Chapter 79: Chapter 79
Luck is one of many hidden stats.
To an ordinary awakener, hidden stats are difficult to raise, let alone discover.
Jake Smithson, however, was no ordinary awakener.
'Hoo boy, back to eating candies again. Anyway, once I take care of that, I'll be good to go.
The price is one thing… but the taste…'
As soon as the candy hit Jake's tongue, he immediately recoiled – thankfully, it didn't fall out of his mouth.
'Holy shit, which genius had the idea to give the luck lozenge Spicy Rice Cake flavor?
I love it! Though as a candy flavor… it's kind of weird.
What kind of weirdos did the Awakening Store conduct their field taste test on, anyway?
Still, taste aside, the effect of this luck stat is pretty amazing.'
Jake's thoughts went there, because apparently, he just swung at a Sand Dragon, but the force of the hit sent it flying into the cave wall.
"That was unexpected. I needed three hits to get you, but you die in one?" Jake thought aloud. "Oh, right. Critical hits, I completely forgot. Silly me."
At this point, Jake paused his weapon reinforcement to focus on his luck. That way, he'd have a better chance of reinforcing his weapons successfully, so he'd get both goals towards the Diamond Label access faster.
From here, Jake started hunting monsters to get his luck to 30.
'Should have prioritized better. Luck first, before reinforcement. I blame my tongue. Should have soldiered on and took the candy. Would have had some more points ready if I did.
Can't blame myself, reinforcing weapons just feels awesome. Shouldn't have been distracted by that, though. The candies should have been my priority.'
As he hunted monsters for funds to increase his luck with, he had to fight off monsters and the temptation to reinforce his weapons all the while.
'Come on, just a little bit more… and done! Time to go back to what I was planning to do. Let's go reinforce some really fancy weapons!'
From 10 luck, his now was at 30, and it was now showing as multiple critical hits allowing him to hunt monsters much easier.
"Hey, Liam!" Jake called, already wanting to leave the hunting ground to start reinforcing his items. "I'm going to go take fifteen. Want to come with?"
"Where are you going to take a break?" Liam asked while he was smacking a monster with his sword.
'He's become much stronger, too,' Jake thought as he saw Liam grow just as fast as he did. 'Mastering that hat weapon, and now another skill, too? That Fire Prison looks amazing.'
The new skill Liam got was based on his personal skill: it locked monsters in a wall of flame, constantly burning them for damage.
The catch was that Liam is unaffected by the flame – all the while, it allows him to attack monsters and avoid damage because of the flames.
As Liam hunted down monsters one after the other, his swordsmanship had also improved to the point where it was a thing of both beauty and lethality.
It was a master's work, and Liam was still getting better at it.
"I'll take care of some shit and come back in fifteen."
"Be sure to wipe before you come back here! I know you can buy bathroom tissue over there!"
"I said, I'd take care of some shit, not take a shit!"
"I know what I heard!"
***
'Yeah, my old man is right. Gambling is evil and addictive because of how good you feel when you win,' Jake thought as he wandered to the makeshift camp just outside of the Sand Dragon Lair.
And when he made it to his tent, he laid out five reinforcement stones and two swords.
One million and two hundred thousand points for these.
Since Jake had found a way to be able to make a lot of points in a short time, he was basically living on the edge when it came to purchases like this.
It was also the reason why he could reinforce items willy-nilly after breaking his first weapon: he can always hunt for more points.
And thanks to this location, he was able to hunt for more points than he had bargained for.
'Okay, I got my luck set, so let's give this a try,' Jake thought as he picked up one of the Reinforcement Stones with one hand, while holding his newly-bought sword with the other.
'Here we go.'
The notification appeared.
[Do you want to use the Reinforcement Stone?]
Yes.
[Please select an item to reinforce.]
The notice Jake saw multiple times already appeared, and Jake procured the sword he was holding.
'This is a personal favorite. If I reinforce it, it's going to be off the hook.'
After he broke his diamond Swiftstone, Jake splurged on a brand-new weapon from the Gold Label named the Blue Wings.
