SWNOVELS New 𝓬hapters are published on
Chapter 418
Gear enhancement in BNW wasn't that different from the gear enhancement system of most games. The gear wouldn't be destroyed until +11, but the enhancement level would reset to zero in case of failure.
It was going to reset to zero regardless of whether he was attempting to enhance from +1 to +2 or from +9 to +10.
The Adventurers called this slipping, which was exactly what had happened to Siegfried.
“This fucking...” Siegfried cussed under his breath.
He finally managed to enhance his weapon after ten consecutive failures, then successfully enhanced it once more in succession, but he ended up slipping on his attempt to go from +3 to +4.
Horse Fly was back to enhancement level zero.
Siegfried felt his blood pressure shoot up when he barely managed to enhance it after more than ten attempts.
“Bwahahaha!”
“Did you see him slip?!”
“Who the hell slips on that enhancement level? Kekeke!”
The onlookers had a field day after seeing Siegfried slip.
Munch! Munch! Munch!
Some even took out popcorn and started munching them staring at Siegfried.
“D-Damn it...” Siegfried groaned while trembling in anger. Was it because Horse Fly was an Epic item? The amount of gold he had spent attempting the enhancement eleven times was already a fortune.
‘Calm down... Everybody goes through this when enhancing...’ He composed himself while thinking of those who had failed their enhancement after +11 and ended up destroying their gears.
In addition, enhancing a piece of equipment to +10 was easier said than done, and there were even some who had to attempt hundreds of enhancements just to get their weapon to +10.
In fact, there were some who even thought that attempting enhancements above +10 was better than below +10, as it was a make-it-or-break-it type of enhancement attempt where everything depended on their luck.
Why?
Because failing an enhancement past +10 would result in their gear getting destroyed.
On the other hand, enhancement from zero to ten made them slip upon failure, which could turn into an endless spiral of enhancing their gears again and again.
‘I can’t get worked up here. I should just keep attempting it until I reach my goal,’ Siegfried calmed himself down and attempted to enhance Horse Fly once again.
[Alert: The enhancement requested by Siegfried van Proa-nim has succeeded!]
[Alert: Siegfried van Proa-nim has successfully enhanced the +0 Vanquisher’s Grasp to +1 Vanquisher’s Grasp!]
Fortunately, the enhancement was successful this time.
‘Don’t think too much. It doesn’t matter if it’s a success or failure. I’m going to keep going at it until I hit +10. I have a lot of gold so I’m not going to run out anytime soon.’
He still had millions of gold in his Inventory, so he could attempt the enhancement over and over again without any problems.
‘Alright, let’s go one more time,’ he thought as he gently pushed Horse Fly and the gold required into the enhancement machine.
[Alert: The enhancement requested by Siegfried van Proa-nim has succeeded!]
[Alert: Siegfried van Proa-nim has successfully enhanced the +1 Vanquisher’s Grasp to +2 Vanquisher’s Grasp!] contemporary romance
It was a success once again.
‘Alright, I’m going to ride this momentum.’
He continued to enhance Horse Fly.
His third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth attempts were all a success.
‘If it fails, it fails. Don’t think about it too much,’ He constantly reminded himself to empty his expectations as he placed the +8 Vanquisher’s Grasp and the gold required into the enhancement machine.
[Alert: The enhancement requested by Siegfried van Proa-nim has succeeded!]
[Alert: Siegfried van Proa-nim has successfully enhanced the +8 Vanquisher’s Grasp to +9 Vanquisher’s Grasp!]
It was a success!
“...!”
He could feel his heart thumping from excitement and expectation now.
‘No, don’t be fooled. You’re going to lose if you get excited now! Get a grip!’ he forced himself to calm down as he placed his weapon into the enhancement machine once again.
Fwoooooosh!
The result of the enhancement was...
[Alert: The enhancement requested by Siegfried van Proa-nim has failed!]
[Alert: The item +9 Vanquisher’s Grasp has failed its enhancement!]
[Alert: The enhancement of the item +9 Vanquisher’s Grasp has been reset!]
It was a failure this time, and his +9 Vanquisher’s Grasp was reset back to zero.
Shwik!
Siegfried felt a sharp pain in his chest.
“This isn’t the first time that this happened... Don’t mind it...” he muttered as he consoled himself and placed his weapon into the enhancement machine once again.
***
Two hours later...
