There is Something Wrong with This Game

Chapter D003 – Prelude to Battle

Nameless Ruins of Arcadia Empire.

Hecate frequented this place to grind and even made the place her secret hideout. It was a historical relic and only recently did she learn the name of Arcadia Empire, which it belongs to.

During her stay in the library of the Solstreus Magic Academy, this empire was often referenced in books about Runes as its originator, which additionally, included the former name of the ruins.

"Ruins of Archades Imperial Palace..."

Hecate murmured the name that appeared on her minimap.

It was unknown why such a prosperous civilization was destroyed and reduced to ruins as now since none of the books she read mentioned it in detail. But it was none of her concern.

The last time she left this place, all the doors leading outside of the room had been filled with a dangerous red mist, but now there was none of it can be seen. Everything was silent and spooky, back to before.

"Has the boss finally calmed down?"

Since the red warning mist had absent, it meant that there would be no danger even if she opened all the doors.

As expected, when she opened one of the doors, nothing strange happened.

The walls had been covered with the mysterious flesh again, with maggots scribbling on it from time to time, while in the distance, several spiders could be seen harvesting the maggots.

"In that case, there is no need to rush... I'll take my time slowly."

Hecate closed the door and walked over to the Save Crystal.

At the time when she appeared on this ruins, she suddenly realized something important.

This place, which were located deep within the Forbidden Forest was not considered Rosenheim Kingdom territory. This means that the regional channel in this place are treated separately from the one at the kingdom.

Wasn't this place the perfect place for her to upgrade Black Phantom's equipment in secret?

Not only that, she could also upgrade her equipment here, so there was absolutely no need to reveal her name on the regional channel.

"What a mistake... Why I didn't think of this more thoroughly?"

Anyway, the milk had already been spilled, so there was no need to brood over it.

She could just make up excuses as to why she could produce so many +10 pieces of equipment in such a short amount of time. For example, one of the rewards from her unique mission that she just completed was a temporary upgrade rate increase.

But that was for another matter.

"Right now, I need to focus on this."

Hecate opened her storage and took out a Mini Furnace, some necessary materials... and a Crime Scroll.

She used the Crime Scroll as a precaution against the possibility that someone might be perverted enough to be grinding around the Forbidden Forest area, which was essentially connected to the same regional channel as her.

And so...

• • +10 Superior Eldritch Bone Wand
  • +10 Superior Mask of Serenity
  • +10 Superior Cloak of the Fallen
  • +10 Superior Elevator Boots

As expected, the regional channel was empty, except the series of congratulatory messages to <???>, which was of course, doesn't seem to be seen and commented by anyone.

And then, the result of the upgrades...

It seems that after learning the Rune enchantment and Glyph engraving, the information window has become more refined. Now the information content has become even more pleasant to look at.

With this, Hecate had an easier time understanding how much her equipment had changed by her hands.

First, all equipment that has been upgraded to Superior grade has an increase in rarity score by 3. This caused some equipment with a rarity of 7 to reach 10, triggered an undiscovered equipment set, namely Rare Mastery.

Rare Mastery increases All stats by 1 for each piece of equipment that she equipped with a rarity of 10 or more.

The more of such piece of equipment she equipped, the more stats she got. But of course, there are some equipment whose rarity is still under 10, of which two of them have a rarity of 8, still 2 less before reaching 10.

Thus, she spent a total of <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/6.0/png/unicode/64/1f48e.png" alt="" width="18" height="18" />150 to purchase two Stellar Sticker+ from the cash shop.

Hecate used to think that it was just a cosmetic item that could only change the number of the stars displayed in the item information window, without affecting anything. But now she had to change her opinion.

And now, there are 7 pieces of equipment with a rarity of 10, which gives her a total of +7 all stats.

It was a shame that not all equipment can be attached with stickers, such as hairclips, earrings, and many other things, because they are too small. And since the effect was unstackable, using it on her blouses and skirts was pointless.

Second, all Superior equipment she wore also triggers another undiscovered equipment set, namely Superior Mastery.

Superior Mastery increases her Max HP and Max MP by 1% times the sum of the Upgrade levels of all the Superior equipment she wears. There were eleven pieces of +10 equipment, if all of their upgrade levels were added up, the number came to 110.

Which also means, +110% Max HP and Max MP!

Third, the equipment choice, and some adjustment she made.

Naturally, since no one other than Hecate was here, she could freely use Black Phantom's equipment as she pleased. For example, the cloak that can withstand several mortal blows, and the mask that can distort her voice.

The cloak was needless to say, having 10 times the protection from mortal blows was far better than carrying lots of Life Insurance Scrolls.

As for the mask, during the process of upgrading Black Phantom's mask, Hecate had a sudden inspiration. The mask has a peculiar effect that distorting the wearer's voice into an inhuman voice.

What if she combined the skill Hero's Roar with the creepy and distorted Black Phantom's voice?

"This must be tested during the battle later."

And then, Hecate equipped again Earring of Wisdom, now with a new name, Superior Earring of Wisdom.

As before, the earrings had the effect of strengthening her firepower at the cost of increasing MP consumption, but now they had been upgraded, with the effect doubled and the cost halved, making them worth wearing.

Grappling Hook, now Superior Grappling Hook, originally had a penalty that halved all of its effects.

She enchanted the Grappling Hook with something she found at the Nerkia City Auction Hall, a Soul Essence that negates the penalty of armor compounded with it at the small cost of lowering All stats by 5, a cost she finds affordable.

This makes the hook much easier to use, as the pull was smoother and faster than before.

Those pieces of equipment were made possible due to Hecate's heavy investment.

