Chapter 587 Four Pillars: Late Night Visit
"And with this, I'm finally done upgrading everything." Wiping off the sweat on his forehead as he placed his hammer to the side, Valyr identified the final piece of equipment he had been working on with [Greater Analysis] while smiling. Seeing how much of a difference Enhancement and Advancement had brought to his equipment's stats, he began to feel giddy at the thought of using them in battle tomorrow.
Allowing the feeling to linger in his mind for a bit longer, the young man eventually began to pack up the temporary workshop into his spatial bracelet, letting out a sigh in the process. "I may have already done it thousands of times in the past, but I gotta say... advancing an equipment's foundation sure is tough work."
As he had no Refinement Jewel on hand to safely refine all of his equipment to their limits, it went without saying that Valyr focused on Enhancement and Advancement. Save for his armor set that could go up to Level 62 thanks to its unique innate skill, his spear and the gun he had forged were both enhanced to the peak of Rank 3.
In total, he had spent around an hour enhancing all of his equipment, yet the moon in the sky had already gone past its zenith. Naturally, the reason behind that was the fact that the young man proceeding to start experimenting with advancing his equipment's foundation, attempting it on his armor set first.
With every piece making up his armor set being rated at Epic+ grade, Valyr did not have much fear in failing to advance the equipment's foundation to the 1st Tier. Nevertheless, the young man put his entire focus on the Advancement process, even though the skill he had gotten for it had made it considerably easier.
Surprisingly, it had taken him roughly half an hour to advance a foundation to the 1st Tier, which seemed long when compared to how long it took him to complete other strengthening methods. It took him seconds to enhance equipment by a single level, while it took him a couple of minutes to refine equipment by a single level.
Then again, in the grand scheme of things, 30 minutes to advance a foundation by one tier was already considerably short, with some blacksmiths taking hours, if not days to advance a foundation, only to fail at the very end. Using his True Wyvern Armor set as a way to get used to advancing an equipment's foundation yet again, it took him a total of five hours to advance everything by one tier, taking a long break in the middle.
'In any case, the hard work I put in has definitely paid off.' Vividly recalling the process of Advancement, which the young man thought it felt similar to rearranging the molecules that made up the material itself, Valyr went ahead and identified his spear, which had gotten a sizable improvement in power thanks to his actions.
Ding!
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[(+10) Wrath of the Prodigious Tidemother] (Level 55)
Rarity: Rare+
Weapon Bond: Lv. 2 (Valyr)
Foundation Tier: 1st Tier
Attack: 913 - 1,521 (+20%)
Additional Attributes:
> STR + 41
> AGI + 50
> DEX + 80
Previously a training weapon... description has been omitted.
<Innate Skill... description has been omitted.>
<Innate Skill... description has been omitted.>
Remarks: Its might puts equipment of a higher grade to shame. Quite unfortunate that it has been seen as defilement by a higher being.
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"Damn." Letting out a brief whistle in admiration, Valyr focused his attention on the additional attributes that were attached to the equipment. "If only I hadn't gotten that curse, I would've been ecstatic to find out my spear boosts my DEX this much."
"Then again, that all has to do with my class and subclass synergizing." The young man chuckled not long after, soon focusing his attention on the gun he had made. Identifying it with [Greater Analysis], a slight smile appeared on his face as he gazed at its new and improved stats. "I hope I get to use this at least once during the inheritance."
Ding!
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[(+10) Primitive Arquebus Prototype] (Level 55)
Rarity: Rare
Foundation Tier: 1st Tier
Attack: 7,029 - 11,715
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Additional Attributes:
> STR + 37
> DEX + 73
> PER + 29
Considered to be the next step on the path of ranged weapons, this weapon has been greatly inspired by the fire lance, a weapon that is considered to be the ancestor of a branch of ranged weapons called firearms. Forged by a truly prodigious blacksmith, this weapon has removed most of the downsides of the fire lance and enhanced all of its upsides, allowing it to resemble a weapon that is considered as a successor to the fire lance, the arquebus.
