One factor to determine a player's strength was through their weapons, equipment and accessory. The stronger it is, the stronger the player is.
That is why players on Bearth in Pedro's last life, always aim to get the best weapon and equipment on the game. At rare occasions, player with talents and good set of weapon and equipment were defeated by players who has mediocre talent but had a Legendary-rated weapon. The gap between the strength of a Legendary-rated weapon and a Gold-rated weapon was huge that players with Legendary-rated weapon has the ability to turn tides at critical moments of a battle or a war.
His eyes wanting to pop out of its sockets, Pedro was shocked when he saw the weapon he was holding, a gold sword with a green stripes design on its blade. Looking to the sword, the sword should probably a Gold-rated at the least. He opened the interface and checked its information.
[Faithpursuer Katana]
Rating: Bronze-rated weapon
Level Requirement: 1
Weapon Level: 1
Attributes:
Attack Damage: +10
Agility: +5
Special Effect:
[LevelUP]: Experiences gained by the player can be used to increase the level of the weapon.
[Evolve]: Increase the rating of the weapon by reinforcing the weapon with the required materials. There is a 50% chance to gain the effect of the absorbed weapon, equipment and accessory.
[Evolve Bronze-rated to Silver-rated]
0/1 Silver-rated damage type accessory
0/1 Silver-rated warrior equipment
0/1 Silver-rated one handed sword
0/1 weapon level 20
[This Katana was a blessing of the Ents to the warrior who stood with them against the orcs and trolls who tried to conquer the forest and set it on fire.]
.....
"It's just a Bronze-rated weapon but... It can be evolved! If I am not wrong.. It is one of those weapon which were even rarer than divine weapons!" Pedro remembered that on his past life only three well known players owned such type of weapon.
This type of weapons are different from the usual ones regardless of weapon rating. They were the only weapons who can absorb other weapons and level up. When they level up and absorb other weapons, their ability also increases. That is why the rating of this weapon can be evolved. Contrary to what Pedro knew in his past life is that, although this weapons were strong enough to match legendary-rated or even divine-rated weapons, this weapon has a huge backlash.
When the level of the weapon was higher from the owner's level, as the gap increase on both levels, the backlash felt by owner is too great that it can cause damage to the owner when they use the weapon.
Just like in his past life, the second owner of an evolve weapon made it reach a higher level, thinking that he can match the gold weapon of other players. While grinding monsters using his hammer, he used an aoe skill thinking that he could kill the monsters in one go. Well it worked, unfortunately the shock wave from the impact of the hammer was so strong that it killed him. To no avail, the owner with a new character was not able to find the weapon when he tried to look for it. Luckily, the other 2 owners felt that there was something unusual when the level of their weapon was too high from their level. So, they just kept a comfortable gap between the weapon and their level.
....
Pedro's stared at one of the effects of the weapon.
....
[LevelUP]: Experiences gained by the player can be used to increase the level of the weapon.
....
"Yeeeeeeeeeeeessss! yess.. yeesss.. yeesss!" Pedro jumped around and shouted "yes" like celebrating on winning a lottery. On the other hand, He doesn't have any idea about the backlash of the weapon.
"With this.. My leveling up problems are solved! All I need to do is put all the experience to this weapon! with my undying ability and this evolve weapon... nothing can stop me in this closed beta version! I just hope that my luck will allow me to meet this weapon again on the official launch!"
Pedro equipped the sword and swung it left and right as if he was trying to familiarize his self to the sword.
Getting the Evolve weapon, Pedro's greedy eyes begin to shine and he decided to search the whole troll camp. He thought he might have missed a hidden loot somewhere. To his greed, He even dug on some tents thinking that the troll commander was a tricky one and hid all the loots they got.
...
After spending for almost two hours on the camp, Pedro wasn't able to gain more loots. He decided to go back to Kagat Village to get the promise reward by Antonio.
...
Minutes later, he passed the ambush site and was walking in an open plain. He was thinking as if he had forgotten about something, he look back a few times and tried to remember if he forgot something.
....
"hmm.?" he stopped walking and opened his interface. He looked around until he was in the inventory.
"right! I haven't checked this skill book!" He took it from his inventory.
[Random Skill Book]
Skill: ????????
Rarity: Bronze-rated Skill
Skill Type: ??????
.....
[Generates a random skill when used!]
....
"This looks interesting! I hope it is something I can use!" Pedro knew that the most common skill book the players got was a Random Skill Book. It is because, like on dungeons, the boss monster will certainly drop a skill book similar to one of the skills it used and a random skill book. The developers, in his past life, explained that if players got two of the same skill of the boss, there is a probability that they would raid dungeons with boss monsters who is weak against the skills they gained from the previous boss and it would just be easy for them to clear.
Pedro patted the random skill book to his chest. Suddenly, the system prompted..
[Random Skill Book Activated!]
[You have learned ~Earnest A~ skill]
Skill: ~Earnest A~
Rarity: Gold-rated Skill
Skill Type: Passive
Effects: For every kill the player made, Permanently increase player's attack damage by 1.
Cool down: [Not Applicable]
[A skill gifted to the childrens of war!]
....
"Not bad.. The strength of this skill would appear later on the game... now, however.. it wasn't that useful!" Pedro was happy but a bit disappointed. This early of the game, during the official launch on his past life, not even the highest ranking players could rampage level 1 monsters. What more to the beta testers! This is why he was disappointed. If he just got it on the official launch, it would secure his future already!
"Haaaah!" Pedro sighed.. Though, the random skill book gave him a Gold-rated skill, He expected to get something overpowered after experiencing the "Undying cycle" and getting both the Gem of Authority and the evolve weapon Faithpursuer Katana.
'What am I thinking!! Getting this items while on a quest at the newbie village is already a "Godly Gift"!!..' Pedro got back into himself after realizing that he is becoming to greedy in nature.
"I need to become less greedy.. this time luck was on my favor.. you'll never know what will happen in the future! might as well be more extra careful! The "Undying cycle" has still many flaws.. I can only be at ease when I solve all of those!!" Pedro realize that the length of time he may survive will depend on how much potions he had. The other flaw of his "Undying cycle" was the cool down of the Intermediate Potion.
"So far, Everyone I encountered were NPCs.. What if met players and they had bad intentions on me.. I don't think Undying cycle will work, specially when there are many who are engaging me at once!" He remembered how he was ambushed by other players in his past. Luckily, such incidents almost never occur in beta testing version. Yet, what about during the official release? He need to have several layers of protection to survive the environment of Bearth.