Hyūga Akira walked to an open area, found a rock, and sat down heavily on it. He opened his panel and looked at the experience section.
Seeing the number there, he couldn't help but laugh.
[Experience Pool: 110,082]
Another hundred thousand experience. As expected, the battlefield really was his paradise.
He'd only been here a single day, and his experience had already climbed past one hundred thousand. If he farmed for ten more days, wouldn't he be into the millions? Just thinking about it made him excited.
A million experience would let him improve drastically—his current strength could easily double.
"Let's level up twice first."
[Name: I'm Xiao Ming]
[Class: Hunter]
[Level: Lv35 (0/23,500)]
[Chakra/Nen: 3680 / 2110 +50 +20 +1000 +500]
[Name: I'm Xiao Ming]
[Class: Hunter]
[Level: Lv36 (0/25,500)]
[Chakra/Nen: 3780 / 2110 +50 +20 +1000 +500]
"Finally, level 36." Akira stared at the level on the panel.
Reaching level 36 didn't just mean awakening an ability.
[Player has reached Level 36]
[Hunter Awakening Skill unlocked (Please input required conditions; awakening will be completed automatically)]
[Sub-Class unlocked (Please choose)]
[Furnace unlocked]
"The furnace and sub-class features are still here." Akira looked at the newly unlocked content in surprise.
He'd originally assumed these two wouldn't appear at all and hadn't even included them in his plans.
A sub-class was a second way for players to gain experience—professions like blacksmith, doctor, alchemist, scientist, and so on. Performing tasks related to the profession would grant some experience. It wasn't as much as farming monsters, but it was still another source.
In the game, it had been more or less optional.
But the furnace was extremely important.
One of its functions was smelting: throwing unwanted items or skills into it would produce something called Essence.
Essence was valuable—especially for gamblers.
It could be used to enhance equipment. Each enhancement cost 1,000 Essence, though the chance of failure increased with each attempt.
It was basically a direct copy of a weapon enhancement machine from another game.
Besides strengthening equipment, Essence could also be used as health or chakra potions, restoring HP or energy by consuming a certain amount.
The furnace also had a synthesis function. By placing several items of the same level into it, along with some Essence, there was a chance to obtain higher-level equipment. The same applied to skills.
Not only gamblers loved this feature—ordinary players did too.
It was the only way for low-level players to overtake high-level ones.
Akira didn't even look at Awakening yet. Instead, he eagerly opened the furnace.
A cauldron resembling an alchemy furnace appeared before him. Taiji patterns were engraved around it. The lid was missing, and through the opening he could see flames burning inside—yet no heat radiated outward.
He threw in low-level equipment, duplicate items, and unnecessary skills, cleaning out his inventory.
A screen appeared beside the furnace.
"Pretty advanced," Akira muttered.
There were only two options:
[Smelt]
[Synthesize]
He tapped [Smelt]. The missing lid suddenly appeared and sealed the furnace.
The cauldron began to shake, flames rising around it—though Akira felt no heat at all.
With a loud boom, the lid flew open.
Akira's figure instantly vanished from where he stood, leaving only the furnace behind.
A gust of wind passed.
Akira stepped out from the shadow of a nearby tree.
"That scared me. With such a big commotion, and no one heard it," he muttered in relief.
The furnace was surprisingly considerate—only he could hear the noise.
"Don't tell me only I can see it too…"
He rubbed his chin and looked at the furnace.
Inside was a pile of fine sand glowing in multicolored light. He scooped it up and stored it in his inventory.
[Essence: 5,216]
"Over five thousand Essence."
Enough to enhance a weapon five times.
"…Wait." Akira shook his head, forcefully banishing a dangerous thought. "I'm not becoming a gambler."
Weapon enhancement could increase power, but failure meant destruction. His weapon was a huge part of his strength—if the Dark War Blade broke, he'd have nowhere to cry.
Next, he took out three low-level rings, a necklace, the Wind Hole that increased all attributes, and two bandit gauntlets, and tossed them into the furnace.
It wasn't that he couldn't equip them; they just didn't benefit him much anymore. If they could be synthesized into something stronger, that would be better.
He selected synthesis.
[Please input 1,023 Essence]
He poured in the required amount. The remaining 4,196 Essence automatically floated back into his hand.
The furnace, apparently, was strictly fair—it wouldn't take extra Essence even if tempted.
Of course, failed synthesis would destroy the items inside.
But taking a shortcut like this couldn't really be called gambling, right?
As the items were consumed, the lid closed again. The furnace shook violently, flames rising all around.
"Boom!"
When the lid opened, a ring-like object dropped out.
[Furnace Wind Hole: All attributes +100]
"So it used the Wind Hole as the base," Akira said, examining the item. It equipped the same way as the previous Wind Hole.
He tried installing it in his chest. Ideally he'd wanted to place it directly over his heart, but it couldn't be embedded internally. Still, placing it over the chest worked well enough. He disabled the concealment effect.
Lifting his shirt and checking with a mirror, he could see straight through from his chest to his back.
"Well… at least my heart's protected now."
He checked his inventory again. He still had all the Phantom Troupe members' skills. He tossed them all into the furnace.
Skills and items from the same group usually had a good synthesis rate and could produce powerful results.
Bandit items were the exception.
Unfortunately, he lacked Skill Hunter and Phinks's Ripper Cyclotron. He'd once had the former but used it to farm Troupe quests, and he hadn't killed Phinks himself, so he never obtained his skill.
After thinking for a moment, he also tossed in Hisoka's Bungee Gum.
And added Flowing Water Rock Smashing Fist as well.
[Please input: 3,333 Essence]
"So little Essence left, and this uses almost all of it…" He poured the Essence in and received 863 back when the furnace returned the excess.
With what remained, he couldn't enhance a weapon anymore. For a moment, he even considered taking a risk and going to the front lines to pick up some loot.
"Synthesize."
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