Sharlock heard the player cursing up a storm and could only blink in bewilderment. He hadn't expected a weapon-enhancement system to make anyone curse like a sailor.
And it wasn't just the first player who'd found it, either — most of the players who came rushing over to gawk started cursing too once they saw it:
"It's over! It's OVER! We're all done for! My head hurts!"
"My carpal tunnel is FLARING!"
"Why'd they have to add gear enhancement?! They're leaving us F2P peasants NOTHING!"
"Pour one out for the devs' moms!"
The players seemed to have plenty of complaints about the system, but Sharlock honestly didn't mind. It's not like HE was the dev — Bru was! All the cussing was obviously aimed at Bru, who'd merely made the decision while Sharlock signed off on it. For every hater of the system, there'd naturally be lovers too — and sure enough, someone spoke up right then:
"I actually think gear enhancement is great? We've barely got any gear options right now — being able to enhance means squeezing out a little more Attack and Defense. What's not to like!"
"Exactly! This game's got no real-money shop, not even an item mall. Adding gear enhancement is totally fair, honestly — the whales spend big on enhancements, and us peasants get to skim a little off the back of that!"
"True, and the material costs aren't even that bad. Five enhancement levels max, and the destruction chance only kicks in after level three — even us peasants can easy get to a comfy +3."
So you had the anti camp, the pro camp, both flapping their gums nonstop — the whole dungeon had basically turned into one big goblin chat plaza. But while these guys were going nuts debating gear enhancement, Arthur had already brought his spider legs and spider silk over to the smithy.
"Weapon enhancement, one level!" Arthur handed the blacksmith Goldmane his four spider legs and the required spider silk, plus the ten-copper fee for one enhancement.
Goldmane pocketed the coppers — well, tossed them into the chest beside him, which was already piled with metal currency and got emptied by Sharlock whenever it neared full — then took the hiltless short sword from Arthur, grabbed the spider legs and spider silk, and chucked all three into the magic furnace in one go. Out they came before long, and then came the hammering: knock knock knock. The players around him watched, spellbound — every last one of them crowding in for the first live gear-enhancement demonstration since they'd arrived in this world.
Goldmane didn't hammer for very long — ten-odd minutes, all told — then cooled the hiltless short sword down and handed it back to Arthur.
Arthur took the hiltless short sword in hand. Its name had now become:
【Hiltless Diamond Shortsword +1 (Common Gray gear)】
【Attack Power: 0-11】
【Weight: 10】
【Forged by: Goldmane the blacksmith】
【Required rep level: Dungeon: The Eternal Kingdom reputation level 1 (lowest tier)】
【The most common standard-issue weapon in Dungeon: The Eternal Kingdom, refined and forged from diamond】
A plain reminder for this copy: the author's official chapter was taken without approval, and its publication page supports the writer.
Since it was a basic-tier enhancement, the attack bonus only went up by a single point — and looks-wise, nothing had really changed.
Arthur took the weapon, stowed it, and — deaf to the surrounding players' pleading for a look — walked straight off with it, headed for the newbie trainer Moros.
"Damn! Ice cold!"
"What swagger!"
The players muttered behind Arthur's back — clearly more than a little sore about him ignoring everyone's requests.
Barely after Arthur left, someone else came asking for an enhancement: xX_ShadowBlade_Xx.
Just like Arthur, he handed over materials and coppers and passed his weapon to Goldmane the blacksmith. Goldmane repeated the recipe — weapon and materials into the magic furnace to smelt together, then a round of hammering, done before long — and passed the weapon back to xX_ShadowBlade_Xx. And where Arthur had been cold, xX_ShadowBlade_Xx was way warmer to the surrounding players. Once they crowded in, he went ahead and shared his stat sheet out for everyone to see.
Plenty of players reached out to touch xX_ShadowBlade_Xx's enhanced weapon, and others pulled out their own for side-by-side comparison, hoping to spot the difference.
Watching the players go to town on gear enhancement, Sharlock noted that the earlier system haters had gone dead silent — everyone was too busy gawking at enhanced equipment.
Because these past few days the dungeon had rolled out a whole string of new features — bringing the newbie trainer Moros onto the staff, building single dorms for Goldmane and Moros, and now gear enhancement — all of which needed announcements posted on the official site.
