Blacksmith vs. the System 31-35

— Chapter 31

After killing another three hundred monsters — half with their shells ripped, half left intact — I had received three rewards, with ascending importance. I had collected six skill stones. I had reached level thirty-five.

And, I gathered enough data to reinforce the idea that the intact monsters had a higher likelihood of dropping a skill stone. I received two stones from the first group, and four from the second. It could still be a coincidence, but the numbers were still reliable.

At the same time, I noticed that whenever a skill stone appeared, the glow had been slightly brighter. “Let’s try something else,” I muttered even as I found another small group. This time, when I killed them, I made sure to pile their corpses together.

I expected them to disappear in sequence, but ten of them had disappeared at the same time, leaving a skill stone behind. “I wonder if that's a coincidence.”

It turned out that, it was not. Whenever I piled at least ten monsters together, there was always at least one skill stone. Even better, they were not exclusively basic, and there had been some common mixed, but the results were tempting. I wanted to try increasing the number, but there was a limit to the number I could pile alone.

The moment the first one reached the time limit, they all disappeared together.

For that, I needed to go deeper.

“I’m probably trying to discover something that’s already known,” I pondered even as I moved farther away, not even bothering to bring back the shells I collected. Instead, I just demolished them to replenish my mana as an insurance.

With an uncommon skill maximized, I wasn’t afraid of the risks of the first floor, but that was not an excuse to be careless.

This time, I didn’t stop until I found an even bigger swarm. The mist prevented me from counting the full numbers, but their distribution pattern suggested that there were at least five hundred of them. “At least another level,” I muttered, but I didn’t attack them directly. Instead, I searched for a nice, defensible spot with a solid rock behind me.

There were two reasons for it. Fighting without worrying about attacks from behind was more fitting to my style. And, with the monsters attacking en masse, I didn’t need to waste any effort piling them together.

Once that was done, I went to attack the first one. The swarm reacted as one, chasing me to the spot I had picked. What followed was a man against a thousand monsters, a daring and incredible fight … or, at least, it should have been.

Instead, it was no different than repairing a hundred swords at once. Interesting trick, but once it was discovered, the process was almost routine. Mostly, I dealt with them using the standard Mana Blow trick, and whenever the numbers turned tricky, I relied fully on skills, Shattering Blow easily solving the trouble.

I just needed to let out a point of mana to prevent the backlash from damaging my hammer.

In the end, I killed almost a thousand monsters, yet gained merely one level, showing that I was already reaching the limits in terms of gaining a level. I doubted that I would be able to gain even one more level today.

However, I didn’t care about that, and collected the skill stones. I had another fifteen skill stones in hand. Most of it, I wasn’t able to properly read. But what I had received from the largest pile I had managed to gather — thirty-eight insects — had already reinforced my assumption.

[Skill Stone: Nurture (Uncommon)]

I wondered if there were any uncommon skills in the mix. Too bad I wasn’t able to read most of them. I decided to keep them separate and ask Maria later. Better safe than sorry.

However, the Nurture skill, I absorbed. I had no reason not to. Unlike common skills, I already knew that uncommon ones could grant a perk, and as long as I act creatively, I should be able to raise it to its limit and get a Perk.

[Nurture (Uncommon) - 1]

And, while having a combat perk was convenient, it didn’t fascinate me as much as getting another trick that relied on production skills. The synergy possibilities were incredible.

Assuming, of course, I could make it work.

Curious about how it would go, I moved to one of the rare half-dead thorny plants, and put my hand on it. I felt a familiar energy move inside me, and went through my finger. It was a subtle feeling, one that I would have missed if I hadn’t been playing around with my Vitality for the last three years.

To my shame, I was not making any progress. The best trick I had been able to discover was to imbue my blood with Health, which only came useful due to sheer coincidence. I never even thought about acquiring a Nurture skill to test.

Mostly because, up until I had combined Forge and Repair, I hadn’t even thought about using skills to improve each other.

Sometimes, all it took was a new look to a paradigm shift to open a completely new path.

As I used Nurture, I could feel my Health moving in a smoothness I could never replicate even as it departed my finger and disappeared into the plant. I repeated multiple times, wasting some of my Health, all without getting any feedback other than the leaves getting greener.

[-92 Health]

“That’s enough experimentation,” I said even as I left the plant behind. I wasn’t annoyed with my lack of success, as it was only the first impression. It wasn’t even a proper failure. The talk I had given Eleanor was not just for show.

I was used to tangling with a complicated problem for months without getting a result, persisting. “Looking back, it was the mistake that led me stuck in that dead end job for three years, ignoring the obvious,” I pondered. I was so used to succeeding when I had put my mind into it, I didn’t even bother working for the alternative path even as I decided to join the budding research organizations.

Though, I wondered what my old therapist would say. Maybe something about unhealthy focus on achievements, or something about seeking comfort in familiarity in face of disaster.

“Maybe one day, I’ll learn,” I muttered, wondering if she was alive. A thought that I abandoned once I started killing monsters once again, but with a twist.

