There is Something Wrong with This Game - Chapter D002 – Soul Igniter Rune

[Nerkia City: City Square]

Back to Hecate.

After teleporting to Nerkia City and completing the necessary procedures, Hecate temporarily logged out.

It was four hours later she logged in again to the game, after doing the Aura Breathing exercise and some other trivial things, like stroking Kuu’s head, watching TV, and mastur●●●ing.

As expected, the results of the training showed no visible change.

Basically there was no visible difference before and after exercising. Or perhaps there was, but it was something she couldn’t sense at all.

It would be nice if there was a notification window like in the game, which could show the exercise progress in the form of Proficiency Points or something.

“Unfortunately, such a thing definitely doesn’t exist.”

Hecate could only sigh.

The time was already 22 o’clock when she logged in, but Nerkia City was still bustling with activity.

The city that never sleeps, the trading center between the 4 main nations, as well as a place where every Player regardless of their choice of starting place could gather, that was Nerkia City.

Hecate went into the nearest alley and used some objects as a platform to jump onto the roof.

Her actions weren’t unusual in this city, as there were plenty of highly mobile Players doing the same thing all day long. The sight of Players jumping from rooftop to rooftop was commonplace in this place and was by no means forbidden.

Well, forbidding Players for parkour was proven impossible.

After all, many Players really enjoyed doing parkour in this game, as most of them unable to do it in real life. Here, they don’t have to worry about injuries or accidents that could endanger their lives. Not to mention, parkour can avoid traffic jams, shorten paths and save time. Many quests or errands can be completed much faster.

After weighing the pro and cons, the council of Nerkia City decided to not pursue the matter too much.

For this reason, every building in this city must be made sturdy, especially the roof.

“What a good night.”

Hecate explores the city by doing parkour for a while, enjoying the hustle and bustle of the city at night while occasionally jumping down to stockpile <del>snacks</del> food supplies for real life, as well as searching for some interesting stuff.

And from this search, she took a fancy on a few items.

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Those items being sold from the 5 different stalls were Soul Essences from monsters that Hecate didn’t know about. Most likely, their life habitat was in another country.

But those Soul Essences have one thing in common.

They give a 10% rounded down stat bonus from the user’s INT. The INT stat referred to here naturally the base INT without any other modifiers, so any means that raises the INT stat will not affect the final calculation.

These Soul Essences were mostly worthless for someone who raised their stats in all rounded way, but perfect for someone who min-maxed their INT stat like Hecate. With her 221 base INT stat, the bonus stats she could get would be 22.

Of course, stat increase based on STR, AGI, VIT, DEX, and LUK also exist, but they are irrelevant to her.

She made reservations to each of the sellers and marked their location on the minimap, before heading to the Adventurer’s Guild to withdraw <img src=”https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDQev-PBiOZDQ0RTHWY9nBfIz74bepUowMaovHqGZy1JoRmFV2ZrwWi-ydA-id9r99eEeB_8oRdNMmM8hYACgm8jzbWrc6zfs8NABN7qM_5aee4w9D5gi4Wfeus59iBOE3IkfYy4FTGsDYwMOiBlaaRU-YGdFeMFn26qdkywKGhfZwRVEPDY8j9e7L/s120/coin_1fa99.png” alt=”” width=”16″ height=”16″ /> 30 million from her balance, and come back to complete the transaction.

“Thank you for the purchase, lady.” (Seller 5)

“Yeah, you’re welcome.” (Hecate)

Surprisingly enough, the total price of those items were somewhat cheap, not exceeding <img src=”https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDQev-PBiOZDQ0RTHWY9nBfIz74bepUowMaovHqGZy1JoRmFV2ZrwWi-ydA-id9r99eEeB_8oRdNMmM8hYACgm8jzbWrc6zfs8NABN7qM_5aee4w9D5gi4Wfeus59iBOE3IkfYy4FTGsDYwMOiBlaaRU-YGdFeMFn26qdkywKGhfZwRVEPDY8j9e7L/s120/coin_1fa99.png” alt=”” width=”16″ height=”16″ /> 2 million.

But after thinking about it, Hecate could understand why their prices weren’t that high.

All those Soul Essences share the same slot placement to take effect, but most equipment usually only had 1 or 2 slots at most. So people couldn’t use all of those Soul Essences and had to choose one among them.

‘Well, people usually choose to use defensive-type, or HP increasing Soul Essence for their armor.’

