That being said, even after gathering who knows how many people's experiences, he still haven't obtained "that."
Bell Cranel's exclusive development ability.
Luck!
A truly invincible passive that can even influence fate itself.
To defy heaven and change fate, all it takes is this one development ability—this is what Luck means.
With this ability, Bell Cranel can ignore all the debuf, recklessly exploit cheats, and all sorts of powerful side effects will be forcibly corrected by Luck.
"..."
'Well, no time to waste! Better hurry up and test out the enhancement effects!'
Excitedly, Noah dug out over a dozen broken iron swords from the Hephaestus Familia's scrap warehouse.
These would later be slightly refurbished by the Familia's newcomers and then sold to the Guild to scam newbies.
Sell as scrap for 800, recycle and refurbish for 1200, then take it to the Adventurers' Guild and tell newbies it's the Guild-recommended newbie starter pack—bam, sell it for 8000.
Profit maximized.
"Appraise."
Noah activated Truth Seeker, appraised all these iron swords at once and then arranged them in order of quality.
He picked up the worst one, held it in his hand, and focused his mind.
He was really looking forward to the effects enhancement could bring.
'Here goes! Enhancement, activate!'
Whoosh!
Under Noah's astonished gaze, a dazzling light instantly enveloped the entire iron sword, as if coating it in a film of light.
He hadn't expected the activation of Enhancement to come with special effects.
The light gradually faded after a few seconds, and everything returned to how it was a few moments ago.
No... It's different.
Because...
"Appraise."
[+1 Reforged Iron Sword]
Enhancement Level: 1
Effect: Base attack power increased by 10%
Toughness increased
"It, it worked!"
Attack power directly increased by ten percent! And no extra materials were needed!
'Continue, continue!'
This time, Noah picked up the best sword among them.
'Enhancement, acti—'
"Holy crap!"
'Why is it so hot?!'
Just as enhancement was halfway activated, Noah was forced to drop the iron sword in his hand.
But the light on the iron sword didn't disappear; instead, it flashed with an eerie red light, then exploded with a bang right before Noah's eyes.
"The Enhancement... failed?"
With his Lv. 2 physical abilities, Noah dodged in time and wasn't injured.
He looked at the shattered remains of the iron sword and found that they were completely destroyed, impossible to recycle or reuse even if collected.
'Did it break from enhancement? So this is what happens when Enhancement fails. How should I put it? Not entirely unexpected.'
'Was it because i used to play these kinds of games often? Or was it because i had long understood the truth that everything comes with a price?'
'I still had three chances left.'
'Might as well try with another one.'
This time, Noah picked up the second-best sword among them.
'Enhancement... holy fuck!'
Before he could observe it carefully, the eerie red light emanating from the sword already made him sense something wrong.
Holding the hilt, he turned and threw it out the window.
Bang!
The iron sword exploded.
Along with it, the public toilet in the backyard was also blown up.
Noah: "..."
'Damn, I didn't do that on purpose! This enhancement is freaking toxic! I mean, is the success rate really this low?! +1 isn't even guaranteed? Two failures in a row... it's just baffling.'
Noah glanced at the shabby iron swords nearby, then at the slightly better-quality ones, and still picked up the third-best sword among them.
'I refuse to believe this. Enhancement!'
Bang!
"Damn it, why?!"
In the blink of an eye, four out of five chances were gone, with only the first one succeeding so far.
Noah picked up the nearby +1 iron sword, his brow slightly furrowed.
'Could it be that the better the equipment, the lower the enhancement success rate? If we were to categorize the weapons here in detail, this +1 iron sword would be white-tier gear, and even then, only Lv. 1 white-tier. The three that exploded in a row were, in terms of quality, roughly Lv. 5 blue-tier gear. With just this small a difference, does it already have such a huge impact on the success rate?'
'Then if i want to enhance equipment on the level of Ais's Sword, Despair, wouldn't the success rate be less than single digits?'
"Last chance!"
'Enhancement!'
Noah directly used enhancement again on the +1 iron sword in his hand.
And this time, the familiar light shone once more, turning the shabby iron sword into... something ordinary.
[+2 Reforged Iron Sword]
Enhancement Level: 2
Effect: Base attack power increased by 20%
Toughness increased
It succeeded.
Noah took a closer look at the iron sword in his hand.
The attack power increase had doubled to twenty percent.
Now, in terms of attack power alone, this sword could match those Lv. 5 blue-tier quality swords.
'Even +2 succeeded—were those previous three failures just plain bad luck? No matter how you look at it, the success rate for +2 should be much lower than for +1, especially since the quality difference is really small. Damn.'
'I want Bell Cranel's development ability even more now. With Luck's support, the enhancement success rate probably wouldn't be this damn frustrating. Failing alone would be fine, but failing and having it explode right away is just absurd.'
'A first-tier adventurer's equipment costs tens of millions. If i blew up someone's gear, how would i ever get by in Orario? Forget about fancy titles like Emperor of Blacksmith—i'd be lucky not to become public enemy number one!'
'It's better not to reveal this ability for now. Otherwise, those gods would definitely give me some really weird nickname. Like "Lord of Ten Thousand Shatterings" or something. Well, that's assuming they'd even get the reference.'
The monthly Denatus—the God's Meeting—is coming up soon.
The Guild already knows he's reached Lv. 2, and when that's made public, the title he receives at the God's Meeting will also be announced.
'I just hope it's not something that'll make me die of embarrassment.'