Chapter 72

"Alright, then I'll entrust you with the mission request form."

Unlike usual, Sasha did not raise any objections or try to dissuade Wenlong this time, but immediately prepared the mission request form for Wenlong and Catherine.

"This woman is unusually quiet today. Normally, she would question and oppose everything," Wenlong thought to himself, "Indeed, a higher rank makes a difference, hahaha!"

After receiving the mission request, Wenlong and Catherine left the Hunter's Guild office in Mirard and then headed to Grandma Rui's forge.

The previous evening, Wenlong and Catherine had already handed over the materials from the Great Boar they had hunted to Grandma Rui, so she could forge new equipment for them by the next morning.

Of course, when they said "forge," it wasn't entirely a new creation. Since Wenlong and Catherine had previously used the Great Boar set, using materials from the stronger Great Boar King could upgrade their existing equipment at a lower cost compared to making new ones. The upgraded weapons and armor would have higher specifications and significantly improved performance.

Just as hunters have a star rating to measure their strength, in the world of Monster Hunter Online, weapons and armor also have specific levels.

For example, the Great Bone Greatsword and Light Bone Dual Blades that Catherine and Wenlong previously used, made from Great Boar materials, were level 1 weapons. Now, the Heavy Bone Greatsword and Heavy Bone Dual Blades made from Great Boar King materials were level 5 weapons, which were much more powerful.

The performance improvement from level 1 to level 5 was approximately 50%, and the level of the weapon often correlated with the strength of the monster. Generally, the stronger the monster, the higher the level of the equipment made from its materials.

For instance, the equipment made from the lowest-level Great Boar materials was level 1, while the equipment made from the stronger Great Boar King materials was level 5. As for the Great Monster set that Levi wore, it was level 10!

However, due to Grandma Rui's exceptional skills, the level 1 Light Bone Dual Blades and Great Bone Greatsword that Wenlong and Catherine previously used actually performed at the level of level 5 equipment. The same applied to their armor. This is why people would pay more to choose a highly skilled blacksmith, as forging skills could compensate for the shortcomings of the materials to some extent.

From this, it can be deduced that Grandma Rui's forging skills could enhance the performance of weapons by about 4 levels. Considering that the initial level of the new equipment and weapons for Wenlong and Catherine after the upgrade was level 5, with the added bonus from Grandma Rui's skills, the new equipment should have reached level 9!

"Level 9 equipment? Even though it's made from Great Boar King materials, it's already very close to the level of equipment made from Great Monster materials by a regular blacksmith, meow!"

Wenlong was naturally very pleased with this conclusion.

However, the improvement from this upgrade was not just in performance. Since these sets were imbued with the souls of the hunted monsters, when Wenlong and Catherine put on the Great Boar King set, they also received the protection of the Great Boar King's soul. Compared to the Great Boar's soul, the Great Boar King's soul was clearly more powerful, not only enhancing the attributes of the armor but also granting hunters additional skills.

If described in gaming terms, it would be +1 to Vitality and +1 to Recovery. In reality, Wenlong and Catherine's vitality became more resilient, and their wounds healed faster when injured.

"The Great Boar King's soul imbued in the equipment is indeed very powerful, meow!"

After putting on the new equipment, Wenlong and Catherine tried moving their bodies and indeed felt a stronger power than before.

"Hmm, nice, nice," Wenlong stroked his beard in satisfaction and then asked Grandma Rui, "How much will the two sets of equipment cost, meow?"

"Since the base level of the armor and weapons is 5, the cost is higher than before. You have two sets of armor and two weapons, so the total cost is 40 gold coins," Grandma Rui said.

"40 gold coins?" Wenlong was taken aback and asked, "Didn't you say the forging would only cost 20 gold coins?"

"The forging cost for the two sets of equipment is indeed 20 gold coins, and the additional 20 gold coins are for the overtime I had to work last night to finish the equipment for you!" It was clear that Grandma Rui was a bit resentful about having to rush to forge the equipment for Wenlong last night.

"Alright, 40 gold coins, it's indeed more expensive than before..." Although Wenlong said this, he didn't feel much dissatisfaction. After all, compared to the improvement in equipment, the cost was negligible.

"Here, thank you, Grandma, here are 40 gold coins!" Wenlong cheerfully took out 40 gold coins from his pocket and handed them to Grandma Rui.

"Huh? It seems you two are doing quite well these days," Grandma Rui said, somewhat surprised, "You just pulled out 40 gold coins from your pocket. If I had known you were so rich now, I would have charged you more..."

While Grandma Rui was complaining, Wenlong and Catherine, in a hurry, had already walked quite a distance and left Mirard Village.

"According to the recollections of the injured hunters who have recovered, the mysterious creature has been spotted in the Dawn Wind Valley, meow."

Wenlong led Catherine along the Shimelon Mountain Road, holding the intelligence he had obtained from the Hunter's Guild office in Mirard that morning, and read it as they walked.

"Eh? Dawn Wind Valley? Isn't that where our cave is?" Upon hearing Dawn Wind Valley, Catherine immediately thought of the cave where she and Wenlong had been living recently.

"Our cave is indeed in Dawn Wind Valley, but the valley is so large that the two locations are definitely not the same. They are also quite far apart... otherwise, we would have discovered it long ago, meow."

"But... this mysterious creature seems very powerful. So many hunters were taken down without even seeing it... Could it be invisible?" Catherine asked, somewhat worried.

"Invisible? Don't worry, it's not, meow." Wenlong said very confidently.

In Wenlong's mind, there was a vast database of monster information. While there were indeed monsters that could become invisible, this contradicted another point in the witness reports: none of these monsters could cause burns with fire.