This time, I focused on using the sword. Technically, it was a good piece of equipment, because it stunted my performance significantly. In three hours, I could kill at least three thousand with the hammer, maybe more if I was lucky and find a larger swarm, which would give me not only enough materials to keep going for a long time, but also help me gain at least another level or two, even with the rapidly lessening effect of the weaker monsters.

However, it wasn’t worth the suspicion it would generate. I couldn’t show an incredible improvement in both techniques during the same day. Showing off my sword skill was not the safer option, but there were certain advantages.

Like asking her some questions on how to use a sword. Even if she didn’t have the ability to use mana, she still had at least a Rare skill. Any insight she provided might help me improve my second skill even further.

Also, I had to admit, trying to come up with new ways to deal with the giant insects was more fun than I had expected. I was getting more and more used to weaponizing my shield, and I had the advantage in pure strength as long as I didn’t just try to tank their charge.

A few shield bashes put them in an unbalanced state, slowing their attack, giving me the chance to deliver a killing blow.

The only problem with the style was the weapon degradation. It damaged them far more than the method the others had been using. Considering the price and rarity of the ingots that were used for repairs, I would have been operating at a loss even without factoring in the taxes and various expenses.

However, not caring about making ends meet was truly a luxury. I just repaired them directly while using ingots. I didn’t even need to start a fire, just used mana directly to merge the alloy ingots with the shield and the sword.

Raising Mana Repair over sixty had opened up a lot of new opportunities. Of course, I still pulled several bushes and set a small fire, just enough to mislead Eleanor.

I could have repaired them even without using the material I brought along, but that would have required a real fire, intense enough to soften the metal so I could infuse it with mana once again, which was not exactly easy to set up.

A smirk appeared on my face as I imagined myself in the dungeon, with a huge forge setup, swatting monsters and repairing weapons. A nice dream, but a little bit too noticeable for my taste.

I continued killing monsters while practicing the skill, but I only managed to gain four more points, showing that I had already depleted the benefits from my other combat skill. So, halfway, I changed focus and started trying to figure out how to use mana attacks.

Though, once I depleted my mana, I stopped. Eleanor might return early, and I didn’t want to get caught playing with Mana. I still didn’t know if she could use — or at least sense — mana, but until I was sure, I would go around with empty mana reserves.

I didn’t have any success, but toward the end, I managed to time it perfectly to at least protect the sword. It was probably useless, as anyone that could use mana would have been targeting more profitable dungeons. While this dungeon had been a source of fortune for me, ultimately, it wasn’t really anything worthwhile in the grand scale.

Or, they wouldn’t have used it as a tool for a bet.

*****

— Chapter 32

Eleanor arrived as I was in the middle of another fight. She walked toward me rather than running, but I could see her freeze for a moment even as I fought against the monster, throwing it around easily.

It was hard to pinpoint the skill level without some direct tests, but a rough guess was far easier. Even a conservative estimate would put that over thirties. I said nothing as she approached, stabbing the monster through its mouth after a fight that lasted about half a minute.

“Wow, incredible performance,” she said. I was surprised, not by her words, but her smile. It was the first time I saw her lips stretching that much. “How did you pull that off?”

I smiled, curious if I could leverage it for another advantage, but in the end, I decided to stick to the familiar excuse. While revealing what was possibly a secret rankled me, I was almost certain that it was common knowledge for people at her level.

There was no way the whole world had missed something that straightforward for three years. “A little luck, a little skill,” I replied.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I’m sure you noticed that a skill improves faster if someone has been more competent if they were familiar with the subject,” I said.

“Of course,” she said as she shifted her stance. “You can’t believe how glad I am for picking fencing as a hobby even before the Cataclysm,” she said, her sword shifting to a familiar stance, yet lacking the smoothness of a skill.

It might be the first real personal information I had from her.

“Exactly, that’s the part of the reason I improved quickly,” I said.

“Really, you did fencing as well?” she said.

“No, but I had visited my fair share of renaissance fairs, jousting and playing fake knight,” I said. She frowned, clearly not finding it reasonable. Not a problem, as that was just there for a later stage, when others failed to copy. “Though, the real benefit had been forging,” I said.

“What do you mean?” she asked, looking confused.

“Swinging a hammer for three years taught me a lot about how to swing heavy objects the best way, especially with my Hammer of Might as a template,” I said even as I used a shield attack. It was an aggressive downward swing, one that was most similar to the movement of a hammer.

“I see, clever,” she said, but I could see her smile fading to a look of boredom. She was not really interested in it. Understandable, as what I had revealed would only be effective for beginning. Three years ago, it would have been extremely valuable, but currently, there were easier ways to increase skills.

Like finding a dungeon that fitted well with the skill before starting to kill, like the insect monsters and the hammer skill.

“Of course, I still managed to raise it to forty-five. Even with the similarities, it should mean that I have a talent for the sword,” I added, curious whether it would make her interested. Her earlier reaction convinced me that it was a safe move.

“Forty-five, in eight hours? Impressive,” she said even as she raised her sword. “Let’s see how good you are. Defend yourself.”

With that, she dashed forward. She was faster than I had expected, but not enough to keep me from pulling down my shield to parry her attack. I drew my sword as well, defending myself under her repeated attacks, getting faster and faster.

