Vol. 9 - Ch. 446 - The effect of ‹Synchro Turn›—What’s its equipment strengthening limit?

‘Excuse me,’ Maria said and then picked the ‹Ripple Dagger (Collab Ver.)› to inspect it.She looked just as intrigued by the dagger as me and scrutinized it with the ‹Let Me Know-kun› so hard I wouldn’t have found it strange if this bore a hole in the dagger. Her interest was soon replaced by amazement as she murmured ‘this would surely sell like a fine jewel.’ No, we’re not going to sell it. This was going to be Karua’s primary weapon, alright?

Once Maria and I both finished our inspection, we moved in to verify if this combination works only on the sword, or it can strengthen the performance of other gears as well. Sᴇaʀᴄh the N0vᴇlFirᴇ.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Alulu and Hannah would be giving this a try. I had wanted to participate as well, but stopped considering Hannah was more experienced here. I could try afterward as well. Anyway, it turned the ‹Synchro Turn› effect—whether it gives a buff or reduced the existing performance— could also extend to armaments, other weapons or even the quality of ingot.

I think I may have found the treasure. Never in my wild dream would I have thought such ground breaking bug would be possible. Either way, it was confirmed Hannah’s involvement could indeed change the attribute value with ‹Synchro Turn›.

Next, I also tried to test out my skill but… the end product was abysmal.

“No way, no way! How could it be!? It’s ability is even lower than the normal drop!”

“Ugh, so ‹Brave› is no good for this huh. Or maybe it’s the lack of striking ability? Hmm, or perhaps the DEX value?”

The raison d’etre of the production job—in particular the jobs which mainly handled the equipment—had always been ‘Augmented Gears of production jobs grants more performance than drop items.’ I guess that's a given, otherwise the production job would simply face obsolescence.

There was also some stuff you could only get from drop or production jobs as well but that was another topic unneeded for now. Anyway, a lousy final product, when compared to the similar drop counterpart, was akin to giving production job holders a existential crisis.

For a while, Alulu’s shriek dominated the forging room. As for the item itself, she had immediately put—in her case, akin to burying—that failure in the ‹Item Bad› meant for disposing of items once she confirmed it was dud. I presume she would convert it into ingot as soon as she unlocked ‹Melt Down›—a third-order skill. She was ultra fast in her action, as if she couldn’t allow that abomination to pollute the air.

Haa…that was unexpected. But at least, regardless of the result, it was confirmed that even I could affect the quality of an item.

We—the group of Alulu, Hannah and me—continued to test out the theory on other types of equipments, items. We also tried reinforcement but Alulu stopped me midway, saying ‘You can focus on inspection, Zephyr onii-san’ and gave me the no-more-participation verdict.

Ahaha, I guess that’s bound to happen. It turned out I just don’t have the knack for it which resulted in creating a row of poorly attributed equipment. We also tried to involve Maria, but—

“I apologize but my arms can only sustain the weight equal to this notebook.”

She turned down the offer while flashing the bulky memo pad in her hand. Wait, is she waiting for someone to follow with a jab?

“You’re no longer ‘Job-less’ so there’s no way your statement holds any ground!”

Could you imagine not being able to pick up a weapon due to insufficient status as a newbie? Hell, players would rain curses on developers.

“I am joking. Actually I am going to focus on writing everything down on this memo pad.”

“Alright. Just be sure to write everything down.”

So she was going to be our record keeper huh.

After verification, we got answers to many of our questions.

Q. Is it possible to create ‹Synchro Turn› phenomenon even without ‹Smithing› job?

A. You can (perhaps as long as one of them has the ‹Smithing› job.)

Q. Can anyone do that?

A. As of now, anyone could get involved.

Q. What is the upper limit to the people who can join in?

A. We called in the harmonic trio to help out, and verified the limit to be 4. An additional 5th person provides no change.

Q. Are the end product comparable to the equipment strengthened by only ‹Blacksmithing› job holders in game? Or surpass even them?

A. Insufficient data. Alulu is still sitting at a low level.

As of the moment, it was impossible to increase both the ability value and quality at the same time. Hannah was an exception. If anything, the end product was declining in quality.

Maybe the hurdle was just too high for combat job holders? But what if we managed to overcome it? It would be a groundbreaking achievement for sure. It’s too early to say anything, perhaps there’s more than meets the eyes for the unfamiliar ability and more importantly—the key point was if the end product could surpass the work of four blacksmiths.

Honestly, I had a hunch that Hannah would be able to achieve the impossible if there are two more people. Spooky, amazing, right?

First of all—and at least, that was how in the game—the performance, quality of the end product was dependent on STR, DEX, and skill value of members partaking in ‹Synchro Turn›.

Hannah however neither had a higher STR value—heck, it was sitting at the base value—nor the ‹Synchro Turn›. This means it should be impossible, right? But I didn’t expect Hannah was actually using ‹Reverse Power - R›, which could temporarily reverse the value of RES and STR. Like, oh goddess, of course the improvement of gear would be great! Hannah was currently maining STR and DEX status.

This brought up a doubt then—perhaps all that needed is a compatible status, while presence of ‹Synchro Turn› is unrequired.

But then again, it was reality. Maybe, like just maybe, there was some real world logic behind it that we just couldn’t figure out for now? I think the key aspect in this was the striking ability.

I would need someone who excelled at striking to verify my guess however. But where would I even find someone with striking ability comparable to Hannah—aside from ‹Blacksmith›. It’s not like we had anyone lying around… do we?

“Alright, let’s wrap it here for today.”

“Thanks for the assistance, Zephyr onii-san.”

“You must be tired, Zephyr-kun. Here, water.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Hannah closes up to me with the water bottle as I heave a sigh after exhausting all the ideas that we could gave a try for now. The heat here was damn crazy due to the hearth. At Least I was not right behind it, but the other two—Alulu and Hannah—were soaking into sweat that dripped from their hair.

It was quite a tantalizing view if you ask me—or could have been, but it was safe since the two were just lolis. There was just one thought in my mind—smithing was truly not something anyone could endure. Right, there was definitely no other idea.

Three hours. I looked at the time and noticed it had already been a few hours since we arrived here and done the verification. Creating a weapon takes time, fortunately that wasn’t the case for the ingot or other basic items.

As a signal that it was lunch time, Alulu’s stomach cutely grumbled. We decided to cut the work there and have lunch.

“Hannah, take this ‹Refreshment›. It’s an absolutely needed item when smithing.”

“Woah, thank you. Alulu-chan.”

Alulu passed a consumable item ‹Refreshment›, which could activate the ‹Refresh› skill, to Hannah. It truly was the blacksmith's best partner giving the sweaty state this forging left one in.

Hannah looked delighted to receive it and used that on the spot to make herself better.

But that was surprising. What was it? Well, Hannah was usually someone who would use honorifics everywhere, except for me, so it was a novel sight for her to add ‘-chan’ when calling Alulu. Smithing, huh. I guess they have become quite frank to each other during all this ordeal. Keep it up, Hannah!

By the way, I didn’t receive any ‹Refreshment› from Alulu, which I presumed was due to nothing but a failed item I had brought on the table. I used the one I had in my possession. Not that I would have the face to accept it either.

The cafeteria was open as usual, irrespective of the summer vacation, where we each had lunch. Afterward, Maria said she wanted to take a look at alchemy—which was the original objective all along—and took Hannah to the Alchemy Atelier.

Come to think of it, I also haven’t seen her alchemising recently at all, right? Alright, this was a good chance and followed after them.