Blacksmith vs. the System 41-45

— Chapter 41

“What are you doing?” Eleanor asked the moment she entered the forge, her gaze immediately locking on the device in my hand.

“I’m trying to find a way to get the shells off the beasts faster,” I said.

The moment I said that her interest faded. “Already trying to make your guild more profitable,” she said, but I could sense a hint of disdain in her tone. I didn’t exactly blame her. Hunters were production classes just like Blacksmiths, but, unlike us, they had a reason to actually be outside.

That meant that finding Hunters above level twenties was far easier than finding high level Blacksmiths, which meant they didn’t need to deal with the same problem. And, unlike Warriors, they would be more than happy to work in a low-risk, low-pay dungeon. In a world where skills could increase by killing monsters rather than working for years, the value of labor was not much.

And, more importantly, unlike Blacksmiths, Hunters would be arranged by the guilds, meaning it was not her problem.

“Not exactly,” I said. “It’s just a good way to test the elasticity of the metal while I work on trying to discover something that can resist the corrosion. It helps me focus,” I said even as I pointed at the various materials that were cluttered about, trying to convince her that I was focused on helping them.

“Good,” she said as she noticed the fresh sign of experimenting. I had used those to improve Nurture, but she didn’t need to know that. “How was your first proper day as a guild master? Anyone suspicious?”

“No. The story about an old friend deciding to set up a new guild works well enough. Altogether, very believable. The weapon change especially helped. No one should suspect a genius swordsman to be a blacksmith.”

“Genius? Someone’s feeling arrogant. Come, we need to solve it.”

I chuckled as I followed her. Her desire to have another spar was transparent. I wasn’t complaining. Not only did I want to impress her, but also watching her fight was interesting. I might always learn something from her.

I still couldn’t figure out how to use a mana attack with my sword. It would have been very helpful.

This time, she brought me to a sparring room, and threw me a wooden sword and shield. She just grabbed a sword. “It’s going to be painful, isn’t it?” I asked. With a real, enchanted blade, she had to hold back. With a wooden sword, she didn’t have to.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she replied.

“Well, no pain, no gain,” I said as I positioned myself, focusing on the technique. While being beaten painfully was not my ideal midnight activity, I wasn’t exactly complaining either. Sparring with her would be a good way to figure out a few new tricks.

At least, it wasn’t as ghoulish as constantly cutting myself to bleed on metal, which had been the method I used to push Mana Forge and Repair.

“Attack first. I want to see just how much you have improved,” she said. I attacked, not bothering to hold back the slightest. After all, for that reason, I hadn’t pushed my Stalwart Guard to the sixties. Her eyes widened as she took a note of my improvement, which was the only sign of distress. Her blade still easily blocked everything without even taking a step.

It felt intentional, so I started to rely on my shield more than it would have been reasonable in another situation. “Fine,” she growled as she took a step back, then lunged forward.

Her sword lashed, but I managed to avoid it … barely, and only by somehow mixing the Fleeting Step into the mix. It allowed me to avoid her attack.

[Stalwart Guard (Uncommon) 58 -> 59]

It was a fascinating feeling. It felt like something clicked for a second, before disappearing. And, it was equally clear that the System had acknowledged it. It was very difficult to improve skills through sheer practice, especially after pushing them higher.

Her eyes widened once more. “That’s not a part of the Stalwart Guard,” she said.

“I guess not. It was just a stroke of inspiration,” I replied. “I tried to copy the way you moved, and it … worked.

“You truly have talent. Too bad you’re not a warrior,” she said. “Still, once you reach level fifty, I’ll gift you a Rare skill.”

“Is this what’s needed to use Rare skills?” I asked.

“Indirectly,” she said, and I looked at her. “Unlike uncommon ones, where you just need to have the Stat in question, rare skills have higher Stat requirements. Not all of them are the same, but the ones that are worth using usually require a hundred at their Primary stat. There are very few strength-based styles that would fit your style well.”

“That would be excellent,” I said as I nodded, more than happy with the prospect of a hard-to-get Rare skill that would fit well with my style. Especially since it would just replace the Stalwart Guard rather than occupying a new slot.

“One condition. I want you to bring the proficiency to at least eighty before you reach level fifty.”

“I think I can bring it to a hundred,” I replied, deliberately acting proud. After all, since the aim was to impress.

She just snorted, clearly not believing it. I didn’t blame her. If I hadn’t been abusing the way skills overlap, there was no chance that I could even get close to it. What followed was an hour of non-stop sparring that had been as intense as I had feared. I tried to mix Fleeting Step in as many times as I could manage.

It didn’t work as much as I wanted, but considering the impressed expression on her face, even that was exceptional.

[Stalwart Guard (Uncommon) 59 -> 66]

“Actually, you might be right. You are learning even faster than I expected. You might reach a hundred, easily. Maybe I shouldn’t wait until you reach fifty.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“When you push a skill at Common or above to its limit, it gives you a perk,” she said. “Usually, it’s not worth going through all that effort for an external skill, but there’s a benefit. When you have a Perk, it brings the requirements down for the next tier skill. That way, either you can get a Strength focused one early, or go with a different Rare skill.”

I made a show of looking surprised. “Then, wouldn’t it be better to learn the Common skill before upgrading it step by step?”

She chuckled. ‘Unfortunately, no. Upgrading a skill through a skill stone resets it,” she said. “The perk goes away.”

