The Great Thief

The third strengthening actually had a decent chance of failure. If he failed he would lose three Strengthening Stones and 30 gold.

The current Strengthening Stone drop rate was quite low and there was no market price for them. If Lu Li wasn’t preparing for competitions, he wouldn’t have invested so much in them either. Later on, the battlefield system would be updated, and the player count for Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm would be increased by 15 players. The drops in the battlefield would also increase, so it would be easier to find Strengthening Stones then.

At that time, the price would naturally fall, as most players would have access to them and would be able to strengthen their own equipment.

However, for now, besides receiving them as quest rewards, players could only obtain Strengthening Stones from Bosses. Even the major guilds’ elite groups would only have a few of them.

This was the reason why Lu Li wanted to completely explore the vast secret area.

The time taken for the third strengthening was long. Lu Li’s palms were sweating as he heard the prompt.

System: Congratulations, you have successfully strengthened Pamela’s Gift for the third time.

It was a success!

Lu Li was elated; he couldn’t wait to take the strengthened item out of the furnace.

The first two strengthenings were quite basic, but perhaps that just reflected the good quality of Lu Li’s equipment. If a normal equipment gained a few Attribute points, that would be considered a good upgrade.

Pamela’s Gift (Dark Gold) *3: Critical Hit +30%, Damage +15%, Special Effect: Pamela’s Sweet Water tea. Instant Cast. Immediately regenerate 25% HP and regenerate 2% HP every second for 5 seconds. Can be interrupted and cannot be cast on anyone but yourself. 30 minute cooldown. Level Requirement: 30. Durability: 72/72.

Behind the equipment there were three plum tree logos, which signified that it had been upgraded three times.

There were two changes to this item. The first increased the amount of healing from Pamela’s Sweet Water Tea. Altogether, the three upgrades had increased it by 5%. It was already a very good effect, but what Lu Li was most excited by was the damage buff.

The buff had increased from 10% to 15%!

This was no small amount. It was hard to increase damage multipliers like this and Lu Li was hoping that the property would increase, even if it was just by 1%. However, it had actually increased by 5%, which was a huge amount that would add up over time.

Lu Li now felt an impulse to continue strengthening it. If he kept strengthening it, would it eventually reach 100%?

Of course, as quickly as the idea flashed into Lu Li’s mind, he remembered the people in his previous life who had gone crazy over strengthening their equipment. It was just as addictive as gambling.

After strengthening three times, they would think about the fourth time, then the fifth time and so on…

There was no end to the road ahead.

The game company later issued a warning for players to be savvier about it. Lu Li even remembered the contents of the warning, which was for the players to only try what they were capable of.

However, Lu Li was convinced that those who didn’t take any risks could never be professional players.

He had already strengthened his necklace, and now he was about to strengthen his second piece of equipment – the Voodoo Shoulderpad. The first strengthening went smoothly, but the bonus was quite small – it only increased its Agility from 28 to 30. The second strengthening wasn’t that much better either; it only added six attribute points and they were all in Strength.

Lu Li highly anticipated this third strengthening, which would definitely improve a special effect.

Perhaps it might even add a special effect!

With that in mind, he threw in three Strengthening Stones and 30 gold coins. Fortunately, he had taken a few gold coins from Square Root 3, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to afford it.

Whenever Lu Li needed money, he would ask Square Root 3 for some. No wonder Azure Sea Breeze made fun of him.

System: Failure is the mother of success. Unfortunately, the third strengthening of the Voodoo Shoulderpad has failed.

Lu Li was stunned. It failed? Why did it fail?

Lu Li let out a wry laugh. His string of successes had distracted him from the scariest part of strengthening, which wasn’t getting a bad upgrade, but having it fail altogether!

He picked up the equipment on which the strengthening had failed and was distressed to see that its durability had dropped by half.

Fortunately, this was only the third strengthening, which wasn’t high enough to damage the equipment’s properties.

Durability could easily be repaired and the blacksmith was nearby. Lu Li turned around and went to fix his equipment, but the gold-cost alone was enough to scar him.

After fixing the equip, Lu Li placed it back into the furnace and slotted in new Strengthening Stones and gold coins.

Just like before, he did three laps around the furnace. This superstitious action hadn’t saved him from failing his previous strengthening, but he didn’t lose anything by performing it.

System: Congratulations, you have successfully strengthened Voodoo Shoulderpads for the third time.

He had finally succeeded! Lu Li let out a sigh of relief; he didn’t really want to try and strengthen it again.

After strengthening an item for the third time, there would not be any additional special effects. Lu Li was very satisfied with the strengthening results as the Backhand Backstab damage had gone from 20% to 25%.

He had other equipment that were not Dark Gold or Gold sets, but he needed to change those in future, so there was no need to strengthen those.

Other than his weapons and his ring, Lu Li spent almost two hours strengthening eight pieces of equipment, namely, the Voodoo Shoulderpads, Voodoo Headgear, Voodoo, Breastplate, Voodoo Cloak, Pamela’s Gift, Raider’s Leather Pants, Star Killer’s Bracer and Wirt’s Third Leg.

If there wasn’t a single failure, the eight items would require 48 Strengthening Stones and 480 gold. However, Lu Li experienced two failures on the second strengthening and three failures on the third strengthening. This meant that he ahd spent a total of 61 Strengthening Stones and 610 gold coins.

He didn’t have enough Strengthening Stones to strengthen all of his equipment, because he still needed to save some for his most important weapon and his Epic ring.

After taking a look at the final results, his equipment’s properties had gone through a substantial overall upgrade. There weren’t any new special effects, as the third strengthening only had a very low chance of that occurring.