Erlys and Sophia both had their own things on their minds lately.
Sophia went to Sunderland every day to be pummeled by Blake. While improving her combat skills and experience was important, she wanted to start learning blacksmithing even more.
As for Erlys, although she had scouted out a shortcut to Hollywood, she hadn’t continued her exploration because her level wasn’t high enough and acting alone was too dangerous.
Even though she had been screwed over by the scummy system deep in the swamp last time, Erlys still wanted to use some bugs from the internal beta period to help the sisters power up quickly.
Back then, some players had discovered that fusing skills could create a resonance, though there was a chance of failure or suffering a skill backlash.
Seeing Sophia’s recent obsession with blacksmithing and processing skills, Erlys reminded her that if the negative traits of poor-quality equipment were stacked three or more times, it would trigger a bug that flipped them into doubled positive traits. However, the associated penalties were unknown.
Sophia had unconditional trust in what Erlys told her that morning. She thought to herself that even if the dwarf master didn’t teach her any techniques today, she would beg him to let her try forging on her own.
Thinking about how hard Sophia had it lately, Erlys gave her some “encouragement of love” last night and another “hug of love” before they parted this morning.
‘Mhm! Erlys-chan energy intake complete. Time to head out happily!’
After waving goodbye to Sophia, Erlys prepared to begin her daring plan.
Just in case she failed and blew the house into the sky, she went to the large clearing in front of the Witch’s Cottage. Sister Anne was nearby to keep watch.
Wearing the new lolita outfit she bought last time and a scarf, it wasn’t too cold outside despite the snowy weather.
Erlys raised her staff, and its tip began to glow faintly. She was attempting to activate fire magic and light magic simultaneously to see if she could achieve the desired effect.
The mana in front of her flickered between flames and bright light. Then, the two different elemental manas began to merge…
A fireball emitting a golden radiance appeared!
**[Ding! A new composite magic has been generated: Flame Healing Orb. Deals damage to enemies while restoring the HP of teammates based on the damage value dealt.]**
“Holy cow!” This feeling of successfully exploiting a bug was a hundred times better than the thrill of successful alchemy, even if it did feel a bit like stealing.
Erlys felt like she had discovered a world-shaking secret!
She quickly moved on to try other combinations.
This time, she activated the fire magic **[Blaze Bomb]** and the lightning magic **[Paralyzing Shock]**. After the normal channeling and the end of the chant, searing thunder and explosive flames slammed together. The crackling magical fire began to explode outward.
The snow in the large clearing ahead melted, and the air was thick with the scent of ozone from the lightning mixed with the scorched smell of the fire.
**[Ding! A new composite magic has been generated: Blazing Thunder. Adds Burn and Paralysis effects to the base damage of Blaze Bomb. Note: There is a 30% chance to trigger a skill backlash, which will cause the caster to enter a brief state of heavy stun.]**
‘Hmm? This skill has a penalty mechanism. But the chance isn’t that high, right? Probably?’
**[Blazing Thunder]** obtained! The light and healing magic Erlys specialized in lacked offensive power, so she had relied entirely on fire magic before. Now that she had successfully unlocked two useful attack spells by glitching the system, her joy was visible on her face.
‘Alright! The urge to seek death is rising!’
Erlys chose not to use the clearing as her target this time. She moved to the lakeside, where there was more room to conduct a “nuclear test”…
This time, she activated the high-tier fire magic **[Hellfire Nova]** and the lightning magic **[Paralyzing Shock]**.
Since she was using high-tier fire magic, the casting time was extended because she had to harmonize the mana while incorporating lightning magic. Fortunately, the genius girl Erlys managed to pull it off.
At that moment, a gold-red flame rose from Erlys’s palm, with purple electrical arcs coiling through the fire like living snakes. After chanting for some time, it looked as if lightning was about to fall from the sky. A massive wall of fire, accompanied by lightning serpents, surged forward. With a thunderous roar, a vast amount of lake water was blasted upward and evaporated, forming a giant mushroom cloud of steam.
**[Ding! A new composite magic has been generated: Thunder Heavens-Burning Incantation. High-tier Area of Effect (AoE) magic. Paralyzing Shock has evolved into high-tier lightning magic for the fusion. Power far exceeds Hellfire Nova. MP Cost: 1,000. An 80% skill backlash has been triggered; the caster will now fall into a coma.]**
Erlys’s vision went black, and she collapsed into the snow.