“Even for class skills?” I asked as it was not my experience. “Not that it’s really relevant for us poor Blacksmiths.”

“Yes, even for them,” she replied. Interesting, as in my experience, the Perks stayed. However, maybe there was a difference between making the skill evolve directly and using a skill stone.

Of course, even if that Perk disappeared, I wasn’t exactly willing to write it off as a loss. It still taught me a lot.

I decided to change the topic. “I’ll still try to bring it to a hundred. It teaches a lot,” I said. “Do you mind if I use the other floors to practice?”

“Go ahead, if you think you can handle it,” she said.

“Of course, I can,” I replied. “Actually, why don’t I clean the gates for you. I can easily deal with the giant ones. After all, I have a hammer to slowly break their legs.”

She frowned. “Are you sure? Ranged attacks can be troubling to deal with, especially with the corrosion effect.”

I smiled. “That’s easy. I just need to make a shield out of stone to defend myself against the ranged attacks. Then, I can just discard it and make a new one.”

“Still, it can be dangerous,” she muttered. “Try to defend against this,” she said as she took several steps back. I waited, expecting her to pick some stones or other ranged items. Instead, she had raised her sword. When she brought it down, some kind of energy cut through the air, targeting me. It was a thin, weak blade.

I raised my shield to block it. Before it even landed on my shield, she attacked again, this time moving slower. I defended myself to the best of my effort, doing my best to rely on dodging rather than blocking, which got even harder as she started moving around.

“Alright, you can defend yourself,” she cleared. “You just need to be careful if there are multiple giant insects on the third floor. It’s not likely, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“Good point,” I replied. “Still, having stronger enemies should help me to raise my skill faster. And, once I do it, I can take over keeping the gates secure. I owe you one, and you’re too busy to waste a full day there.”

“You would do that?” she asked.

“Of course. As I said, I owe you,” I replied, acting like having access to lower floors wasn’t a treasure for me. “However, I’ll need the maps for the second and the third floor. I shouldn’t get lost.”

She nodded. “Easy. Now, let’s spar some more.”

“Before we start, may I ask what that attack was? Some kind of mana attack?” I asked, despite knowing it was not the case. I wasn’t able to feel any mana in her attack. Yet, it was somewhat familiar.

“No, it’s a special attack from a class skill,” she said. She didn’t mention the perk name of the skill name, clearly intending to keep it a secret.

“How does it maintain its shape without mana?” I asked.

“By using Vitality, of course,” she replied, which surprised me. I didn’t even think that such a thing was possible.

“Really?” I asked. “Do you mind if I examine how it works from a close range?”

“How?” she asked.

“I think I can use my Analyze skill to properly examine it,” I replied. I wasn’t faking my enthusiasm. While it was a big request since it potentially touched the secrets of her skills, the possibility of learning from it was more important.

“Alright, but never reveal anything about it to anyone else.”

“Of course,” I said as I stood next to her, and grabbed the hilt together with her, my fingers over hers to catch the movement of Vitality. She froze, and I noticed that her face was red. For someone of her level to be exhausted, she must have had a tiring day. “Go ahead,” I said.

“A-alright,” she stammered as she swung the sword. Meanwhile, I kept my eyes closed, using my best to stretch my Advanced Inspect to the limit to carefully examine the way the sword shifted. The way Vitality had been shaped inside the sword had been fascinating.

The best part, unlike the complicated patterns of mana, it was easy to understand … well, relatively. At least, I had a rough idea after she had repeated it a dozen times.

“I think that’s enough,” she pulled. “I … I have a long day tomorrow.”

“How about the spar?” I asked, but she was already walking away.

“I’ll just take a rain check,” she replied and walked away.

“Whenever you want,” I called, which was a completely genuine reaction.

Why shouldn’t I be, when that meeting had solved three serious problems at the same time.

*****

— Chapter 42

As I walked through the third floor of the dungeon, I felt even more enthusiastic. I wasn’t able to see Eleanor in the morning, but thankfully, she hadn’t forgotten to drop the maps of the first three floors.

She even marked the doors to the fourth floor — with a note warning me to stay away for my safety — which meant I didn’t need to search the entirety of the huge area. And, that area was truly huge. Almost thirty miles in radius. Combined with the limited visibility, it would have been torture to search through it.

I truly needed it. After realizing that my plans of setting a forge on the fourth floor were more infeasible than I had realized, I decided to move my small forge to a new spot. And what better location than the gate that was farthest from any entrance.

Having a real map made moving easy, and I was strong enough to pull everything — including the large crucible — with me easily. This time, knowing I had to move, I brought it with me.

I didn’t need to leave the cart on the first floor after taking over the gate protection and maintenance. And, having the cart with me, I didn’t need to waste the material from the beasts I killed, piling the broken shells into it.

When I arrived at my destination, I picked a hilltop a mile away from the gate leading to the fourth floor. After some effort to set everything at the forge, I started digging a small pool not too far away from the gate, and covered its bottom with anti-corrosive metal. It was a thin layer, but it should be enough to maintain it.

Then, I forged two large buckets, but I didn’t bring them with me.

Instead, I changed into my combat set, took the spear and hammer with me, and jumped through the gate. After experiencing the sudden onslaught at the other gate, I was prepared for the challenge. However, being prepared didn’t make the challenge easier, particularly since I had been doing my best to rip the broken shells.

I needed a lot of material for my setup to improve Nurture.

