Now that the upgrade stone was in his hand, Bai Yunfei was wavering on the decision on if he should use it or not.

Before this, he was extremely excited to finally find a way to increase the chance of a successful upgrade. But now that the moment was here to put it to the test, Bai Yunfei found himself faced with another dilemma, hence his hesitance.

“But just how much will the chances improve by? 1%? 10%? Or maybe 50%? Who knows? d.a.m.nit, this is far too vague! Can’t they explain it a little better?!” Bai Yunfei stared hard at the upgrade stone’s attributes again, only to receive the notification of ‘Increases the chance of success when upgrading’ again.

“Ugh! If it’s like that, there’s no way I’d be able to upgrade whatever I want…” Bai Yunfei’s hands clutched at the Glacial p.r.i.c.ker and the upgrade stone in indecision. Finally, he put down both hands and sighed. “I don’t even know the concrete details, how am I supposed to make a decision like this! Should I use an unimportant soul item and try it out? But how many times can I use this stone…I’ve only one of these. If it disappears, I’d regret this for my entire life!”

Worrying about the gains and losses for practically half an hour, Bai Yunfei finally decided that it’d be best to not use it for now. Storing it away with a shake of his head, he thought, “I’ll keep it for now. At the very least I know it’s a very unique item. There definitely has to be more of these things. If there’s a chance to get even more, then maybe when I reach the Crafting School, I’ll be able to research these things even more….”

Author Note: In truth, this item should be considered a ‘Special Item’ since it’s related to the Equipment Upgrade Technique.

“Ah. I should ask Zhu Zi where he found this stone in fact. After all of the excitement this afternoon, I completely forgot to ask. Maybe there’ll be even more of them!” Bai Yunfei scratched his chin. “I’ll go tomorrow. Then I’ll stay one day longer and rest up….then I’ll leave the village! I have to make it to the Crafting School…”

When he looked up at the hanging moon overhead, Bai Yunfei felt a period of disappointment wash over him. He had been excited on the prospect of upgrading tonight, but after a period of self-reflection, he gave up on that idea. After a moment of stillness pa.s.sed by, Bai Yunfei’s eyes lit up, “Since I’m out here, I can’t just sit around and do nothing! I might as well upgrade a few things! Even if I don’t use the upgrade stone, I still have plenty of items–I’ll just forcibly upgrade something!”

Determined, Bai Yunfei was now placing his bets on the traditional plan of ‘upgrading in batches’!

Eliminating the thought of upgrading the more important equipment, Bai Yunfei took out several dozen equipment from his s.p.a.ce ring. Many of them were the newly-obtained low quality soul items.

He was planning upgrading one of them into a high level item.

Deadset on this plan now, Bai Yunfei didn’t bother to think twice. With a shake of his hand, a large hatchet appeared in his hand. This was the strongest soul item he had found off the two brothers!

“No need to think anymore about it. Let’s go–upgrade!”

“Haha, it worked!” Bai Yunfei’s eyes lit up with joy. At the very start of this was a success, what luck!

Elated, Bai Yunfei returned the hatchet to his s.p.a.ce ring and swapped it out for a +10 human-tier short blade.

With an expectant look, he thought, “Upgrade.”

As the short blade in his hands was reduced into dust and blown away by the wind, Bai Yunfei’s expression went rigid.

“Pft! I lost a soul item.” Bai Yunfei coughed. Without caring anymore, he took out a s.h.i.+eld.

“Upgrade.”

“Ugh…again!” Bai Yunfei took out a low-grade human-tier soul item.

“Upgrade!”

There was an ugly look on Bai Yunfei’s face as he took out another item.

“Upgrade!”

“Upgrade!”
“……”

Half an hour later, Bai Yunfei finally took out the semi-broken Goldsilk Armor. Still in a daze, Bai Yunfei let out a huff of air.

“Upgrade…”

The Goldsilk Armor was reduced to golden dust and blown away….

He was about to blow his top.

Aside from the first item, everything else had been blown up!!

“How’d it come to this! It shouldn’t have! d.a.m.nit all, those were the soul items I only just got! Are you really just going to blow them up on me?!” Bai Yunfei cried out to the night skies as if demanding answers from the Heavens themself.

“For f.u.c.ks sakes, I can’t believe this! Even if these soul items were useless, I didn’t take them for nothing! Out of all these incomplete soul items and soul items, I doubt that not a single one of them won’t be upgraded!”

Waving his right hand, there was a clattering sound of noise as soul equipment of every type began to fall out from his s.p.a.ce ring. With a wave of his left hand, another bundle of accessories fell into a messy pile with a clanking sound.

With all the items here, Bai Yunfei gave a lazy look over them all before thinking to himself, “Upgrade!”

Bai Yunfei couldn’t even recall just how many times he had to stop to rest by this point. Whenever he felt his soulforce grow low, he’d swap out for some recovery items to recuperate his soulforce before continuing to upgrade the items again. By the time the star of Venus was out, the two piles of equipment in front of him were already all but gone….

Several purple crystal dust fell between his fingers. Absent-mindedly, Bai Yunfei watched as the dust flew away into the air. And when the dust flew away, his spirit felt as if it would too.

Not too long after, his neck turned around to look around the place and then to the two hands in front of him with a look of depression. “There’s….there’s nothing left. Several days of work, all gone just like this? But why! But how! But whyyyyy!!”

That’s right. After an entire night of upgrading, the pile of equipment in front of him was gone. It wasn’t because he stored them, it was because they had all been destroyed!!

Even the +11 hatchet that he called ‘opening luck’ had been destroyed on the second round!

And so out of all the upgraded equipment, he had only a few left….

Shaking his right hand, Bai Yunfei took out the slightly worse-for-wear strawhat.

Practically in tears, Bai Yunfei looked at the strawhat and began to laugh. “What is this, a consolation prize? Are you telling me I’m meant to be a walk-on character my entire life? That I’m just some sort of no presence character?”

Filled with reluctance, Bai Yunfei gave up on upgrading and collected his ‘bounty’ from the night. Standing up, he looked at the mounds of dust around him with a mournful sigh, “I’ve told myself to not be taken in by the urge to upgrade, but I’ve lost all sense of reason I guess! Regaining that reason after everything’s gone and blown up–what use is that! I have to be careful next time for sure….”

“But, there’s something slightly different to the Upgrade Technique this time! d.a.m.nit, I still don’t understand it though. Looks like the path ahead of me is a long one, there’s still plenty I need to understand….”

Still despondent, Bai Yunfei walked back to the village and slept until late that afternoon.

When he finally woke up, he had Zhu Zi take him to where the male had first found the upgrade stone before. Searching the mountain and all that was beneath his feet, Bai Yunfei could find nothing of importance despite the immense effort he put into searching.

On the second day, Bai Yunfei bade farewell to everyone in the village. Armed with a direction given to him by one of the village elders, Bai Yunfei once more set off on his path towards the Crafting School….

End of Book 2

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