Blacksmith vs. the System 71-75

— Chapter 71

When I stepped through the gate to return to the first floor with another cart holding five hundred shells, I met with a welcome sight. The small outpost had progressed far more than I had expected.

The internal fort I envisioned was already completed with solid bricks, perfect enough to suggest the involvement of a specialized class, and the second ring was already half complete. And, that wasn’t even the only change. Nearby, there was a pool that was almost ten times larger than what I had dug that was also considerably deeper. From that pool, a half-completed water canal stretched deeper.

As I drifted closer, I started to be able to capture more details. Soon, I came to an expanded tree plantation, with almost a hundred saplings in place, though the growth of the new ones was much lower. Those changes were based on my orders, yet, the progress was surprising.

Then, there were the ones I didn’t order. The first thing that surprised me was the number of people in the camp. When I left, there were exactly fifty-five people there. But, as I approached, I could easily count a hundred, with more out of my view.

Most of the new additions were Farmers. The number of hunters and reserve forces was leveraged as fifty. And, with all of them committed to the hunt, their hunting efficiency was high. A few people were running into the deep, only to return with two or three monsters chasing them, their movement too fluid for them to not have Dexterity.

Once the monsters they brought along drifted into the range, the crossbowmen took them down.

The extra runners weren’t the only additions. Outside the second wall, there was a second team of farmers, growing an orchard of fruit trees, with smaller plants like tomatoes spread in between. Outside all, there were twenty guards defending the encampment.

While I took in the changes, Harold approached. He silently gestured to the cart, and the workers rushed forward to take and empty the cart. “An excellent haul for an hour of work, sir. Almost half of ours,” he said.

An obvious way of underlining his success, but I could see that he was tense. The reason was obvious, the development of the outpost was outside my orders, and he was afraid that I would disapprove. “Good work,” I said, removing that fear. “How are the contingency plans coming along?”

He paused. “T-they are in development, sir,” he said. As he said that, he glanced at the extra guards that were standing around, implying that the security was not in doubt.

“It’s good that you prioritized the development, but don’t do that at the expense of security. Once you finish the second wall, start drilling the emergency plans. I want to see something impressive when it’s time to change shifts.”

“I will do that, sir,” Harold replied.

“I like people that show initiative. Work for me well, and you won’t be disappointed. Just make sure to protect anyone that works for us, and don’t shortchange them for their efforts,” I said.

“Yes, sir,” he said. His desire to argue against the second part was apparent, but he kept his mouth shut. I had a feeling that my reputation for needless generosity was proving useful.

With that done, I didn’t say the farm that was growing food. It was working well, and considering the constant consumption of the farmers to raise the dungeon trees, having a local source of food was a good idea. Especially since we would soon have hundreds of farmers around.

“Continue the operation. I want to check the tree plantation,” I said even as I walked toward there.

“Sir,” farmers called, treating me like royalty. It annoyed me, but considering the alternative was dealing with constant assassination attempts, I decided to keep quiet. I ignored them even as I checked the base, wondering if I should raise the trees to their maximum height.

Having the ability to see more than fifty yards would have made the challenge of running the farm easier. However, it would also require a lot of alchemical boosters, which I currently lacked. And, for the moment, it was better if people didn’t realize the benefits of the water from the fourth floor mixed with the giant insect shells.

At least, not until I could move my forging base to the fifth floor.

I said nothing even as I used my own fertilizer to quickly trigger the growth of the trees on the plantation. It consumed half of the water, but provided enough trees to sustainably support a thousand crossbowmen I envisioned as long as farmers continued to tend to them.

Farmers watched my performance, split between fascination and jealousy. I wanted to talk with them, but I was afraid that talking too much would reveal some of my secrets. “Continue,” I said with a gesture instead and went back to Harold.

“I need a better cart, something I can work with pedals,” I said. “Though, make sure that it stays simple, I need to be able to fix it,” I said.

“Yes, sir. I’ll work on it immediately,” he said.

“Not you. You have a more important task. Delegate it to someone else,” I reminded him. “Actually, delegate it to three different people, and let each of them bring one. A good way to pick trusted workers, right?”

“You are wise, sir,” he said. It was a bit excessive, considering I just wanted an excuse to have three different designs I could examine for my own eventual take. I could have done it myself, but it would be a loss not to use resources when available.

“Good. They don’t have to be perfect, just make sure I can move on it faster,” I said.

With that, I once again left the growing outpost behind, thinking about my next step.

Moving to the fifth floor.

Asking for the designs I could work with pedals was a part of it. After all, if it could work with pedals, it could work with a steam engine powering it, meaning I could bring most of my base, including the metal paneling, at once. I could maybe even uproot a few trees if I could properly put it in place.

Combined with some kind of rail I could lay on its path and collect once the cart passed, such a model seemed to be viable for a one-time move.