Since I wasn’t trying to push through the monsters, I filled my oversized buckets before going back, carrying some of the stuff. Several trips later, I had enough water to swim in if I wished, which meant I could experiment as I wished.

I filled one of the buckets with the best fertilizer with the least poison I was able to come up with, and brought it near the forge. Behind the hill where I set up my forge, there was a small deep valley. One that was perfect for growing an experimental orchard.

“Let’s try it,” I said as I set twenty cuttings from half-dead shrubberies, and fed the first one with a drop before flooding them with enough Health to satisfy the requirement of the skill.

[-22 Health]

[Nurture (Uncommon) 34 -> 35]

“Excellent,” I said, happy to see a response from the System. I was even happier to see that the sapling had grown considerably, sprouting almost two inches. Not exactly a great amount, but considering it only took a smidgen of health and a drop of poison-fertilizer, the growth was incredible nevertheless.

While using dungeon water allowed the dungeon plants to grow outside, the actual growth was next to negligible compared to what I had achieved inside the dungeon.

I repeated the process even as I grabbed one of the vitality-dense bars I had brought along — this time with enough presence of mind to leave them on the third floor — to replenish my Health slowly, once again amused that a Blacksmith could increase the skill level faster.

[-410 Health]

[Nurture (Uncommon) 34 -> 49]

Still, whenever I repeated it, I focused on the sensation of Health leaving my body, doing my best to get familiar with it. I had already been planning to learn how to use Health directly, to see if I could push Repair and Forge higher by using just silver — as finding a sufficient amount of gold to forge weapons seemed to be a challenge — and Eleanor’s attack had only intensified that desire.

It was a dangerous world, and having an extra weapon was always welcome.

After several rounds, my Nurture had stabilized in the mid-fifties. Which would have been an easy pattern.

Instead, I returned and mixed another fertilizer, this time both the poison and fertilized effect stronger. However, for this batch, I also mixed the purest fertilizer I could manage. After playing around, I realized the best way was to use a stronger poison effect.

While, at the same time, giving the plant enough material to trigger its growth.

“It can’t be that easy,” I muttered as I replicated the same process with a sapling I had brought from outside for this exact purpose. It … died.

Terribly.

“Not a surprise. It doesn’t have any inherent resistance,” I muttered. “Maybe if it’s stronger,” I said. I used some water from outside I had brought for this exact purpose and carefully enhanced its growth. Soon, I was looking at a sapling that was two feet tall and looked far healthier than the others.

It cost me almost ten minutes, and three hundred Health. And, it didn’t even increase my skill.

Then, I used the cleanest dungeon fertilizer I had discovered. One drop had been enough to make it wilt helplessly. I tried to reverse it, which cost me even more.

[-219 Health]

To make it even more annoying, there was no skill improvement.

“Alright, it’s clear that the dungeon plant has some kind of resistance to the poison aspect,” I determined. The mechanics were no doubt interesting, but I didn’t have the equivalent of Repair to properly analyze it.

“It looks like the theme of the day is pointless repetition,” I said even as I increased the number of saplings. Soon, I was feeding them with stronger and stronger fertilizer first, pushing them to a certain size before I poisoned them.

My Nurture skills climbed higher and higher. Then, noon arrived. I had depleted the small pool I had created, but it was not for nothing. I had reached my glorious point of success.

“Beautiful, “ I said even as I looked at my small, unambitious tree plantation. None of the trees were taller than my height, and they were the ugliest little things I had ever seen with crooked branches and thin, listless leaves.

But, it represented two things. One, unlimited fuel for my forge.

Two, another beautiful experiment.

[Nurture (Uncommon) - 72]

“Let’s see if you’ll be able to survive the poison,” I said even as I used the shovel to carefully uproot it from its place while I stuffed my mouth with some extra food. Then, I brought the tree next to the gate.

I left the tree behind as I went down, killing the monsters around the gate — their presence wasn’t as intense, but I still had to kill several giant monsters. Then, I broke their shells into a mixture of small and big pieces and picked a small spot near the gate that wasn’t submerged in water.

The wet mulch wasn’t too difficult to dig.

Then, I returned to the third floor and brought the small, ugly tree I had brought with me. The moment it arrived, it started to wilt.

I immediately put my hand on its surface, pushing as much as Health as I could manage in short bursts.

[-42 Health]

[Nurture (Uncommon) 72 -> 74]

Unfortunately, despite that, the tree started to wilt rather than grow. I repeated the attempt multiple times, each attempt slowing down its demise to some extent. But, ultimately, it ended up as a dead, dried tree, and my current health was insufficient to resolve the issue.

However, while it was a sad loss, there was a great benefit to it as well.

[Nurture (Uncommon) 99 -> 100]

[Perk Options — Growth / Harvest]

“Excellent,” I muttered even as I went back to the third floor, once again going back and forth until I had refilled the pool. Not only that, but I had also added a hundred more saplings to my little tree plantation.

With the skill already at its peak, I was able to grow those saplings far more efficiently, both in terms of Health required and time. Raising a small orchard didn’t even take enough time to reach midday.

Now, it’s time for another forging experiment,” I said. I cut ten of the trees and used them to create a nice cozy fire, capable of easily melting and cleansing the limited silver I had.

This time, I tried to engage Nurture to push Health directly to the molten metal, followed by slowly feeding mana. It worked enough to hold the material. Unfortunately, suddenly, it was my speed of releasing mana that was a problem.