When Jake saw it, he didn't hesitate and simply dropped it in his shopping basket immediately, not because of its skill, but because it looked like the coolest weapon in the shop.
'Man, even swords in comic books don't look as cool as this.'
It was called Blue Wings, because its entirety was colored in shades of blue: the blade, wing-shaped guard, grip, and deep-sea blue pommel.
The blade, though, was curved like a corkscrew or a drill, designed to perforate enemies rather than slash through them, which meant it had to be handled differently than a regular sword.
Of course, Jake didn't care about that.
'What does that have to do with anything? It makes you look cool. That's all the reason I need, now let's get this show going.'
He gestured towards the Blue Wings.
[Do you want to reinforce your Blue Wings?]
'Yes.'
[Reinforcement commencing.]
As Jake started it once more, he found that his hands and feet were sweating.
[Reinforcing...]
His heart was beating so hard he could hear it from outside his chest.
Time seemed to stop as Jake waited for the result, his eyes closed.
[Reinforcement complete.]
The window also made a sound that signified the completion of the reinforcement.
Jake didn't know how it went, so he opened one eye very slowly to dramatically see the results.
"Huh?"
He tried to open his eyes only to close them again as a bright light shone through.
'This light comes from when you succeed in reinforcing an item, right?' Jake asked himself, having never seen such a light each time his reinforcements ended in failure.
"Oh, I can't wait anymore!" Jake shouted, opening his eyes in anticipation of the result.
The first thing he saw was the notification window.
[Reinforcement successful.
Your weapon Blue Wing Sword has been successfully reinforced into the Blue Dragon Blade.
Your weapon has gained new properties.
Attack speed increased by 35%
Attack power increased by 30%]
He succeeded in reinforcing Blue Wings.
"Whoa," Jake said as he ran his finger on the flat of the rippled blade that was the Blue Dragon.
***
As part of the alliance between Carter and Evergreen, a road was constructed connecting the two cities.
And it was this road that Jake and Liam were crossing now, riding on Jake's 2K Miles Velocity Roadster.
"I can't sing if you're clutching me like that, man," the driver said. "It's also really awkward."
"Then drive slower! Has anyone tell you that you drive like a maniac?"
"I'll let you in on a little secret, Liam: this is why I never got a driver's license."
"AAAAAAHHHHH!"
"I'm joking, I'm joking," the driver said, laughing as he lowered the speed from ridiculously fast to just fast. "What's gotten to you, being scared to ride a motorcycle? We just took down those Sand Dragons, man – this bike crashing won't even put a dent on us."
"I don't know, Jake! I just do, okay? Can't help myself!"
Jake laughed and continued driving down the road to Evergreen Castle, and as he did, he took some time to consider how far he'd come.
'Status window,' he thought, and his information appeared before him.
[Name: Jake Smithson
Level: 1
Class: Shopping Addict
Stats
Strength: 80
Agility: 80
Intelligence: 20
Mana: 30
Physical Defense: 16
Magic Defense: 16
Luck: 50
Skills:
Shopping (Awakening Store currently in beta, Superstore currently in beta)
Great Sword Mastery Lv. 5
Cherry Blossom Sword Art Lv. 5
Even Flow Lv. 5
Haste Lv. 4
Dual Wield Lv. 4
Omni-Pierce Lv. 4
Cloud Walk Lv. 4
Body Application Lv. 5
Aqua Blade Lv. 4]
'We're almost there,' Jake thought, thinking about the time he and Liam were raiding and training at the same time.
It was a bad place as Jake had fallen into the weapon reinforcement trap, and quickly grew addicted to reinforcing his weapons thanks to the thrill of success.
'Couldn't afford to lose the Blue Dragon Blade with another failing reinforcement, so I had to go overboard on upgrading my luck.
Everything went towards upgrading my luck, but it did get me something good.'
All his efforts got him an even better sword than the Blue Dragon Blade.
It was simply called "The Blue".
Thanks to him successfully reinforcing the Blue Dragon Blade twice, this was the result.
