Chapter 41: Equipment Synthesis!

The Divine King Auction House, the Star Auction House, and the Eternal Auction House are the three great auction houses in the Alliance’s main city. The Divine King and Star Auction Houses both have guild backgrounds, making them the most popular by far. Yet lately, ever since the Eternal Auction House introduced the “Talent Stone,” every player has been eagerly awaiting tonight’s auction.

Morning Breeze wasn’t here for the items being auctioned tonight; he was simply looking to see if any rare and unusual equipment might turn up. Now that crowds of players had gathered at the Eternal Auction House, it was bound to be teeming with goods—making it the perfect time to hunt for hidden treasures.

Ring of Magnetism
Common, Rare
Equipment requirement: Level 10
+3 Strength
Additional effect: Upon successfully hitting a target, there is a 10% chance to inflict Magnetism on the target, lasting 3 seconds
Description: Infuses everything with magnetism.

Ring of Gravity
Common, Rare
Equipment requirement: Level 10
+3 Strength
Additional effect: Upon successfully hitting a target, there is a 10% chance for the target to suffer increased gravity, lasting 3 seconds
Description: Immobilize your enemies!

“Exceptional!” Morning Breeze searched through the rare items, and a flood of treasures appeared. When he spotted these two rare rings, he immediately purchased them. Rare equipment is exceedingly difficult to obtain, and these were the only two rings available at the Eternal Auction House; the rest were materials, consumables, and more common gear. If his memory served him right, these rings dropped from Magnetism Monsters and Gravity Monsters, with a drop rate of one in hundreds of thousands—almost impossibly rare.

What use do ordinary junk rings have? On the surface, none. But when used for synthesis, things change—they can be reforged into special high-grade equipment. Currently, players’ secondary professions are still low-level, and most haven’t had access to equipment synthesis yet. In the future, guilds will have specialists dedicated to synthesizing equipment, which will be a key source of top-tier gear for professional players.

These rings are only level 10, but they both grant attribute bonuses and possess effects, making them the best of the best among common gear. Ordinary rings typically offer only minor support effects and never provide both attributes and effects. In his previous life, Morning Breeze played the game two years after launch, when many players had already researched synthesis. One synthesized ring, the “Magnetized Gravity Ring,” became famous for combining both magnetism and gravity effects. If he guessed correctly, this ring was synthesized from the two ordinary rings he now possessed.

Synthesized equipment has a unique feature: only one can exist. Once a piece has been created, it’s impossible to synthesize another. However, synthesis is also highly unstable; the resulting gear can be trash or treasure, low-grade or high-grade, and the failure rate is extremely high. To obtain a top-tier synthesized item requires enormous amounts of materials and time.

Equipment grades are: Common, Bronze, Black Iron, Excellent, Exquisite, Silver Flash, Gold, Epic, Legendary, Divine Artifact. Morning Breeze’s rings are currently Common, which means they can at most be synthesized into Bronze-grade gear. And with their level capped at 10, even a perfect result wouldn’t be very useful. This is one reason players don’t bother with synthesis yet; they generally wait until higher levels to create high-grade gear.

After purchasing the remaining rare equipment and some precious materials, Morning Breeze searched for refinement stones. Refinement stones can upgrade equipment and are extremely rare. Five Bronze refinement stones, three Black Iron refinement stones, two Excellent refinement stones—only ten refinement stones in the entire Eternal Auction House, illustrating their rarity. Not a single Exquisite refinement stone could be found. The ten stones cost Morning Breeze a total of 1,200 gold coins—an amount most players wouldn’t dare spend.

Bronze Refinement Stone: Equipment upgrade item. When combined with Common-grade equipment, it guarantees a 100% upgrade to Bronze-grade.
Black Iron Refinement Stone: Equipment upgrade item. When combined with Bronze-grade equipment, it has an 80% chance to upgrade to Black Iron-grade.
Excellent Refinement Stone: Equipment upgrade item. When combined with Black Iron-grade equipment, it has a 60% chance to upgrade to Excellent-grade.

With refinement stones in hand, Morning Breeze hurried to the forge to upgrade his rings to Bronze-grade—a guaranteed success. When attempting to upgrade to Black Iron-grade, he failed once, but luckily had an extra Black Iron refinement stone. For Excellent-grade, with only a 60% chance, he didn’t dare risk it and first added gems to boost the success rate. Raising the probability to 80% before forging, he finally succeeded. The Excellent-grade rings had improved attributes and now required level 30 to equip, but Morning Breeze still considered them trash; without synthesis, they were useless.

After buying some paper and pens at the general store, Morning Breeze entered the backstage area of the Eternal Auction House, found an empty seat, and waited for the auction to begin, all while pondering how to craft the synthesized ring.