I didn’t hold back. I couldn’t, not when I had to act reflexively. She started moving faster, her hits getting harder and harder. “You’re relying on blocking too much,” she said as she moved her sword faster than I had expected.

If she had been aiming for my neck, it would have killed me. Health was useful, but it didn’t cure decapitation. Instead, she aimed for the center of my shield, trying to push me back. She succeeded, and I stumbled back.

“Interesting, you’re better than I had expected,” she muttered, then her eyes widened. “Of course, double Strength. It pairs really well with Stalwart Guard.”

“Probably,” I said. “It’s really good for a blacksmith. With it, I’m confident I can defend myself longer against the next assassination.”

“Good to have confidence, but don’t overestimate yourself, nor underestimate any opponent,” she said even as she attacked again. This time, rather than trying to break my guard, she moved around me. It took three attacks for her to press her sword against my throat.

“Noted,” I said, making a show of gulping in fear. I already knew that she could kill me easily, but showing some fear was not a bad idea if it would make her feel better.

After all, she still controlled my experimental budget.

“Put on your helmet and follow me,” she said. She started walking, and I followed her. “So, did you manage to collect enough for your experiments?”

“Enough for three days, maybe a week if I try to be conservative,” I said.

“Really?” she asked as she looked at the cart, which had been filled with a lot of broken shells.

“I can stretch it further, of course, but it’ll slow down the experiment,” I replied. “Instead of that, why shouldn’t I return tomorrow for another collection.”

“I can’t ferry you with me. I only visit the dungeon once every five days to clean the lower levels to prevent an overrun.”

“You don’t have to. There’s teams moving between the dungeon and the town constantly, right?” I asked.

“Yes, once every four hours,” she said. “It’s mostly to transport the gains.”

“And, would it be suspicious if a guild representative assigned his house while he tested the dungeon? We can even move the forge there,” I said. She looked reluctant. Understandable after the assassination attempt.

Luckily, I had already seen that she wasn’t very happy with Maria spending time with me for some reason. “And, that way, I won’t be living in the same building with Lady Maria. It’s improper,” I said.

“Good point, but I don’t have time to arrange a new residence,” she said. “We’ll say that you’re going to stay as a guest in the main building. I’ll set up a new place before Lady Maria returns.”

“Just make sure that we have an excuse to bring in and out a lot of materials,” I said.

”Don’t be too greedy,” she warned.

“I’m not,” I said. I was being greedy, of course, but it was not a good idea to say it. “But, while the other blacksmiths learn how to repair faster, I might still need to repair swords. If I have a way, your job will be easier,” I said.

“Good point,” she admitted again.

I was tempted to give her some more ideas, but I could see that I had already pushed her to the limit. “If you don’t mind my asking: Why do you have to come here every five days?” I said.

She looked at me, surprised. “You know what a dungeon overrun is,” she said.

“Yes. It’s what happens when a dungeon is left unattended too much, and the gate breaks,” I said.

“It also happens between floors,” she explained. If the bottom floors left to grow, sooner or later, monsters burst out.

“I see. That sounds dangerous,” I said. “But, why don't the guards clean the lower floors? Is it that dangerous?”

“Not particularly,” she said. “It’s just inconvenient.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The second floor is similar to the first, but it has two differences. The vision range is merely forty yards, and there’s a second kind of insect with a ranged attack.”

“Is it deadly?” I asked.

“No. It doesn’t hurt the skin,” said. “However, it damages the weapons and armors significantly. A lot of families tried various combinations, but it’s still unprofitable. The lack of mana makes things too hard,” she said.

My mind already went to the corrosion resistant material I could make based on the Rare recipe. Suddenly, that had turned even more valuable. I decided to keep it a secret.

“How about the other floors?”

“The third one is even worse. The mist is even thicker, and there are occasional giant insects that are even more dangerous.”

“I’m guessing that they are worth more.”

“Yes. They go for a gold, but it doesn’t matter,” she said. “They are not common enough to make their hunting profitable, but still strong enough to kill anyone unprepared. A bad combination.”

“How about the fourth floor?” I asked. “Or are there only three floors?”

“No, there are at least four floors,” she said.

“What do you mean, at least?”

“Because it’s not a desert but a bog, constantly rotting weapons and armor. Even high level weapons would be damaged by it.”

“Really, is there no way to resist?” I asked.

“Not any that makes any financial sense,” she said. “It would have been different if the dungeon granted any rare skill, but it’s not worth it. Rare Nurture would have been useful, but the dungeon is too weak to grant anything above basic in a default state. It’s not worth the effort to get the Rare variant.”

Interesting, I thought. Her words implied that my trick of piling the monsters together was well known trick. That, or they had better methods to do the same. Either way, it didn’t really matter. I decided to ask another question. She was in a good mood after I had displayed my sword skill, and I didn’t want to waste it.

“How about the risk of overrun?” I asked. “What if there are even bigger monsters?”

“Not a risk,” she said. “Even if there are stronger monsters, they would first fill the third and second floors. I would catch them long before they reach the first one,” she explained.

She had just confirmed that no one would go down to the fourth floor because it would be a waste. Not for me, not with my corrosion-immune alloy.

