Book 1 Chapter 39: +12 daggers!
After receiving Li Chengfeng’s interspatial ring and letting him go to have a rest, Bai Yunfei wasted no time shutting himself in his room and beginning to upgrade those daggers.
Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade again, every time his soulforce was about to be used up, he would stop upgrading the daggers and use the Soul Cultivation Art to recover his soulforce. This way, even though his power did not improve so easily and quickly as it would have if he had used up his soulforce, he was able to reduce the amount of time he was unconscious.
To upgrade a dagger to +8 would need about 100 soul points on average. At the moment, Bai Yunfei had over 1500 soul points, which was approaching the soulforce value of the middle Soul Warrior stage. So, from the early morning until dinner time in the evening, he was able to upgrade thirty-six daggers to +8 in total.
Dragging his slightly exhausted body along, he hurriedly ate dinner then returned to his room to continue with the upgrades.
He turned his wrist over and a rather luxurious dagger appeared in his hand. It was none other than one of those several top-grade daggers Li Chengfeng had mentioned.
“Item grade: Superior.
“Damage: 76.
“Upgrade requirement: 6 soul points.”
Bai Yunfei had seen two superior items before, one being his interspatial ring and the other being the dagger embedded with gems used by Zhang Yang. Moreover, that dagger’s damage was 85 points, even a bit higher than this one’s. However, it had been destroyed a few days ago during an upgrade session.
“Normal, high, superior, rare, inheritance, these are the item grades I’ve seen so far…” Staring at the dagger in his hand, instead of upgrading it immediately, Bai Yunfei summed up the information about item grades.
“The previous three’s damages are all under 100, but the low-rare Glacial Piercer’s damage is over 200. This means… there should still be an item grade in between?
“Does a damage of over 200 fall within the scope of soul items? To upgrade the first three item grades needs very little soulforce, but as the upgrade level goes up, the required soulforce increases bit by bit too. However, within the range of soul items, a rare item or above requires a fixed amount of soul points to upgrade…
“A high-grade dagger’s original damage is comparable to a +10 upgraded normal dagger’s damage, but… why is the +10 upgraded normal dagger obviously more powerful? Is it because… of the small amount of soulforce poured into it? It’s impossible to pour soulforce into non-soul items, but after I upgrade them, this becomes possible. Though only a small amount of soulforce can be poured into these items, they will indeed become more powerful.
“This means, the power of a soul item depends not only on the numerical values of its properties but also on the way it is used…
“Then, let’s continue. I must make high-level upgraded items as quickly as possible. There is not much time left. Hopefully I won’t be so unlucky like last time.
“I can rely on nothing but luck every time. Could it be there’s no method for increasing the chances of successful upgrades? Damn…
“Upgrade…”
… … … …
The next day, Bai Yunfei shut himself in his room again, upgrading the items for an entire day.
In the morning of the day after, Li Chengfeng looked at the locked door with a trace of worry ini his eyes. Just when he wanted to go over and call Bai Yunfei out to eat breakfast, the door was pushed open from inside with a creak and Bai Yunfei walked out with a slightly tired yet totally excited expression.
“Yunfei, you… Could it be you’ve succeeded?!” Seeing Bai Yunfei come out, Li Chengfeng was stupefied for a moment but then he reacted by asking with some anticipation.
“Yeah, I was pretty lucky so in the end I succeeded. Let’s go check them out!” After saying so, Bai Yunfei was about to go outside.
“Wait, wait! Yunfei, you look tired already. You should wash your face first then have a meal before going. There’s no need to hurry.” Even though Li Chengfeng wanted very much to find out immediately what effective weapons Bai Yunfei had created, he still suppressed the curiosity in his heart and said while pointing to the breakfast on the table.
“Oh… That’s fine too. I’m a bit tired indeed. Let’s eat breakfast first.” Looking at the foods on the table, Bai Yunfei nodded then said to Ling’er on one side, “Right, Ling’er, there’s a lot of scrap metal in my room. I’d appreciate it if you go and clean it out.”
After having breakfast, Bai Yunfei looked much more vigorous. He and Li Chengfeng then went to a vacant area outside the village impatiently.
Seeing that Li Chengfeng’s face was full of expectation, Bai Yunfei laughed and shook his wrist. A dagger appeared in his hand.
“Item grade: High.
“Upgrade level: +12.
“Damage: 45.
“Additional damage: 176.
“+10 Additional effect: Attacks have a 3% chance of blinding the target for a maximum of 3 seconds.
“+12 Additional effect: When colliding with the enemy’s weapon, this weapon has an 8% chance of severing it (the chance of triggering this effect is in inverse proportion to the grade of the enemy’s weapon; it is ineffective against inheritance weapons and above).
“Upgrade requirement: 61 soul points.”
After confirming the weapon’s properties once, Bai Yunfei gave it to Li Chengfeng, saying: “Take this first. I’ll explain to you in detail in a while.”
He turned his wrist over again and another dagger appeared in his hand.
“Item grade: Superior.
“Upgrade level: +12.
“Damage: 78.
“Additional damage: 202.
“+10 Additional effect: Attacks have a 4% chance of creating an illusion.
“+12 Additional effect: In downward attacks using the tip of the blade, damage is doubled.
“Upgrade requirement: 66 soul points.”
Because of the information having just appeared in his mind, Bai Yunfei could not help grinning and said to Li Chengfeng: “Hey Chengfeng, why do I feel that you’re luckier than I am? This time, though most of the daggers I tried to upgrade for you were destroyed, one of these two remaining daggers was among those several top-quality daggers. Besides, its effects even make me kind of jealous…”
Li Chengfeng was stupefied for a moment then said in a somewhat embarrassed manner: “Perhaps you should keep and use it. In fact… the two daggers you gave me earlier are very good too.”
“Oh… those two were destroyed already.”
“… …”
“Ha ha, I’m just kidding. I already said I’d make upgraded items for you, how can I possibly keep it? Plus, do you think I’ll still be short of this kind of upgraded item?” Bai Yunfei said laughingly, “Also, I didn’t touch those two daggers because I knew that you would want to keep them as a memento.
“Alright, now I’m going to explain to you the effects of these two daggers. You’ve got to understand and remember them, so that when you use them in combat later, you’ll know exactly what to do.”