Blacksmith vs. the System 26-30

— Chapter 26

As much as I wanted to spend the next month reading every book Eleanor had brought and carefully learn everything I could, I knew that it wasn’t the best method to go forward. Improving my skills as far as possible by creating mana alloys was the far superior option.

The amount of information skills contained was incredible, and the perks were even more fascinating.

So, I restricted myself to reading material science articles that were relevant to my objectives, and merely skimmed the rest before I started to work on the forge.

This time, I had a large pile of broken shells to keep me going for several days. The best thing was that, it wasn’t really wasteful. I already needed to break them into small pieces to use for forging, so they wouldn’t be useless.

I stopped only when my reserves had been filled.

[Mana (160/160)]

Reserves weren't enough to forge one ingot, which meant I didn’t have the luxury of following the recipe directly. I could have easily compensated for it with my Mana Blow perk, but the lack of environmental mana erased that possibility.

Meaning, I had to try more than a dozen times before I successfully forged a piece as small as my thumb. Even then, I would have failed if it wasn’t for Intuitive Forging giving me some last minute burst.

“Regardless, a success,” I muttered as I flipped the small piece. It was a sign of progress. The first mana alloy I had ever forged. “Too bad the System didn’t reward me.” Still, it didn’t surprise me too much. What I had done was much harder than just using one of the bronze alloys to forge a dagger, but the System didn’t measure difficulty the same way I did. Sometimes, it helped.

But, not always.

For Repair, that had been about both the general value of the weapon, and the extent of the damage to an equal measure. But, the sequence of the recipes that had been revealed made me suspect the materials had played even more of a role than I had first estimated.

Copper clearly didn’t move the needle once the skill passed level twenties, while the bronze alloy’s effectiveness had been dropped. “Maybe I should try working with iron,” I said as I walked toward the cart.

Even a partial success could push my skill higher. There was no harm in trying, afterall.

However, even as I reached for an iron alloy, I caught a more distinctive glint behind it. An ingot of silver.

“Surely not,” I said, about to ignore the idea the moment it occurred. Silver and gold were not exactly useful material when it came to practical applications, and they weren’t exactly common in the first place. Some people had collected a lot, trying to fake the System Currency, only to fail. Trying to make anything usable out of silver had failed the same way.

But then, none of those attempts had been done by a blacksmith that could use mana directly. I could have tried to mix the silver with the granules of shell and the other crystals, but I did not. Not when I had an easier option.

I cut my hand and bled on the molten metal, pushing some of my Health into my blood.

[-129 Health]

It was rather ghoulish.

I started to use Mana Blow, trying to taint the metal with my mana as I shaped it to a rough, thumb-sized cylinder. It was tricky without System directions, but my earlier successes had already taught me enough. Merely fifteen seconds later, I quenched it in water.

[Mana Forge (Rare) 25 -> 29]

I was shocked by the ease with which I had managed to improve my skills. A changed attitude and a generous experimentation budget was working wonders. I sighed, realizing just how big of a mistake my earlier desire to seek stability had been. Luckily, it was not too late.

However, while the skill confirmation had been interesting, the ease with which I was able to embed mana into silver was even more interesting. It was able to crystallize around mana even better than bronze, taking almost ten times the amount of mana without any problems.

Fascinating.

“Let’s see if we can turn you into something useful,” I said to the silver as I started tapping it gently. It was a spectacular failure, shattering under my blows, but I didn’t care. I just melted it to cleanse it of my mana and blood, and repeated the process, stopping only to replenish my Health.

Of course, the experiment I was using was not cheap. The food I was consuming to replenish my Heath was not cheaper than using dungeon materials for forging, and the resulting metal was barely increased. But, the System counted it as a success, which was all I needed.

Two hours was all I needed to reach forty-five, and then, the gains slowed down. I could have slowed down there, but I did not. Instead, I went in a simpler direction and changed the material.

Gold.

There was no gold in the material Eleanor had brought, but it didn’t matter. I already have gold coins. I immediately melted five gold, forever ruining their ability to be used in System stores. Five gold coins barely gave me ten grams to work with, which, considering the density of the gold, was a tiny amount.

There wasn’t even any mana that bursted out, which was a pity.

Five experiments, all ending in failure. Probably, it wasn’t enough to trigger the System. I still noted the results as well as I could have managed.

It was frustrating, but not frustrating enough to slow me down. I was tempted to melt the rest of my coins, but a hundred grams was still not a lot of gold. And, it represented my current fortune, which I might end up having to rely on in case of an emergency.

I decided to delay that experiment, and try something else.

“Time to try changing up the experiment,” I said as I mixed that tiny amount of Gold into the silver, and repeated the experiment. It absorbed the mana even better, though similarly, it took more mana to count as a partial success.

