The Great Thief

Buliwyf Stonehand kept looking over Lu Li’s shoulder as he worked on his weapon at his work station.

He hated to admit it, but the adventurer was doing a good job. He wasn’t making any silly mistakes like beginners usually would. He even took out a blacksmithing hammer that caught Buliwyf’s eye. A player wielding such a high-quality hammer would be a decent blacksmith for sure.

“You’re not using the Disintegration Liquid correctly because you’re using it on a light weapon, which means you should dilute by half first,” Buliwyf Stonehand said, finally finding a mistake that Lu Li had made.

“Like this?” Lu Li was confused.

He trusted in Buliwyf Stonehand because he knew that he had no intention of tricking him.

Lu Li carefully diluted the Disintegration Liquid and soaked his dagger in there. The goal here was to remove the outer protective layers on the dagger so that the materials could be incorporated into it.

Upgrading a dagger was much more complicated and difficult than crafting one.

Fortunately, Buliwyf Stonehand the weapon Grandmaster was here to guide Lu Li and correct his mistakes. After he finished upgrading the dagger, he realized how ridiculous it was for him to attempt it when he had never done something like this before.

System: You have succeeded in upgrading Shard of the Defiler to +3.

Shard of the Defiler was a Dark Gold weapon and though it was quite overpowered when he first got it, the rest of his gear eventually caught up and surpassed it.

Shard of the Defiler (Dark Gold): Damage 42-56. Agility+20, Strength+12. Slot 1. Special Effect 1: Attack Speed+30%. Special Effect 2: Deep Contamination. Upon activation, reduces 25% of target’s armor and movement speed. Cooldown 360 seconds. Special Effect 3: Fatal Blow. When the target health drops below 20%, there is a certain chance to execute the target. Level Requirement 40, Durability 120/120.

With the upgrade, his weapon had transformed into a Legendary Weapon

Shard of the Defiler (Legendary): Damage 82-96. Agility +80, Strength +60, Attack Speed +45%, 2 Slots. Special Effect 1: Deep Contamination. Upon activation, reduces 30% of target’s armor and movement speed, cooldown 120 seconds. Special Effects 2: Fatal Blow: when the target health drops below 20%, there’s a certain chance to execute the target. Special Effects 3: Echo of Archimonde: Activate to transform into a demon, allowing the user to cast demonic skills. Lasts for 30 seconds, useable once per day. Level Requirement 60, Durability 240/240.

Though the damage and stats may not be as good as his other weapon, the upgrade had caused it to vastly improve. The damage was also very consistent as the minimum damage is only 14 points less than the maximum. This was very rare for weapons that are above level 30.

If the damage was consistent, then Lu Li can be more confident in his attack.

Lu Li was most pleased with the attack speed increase, which had gone from 30% to 45%.

The dagger kept the first two special effects and added a new active – Echo of Archimonde.

Lu Li had never heard of this skill before.

Archimonde the Defiler was the second commander of the Burning Legion and considered one of Sargeras’ right hand men. If the special effect was named after Archimonde, then it was definitely going to be overpowered.

Lu Li did not go and try out his new weapon, but instead decided to upgrade Water Fairy’s weapon as well in one go.

Buliwyf Stonehand was even more impressed with Lu Li the second time around. He hadn’t seen such a calm and talented young man. Not only did he successfully upgraded the weapon, but the mistakes that he made from the previous upgrade were all corrected.

He only corrected Lu Li once!

Despite it being the same weapon, same upgrade scroll, same materials and same blacksmith, Water Fairy’s Shard of the Defiler was a tad better than Lu Li’s, but the difference was minimal.

Water Fairy was pleased with the stats of her new weapon. Since Lu Li was the one that upgraded it, his name was engraved onto it, but Water Fairy couldn’t care less.

“Hey kid, is this really your first time upgrading a weapon?” Buliwyf Stonehand asked.

“Yeah, I thought the upgrade was 100% chance success with the upgrade scroll?”

Lu Li had never upgraded anything in his past life and never thought that there was a chance of failing the upgrade.

“Stupid!” Buliwyf Stonehand roared as he pointed towards the metal scrap on the floor. “If there wasn’t a fail rate, then tell me what are these things on the floor?”

“I’m sorry Grandmaster. Forgive my ignorance,” Lu Li quickly apologised.

Lu Li thought that the dramatic bearded Dwarf was very cute and he had also gave him a lot of pointers while he was upgrading.

Buliwyf was pleased with Lu Li’s attitude, and stroked his beard, saying, “Upgrading Weapons is one of the easier crafts in blacksmithing. The nature of each material in how they are ordered as well as the structure of each material determines the outcome of the weapon. Why?”

“No idea,” Lu Li answered truthfully.

“Why are you so stupid? Answer this, how come the same material can be used to craft a big longsword, yet it can also be used to craft a small dagger?” Buliwyf was frustrated.

“Because of the recipes,” Lu Li said without hesitation.

“No, forget that. Forget all of that. If you only think about the recipes, then your mind is limited by those recipes. You must forget about all that nonsense and really think about the nature of each and every piece of material.

“Maybe you should go first, I’ll stay and listen to this guy’s crazy theory,” Lu Li private messaged Water Fairy and looked at her. Since Water Fairy wasn’t a blacksmith, it would be a waste of time for her to listen to this crazy old guy.

“Don’t worry, he seems to know what he’s talking about. Maybe this is a good chance for you to learn something.”