Suddenly, I was glad that I kept my shut about the possibilities.

*****

— Chapter 33

“Do you think anyone would recognize you?” she asked.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “To their knowledge, the blacksmith you brought along is already dead. And, I didn’t interact with many people. As long as my beard grows a bit more, no one should.”

“Good,” she said. “Then, we’re going to register you as a guild representative of that wretched woman.”

“Rosie?” I asked.

“Yes. Her guild is already registered here?”

My eyes widened. While Broken Tankard had always been a very good business, Rosie had never shown an interest in establishing a guild. The sudden change was interesting, but not entirely in a good way. Eleanor and Maria were dangerous on a battlefield, but the same wasn’t true for anything else.

Rosie was much sharper. Keeping things secret from her would be far more difficult even without being in her employ.

Guilds were weird entities. Their exact legal standing differed from town to town, especially since every town operated independently, at least when practical matters were concerned. It meant that the legal system was long gone, and disputes were handled in an informal manner.

Our town, for example, had something similar to an elder's council, where respectable — meaning strong or rich — citizens took collective decisions. I hadn’t interacted with them much, but I had observed the decisions they took.

More often than not, those decisions showed that they were more than happy to treat the guilds as independent entities, accepting the way they disciplined their members as long as it wasn’t too excessive; and their definition of excessive didn’t exactly match with mine.

No, I didn’t want to suddenly put myself under the authority of Rosie.

Technically, I did that with Maria — and indirectly, Eleanor — but it was a mere business relationship. I had no doubt that, if I taught their blacksmiths about how to repair fast before disappearing, they would just wish me luck.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said. “If I work for her, she could easily find out everything I bring out.” She looked at me suspiciously, probably about the fact that Rosie had introduced me.

“Really? Didn’t you work for her?” Eleanor asked, surprised. “Don’t you trust her?”

“No, I worked with her,” I said, quick to highlight the difference. I realized that Eleanor assumed the relationship between me and Rosie was more similar to hers with Maria. Knowing Rosie, it was something she implied, but never openly said.

 “She isn’t my employer, but a business partner. I had purchased her services many times before I … fell to hard times. I trust her as a business partner, but it doesn’t mean I want to declare my loyalty to her,” I said. “Oaths of fealty are serious things.”

They were not, but Eleanor was clearly more inclined to that feudal mode of thinking. I wondered if it was the impact of hanging around people with Charisma, or just the natural inclination of seeing a new order in chaos.

Either way, one good thing about living in a small town, people with Charisma didn’t deign to live in such a small place.

“Of course, loyalty is a serious thing,” she said. “But, that means we don’t have an easy solution.”

“Don’t we?” I said. “With the guards gone, I’m sure you’re interacting with a lot of new guilds. Register me under a new one,” I said.

“Really, you have a Guild Mark?” she said.

It didn’t feel like a random question. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“It’s an item that drops from the dungeon, like skill stones. It allows guild members to connect,” she said.

“Really? I never heard of them,” I said. “And, I’m pretty sure the ones in our town don't have any.”

“It has a lot of benefits while operating in a dungeon,” she said, then paused.

From the way she paused, I could see that she didn’t know about those benefits either. So, I didn’t bother asking more. “I’m guessing it’s not exactly cheap?”

She chuckled. “Of course not. You need to destroy a dungeon to acquire one. I didn’t even hear of one being sold.” She paused again. “Actually, I’m not even sure they can be sold.”

“Then, I’m sure that, as the commander of the camp, you can arrange an unofficial guild for me, and I’ll be the leader.”

She paused, thinking. “Alright, but only temporarily. I won’t let you get everything you want just because you can repair weapons.”

“How about this: I’ll do my best to train the blacksmiths for you like I promised, and in the meanwhile, do my best to handle the overflow. You just need to arrange the delivery for the guild hall secretly until the training is complete, so I won’t get assassinated. And in exchange, you’ll arrange a guild hall that I can use both as a forge and a small team. You won’t have to fund my experiments going forward, and, after three months, I’ll start paying rent just like any other guild.”

She looked surprised. “Are you sure? Even without a Guild Mark, establishing a guild is a serious thing. It feels sudden.”

It was, but only because I didn’t actually expect her to allow it. Letting a guild to be established in town, even a budding, troubled one like their camp was a serious affair. She must have been even more impressed by my fighting ability than I assumed.

Every other time I asked anything, she had been acting like I was begging for free food. But now, she was actually treating me as a peer.

“Alright. I’ll even give your guild one person access for a month, but you have to pay tax like everyone. Take it as a gift from me. But, if you want to expand your guild, you have to join the weekly bidding like any other guild.”

“Sounds fair,” I said.

“And, I’ll take the forge away the moment the other blacksmiths arrive. We don’t have a spare. You have to source your own equipment.”

“Tough, but manageable,” I said. “But, I still need to use it occasionally to experiment.”

“Only if you’re willing to pay rent and mix in with the other blacksmiths,” she said.

“What about the supply risk?” I asked.

“I thought about it, and I don’t think it’s an acceptable risk,” she said. A sudden change. She must have realized that I had exaggerated the risk to get more material.