‘Feels… good…’
**[Warning! Warning! System has detected unit: Erlys Omnia, illegally utilizing trait fusion magic. Penalty: Prohibited from using similar traits for three years.]**
‘Heh, that’s fine, scummy system. I’ve already achieved my goal.’
“Little Master, what’s wrong? Are you okay? How did you do that? I’ve never seen magic like that before!” Sister Anne hurried over, calling out to Erlys through telepathy to wake her up.
This was quite embarrassing, but at least only Sister Anne saw it. Erlys suddenly felt like that Crimson Magic girl from the anime—firing one explosion spell a day and then passing out immediately…
***
At almost the same time, at the dwarf smithy in Sunderland.
“Master! Just let me try it in the smithy! Even using those defective pieces of equipment you threw away is fine.” Sophia mimicked Erlys’s signature “cute eye” look, staring at Blake with her wide, sky-blue eyes as if she were about to cry.
“Sigh, fine, fine. So much trouble. Do what you want, but I’ll only step in if you’re doing something dangerous,” the dwarf master replied helplessly. He hated it most when women acted spoiled.
‘Yay!’ Sophia’s plan worked, though Blake really didn’t know what she intended to do with those rejects.
She rummaged through the mountain of discarded items, keeping **[Appraisal Eye]** active until she found the defective weapons and poor-quality gear she thought would be useful.
First up were three **[Dull Poor-Quality Knight’s Longswords: Attack -20%]**.
Since the master wouldn’t teach her, the apprentice had to go by feel. Besides, Blake didn’t care about these scraps anyway.
Watching Sophia’s clumsy movements, he couldn’t help but teach her some basic operations. She actually melted down the three longswords, wondering what kind of traits would appear after reforging them.
*Clang! Clang!* Then, she quenched the metal.
**[Ding! Transformation triggered. Obtained Refined Knight’s Longsword: Attack +120%.]**
‘Wait, what?’
A miracle had occurred. It was just as Erlys had said—the traits of defective equipment could cancel each other out. After merging three negative traits, they actually transformed into a positive bonus.
‘Sweet!’
This was huge. Stowing the Refined Knight’s Longsword in her bag, Sophia prepared for the next round of experiments with high spirits.
Next up were a **[Damaged Warrior’s Leather Armor: Defense -10%]**, **[Bloodstained Knight’s Chainmail: Defense -15%]**, and **[Cursed Knight’s Plate Armor: Defense -20%, user suffers continuous Dark Magic erosion]**.
‘Yikes…’ The third item seemed a bit off, but she decided to push through anyway.
*Clang! Clang!* She refined them in an instant.
Sophia took the usable parts from the damaged leather armor and combined them with the lining of the newly forged chainmail.
**[Ding! Transformation triggered. Obtained Special Knight’s Chainmail: Defense +90%, user’s attacks deal continuous Dark Magic erosion to enemies.]**
‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’
It was a total reversal. Not only did the negatives become positive, but the negative effect on the equipment itself was transferred to the enemy.
Sophia felt like she couldn’t stop now.
Standing to the side, Blake didn’t have the sisters’ exclusive **[Appraisal Eye]**. He took the knight’s longsword and chainmail, put on his appraisal glasses, and examined the two pieces of equipment repeatedly.
He looked at Sophia with an expression of pure disbelief, finally understanding what this little girl was doing.
‘Dwarf Master, do you have many questions?’
“Sorry, kid. I might have misjudged you. Maybe you really are a smithing genius,” Blake said seriously as he took off his glasses.
“Aha… *cough*, it’s just luck! Just practice!” Sophia replied with some serious-sounding nonsense.
“Girl, wait a moment. I’m going inside to get something.” Blake seemed to remember something. He put down his pipe and ran back to his living quarters.
Not long after, the dwarf master returned with an unusual weapon.
“This is an irreparable elven scimitar left with me years ago by the Elven Valkyrie, Fiona. Hmph, this is an ‘original’ weapon used by that pointy-ear.”
“After seeing your miraculous work just now, I have a feeling you can fix this weapon. Give it a shot, descendant of Lady Felicitala!”
**[Valkyrie’s Kilij (Peak Purple Grade Scimitar): Increases Strength by 160%, Agility by 155, Speed by 20%, and Sword Skill bonus by 130%. Special Effect: Highly effective against knight’s heavy plate armor, ignoring 30% of defense. Current Negative Effect: Damaged, unusable.]**
“Girl, let me give you a history lesson. Once, a cavalry unit calling themselves the Ottoman Empire appeared out of nowhere. They used these Ottoman scimitars and high-speed flanking tactics. They were a major threat to the knights of the human world; their armor simply couldn’t withstand them.”