“Luckily, it’s not a big problem,” I said as I looked at the large pile of broken shells, each representing an incredible amount of mana I could directly use in the form of a mana blow. Especially since the new trees had been able to burn brightly enough to release the mana from the shells completely.

“Fascinating,” I said as I rapidly started to forge the smallest silver daggers I could manage, using the poisonous dungeon water to quench them, and then destroying them just as quickly.

Now that I wasn’t trying to ration the mana I was able to use, the skill started to rise rapidly once again.

When it was past midday, I was looking for a beautiful new text.

[Mana Forge (Rare) 99 - 100 ]

[Perk Options — Modify / Masterwork / Rapid Forging / Mana Control (Mana Manipulation) / Durable]

If there was a further variant of Creative Forging, it would have been a tough choice. Without it, Mana Control was the clear option. Maybe, with that, I might break the limit on my sword skills.

However, as much as I wanted to try that, improving Repair was more important. So, I forged the strongest, most mana-dense silver dagger I could manage before systematically destroying and repairing it until the skill reached its limit.

I didn’t even have to think before I chose to improve Advanced Inspect, as it was still my single most important Perk.

[Mana Repair (Rare) - 104 [Observe]

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

“Beautiful,” I celebrated, ignoring the temptation to tinker with them even more. With the materials in hand, I had already reached the limit. For the next stage, I needed gold, probably in bulk, and likely even more mana than I could get from the broken shells of giant monsters.

So, as much as I wanted to play with them more, I decided that it was time to fight some more.

However, not before I completely reforged everything.

*****

— Chapter 43

Forging a completely new set of gear had been an exciting prospect. Even if the skill didn’t give me a better variant of the anti-corrosive alloy with some silver mixed in, the difference between sixty points and a hundred points was incredible enough to make it worth the effort.

After all, such a radical jump didn’t just bring with it more materials, but completely new techniques to use. Some of those techniques revealed new ways to use Mana to manipulate the underlying material, while the others were purely physical methods like folding the metal more and more to manipulate its crystallization structure.

However, I didn’t choose to forge the best weapon that was offered, for one simple reason: It required a long and delicate forging process, requiring me to turn the metal into a sheet before folding it back again and again for hours for every ingot.

While it would have made the resulting weapon considerably better, I didn’t have a week to forge a weapon and a month to forge a piece of armor.

No, a set that used most of the silver I had while still being forged in under one hour was the best option. I compensated for some of the weaknesses by using an excessive amount of mana, while the others stayed in place.

Even this was only possible thanks to Creative Forging and Mana Control, a combination that allowed me to bypass a lot of restrictions inherent to these techniques, though the quality suffered significantly.

I wondered just how incredible my weapons would have been had I chosen the Masterwork path, but it was just an idle curiosity. Ultimately, my new set was more than enough to handle the challenges offered by this dungeon, and that was all that mattered.

“Still, it had been an interesting experience,” I muttered as I spent ten minutes, and used the last of the available silver to make the shell removal device I had been trying to make. It worked beautifully, but it was not commercially viable.

Simply because it was too precious. The device I had envisioned last night had many moving parts out of necessity, and they didn’t work very well. Instead, what I forged was essentially three small thin knives with an absurd elasticity and even sharper edges, perfect to scoop under the shells.

Unfortunately, its materials were too precious, which would be suspicious.

“I can always keep it with me while showing the prototype,” I decided.

I needed the money it would bring.

Technically, with my current abilities, there were far better methods of making money. I could go and start forging mana alloys in a mana-dense location. I didn’t know how much a silver mana alloy would go for, but ten gold coins for an ingot was far below the actual price.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know a way to do so without suddenly becoming a ‘guest’ to one of the stronger families. After all, I didn’t just offer rare resources, but a chance to replicate, which was the kind of thing that needed to be monopolized to maximize its impact.

“Hunting insects is more than acceptable,” I decided. Maybe I could try something better once I believed myself to be strong enough, but I still had a lot to do before that step. Even with all the things I had solved, I was still three years behind schedule.

Even as I started walking toward the fourth floor, I started thinking about how to close that gap. The most urgent step was obvious. Before reaching level fifty, I needed to find a way to improve my class skills to the next stage.

Which, in turn, would give me a better class once I reached level fifty. Hopefully.

Of course, I couldn’t exactly experiment blindly. Even with the Mana variants of my two skills, I had a solid direction of where to go. I had worked with mana alloys, and Maria had helped me by infusing mana into the metal. Even then, only the coincidence of being in a mana dead zone allowed me to make that jump.

For the other possible improvements, I needed direction.

For direction, I needed information.

And, for information, I needed money.

“Let’s hunt,” I said, even as I delved into the fourth floor. I had achieved a lot, but I still had some time. And, I wanted to see if the improved equipment helped me against the giant insects.

The short answer, it did. Immensely.

Before, I still needed to use a combination of spear and hammer styles against giant beasts, climbing on top of them before using the hammer. It wasn’t slow by any means, taking less than ten seconds.

But, the difference between ten seconds and one blow was too much. Suddenly, I was able to push the spear art to the limit as I ran through the bog without even slowing down, each blow killing a giant insect. Most of the time, I didn’t even bother changing my path to kill one of the smaller ones.

The increased speed had paid off greatly. When I finished the time I had allocated to pure leveling, I had already improved further.

[Level 38 -> 39]

[+2 Vitality, +2 Strength,, +2 Dexterity]

[Level 39 -> 40]

[+2 Vitality, +2 Strength,, +1 Dexterity, +1 Essence]

On the way back, I shifted to the sword, trying to replicate the mana attack.

To my shock, it took only three tries for me to succeed … somewhat. It was a combination of a minute amount of silver conducting mana better than I had expected, my new Mana Control perk allowing me to control the flow better, and a greater understanding of how to shape it to get an approximation of a cutting edge.

[-2 Mana]

I stopped using the sword once the skill proficiency reached the low seventies, which I had accomplished easily by killing a dozen insects. I slowed it down, once again trying to stay within reasonable bounds.

With my spear and hammer skill in place, the only function of the sword skill was to impress Eleanor.

However, as I passed near the dried remains of the tree I tried to raise, I decided that I still had time for one more experiment. And, with the small plantation in place, even if Rare skills proved harder to improve than I initially assumed, I could always go the slow way.

I went back to the third floor, once again refilling the small pond. Then, I grabbed the Rare skill stone, and absorbed it.

[Nurture (Uncommon) 100 -> Nurture (Rare) 1]

“That’s a big drop,” I muttered even as I started using the rare variant, trying to see how it changed, trying to compare it with the other variants.

The first thing I noticed was that it was far more effective when it came to dealing with the poison aspects, easily cleansing it from the sapling with a little bit of mana. That had been incredible enough, but also the growth effect was more pronounced.

Then, there was the final result. The saplings that had been enhanced by the Rare variant looked far more healthier. Its branches were smoother and thicker, and the leaves were brighter. It actually looked like a tree rather than a sorry excuse.

The only disadvantage was that the skill was slower to grow. The poisoned tree trick had been able to push the old skill to eighties easily, while the Rare variant slowed down at below fifty. Though, considering it was functioning better at that level, it was hardly a drawback.

“And, it’s not like I don’t have a method to handle it,” I said even as I uprooted another tree, refilled my health by eating — glad that my Vitality made that process even faster — and went back to the fourth floor.

“Let’s see how long you’ll be able to survive,” I said as I buried the tree that was as tall as me. I injected it with a burst of Health.

[-22 Health]

[Nurture (Rare) 42 -> 46]

“Excellent,” I said, and repeated the trick, curious just how much I would be able to push it before it died … but it didn’t take long for me to realize I had made a slight miscalculation.

The rare variant was better at dealing with the poison aspect … to a significant degree. Which meant, the tree wasn’t slowly corroding, but actually growing, a pattern that had started to get more and more obvious.

Ten minutes later, I was looking for a giant tree that hovered above me, taller than twenty yards. An important detail, because I could see its branches without being blocked by the dungeon mist. Interesting.

[Nurture (Rare) - 82]

“How curious,” I said even as I walked back, only to realize my vision range still included the tree. Only when I walked back, I realized that, effectively, there was a second bubble around the tree, which overlapped with mine. The moment I walked away sufficiently, the mist blocked the way.

Since I needed to keep things going, I moved back, wanting to add seven more trees around the dungeon gate. Having a better vision around the gate would have made my life much easier.

Raising seven more trees allowed me to raise Nurture back to nineties, which took another half an hour. A nice surprise. Another surprise followed soon after.

The insects avoided the fully-grown trees.

Another fascinating little detail.

“Incredible,” I said, but while I wanted to play around, it was also true that I needed money. A lot of money. For that reason, I went back to the third floor, and used a combination of shell extraction device and the new silver spear with great efficiency.

Thanks to the device, it took less than a second to extract the shell without damaging it, which was an incredible activity. Extracting a thousand shells took barely more than an hour, traveling took more than the task itself, and even then, it wasn’t much.

The third floor was teeming with monsters, which gave me more than enough prey. I might have even extracted more, that would have been suspicious even with the extraction device.

With that, I piled everything onto the cart, and started going up.

When I arrived, the guards looked at the cart with a shocked expression. “Wow, that’s an … incredible haul. Particularly since you’re alone.”

“Nothing too much,” I replied even as I smiled. “A good friend of mine made this for me. It’s a bit of trouble to maintain, and I paid a hundred gold for it, but it’s worth it.” It was not without reason I gave such an absurd number. It needed to look like something that was not affordable.

“Really, what does it do?” the guard asked.

“It helps extract the shells,” I said. “Also, I was lucky to find a swarm or two, and a few good Samaritans were kind enough to exchange weapons with me so I didn’t have to return every hour.”

“Wow, really,” he said.

“Of course,” I replied even as I raised my sword, and told a quick story about how I achieved it while also showing my sword skills. An explanation … and if someone was having some thoughts, a warning.

When I left the dungeon, I was thirty gold coins richer. It would have been thirty-two, with some spare silver, but the extra, I left as a tip.

Well, I let them record as such, at least. Currently, they weren’t paying with coins, but giving some kind of credit, which could be used for services. It had to be redeemed in the town, after all the expenses from repair fees to guild rent had been paid.

Still, a reputation for generosity wouldn’t harm. Especially when, tomorrow, I would probably borrow at least twenty swords to make things more believable, which was technically against the rules. Everyone could borrow three swords, and had to bring them back in an acceptable condition to get a new one.

Getting twenty swords would eat into my profits even more, but I didn’t need Eleanor to start wondering if I discovered some kind of resistant alloy this early on.

*****

— Chapter 44

When I returned to the town, enthusiastic about testing the limits of the improved core skills, Eleanor was already waiting for me. This time, she didn’t say anything even before she drew her sword and attacked.

