‘Ahhhh that feels so much better. It’s times like this where I wish I had one of those high-end pods…’ Abel let out a sigh after finishing up in the bathroom. The pressure in his gut was relieved and he felt much better now that his bowels were empty.

His stomach started rumbling in hunger now that the immediate issues had been addressed so he washed his hands and got a couple of nutrient bars out of the box from the table beside his pod. They would always keep some of these nutrient bars at home in case they ever overslept and needed to have something to eat while gunning it to work. This rarely happened but it was always better to have it as a precaution. In fact, these nutrient bars had pretty much saved their lives when Grandma Meng was facing great financial pressure raising them in the early years after the Binary Eclipse.

He devoured the nutrient bars in minutes and washed it down with 2 bottles of water, rehydrating himself at the same time. He still had a lot of things to do back in-game so he didn’t tarry and hopped back into his pod.

Whoooooosh

The cascading colors came into being once more as they assembled themselves into his user home. After clicking onto the Realm Quest portal and walking through his user home door, he found himself back in the dungeon. The men were back to gawking again at his abrupt return, leaving him feeling slightly embarrassed.

“I’ve seen it all now…”

“I always thought travelers come and go through a special portal in cities. I didn’t imagine they would just disappear suddenly…”

“I knew joining the army would allow me to see things I had never imagined…”

“Hey, do you think it costs them anything to come and go like that? There’s no way it’s free… right?”

Abel tried to ignore the mutterings going on around him, he wasn’t surprised by Bruni’s question as it was related to money as usual. He nodded to the captain and went back to the fire he had set up. The men had already finished eating but they were kind enough to leave some food for him. Although he had just eaten in reality, his satiety level in-game was quite low.

Just like the other men, he had been eating black bread between battles. While his high endurance lowered the decrease of his stamina and satiety levels, he would still like to eat a full meal. If only to satisfy his need for a different taste considering the nutrient bar in real life and the black break in-game were both quite bland.

After having his fill of the porridge and a skewer of lobster meat, he started adding more firewood to keep the fire ablaze. He had to get started on the repairs as there was quite the amount to go through. He had 3 spears, 7 swords and 4 shields to repair. He also had to apply Weapon Enhancement on all of these weapons in addition to 2 bows and all of this didn’t include his own equipment!

Just repairing these weapons would take him close to 3-4 hours and he wasn’t sure how long it would take to apply his enhancement skill. He looked around and found that the men had long finished cleaning and clearing the area of carcasses so they were now pitching their tents. He coughed loudly to get their attention before saying,

“Excuse me everyone… please leave your weapons here so I can repair them and apply a quick enhancement. Please be patient as it will take a while to go through them all.”

“Haha that’s great! I was just bemoaning the fact that I have to tune my bow…” Roy was the first to speak up.

“Red Sky, be careful will you? These aren’t just any weapons, they’re army gear. If anything gets damaged then it comes out of our own pockets…” Bruni said something expected while the rest of the men just put their weapons into a pile in front of Abel.

“Inspect”

*Ding*

Inspect Failed.

Abel let out a sigh and tried again. And again. Finally, inspect worked on his fourth try.

*Ding*

[Veridian Sword]

Attack: 168-199
+15 STR
+20 AGI
Durability: 87/100
Special: 7% chance of causing 150% critical strike.
Special: Enduring– durability decreases 200% slower.

Requirement: Level 24

After checking out the details of the sword, he pulled out his hammer from where ever it was hidden and started heating the sword on the flame in front of him. It took quite a while since it was an open flame instead of a restricted one like in the forge but eventually, the prompt triggered asking him to remove it. He didn’t have an anvil on hand so he had to make do with the large pot he used for cooking. He flipped it over and used it as an impromptu anvil instead and actively triggered his mend and repair skill.

Bang
Bang
Bang

The repair started off slow because he would have to re-heat the blade every couple of minutes, working with an open flame was making the ordeal much harder. He kept repeating the process over the span of the next 20 minutes until he had brought the swords durability back to 100/100. Instead of starting with the next weapon, he decided to enhance it straight away so that he could be done with this sword once and for all.

He got a whetstone out of his spacial bag and slowly started to sharpen the sword as another 10 points of mana were slowly reduced from his MP. The system would give him prompts and light up certain sections that he would have to grind against the whetstone. Thankfully, a single whetstone could sharpen 3 blades of this level since the latter’s durability dropped by 33% after he was done with this task.

*Ding*

+25 Weapon Enhancement Proficiency (Greenhorn 2.5%)

“Inspect”

*Ding*

[Veridian Sword]

Attack: 168-199 (+10% 23:59:58…)
+15 STR
+20 AGI
Durability: 100/100
Special: 7% chance of causing 150% critical strike.
Special: Enduring– durability decreases 200% slower.

Requirement: Level 24

‘So, it doesn’t apply to the added stats, only to the damage. But maybe that’s the case considering the skill is still at greenhorn. Hopefully, it’ll provide a buff to the other stats if the skill increases in level.’

