Chương 144: Chapter 143 – A Friendly Wager

Not that Cole thought he needed an unfair advantage to win a bet, but he really wanted to win that bet. He and Howie had coordinated their next evolution paths, agreeing that Cole would focus on taking out groups of hostiles through his chaining attacks while Howie focused on hard-hitting elite-breaking abilities.

Over their breaks, Cole had met with Howie to strategize even further on how to maximize his class evolution, and they'd come to the conclusion that it could only be truly optimal by using appropriate weapons—specifically ones that focused on using on-hit and on-kill affixes that maximized his piercing rounds that could strike multiple targets.

His Meteoric Leap might be a great evasion and escape ability, but the vast majority of the harm Cole dished out was due to his target marking with its innate increase to his accuracy as it pulled bullets toward marked targets and applied kinetic redirection to over-penetrating shots. That also meant that unlike an ethereal energy mage who could saturate a battlefield with spells or a proxy class like Besson with Nutmeg and Clove who could charge into the front lines, Cole was only as strong as his gun.

And his guns were only as strong as their affixes. Down in the LF Lab beneath the armory, Cole scrolled through the growing list of Field Stripped parts. Jefferson was glad for the extra storage space from having old inventory broken down and disposed of for parts. As far as the middle-aged armorer was concerned, there weren't enough charges in the world to strip down all the defunct gear he wanted out of his armory.

Kickers who had retired, Kickers who had gone MIA, or sustained career-ending injuries during rescue attempts had left rooms full of otherworld gear no one else could use. Cole was nearly drowning in options. On the bench next to him, his ravenous March rifle sprawled lazily, tendrils idly dragging across different surfaces or pulling pens out of the coffee mug by the workstation to chew on the ends of them.

The Snakebite rifle sat next to it, though the March rifle had pushed it away to the extent its tendrils could reach. Cole had already given it one Tinker upgrade—a Blood Gorging affix that increased its recoil and damage for a few seconds every time it dealt lethal damage. If it followed the same principles as his Patient Hunter rifle, then he could probably squeeze two more upgrades into it.

The Snakebite rifle also had room for upgrades, and bringing both with him on missions had already paid dividends thanks to the almost guaranteed proc rate of the Snakebite. Beyond that, his out-leveled Patient Hunter rifle from his first Trip to Curahee rested on the bench. Cole rubbed his chin as he looked through the database. With the terminal synced to the Termlink system, it had been compiled by DOR's in-house AI, and Cole was able to search it by part type, rarity, or affix.

But he also had a dialogue box that he could use for specific narrative commands. He typed a few words in. Show me parts with 'on-hit' affixes that increase the damage of assault rifles. The database disappeared, replaced by a descending list of about thirty parts and their summarized affixes. He scrolled through them, looking for ways to increase the damage or lethality of each individual shot, noting some standouts.

Bolt of Afterburn – on hit – %chance for delayed fire damage Fire control group of Hydraulic Shock – on hit – %extra concussive damage to organic enemies Carbine barrel of Vacuum – penetrating rounds are immediately followed by a powerful wave of negative pressure at the exit wound.

That last one could be interesting, especially since the active portion of his Meteoric Leap almost guaranteed shots that fully penetrated, though from experience he knew that tough enough monsters wouldn't die just because they'd been pierced. The negative pressure wave would be super damaging to anything that managed to survive the shot itself as it turned their innards to outards. Would it be powerful enough to suck in nearby enemies or pull struck targets off their feet? Could it make enemies outright implode?

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Cole scratched his head and looked at the rifle. Dealing damage wasn't an issue with the rifle. Especially not with his accretion wraps buffing his muzzle velocity and the gun rearranging itself to fit new situations. Plus his first attachment already upped the damage as he used it. So, while he'd get three times the extra damage from further damage affixes, a lot of that extra might end up wasted anyway. He hmmm ed to himself.

