Strengthening Equipment
Immediately after knowing what to do, Arthur began injecting the Karma points into the Gloves of Absorption.
After a moment of indecision, Arthur decided to inject his Evil* Karma points. After all, he didn't want to prolong the fight, just finish it faster.
As soon as he started injecting, numerous notifications appeared.
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It was only after injecting four points that Arthur noticed something strange.
'Why is only 50 experience points coming? Wasn't there supposed to come 100?' Still cautious, doubts began to surface in Arthur's mind.
Thinking back for a moment, there were two possible reasons this was happening: The first would be that the higher the weapon's Grade, the less experience it receives with a point of Karma. The second would be the fact that the Gloves of Absorption are a set, hence the division.
And as much as Arthur thought, he couldn't figure out which of the two reasons was right and whether there would be any adverse effects of insisting on putting the points. He didn't want to spend his points unduly, so he stopped to reflect.
But after so much thinking, something that would help him solve the case finally came up: 'And if I just did this...'
Waiting for the notifications to appear, Arthur soon hit the option to inject Good Karma points.
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Just as he thought, he was correct.
'So, because it's a dual weapon, the difficulty in raising your experience is doubled, but the option to inject the two different types of karma opens up.'
Just as Arthur thought, even if the difficulty was doubled, the effects would double as well. If Arthur, by any chance, injected just one kind of Karma into a dual weapon, the effects this weapon would receive would be twice as powerful as a single weapon.
After seeing that the opportunity existed, Arthur didn't even think twice about balancing the two types of Karma on the gloves and continuing to improve them.
'If you think about it, this is the most logical way to do things. Since one glove absorbs everything and the other gives it back, there's nothing better than sharing the effects in a way that gives more power to the weapon. If i put positive effects on the absorbing glove and destructive effects on the returning glove, then those gloves will become the best weapon I have.'
Arthur's mind began to fill with excitement, wanting to see what would happen. He knew that the Dagger of Fenrir ranked above the Gloves of Absorption. But what good was a weapon he didn't know how to use yet?
As time passed, the gloves received more and more experience points from Karma points, and soon leveled up..
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Even though it had already leveled up, Arthur didn't stop and keep improving his gloves.
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Only when the gloves reached level 5 did Arthur finally stop injecting the Karma points.
But he didn't even get a chance to look at the new stats on the gloves before a change started to take place in them.
On the absorbing glove, the left one, the inscription patterns on the top of the glove got brighter. Arthur could also see that some gold parts have started to turn silver, but very few, almost imperceptible. On top of this, a small golden circle formed on the palm of the glove.
The returning glove, the right one, also changed, but this time the golden light turned slightly red and brighter. As with the left glove, a golden circle also formed on the palm.
These changes added a little charm to the gloves, and even made them look intimidating.
After he'd waited a while and saw that no more physical changes had taken place in the gloves, Arthur finally opened up his stats.
Gloves of Absorption
•Grade: A-•
•Level: 5 (0/5000)•
[Description]
Created by Masterforger August Desmont, the gloves follow the law of absorption and dispersion, which are printed on the left and right glove, respectively.
[Statistics]
•Left:
- Any Impact Absorption Rate (75%)
- Absorbed Energy Will Be Converted into Vigor (5%)
•Right:
- Dispersion Rate of the Received Impact (75%)
- 'Shock' Effect Applied to Dispersed Energy (5%)
As soon as he saw the new effects that had been placed on the equipment, Arthur's expression turned slightly curious.
'So you mean I spent 100 Karma points just for that?' Realizing the difficulty of raising weapon levels, Arthur's initial animation began to crack into pieces and reveal a little bitterness.
The experience points needed to raise the gloves was a total of 10,000. Thus, 50 points of Good Karma and another 50 of Evil Karma were spent.
And Arthur's bitterness could be very well justified. Doing some quick calculations, and also considering that the 5% would be applied above 75%, the new effects would give a bonus of only 3.75%.
If you take an example where an absorbed impact energy is 100, the energy captured by the glove would be 75, and only 3.75 of that energy would be transformed into vigor.
The same thing would also be put for the 'Shock' energy in the returned energy.
'Well, it's not like I expected to destroy the world with this, but I spent a lot. To make up for the expense, I would have to be fighting a lot of people at once and still making sure that all the hits hit the center of the glove.'
Despite absorbing a lot of damage, this absorption would only happen if the blow hit the center of the glove, putting Arthur at a disadvantage against someone who uses quick or distant strikes.
'But it's better than nothing. As I don't need it to be extremely powerful now, I'll leave it alone. Let's go to the Dagger of Fenrir now!' Quickly ignoring the subject of the gloves, as he could do nothing else, Arthur concentrated on the dagger.
As soon as he drew the dagger again, Arthur immediately spent his Karma points. As he didn't think it would be very logical to fill a dagger, a weapon designed to kill, with positive effects, the points he used were Evil Karma points. Even though he only had 100 now, he was willing to spend it.
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As well as the gloves, Arthur continued to spend until the dagger leveled up. There was nothing unusual about the expense, and he even tried to spend Good Karma points, but he couldn't.
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But as soon as he raised the dagger to level 3, Arthur immediately stopped.
'I was expecting something different, but this is dirty.' While looking at the experience needed for the dagger to level up again, he gave up on the idea of leveling up to level 5.
Dagger of Fenrir
•Grade: S+•
•Level: 3 (0/4000)•
[Description]
Made with one of Fenrir's fangs. The Holy Blacksmith Hrodulf forged this dagger for 200 years. It was even challenged by the Gods to be a sacred weapon. One of the 10 greatest daggers ever created, occupying 5th place.
[Statistics]
• Indestructible
• Strength +50
• Agility +30
• Vitality +30
• Constitution +50
• 'Bleeding' effect is applied to each attack
• 'Accelerated Heal' effect is applied to each defense
Unlike the gloves, which were a continual increase of 1000+ experience between each level, it would apparently now be doubled.
From level 1 to 2 it took 1000 experience points, and from level 2 to 3 it took 2000. Arthur thought this was normal, but when he saw the value of 4000, he saw that he was wrong. He could even use his Karma points, but the next level up could cost 8000 experience points!
He didn't feel like taking the test at all.
'Despite being little, I still feel better taking this Dagger. I definitely have to learn how to use it.' The increase in bonus stats gave Arthur a sense of strength and vigor. His desire to learn also stemmed from not having crippled his 30 points of Evil Karma.
Also, he wasn't stupid to leave a Grade S+ weapon abandoned, just because it was expensive. Everything in life is rewarded through effort, so he knew that if he continued to level this up, it would definitely be one of his best weapons.
There was no change in the appearance of the dagger, so Arthur found that these transformations took place at some specific landmarks, like when the glove only transformed when it reached level 5.
After he worked things out, Arthur finally finished his rest shower and got out of the tub, soon putting on his clothes.
When he came out of the bathroom already dressed, he saw that Thomas was still typing rapidly on the keyboard and his expression remained the same.
Deciding he wouldn't bother him, Arthur left without a word and went to the roof of the building. He had written a little note to Thomas and left it on his bed.
As when he arrived, the noise of the cluster fans was still as loud as before. It was even stronger and had a different noise, as if they couldn't take it anymore.
But little did Arthur know what Thomas was actually doing on the computer. And if he did, he would surely slap Thomas in the head.
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Note*: I decided to change 'Bad' to 'Evil' because it makes more sense for what I want to propose.