“Good evening to you as well,” I called even as I drew mine and countered her attack, even parrying hard enough to push her back.

“I thought that it’s better to check whether you’re slacking,” she said even as she attacked again. I countered her easily. This time, it was less about her holding back, and more about where we were fighting. A tight corridor, which was far more advantageous for Stalwart Guard.

Of course, that advantage wouldn’t be enough for me to win against her if she started fighting seriously, but the fact that she had to take me seriously in the first place was enough to show how much I had grown.

We fought for two minutes before she pulled back, clearly satisfied. I barely added ten points since our spar, but considering the increasing difficulty of upgrading a skill, it was still incredible. Believably so.

“I heard that you managed to hunt a lot of insects today,” she said.

“Yes. Trying to take them in one blow is a good trick, especially with the stone shield trick,” I replied. “The second floor is not as hard as I had initially feared. Giant ones are even easier to deal with a hammer. Though, it was hell to maintain the little contraption I made. I had to repair it maybe twenty times.”

“That’s what you get for trying to rely on machines rather than proper skill,” she said.

I strongly disagreed with her absurd statement. No matter how convenient the skills were, it was not an excuse to not to attempt recreating technology in some way. However, I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to annoy my boss … or was she technically my business partner. Maybe a client?

Then, I shrugged. Regardless of her exact title, she represented my access to the dungeon. I could humor her. “Unfortunately, I need the money to recruit when the caravan arrives. So, unless you have a couple thousand gold coins you want to lend me without interest, I have to play with these devices.”

“Good point,” she said. “I would have, but I have put everything I have to bid for the dungeon along with Lady Maria. We even borrowed some from the family. Or, I would have done that easily.”

I thought about asking her just how much it cost, but I held my mouth shut. Being too nosy was not a good idea. “Any plans for the night?” I asked.

“I need to go back to the town,” she replied. “I have another meeting with that b — Rosie. Do you want to come?” she corrected, her tone signaling that they weren’t getting along. A change from the earlier attitude. My best guess, Eleanor was getting annoyed at Rosie’s business acumen. Not that I blamed her.

Rosie was a dangerous opponent across the table.

“Depends,” I said.

“On what?”

“On how much Rosie actually knows about the dungeon, and how invested she is in its success,” I said. “There’s no way a beard and a new skill would make her believe that I’m a new person.”

Eleanor nodded, clearly not having considered that. “She is the one that found us the suppliers for the skills, and she was the one that found the new blacksmiths. Also, she invested a lot in her new guild here. Don’t you trust her?”

I paused for a moment, considering. Before, I would have said that I trusted her immediately. While she had always looked out for herself, that was not a bad quality in a dangerous world. She had a reputation for sticking to the deals she made.

I knew that intimately. When I was still using her to collect data about the surrounding towns, I had carefully analyzed the data she provided to make sure it was not fake. Faking data, even with people with Intelligence, was not an easy job, especially against me.

After a decade of reviewing papers for various journals — a terrible, thankless part of academia — I was pretty familiar with how fake data looked. Just to be on the safe side, I even ran some statistical analysis to make sure everything was acceptable.

While it was not conclusive evidence, it was a strong positive mark to her case. Combined with her significant investment to the town, it was fair to assume that she could be trusted … with my identity. Not anything else.

Especially since there was a good chance that she would be moving here to operate her new guild. Revealing my identity was easier than playing hide and seek. And, with her being aware of my identity, I could start making purchases through her once again.

The best thing about it was that she was too used to my weird purchases, so a few potentially risky subjects should just go under the radar.

“Fair, let’s go,” I said, hating myself that I was actually volunteering to fly. However, I needed to do so, because I had too many things to do in the town. I wanted to buy new skills, experiment with environmental mana, and even see if I could hire some people to work for me.

Then, I froze, remembering an important fact. “Actually, do you have anything that can block Identify?” I asked. “We don’t want anyone checking my class.”

“Good point. Wait here,” she said as she brought me a bracelet. “Be careful, though. It doesn’t last long. Only activate when you’re suspicious, and turn it off once the situation passes,” she said.

“How does it work?” I asked as I looked at the ugly gold bracelet with emerald and ruby studdings.

“Just hold it in your hand and focus, it’ll trigger,” she said. “But, be careful. It’s an active enchantment, and it’s already mostly drained. It can probably last only for ten more minutes.”

“Alright,” I said, ignoring the temptation to just start examining it. I tried that on the camouflage ring, only to end up disappointed. The ring itself was a boring Mana alloy, and everything was done with Mana.

Which, it had a limited amount of, with no way to refill — at least no way I could figure.

Still, it didn’t bother me, I had a good feeling that I could actually block someone’s mana if they tried. I just needed to be careful if someone tried to touch me, and that was it. The bracelet, I just needed as an excuse.

“Let’s go,” she said. I nodded,

Merely ten minutes later, I had been cursing that decision as I grabbed the griffin, scared out of my mind. I had been a passenger on Eleanor’s griffin twice, and both had been pleasant experiences — as far as it could be when one flew on top a giant mutated bird with a stupid lion legs that couldn’t even manage to flap its wings smoothly; an opinion I held with absolutely no bias.

Unfortunately, one of those trips had been between the town and the dungeon, which was a very small distance with constant patrols keeping the wild monsters away. During the other trip, we had Maria dealing with the monsters with her flame attacks.