For just this week alone, she has spent nearly <img /img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDQev-PBiOZDQ0RTHWY9nBfIz74bepUowMaovHqGZy1JoRmFV2ZrwWi-ydA-id9r99eEeB_8oRdNMmM8hYACgm8jzbWrc6zfs8NABN7qM_5aee4w9D5gi4Wfeus59iBOE3IkfYy4FTGsDYwMOiBlaaRU-YGdFeMFn26qdkywKGhfZwRVEPDY8j9e7L/s120/coin_1fa99.png" alt="" width="16" height="16" />100,000,000, not including the cash item props. With an average RMT conversion ratio of 1 : <img /img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDQev-PBiOZDQ0RTHWY9nBfIz74bepUowMaovHqGZy1JoRmFV2ZrwWi-ydA-id9r99eEeB_8oRdNMmM8hYACgm8jzbWrc6zfs8NABN7qM_5aee4w9D5gi4Wfeus59iBOE3IkfYy4FTGsDYwMOiBlaaRU-YGdFeMFn26qdkywKGhfZwRVEPDY8j9e7L/s120/coin_1fa99.png" alt="" width="16" height="16" />2, she spends almost 50 million in total.

Enough amount to buy a luxury house in Tokyo!

And so, after Hecate wore all of them, the bonus stats she obtained was...

Hecate couldn't help but let out an evil grin after looking at her current stats.

Finally, her MP hit the 300k mark, three times larger than her wished target, which was extremely huge even by Archwitch standards. Not only that, her HP also hit the 120k mark, maybe even on par with Paladin standards. And Hecate's own stats, 4 out of 6 stats were over 100, with INT already over 400.

Her (1+124) STR and (1+89) VIT already surpassed most of Warrior classes, while her (1+129) AGI already surpassed most of Thief classes. Even her movement speed increase has reached +52% with her Superior Shadow Walker.

Currently on her stats alone, Hecate was stronger than a Lord Knight, tougher than a Paladin, and faster than a Shadow Assassin...

...while still being an Archwitch loli!

Although, this made Hecate lose her warning vision, as before all kinds of attacks from monsters were mostly lethal to bear with her fragile HP, now that the lethal attacks were less lethal, the skill Fortune Instinct most likely will be rarely activated.

But, it was not a big deal.

"With this kind of stats, there's no need for me to kite monsters anymore, right?"

Because she doesn't need it anymore.

With insanely strong stats, Hecate can basically bulldoze anything in her path. She didn't have to worry about her HP anymore because it was huge. Besides, there was a cloak that could block lethal blows 10 times.

"That's enough for the equipment. Next is..."

There was one more thing Hecate hadn't checked after logged in, which was of course, the Mana Clone.

Before teleporting to Nerkia City, her Mana Clone had leveled up to Lv2, but she hadn't had a chance to check it yet. Now at least before the battle, she wanted to see the improvement after the skill was leveled up.

Mana Clone!

She took off her mask and silently activated the skill.

At that instant, a figure identical to Hecate appeared in front of her. This time the appearance was clearer and does not resemble fog anymore. A cute girl with an expressionless face, wearing the same Black Phantom cloak.

<img /img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGD5-CzwvM0-wYHnyvDtdtKE9h4JiJIxutnimSavo1fFsm8YAYbw7wt0yTuJJXkNv5_0YCCdp6fTwQxm3rkWPeeKdpHYCYe30SBIQPv4j1NwEfUiOr8NsBudECwRo16TJskvWwhNfL5kIgyarNRUSkX6oP8g29QthfEulwLmeaayjBxIfJC20G_jJR/s768/102650.png" alt="" width="253" height="380" />

Hecate approached the clone and observed closely.

"So that's how I look? No wonder Rena likes to hug me..."

But of course, the clone's appearance was still that of a ghost. The expression on its face was dead expressionless. And like a grayscale 3D model, it doesn't have the colors that normal humans have.

That was understandable, as the skill was only Lv2 now.

But, if one were to ignore the pale color of the clone, it was undoubtedly a beautiful girl.

Hecate hugged and kissed the clone on the lips, but it felt like hugging and kissing a lump of cotton. The clone did nothing and still as expressionless as ever.

She tried moving the clone with her mind, and found that while it was still somewhat awkward, the clone's movements were smoother than before.

"Hmm, I guess this is acceptable... Maybe I can try out the new battle tactic I just thought of."

With that said, Hecate put on her mask and recast the clone.

It's the time for the real live combat test.

Max HP %: +15 +5 +15 +100 +110 = (+245%)

Max MP %: +10 +5 +10 +110 = (+135%)

Max HP: +30000 = (+30000)

Max MP: +1600 +30000 = (+31600)

All Stats: +4 +1 -5 +10 +7 = (+17)

STR: +10 +5 +42 +35 +15 = (+107){+17} = [+124]

AGI: +5 +5 +37 +30 +15 +15 +5 = (+112){+17} = [+129]

VIT: +63 +4 +5 = (+72){+17} = [+89]

INT: +8 +5 +57 +70 +4 +5 +15 +5 = (+169){+17} = [+186]

DEX: +15 +5 +14 +5 +22 +10 +4 +1 +15 +5 = (+96){+17} = [+113]

LUK: +5 +5 +22 = (+32){+17} = [+49]

Movement Speed: +52%

---

Total Max HP: 27,290 +(27,290 * 245% = 66,860) +30,000 = 124,150

Total Max MP: 120,458 +(120,458 * 135% = 162,618) +31,600 = 314,676

27k HP is the result of 90 VIT

120k MP is the result of 407 INT