"99%!" The 2nd examiner shouted as he picked up the spear that Vicente had just finished making.
The men behind the false wall of this room heard this. They realized that even without using his skill, Vicente had produced something of even higher quality than the previous shield.
Even though the difference between the two was small, even 1%, close to the upper limit of an item's quality, was worth a lot.
To give you an idea, if Vicente had one spear with 98% efficiency and another with 99%, he could sell the latter for about 130% of the value of the 98% one!
Every step one had to take to get to the top got higher as one got closer to the top. This was true for the quality of items in a rank but also for much of what existed in this magical world, including the magic rank.
A spear with 99% efficiency would have much greater durability and power than an item with 98% efficiency, even though the difference in efficiency was so slight.