With his departure imminent, Guilliman wasted no time.
After plundering the spoils of Stormveil Castle, he quickly returned to the Church of Elleh, intending to use the forge there to attempt to enhance his equipment.
The wandering merchant Kale had not yet left. After some conversation, Guilliman learned that in the past two days, Kale had actually hosted two new customers, earning a small profit in Runes.
One of these two customers was even a Tarnished, which surprised Guilliman somewhat.
In truth, there were quite a few Tarnished in the Lands Between. They were heroes, soldiers, mages, and nobles from the early days of the Golden Order dynasty, who had followed Godfrey, the First Elden Lord, in various wars, defeated other native creatures, and established the Age of the Erdtree.
They were already a not-so-rare group; calling them the Tarnished Legion would not be an exaggeration.
However, after Queen Marika revoked the Erdtree's grace, all these Tarnished were cast out from its protection. Some wandered aimlessly, some fell into slumber, and others died in battle.
Now, with the shattering of the Elden Ring,
under the summons of the Greater Will, these Tarnished, once deprived of the Erdtree's grace, reawakened. With the help of the Finger Maidens, they returned to the Lands Between, attempting to reclaim the fragments of the Elden Ring, also known as the Great Runes, from the demigods.
They came one after another; it wasn't just the game's protagonist, but many, many Tarnished who had challenged the demigods, attempting to defeat the enemies of the Greater Will.
Even many famous NPCs in the game are actually Tarnished, such as those in the Roundtable Hold.
Therefore, it wouldn't be strange for Guilliman to encounter a few Tarnished in his future adventures.
The truly unique one was the Tarnished Melina followed, who awakened in the Chapel of Anticipation—the protagonist of the game.
He should also, like at the beginning of the game, fall from the Chapel of Anticipation into the ravine, and then come to this area, to the Church of Elleh.
It's just that Guilliman didn't know when this would happen, nor whether this Tarnished would be male or female.
Guilliman couldn't bother with all that; he was leaving tonight and didn't care if he would meet the Tarnished.
Since the wandering merchant hadn't left, he simply took out some Runes and entrusted the merchant to help him enhance his equipment.
At the same time, he observed and learned from the side.
The wandering merchant Kale did not refuse this employment. In fact, the lives of the residents in the Lands Between were quite miserable. Many of them, despite their long lifespans, capable of surviving for hundreds or even thousands of years,
most residents here had already gone mad under the erosion of various laws and powers.
The vast majority of survivors were highly aggressive. Forget about developed commerce, agriculture, or handicrafts; they didn't even have a safe town now.
People mostly lived individually or in small groups, outside of towns, avoiding monster attacks.
If not for the relatively abundant resources of the Lands Between, with no shortage of food, it would be difficult for residents without combat power to survive.
And for wandering merchants like Kale, who were not good at combat, the only way to obtain Runes was to trade with the sane survivors, as if by luck.
Guilliman only had eight regular Smithing Stones and two Somber Smithing Stones in total.
He first took out the regular Smithing Stones and the Sword of the Lady of the Lake's Radiance, wanting to see if regular Smithing Stones could enhance this, his best weapon.
Unfortunately, no.
A powerful magic weapon like the Lady of the Lake's Sword, although not belonging to the Elden Ring world, was still a special magic weapon, and the power of regular Smithing Stones could not enhance it.
Then he took out the two Somber Smithing Stones and handed them to Kale.
The old man let out an exclamation, saying excitedly:
"These are extremely precious Smithing Stones. One is Somber Smithing Stone [1] and the other is Somber Smithing Stone [2]. They can perfectly enhance a special weapon to +2."
"Now, only some powerful monsters or special places still hold them."
"Are you sure you want to use these two Somber Smithing Stones?"
Indeed, as Kale said.
Although he didn't expend much effort to obtain these two Somber Smithing Stones, only taking down dozens of Godrick soldiers.
But in the real world's Lands Between, monsters don't respawn.
You can't just sit at a Site of Grace and expect monsters to respawn.
The next time he wanted to obtain Somber Smithing Stones, he would only be able to go to dangerous places.
"I'm sure. Try to see if you can enhance this weapon."
Guilliman also didn't plan to take the Smithing Stones back for research; he probably wouldn't achieve any results in a short time. He would first try to see if they could enhance equipment from other worlds.
Hearing his answer, Kale no longer hesitated and began to enhance the Sword of the Lady of the Lake's Radiance.
In fact, the most basic enhancement process was very simple.
Driven by the power of Runes, the glowing Somber Smithing Stone transformed into a liquid-like substance, covering the weapon's surface like a protective coating, thus completing the enhancement.
No wonder basic enhancements didn't require a blacksmith's operation, only a forge.
The subsequent enhancement to +2 was similar to the previous steps, only consuming more Runes.
After the two enhancements were completed, Guilliman took his Sword of Radiance and immediately felt the difference.
First, its sharpness and durability. Originally, the Sword of Radiance was a powerful weapon capable of cutting through iron. When clashing with ordinary iron weapons, it could cut through the opponent's armor and weapons, possessing astonishing power.
Now, after two enhancements, Guilliman felt its lethality had increased by at least 40%, and its durability had also significantly improved.
It should be able to cut through metal and enemy defenses more easily.
This was excellent. In future battles with ordinary people, he could be more unrestrained.
If a master's weapon was inferior to his and was cut off by his sword, the opponent would most likely be defeated due to losing their weapon.
Subsequently, he infused magic into the Sword of Radiance. The gleaming blade began to glow, and then the 1.2-meter two-handed sword formed a golden blade nearly two meters long.
It was about half a meter longer than before the enhancement.
This was great. Sometimes, when facing some large monsters, a sword blade over a meter long might not necessarily cause fatal damage.
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