Without her, Eleanor was the one to handle them. In melee range.

It wasn’t the monsters that scared me. I trusted Eleanor to handle them, and even if I didn’t, I could have used Stalwart Guard to protect myself.

No, it was the fact that our Griffin had been dealing with most of the attacks, which made it jerk and twist, worse than even the worst turbulence. Without strength, I wouldn’t have been able to hold on.

Eleanor said something, but I wasn’t able to process it as my ears rang, spots appearing in my eyes. I recognized the panic attack easily. I took deep breaths, but it didn’t work.

I closed my eyes, repeating myself that I wouldn’t actually die if I fell. With Health to recover from, a fall from terminal velocity wouldn’t be deadly unless I landed on my head. Unfortunately, that didn’t work any better than repeating the plane accident statistics in my mind had before the Calamity.

It was torture.

Not even the sudden change in environment as we entered a mana rich atmosphere had helped me. When we landed, I threw myself on the ground, my legs trembling badly. “Are you alright?” Eleanor asked.

“Not particularly, no,” I answered, not even in the mood for a lie.

“Come on, let’s bring you to the town,” she said even as she presented her arm. I grabbed it, and let her drag me toward the gate. However, halfway in, my shakes started to disappear.

Faster than I was used to. It was not normal.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“We have just stepped into the peace zone,” she said.

“Peace zone?” I asked.

She paused. “I sometimes forget that you don’t really know a lot about big stuff,” she said. “Is it possible that you forget that I even said that?” I didn’t even bother answering her.

“Alright, but keep your mouth shut. It’s a small addition to the formation of every town. It radiates a weak calming effect to prevent stress build up, making sure people don’t go around fighting every day. However, the effect is too weak to actually stop people if they are aware, so it’s not exactly announced. Too bad we can’t really afford it for our town yet. They are cheap, but in our case, we can’t afford to supply it with mana.”

“A reasonable precaution,” I said, glad that I had the excuse of being sick to explain the utter disgust in my tone. A permanent calming effect, affecting my mind. Constantly in the air.

I couldn’t even begin to explain why it was a bad decision to keep people under a constant mind-altering effect. Even assuming that there was no side effect — debatable — one thing had been scientifically proven.

A certain amount of stress played an important role in any kind of innovation, or drive to succeed.

Looking back, I couldn’t help but wonder if it explained why I had lost three years of my life, limiting myself to sending applications while trying to collect some meager data rather than doing … anything else. I had always assumed that it was just my old world habits.

But, was it?

*****

— Chapter 45

As I followed Eleanor, I did my best to ignore the giant question about having something called calming field over every single town. I failed. Somehow, it nauseated me worse than that horrible flight experience.

I tried to ignore it, but failed. Something was bubbling inside me. For the first time, I wanted to feel like raging. Worse, now that I knew that there was something to look for, I could feel that anger draining out of me slowly. The weaker my anger got, the smoother the draining had become. Soon, even though I knew what to look for, I couldn’t identify the effect.

I couldn’t handle the idea.

“Actually, do you mind if I go kill a few monsters? It’ll calm me better,” I managed to squeeze between my clenched teeth.

“I understand the feeling. Go ahead. I’ll be at the Broken Tankard,” Eleanor said.

I nodded thankfully before I turned and started walking away. The darkness, I welcomed as I moved away from the town, ignoring the road, which was safer — but not safe — as I cut directly toward the nearest woodland.

It was one of the hunting areas maintained for the low-leveled people, with an hourly access fee. At least, during the day.

It was too unpredictable during the night. Exactly what I needed. I wanted to destroy things without being observed by anyone. For the first time in my life, I wanted to lash out and destroy. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was the reason for my state, obediently sending applications to the new research groups without taking initiative.

One of the guards shook his hand. “Hey, buddy. You can’t come here during the night —” he started.

I just threw him a gold coin. An abject waste of money, but I didn’t want to talk with him. With my hands shaking with anger, I didn’t know how he would react.

“Alright, but if you have any problem, I didn’t see you,” the guard said as he put the coin into his bag before walking away.

I ignored that as I delved into the forest, my blade dancing to cut and skewer any monster that was stupid enough to come close. I moved deeper and deeper, killing more and more. It didn’t make me any less angry, but gave me a sense of control, enough that I could start processing my anger.

While the idea that I might have wasted three years of my life was a horrible realization, it wasn’t the reason for my rage.

Not even close.

I was furious, because having a calming field effect going on constantly was nothing less than a true disaster. Of course, there were many reasons it was a horrible disaster, like potential impact on brain chemistry, but on those, I didn’t know enough to make a judgment call.

I could only make a certain judgment from the perspective of a sociologist. And, that judgment was clear.

It was a disaster, which had the potential to be worse than the Calamity itself.

Though, I was glad that I didn’t have to tell someone else about that. I doubted that I could realistically convey the significance of it to someone that was not an expert. And even then, it wouldn’t be a simple conversation.

In a way, stress was like gravity. Without it, thinking that we would be jumping happily was a good dream. In reality, our bodies would turn into malformed abominations with countless defects, because every little biological function we had depended on gravity to shape it.

Stress had some function for our minds and the society.

Just like gravity, there were many harmful effects caused by stress. Chronic health problems, impact on productivity, leading social conflicts, aggressions, damaging relationships, burnouts, and many other effects that would take too long to list…

Yet, it was a proven fact that stress, in moderate doses, was a critical aspect of motivation. It sharpened focus and drove the individuals to become better. From a certain point of view, it was also the reason most successful people had been maladjusted — a list that included me, if I were to be honest.

