Chapter 95: Ten Great Unsolved Mysteries
“That handsome young man passing by, do you need any special services?”
Li Yi rode the horse past Kelly and heard that seductive voice once more.
“Damn, I might as well try another 100.”
Li Yi turned the horse around and went to his Inventory to take out 100 Reinforcement Stones. He then walked up to the reinforcement furnace confidently.
By the time the 100 Reinforcement Stones were nearly all used up, the Frost Longbow had only been reinforced to +2.
Li Yi gritted his teeth at Kelly. “Why are you so unlucky? You just wait and see, I’ll deal with you later!”
Although he still had more than 20,000 Reinforcement Stones in the Inventory, Li Yi gave up for real this time. After all, he was going to have to switch out the Frost Longbow eventually anyway.
He might as well just be patient for now.
“I’ll help others reinforce their weapons. If I fail, it’s 1 Gold Coin, but if I succeed it’s 20. I start charging fees from reinforcement level +2…”
A female player with an extremely considerable bust held up a sign that said ‘Reinforcement Class’, yelling from where she stood next to the reinforcement furnace.
‘Cana?’
It did not hit Li Yi when he saw the female Human player’s face, but when he saw her breasts that were more than 36D in size, he suddenly remembered.
Cana, a female Human player whose class was unknown (no one had ever seen her fight). She was constantly standing next to Kelly, earning Gold Coins by reinforcing weapons for others.
Cana’s weapon-reinforcement skills were a popular topic of conversation. Some said she was really good at reinforcements, while others claimed she was really bad at it. There was everything in between as well, but one thing was certain, and that was she was no cheater.
When King of Pantheon had been operating for eight years, other than the professional rankings designed by the developers, there were also many strange and wacky ranking charts among the players. Examples included ‘Top 100 Most Hated Characters in Pantheon’, ‘Top 100 Most Beautiful Women’, ‘Camp Hunk’, and ‘How Much Do You Know about Little Bottoms that Can be Both Top and Bottom?’ There were just too many of them, and among these many rankings, there was a very popular one titled ‘Top 10 Unsolved Mystery Players’. Cana was in that list in ninth place.
She constantly stayed in one place and did the same time over and over again, every day for years. Legend had it that this Miss Cana had stood beside the reinforcement furnace for three years, but she had only received slightly over 100 actual business requests. Other than that, she basically did not do anything else.
Was it for the money?
That would make sense if she received a hundred requests every day, but would three whole years not be slightly too long for that?
The discussions spiraled out of control, leading to countless theories, and some curious cats even ran to Shattered Frost City themselves just so that they could ask Cana in person. Unfortunately, no matter how much the players tried to guess, no matter what or how they asked, Cana just smiled slightly and never mentioned the reason.
She might have been acting mysterious, or perhaps she was truly mysterious. Regardless, in the end she actually did become famous. After being relatively unknown for three years, a player posted about her on the official site and instantly made an impact. People lined up every day to have her reinforce their equipment, boosting her business infinitely.
Should he give her his spare Reinforcement Stones and get her to give it a try?
When he saw Cana, Li Yi’s heart wavered once more. In the end, he made his decision and went back to the Inventory to take out 95 Reinforcement Stones.
“I’ll do it.”
Li Yi stuck the Reinforcement Stones and the Frost Longbow into the reinforcement furnace, then he added 500 Gold Coins to it and finally selected the reinforcement trustee: Cana.
Cana was slightly excited. She had not receive any requests for some time now, and now that she was finally open for business, was it any surprise that she would be overjoyed?
She stuffed a piece of white-colored equipment +3 into the reinforcement furnace with the air of familiarity and activated the reinforcement furnace. “Phoosh–” There was the jingle that signified failure, and the white-colored equipment dropped to +2.
“You can put in your equipment now.” Cana opened the reinforcement furnace excitedly and there was a cheerful jingle. The Frost Longbow had been successfully reinforced.
20 Gold Coins for the trustee fee and 3 more Gold Coins for the processing fee were automatically deducted from the 500 Gold Coins that Li Yi had added into the reinforcement furnace’s intermediary system. In total, he had used 23 Gold Coins.
“I won’t pad my hand this time, we’re going straight at it!”
Cana activated the reinforcement furnace once more, brimming with confidence.