It’s possible to increase slots infinitely by enchanting them with Slot Enchant Cores, but the success rate of each enchantment is minuscule, with the risk of destroying the equipment if it fails.

Moreover, Players who min-maxed their stats to one pure stat were extremely rare.

Even spellcasters and healers who focused on their INT have to put some DEX so as to reduce their spell casting time and spell cooldown time. Hecate also ran into this problem when trying to cast high tier spells, and also the reason why she mainly used tier-1 spells, which had very low cast times and cooldown times.

But this was no longer a problem for Hecate.

‘Unlike others, I can see the success or failure of the Slot Enchantment.’

She headed to the Auction Hall and spent nearly <img src=”https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDQev-PBiOZDQ0RTHWY9nBfIz74bepUowMaovHqGZy1JoRmFV2ZrwWi-ydA-id9r99eEeB_8oRdNMmM8hYACgm8jzbWrc6zfs8NABN7qM_5aee4w9D5gi4Wfeus59iBOE3IkfYy4FTGsDYwMOiBlaaRU-YGdFeMFn26qdkywKGhfZwRVEPDY8j9e7L/s120/coin_1fa99.png” alt=”” width=”16″ height=”16″ /> 25 million to purchase 10 Slot Enchant Cores and a few other items, then activated a Town Scroll to teleport to Rosenweil Capital City.

♠♠♠

[Rosenweil Capital City: City Square]

It had been almost a week since Hecate had stepped on the ground of Rosenweil City.

Of course there were no impressive changes during her absence. The city was still the same as a week ago, the only difference was that this time it was almost late at night, so there weren’t many people on the street.

Before heading to her workshop, Hecate walked towards the Save-Crystal first, but definitely not to save her respawn point.

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During her stay in Solstreus City, it seemed she had unwittingly earned some Glory Points.

Glory Points can only be obtained by doing achievements or feats. Of those 200 points, 100 were obtained from killing a boss monster, the Orc Hero. As for the rest…

‘Most likely came from the creation of my 2 new skills.’

Her achievement in skill creation 2 times earns her 50 Glory Points each.

Of course, this achievement usually cannot be achieved that easily. Because, skill creation here refers to the creation of skills that have never existed before in this game, such as Mana Clone and Spell Remote Activation.

With this, her Glory Points had exceeded the 2000 mark, and just as she had expected, a new selection of items had appeared in the exchange menu.

• • Extra Subclass Token: Gives one free Subclass slot.
  • Level Augmentation Pill: Increases the user’s level by 1, separate from normal exp gain.
  • Skill Augmentation Pill: Increases one user’s skill level by 1, separate from Skill Points and Proficiency Points.
  • Skill Liberation Orb: Liberates one of the user’s current skills into an Extra Skill.
  • Soul Igniter Rune: Unleash the potential of Soul Essences in a piece of equipment when enchanted.
  • Storage Access Card: Grants the user the access of their storage anytime.
  • Yggdrasil Seed: The grown-able seed of Yggdrasil Tree.

Each of these items has awesome effects that make Hecate very tempted.

When the first time Hecate saw this list of items during the teleportation procedure in Nerkia City, she immediately thought of the best use of them, but was hesitating whether or not to exchange her points.

• Extra Subclass Token allows her to have 4th Subclass.Having an extra Subclass slot can never be bad. For the 4th Subclass, she might try becoming an Alchemist.

   

• Level Augmentation Pill allows her to increase her level regardless of her EXP requirement.Leveling above Lv130 can be considered very troublesome, because the exp requirement at this level and so on is very large. But with this pill, she could skip that trouble. And since leveling up would be separate from normal exp gain, it wouldn’t affect the next level’s exp requirement in any way.

  Still, it was too expensive for Hecate for just +Lv1, but maybe after she had Lv200…

   

• Skill Augmentation Pill allows her to raise Mysticallurgy or Extremity of Primary Elements skill level.This would be very useful since the former was extremely difficult to increase its Proficiency Points, while the latter couldn’t be raised at all. But if it’s the latter, it might be more efficient to use the next item.

   

• Skill Liberation Orb allows her to “Liberate” one of the skills on the Skill Tree or Subclass into an Extra Skill.If the skill comes from the Skill Tree, it becomes free from the need of Skill Points, and relies on Proficiency Points to level up instead. And if the skill is from a Subclass skill, the skill will not disappear even if she throws away the Subclass.

   

• Yggdrasil Seed… Unknown effects and influences to the surroundings.Well, she could try growing a seed in the real world, but there was no telling what would happen, and there was no guarantee it would grow.

