Chapter 58: Blazing Copper Hammer +5

"Very good, you have successfully piqued my interest."

An Wen was a man who refused to accept failure.

So what if a hammer was destroyed? When he played games in the past, he had had more than hundreds of weapons destroyed!

Returning to the blacksmith store, An Wen began forging another hammer.

This time around, even if the attributes of the hammer were unsatisfactory, he did not throw it away.

Even the hammers at the entrance that he threw out previously were picked up by him.

Enhancing weapons required skill as well.

After a weapon was enhanced successfully by two times consecutively, the same weapon should not be enhanced further for the third time. One had to use a weapon with a poorer grade for the next enhancement instead.

Only when the poorer weapon was destroyed should the better one proceed with enhancement.

That was the enhancement strategy that An Wen concluded from his numerous years of experience in playing such games. If not for the fact that weapon enhancement was unrelated to the quality of the ore in the other world, he would certainly have used ore of higher quality in the enhancement process to increase the success rate.

As such, with that strategy, An Wen needed many pairs of hammers and not just one.

Sounds of forging and hammering emerged from the blacksmith store until 12 midnight.

When An Wen stopped, there were 15 hammers lying around in the blacksmith store.

"That should be just enough, I'll enhance them tomorrow."

An Wen did not choose to enhance them right away as he felt that he was not very lucky that day.

As a result, he decided to just take a bath and go to sleep.

Taking a bath, his sore arms and waist were relieved.

After one whole day of forging hammers, An Wen could feel that his right arm was slightly bigger and more muscular. If he continued doing so every day, his right and left arms could well become unbalanced.

"This won't do, I'll hold the hammer in my left hand tomorrow. Otherwise, my right arm would be thicker than the left, and it would look ugly and unsightly."

The night passed uneventfully.

After eating his breakfast the following morning, An Wen went to the other world.

Carrying ten pairs of hammers, he went to the mixed-use complex and began enhancing weapons.

He first placed an 'outstanding' grade hammer into the enhancement column, since the first two enhancements would generally not fail.

"Do you wish to spend 10,000 Survival Points and 5 units of ore to enhance the weapon? There is a 100% chance of success in this enhancement."

"Confirm."

Whoosh!

A dull golden light flashed. The enhancement was successful.

An Wen did not retrieve the hammer and chose to continue enhancing it for the second time.

Whoosh!

A dull golden light flashed again. The enhancement was successful.

This time, An Wen retrieved the hammer.

"Bronze Weapon: Outstanding Blacksmith Hammer +2"

"Grade: Outstanding"

"Attributes: Hammering Strength +95%, Hammering Effectiveness +85%, Impurity Removal Effectiveness +80%, Recoil Reduction +70%"

"Attack Strength: 120 - 260"

"Durability: 850"

Great, An Wen was extremely satisfied.

Following this, he took out an 'excellent' grade hammer and placed it in the column to be enhanced.

He enhanced it thrice consecutively, and the hammer shattered due to metal fatigue on the third time.

Great, this was the effect An Wen was hoping for.

He placed the +2 'outstanding' grade hammer in and performed its third enhancement.

Whoosh!

A dull golden light flashed. The enhancement was successful.

Nice!

An Wen retrieved the hammer but did not query its attributes. He was too lazy to check them before it became an 'epic' grade hammer.

Taking out another 'excellent' grade hammer and placing it inside, he enhanced it thrice.

However, this time, the third enhancement was still successful.

Upon seeing that, An Wen retrieved that +3 hammer and placed yet another 'excellent' grade hammer in.

Enhancing it thrice consecutively, it failed on the third.

"I'll 'buffer' with one more hammer, just to be safe."

An Wen gave it a thought and decided not to take the risk of placing the 'outstanding' grade hammer in then. He put in another 'excellent' grade hammer and continued enhancing it.

This time around, the hammer shattered on the third enhancement.

"It should be about time."

An Wen placed the +3 'outstanding' grade hammer in and tapped to enhance it.

Whoosh!