Ambitious, but achievable. All I needed was to find the dungeon gate leading to the next floor, which wasn’t exactly easy, especially alone. The dungeon mist had reduced the visual range to twenty yards, and the fourth floor was huge. I didn’t know the exact size, but considering the third floor was somewhere between thirty and forty miles from one end to another while the first floor was merely ten miles, even my most conservative guess was around fifty miles, and eighty miles was not out of the question.

“And, can I travel to it repeatedly even if I discovered it,” I thought even as I considered the possibilities. The first three floors had unique cliffs, rocks, and other features that could be used to navigate, but the fourth floor was not like that.

It was difficult to separate one pile of wet dirt from another, and even worse, it was not exactly stable. Unfortunately, the only method I currently had in mind would increase the chance of discovery much further. I needed to decide which was more important in the short term: Discovering the fifth floor, or keeping my forge hidden on the fourth floor longer.

“The fifth floor,” I decided even as I once again moved deeper into the fourth floor, using the mana separator, once again using it to trigger a monster wave, this time using Breeze Spear to get used to it in combat … while, of course, not using the perk I had received.

The increased number meant that the dead monsters were piling up larger and larger. However, as much as the prospect of getting an Epic skill was exciting, it wasn’t my priority. My plan was simpler. I knew that, once the previous floors were filled with monsters, some of them started to spill to higher floors.

Four times, I repeated the trick, going in around my base in a circle, but all those attempts failed.

Either there weren't any different types of monsters on the fifth floor, or I was too far away from the gate leading down. Since my experiment already showed the existence of other types of monsters, I was more inclined to believe it was the latter.

Though, either way, it needed to be tested. I needed to get deeper into the dungeon. And, the fastest, most secure way was to create a path of trees going deeper into the dungeon.

While that was a viable path, it had two disadvantages. If someone stumbled upon its existence, it would lead them right to my base, but it could be handled by leaving some gaps and false trails. It would still be a risk, but considering the other guilds were yet to send their main forces, the time was the safest for it.

Once they took note of the money my guild was making, they would inevitably send more forces, and some of them would inevitably explore the dungeon. As long as they were willing to spend money, corrosion could be defeated.

By using sufficiently strong equipment, if nothing else. The corrosion effect was strong, but it lost its effectiveness against better equipment.

 I needed to discover the fifth floor before that happened. Whether to move my base deeper, or just to visit and level up further — hopefully — was to be seen.

However, that brought me to the second problem. Currently, I had only one method of traversing the dungeon. Creating a line of trees that was miles long. And, it would be a slow and laborious process…

“Unless, of course, I decided to upgrade my skills,” I said as I looked at the three identical skill stones, their glow more intense than all the Rare ones. Epic skills, and while I currently couldn’t see which skill they were, considering the drop rate, they were certainly Nurture.

And, I just needed to push my current Rare variant to its limit before I could explore its abilities.

“It’s experimentation time,” I said to myself.

*****

— Chapter 72

Before I started experimenting, I visited the first floor to show my presence and keep the area secure, again with a cart filled with shells. This time, there were no surprises. The defensive walls were sprouting at an impressive speed that would make a Roman legion proud, while the others were already in place.

Everything was perfect. All I needed was to purchase more crossbows, and the corner of the first floor would belong to my budding guild. I could probably take over all of it, but expanding into the second floor was the better option.

If I took over the first floor and made a lot of money, it would either push the other guilds away completely or encourage them to explore the lower floors to make money like I did. Neither option was good for my objectives.

I returned to the fourth floor, my mind already churning on how to improve Nurture. The pattern of improvement was simple. I just needed to use the poisonous variant of the energy while I used my Nurture skill.

It was a simple plan, but there was one practical challenge. The only reason I was able to push the growth of the Nurture was the poisonous nature of the swamp water, which allowed me to push it further. However, just like any other challenge from the System’s perspective, its improvement effect dropped off significantly after a certain point.

I tested to see if the tainted energy worked as a better poison. Unfortunately, it did not.

“Let’s start doing some chemistry experiments,” I said. When it came to chemistry, I knew even less than material science. The latter, I worked hard to educate myself after the Calamity, and working as a Blacksmith for three years gave me a lot of practical experience.

Chemistry, I knew nothing about. I couldn’t even start guessing if the poison was some kind of organism or disease, a type of metal poisoning, or some kind of magic effect that bypassed the easy methods.

“Luckily, that doesn’t mean I can’t learn,” I said. It was the whole point of science. Experiment and learn.

And, with the abundance of materials available, setting up the experimental setup was easy. I thought of three easy directions. Boiling, straining, and spinning. Three easy methods to get a general idea about the direction I should follow.

Boiling was straightforward. I just needed to get a container full of muddy water, boil it, and see if the evaporation concentrated the poison. Considering the number of open fires I had in place with the blast furnaces constantly running, preparing the necessary environment barely took a minute.

I even set up an angular metal plate over it to catch the steam and direct it to a secondary container, just in case the poison component moved with the steam.

While that boiled, I forged a number of metal sieves, each with different mesh sizes. For a few of them, I even went to the trouble of creating hexagonal gaps in case it had some kind of mana effect that would be affected.

Hexagon patterns didn’t help, but the material choice did. Using silver somehow reduced the poison effect, while iron, even the anti-corrosive variant, didn’t destroy it.

Third, I created a centrifuge. At least, a simple variant. The top-tier scientific centrifuges before the Calamity could rotate over a hundred thousand times per minute. I knew that, because I remembered one of the geneticists bragging for a whole meal about getting a grant to purchase one with an RPM of over two hundred thousand with some other specifications as well, with a price tag of over a million dollars.

Instead, even with my skills helping me, I was lucky to reach 300 rotations per minute on my current device. While my forging skills helped me to handle the material challenges, the real challenge came from the mechanical aspects. It was not as straightforward.

Still, it should be enough to work.

Once my setup was complete, I ran a set of experiments, which gave me three inputs. First, boiling destroyed both the fertilizer effect and the poison, leaving something closer to pure water. Not enough to drink it, but then the setup wasn’t exactly designed for pure isolation.

A more rigorous distillation setup might have given me pure water. Not exactly critical under the circumstances, but nice to know in case of an emergency. It meant that even if I got lost, I wouldn’t die from thirst.

The second set of experiments was simpler. Using sieves was somewhat helpful. It wasn’t exactly perfect, as the material on both sides contained both fertilizer and poison effect. The ground particles had worked more as a fertilizer, while the water acted as a poison.

I still put both materials on the centrifuge, which allowed the dirty water to coalesce even further. Once again, the water part carried the poison part. However, separating it from the water didn’t exactly make it more potent.

I created several large iron trays, and poured the water into a thin layer to make sure it evaporated faster, and kept that tray away from the flame, barely bringing it to a low simmer. Not enough to boil it, but enough to hasten the evaporation.

That was the closest to the flame. The others, I kept farther away to better understand the impact of the heat.

And, once I set those trays and left them to evaporate, I went upstairs once more, dropping another thousand shells and watching the operation a bit. Then, I went to the second floor, and five minutes later, I returned with a broken cart and picked a new one. Maybe it was slightly paranoid, but considering Thomas killed more than a hundred people in his latest attempt, I didn’t consider it below him.

It was better to keep any potential spy guessing.

Once I returned to the fourth floor, I started experimenting with the water in the trays. The damage to the plants confirmed that evaporation was a good way to increase the poisoning effect on the plants, but heat somewhat damaged the process.

“How fun,” I muttered. The effect of the heat made the creation of poison water difficult, but not impossible. Luckily, I had the steam engine to provide constant motion.

First, I created a huge water reservoir, made of entirely metal, with an adjustable sieve at the bottom. It had a channel, which constantly dripped water into a centrifuge powered by the steam engine, which rotated at around 400 RPM. As the centrifuge rotated, the particles moved toward the edge, but spilled only when the water amount had turned too much.

Meanwhile, there was a small gap at the center, which allowed the purer — poisonous — water to flow to another channel, which led to multiple, layered trays that collected the water. Each layer, except the bottom one, had a Pythagorean cup setup, meaning water had been collected slowly in a layer, and once it reached a certain height, it started to drain until it reached the minimum level.

Not too different from using a hose to drain a gas tank.

And, to complete, there was a ventilator attached to the steam engine, creating wind to enhance evaporation speed.

As each layer evaporated, the ones at the lower layers started to gather denser poison. That way, the process was sustainable without constant supervision — other than cleaning the sieves occasionally — giving me a selection of poisons of different concentrations to choose from, which I could use to improve my Nurture skills.

Since I needed to improve my Nurture ability quickly, I built the tray system larger than necessary. It consumed almost fifteen metric tons of corrosion-resistant iron, with each tray spreading almost a thousand square feet, which was the size of a decent three-bedroom apartment. Connected to each tray, there was a reservoir that didn’t drain even when the suction setup was triggered, allowing me to get a sample from whichever layer I wished.

As I worked on adding more trays to the bottom, the first layer reservoir and the tray had been filled, and the tray section had been drained thrice, while the second reservoir had collected a decent amount.

Unfortunately, the evaporation process required some time, meaning I needed to work more.

“Let’s try it,” I said even as I scooped a small bucket from both the first and the second reservoirs. And, I used the first one on a mature tree.

[-48 Health]

[Nurture (Rare) 97 -> 99]

“Not bad, but it could be better,” I said even as I took a cutting from the tree, and grew a new one.

[-123 Health]

[Nurture (Rare) 99 -> 106]

“Much better,” I said even as I repeated it a few times. The poison from the first layer lost its effectiveness at just above a hundred and thirty attempts, while the second one kept me going a bit more. When I finished, my Nurture skills had developed significantly.

[Nurture (Rare) - 152]

It was promising. Once the fourth reservoir had enough poisoned water, I should be able to complete it, but I had no intention of breaking the setup once I completed it. After all, since each layer constantly evaporated, it would take longer and longer for the lower layers to be filled with water.

Without a doubt, the Epic variant of the skill would require even more potent poisons.

There was another benefit of keeping the setup. It could be used to rapidly increase the skills of the other Farmers, which might actually unlock better variants if we pushed it far enough. Maria had already confirmed that class upgrades were not a secret.

However, I didn’t know if there was any difference between doing that through skill evolution and skill stones. Testing that with a few volunteers might actually help. However, at this point, I couldn’t do that with the eight thousand farmers currently working. I had already rocked the boat enough for the moment.

Once again, just because it was an open secret for the powerful families didn’t mean I could reveal it without putting a target on my back.

Well, another target.

“Patience,” I said even as I moved toward my mining pit to crash some more ore, refilling the ore feeder for the blast furnace. However, I noticed that the deposit was running out.

It was good that I was planning to start an expedition once I improved my Nurture skills to the limit. Since I was going to create a path with the trees, adding some rails and a small, steam-powered engine to bring back the ore wouldn’t be too difficult.

*****

— Chapter 73

“Code red sixteen,” Harold shouted, and the hunters immediately released their arrows before retreating, while all the farmers currently in the garden retreated into the first layer, each grabbing a spear as they climbed the walls.

A few more orders, and the outpost was ready to face a vicious swarm.

A successful drill.

“Very good,” I shouted. “Speedy response, and excellent work. You can return to your jobs.”

Harold gave several orders before he approached me. “How was it, sir?” he asked.

“Good, but it can be better. Make sure to continue practicing, especially with the new intake. I don’t want them to die halfway.”

“Understood, sir,” he replied. “By the way, the carts you have asked for are already here. Would you like to see them?”

I nodded, and he brought me inside the second wall, where three different carts were waiting for me. The cart portion was done well, but the same couldn’t be said for the connection between the pedals and the wheels.

It looked like I wasn’t the only one struggling with the more mechanical aspects. It was workable, but in a way, it struggled with the same problem most of my equipment did, high-quality material used to replicate smart design principles.

It looked like I either needed to find someone that was trained as a mechanical engineer, or start studying the mechanical engineering aspects more seriously.

Before I could leave the outpost for another trip, a guard had called. “You’re here, sir Arthur. Excellent. Lady Maria requests you for a meeting.”

I looked at Harold. “Make sure that everything goes well. Make sure to add another pool to expand the gardens, and handle the shift change,” I said. “Also, be extra alert for the possibility of sabotage when I’m not in the dungeon.”

“As you wish, sir,” he responded. I nodded. I appreciated Harold’s efficiency. He was competent enough to rely on for a lot of things.

I ditched the guard, not wanting to lose too much time moving at a slow pace. While I couldn’t improve Nurture to the degree I wanted, it didn’t mean I had nothing to do. If nothing else, I could try to get more Epic skills. While I probably couldn’t activate Quake Hammer before my Strength reached a hundred, making preparations wouldn’t hurt.

Then, there was the issue of the iron ore deposit about to be depleted. I could recycle some of the equipment like the old experimental devices if needed, but I much rather find a new one.

Just like my primitive poison refining setup had shown, I didn’t know when I would suddenly need a lot of iron for another step. Not to mention, as the arrow consumption increased, I would need more and more of it.

The trip back to town was not eventful. I used the facsimile of the Fleeting Step I had long learned thanks to the Perk guiding me, and merely ten minutes later, I was at the town. To my surprise, Maria was not at the headquarters, but at the outer town that was going through rapid construction, watching the show.

“Impressive, right?” she asked.

“It certainly is,” I said, but truthfully, I wasn’t sure. Yes, watching the people juggle weights measured in tons through direct application of their physical might was impressive, but it couldn’t rival what we were able to achieve before the Cataclysm had destroyed our technology.

Even before, I felt that we had been too hasty to abandon that path, and my own experience in the dungeon had only confirmed it further. Yes, the skills were amazing, but that didn’t mean we had to give up on the benefits of the scientific method.

We watched the show silently before Maria waved her hand, and created a bubble to block sound. “I have good news and bad news,” she said.

“Let’s start with the bad,” I said.

“Alright. We were only able to get three hundred more crossbows.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised. “It was not a problem I expected to encounter. Was it Thomas?”

Maria sighed. “This time, no. We underestimated the guilds that are trying to get involved. They swept the market and purchased all of them. A few of them are trying to sell them with absurd markups, while the others want us to sell them arrows.”

“Still, buying all of them…”

She shrugged. “Crossbows are rare weapons to begin with. Often, magic or melee are the better options. Moreover, most archery classes prefer a bow. They are much more efficient.”

“True,” I said. “Still, altogether, it’s not too bad. The first problem is a bit annoying, but could be acceptable depending on the markup. If they want to purchase arrows, it’s even better. I can even sell them to you in bulk, and you can resell them. However, just note that my stocks are not infinite, so don’t sell them cheaply,” I said.

“But, it would reduce your profits.”

“Not necessarily. As long as I can add a little profit to the sale, I should still be making enough to sustain the guild. Don’t forget that I’m only earning two silvers from each shell, which is just above my cost. As long as you sell it for two silver coins, I’ll be making a small but sustainable profit. And, I doubt that even if you’re willing to sell, an agreement can be done in a few days.”

“True,” she said with a chuckle. “They are pushing their luck a lot, thinking that we have no choice but to fold to their demands just because most guilds are not interested in a weak dungeon that’s too far away from the trade routes. We’re lucky that the System shop that accepts the shells is not too far away.”

I paused. “I recommend searching for alternative System shops that might purchase those shells. Now that the production issue is solved, it’s the best point to exert pressure from.”

She looked tense. “Do you think that will work?”

“Maybe. Better safe than sorry,” I said. Silence stretched for a moment while she considered my words. “So, what’s the good news?” I asked.

“The silver delivery is arranged. Five tons. Moreover, I managed to get almost two hundred pounds of raw gold for you to experiment with, though I had to pull a few favors. I even went to the trouble of bringing the gold with me. The silver will be delivered with the next caravan.”

“That’s excellent news,” I said. “How about raw platinum.” However, even as I asked that, I wasn’t very hopeful. She would have mentioned it if she had managed to acquire that.

“Unfortunately, we failed to find any,” Maria responded. “The price at the System shops is simply too high, all the platinum had been long sold. That’s true for the gold as well. You’re lucky that using gold as decoration is back in fashion, so it’s not impossible to find.”

I nodded. While the absence of platinum was a bummer — I was looking forward to using it to push my skill forward aggressively — the gold delivery was excellent news. I should be able to create a setup that would allow me to push it to the limit, which would hopefully trigger another evolution.

I needed that before I reached level fifty. The opportunity for a class upgrade was simply too valuable.

“Speaking of the dungeon, is there a way to trigger class upgrades for Farmers?” I asked. “I have a few Uncommon and Rare Nurture skills I collected while exploring. I wouldn’t want them to go to waste.”

“You can, but I wouldn’t recommend it,” she replied.

“Why?” I asked.

“Not really worth the effort,” she said. “Even if you use Rare Nurture for class upgrades, the results are underwhelming.”

“How bad?” I asked.

“One point of Strength or Dexterity for every five levels bad,” she said with a shrug. “Not exactly worth the effort.”

“And, how about pushing the skill to the limit,” I said.

She shrugged dismissively. “Who would go through all that trouble,” she said. “Ultimately, Nurture is the cheapest Rare skill you can find on the market by far, merely going for a few gold coins. Also, Rare skills grant better perks.”

I thought about asking for more, but I could see that she was already getting bored. I decided to end that talk. “It’s disappointing. Still, even a point every five levels is useful, at least for the ones I hire for my new guild. At least, I could do some proper hiring. No need to waste time.”

“Your call,” she said, utterly uninterested.

“How about a chess game or two before I returned to the dungeon,” I offered, and her disinterest was replaced with a smile.

”Perfect. But only a few games. I have a lot of work as well. B3,” she said, starting the game with an unconventional opening. I responded, and our discussion had shifted away from the dungeon operations.

I was happy with her lack of interest in the potential of the Farmer class. Once again, her bored answers allowed me to understand what was common, and what was not. Just the confirmation that Rare Nurture could be used to give them Strength or Dexterity was valuable enough.

It meant that I could help them improve their class without raising suspicion.

Dexterity would make it so they can use Basic Shot more efficiently — too bad the Common variant required Perception — while Strength meant that they could actually use Combat skills. In this dungeon, especially, having a Hammer skill could be a lifesaver against a swarm, as I knew from first-hand experience.

Especially if I armed them with weapons of my own making. Together with some stronger crossbows, they could actually operate independently on the third floor safely, opening a lot of interesting possibilities.

Of course, while she dismissed the value of letting Nurture develop naturally, I wasn’t exactly sure. My meditation had evolved automatically, maybe due to the adverse conditions. It meant that the setup I had created to increase the concentration of poison from the swamp could be used to make their skills evolve as well, maybe even unlocking better classes in the process.

However, that couldn’t be used without a basis for trust — and before I understood just how big of a secret it was.

Between the first and the second games, I decided to ask her another question. One that I couldn’t ask the guards without ruining the identity of an experienced dungeon delver. “Quick question. Is there any way to see more through the dungeon mist?”

“Without spending a lot of mana, or spending a fortune on alchemical boosters?” she asked. I nodded. “No, not for this dungeon,” she said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“In other dungeons, you can always travel to the last floor to kill the domain creatures, which gives you a crystal. This crystal, when absorbed, allows one to see farther through the dungeon mist, but with the way the fourth floor is, it’s not really a viable path,” she said.

“Can’t you just use the crystal from a different dungeon?” I asked.

“No, that’s unique for each dungeon,” she said.

I nodded, adding that to the topics to be researched.

But, that was for the future.

Tonight, I had another date with my skills, to see whether my Mana Forge or Nurture would reach Epic first…

*****

— Chapter 74

I left the dungeon with another cart, accompanied by five hundred farmers and ten guards who were about to join the operation. Part of the cart was filled with the crossbows Maria had purchased for me.

Unlike what she had thought, I wasn’t particularly disappointed with the situation. While I welcomed the extra income the expanded hunting operation might grant me, at this point, I could leave the dungeon naked, and I would still consider the expedition to be a huge success.

At this point, Maria needed it far more than I did, meaning she had to be the one to visit the various towns and purchase crossbows. And if I needed it … I could always try to figure out a way to create a composite bow.

My Skills didn’t include woodwork, but that didn’t mean that I had to stay incapable of it. All I needed was to figure out how to make a half-decent bow part out of wood, and the rest could be made entirely of metal.

As for bowstrings, purchasing them was still viable. The guilds might purchase all crossbows around the nearby towns to pressure Maria, but purchasing all of the bowstrings was a move of a completely different scale.

Of course, the cart didn’t only contain the crossbows, but also several sealed empty boxes. The gold Maria had brought wasn’t a part of it, as I decided to just turn it into a thick plate and wear it under my armor. Considering its importance, I didn’t want to take any risks.

It was possible, while three hundred pounds of gold sounded incredible, from a pure volume perspective, it wasn’t too much. If liquified, it would be around one and a half gallons. It was heavy, but my Strength allowed me to carry it easily.

Admittedly, once I arrived at the dungeon, it proved to be an unnecessary precaution, but better safe than sorry. I led the crowd to our outpost, which had grown even more in my absence. “Sir,” Harold greeted, followed by a quick summary of the operation.

The performance was decent enough. I could identify several points that I might have done differently, but I ignored the temptation of turning into a micromanager and let him deal with those details, only adding a few strategic commands, both in terms of how to handle the old operation, and how to expand the new ones.

“Should we expand to the second floor?” he asked.

“Not yet. But, make sure to identify the best performers, and let them join the guild directly. Twenty of them for now,” I said, and passed Harold twenty Rare Nurture skills.

“We’re trying for the class upgrade, sir?” he said without any prompting.

“Yes,” I said, unable to help but sigh, realizing that it was not a feature that was particularly hidden like I had first assumed, at least, not three years after the Cataclysm. It was probably a bigger secret when I still had the money. “Just make sure to pick good candidates. Calm, smart, ambitious but not too ambitious. Most importantly, smart enough to keep their mouths shut about secrets.”

“Perfect foot soldiers, I got it,” Harold said.

I nodded. After all, he wasn’t wrong. While I had no intention of letting the ones Harold picked learn my true secrets — even Maria and Eleanor wouldn’t be able to touch house secrets, let alone Harold or the people he picked — letting them operate on the second floor already required revealing some secrets that were best kept under wraps.

I didn’t expect those secrets to be kept away successfully. Even without magical means like a camouflage ring, there were too many ways to dig out secrets, including simple bribery.

However, there was a difference between an ambitious recruit selling secrets for several gold coins, and an arrogant one bragging to everyone after a night of drinking. I couldn’t prevent the former, but the latter was easier to deal with.

“Excellent. Make sure to work them hard. Tomorrow, we’ll start building an outpost on the second floor,” I told him.

With that, I left him to organize the operators while I immediately rushed to the fourth floor. The first thing I did was to remove all the gold from my armor, and place it into the forge. It was tempting to start working on forging gold items immediately, but I turned my attention to the poison refinement setup.

With some poisonous mix already gathered on the sixth tray, I had an easy way to push Nurture to the limit. It merely took half an hour, and the poison at the fifth tray had been enough. All I needed was to repeatedly poison and cure a tree.

[Nurture (Rare) 196 -> 200]

[Perk Options — Bountiful Growth / Efficient Harvest / Lingering Tend]

I picked Bountiful Growth, spending a few minutes to test its effect. It helped me to grow the trees far faster.

Too bad I didn’t even begin to understand how it affected the original setup. And, without understanding, I couldn’t reverse engineer it. A great loss. I might have done so if I had a few months to delve deep into the secrets of Nurture.

Unfortunately, that was simply not an option.

Instead, I pulled one of the skill stones I couldn’t have deciphered before, and smiled at the notification.

[Skill Stone: Nurture (Epic)]

I absorbed it. What followed was not exactly pleasant. I had absorbed many different external skills, which gave me a general sense of what to expect. However, the sensation of absorbing an Epic skill was still more unpleasant than I had expected.

[Nurture (Rare) 200 -> Nurture (Epic) 1]

However, the reward was worth it. “Let’s try it,” I said even as I moved toward a tree that was completely grown and touched its bark, trying to use only one point of Health, wanting to understand the differences.

[-5 Health]

To my surprise, I wasn’t able to use one Health. A few more attempts showed that the least I could use had turned to five health, and it only increased in multiples of five.

That was not the only difference. The Health, for the lack of a better term, felt different. In a way, it was similar to how Vitality attacks had changed the form of the Health, but instead of turning solid and sharp, it transformed almost the opposite manner, soft and docile.

The difference was interesting. The impact, however…

“Incredible,” I gasped even as I watched the tree grow after one continuous burst of Health.

[Nurture (Epic) 1 -> 14]

Due to the poisonous nature of the environment, I wasn’t expecting to succeed at growing anything before I visited the third floor and pushed the skill to a certain, high level. To my surprise, it worked better than I had expected.

Some more practice with Health showed that I could still use the old form of Health for Nurture, but it had no effect on improvement.

I raised several trees. The effectiveness of the skill had grown further, and I slowly lost the necessity to improve the amount of Health I used by multiples of five, but I was still unable to drop it lower. Even more surprising, the growth of the skill had stalled barely at its forties. And, even after I had started using the six different intensities of poison I had collected, I wasn’t able to reach a hundred.

[Nurture (Epic) - 92]

However, that inability didn’t mean failure. Even with Epic Nurture barely below one hundred, I was able to grow trees effortlessly, both in terms of time, and in terms of Health required. Epic Nurture was more effective when dealing with the corrupting influence of the poison water, meaning the trees could grow far more cheaply without being restricted by the swamp, allowing me to explore the region faster.

However, it wasn’t the only benefit I had derived from my Epic skill. While Rare attack skills had various Health-based special moves, they all worked in similar manners. Epic Nurture allowed me to work with Health in a completely different manner.

After an hour of practice, I was able to create that denser variant of Health more smoothly, and it had some interesting implications, particularly for Fleeting Step. Some experimentation later, I was able to create a variant that allowed me to move smoother.

When using the softer variant of Health, the movement wasn’t as fast, but it was far more flexible. With those benefits combined, it was obviously the correct decision to improve Nurture.

Too bad I couldn’t improve my other skills to Epic before I reached level fifty, which was why I hadn’t focused on hunting beasts for Epic skills. Even with my skills maximized, I still needed a hundred points in my stats to be able to absorb Epic skills.

But, with the prospect of my class tempting me, I decided not to hurry up when it came to leveling up.

Not before I pushed Forge to Epic level.

Or, maybe more.

*****

— Chapter 75

[Mana Repair (Rare) 293 -> 297]

“Well, that was straightforward,” I called even as I finished forging a very intricate silver-gold sword that gleamed densely with mana. To my surprise, improving Forge hadn’t required anything particularly clever. I just needed to forge various types of pure gold equipment and push the skill higher and higher.

That way, I was able to bring both skills to the threshold before dawn, even when I took multiple breaks to show my face upstairs, making sure everything was going well.

During the forging process, the only change I made was to stop bleeding into the molten metal. Unlike the earlier bursts, the denser Health I learned thanks to Nurture was easier to control, staying in the metal and allowing Mana to latch on easily.

That, combined with my steam-powered Mana crusher providing a Mana density that could hardly be matched outside, allowed me to rapidly push Mana Forge near the limit in less than eight hours. The ability to monopolize a dungeon floor was certainly an incredible opportunity.

It had been a shockingly efficient process, even when I didn’t neglect to improve my Repair skills in the process. Currently, both skills are at the edge of improving.

“Let’s just hope improving them again won’t be too hard,” I muttered even as I forged another weapon, this time pushing Forge to its edge.

[Mana Forge (Rare) 299 -> Mana Forge (Epic) 1]

The sensation of improving a Class Skill was much smoother than absorbing an external skill stone, but that wasn’t because it contained any less information. The biggest thing, the Forge skill came with its own way of condensing Health, one that was different from both Nurture and combat skills.

It was closer to Nurture when it came to feeling, but with more viscosity. It felt heavier and moved slower. The differences were noteworthy. The modified energy worked far better to bond with the metal. And, more importantly, it was under the direct control of the skill, meaning the improvement in the skill quality was incredible.

But, all this improvement came with a very unfortunate side effect. Just like it had been the case for the previous mana attack trick, its effectiveness to improve had dropped considerably. Luckily, that was not my only trick.

While the skill was at one, it only contained the recipes for copper. Instead of forging them again and again, I once again used Nurture to imbue gold with mana, pushing my skill forward once again. It wasn’t as rapid as the previous attempts, but it was rapid enough.

Unfortunately, its effectiveness stalled when I finally reached a hundred and unlocked the proper forging recipes for pure gold. A big problem, but I preferred to focus on the benefits first.

For one, I learned that the different types of metals actually required slightly different types of Health to maximize their potential benefits. It also meant that there might be other ways of using Health that created some unusual patterns.

That was a research direction that required far more than just a day to explore comprehensively.

Worse, I was afraid that it was too much for one person. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in a position to hire people, not without opening a dangerous box that I might not be able to close back up.

I repeated the same effort with the Mana Repair, and soon, both my class skills were Epic Grade. Interestingly, unlike Meditation, the skill name didn’t change. I had a feeling that, just like the Perks, it changed by the actions leading to the improvement.

Unlike External Skills, Class Skills seemed to have a memory for the actions leading to their improvement.

[Mana Repair (Epic) - 101 [Advanced Observe]

Mana Forge (Epic) - 102 [Advanced Creative Forging, Mana Control]]

However, even as I looked at the incredible development of my skills, I had a frown on my face. My trick of forging with the environmental mana had stopped working even when I was working on gold.

The reason for it was simple. Epic Mana Forge didn’t just have a method of condensing Health, it had a way of condensing Mana as well. From a certain point of view, it was excellent news, as it allowed me to forge incredible weapons.

Like the tiny spearhead in my hand, which was a unique iron-silver-gold alloy, based entirely on the new condensed Health and Mana I was able to utilize. It was superior to anything else I had in my possession. Not only was the material stronger and more flexible, but it also maintained an absurdly sharp point that could pierce through a rock without using any Vitality or Mana to reinforce the attack, and the thin wings it had on the side had an edge sharper than anything I had forged previously.

These attributes alone made the weapon incredibly valuable, but those paled compared to its real features. It enhanced the impact of Vitality and Mana attacks to a shocking degree. Not only was it easier to use those attacks, but also the damage was stronger than I was able to forge previously.

Several times stronger.

However, despite all the newfound advantages, its inability to use environmental mana was a deadly drawback. It meant I had to stop, absorb the Mana, deplete it back in just two blows, and repeat the process. It meant repeated pauses while working.

And, for the tiny spearhead I was holding, I had to stop almost two hundred times, which had extended the time of forging drastically— and this new method of forging was hardly time-efficient in the first place. Even the tiniest weapon I could think of took almost three hours to make. Forging a sword would take a full day, and I couldn’t even imagine how long it would take to put together an armor set.

That timeline didn’t annoy me from a practical perspective, though. I was sure that this tiny spearhead I was holding would go for an absolute fortune if sold in an auction. It would probably be enough to buy the dungeon I was currently in.

It was a bit of a stretch, but I was confident in my assumption. I had already used Observe on Eleanor’s sword back when I was learning the Vitality attack from her, and it was not made of anything that could compare to what I had in my grasp. And, Eleanor was rich enough to be a minority investor. If she was able to purchase something made of my alloy, she would have.

Knowing her, she would never turn away the opportunity to purchase a better sword.

More importantly, she was part of a large family, and worked as a bodyguard for one of their core members. I suspected that the family purchased a sword like that for her if it was possible. Meaning, either they didn’t have the access, or it was valuable enough not to be given to a guard.

Either way, it meant I needed to be even more careful. The previous ones, I was afraid of revealing because I didn’t want them to affect their profits. However, my new creation was of strategic significance.

That kind of importance could get assassins involved, and not the ragtag bandit Thomas had sent. Professional ones.

Admittedly, my experiences with Assassins were limited. Most of my knowledge came from the Pre-Cataclysm era, when I had temporarily joined a government project as a consultant. While my role as a sociologist was merely peripheral, I still had to go through a weeklong training to avoid assassinations due to regulations.

The number of ways someone could be assassinated was truly shocking, and that was before magic turned into a part of the world, adding thousands of other methods. “I wonder if there’s an Assassin class,” I said with a deep sigh, but stopped wondering.

Ultimately, I was not ready to reveal my secrets before I got a better understanding of the landscape, and that hadn’t changed.

Unfortunately, the need to keep a secret wasn’t my biggest problem. No… My biggest problem was a simpler one.

It would take a long time to improve Mana Forge to its limit.

I lost the ability to rapidly improve my skill by forging hundreds of weapons in quick succession. I had tried a few tricks, but the moment recipes with gold appeared in the skill, none of those worked. It seemed that I had to use the methods in the skill to forge the weapons.

And, even the simplest weapons were requiring tens of thousands of mana to be forged. I would be lucky if I got a skill point in three hours, and it would probably get more challenging as I improved.

“How quickly one gets spoiled,” I sighed, mocking myself. A month ago, I was happy to increase one proficiency point in less than a month.

Now, I was turning my nose to improving my Epic skill because a day would mean improving it only in single digits. I was still hopeful that platinum would benefit me the same way gold did, but I needed to work harder to get my hands on some.

Alternatively, maybe I could figure out a way to automate a portion of the process, or try to see if the more dangerous dungeons contained materials that could allow me to bypass some steps.

“Let’s shelve Forge and Repair for the moment,” I ultimately decided even as I started forging myself a collapsible spear shaft, steel with a gold core, though it was made with the old methods.

Since I had already created myself a superior weapon, there was no harm bringing it around for safety. And, once that was done, I went upstairs.

I wanted to be there for the creation of the outpost for the second floor.