Those items were fine and tempting, but after the parkour time in Nerkia City earlier, she had already decided which items she would exchange points for.

This was also the reason why she had purchased those Soul Essences.

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This item, which takes the form of a Rune Stone, must be enchanted like any other Rune to function. The effect was extremely simple, allowing the Soul Essence within the equipment to gain its full function.

What is the meaning of full function?

From the word itself, Hecate had already guessed its meaning.

In short, with this rune, she could completely ignore the placement of Soul Essences, and they still unlocked all of their effects completely. And it didn’t just apply to a single Soul Essence, but every Soul Essence present within the piece of equipment.

“This, is another cheat item, if I say so…”

Of course, this rune had a side effect, namely that enchanted item would be soulbounded, making it non-exchangeable with others. But it didn’t really matter, as she had no intention of doing so in the first place.

Hecate transferred all of the Slot Enchant Cores she had collected so far from her storage, which totaled 30, into her inventory, and headed to her private workshop.

Soon as she arrived at her workshop, she placed all the Slot Enchant Cores into the table, unequipped a certain item, and grabbed a Rabbit Doll with a confident smile.

“Now, let’s start the work. But firstly… Burst Luck!”

Firstly, Hecate activates the skill Burst Luck, sacrificing the Rabbit Doll to increase her LUK stat for 10 minutes. It was a skill of the Collector Subclass that Hecate rarely used, except in situations where she needed luck.

And she wasn’t done yet.

— DEX Potion, LUK Potion, Focus Potion, Dish: Mandragora Juice, Scroll: Blessing (Lv10), Scroll: Gloria (Lv10), Scroll: Improve Concentration (Lv10), Scroll: Ability Boost (Lv10), Scroll: Lucky Endeavor (Lv10)

— Equip: Focus Ring ×10, +6 Magician Robe, +7 Earring of Wisdom.

She used every means possible to increase her DEX and LUK, even going as far as equipping the Earring of Wisdom which doubled her MP consumption, just for the +7 DEX and +1 LUK stats it had.

And then…

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The piece of equipment that Hecate decided to enchant, naturally fell into the necklace.

Her clothes wasn’t a good choice, because she used 4 of them and changed them frequently in battle, so if she enchanted just one, she wouldn’t be able to enjoy the effects with the other 3.

So Hecate had to enchant the one she could be sure she would use forever.

As expected, with all those DEX and LUK upgrades, the slot enchantment process went smoothly without any issues. All of the Slot Enchant Cores emit a blue aura that ensures success even before the slot enchantment process begins. Though sadly, she had to stop at 7th, because all the blue aura had stopped appearing.

But still, it was a success.

Originally, Hecate was just hoping to succeed at most 3 slot enhancement at most where, she would prioritize DEX, LUK, and AGI in that order. Unexpectedly she succeeded with 7, meaning she had room to use all 5 Soul Essences and still had 2 extra.

Hecate decided to use the extra two with the 2 Soul Essences she had obtained during her attack on the Orc Village.

Then, the time for the main event.

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As Hecate had not yet learned the Rune Enchantment skill, she had to link the runes manually by manipulating her own mana. Still, it wasn’t hard to do as the Rune Stones quickly melted into the necklace without further operation.

But she wasn’t done yet.

“Since the buffs haven’t expired yet, it would be a waste to stop just now.”

So Hecate took all the Reinforcing Stones she had in her inventory.

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Seeing the notification window, Hecate couldn’t help but let out an evil smile.

“This… is the ultimate necklace!”

After the upgrade level reaches +10, the necklace has evolved and got the Superior prefix in its name. The stat bonuses that existed before were doubled, and even some effects were increased. That was not including the Soul Essences inside.

There was also a congratulatory message, which was broadcast regionally, and some EXP and Glory Point rewards.

A necklace with 8 Soul Essence slots, something that had never appeared in the world before!

And after sorting the long list of effects…

• Immunity from Silence, Confuse, Charm, Poison, and Stun.
• Total stat bonus: STR +34, AGI +26, INT +57, VIT +56, DEX +22, LUK+22.
• Spell Cast-time -25%, Skill Arts Cooldown -25% (<small>Unstackable</small>)
• STA consumption -75%, STA regen +10%.
• Poison-based spells and skills boosted by thrice. No catalyst or stamina needed for poison-based spell and arts.

So many stat bonuses that you could say wearing this necklace would be comparable to leveling up 100 times.