“But for some reason, that unit disappeared, leaving only a few weapons behind. However, we dwarven craftsmen were able to replicate their techniques to some extent.”
Blake was on a roll, talking up a storm, but then the old bachelor actually started to blush.
“I gave this **[Valkyrie’s Kilij]** to Fiona when I was young, thinking it would be a proposal gift… I didn’t expect that pointy-eared male bard to beat me to it! Tsk!”
Sophia, being a lover of gossip, immediately became interested and started coaxing Blake to tell the rest of the story.
“And then what, Master? Tell me more, I really want to hear it!”
“Well… Fiona accepted the weapon. I remember she liked it quite a bit back then. But! That weapon was completely ruined after less than a year…”
Blake’s face turned beet red as he shouted, “When I offered to repair it, Fiona explained that it was because she had to protect that pointy-eared man! The situation was so dire that she broke it. Then she added, ‘Blake, you’re a good person. I wish you happiness.'”
‘Holy crap! Not only did she give him the “good person” card, but she basically cuckolded him to his face?’
“Pfft—hahaha! Master! My stomach hurts from laughing! This story is going to keep me laughing for a whole week!” Sophia fell to the ground, clutching her stomach and kicking her legs.
Blake gave Sophia a light thunk on the head. After she yelped “Ow!”, the dwarf master barked, “You brat, do you know anything about respecting your teacher? Remember! The Kilij is yours, but give me 200 gold coins later!”
…
…
After calming down, the two began the third round of the experiment.
Next up was the adjusted third group: the **[Valkyrie’s Kilij]** and two **[Rusted Ottoman Scimitars: Strength -20%, Agility -25, Speed -10%]**.
The dwarf master prepared some rare Damascus steel as a backup. This time, Sophia was cautious; after all, it cost her 200 gold coins…
Fusing, forging, hammering—it was all done in one breath! But something seemed wrong.
The fused scimitar flickered with light, and then a crack appeared.
“Not good! Move aside, girl! You can’t handle this. Leave it to me!” Blake reacted instantly.
“Oh… okay!” Sophia hurried out of the way to give her master room.
‘Didn’t he say he wouldn’t teach me or help? Is this old dwarf actually a tsundere?’
Blake maintained a delicate hammering rhythm that was completely different from Sophia’s. He added the Damascus steel he had prepared, and when the time was right, he quickly quenched it in a stone trough filled with special cooling water.
A different kind of light radiated from the finished weapon. The scimitar was enveloped in a brilliant, molten gold glow, and the runes engraved on the spine of the blade pulsed with the wielder’s breath.
“Whoa! A Golden Legendary!”
**[Ding! Transformation triggered. Obtained Gold Grade weapon: Radiant Valkyrie’s Kilij. Increases Strength by 200%, Agility by 205, Speed by 40%, and Sword Skill bonus by 130%. Special Effect: Highly effective against all defense-specialized enemies, ignoring 60% of defense.]**
**[Ding! Weapon Negative Effect: Fixed 100 Durability. Each use reduces Durability by 25 points. When Durability reaches 0, the weapon disappears forever. Durability cannot be repaired or restored during this period.]**
Sophia was ecstatic to have her first legendary-tier weapon. She didn’t have time to care about the negative effect warning.
But soon, the disappointing warning that only she and Erlys could hear pulled her back to reality.
**[Warning! Warning! System has detected unit: Sophia Omnia, illegally utilizing traits to transform equipment stats. Penalty: Prohibited from using similar traits for three years.]**
‘Eh? No way! I haven’t had enough fun yet!’
Glitching once is great, but glitching forever is even better!
The fact that she was busted after only finishing three gear transformations caused Sophia to have a strong withdrawal reaction.
‘Scummy system! You screwed us over in the last boss battle, what’s wrong with letting us get some gold coins now?’
‘Oh well, it is what it is.’ She would definitely have to tell Erlys about the interesting things that happened today when she got home.
Oh, right—she also had to tell Erlys about the dwarf master’s past love life after adding some of her own “creative flourishes”!
Although the witch sisters had just received a three-year system ban, the thrill of messing with the system today was incomparable to anything else that had happened in the past two years.
…
…
(This was a big 4,200-word chapter, meow~ Thanks to Lady Peach for the inspiration pill, meow~)
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