Zhang Yi wasn't shocked; instead, he felt a bit delighted.

  In the world of Apocalypse, when pyers appraise equipment, there's a small chance to trigger an advanced appraisal. For equipment of equal value, the cost of advanced appraisal is 10-50 times that of a normal appraisal. Advanced appraisal is akin to gambling, with a certain probability of enhancing the equipment's quality, but also a chance of degrading it.

  Zhang Yi thought, even if a 1-star piece of equipment is bad, it can't drop to 0 stars, right?

  So, without hesitation, he spent 50 silver coins for an advanced appraisal.

  The Appraisal Shop Owner waved his hand over the bck pants, and a golden light fshed—

  "Ding~ Appraisal successful, congratutions! Your 1-star equipment [Magician's Pants] has been upgraded to 2 stars!"

  A stroke of luck! Reborn into this life, the first time triggering an advanced appraisal, and it successfully upgraded!

  Zhang Yi was quite familiar with this. Pyers have only a 10% chance to trigger an advanced appraisal, and among those, only a 10% chance to enhance the equipment's attributes and quality. There's a 40% chance it remains unchanged, and a 50% chance it degrades!

  Truly, the Lucky One has blessed him this time!

  Suddenly acquiring two pieces of 2-star equipment, the surprise came too suddenly.

  Looking at his backpack, through quest rewards, monster drops, and the 100 enhancement stones obtained from Storm Angel, Zhang Yi now had a total of 390 Level 1 Enhancement Stones!

  With a 2:1 synthesis rate, he could almost get 200 Level 2 Enhancement Stones, enough to upgrade all his 2-star equipment to the maximum level 25! Just using them to enhance the newly acquired [Eternal Chain] and [Magician's Pants] was more than enough.

  Currently, even if Zhang Yi wanted to enhance his entire set, he had the resources, as he only had three pieces of 2-star quality equipment among the seven slots.

  Unexpectedly, in his past life, Zhang Yi was desperately short of enhancement stones, but in this life, he had more than he could use...

  So, Zhang Yi headed to the Bcksmith Shop.

  This was also a hassle; pyers had to come to the Bcksmith Shop to synthesize enhancement stones.

  Inside the shop, Ili, with his right arm amputated, was still diligently crafting equipment with his left hand. The crisp cnging sounds were clearly audible, and his daughter Ling Ling was by his side, both wearing happy smiles.

  Moreover, it could be seen that the equipment Ili was crafting was a custom-made metal staff promised to Zhang Yi!

  It didn't look like an ordinary item.

  Although Zhang Yi had previously saved Ili's life through a hidden quest, it didn't affect Ili charging Zhang Yi the required fees for synthesizing enhancement stones here.

  However, because Zhang Yi's affinity level with the Bcksmith Shop Owner had reached level 1, he received a 5% discount on any purchase at the shop.

  1-star equipment was already entering the phase-out stage, and the era of universal 2-star equipment was about to arrive. For Zhang Yi, who could step into the 2-star era earlier than civilian pyers, Level 1 Enhancement Stones were no longer needed.

  So, Zhang Yi simply synthesized all 390 Level 1 Enhancement Stones into 195 Level 2 Enhancement Stones!

  At a synthesis cost of 5 copper coins each, the original fee of 975 copper coins was reduced to 926 copper coins after the 5% discount, which Zhang Yi paid to Ili...

  With enough Level 2 Enhancement Stones, Zhang Yi eagerly enhanced the [Eternal Chain] and [Magician's Pants] in his bag that hadn't been equipped yet.

  Endlessly triggering [Divine Enhancement].

  "Ding~ Enhancement successful, congratutions! Your equipment [Eternal Chain] has reached enhancement level 8..."

  "Ding~ Enhancement successful, congratutions! Your equipment [Eternal Chain] has reached enhancement level 15..."

  "Ding~ Enhancement successful, congratutions! Your equipment [Eternal Chain] has reached enhancement level 25, unlocking the exclusive talent [Skill Enhancement]!"

  "Ding..."

  "Ding..."

  "Ding~ Enhancement successful, congratutions! Your equipment [Magician's Pants] has reached enhancement level 25, unlocking the exclusive talent [Damage Reduction]!"

  The [Eternal Chain] at level 25 increased its base energy attribute from 60 points to 210 points, and the additional intelligence from 6 points to 21 points!

  With Zhang Yi's 14-star intelligence growth, the 21 points of intelligence also brought an extra 29 points of attack power and 35 points of energy boost.

  This was secondary; the most important was the exclusive talent [Skill Enhancement] unlocked at level 25, invincible—

  Skill Enhancement: Increases the wearer's skill damage by 20% (group skill damage bonus is halved).

  This talent perfectly compensated for the Beastmaster css's low skill damage, meaning that with this talent, Zhang Yi's [Fireball Spell] damage coefficient reached 130%, 5% higher than the Mage's [Fireball Spell]!

  As for the Magician's Pants, the attributes after reaching the maximum enhancement level were also extraordinary—

  [Magician's Pants] (25):

  Quality: 2 stars

  Level: 14

  Physical Defense Power: 70 (50)

  Magic Defense Power: 56 (40)

  Additional Attribute: Endurance 21 (15)

  Talent: Damage Reduction (Reduces damage taken by the wearer by 25 points each time)

  Css Restriction: Universal for magic csses

  With 70 points of defense, just the attributes of these pants alone surpassed Zhang Yi's current total defense of 67 points!

  Plus, with a 25-point damage reduction, it's practically invincible. After equipping these pants, who could harm Zhang Yi?

  Unfortunately, Zhang Yi, currently only level 13, couldn't use these level 14 pants yet, so he temporarily put them in his backpack and equipped the [Eternal Chain], boosting his maximum energy value to 482, almost catching up to his 504 health points.

  With the equipment issue resolved, Zhang Yi turned his attention to Ili, who was fully focused on crafting equipment, and initiated a conversation.

  "When will my staff be ready?"

  As soon as he finished speaking, Ili suddenly put down the hammer, picked up the silver staff on the forging table, and said to Zhang Yi, "It's done."

  Zhang Yi was taken aback, "That was quick..."

  Ili, looking at the staff in his hand that seemed to be missing something, regretfully said, "It's good, but not perfect."

  "If you want it now, I can give it to you immediately," Ili said. "But if you can find me an energy crystal, I can make it even more perfect!"

  So, there's room for further improvement?

  Zhang Yi was delighted, "No problem, I can help you find an energy crystal. Please continue to perfect this weapon for me."

  xx34810