Inside the furnace, there was the broken Dullahan's armor that Hecate put earlier.

Under the high temperature, its shape has been deformed, and it was slowly melting into a liquid. It didn't take long for Hecate to wait for the armor to completely melt.

A few minutes later, a notification window appeared in front of Hecate.

With a swift of her finger, Hecate closed the window. Then, she took out an armor from her inventory, and placed it on the table. It was an armor she obtained a few days ago from an unknown merchant player (Chapter P015).

• +5 Ebony Armor (6★) (damaged)

Her skill, Treasure Sensor, has pointed out that this armor has been slotted with Soul Essence. And when she checked it, sure enough it was true. Moreover, it was not just one, but two.

Soul Essences were rare drops that were hard to find. Especially if it's from Elite monsters and above. At first, Hecate couldn't understand the merchant's thoughts for selling this armor like cabbage in his stall. However, after she saw the remaining 2 durability, she understood that this armor could no longer be repaired.

In that case, this armor can only be salvaged as a scrap metal. But, once she do that, the Soul Essences would be gone. The Soul Essences can be extracted, but it costs durability, which the armor doesn't have enough anymore. To Hecate, the armor itself was unimportant. What she wanted was the Soul Essences inside. 

Of course, there is always a backhand trick that can be used.

"If repair wasn't possible, then just upgrade it!"

After an equip has been successfully upgraded, its maximum durability will change according to the previous durability. As a 6★ armor, to upgrade it requires the Reinforcing Stone, and a few kg of the same metal. It was a coincidence when she found out that the Dullahan's armor has the same metal composition as this armor.

But before she started the upgrade, there was something she should do first.

Hecate returned to the receptionist hall, and touched the nearby Save-Crystal to take a few items from her storage. Some of them were rings, which she immediately equipped. The others were 2 items called Soul Essence Extractor, and a hammer.

Unlike the previous upgrade process, this time she had to hammer the metals for a bit, which of course, requires some STR and DEX stats to wield the hammer. Hecate who only have 1 base STR and DEX obviously unable to do that.

However, with 10 Bravery Rings equipped, her STR (1+14) becomes (1+44), which was enough to fulfill the condition. As for the DEX requirement, by re-equipping the +6 Magician Robe, her DEX (1+24) was already enough. 

"Ugh, this hammer is so heavy! Oh well, I'll just finish this fast and throw this back to the storage."

The size of this hammer was not very big, about the size of a small sword. Nevertheless, it took a whooping 20kg weight in her inventory. If Hecate did not equip the rings, she wouldn't even be able to lift the hammer.

And so, with the hammer in hand, Hecate started the upgrade process.

"Upgrade!"

The Reinforcing Stone, melted in her hands and dripped into the armor. Immediately after that, she also poured the liquid metal from the furnace, into the same armor. The armor, the liquid metal, and the stone, started to mix under the glowing light.

CLANG! CLANG!

At this time, Hecate hammered the armor, just two times. Under the effect of the hammer, all of Hecate's Blacksmith-related skills temporarily increased by one level. That's including her Mysticallurgy and Upgrade. And under those skill effects, upgrading equipment has become more simpler.

And when the light has subsided, Hecate know that the upgrade was successful.

The armor's maximum durability has been reduced from 400 to just 122. This shows Hecate the importance of having full durability before upgrading the equipment. But obviously, Hecate doesn't care about this armor.

"Heh, this is it! These two Soul Essences is now mine!"

Without further ado, Hecate immediately activated two extractors, and extracted the Soul Essences within the armor.

Now that the Soul Essences were extracted, the Ebony Armor had become junk with only 22 durability left.

Hecate can feel the softness in her hand. Rather than a metal, it was like holding a clay doll, except it was heavier. With her (1+44) STR, even a slightest pinch was able to slightly deform the armor. She then took a look at the Soul Essences.

"As expected, these were Soul Essences from named monsters."

She couldn't help but let out a grin.

Soul Essences from named monsters were extremely rare, and they could fetch very expensive price. They can only be traded with real money, not  Gold Coins. By estimation, if she were to sell them, she could get at least ~30 million yen!

That would be enough to buy a Lamborghini!

But of course, she won't do that. Rather than selling them, she preferred to use them herself.

"There is still 135 Reinforcing Stone left. I suppose I should upgrade the other equipments."

Hecate opened her guild interface and traded some metal alloys. Not only that, she went to the Save-Crystal again to purchase a few of certain cash item materials.

For equipment such as hairpins, earrings, and necklaces, Hecate only needed metal alloys such as Iron or Mithril to upgrade them, which were relatively easy to obtain. However, to upgrade her boots, +5 Shadow Walker, requires Demon Cores.

This item was not so easy to obtain even with the influence of the Genesis Guild. To obtain that item, she had to kill demons and they could only be found in the very deep areas of the Forbidden Forest. In addition, the +7 Moon Glacier Armguard required Frost Cores, which could only be obtained in a far away dungeons on the north.

Fortunately, there are substitute materials that can be used to replace the core. One of those substitute materials is the cash item, the Rainbow Core. This item can substitute any core during upgrading and repairing process. The cheaper unstable version also has the same effect, but with the disadvantage of reducing the success rate.

Hecate chose the latter.

Usually, she just go for the normal version. It was expensive, but has a higher success rate than the unstable one. However, now that she has obtained the skill Fortune Instinct, she didn't have to worry about failing.

"Even if the success rate is reduced, that's not a problem. I'll just gather a lot of them in one breath."

If 1% of success is one out of hundred, all she had to do is just gather a hundred.

"Then, I'll use only the one that has guaranteed success!"

And so, she resumed the upgrading.

• • +6 Ornamental Hairpin → +8
  • +4 Earring of Wisdom → +7
  • +4 Saintess Necklace → +7
  • +7 Lunar Wand → +8
  • +6 Lunar Cape → +7
  • +7 Moon Glacier Armguard → +8
  • +0 Grappling Hook → +7
  • +5 Shadow Walker → +7

For some reason, all of them stopped at either +7 or +8. There were still hundreds of upgrading materials left, but none of them has the light in Hecate's eyes. She could only stop there and did not dare to continue.

"The light of success isn't shining on me anymore... Then, let's call it a day."

With that said, Hecate began to pack the items and then put them back into her storage. At that moment, her eyes suddenly fell on an entry item in there.

It was a letter written by Dalmagna to his friend in the Gemmerio Empire.

"That reminds me, teacher has given me a quest. I suppose, I should apply for a long leave."

After storing all the items, Hecate closed the window and left the room.