Sharlock left the players to their enhancement frenzy and returned to the dungeon core hall, where — under "Bru's" guidance and advice — he started drafting the new announcement on the official site.
【Dungeon: The Eternal Kingdom — Update Log, Version v0.1.0】
Added the new dungeon newbie trainer, 【Moros】: a gnome warrior from "Frostlake City." In his youth he was a gladiator in the arena; after marriage, he moved to Frostlake City for his family and worked security at the portal reception hall. He has now joined the Eternal Kingdom dungeon as our newbie training master, and will provide combat-skill training for players. Each session runs two hours, costs one hundred coppers per attendance, with a thirty-minute break between sessions.
Added a new dungeon construction quest: newbie trainer Moros and blacksmith Goldmane have both requested dorms of their own, and the generous Lord Sharlock has decided to meet their needs! Players will be responsible for building the private dorms of newbie trainer Moros and blacksmith Goldmane. Please do not enter Moros's or Goldmane's dorms without cause — any player who does will be attacked by Moros and Goldmane. Stealing an NPC's property will land you on that NPC's blacklist; blacklisted players will, as a rule, receive no help whatsoever from that NPC.
Added the new equipment, the 【Diamond Shield】 (stat panel).
Added new exchangeable items: players holding 【Spider Meat】, 【Spider Legs】, or 【Spider Silk】 can bring them to Lord Sharlock or the dungeon core "Bru" to exchange for copper coins and reputation.
Added the gear enhancement system: currently, enhancement is only available for the 【Hiltless Shortsword】, the 【Diamond Shield】, and the 【Diamond Armor】. The maximum enhancement level is five; at level four and above, there is a chance the weapon will be destroyed. For materials required per enhancement, see the notice board at the Eternal Kingdom dungeon smithy.】
Sharlock finished writing the announcement, gave it one more careful proofread, and only hit send once he was sure it was clean.
Plenty of players were clearly camped on the official site — Sharlock's post collected a pile of replies almost the second it went up.
【YouCantHandleTheTruth: IT UPDATED! Reading this makes me want to play SO bad! Why don't I have a beta key?! Devs, can I just BUY one? Please? I'll sign the petition in my own blood, right here!】
【Grocer: Count me in with the guy above — two signatures in blood! *side-eye*】
【LockesFanboy: Sure, sure............😤😤😤 Sure, my foot! You're only JUST NOW at v0.1.0? Is open beta launching at v1.0.0? Will my son be old enough to play by then? I'm in ninth grade, for the record.】
【DisappointedDad: BEGGING you for open beta! I'll gladly sit in laggy queue purgatory, I'll gladly be the whale who throws money at this — anything! Devs, this update pace is too slow! Not enough staff? Not enough funding? I'll put up ten grand on the crowdfunding, no joke!】
【DrunkenPetals: All I care about is when CBT2 starts! I already burned through my mom's, dad's, big brother's, and all my cousins' email accounts registering every single one for a beta spot. PLEASE pick me for CBT2! Boohoo】
【TooPrettyToDie: @DrunkenPetals, did you not know the gaming pod only works for the person whose account reserved it? You couldn't even sell that spot! What a scam! (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻】
【LeaveTheHordeAlone: Wait, am I seriously the only one paying attention to the fact that this game just added a gear enhancement system?】
【TimApple: A gear enhancement system is pretty normal, no? Think about it — how else you gonna get stronger without paying? (/s)】
【GrindLord: If I can't pay my way, I guess I'll just have to go bald instead! *flops over flat*】
And just like that, Sharlock sank into forum-browsing again, hopelessly hooked. Refresh, click. Refresh, click. The whole forum was flooded with players wailing and begging for open beta. Even when Sharlock tried to check the beta testers' feedback threads, they'd get buried under the flood before he could blink, leaving him no choice but to refresh the first three pages and see if anything worth clicking surfaced.
After a few more refreshes, Sharlock spotted a thread on the forum's front page that kept getting bumped back up, its reply count and view count climbing nonstop. The title was simple but an absolute eyeball-magnet, written by a player called 【OldMacDonald】 — Sharlock remembered this OldMacDonald was one of the beta testers. The thread's full title:
【CBT1 PLAYER MEGA-LEAK! I Discovered a Shocking Secret Inside the Dungeon...】