Chapter 104: Chapter 104

Ruben’s teaching was completely different from the class advancement quest.

He demanded an extremely high level of difficulty, showing it only once and then telling him to follow along.

“Start!”

“Yes.”

Clang! Clang-!

It was a series of quenching and hammering.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve done this.’

It was absurd, but Jeong-Hoon had done this kind of work before he returned.

At that time, he had the materials to make a weapon, but the system didn’t respond, so he had no choice but to make it himself.

And the one who helped him with the weapon crafting was the NPC ‘Lv. ??? God of Creation Arc’.

Jeong-Hoon followed his instructions and spent time quenching and hammering in front of the furnace.

‘Ah, sorry. Actually, it was a test of patience.’

And then Arc simply used the crafting system to make the weapon for him.

It was fortunate that the weapon’s performance was so good, and Arc gave him a few more items as a bonus.

Otherwise, he would have thrown a punch.

‘Thanks to that, it’s helping me a bit.’

If it weren’t for that experience, it would be impossible to show this level of proficiency just by seeing it once.

Ruben was constantly amazed by Jeong-Hoon’s skills.

‘This is unbelievable… How could someone with such talent walk the path of martial arts!’

In fact, Ruben had acknowledged the outsider a long time ago.

The fact that he had demonstrated perfect enhancement skills.

That alone was enough.

But Ruben’s pride wouldn’t allow him to pass him just after checking his skills.

So he had prepared the quenching and hammering that followed.

Tasks that a blacksmith should be able to do.

Clang!

But what was with that perfect skill?

He had only shown it once, and yet he was able to replicate it so perfectly.

‘It’s a talent given by the gods…’

What if he had walked the path of an enhancer instead of a martial artist?

Gulp…

It was such an overwhelming talent that he momentarily felt greedy.

‘Damn it… What a waste!’

Even if he had the enhancement skill, he couldn’t have the full power of an enhancer.

While Jeong-Hoon was hammering, two outsiders visited the mansion.

At a glance, their skills were far superior to the outsider who was hammering iron in the blacksmith’s workshop.

It was natural, since the path they walked was different.

But in terms of enhancement skills alone, no outsider could match that martial artist.

Not even himself, who had dedicated his entire life to weapons.

‘100%…’

It was only Normal and Rare grade enhancements, but it was 100% without a single failure.

Good. At this rate, it was time to break his pride.

“Stop.”

Ruben raised his hand and stopped the work.

“Hmm? We’re not even halfway done yet.”

“That’s enough.”

Ruben reached out his hand.

The mana emitted from Ruben’s hand caused the iron being quenched to glow and then transform into a Normal weapon.

“Completed immediately?”

Jeong-Hoon wiped the sweat from his forehead.

It wasn’t that he lacked stamina, but after hammering at the furnace for hours, his body was drenched in sweat from the heat.

“Yes. You achieved 50% quenching, so it was completed immediately.”

“I see.”

“…You passed. I acknowledge you.”

With those words, a rainbow-colored exclamation mark blinked above Ruben’s head.

It meant that the quest was completed.

‘Alright!’

Jeong-Hoon immediately completed the quest.

[Quest completed.]

[You have acquired the right to operate an Enhancement Exchange.]

[You have acquired the ‘Repair (Normal)’ skill!]

Done.

He had obtained the right to operate an exchange, which was called the flower of the Enhancer class, and the Repair skill.

The grade of Repair was Normal.

[Repair]

– Type: Active

– Level: 1

– Grade: Normal

– Consumes mana to restore 2% of the equipment’s durability.

– Can only repair ‘Normal’ grade equipment.

It wasn’t a very useful skill right now, but if he raised its grade, it would surely be of great help.

‘Iwase, sorry, but can you repair my sword?’

‘Ah, of course. Hand it over.’

Jeong-Hoon, who was called the All-Master, had always relied on his colleagues before his return.

This time, he couldn’t do that, so he had to obtain even the smallest things without missing anything.

“Thank you.”

“Sure. Are you leaving right away?”

“Yes.”

