Chapter 405: Baluo Village Bridge, the Road of No Return

"Would you like to go on an adventure together?" Upon hearing Yun Mu's invitation, Guleiya's face immediately showed an expression of interest.

However, she soon lowered her head, looking a bit shy: "I, can I really do it?"

"I feel like my skills aren't very mature yet," she said.

Huh, it seems like there's a chance.

Seeing her reaction, Yun Mu was momentarily surprised.

At the same time, she couldn't stop a surge of excitement from igniting in her heart.

If Guleiya, who was a blacksmith, chose to join their team, wouldn't that mean she could strengthen equipment anytime and anywhere in the future? If that were the case, it would be just too awesome!

It's just that she didn't know if strengthening would still require spending Gold Coins, or where to get the materials needed for strengthening.

But these were things to consider only after Guleiya joined them; since the other party hadn't agreed yet, she was overthinking it a bit.

Yun Mu struck while the iron was hot: "It doesn't matter; it is precisely because I trust Guleiya's skills that I am inviting you."

"Besides, skills and such can continue to be honed."

"Yes, you are right," Guleiya nodded in agreement: "Anything can betray you, but hard work and sweat will absolutely never be a problem!"

"Thank you, Miss Yun, I think I know what I should do."

"Mm, that's good." Yun Mu smiled with satisfaction; it seemed that inviting Guleiya to become a teammate was already a sure thing.

However, the next second, the other party's words made the smile on her face freeze on the spot.

"I will continue to work hard to improve my forging level, and once I won't let down Miss Yun's trust, I hope you will still be willing to take me in!"

"Eh?"

Until the end, Yun Mu still hadn't managed to invite Guleiya to become her Partner.

But that was only for now; once Guleiya's forging level reached the degree of "not letting down Yun Mu's trust," she would join.

As for what kind of level this "not letting down Yun Mu's trust" actually was.

She wasn't very clear about that.

Just wait; her intuition told her that this day wouldn't be too far off.

Anyway, even if Guleiya came, Yun Mu didn't have the money to upgrade her.

Right now, she couldn't even afford the Gold Coins needed for Lucy's upgrades, let alone adding another person.

But then again, she wasn't actually in a rush.

After all, the Gold Coins required for a Partner's upgrade were too many, and previously, the item 【Super Golden Spatula】 she obtained in the Dungeon 【Plague Capital】 could raise a Partner's level to the same height as her own.

Generally speaking, this kind of item could be obtained in large quantities in the mid-to-late stages of the game.

And even in the early stages, there should be at least three or four of them.

After all, the meaning of this item's existence was to allow players to break free from the whirlpool of Gold Coins needed to upgrade characters.

Even if she didn't get one in this Dungeon, she would definitely be able to find more in her next few Dungeon runs.

By then, she wouldn't have to worry about upgrading characters anymore, right?

Thinking this, Yun Mu reached out and clicked on the Blacksmith Shop's equipment strengthening interface.

【Earth Dragon Scale Armor (Blue) 【1800 Gold Coins】】 【Bird Demon Feather Boots (Blue) 【1800 Gold Coins】】 【Book of Profanity (Blue) 【1800 Gold Coins】】 【Fixed Shadow Instrument Blade (Blue) 【1800 Gold Coins】】 【Cat Gloves (Purple) 【4800 Gold Coins】】 【Painting: Thor (Purple) 【4800 Gold Coins】】 【Annihilation (Purple) 【■■■Parasite■■■??? (Cannot be strengthened)】】 【Frost Queen's Sigh (Orange) 【10000 Gold Coins】】 【Mask of the God of Pleasure (Red) 【36000 Gold Coins】】 【Divine Blood Pendant (Red) 【36000 Gold Coins】】 Familiar interface, familiar prices; what was different was that Yun Mu now had a full 188,995 Gold Coins in her backpack! Was it more than enough to strengthen equipment? Yun Mu clicked on the more detailed prices.

Strengthening Green Expert-grade equipment to Expert requires two times, costing a total of 2,200 Gold Coins.

And for Blue Master-grade equipment, to strengthen it to Master, it also requires two strengthening sessions, costing a total of 5,000 Gold Coins.

Yun Mu already knew this from when she strengthened equipment before.

So, how many Gold Coins would it take to go from Purple Champion-grade to Orange Legendary-grade?

The answer was 26,000 Gold Coins, requiring one more strengthening session than Blue Master-grade equipment.

As for going from Orange Legendary-grade to Red Epic-grade, it requires five strengthening sessions, totaling 83,000 Gold Coins! By the time it reaches Red Epic, it becomes even more exaggerated, requiring a full eight strengthening sessions, totaling 324,000 Gold Coins! In other words, Yun Mu's 180,000 Gold Coins could at most strengthen two pieces of Orange Legendary-grade equipment to Epic-grade.