Admittedly, she would be right. I didn’t think they would have tried to assassinate me if they could cut supply.

It would have scared me before visiting the dungeon. But, now that I had a better understanding of what was going on inside of the dungeon, I was confident that utilizing forged corrosion-resistant equipment was more profitable than importing mana alloys.

If I played my hand right, I would make enough money to fund my experiments. And, the best part, I was doing something that would benefit them.

I just needed to make some serious progress beforehand.

“Fair,” I said.

“You must be really confident that you can find a way to invent a new material,” she said.

 It was a reasonable suspicion. “Fifty-fifty,” I said. “Of course, I’ll be willing to sell it to you for a reasonable price. Maybe for permanent access spots?” I asked.

“Sure. We’ll discuss it based on the material’s performance,” she said. “As long as it doesn’t cost more than double, I’m willing to pay for it.”

As I followed her, we started talking about other formalities, which I could handle easily. I had managed too many projects as a professor to be slowed down by little details.

However, the more I discussed, the more I realized her opinion about the new alloy I promised to develop. She was certain that I could actually develop it — which was true — but she also had very strict assumptions about its limits.

Since it was not provided by the System, it had to be strictly inferior.

That approach irked me, but I wasn’t in a hurry to change her mind about it, and ruin her mood in the process. Since she believed that I was certain to succeed, she could have insisted that developing an alloy for them was a part of the contract, and I couldn’t sell.

Her goodwill was valuable. It was also the reason I was pushing things at an uncomfortable pace. I didn’t want to miss this opportunity like I had done before. All it would take was another dungeon drop with some stupid new enchantment to ruin my budding business, and I needed to make some money beforehand.

Of course, while I wanted to make money, it wasn’t the only reason. After everything I had discovered, having a space that truly belonged to me was vital.

Important enough to push some limits and look suspicious. Luckily, I had excuses in place to distract others from my real secrets. Maria had helped me level up, and Eleanor provided me with multiple valuable skills. Together, they went a long way to explain any casual questions people might have, especially since no one had any reason to interrogate them about the details.

There were still some risks, but those were acceptable.

So, I said very little once I stood behind Eleanor while handling the registration details. Though, my eyes widened when I learned when they were purchasing the undamaged shells for only two silver.

I expected a hefty cut, but that still surprised me.

“You can always not sell and bring them to the System Store yourself,” she countered mockingly. She had a point. They had to be transferred by a caravan, and the nearest System Store was almost two weeks away. “Just one silver,” she said, then added. “Even if they are broken.”

It worked for me as well. After all, I wasn’t planning to bring most of them out in the first place.

Still, it was a successful trip. Not just in terms of gains, but it actually made Eleanor warm up to me. And, that meant I could actually do a lot more than I was initially planning.

I couldn’t help but appreciate the irony. I had so much to offer, but the two greatest opportunities I had gotten in this Post-Cataclysm world had nothing to with it. Maria helped me far more than necessary because I was good enough to entertain her playing chess, and Eleanor was impressed by the rapid improvement of my sword skills.

I didn’t expect to end up like one of those useless rich kids that only got the job because they played golf with the CEO.

Life was unpredictable.

*****

— Chapter 34

“This is your new house,” Eleanor said. “You have until the return of the caravan to make it a livable place and move here permanently.”

“Beautiful place, very airy,” I said teasingly. Not an unfair comment, considering I was standing in front of an empty stretch surrounded by a thin wooden rail. I needed to build a building from scratch. I deemed two of my new home’s details to be the most important.

The first thing was the location. It was outside the walls. However, it was neither a slight nor a revenge attempt. At a distance, I could see a secondary wall building. Apparently, once the caravans arrived, they wanted to push anyone that wasn’t directly employed by them to an outer town, which was a common practice.

Reasonable as well. While mana dead locations were not as valuable, a large dungeon was still enough to vitalize the place, especially since the loot could be sold directly for silver. There was less potential, but also less danger. I was sure there would be people who would appreciate the opportunity.

The second, even more shocking thing was the size of the compound that had been given to me. It was larger than I had expected. A large rectangle, almost ten thousand square-feet.

“You have my trust that you can make a nice place,” she said. “I already asked workers to build a small wooden cottage with a stone cellar in addition to a wall around the compound. The rest is up to you.”

Another benefit of impressing her with my sword skills, I guessed. “Sure, as long as you keep the fact that I’m a blacksmith a secret. I don’t want to lose my head to another assassin,” I said.

“Sure, we can say that you’re a Fighter. You certainly fight well enough to be one,” she said. “Since it’s our town, no one would check it. Still, just in case, don’t walk around too much until we have other blacksmiths with your quick repair trick.”

“Yes. And, as long as I wear a helmet while teaching, everything will be fine,” I said. Maybe it was excessive, but one assassination attempt had done wonders to make me a more paranoid man. Luckily, the conditions of the attempt had been rare enough that it shouldn’t be replicated even if my fake death had been discovered.

They couldn’t simply send another combatant as capable as Eleanor immediately, and anyone weaker would be relying on an invisibility trick, unaware that I could see them.