“…Good luck. If anything happens, come find me anytime. I’ll help you.”

“Thank you.”

Jeong-Hoon left the street and immediately went to the Enhancement Exchange.

[A space where Epic grade enhancers work!]

[High success rate guaranteed!]

[Low prices, great results!]

Various enhancers were advertising on the main page of the Enhancement Exchange.

The right to enter the exchange was only given to enhancers.

So there was a practice among enhancers where they tacitly set the market price and took advantage of it.

‘There are many cases where they deliberately fail enhancements to get more money for restorations.’

Since it was a privilege given to them, enhancers tried to extract as much profit as possible.

[Instead of going to an enhancer, can’t you just enhance it with an NPC?]

– Seriously, I don’t understand why they made enhancing equipment into a profession and let these guys get rich.

└ I agree

└ This really needs an explanation

└ Can’t NPCs also enhance?

– Those enhancing NPCs are crazy. They treat us like outsiders and never enhance our stuff, telling us to go to other enhancers.

– No no, never go to an NPC. Even if they’re lucky enough to do it for you, they’ll never restore the enhancement attempts if it fails… It can be a headache, so just go to an enhancer.

– Ha, I think enhancers deliberately break equipment. The restoration fee is three times more expensive than the enhancement fee…

– That’s a reasonable suspicion lol If I knew this would happen, I would have become an enhancer and made a ton of money ㅠㅠ

The reason users sought out enhancers was simple.

The only way to fully enhance equipment was through enhancers.

All enhancements had a probability.

And if you couldn’t break through that probability, you would fail, and one attempt would be deducted.

The moment you failed once, you could never make a full enhancement.

However, enhancers could restore the deducted attempts and proceed with the enhancement again… So users had no choice but to knock on the doors of enhancers, even if they felt wronged.

[Those damn enhancers, serves them right hahahahaha]

– Yeah lol Now with dual class, I can enhance and restore too~ We don’t need you anymore lol

└ Agreed, we don’t need enhancers anymore, so just get lost

└ Enhancers honestly made a lot of money lol It’s time for them to fall

└ They’ve been doing it for too long

When the value of enhancers plummeted, no one sympathized with them, they were only ridiculed and mocked.

Many people said it was their own fault.

It was true that they had taken advantage of many people.

‘But there were also some enhancers who led a new meta.’

It wasn’t that there were only bad people.

But this Enhancement Exchange was definitely full of dirty people.

Jeong-Hoon pressed the register button on the exchange.

It was a button that shouldn’t have existed, but he had gained the authority after completing the secret quest.

[Please set a nickname.]

First, he could set a nickname.

‘JH’

Jeong-Hoon set his nickname as the initials of his first and last name.

[Creating an exchange.]

[A unique code has been issued.]

With the code issued, Jeong-Hoon’s exchange was newly created.

Next was the introduction.

‘Let’s keep it simple.’

The equipment enhancement exchange boasting the highest success rate.

He set the commission fee along with the explanation that he would proceed at 10% of the current market price for 48 hours to celebrate the opening.

Then, a request came in less than 5 minutes after registration.

“What’s so fast?”

Did requests usually come in this fast?

Enhancers made a lot of money…

He checked the request form, and it was a request to enhance all of the Nimble Warrior’s Daggers.

Currently +6.

Judging by the 18 enhancement attempts, it seemed he had succeeded 6 times and failed 6 times.

‘He must have run into quite a bad one.’

Fully enhancing Rare grade equipment wasn’t a difficult task for an enhancer.

The real difficult task started from Epic grade.

The fact that he had messed up Rare grade like this was like saying he was going to suck his blood dry.

‘I won’t be able to fully enhance it, but…’

Jeong-Hoon received the 18 Rare Enhancement Stones that appeared next to him.

The enhancement stones were stamped with the exchange’s seal.

Once stamped, they couldn’t be used for anything other than enhancement.

They had to be used solely for enhancing this weapon, and if he tried to use them elsewhere, New World would immediately suspend him for a year.

[Attempting enhancement.]

[Enhancement successful.]