It wasn't just a sword; it was an orb of blue light that could change its shape, depending on its wielder.
There was just one catch, though: it required mana to be shaped and stay in a particular shape.
'Looks like I need to work on increasing my mana pool,' Jake thought as he realized that his mana pool wasn't enough to use his skills and his new weapon simultaneously. 'Still, though, I want to reinforce my items again… if I keep this up, will my class change to 'Reinforcement Addict'?'
The Blue was at its final stage and thus, couldn't be reinforced further, so Jake sought to reinforce his other equipment.
'Reinforcing, as much as I like it, can wait. I need to get to the Diamond Label first. Looks like I'll have to endure it for now, so I can have a more fun and exciting shopping experience later.'
Jake's willpower to acquire access to the Diamond Label overpowered his addiction to reinforcing weapons.
"You are something else entirely," Liam said. "These days I have to slay a lot of monsters just to get one level, but that doesn't seem to apply to you."
"Well, all the items I bought were to increase my luck," Jake replied, and Liam marveled at the rate by which Jake increased his stats.
"That means nearly every hit you make is a critical now, huh?" Liam asked, and Jake nodded.
"You know this world isn't fair, right, Liam?" Jake asked seriously.
"Everyone knows that," Liam answered. "It's a basic fact of life in the world we came from, it's also a fact of life here – by the way, how soon are we getting to Evergreen Castle?"
"Not too long," Jake said. "We're close. Put your game face on, we won't know what we'll encounter when we get there."
It had been more than a month since Jake and Liam left Evergreen.
'Hope you're still alive and kicking, Song,' Jake thought, hoping that Song would be able to weather the storm. He is strong, clever, smart, charismatic, and most of all, Jake bought him a lot of consumable items to tide him through while waiting for their return… and let's not forget the Divine Wind Hurricane Armor Set he purchased for Evergreen's Vice-master.
'Keep fighting, man. We're almost there.'
Song would be a hard man to catch if he focused solely on survival instead of victory.
'I see the mountain. We're almost there.'
The road they were on began to slowly become steep as they were set to go through the mountains bordering Evergreen Castle and the territory of the Grand Duelists.
Jake and Liam readied themselves for combat long before their motorcycle made it to the mountain road proper.
"Eyes open, they could come from anywhere," Jake said, and Liam nodded.
***
Jake knew something was wrong the moment the paved road transitioned into the mountain road.
There were no attacks.
No traces of awakener footprints.
No abandoned awakener camps.
Nothing.
Just a lonely mountain road, and only the sky, rocks, and a few hardy weeds growing in the mountains.
Wasn't there a large group of enemies in the mountains?
There should have been multiple fights as they made it through the mountain passage, but throughout their trip, the only awakeners on the mountains were Jake and Liam.
The desolation made Jake anxious.
'What's going on?
Why isn't there an attack?
For that matter, where is everybody? Evergreen should have been surrounded by enemies.'
Jake revved his bike, and the noise of its engine should have had the enemy awakeners instantly alert and ready to face them down… but there was nothing.
Nothing but the thin mountain air, the 2k Miles Velocity Roadster, and the two novice Grand Duelists.
As they continued on the mountain trail, Jake asked Liam to extend his ability to sense awakeners, but to no avail.
"There's none of them... I can't feel anything."
No enemy in sight or in range… not even a sign.
"Where have they gone?"
Liam also didn't like this situation, but they pressed onward, expecting an attack, but throughout their ride along the mountain trail, there was nothing.
And it made them uneasy, even as they started their descent down the mountain path with nothing hostile seen or felt.
The ruins of Evergreen Castle loomed before them, and as they saw it from a distance, Jake gunned the motorcycle faster, because they both saw that there were no lights in the castle.
Liam didn't even comment on how fast Jake was going due to their anxiety, and when they finally came to a stop to enter what was left of Evergreen Castle, Jake simply cussed out loud.
"Shit. I knew I had a bad feeling about this," Jake said, because as they stepped inside the front gate, all that met them upon entering Evergreen Castle was utter desolation.
***
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone