Marvel: Hunter

Chapter 406: Dragon Trident

[The upgrade was successful.]

"Oh, I see."

After hearing the system's announcement, Blaine responded calmly, without the slightest hint of excitement. Logically speaking, upgrading skills used to be what excited him the most. But after being tricked so many times, he felt more like crying than celebrating, so there was no joy left to feel.

"Oh right—the most important thing is coming—"

"System, open the equipment upgrade interface."

"I want to upgrade the Flood Dragon Trident again."

At last, what Blaine considered the most exciting part had arrived. After all, whether it was wandering through space or traveling to Wakanda, wasn't it all for collecting star cores, gathering materials, and refining Vibranium? And why collect so many things in the first place? Wasn't it all for upgrading equipment?

As for skills, Blaine felt they were already more or less sufficient. He could always wait until he had more money, stockpile resources, and then buy whatever skills he lacked later.

Equipment, however, was different. A good piece of equipment would grow along with its owner. It was like playing with a toy excavator as a child, then driving a real excavator when you grew up.

Blaine was the same now. Although the Flood Dragon Trident was already extremely powerful, it became even more valuable when facing stronger enemies.

For example, when the prehistoric Bounty Hunter first encountered the Celestial Group, the trident could only barely break through their armor. But the second time, it was obviously much easier—so much so that it could directly split a Celestial apart with full force, cleaving them cleanly in two. This highlighted, from another angle, just how important weapon strength was to its user.

As for why Blaine chose to upgrade the Flood Dragon Trident, the reasons were actually very simple. First, he still vividly remembered how the prehistoric Bounty Hunter wielded the trident with overwhelming force. He had secretly learned many techniques from watching, and had long planned to use the dragon trident as his main weapon.

Second, it was also because of the prehistoric Bounty Hunter. Blaine had noticed that many powerful techniques clearly required the cooperation of a trident. Moreover, it was obvious that the prehistoric Bounty Hunter's trident was on an entirely different level compared to Blaine's Flood Dragon Trident. Seeing how devastatingly powerful the trident could be in the hands of the prehistoric Bounty Hunter, Blaine was even less willing to abandon this weapon. He wanted to reach that same height, and upgrading the Flood Dragon Trident was a necessary step toward that goal.

After opening the equipment upgrade interface, Blaine took the Flood Dragon Trident out of the Hunter Space. Without hesitation, he tossed it directly into the interface, then continuously added various metals he had obtained from the Collector. He even threw in the small piece of carbonadium he had picked up at the altar.

What's more, Blaine directly poured in more than half a ton of Vibranium. If the system hadn't warned him that the material ratio had been exceeded, he would have dumped all of it in.

After all, keeping that much Vibranium stored in the Hunter Space was useless to Blaine. Besides, when he upgraded equipment again in the future, he would certainly use even more precious materials.

Thinking about it now, Blaine realized how wise it had been not to mine too much Vibranium from the Vibranium meteorite earlier. A single ton was already more than enough. Mining more would have been nothing but a waste of effort—completely unnecessary.

In addition to these metal materials, Blaine also threw in his only three 0.1-level star cores, one two-level star core, and two three-level star cores.

These star cores had been secretly obtained by Blaine from the Collector after the Power Stone exploded. There was no way to sell them for money. They weren't acquired through legitimate channels, and even if they were sold, they wouldn't fetch much. It was said that Blaine had stolen as upgrade materials, so there was no sense of loss at all—if anything, there was a faint sense of satisfaction in finally using them up.

When the last star core was thrown in, Blaine inexplicably felt that something was still missing, as if a voice beside his ear were constantly urging him to do something more.

Suddenly, Blaine clenched his teeth, as though he had made up his mind, and tossed in the remaining tenth-level star core as well.

The moment it left his hand, regret hit him. But what use was regret now? Watching the star core—two or three meters in diameter—leave him, Blaine felt more pain than if he had spent a trillion dollars. This was something he had fought desperately to snatch from the Grandmaster on Sakaar, and now… it was just gone.

At this point, Blaine's only hope was that the upgrade would not fail and that it would bring him a genuine surprise. It was also at this moment that he fully realized something: there was a certain probability that equipment upgrades in the Hunter System could fail. All he could do now was pray that the god of luck would bless him once again.

In fact, when Blaine had felt that urging voice earlier, the god of luck above his head had already flashed white light several times. Perhaps everything that happened just now had been no coincidence at all.

He didn't know if it was because he had added a tenth-level star core, but the upgrade process this time was unexpectedly slow.

Time passed second by second, minute by minute, and Blaine's heart pounded violently. After all, this involved a tenth-level star core—there was no way he wouldn't be nervous.

"Ding!"

When the system's notification sound rang out, Blaine felt as if his heart had jumped straight up to his throat, ready to burst out at any moment. He instinctively covered his eyes with both hands, too afraid to look.

Slowly parting his fingers, Blaine faintly saw a golden glow shining through the gaps between his palms…

As his hands finally moved away, Blaine's emotions soared sky-high. His mouth stretched wide from ear to ear, frozen in place, unable to close for a long time—so wide that he couldn't even make a sound.

It wasn't for any other reason, but because of the system notification before him: the upgrade was successful.

For some reason, the system always made equipment upgrades unbearably thrilling—more exciting than riding a roller coaster. After the success, the system didn't even play an elaborate prompt, just a simple beep, as if it found the process troublesome.

Once the equipment upgrade was completed, the detailed introduction of the upgraded equipment appeared below, which required Blaine to carefully read through it to fully understand.

This was also the part Blaine looked forward to the most. He stared at the lines of text beneath without blinking, examining every single word with intense focus.

The Flood Dragon Trident has been successfully upgraded to the Dragon Trident. After the upgrade, the Dragon Trident will automatically remove the curse poison attached to cursed blood.

Subsidiary Skill: [Dragon's Breath] — Trigger Probability: 0.01.

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