Fwooooosh!
The enhancement machine spat out steam.
[Alert: The enhancement requested by Siegfried van Proa-nim has failed!]
[Alert: The item +9 Vanquisher’s Grasp has failed its enhancement!]
[Alert: The enhancement of the item +9 Vanquisher’s Grasp has been reset!]
He failed at +9 once again and his weapon was reset back to zero.
Snap!
The sound of something snapping reverberated in his head, and what had snapped was his final strand of self-control
“Ack! Aaaaaaaack! Ack! Ack! Ack! Kyaaaaaaah!” he screamed like a wounded animal before he grabbed the steaming Horse Fly and muttered, “I’m going to... destroy... I must... destroy... I’ll destroy everything...”
He was about to smash the enhancement machine into pieces, but the Bavarian Workshop NPCs rushed out and restrained him.
“Your Majesty! Please calm yourself!”
“Please calm down!”
“Your Majesty! You should not destroy our property!”
Siegfried flailed his arms and screamed, “Let go! Let go of me! I’m going to destroy this piece of junk!”
“No! Your Majesty!”
“Don’t worry! I’ll reimburse you, so get the fuck off of me!”
He was hell-bent on destroying the enhancement machine and reimbursing the workshop. Oddly enough, he was not being unreasonable at all, as his reaction was completely understandable.
‘Does this make sense?! I failed the +10 enhancement thirty-three times?! This is a scam! This is a fucking scam!’
Yes, he had failed the enhancement from +9 to +10 thirty-three times.
Was that the end of it?
Nope!
He had failed countless times going from +0 to +9, so the total number of times he had failed was far greater than thirty-three. However, the fact that he had failed to reach +10 thirty-three times was just a bit too much.
“Wow... How much did he spend just now?”
“I think you could’ve just bought a +10 weapon with the amount he spent, no?”
“Crazy...”
“I would’ve just bought a weapon off the market if I were him. Keke!”
They were right.
Surprisingly, the cost to enhance an Epic item was far more expensive than enhancing a Legendary or Mythic item, and the gold he had poured into enhancing Horse Fly was more than enough to purchase a +12 weapon from another Adventurer.
One of the Adventurers suddenly noticed something about Horse Fly.
“That item...”
Everyone focused on the Adventurer.
“It’s shit-stained. I’m sure of it.”[1]
That single word forced its way into Siegfried’s ears and swirled around his brain.
Shit-Stained. Shit-Stained. Shit-Stained. Shit-Stained. Shit-Stained. Shit-Stained. Shit-Stained. Shit-Stained. Shit-Stained. Shit-Stained. Shit-Stained. Shit-Stained. Shit-Stained. Shit-Stained.'
Items that simply refused to reach +10 enhancement were called shit-stained items by the Adventurers.
There was no proof behind it, nor was there a way to prove it, but there were some items in the game with extremely low chances of success and stubbornly refused to undergo enhancement. In fact, there were cases of the same item being enhanced, yet one of those items would fail to reach +10 regardless of the number of attempts.
“Don’t tell me... is this really shit-stained...?” Siegfried muttered in horror while looking at the +0 Horse Fly in his hand, and then he wondered, “Is it because I called it a Horse Fly...?”
There was a popular saying about how one had to be careful of what one wished for, as one might just get it all. Siegfried was a great example of it. Siegfried could not help but wonder if his weapon had become shit-stained due to the fact he kept calling it a horsefly.
What if Horse Fly was indeed shit-stained?
He would have to throw it away. Letting go of a shit-stained item was the right thing to do, as it would be far more economical for the owner to buy a similar item and enhance it rather than fail a hundred—no, a thousand times over.
Unfortunately...
‘Where am I going to find another one?!’
Finding another Horse Fly was going to be impossible. Only one version of an Epic item existed in the entire game, and the materials used to craft Horse Fly were so rare and valuable that it would be enough to buy a small kingdom with it.
Most importantly, crafting another Horse Fly was impossible as acquiring another of the main materials required to craft it, which was the Rod of God, was impossible. After all, Legendary Blacksmith Herbert had already perished.
“Wow... That guy’s really unlucky.”
“Don’t you think he’s cursed?”
“How can an Epic item of all things be shit-stained...?”
“That’s insane...”
The Adventurers murmured among themselves while looking at the despairing and anguished Siegfried.