Furthermore, immunity from 5 troublesome bad statuses, -25% spell cast time, and -25% skill arts cooldown truly heaven sent. Then again, STA consumption which was originally halved is now -75%, with the addition of +10% STA regen, it was basically inexhaustiable STA.

Poison-based spells no longer needed a catalyst to be cast, poison-based arts no longer consumed STA, and their effects were tripled. Hecate had personally experienced the charms of poison, but it was a pity that at the moment she didn’t have any such spells or arts.

It would be a good idea to make such build later.

And then, the skills…

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Hero’s Roar was basically a real roar skill, unlike the Dragon Roar (lol) that Hecate frequently used.

Hecate hadn’t tested her skill yet, so she couldn’t make a comparison right now. But still, after seeing the skill description, she too had to agree with what it said. Because unlike the Dragon Roar (lol) which uses a recorded dragon voice, this Hero’s Roar will use her loli voice.

Will using this skill cause fear in the enemy? Very doubtful.

“Well, its not that big deal if the skill is useless.”

She didn’t really care about the previous skills, because Vitality Burn was the real treasure here, as any way to increase stats was always welcome. Increasing all stats by 10% and fully recovering STA at the same time was simply overpowered.

Then, the next skill, Touch of Pleasure… seems like a really fun skill.

Of course, because it was “that” kind of skill, she had to be careful not to accidentally trigger the ethic code. But she couldn’t help but wonder, whether doing this to monsters still triggers the ethic code or not.

Lastly, Brutality Cleave, basically was just smacking enemies with heavy weapons. Nothing really special about it.

“It’s almost the time.”

It was almost 24 o’clock, and also the time that Hecate’s equipment spell cooldown had refreshed.

Since she had returned, it would be best to settle old debts as soon as possible. But before that, she had to make thorough preparations first, starting with upgrading all of her equipment to +10.

Hecate re-buffed herself as before, but this time she also wore the newly upgraded necklace.

• • +10 Superior Ornamental Hairpin
  • +10 Superior Earring of Wisdom
  • +10 Superior Lunar Wand
  • +10 Superior Ceremonial Blouse of Ignis, Aqua, Ventus, Gnome
  • +10 Superior Ceremonial Skirt of Ignis, Aqua, Ventus, Gnome
  • +10 Superior Lunar Cape
  • +10 Superior Moon Glacier Armguard
  • +10 Superior Grappling Hook
  • +10 Superior Shadow Walker

Now with huge bonus stats, upgrading equipment to +10 has become much easier. Many of the Reinforcing Stones could be seen shining with the “light of success” and very few did not, so Hecate didn’t have to bother sorting anymore.

It was a pity that normal Reinforcing Stones didn’t seem to work above +10, as no “light of success” was seen once that limit was reached.

“Do I have to buy the one from the cash shop?”

Hecate shook her head at the thought. Maybe she should later, but not now.

She also did not forget to upgrade Black Phantom’s equipment.

• • +9 Eldritch Bone Wand
  • +9 Mask of Serenity
  • +9 Elevator Boots

This time, she stopped at +9 and didn’t continue further.

As for the reason, because there will be a “congratulations” message broadcast regionally every time the +10 upgrade is successful. She had to be careful that her name wasn’t seen along with Black Phantom’s equipment.

Anyway, she could upgrade Black Phantom’s equipment in another place and another date, with the Crime Scroll active.

“Well, this is it… The time has come for me to settle the old debt!”

Now that all the preparations were complete, Hecate took out a Return Crystal from her inventory and activated it.

Here is the picture of our Hecate, generated by AI <img src=”https://www.scribblehub.com/wp-content/themes/writeit-child/emojis/clear.png” alt=”” width=”1″ height=”1″ /><img src=”https://storage.googleapis.com/discordstreet/emojis/blobnomcookie.png” alt=”” width=”22″ height=”22″ />

It took a long time to organize the prompts so to make her as loli as possible.

<img src=”https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin4TZFEsqj0BHl1dIy2UxsEaSX-DBAgUYfwJKkwLtHbDmpJV_CFf83q-FWa8S44PJk-uXJ9_IQR6cqTweQw2ZyvjKmIv_WnvAYYdCQ6T9KEq250aME5Oyw6HdoPU-rLcSWkmzXD1qv5KSM83JFPlbPtF-D4K8x-6UgGeU1ys61Qj14bMamBaG9nkhN/s320/hecate.png” alt=”” width=”320″ height=”320″ />

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