No one would expect me to have Essence stat.

With that done, we returned to the part of the town that wasn’t under construction. “Are you going to go to the dungeon tomorrow as well?” she asked.

“I plan to,” I replied.

“Make sure to rest well, then. Dungeon visits can be surprisingly exhausting.”

“Fair point,” I said, but once I arrived at my temporary residence, I headed straight to the forge.

Once I had returned from the dungeon, I immediately started working. I had three immediate objectives, sorted from the most exciting to least. Playing around with Nurture, practicing Meditation, and forging myself two new sets of tools.

I started with the least exciting option. Forging two sets of new tools. The bigger set was for my own forge, made of iron alloys. Not many blacksmiths could make them, but some could. Most blacksmiths had to make do with such equipment, unable to afford anything better.

Of course, I had plans of making something more impressive, made of mana alloys, but if I did that right now, Eleanor would rightfully assume that I had used her stock — which was better than the truth. I still needed to build a proper fire pit and some other stuff.

But, an anvil, and hammers of varying sizes, and metal tongs were critical.

Still, I had four days to forge them. I did not finish them as soon as possible, because they were here as a cover for the second, more portable set. One to be hidden in the dungeon.

Eleanor already suspected that I had made progress with anti-corrosion material, and she might actually decide to check my things, even after I moved to my new residence.

My solution was simple: Just build a forge on the second floor of the dungeon.

Her explanation was clear, no one would be there, and as long as I picked a nice concealed spot, no one would really discover it. It wouldn’t be a complicated, fancy forge, but I don’t need anything complicated. I could simply use mana to bypass some of the requirements.

Once that was done, I moved to the next topic: meditation.

During my dungeon trip, the thing that slowed me down the most was my Mana reserve. Draining Mana from monsters had been the slowest part of the process. It had been bad enough while fighting, and it would slow me even more once I started to forge mana alloys.

It would be even more important once I got a skill for magic. But, I wanted to start practicing with a fire spell. That way, even if it turned useless in every other way, I could still use it for smithing.

“Now, let’s start,” I muttered even as I smashed the first shell, absorbing it greedily.

[+2 Mana]

Then, I reversed the flow, pushing it out.

[-2 Mana]

“Not bad. Let’s try to increase the intensity,” I muttered to myself, curious if I could trigger the growth by using more. However, I didn’t dare to. I still remembered how much damage one mana could cause. I didn’t want to lose control and end up dead.

Instead, I repeated the same trick again and again, going through all the shells. Luckily, it was not a waste, as the broken pieces could be eventually used for anti-corrosion alloy.

Twenty minutes and almost three hundred points of Mana later, another notification appeared.

[Meditation (Common) 42 -> 43]

“Excellent,” I said, and continued practicing, ignoring the temptation to pull and release more mana. As long as I could bring Meditation to the next threshold before morning, it was enough. I wanted to have Efficient Absorption at a minimum.

It was already dawn when I finally reached my target.

[Meditation (Common) 49 -> 50]

[Perk Options — Efficient Absorption / Augmented Flow / Purification]

“Thank god that Perk Reset stones exist,” I said even as I looked at the unexpected third entry. After spending all night trying to absorb mana from monsters, I was almost entirely sure that Purification referred to the act of isolating that excess energy from monster mana.

I picked that.

“Jackpot,” I muttered after I broke another shell. Previously, draining the mana from a destroyed alloy was almost four times faster than draining it from the broken shell. Draining from monsters was still slower, but this time, it was a far more reasonable difference. About twenty percent, I guessed. A more accurate assessment required several experiments.

“Too bad I have very little time left to test my new skill,” I muttered. I only had half an hour before the first group left the town for the dungeon, and I wanted to join them. While understanding how Nurture worked was important, it wasn’t as important as trying to set up a second forge in the depths of the dungeon.

An idea that had only appeared in my mind because monsters didn’t attack abandoned objects as long as they didn’t block their path, as proven by the cart I brought not getting damaged.

“Later,” I decided even as I looked at three objects that were in front of me. A seed, a broken branch, and a small herb from the dungeon I brought along, each in a separate pot.

First, I put my hand on the broken branch, and started feeding it with Nurture. As my Health started to slowly disappear, the leaves of the broken branch began regaining their green, but that had been the full extent of the change.

[-16 Health]

I continued to feed it, feeling that I could still push, curious of the change. I pushed more and more. And the branch stirred while a small root grew into the vase. The skill was controlling the movement of the Health, which moved in an incredible, impossible to understand pattern.

I couldn’t even begin to comprehend the movement, and I couldn’t use Inspect to compensate for it either. After all, it was not made of metal, and the System didn’t trigger, no matter how much I tried.

[-184 Health]

[Nurture (Uncommon) 1 -> 2 ]

“Not bad.” While I hadn’t thought about using Nurture before, I had collected a lot of information about it. While bringing a plant to optimal condition was easy, forcing growth took too much Health, making it economically unfeasible.

And, most farmers couldn’t casually throw hundreds of Health to a single plant. I moved to the dungeon plant, trying to push it to an optimal state.

It didn’t even react. Something was missing.