Or perhaps strengthen eight pieces of Ziyue Pinzhi equipment to Red Champion-grade.

But then again, she couldn't just spend all the Gold Coins she had.

It wasn't just that Lucy's upgrades required a large amount of Gold Coins, but also that the more Gold Coins she had in her building bank, the more interest the bank would provide.

Finally, after pondering for a moment, Yun Mu decided to strengthen four pieces of Ziyue Pinzhi equipment and upgrade some Blue-quality equipment to Purple.

Anyway, there were still many areas waiting for her to explore.

She should be able to obtain quite a few more Gold Coins.

So, having decided on the quantity of equipment to strengthen, it was time to decide which specific equipment to strengthen.

There was nothing to hesitate about on this point; soon, Yun Mu had selected the items she wanted to strengthen.

【Earth Dragon Scale Armor】

This was the upper-body armor that had been strengthened and accompanied her since the first day Yun Mu transmigrated.

Besides this, there were also 【Bird Demon Feather Boots】, but this time Yun Mu didn't intend to strengthen them.

【Gold Coin -5000】

"Do you want to strengthen this piece of armor?" Guleiya took the 【Earth Dragon Scale Armor】 from Yun Mu's hand, and after a brief moment of thought, took out three materials from the room.

"Please choose one of them," she said.

【1. Thick Scale of the Mountain Sub-Dragon: A subspecies of dragon, the dragon scales from the Mountain Sub-Dragon that lives on the mountain peaks of the Mountain Range possess extremely strong toughness and magic resistance; it is an extremely rare and precious material!】

【2. Hard Shell of the Mountain Giant: It is said that in the storm valleys where no one treads, a group of giants whose bodies are composed of mountains live there; they are immensely strong, fearless of wind and rain, and with just a wave of their hands, they can disperse hurricanes.】

【3. Thousand-Fathom Forged Steel: A rare mineral that absorbs Element from the earth and can only be mined in small quantities from deep magma; its melting point temperature reaches as high as 6500 degrees Celsius, and only the top Dwarf craftsmen can perform fine processing on it.】

Dragon scales, hard shell, and metal? Yun Mu pondered for a moment, having no ideas for the time being.

Just as she was about to ask for Lucy and Brenna's opinions, she suddenly thought of something.

Why the heck ask Lucy and Brenna? Wasn't there an Expert standing right in front of her?

"Guleiya, do you have any recommendations?" She decisively asked Guleiya.

"Me, me?" Guleiya was slightly stunned, but quickly reacted.

A hint of happiness appeared on her face, and she said, "If it were me, I would recommend Miss Yun choose these thick scales of the Mountain Sub-Dragon."

"Why is that?" Yun Mu wanted to hear her thoughts.

"Because the subsequent materials for the Mountain Sub-Dragon are very clear," Guleiya chuckled, holding up a finger as she said:

"There are many materials related to dragons, and they all have very clear enhancement routes, from various dragon-blooded creatures to dragon subspecies, elements, and even ancient dragons; there is no problem at all in enhancing them all the way to Myth!" "Eh, is that so?" Yun Mu thought carefully and felt that what Guleiya said made a lot of sense.

Indeed, although elemental dragons and ancient dragons that were active in the Myth era have all disappeared.

Their traces can be said to be spread across the entire continent.

From Beastkin like kobolds and lizardmen flowing with dragon blood, to dragon subspecies like Earth Dragons, water dragons, and fire dragons of varying ranks.

As long as one wants to enhance in this direction, there is no need to worry about the trouble of not knowing the required materials.

However... it is quite troublesome to obtain these materials.

But!

Yun Mu does not need to obtain the materials herself! "Then it's decided, use the thick scales of the Mountain Sub-Dragon!"

As for the hard shell of the Mountain Giant and the Thousand-Fathom Forged Steel? Actually, she didn't have the thought of choosing those two things from the beginning.

After all, just by looking at the descriptions and names of the materials, one knows that if she chose these two materials, her Earth Dragon Scale Armor would become a very heavy stone or metal armor.

Making oneself look like a tin can is quite cool; Yun Mu liked such characters very much the night before she transmigrated.

But from the perspective of the wearer, hmm, scale armor is still better.

"Alright, then I will begin the enhancement."

Guleiya nodded, put away the other two materials, then picked up a hammer, tapped it lightly, and knocked the thick scales of the Mountain Sub-Dragon into the Earth Dragon Scale Armor.

It doesn't look scientific at all, but it is very game-like.

Accompanied by a burst of dazzling purple light, a brand-new coat appeared in front of Yun Mu.