It drove people to adapt, grow, and innovate in unpredictable ways. Without that drive, people could still push themselves and excel, but they rarely became exceptional. In a way, it generated excellent accountants and gym teachers, but not many true scientists or record breaking athletes.

That alone explained why most people didn’t even think of pushing the limits of the System but obediently followed the easiest path to improvement.

Of course, fighting constantly against monsters was a stressful activity, but it didn’t make people innovate. Too much stress impacts creativity in a completely opposite manner, stifling it and forcing people to stick to their traditions and habits even more. Especially habits like killing more monsters to get stronger, which was an obvious choice.

It didn’t exactly happen like that for me … but then, I could hardly call myself a normal, well-adjusted human being. I was the reason my psychologist had been able to send her child through college without student loans.

“I hate it,” I growled as I destroyed another monster. “We are dealing with a magical disaster and literal monsters, yet we’re still our worst enemy.”

I wasn’t exaggerating. Just by stopping people from experimenting, those calming fields might have killed more people than the first wave of Calamity. A massacre of grand scale.

That alone would have been horrible enough. But, there were many other critical functions of stress in society. For example, it played an incredible role in social bonding. Stress drew people together, both seeking comfort of the group, and trying to overcome the challenges together.

Yet, people had been living in relative, forced calm, then went out to fight against monsters to get an enhanced dose of stress, not just from the fact that they were fighting for their lives, but it was likely that they also suffered withdrawal effects from leaving the calming field, at least to a level similar to trying to quit smoking.

Which meant, any group that worked together had turned even more close knit and loyal. A good thing during a fight, as people weren’t afraid of being abandoned by their fellow fighters. But a horrible thing from a societal perspective.

“Codependent” was a word that people loved to throw around, but it was a dangerous thing. It made people stay in cults that drained their money and linger in abusive relationships until it killed them.

In our current situation, codependent was an understatement —

“Fuck, that explains why everyone follows people with Charisma like lost puppies,” I growled even as I punched the nearest tree, leaving a deep indent. It didn’t break my gauntleted hand. I wish it did. Not only had people turned more loyal, but Charisma was probably able to replicate that effect, at least partially.

Which meant that anyone with Charisma was essentially microdosing people constantly when they had been struggling with addiction symptoms.

Combined, it was even more devastating than ordinary. It meant, every guild was some kind of a frat house on steroids, led by what was essentially a cult leader.

It also explained one of the biggest questions I had, the strong drift on social values and ethics. While I had some theories, I had always been weirded out by how quickly a world built on the idea of freedom and individuality — at least, to some degree — had been able to regress back to medieval principles in less than three years.

The peace fields presented a much better explanation.

I reacted that badly, because I had already studied the concept before Cataclysm.

The idea of artificially adjusting people’s emotions and drives to create a ‘better’ society wasn’t exactly a new idea. The CIA had famously experimented on the impact of the drugs, not to mention many famous science fiction books examined the concept as a thought experiment.

Of course, as a famous sociologist that could actually model impacts of such concepts, I had sufficient access to some of the studies that hadn’t been revealed to the public yet. People often underestimated the number of contingencies that the government had for any kind of an emergency, from disease outbreaks to a sudden nuclear attack.

Ironically, even the Cataclysm was prepared for … technically. A total collapse of electrical infrastructure along with a hostile invasion sufficiently fit the theme. Of course, it didn’t help even a bit when the Cataclysm hit, because, ultimately, those plans needed to be implemented on time.

However, they weren’t the only ones that commissioned such studies. There were many eccentric rich people that tried to solve every problem the world had through their sheer genius. Of course, those genius ideas were often one-liners like building a huge underwater city before leaving the ‘easy’ part to the experts.

I remembered it, because I had been harassed by a particularly annoying one years ago. It was called Horizon Institute, and they had been obsessive enough to harass me for a month, offering me a frankly ludicrous amount of money to work for their genius founder.

But, no money was worth working for a bunch of crazy people, especially since I had been more than comfortable with my finances thanks to a few peripheral projects I had done for tech companies. A few startups had paid in shares, which then appreciated more than I expected, freeing me from the necessity to indulge them.

It was particularly satisfying to throw the gold watch they had given me as an apology to the garbage. It had been less satisfying when I actually went and paid for a replica to be made when the dean started to nag me about upsetting important donors.

“Those were the days,” I muttered even as I continued to kill, going deeper and deeper into the forest, letting my anger drain out of me while I let my skill lead me. In a way, it was like Meditation.

A very violent variant.

I continued, spending some more time before I started to walk back. ”It is ironic that the conspiracies about chem-trails had suddenly turned real,” I said, but my chuckle sounded dark even to my ears.

Not a surprise, considering what would happen if I tried to convince people about my conclusions. I didn’t know if the peace fields were some kind of intentional conspiracy to somehow manipulate humanity, or if it was something they used simply because it helped people in power. Ultimately, it didn’t matter.

It took decades of fighting to limit tobacco usage, where the industry lied, cheated, bribed, used legal troubles, and that had been only one recreational industry. Trying to convince the people that were actually fashioning themselves as feudal city lords and medieval nobles that one of the fundamental aspects of their power was harmful…

There was only one question about what would happen if I tried. Would I be treated as a madman and dismissed, or quietly assassinated?