Synthesizing equipment is a complex process, generally divided into three steps. The first step is melting the two rings into a single ring model, which requires a skilled alchemist to ensure both “magnetism” and “gravity” attributes are preserved. The purity achieved determines the success rate of the next fusion. The second step is augmentation: selecting additional materials to assist the synthesis. Since Morning Breeze wanted both magnetism and gravity, he needed materials closely related to both, capable of boosting the ring’s attribute bonuses. Normally, augmenting a single attribute is already challenging—augmenting and balancing two, without them blending, is even harder. Auxiliary materials can be chosen in sets of 4, 8, 16, or 32; the more chosen, the greater the potential, but the higher the risk of failure. If even one material is mismatched, the synthesis will fail outright. The third step is finalization: at this stage, an appraiser in the main city is needed to judge what further steps are required to perfect the ring.

“To make it, I’ll make the best!” In his previous life, the Magnetized Gravity Ring was only Exquisite-grade and its auxiliary effects were far from optimal. It became famous later when it was upgraded to Epic-grade, greatly enhancing its attributes, though due to limited materials, it was never truly perfected. Morning Breeze had some experience with synthesis, having crafted two items himself, and this time he planned to use 32 auxiliary materials.

He couldn’t yet find a player skilled enough in alchemy for the first step, so he set it aside for now. As for step two, materials related to magnetism and gravity were scarce; finding 32 relevant, compatible, and rare materials would be extremely difficult.

“Magnetite Core against Heavy Stone, Hypermagnetic Iron Block against Dense Iron Ore, Lightweight Aluminum Alloy against Weightless Iron Chain.” Morning Breeze could only find eight suitable materials for now, all matching pairs. The rest could be cobbled together, but they were too ordinary, which would greatly increase the risk of failure.

“What are you doing?” As Morning Breeze pondered with his pen in hand, a voice suddenly sounded beside him.

He was genuinely startled—how had someone approached without him noticing? Turning, he saw the Elven Princess, Song of Eternity. She wore a pale blue mage robe, her figure strikingly curvaceous, enough to tempt anyone to embrace her. Morning Breeze wasn’t particularly surprised to see her; he was more concerned with how he’d failed to sense her approach. Something was definitely off—had his danger sense diminished after reincarnation?

“Are you trying to synthesize equipment?” Seeing Morning Breeze absorbed in thought, Song of Eternity glanced at the sketches on his paper and immediately recognized his intent. The Dust Guild already had professionals researching synthesis, but hadn’t yet figured out the process. Synthesized gear would only become relevant in the future; for now, it wouldn’t be very useful. Yet Song of Eternity hadn’t expected Morning Breeze to be attempting synthesis himself, and his diagrams and material selection showed remarkable skill—at least on par with the guild specialists.

“Yes, I’m planning to synthesize a ring.” Since she’d noticed, Morning Breeze saw no reason to hide it. Song of Eternity could deduce the type of ring he was aiming for from the materials, but finding a set of Magnetism and Gravity rings was nearly impossible, especially with the necessary upgrades. Given current player knowledge of the game, it was a daunting task.

“Do you need help? I see the materials you need are all rare and related to magnetism and gravity—it must be difficult to find them.” Song of Eternity knew Morning Breeze was no ordinary player: he possessed two Brotherhood Swords, several Talent Stones, and now was venturing into rarely attempted synthesis. Could he be just a regular gamer? Besides, she needed Morning Breeze’s help to complete the Heroic “Wrath of the Trolls” dungeon; the stronger he became, the better.

“I’m missing a rare main material. These things can’t be found just because you want them—they’re extremely elusive. For now, the ring will have to wait.” Song of Eternity wanted to help, but the materials needed for synthesis weren’t something one could simply assist with. There were many complexities, and Morning Breeze was still sorting out the auxiliary issues—he was merely a step ahead of others.

Main materials are the rarest of the rare, more scarce than endangered creatures, and even more so when they’re related to synthesis. Typically, main materials are Silver Flash grade or higher, and finding them is extremely difficult.

“I have an Epic-grade Supermagnetic Enchanted Pearl—do you think it’s suitable?” Song of Eternity recalled a rare material in her warehouse, a reward for becoming the Elven Princess, which had been unused until now. She hadn’t expected Morning Breeze to need such a material.

Epic-grade rare material?

Morning Breeze was astonished. Even in his previous life, he had never used an Epic-grade material for synthesis. Now, unexpectedly, he encountered one. Epic-grade rare materials are worth tens of thousands of gold coins, and Morning Breeze would do everything he could to buy one, for it could lead to the creation of a supreme synthesized item.

“It’s perfect. Name your price, or tell me what you’d like in exchange.” If he could obtain this material, Morning Breeze would even trade a Talent Stone for it.

“I’ll give it to you! It’s not much use to me.” Song of Eternity smiled. She thought the material might have some value, but wasn’t sure how much. It had sat in her warehouse, and now that Morning Breeze needed it, she was happy to give it away.

Give it away? An Epic-grade rare material, given just like that?

Morning Breeze could scarcely believe it. If Song of Eternity knew how rare the material truly was, she would never give it away so lightly. He would have preferred her to ask for something in exchange, so he wouldn’t owe her a favor. But since she insisted, he could only accept; he desperately needed this rare material to complete the ring.

Ding…

A clear, crisp sound rang out—the Eternal Auction House’s grand event had begun!