Show me parts with 'on-hit' or 'on-kill' affixes that improve the functionality of weapons Stock of Control – on-kill, %reduction to recoil Bolt of Blood Gorging – on-kill, %increase to damage and recoil Barrel of Arcing – on-kill, charge the barrel with Arcing for #seconds, increasing muzzle velocity and causing shock damage to the target and the two nearest enemies within a short range. He stopped at the last one. That could be interesting. Very interesting. Shock tended to bypass armor without resistance.

And each shot also hitting two additional targets would mean that, when fighting swarming enemies, each individual round would trigger Arcing three times, hitting up to nine total targets. Or the same targets multiple times if it was a group of only three. That was also a lot of elemental damage, something his kit lacked easy access to. Quickly, he directed the database to show him if there were any affixes that triggered'on-elemental-damage'. There were.

Nothing that would cause further chains off elemental damage, but one particular part caught his eye. Bolt of Lucidity – On-elemental-damage, minor %increase to Acuity, stacking Acuity was his main enhancement metric, and it was the primary factor in both the duration of his target marking and the velocity increase from his Accretion Wraps. Currently, his mark lasted somewhere around forty seconds. Combining the Bolt of Lucidity and the Barrel of Arcing, he could super-charge his primary stat.

But he'd have to already have the mark active in order to use it. He typed a new prompt in. Would increasing Acuity while Meteoric Leap is active extend the duration of the target marking? … Running simulation. Analyzing results. … For Meteoric Leap active ability functionality, #time-remaining of active target-marking effects will increase if Acuity is increased while ability is already active.

While several of his teammates had invested into evolution paths to help them regain charges, extending his actives would let Cole get far more use out of each individual charge, or even partial charges. Not seeing any other combinations that would give him quite as much benefit, he added both the bolt and the barrel to his parts order list and switched to his bolt-action rifle. He tailored the search even more specifically for the Snakebite's two conditions.

Show parts with 'on poisoned' or 'when struck from behind' affixes. While a list of a dozen or so parts appeared, he only needed one, and he found it near the bottom of the list. Excretion barrel lining – enemies afflicted by venom or poison from this weapon will excrete the affliction in a small cloud around them for #seconds, affecting nearby targets. Potency increases if the original afflicted enemy dies. Perfect. The Snake-bite rifle had proved to be an excellent weapon for picking off single, unaware targets.

But it was so effective that its paralytic toxin affix from its active ability mostly went to waste. The barrel lining would cause the toxin to affect any allies in the area. If he'd had it on Babel, they might have been able to get Beth to the next floor without going toe-to-toe with the Beast Cult at all. He added it to the part order and hit confirm. As for the other upgrade? Cole stood up from the terminal and moved over to his white-shelled Patient Hunter rifle.

He ran his hands over the receiver and the grip tape wrapped around the handguard and pressure plate for his laser. The weapon had carried him far—especially for coming out of a crab-spider monster that had hitched a ride on his Meteoric Leap and gone splat at the end. Closing his eyes and concentrating, he activated field strip. The aftermarket parts that Norn and Bjorn had added dropped away as the rifle dissolved. It left behind the underslung web launcher and the ornate aperture sight.

Of the three parts he had stuffed into the rifle, none of them were present—confirming his theory that parts couldn't be harvested multiple times with Field Strip. He tapped the analyzer on the sight to confirm that it carried the increase to damage after observing targets. At least that part of the rifle would carry over. By the time he melded the new sight onto the Snake-bite rifle, Jefferson had arrived with the other parts in a small crate.

He watched as Cole tapped each one with the analyzer to confirm that they carried the correct affixes and then watched as Cole melded all the parts into his arsenal. The ravenous rifle squirmed a bit with the second and third part but eventually accepted both. Jefferson tapped the Tinkered rifle with the analyzer and looked at the results. Then, simply shook his head, took the empty crate, and walked out of the lab. Cole smiled. Leaving the DOR armorer speechless must mean he was on the right track.