I was glad that I didn’t try to experiment with silver or gold at first, or the System might not have upgraded my skill.

[Mana Forge (Rare) 42 -> 46]

“Let’s see if I can turn you into a weapon,” I said. This time, the material had actually been malleable enough not to shatter while forging, though it was not exactly usable. But, it was hard to care when I was rewarded by another notification.

[Mana Forge (Rare) 46 -> 52]

[Perk Options — Modify / Masterwork / Creative Forging (Intuitive Forging) / Mana Control (Mana Manipulation) ]

A tougher choice, this time between Mana Control and Creative Forging. A better mana control was tempting, but considering Meditation was already helping me on that aspect, and that I needed to invent more materials for alloy variants, I chose Creative Forging.

They might not have been as useful for me, but it was critical for more funding.

Then, I passed as I put my hand on the silver. “Just like I suspected,” I muttered. Once I had reached fifty, some new methods had been unlocked. Some better bronze alloys, but also some simple silver alloys. None of them used pure silver like I tried to, and instead used a much more minuscule amount.

Checking those processes, I could easily deduce its function. Silver was excellent to hold more mana, allowing the weapons to be more dense. But, even a small dagger forged that way would require thousands of points of Mana to actually forge successfully, which was not something I could do without environmental mana.

And, that meant that failing to trigger the improvement with gold as my material might not have been about the amount, but the mana density of the alloy. An interesting problem, but one I decided not to solve immediately. The next perk was at proficiency level a hundred, and even with all my tricks, it was inevitable that it would require more mana than I could extract from the broken shells.

Which meant that improving Repair was the far more efficient option. “Let’s cheat the System again.” There was no suggestion from the System on how to repair the damaged dagger, but applying the information I had gathered from forging on repairing was even easier. All I needed to do was to keep the Inspect skill active, so that the System registered the activities as a part of the repair effort.

”Recycling is fun,” I muttered even as I repeated the same process again and again. The only thing I wasted was my Health-enhanced blood, which was certainly renewable.

 Damaging and repairing the same dagger repeatedly was not a fun process, especially when I had to stab myself again and again, but it was easy to endure as I watched my Repair increase.

And, when I had reached the next threshold, I immediately picked Advanced Inspect as my Perk. The other options looked good, but with the way I used it, getting an even more detailed view of the internal structure of the metals was not a sacrifice I could make.

“Now, to understand mana better,” I pondered, wondering whether I could push my Meditation to the next threshold before Eleanor’s next visit.

Not taking advantage of all that source of mana would have been a waste.

*****

— Chapter 27

During Eleanor’s next visit, I wasn’t able to bring my Meditation skill to a higher level, but it was close. A few times, I tried to practice my combat skill, but without an enemy to target, its progress was very limited.

I had dispersed my attempt to devour mana and instead grabbed the paper in front of me, making a show of taking notes.

[Mana Blacksmith - Level 32]

[Health 960/960] [Mana 0/160]

[Vitality 64 / Strength 64 / Dexterity 48 / Essence 16]

[Skills (4/10)

Mana Repair (Rare) - 62 [Advanced Inspect]

Mana Forge (Rare) - 59 [Creative Forging, Mana Manipulation]

Meditation (Common) - 42 [Controlled Flow, Enhanced Sensing]

Hammer of Might (Uncommon) - 53]

I had to admit, I was fascinated by the development I had made. The only thing that lagged behind was my level, which would have to stay where it was until Maria returned to accompany me for another trip.

Eleanor returned, pulling another huge cart, but looked shocked when she looked at the pile in front of me. “You have already used more than half?” she asked.

“Well, yes,” I replied. “I told you, experimentation can be expensive. Besides, does it matter? I thought all of them were useless.”

“That might be so, but they are not unlimited. We barely have two more deliveries like this, and we run out of that stock,” she said.

“We can always break intact ones,” I said.

She looked unhappy about that. “We can’t waste our only source of income, not when we’re already running in the red,” she said, cutting sharply. “You have already wasted enough. Any more, and you’ll have to hunt them yourself.”

I was about to reveal some kind of partial success, when I stopped. “Wait, is that an option?” I said.

“Normally, I would have said no, as you don’t have the Dexterity required to stay out of their path but…”

“I don’t need to hit their weak points. I don’t need the shells to be intact,” I completed.

She nodded. “Actually, that might work. You still have the ring of camouflage, right?” she asked.

I nodded.

