled yesterday.
If you use extra materials during enhancement, the success rate rises accordingly. With materials stuffed in up to the cap, the chance goes up to 90%.
Unless you're absurdly unlucky, you'll succeed at least four times. I fed in the materials and pressed the enhance button.
I naturally chose [Sharp], the option that increases attack power, and the result was, of course...
[+5 Steel Straight Sword]
Attack Power + 65 (Slashing)
Critical Damage : x 2.0
Durability 200/200
Enhancement Attempts Remaining : 0
……A clean +5. Even though it was a shop-bought weapon, it had become strong enough to outperform most boss drops.
Even after that, I still had more than enough enhancement materials left. I immediately enhanced all my armor pieces to the maximum as well.
Seo Jin-hyuk Lv.14 (Unemployed)
HP : 260/260
MP : 175/175
Strength : 20 (14+6)
Agility : 16 (14+2)
Endurance : 20 (14+6)
Intelligence : 14
My stats had clearly changed just from equipment enhancement alone. If you added in the attack power not even shown on the status window, my effective level was over 20.
Of course, these weren't numbers you could reach on day three. I captured the equipment window and status window and immediately posted them to the open community.
“Heh, this is causing quite the stir.”
The fierce reactions of the community wraiths made the corners of my mouth rise on their own.
But the fact was, my third day had barely even started yet.
Now that I was done with enhancement, it was time to level up in the labyrinth again, right?
**
I hadn't advanced to a class, so I didn't have any skills or anything, but that wasn't a problem for labyrinth hunting.
Since I could massacre ordinary goblins yesterday, today I tried taking on higher-tier mobs like goblin soldiers and goblin squad leaders.
As you'd expect from higher-tier mobs, their movements were very different from ordinary goblins, but they were fast and agile, so what was I supposed to do about that?
“Hyaaah!”
-Slash!
With one swing of the [+5 Steel Straight Sword], one goblin soldier's head flew clean off.
Two goblin soldiers in the rear let out guttural noises and thrust their spears at me, but they were easily blocked by the shield-[World Rabbit Encyclopedia] I had raised in front of me.
In fact, I didn't even need to bring the shield up. The armor and shield bonuses were always active.
Just as my weapon's attack power had more than doubled through enhancement, my defense was now four times higher than before.
-Thud!
The goblin squad leader standing behind the soldiers rushed out like a bullet and swung its axe, but it felt no different from being hit by a pillow.
“What are you waiting for? Come at me!”
I shouted at the goblins and charged. With one body check, two goblins toppled over.
I hacked down at the goblins that had fallen over with my sword, and they died at once, with EXP rolling in.
On the outside, goblin squad leaders looked exactly like ordinary goblins, but because their combat ability was much higher, they were said to be the natural enemy of newbies.
They say that this guy is the cause of more than half the deaths among clueless first-floor newbie challengers, so it really is a dangerous monster.
“You little shit!”
A mere day-three newbie, I was mocking those squad leaders as I took them down. It was a total stomp.
This was all thanks to my being able to monopolize Tower 2661's resources all by myself. When I first entered the tower, I thought I'd be living a dirt-spoon life as a hunter.
Not at all. I had now obtained the perfect gold-spoon position I'd dreamed of.
Ah, this is the life.
**
Today's labyrinth hunting was sweet as ever.
Leveling aside, today I especially got a lot more treasure chests. No fewer than eight medium chests.
On top of that, I got two large chests. I heard even rankers on other servers have barely ever gotten large labyrinth treasure chests, and I'd already snagged two of them.
The items from the large chests were already overflowing with enhancement materials, a huge amount of gold, and a unique item with its own special option.
[Blood-Drinking Demon Ring]
Defense +5
Intelligence + 2
On killing an enemy, 20% chance to recover 5% of HP.
Enhancement Attempts Remaining : 2
A ring accessory you couldn't normally obtain on the first floor, and a ring that could be enhanced, with stats and a unique option.
There aren't many rings with base stats other than Defense, and there aren't many rings with enhancement counts, either.
On top of that, there aren't many accessories with unique options like this, ring or not. It's an insanely rare item.
“Damn... this is a real jackpot.”
I had no use for it right now, but if I could sell it later to challengers aiming to become rankers or high-grade hunters, I'd get a hefty price for it.
Besides that, I also got a few pieces of armor better than shop-bought items and cleared a few quests for some nice rewards.
Each one of them would have driven newbies in other towers crazy, but to me, who had monopolized an entire tower, they weren't a big deal.
“Now this is the life.”
Since entering the Tower of Trials, every moment has been a dopamine rush.
I felt like I was getting addicted to the excitement and pleasure I would never have felt if I'd just kept living that unremarkable dirt-spoon life.
And the endpoint of this dopamine rush was, as always, showing off in the open community.
[Author : Seo Jin-hyuk#2661]
[Title : Tower of Trials Day 3 Newbie Spec, how's it look?]
(Photo)
Just like yesterday, I rented the most expensive room and immediately flopped onto the bed to start browsing the community.
Reading comments claiming there was no way I could have reached these specs in three days and that it was now fake was a real joy.
And so I once again stayed up absorbed in the community until dawn, then woke up late in the afternoon the next day as well.
[Tower of Trials#2661 (1/1)]
Just like before, no other challengers came in today either. I was still alone in the tower, but I didn't think much of it.
And looking back, I think this was the last day that was nothing but fun.
What I thought on the day I was dropped alone into this crazy tower was right.
Yeah, my life was fucked.