Though such a weapon is not yet within the realm of knowledge of many, once it makes its debut, the weapon shall undoubtedly rattle the world with its might, giving not only a great amount of prestige to its creator, but also newfound possibilities.
<Innate Skill 1: Full Burst - Allows the user to infuse mana into the weapon, combining with the gunpowder used to load the weapon to create a devastating amount of damage. Deals 200% of the user's Attack stat as damage. Cooldown: 2 minutes. Cost: 1,500 MP.>
Remarks: The first of its kind. The beginning of what is yet to come.
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Having forged multiple ranged weapons in his past life, with most of them being guns in the later versions of Greater Beyond, almost all of the information contained within the weapon's description made Valyr feel a hint of nostalgia. There were quite a few differences between the descriptions of melee weapons and ranged weapons, though the most important differences between the two were its awakened attributes and its Attack stat.
Though both melee and ranged weapons awakened STR and DEX as a possible attribute, where melee weapons would awaken AGI, ranged weapons would instead awaken PER as its third stat. Then again, such a difference is more self-explanatory as PER allows one's field of vision to expand, which was a great boon to all ranged classes.
As for its Attack stat, ranged weapons generally tended to have a higher Attack stat compared to melee weapons. Unfortunately, they could only make use of this high Attack stat very sparingly, considering that all ranged weapons had a cooldown.
In fact, even bows of varying types weren't exempt from this cooldown, though a skilled ranger could reduce this cooldown to levels similar to wielding a melee weapon with their skills.
The fact that Valyr was able to reduce his gun's cooldown time to 15 seconds was a miracle in itself, considering that there were many steps that went to priming a gun for shooting, especially those similar to the one he currently had. Nevertheless, with his current prototype only being an intermediary step to the gun that he sought to obtain, he did not mind the trouble for the meantime.
"I suppose I should get some rest before our trek begins." Doing a few stretches after not having moved much for hours, the young man went ahead and donned his entire armor set, affixing his trusty spear to his back. Feeling a great burst of strength course through his body from both being equipped, a faint smile appeared on his face as he made his way to the tents the others had set up, seeing that most of them were meditating rather than sleeping.
Inwardly chuckling, the young man went to his tent as he thought to himself, 'They're probably consolidating their control over their newfound strength. After all, I didn't really see them push their bodies to the limit earlier.'
'Or perhaps they can't sleep well since they're thinking about their plans during our exploration of the inheritance.' At these thoughts, the young man slightly shrugged his shoulders, lying down on the makeshift bed the others had made. Though it was by no means better than his bed in the inn, it was still leagues better than the sleeping bag he had bought a day before.
Closing his eyes, Valyr gradually allowed his body to relax as he knew their expedition later in the morning was an important indicator of how quickly they'd be able to explore the entire inheritance. However, after tossing and turning around on the bed for a bit, a bitter smile crept up on his face as his mind still seemed to be plenty awake.
'I guess now's a good time to make use of the things I got from the auction.' Faintly letting out a sigh at the fact that he could not sleep, a chuckle soon left Valyr's mouth as he thought to himself that he might be feeling the same thing as the others at the moment.
Willing the skill book and vial he had gotten from the auction out of one of his spatial bracelets, the young man was about to consume the vial, only to hide the skill book in his spatial bracelet after sensing someone was tapping on the entrance of his tent to make themselves known.
"Who is it?" Valyr raised his eyebrow in curiosity, wondering who among the other four would wander about this late in the night. By the time the person in question had entered the tent, the young man's mouth went slightly agape in surprise.
"Faulus?" muttered the young man in slight disbelief.
Nodding in response, Faulus looked back at Valyr with a bitter smile, only for his expression to show a hint of determination soon after. "I apologize for disturbing you this late in the night, but..."
"Could you perhaps teach me how to fight?"