“Good, you can use that to leave the camp with me. And, once we get there, you can disguise as a guild member here to check the dungeon, thinking of joining the camp. That way, we can excuse the broken shells as some kind of sample your guild requires. There are several spots that you can use alone easily, especially with your Hammer of Might. It’s not a permanent solution, but we’re already operating under the dungeon’s limit until Lady Maria returns with the new recruits, so there’s no waste.”

“Excellent. That way, I can also observe those monsters destroying the weapons. It might give me a better direction about my experiments.”

“Nice point,” she said. ”Unfortunately, even the safe spots are relatively dangerous. You need to increase your hammer proficiency further before you can move alone.”

“It’s already at twenty seven, is that enough?” I asked. It was half of the real number, but even that was an absurd number.

A good choice, as her surprise was apparent, but not the point of shock. “Already,” she said. “I underestimated you. Let’s give you a new set of armor, pick a couple extra hammers, and we can move,” she said.

“Do they destroy the blunt weapons as well?” I asked.

“Not at the same rate, and the lack of an edge makes them last longer, but eventually, they get destroyed as well. Still, four hammers should be enough to take down about forty, which should be what you can take down and bring in.”

“Excellent. I just need to bring a few ingots so I can repair my weapons,” I said as I followed her.

“Can you do that without a forge?” she asked.

“Yes, but it’ll be slower,” I said, which was a bit of misrepresentation. Technically, there was a way I could do so, but it would be pointlessly inefficient. I wanted to bring them because I wanted to see if I could use mana forging as a cold forging method. “By the way, do you have a sword skill I can use,” I added. “Something that focuses on defense. I love my hammer, but I don’t think it’s a good weapon to use against an assassin.“

“Hmm, you receive one point to your Dexterity, right,” she said. I nodded. “I have an uncommon skill called Stalwart Guard that focuses more on shield than a sword. We purchased several during the initial tests, but it didn’t work as well as we had hoped against the insect monsters.”

“Exactly what I need,” I replied as I followed her to the armory once more. She pulled that skill stone from a dusty shelf, showing it wasn’t touched for a long time.

[Skill Stone: Stalwart Guard (Uncommon)]

I immediately absorbed it, ignoring the pain and discomfort. While having two melee skills was a waste for most warriors, production classes received too many skill slots to care about that. Having a new style that could help me to defend against another potential assassin was worth using a slot.

Especially since improving it would take much less with my mana trick.

Once the pain of absorbing an external skill faded, I tested it a bit. One of the gladius-style short swords I had spent most of my time repairing worked wonderfully with it, but only when I had a shield ready.

“Not bad,” I muttered. Paired with a large shield, it could be used against someone with a larger armor. Once that was done, I slipped the ring back to my finger, activating the spell effect. Once that was done, I followed Eleanor, and sat behind her Griffin.

She said nothing at first. I grabbed the saddle desperately, wishing for a distraction. But, since I was supposed to not be there, I couldn’t say anything. The vertigo was even worse while watching my skin change color constantly.

Apparently, the camouflage spell didn’t count the back of a griffin as moving. A weird, arbitrary rule, but at this point, I was used to them.

“You can remove the ring,” she said. “

“Finally,” I groaned as I put it in my pocket.

“You’re getting more used to flying,” she said.

“Y-yeah,” I answered, which was all I wanted to say about the subject. “Why don’t you tell me about the dungeon?” I said. While it was important, I was even more desperate for a distraction.

“Sure. You have been in a dungeon, right?”

“A few times, but merely for observation,” I said, which was true. Dungeons were truly fantastical. Self-sustaining closed spaces that didn’t correspond to their physical surroundings, constantly generating monsters that were capable of dropping items once killed like a video game.

Unfortunately, they were as fascinating as a venomous snake. They appeared without a rhythm. Some of them were easy to handle, and turned into a source of economic prosperity. The others were too dangerous to handle, requiring a dedicated force of experts to delve into the depths and destroy it.

And, some of them just went undiscovered, growing more and more until they exploded, spewing an army of monsters.

I had visited a few of them with hired escorts — when I was reasonably wealthy — to see what had been going on, but once I realized I lacked the tools to even start penetrating their mystery, I lost my interest.

The stars were fascinating as well, but I didn’t continuously look at the sky and hoped to figure out how a main sequence star worked.

“Really? Most people prefer to level up in the dungeons. It’s certainly more efficient, and drops help.”

Another fun detail. Only in dungeons, did monsters drop items. Outside, they just killed and died.

“No. I didn’t fight most of the time,” I said. “It’s rather new.”

“Nothing to be ashamed of. It makes your improvement even more impressive,” she said. “Now, the first thing you need to be careful of is that dungeons always have a mist that blocks the view. It depends on the type, but even the best one is merely more than three hundred yards. Our dungeon has a fifty yard range. Not exactly horrible, but enough to remove the probability of melee combat. We have some flare scrolls for emergencies, but you need to angle them correctly for the people to notice.”