‘No! My weapon isn't shit-stained. There’s a problem with this machine!’ Siegfried screamed inwardly out of despair.
"Haaack!" He gathered as much phlegm as he could in his mouth and spat it at the enhancement machine. "Ptoeey!"
‘Let’s try other places. No way Horse Fly is shit-stained...’ He walked away, convinced by his theory. No, it was more like he was trying his best to convince himself.
Why?
Because if his Epic item was indeed shit-stained, the level of agony he would feel from that would simply be unbearable to him.
***
Siegfried left the Macallan Kingdom and went to another Bavarian Workshop located elsewhere to attempt the enhancement.
It was the start of his world tour. He toured nearly thirteen enhancement machines just to enhance Horse Fly to +10, but...
“H-Here, too? I slipped again...?”
He finally managed to enhance it back to +9, only to fail before reaching +10, and his despair only grew stronger as the uncomfortable truth of his weapon being shit-stained slowly started to dawn on him.
“It’s shit-stained... without a doubt...” he muttered soullessly, accepting the fact Horse Fly was indeed shit-stained.
The amount of gold he had poured into the enhancement could no longer be counted, but he had never succeeded in enhancing it to +10. He had probably lost all of the gold he had earned from selling his +15 Gaia’s Fist just to enhance Horse Fly.
Of course, he still had a lot of gold remaining, but he could no longer bring himself to attempt to enhance Horse Fly.
“Isn’t this a gold-eating black hole? Don’t tell me... Is a game moderator hiding inside this weapon...?”
He went as far as to suspect the game moderators were adjusting the enhancement rate of Horse Fly just to hold him back. There was no way that would be true, and all of it was just coming from his unstable mind riddled with victim mentality.
“Ah... Should I purchase an enhancement coupon...?”
He decided to approach this in a different way, but enhancement coupons were extremely rare. In the first place, this game would not have been as successful if people could simply purchase the enhancement coupons so easily.
It was historically proven that a game company would go bust if they messed around with the enhancement rate.[2]
Inflation was going to hit a game when enhancement became easy, which would lead to the game’s decline. How many games had fallen from grace just because the developer had decided to make some money by selling enhancement coupons?
Besides, there was no way Beehive was going to sell enhancement coupons when they were famous for not interfering with the game.
Enhancement coupons for enhancement levels zero to ten were very expensive, and it was almost impossible to find a seller even if one had the money to buy it. The only way to obtain enhancement coupons was through clearing unique quests, and the majority of players had long given up on trying to purchase it with money.
“I should get some... rest...” Siegfried muttered lifelessly as he made his way back to the Proatine Kingdom.
“Ughh... Ughh...”
He plopped on his bed and started to bemoan the gold he lost. He could not bring himself to log out right now as the pain from his failures was too unbearable; the only thing he could do right now was to lie down and cry.
“What’s wrong, honey?”
Brunhilde passed Verdandi to her nanny and came over to see what was wrong with him.
“Did something happen, my love? Are you in pain?”
“Honey...” Siegfried could feel his nose flare up.
Sniff...! Sniff...!
The tears he had been holding back were pushing their way out after seeing his beloved wife.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“That is...”
In the end, Siegfried told her of what happened and the fact that Horse Fly was a shit-stained item.
“It’s alright,” she held him tightly and replied, and then she added, “You can always earn gold again. Don’t feel too bad about it.”
“Sniff...”
“It’s alright,” she gently said while patting his back.
“Thank you, honey.”
“I am always here for you, so you have to tell me if anything happens, okay?”
“I love you.”
Ding!
[Alert: Adult Content has been unlocked!]
[Alert: You may now enjoy it to your heart’s content!]
The adult content was unlocked after the embers of love sparked between the couple and started to burn into a flame.
Siegfried no longer avoided playing mommy and daddy, and this was the only way he could express his love to this lovely woman comforting him without judging him one bit.
He grazed his hand down her breasts.
“YOUR MAJESTY! Are you in your bed?!” Michele's voice outside the door.
1. Stained with poop means unlucky in Korea. It’s the same as going outside and stepping on dog poop, which is known to be bad luck. ?
2. This is in reference to a famous Korean game company called Nexon. They messed around with their hit-game called ‘Lineage’ and suffered a huge blow because of it, and they recently got lawsuits after getting caught messing around with rates for their other hit-game MapleStory. ?