【Earth Dragon Scale Armor (Blue)】 → 【Mountainous Mountain Range (Purple)】

【Mountainous Mountain Range (Purple)】

【Defense +25 / Toughness +8】

【Critical Hit Damage Received -10%】

【Magic Resistance +20%】

【Passive Skill: Mountain】

【Immune to 【Displacement】 effects, and refreshes a Rock Element shield with 40 points of health every turn; when the shield is generated, the defense provided by the equipment +5.】

【Passive Skill: Mountain Range】

【When health is above 10% and an attack sufficient to reduce health to zero is received, the effect of 【Mountain Range】 will be triggered.】

【Mountain Range: Reduces incoming attack damage by 80% and locks health at 1 point, lasting for one turn.】

【From a tattered leather coat, to the first enhanced Hunter Coat, and now to the Mountainous Mountain Range, this piece of equipment has experienced much... Now, embark on a journey of singing and advancing like a giant dragon: from ignored trash to an Artifact capable of making gods look sideways!】

"Civilization, is it?"

Yun Mu made a snide remark, then put on the Mountainous Mountain Range.

After the enhancement, the overall attributes of this equipment have improved significantly, and the most important of these is the new skill.

Both the effects of 【Mountain】 and 【Mountain Range】 are very good.

Among them, 【Mountain Range】 can even link with the 【Shambler Sculpture】 she recently obtained! Not bad, not bad.

As for the appearance of the equipment, overall there is not much change, but the scales on the front can vaguely show the shape of a dragon's head, and on the back, the character 【Mountain】 is written in Dragon Language.

Next piece of equipment... Yun Mu looked at her ample funds and, after thinking for a moment, directly enhanced both the 【Shadow Skirt】 and 【Eternal Spider Silk Leggings】 to Ziyue Pinzhi.

【Gold Coin -12200】

The materials for the Shadow Skirt are 【Shadow Slime Mucus】 and the 【Shadow Matter】 she saw last time but didn't choose.

As for the Eternal Spider Silk Leggings, Yun Mu chose the 【Magic Cloud】 produced by the Sky Island.

That's right, it's a cloud.

【Magic Cloud: Magic Cloud is a special substance produced by the Sky Island. It is the cornerstone of the Sky Island and has a strong amplification effect on all magic. Without Magic Cloud, there would be no birth of the Sky Island. According to the Ether Information around the Magic Cloud, the Magic Cloud will also present different colors, which is the reason why the colors of the Magic Cloud under different islands in the vast airspace vary.】

【Shadow Skirt (Green)】 → 【Shadow Short Skirt: Modified】 (Purple) 【Shadow Short Skirt: Modified (Purple)】

【Comfort +5 / Stealth +8】

【Defense +4】

【Magic: Shadow】

【No one can peek at even a shred of your privacy from any angle; no matter how they look, they can only see a blurry, impenetrable black shadow.】

【Magic: Escape into Shadow】

【This is a magic that mimics the 【Escape into Shadow】 technique of the Shadow Guard. You can not only store important things in it but also hide in the shadow world for a period of time at critical moments.】

【Why is it called Shadow Short Skirt: Modified? Can't think of a good name? Really? Why do I feel like you're being lazy?】

【Eternal Spider Silk Leggings (Blue)】 → 【Magic Cloud Silk Leggings (Purple)】

【Magic Cloud Silk Leggings (Purple)】

【Spirituality / Qi Strength recovery speed +25%】

【Defense +8】

【Comfort +10 / Speed +5 / Dodge +10】

【Charm +5】

【Passive Skill: Swiftness】

【Your movement speed +30%, and when you are moving, you will not make any sound.】

【Passive Skill: Collection Net】

【When the wearer and surrounding teammates/enemies consume Spirituality or Qi Strength, the Magic Cloud Silk Leggings will autonomously collect the dissipated Spirituality and Qi Strength and store them; the filtered Spirituality or Qi Strength can be harmlessly absorbed by anyone!】

【Stockings woven from Magic Cloud and Eternal Spider Silk; when the surrounding Ether environment changes, their color will constantly shift between black, white, orange, pink, and blue.】

Continue strengthening!

【Gold Coin -5000】

【Book of Profanity (Blue)】 → 【Ancient Scroll of the Penitent (Purple)】

Select material as——

【Portrait of Goddess of Radiance Linfulei: This is a work painted by a painter with excessively high inspiration after witnessing the statue of the Goddess of Radiance Linfulei. However, the goddess in this work appears too Profane, so the painter was permanently expelled from the Church of the Goddess of Radiance by an angry Bishop. Strangely, however, this Bishop did not have this Profane painting destroyed, but instead secretly hid it in the mezzanine of the church's confessional. According to the nuns in the Church, ever since then, the Bishop has frequently entered and exited the confessional alone, and every time she comes out from inside, she becomes refreshed and her face is flushed with shyness. What a pious Bishop indeed; presumably, it was precisely in the midst of repenting and reflecting that she was enlightened by the Goddess, which is why her face turned red with excitement.】

(End of this chapter)