A dull golden light flashed. The enhancement was successful.

Upon seeing that flash of light, An Wen was excited and immediately retrieved the hammer to check its attributes.

"Bronze Weapon: Blazing Copper Hammer +4"

"Grade: Epic"

"Attributes: Blazing Hammer (Special), Hammering Strength +135%, Hammering Effectiveness +130%, Impurity Removal Effectiveness +125%, Recoil Reduction +110%, Heat Resistance +150%"

"Attack Strength: 225 - 620, +80 (Fire Damage)"

"Durability: 1250"

Upon reading its attributes, An Wen bit his lip as he fell deep in thought.

Truthfully, the hammer had not satisfied his requirements, but in total, its attributes could be considered passable.

"I'll put this aside first. Let me enhance the other hammers and see what they turned out to be."

An Wen continued enhancing the other hammers, but he was no longer worried since he already had one decent hammer.

As such, he simply tapped to enhance them continuously.

A few minutes later...

Only three pairs of hammers remained in front of him.

All three hammers had been enhanced to +4, and one of them was even a +4 'epic' grade 'dog-smashing' hammer.

"With these three hammers, I should be able to reach +5 for one of them..."

After deliberating for a moment, An Wen decided to proceed with enhancing the 'epic' grade hammer.

He placed the +4 'outstanding' grade hammer in. It shattered.

Then, he placed the other +4 'outstanding' grade hammer in. It also shattered.

Finally, he placed the +4 'epic' grade 'dog-smashing' hammer in. It still shattered.

An Wen swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Looking at the Blazing Copper Hammer in his hand, he gritted his teeth and placed it in.

"Whether I would have a feast of meat or some simple soup later shall depend on this hammer."

Enhance!

Whoosh!

A dull golden light flashed. The enhancement was successful.

"Hahaha... I knew it would be successful."

An Wen laughed hysterically. He was finally lucky enough this time; it had certainly not been easy.

Nevertheless, although the Blazing Copper Hammer was enhanced to +5, its attributes did not increase significantly - each attribute increased by about 20%.

"Grade enhancements should be at level 4, level 7, level 10, and level 12. For all other levels, there would only be percentage point increments for the attributes."

Regardless, An Wen was not disappointed. It was already a decent increase.

Holding his hammer, he returned to the blacksmith store with happy, exaggerated footsteps.

Although the sun had not risen, it did not stop him from forging items.

After forging hammers for the entire day the previous day, he was finally getting down to business.

"An 'epic' grade hammer just feels different and much more comfortable to wield."

An Wen remarked in satisfaction as he swung the hammer around a few times.

Very quickly, a gigantic copper piece was placed in the furnace, and An Wen began hammering it.

Clang!

Flames flew in all directions!

Sparks appeared around the spot where the hammer landed, as if they were special effects.

"This should be the 'special effect' arising from the special attribute of the hammer."

An Wen muttered to himself when he saw the sparks appearing.

At first, he did not take the sparks to heart. It was just a 'special effect' anyway - powerful equipment would always appear more attractive and impressive with the most elaborate special effects. What was there to be curious about?

However, as time passed, An Wen realized that was not the case at all.

When he was forging, he had to heat up the metal piece frequently, or else he would be unable to hammer and shape it.

Now, however, as An Wen continued hammering the metal piece, it continued glowing in red without him having to heat it up.

"Eh... This is a beneficial effect, it saves both time and energy."

Apart from such an effect, An Wen also realized that he did not feel waves of heat invading his nostrils as if he was being barbecued from the inside, so he felt extremely comfortable even while forging.

An 'epic' grade hammer was truly different from those worthless hammers with poor qualities.

As An Wen forged, he gradually became happier, and with the additional effects of the hammer's attributes, his efficiency increased tremendously.

By afternoon, he had already finished making the smelting furnace and an accompanying suite of equipment, all of which possessed a decent grade.

Apart from some accessories, most of the equipment were of an 'outstanding' grade.

Although their attributes were those of lower-leveled 'outstanding' grade products, they were more than sufficient.