A golden effect flashed 18 times in a row.

Jeong-Hoon put the dagger, now upgraded to +24, back into the request and returned it to the client, successfully completing his first request.

‘The first step is always the most important.’

Although it wasn’t fully enhanced, it was a satisfactory result.

* * *

Jeong-Hoon was fiddling with the exchange.

“Ha, fuck. This is ridiculous.”

A user cursed and threw his weapon on the floor.

===

[Nimble Warrior’s Dagger (+6)]

– Type: Dagger

– Grade: Rare

– Attack Power: 117

– Critical Hit Rate: 1.6 ~ 2.1%

– Remaining Durability: 100%

– Special Ability (1): When using dagger skills, attack power is additionally increased by 6.2%

– Special Ability (2): When holding the dagger, [Passive: Agility Increase] is automatically activated

– Remaining Enhancements: 18

===

He had entrusted his weapon to the exchange for enhancement, but what he got back was a dagger that was half enhanced and half ruined.

“They said they were a skilled enhancer!”

How could they only succeed in half of the Rare enhancements, not even 70%?

[We apologize. If you need restoration, please check the amount below and request again.]

This bastard is adding fuel to the fire?

Not only did they ruin the weapon, but they’re asking for more money?

“Ha, should I just switch to Epic grade? …No, that would cost too much.”

He was momentarily conflicted, but he couldn’t do that.

If he ended up using an Epic grade weapon, he would inevitably have to enhance it, and the price of Epic Enhancement Stones was 10 times that of Rare Enhancement Stones.

It meant that too much money would be spent.

To even have a chance, he needed to enhance his Rare weapon to at least +20, but the current remaining enhancement attempts were 18.

He had to succeed in all of them except for 4 failures to reach +20.

“Looking at what these guys are doing, it doesn’t seem like I’ll even reach +15…”

He had to reach at least +20… but looking at the way the enhancers were doing things, +15 seemed like a dream without restoring enhancement attempts.

[By the way, you can’t restore enhancement attempts if they’re below 10%.]

– Remember this ㅠㅠ I didn’t know that and pushed the enhancer, and I still regret it so much.

└ Isn’t that enhancer trash? lol Why didn’t they tell me you can’t restore it when it’s below 10%?

└ It’s really strange lol

└ Those enhancer bastards must have deliberately not told us hahahahaha

“Ha…”

In the end, the user decided to restore the enhancement attempts.

He wanted to ask another enhancer to do the restoration, but only the enhancer who had performed the enhancement could do the restoration.

[I’ll restore it for half price considering I failed… ㅠㅠ]

At least he was offering to restore it for half price.

‘Well… It’s better than nothing.’

The user was about to hurriedly request the enhancer.

At that moment, a new exchange caught his eye.

[Equipment Enhancement Exchange Boasting the Highest Success Rate]

The highest success rate.

The user entered the exchange as if possessed.

[Open Service!]

[For the next 48 hours, we will enhance your equipment at 10% of the current market price!]

[My enhancement success rates are as follows!]

– Normal: 100%

– Rare: 100%

– Epic: 80%

– Unique: 60%

* Officially certified by New World

“Crazy…”

It was such a crazy success rate that he couldn’t help but curse.

Anyone could see this was a scam, right?

But it had the New World official certification mark, so it couldn’t be a scam.

“…It’s worth a shot, right?”

The weapon was already ruined anyway.

Restoration would cost a lot of money, so he decided to give it a try and bought all the Rare Enhancement Stones and placed the order.

And soon, the result arrived.

===

[Nimble Warrior’s Dagger (+24)]

– Type: Dagger

– Grade: Rare

– Attack Power: 207

– Critical Hit Rate: 3.4 ~ 3.9%

– Remaining Durability: 100%

– Special Ability (1): When using dagger skills, attack power is additionally increased by 9.8%

– Special Ability (2): When holding the dagger, [Passive: Agility Increase] is automatically activated

– Remaining Enhancements: 0

===

The user screamed at the sight of the Rare dagger enhanced to +24.

“Woohoo!”