Abel put the sword on the side and grabbed another. He inspected it and then got started with the repair before he began to enhance it on the same whetstone. It took him another 30-40 minutes before he was done with this weapon and then got started with the next right away. He took a small break when his stamina was too low, drinking some water and just relaxing as he watched the men carry out various tasks around the camp.

By the time he was done with all 7 swords, more than 3 hours had passed. The swords were all the same, the standard-issue Veridian Sword. All the weapons seemed to be identical, it made him curious about the design but he knew getting it would be a long-shot. It looked to be an exclusive design for the army made by their own in-house blacksmith. He finally reached out for a spear and took a look at its stats.

“Inspect”

*Ding*

[Veridian Spear]

Attack: 171-208
+15 STR
+10 AGI
Durability: 100/100
Special: 7% chance of causing bleed damage: -30 HP every 5 seconds for 60 seconds.
Special: Enduring– durability decreases 200% slower.

Requirement: Level 24

‘I wonder if the bleed is caused because of the spear tips design or the alloy it was made from…’ Abel didn’t think too deeply about it and started repairing it straight away.

It took much less time to repair the spear since the spear body was mostly made of a resilient yet flexible wood, he just had to repair the spear tip that would mostly make contact with an enemy. He finished repairing and enhancing a single spear within 20 minutes, it required much less time than a sword. He was done going through all 3 spears within an hour but his mana and stamina were both very low by then.

He consumed 2 segments from a mana incense stick and then drank some water to pull up his stamina. He had to wait for a few minutes as well since water alone wouldn’t bring his stamina level up but he figured he deserved a break. He started adding more firewood to keep the fire at a satisfactory level, he had done so plenty of times through his repair and enhancement of the weapons but the increasing ash was starting to impede the fire. Thankfully, he was already done with all the weapons and just had the shields to go through now, though the shields would probably be much more time consuming.

He took a look at his weapon enhancement proficiency and saw that it had reached 25% of greenhorn. Without dallying any further, he grabbed the first shield and gave it an inspect, failing several times before he could finally see its stats.

*Ding*

[Veridian Shield]

Defense: 155
+15 STR
+25 TGH
Durability: 61/100
Special: 5% chance of causing 25% rebound effect.
Special: Enduring– durability decreases 200% slower.

Requirement: Level 24

‘It seems like the second special is most likely due to the material instead of the design since it’s present on the shield. Although the stats are nice but I still like the Aegis Shields’ special effect more. There are some attacks that are just too difficult or too deadly to block.’

While Abel hadn’t come across such a monster type yet, he knew for a fact that there were some skills that proved very difficult to block. In fact, the Rat King’s final lunge might have some unblockable features but he wasn’t too sure. In such cases, having a shield with a special effect to 100% block an attack twice a day could prove to be a life saver, especially in the case of fighting against a boss.

The level 20 Aegis Shield could even prove useful even for someone that was level 30. Though, he would have to build up his forging skill and check out the blueprints first to be sure. It reminded Abel that he shouldn’t neglect his basic forging skill, it had to at least be at Expert before he reached level 20!

Abel pushed aside these stray thoughts as he concentrated on heating the shield before he started hammering at the indentations made by the kobolds in battle. The shields were the most battered of the equipment before him and that was for good reason. They had blocked the attacks and rampage of hundreds of kobolds, the fact that they had only decreased in durability by 40% was a testament to their design, the great material used and most importantly, the soldiers skillful use in battle.

Bang
Bang
Bang…

The repair for a shield took much longer, nearly 40 minutes while his stamina and mana dropped by 30 and 20 points respectively. When he was finally done, he started consuming 10 more points of mana as he polished the shield to enhance its stats further. It brought up its defense attribute by another 10 points by the time he was done.

‘I can barely do 2 shields because of my stamina, I really need to level up my skills so I don’t have to consume so much stamina every time.’

Although his basic forging skill started consuming a little less mana and stamina, that was because it was already at Adept. His mend and repair skill was still barely 70% through greenhorn but it would definitely break through by the time they went through the second level. He was hoping it would reduce the stamina requirement needed for the skill by then, even if it was just by a couple of points.

The bows used by Kaelin and Roy would barely add any proficiency points to his skill since their durability had only dropped by a couple of points each. In fact, they had only given up their weapons for Abel to apply the enhancement, they didn’t need any repairs so to speak.

By the time he had finished repairing and enhancing all the weapons, including the 2 bows, the camp was dead silent. Other than the crackling of the fire before him, alongside the other campfire in the center, he couldn’t hear a single sound besides Lard’s loud snoring coming from one of the tents.

He took a look at the time and saw it was well past 2 am in Veridia which meant it was nearly midnight on Luminara. He put away his forging hammer that surprisingly hadn’t decreased in durability even after so much use and then placed the weapons before their respective wielders tents. He nodded to the captain that was drinking something besides the central campfire and pulled up his Panel to log out.

Whoooooooosh

He directly logged out of his user home and got out of the pod, feeling his stomach rumble in discontent. After a short bathroom break, he wolfed down another couple of nutrients bars with a bottle of water and tucked himself into bed. He needed to get some sleep before logging back in, he still had to make breakfast for the men before they set off to the second level. He was currently living the life of a coolie after all.