After the cheerful music finished playing, the Frost Longbow was reinforced to +4.
Cana was stunned for a moment, and then she activated the renforcement furnace again. “I’m feeling lucky, no need for padding!”
[Congratulations. You’ve successfully reinforced your Frost Longbow to +5!]
[Congratulations. You’ve successfully reinforced your Frost Longbow to +6!
[Congratulations. You’ve successfully reinforced your Frost Longbow to +7!]
She succeeded five times in a row before Li Yi waved his hand and said, “That’s enough, I don’t want to continue reinforcing anymore.”
Even if he continued to reinforce it, it would drop back to 0 again with just one failed attempt. To Li Yi, +7 reinforcement was already enough to satisfy his needs.
“I’m feeling lucky today, it’d be a waste to stop reinforcing now. Trust me, I can still do it!”
Cana was so excited that her chest rose and fell drastically. Ignoring Li Yi’s words, she continued to activate the reinforcement furnace.
[Congratulations. You’ve successfully reinforced your Frost Longbow to +8!]
Li Yi raised his eyebrow. Before he even said anything, Cana activated the reinforcement furnace again.
[Congratulations. You’ve successfully reinforced your Frost Longbow to +9!]
[Congratulations. You’ve successfully reinforced your Frost Longbow to +10!]
[Congratulations. You’ve successfully reinforced your Frost Longbow to +11!]
[Congratulations. You’ve successfully reinforced your Frost Longbow to +12!]
[Congratulations. You’ve successfully reinforced your Frost Longbow to +13!]
She pressed the activation button several times but the reinforcement furnace did not react at all. Cana was so upset that her face turned red, so she checked it and suddenly realized the reason. She said hurriedly, “Quick, put some money and reinforcement in there. My hand is lucky today, I can reinforce it even further.”
Li Yi took the Frost Longbow that had been reinforced to +13 out of the reinforcement furnace, jumped onto his horse, and rode away. No matter how Cana yelled at him, he pretended not to hear her.
Why would he continue reinforcing it? Li Yi could tell that if he gave her any more money for the intermediary fee, that big-busted woman would never stop…
“I reinforced a weapon up to +13.”
Once Li Yi was out of earshot, Cana starting screaming again.
“Whoa, +13! Reinforce mine for me too.”
“I saw it too, that weapon was even glowing purple. I’ll go get my Reinforcement Stones, help me reinforce mine too.”
There were several players who had witnessed Cana’s successful reinforcements, and they were instantly motivated to try. Those who did not have Reinforcement Stones went to retrieve them, and those who had them immediately hired Cana to reinforce it for them.
“There’s no rush, one at a time. I have plenty of time.”
More than twenty people wanted Cana to reinforce their equipment for them. Cana’s business instantly went through the roof.
[You’ve failed to reinforce your Fire Shoulder Guard +7. It has returned to its original state…]
[You’ve failed to reinforce your Inferno Hammer. Reinforcement level has dropped by 2 points…]
More than twenty people asked Cana to help reinforce their equipment, but unfortunately, things did not go so well this time. She failed every try. Even after trying to reinforce equipment for all twenty-odd people, the highest she had reached was +4.
“F*ck, you cheater!”
“You obviously don’t know how to reinforce these things. Dammit, you sure as hell took me on a ride.”
“It’s all over, I lost almost 3,000 Gold Coins, and now I’m broke…”
More than twenty people surrounded Cana, scolding her. In the end, Cana could not handle it anymore, and she simply logged off in order to escape their wrath.
…
[Frost Longbow +13 (gold quality)
[Equipment Level: Level 15]
[ATK 110–280]
[Crit Rate increased by 2%]
[Shooting range increased by 10 yards]
[Special effect: Your attack has a certain chance of freezing the target.]
[Hidden attribute activated via reinforcement: Ignores target’s DEF by 8%.]
[Note: Ordas’ favorite longbow, which has a name Arethena carved on it.]
[The drop rate is 0.01%.]
…
The surface of the Frost Longbow glowed with a purple light, and its ATK was several times stronger than before. Even more exciting was the hidden attribute that was revealed after he reinforced it to +10: ignoring target’s DEF by 8%!