“Interesting,” I said as I moved on to the seed, flooding it with my Health aggressively until a tiny sapling appeared. Incredible, but not when factoring in all the mana I had forced into it.

[-462 Health]

[Nurture (Uncommon) 2 -> 3]

Forcefully improving a skill by just spending a lot of Health rather than finding a clever workaround was not as fun, but I still managed to grow it faster than most farmers were able to do in a week. The difference in Health was simply that important. I ate a quick meal before I sat down, picking another seed, this time feeding it slowly.

The pattern of feeding a seed had been far simpler. Maybe I could get a better idea if I practiced enough.

However, even as I focused on it, my mind wandered. Mostly to the unfortunate plight of the Farmers.

While all production classes were unlucky to some degree, none was as unlucky as the Farmers. They were by far the most common production class, which was never a good thing. The more common a skill was, the less valuable it became.

To make the situation even worse, they received only one Vitality with each level up and nothing more. Their only skill was Nurture, and without Strength, the only combat skills they could learn were the basic ones.

They should have still been able to make money, especially with the amount of food the world consumed.

However, the biggest problem was that monsters were drawn to the vitality of the plants. The bigger the farm, the more monsters it drove. It prevented them from just picking a nice mana dead location with weak monsters and working independently.

In the end, they ended up gathering together near the big cities, working in the huge greenhouses that supplied the consumption while being protected by others that took all the profit. With the food critical to replenish Health, the amount a city consumed was truly incredible.

Still, there were always more Farmers than was needed, driving the money they could earn even lower, most of them below level five as they labored hopelessly, working hard to keep with their individual quotas.

Of course, theoretically, the solution to that problem was simple. All it would take for the stronger people was to just decide to support the weak properly. Just let them access a friendly dungeon, and bring them up to a higher level.

But, similarly, all the problems with Capitalism would have been solved if billionaires were nicer, Communism would have worked if the officials were not corrupt, and Monarchy would have worked too if the kings cared about peasants more than they cared about their glory.

As a sociologist that had spent my whole life trying to understand how human behavior had worked in aggregate, I knew that it was hopeless. Solitary humans might be merciful and fair, but humanity was not. Or, we wouldn’t have waited to ban slavery until it was financially unsustainable.

Humanity was selfish, and the individual power given by the System made it only worse.

*****

— Chapter 35

I let my mind wander even as I moved with the group, walking toward the dungeon, easily matching their pace even as I walked on foot.

High Vitality meant that running while wearing thick armor barely counted as exercise.

Using Nurture had reminded me of the plight of the Farmers, which had distracted me. There’s not much I could do for them now, but that wasn’t true for the future. I just needed to experiment more. All I needed was to find a way to upgrade their Nurture skill like I had upgraded my Forge and Repair skills.

Well, that, and find a way to teach people without getting myself killed in the process. People in charge loved small, incremental developments they could control, but they didn’t like systemic changes.

At all.

It was why I revealed my improvement of sword skill easily even though it was exceptional, while keeping Mana Forge desperately hidden. Nothing would change even if all Blacksmiths turned into excellent warriors. At most, we would match a common warrior, operating under the same restrictions.

Mana Forging already had the potential to reshape the current economic landscape, but I couldn’t imagine what would happen if all Farmers suddenly had better classes.

While I was not a historian, as a sociologist, I had studied many social shifts in history, enough to know that people didn’t really like it when people upset the apple cart. And, while I didn’t fashion myself a Revolutionary desperate to reshape the world to my vision, I also wasn’t stupid enough to miss how others would see me.

And, people with such radical ideas didn’t exactly end up well off. They either died in a variety of unpleasant ways, or fought with the society until they won, and ended up in charge. The former was obviously what would happen, but the latter didn’t sound any better.

It was impossible, of course, but even if it did happen, it was a horrible choice. Despite everything, I was a scientist. There was nothing more satisfying than understanding how the world truly worked. While at first, I hated the System for ruining that, I was slowly coming around.

It was just another mystery to solve. One that conveniently came with its own toolkit.

“So, a new guild,” one of the guards asked, distracting me from my thoughts. “I thought you were a guild representative. What changed?”

The guards must have been gossiping. Understandable, as a new guild, one that had been escorted by Eleanor was notable. We didn’t try to hide it, as we decided that an old friend of Eleanor from a dungeon was a good, uncomplicated story most people would buy.

Unfortunately, that came with a lot of gossip. No one gossiped like patrolling soldiers.

“I was, but after seeing the dungeon, I realized that it was a good opportunity to make some money, especially since it’s ruled by an old friend. I had some money saved up, which was enough to pay the penalty and still rent a nice piece of land.”

“You’re a more daring man than I am,” the guard responded.

“No risk, no gain,” I replied. For the rest of the way, I chatted with the guards. Well, they chatted while I listened. While none of the topics they had been talking about actually interested me, as long as I looked vaguely interested, most people were happy to carry the small talk.

Another trick I had learned during my decade as a professor. No workplace was free of intrigue, but the academy was particularly egregious on that aspect. Inevitable with a bunch of overachievers fighting for very limited budget and acclaim.

