BXBX NOVEL Chapter 40: Ender (1)
Of course, stats could be gained from various sources—leveling up, equipment, titles, skills, and more. It was rare to have a perfect balance from all said sources, as nothing was perfect.
Players often faced those troubles while picking up new skills or equipment.
Swordsmen could end up with more dexterity than they were used to, swinging their blades too fast, losing their balance as a result, and sinking into the ground like fools.
Mages could get surprised by too much intelligence stat and hurt themselves in the process of conjuring their magical skills.
"Too many vibrations on the bowstring, which means I lose my accuracy," Jake said as he released an arrow, missing the fruit dangling from the tree's branch—his target.
That said, his arrow was swift and powerful, lodging itself in the other tree's bark with a loud voice.
Richard nodded, his eyes on Jake, "You have way too much dexterity in this equipment set."
His friend wore black light armor from head to toe. It was leather light equipment that increased Jake's dexterity so much that he had it way more than strength stat, creating an imbalance in his style.
In those clothes, he looked like an assassin, with his head wrapped in a leather black mask resembling a monkey.
That was the only odd part of this set that brought laughter from Richard.
Odin was also shocked to see his friend in this attire and even believed someone possessed him! The puppy howled the herald of the battle and pounced at Jake to free him from the curse, only to see Jake taking off the mask and the entire set…
Odin stood frozen and confused while everyone else laughed.
It was a pretty funny encounter.
Speaking of encounters, Odin and Wukong had also met. Upon seeing the second summon, the puppy felt an indescribable sense of jealousy and fear, which forced him to dislike Wukong and fight for his master's affection.
Odin mimicked what Wukong did the best while taunting the monkey for a battle to show off more.
It was quite naive and stupid, but Jake didn't look too much into it and believed that Odin was playing around, as he was also just a puppy, after all.
Wukong was on the same page here and thought that Odin wanted to have games with him—he thought of him as a good friend and big brother since Odin was bigger despite being a puppy.
The relationship between summons was budding and young, but it was already quite entertaining.
Returning to the issue of high dexterity in The Previous Monkey Boss Set, Jake pondered aloud, "I don't want to give up on this set because of this imbalance… I can only try some modifications. I got some ideas from seeing modern bows in my master's archery club. I'll see what I can do."
"Oh? That sounds interesting," Richard nodded and crossed his arms, looking forward to what Jake had come up with!
Jake smiled and approached his workbench. He took off everything except for the black gloves and grasped his Steel Knife to begin the work.
He'd usually work in the full black set on arrows, as with his muscle memory and high dexterity stat, Jake could produce many more arrows in a short time.
At times, Jake even got surprised at himself as his hands would blur while producing arrows as though he was in automatic mode. Perhaps that was the fantasy of the magic world. As for the rest that required his attention and thoughts, Jake would only use Steel Knife and Black Gloves.
'I'll make a hole… here,' Jake marked a hole at the bottom of his bow's riser and started carving it out. He made a see-through hole and polished it with the wolf's leather sandpaper.
After that, he carved a wooden pole and smoothed it as well.
At first, his pole didn't match the hole he had carved on the riser because he had been doing everything at a guess, staying true to the primitive method.
Jake wasn't an expert craftsman, let alone a player with a craftsman class.
Richard mused aloud, "Will that help with the vibrations?"
"It should… well, what I made is a stabilizer. Modern bows have that… but mine is primitive and makeshift… I will see how it feels with this one," Jake waved his bow back and forth to see whether his stabilizer properly stuck to the riser.
It was around eighty centimeters long, which wouldn't work well in the Joker Form because Jake often moved around and even knelt in that form, meaning that the stabilizer would get in the way of his acrobatics.
As of now, it would work well in Soldier and Master Forms as those stances didn't require Jake to lower his bow. He could keep it well around his hip or back.
Jake could lower the length of the pole, but that could have the opposite effect of what he desires.
"Let's see," Jake put on his black set and pulled the bowstring. His arrow and stabilizer rigidly pointed ahead while Jake narrowed his eyes at the fruit—his target.
He let the arrow fly.
"Hmmm," Jake mused, "Not bad. I can feel less vibrations. I'll give it more thought and ask my master for her opinion."
Richard smiled, "You've bullied the monkey boss so much that you got an entire set from him. You can also try to modify it with what you've learned. Give it a go… at worst, Puffy will suffer again."
"Yep," Jake nodded.
After that, Jake checked his other equipment. He wasn't fond of the heavy equipment crafted from the wolf boss's hide, but he needed that for the impending battle with Ender that would happen today.
It was a set he needed to defeat the legendary boss who was faster than him!
"I've become better," Jake whispered, "And so have Odin. We even got a new buddy. It's time to meet Ender again."
Richard proudly looked at his friend and wished him the best, "Break a leg."