That was amazingly powerful. Ignoring the target’s DEF by 8% meant that it was more effective the stronger the target’s DEF was, and this was also the reason why equipment reinforcement drove players insane. What they really wanted was to activate these hidden attributes.
“If I could just reinforce it three more times and have it reach +16, it would be able to ignore 25% of the target’s DEF…”
Li Yi mumbled inwardly as he made his way to the Wild Beast Plain.
He was just thinking about it. If anyone wanted him to actually reinforce it further, he would reject them outright. It was not because he was afraid of the weapon breaking, but it was more that this Frost Longbow was simply not worth reinforcing further.
+7 was more than enough to suit his needs, but it was even better now. At the very least, he would not need to change weapons until he reached Level 45.
In the past life, Li Yi’s most infamous exploit was how he had reinforced a piece of the Thief’s peak-level equipment, the Midnight Cloak, all the way up to +15. The Midnight Cloak was not an offensive type of equipment, so instead of ignoring DEF, the hidden attribute that was activated was a passive damage reduction. By reinforcing it to +15, he managed to obtain a 15% damage reduction.
People envied him wherever he went, and many people even dreamed of defeating him and forcing him to drop it.
However, unfortunately for them, Li Yi had already obtained the God-granted Body by then, and all his equipment was locked down. Even if he died 10,000 times, none of the equipment on his body would drop.
In the end, he got too reckless. Even though he still needed one more Wish Stone, he tried to forcefully reinforce it to +16, and then tragedy struck…
The Midnight Cloak that everyone wanted shattered, and he spent an entire year trying to get another to drop. Sure, he wanted to reinforce it to +15 again, but unfortunately, he could not fulfill that dream up till the day he reset.
If he wanted to go to the Wild Beast Plain, he would need to go through the Aegean Forest. Along the way, he met NPCs from the White Elf Tribe, and they smiled at him, thanking him. Occasionally, a few would run up to him and give him things like low-level herbs. It pleased Li Yi greatly to see the perks of a reputation that had reached Worship level.
“Hero of our tribe, please be careful. Two outlanders have been fighting near the small path that leads to the Wild Beast Plain for several days now. It’s best if you could avoid them, lest you get caught in the crossfire.” A White Elf girl gave Li Yi some information.
“Outlanders? Two players, you mean?”
Li Yi got it now.
The NPCs in King of Pantheon had very high IQ, and if you spent enough time with them, you might even start thinking that they were living, breathing creatures like yourself.
As a result of the differences in affinity, the NPCs would refer to different players differently.
…
“Bang!”
On the small path on the way to the Wild Beast Plain, a young Human man with a fair face turned around and used Shield Bash, forcing a Dwarf Thief that was using Stealth out of hiding.
The Dwarf Thief snorted coldly and rushed at his opponent using Cyclone Step, Chiselling straight into him.
“Block!”
The fair-faced young man used the shield to block the Dwarf Thief’s Chisel with ease, and at the same time, he swung his sword at the Dwarf.
[−89]
The Dwarf Thief tilted his body to the side and tried to go around the fair-faced young man to reach his back, but with a flick of his long sword, the fair-faced young man used Muscle Rupture.
[Muscle Rupture: Slows the target’s SPD by 50%. Lasts for 15 seconds. Cooldown time: 10 seconds.]
The Muscle Rupture was a direct hit, and the Dwarf Thief’s SPD fell instantly.
With a lightning-quick hit and a heroic blow…
The Dwarf Thief fell to the ground, dead.
About 30 seconds passed, and the Dwarf Thief stood up once more, vanishing with Stealth…
“Pfft!”
[−35] in damage floated from the top of the fair-faced young man’s head, and the fair-faced young man immediately turned around, using Shield Bash…
The battle between the Armored Warrior and the Cyclone continued on, but the situation was one-sided. The Armored Warrior did not die even once, but the Dwarf Thief kept perishing.
[−97]
[−57]
Upon killing the Dwarf Thief one more time, a hint of weariness appeared on the fair-faced young man’s face.
When the Dwarf Thief stood up again determinedly, the fair-faced young man’s face twitched a few times. He roared loudly, swinging his sword—Muscle Rupture, Shield Bash, another heroic hit.
The Dwarf Thief died again…
From the moment they began, they had been fighting for three whole days and nights!t
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