Trying to keep your head down and focus on your research never worked. Maintaining a friendly distance with the custodial staff paid well for me, since most of my coworkers were more than happy to treat them as invisible.

Having a few casual acquaintances among the guards would only cost me a few free drinks.

We continued to chat even as we passed through the dungeon gate, and arrived at the encampment inside the dungeon. “Are you sure you want to go alone?” one of the guards asked even as I moved inside. “It’ll be easier with someone to distract them and get the shell. They won’t take it if there’s even the slightest crack.”

I shrugged. “Not exactly a problem. I don’t care about a few silvers. I just want to explore the floor and select which part of the dungeon is the best place to set up an operation once I start hiring,” I said.

“Good point,” he said, laughing a bit excessively to look friendly. Jokes of rich people always landed better for some reason.

Acting like I had no financial difficulty was another calculated choice. I didn’t have a lot of money — forty five golds sounded like an incredible amount, but it wouldn’t last long once the guild started operating.

But, having a reputation for being rich was a good way to stay under the radar once I started buying some weird skills.

I still picked a cart to bring with me, the biggest one available. “Wow, that’s an ambitious choice,” the guard called. “Someone is having mixed feelings about not needing money.”

Of course I needed money. And, I would have loved to fill the largest cart available with a thousand shells, which would have given me a nice payday of forty golds. Without the need for repair, it would have been an excellent investment.

But, there were two problems with it. First, I couldn’t explain why I didn’t need to repair my sword. While I could rent them — there were already a small pile of familiar swords in the corner, which people could change for pristine ones for a price — it would cut into the profit.

It wasn’t Eleanor’s fault. I was familiar with the process, I knew that they were already running it near the cost. I had discovered many ways to make the process faster, but that only solved the urgency aspect. Ultimately, it still consumed the same amount of mana alloy, which was more than ninety percent of the cost.

And, while I could repair the swords myself, bringing a thousand shells without exchanging swords would have been noticeable.

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason. The real reason was that I couldn’t kill a thousand monsters on my own. Not without damaging the shell.

Unfortunately, I still needed the cart. More exactly, I needed the material of the cart. It was a mixture of iron and wood, both the cheapest alloys. For me, they represented far more than what they were valued on the market.

“Not exactly,” I said. “I plan on getting some samples from the environment. Broken rocks, soil samples, things like that. You never know what can be discovered in a dungeon.”

“Be careful. You know how the beast could be when we start damaging the dungeon too much,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said, happy with the warning. Because, I didn’t know how they could be. “By the way, how much do we need to pay if the monsters destroy the cart?”

“Five silvers,” he warned. My eyes widened, but he misread the reason. “I know, it’s a rip-off. They cost something like eight coppers. But that’s how the dungeons work. Everything is a ripoff.”

He was true about overcharging, but I didn’t care about it. For me, it represented the easiest way I could get some metal for the forge I was planning to build. While I had the most fundamental tools, I still needed an anvil to experiment properly. A proper fire pit would help as well.

Dragging a cart or two with significant damage that coincidentally broke off their most metallic parts was easier to explain.

“True, but that's life,” I said. “Maybe one day we can get strong enough to monopolize a dungeon.”

“That’s the dream, but it’s impossible without accessing a good dungeon to level up first,” the guard replied. “That, or trying to level up in the wilderness like a crazy person.”

“A wise assessment,” I said as I turned my back and left. He had a point about the wilderness. Unless escorted by someone like Maria, trying to level up in the wilderness was a very dangerous affair.

As I left the small fort, I moved deeper. A monster attacked while I was still in the range of others. I could have pulled my hammer and killed it in one blow, or at least, I could have disoriented it with my shield.

However, I did neither. Instead, I moved around the beast, relying on the sword attacks to keep it distracted before I picked a moment to stab it through its mouth.

Having a reputation as primarily a sword user was another part of my new identity. One that was probably even more important than anything else. Connecting an expert swordsman to a poor blacksmith was even more difficult.

That’s why I took it down, but when I ripped the shell with my bare hands, I saw a lot of people wince. It was a good display, but it still damaged the shell enough to make it useless.

“What a waste,” I heard one of the hunters murmur.

“Rich people, man. They are all the same,” the other replied, though his whisper wasn’t as weak as they first thought.

I smiled as I walked away, feeling confident that my new identity would hold. Still, even as I moved, I made sure to stop multiple times in the view of the others, getting soil samples, broken rocks, even dried plants, wanting to sell my commitment to understanding the dungeon even more.

That way, they wouldn’t question when I returned midday to replace a damaged cart.

With that, I pulled the cart deeper and deeper, until I arrived at a concealed spot that was not near any of the five gates that led to the second floor. I didn’t want anyone to start wondering where I was. Then, I damaged the cart and ripped more than half of its metal, spending some time reforging the edges to make it look like it was destroyed by a monster attack.

Then, I walked toward the gate farthest away from the entrance. Eleanor’s map helped me immensely. Too bad she didn’t give a map for the second floor as well. It would have made moving around without risking myself far easier.

With that done, I cut a direct path toward the second floor, the immediate surrounding of the gate empty.

I switched to my hammer, and stepped through the gate.