“Understood,” I said.

“The monsters inside are not exactly fast, but they can turn and twitch surprisingly quickly, which makes hitting their weak spots a challenge. Also, be careful about their mandibles. They can cut through armor. And, once you kill them, you have less than a minute before their shell melts, which can be difficult solo.”

“Not for me. I can just rip a large piece,” I said. “How about the drops?”

“Nothing much. Their drops are pretty rare in the first place. Mostly some basic skills, a couple common ones, and a few spell schemas. Nothing that goes for more than a few silver, basically negligible with the current scale.”

“What about the crystals and the herbs?”

“Those grow on the dungeon walls, and the System Shop buys them. Some of them can even go for a gold or two.”

“I’m guessing they are rare, or they would be the main source of income,” I said.

“Yes. They grow on their own, and require constant exploration. Other than them, there’s not much vegetation in this dungeon. It’s more like a lifeless desert of stone, interrupted only by some shrubbery.”

“Sound drab,” I said.

“I prefer drab over complicated every day. Once, I fought in a jungle dungeon. Trees everywhere, hiding venomous monsters behind. It was pretty much hell.”

I shuddered. She was right. Lifeless desert sounded much better than a jungle.

“Luckily, it’s merely stuck in a constant twilight rather than darkness, so we don’t have to deal with torches. Now, about the movement of the monsters. The first thing you need to pay attention to is…”

Most of the points she mentioned were obvious, but I still listened to them with rapt attention.

It was much better than focusing on my current mode of transportation.

*****

— Chapter 28

“Don’t forget to keep your helmet on, just in case,” Eleanor said even as we landed. Only when the movement of the griffin stopped, I opened my eyes once again. “Your beard is impressive, but let’s not take a risk.”

I scratched my beard. Forcing it to grow faster was one of the pointless tricks I could do with Health. I just needed to keep it focused on my face, and it quickened the hair growth. A little bleach, and I comfortably looked like someone in mid-forties rather than thirty-one.

Not all disguises needed to be elaborate.

“Sure,” I said even as I looked around, taking note of the environment. The first thing that caught my gaze was the gate made of glowing energy, about ten feet tall and half as wide, enough for two people to pass at once.

Dungeon Gate. The biggest problem Earth had ever faced, but also the biggest source of our growth. Talk about a mixed bag.

Interestingly, contrary to my expectation, there was no mana around the glowing gate. I had always assumed that they were dense in terms of mana. Another curiosity I wanted to explore, but it was not the time.

Around it, was a fortress to defend it, garrisoned by merely twenty guards. It was one benefit of mana dead location. The monsters around were much weaker, though inability to employ mages for anything other than emergencies reduced even that advantage somewhat.

It wasn’t a fully fledged camp, but more of a keep, with merely a few buildings in its limits. From the open gate, I could see a secondary wall outside, currently holding several carriages, probably there to transport the gains to the camp.

Looking outside, I could see why they hadn’t simply built their frontier camp next to the dungeon. It was on top of a hill, making any large-scale construction difficult. On the flipside, it was easy to defend against the monsters. A benefit, as it was a well known fact that monsters had a tendency to attack dungeon gates from outside.

A defensible location made a dungeon more valuable. And, one advantage of a mana dead location was that the number of monsters was considerably lesser. No wonder they continued to operate the dungeon even after Thomas took the official guards away.

However, it was clear that the fort wasn’t relying just on an easily defensible position. It had four large towers, each holding three siege weapons. Large ballistas, to be exact. Their presence was rare, but they were still a part of defending towns.

I couldn’t help but sigh as I looked at them. The existence of the siege weapons had been another problem that prevented the growth of the Blacksmiths.

They were just rarely used. A part of it was the cost. I didn’t know for sure how much they cost, but considering our town only had a dozen of them to defend a much larger area, I guessed that they were valued based on platinum coins. Their ammunition was equally expensive, but effective, perfect for taking larger monsters that threatened the stationary defenses.

Ironically, their use case prevented the blacksmiths’ growth even more.

One problem was making them. There was no recipe for making siege weapons in our Forge and Repair skills, something that continued to be true for my mana variants. Which meant, no easy construction.

If that had been the only problem, it could have been bypassed. Ultimately, the design of a ballista wasn’t exactly the most complicated thing. Even if we couldn’t make them as good as the other weapons, as long as blacksmiths could forge them for cheaper, the quantity could be used to cover up quality. Once the walls were covered up with hundreds of ballistas, the towns would be even more secure.

The real problem with that strategy was that using siege weapons didn’t trigger the System. It meant, no matter how many monsters had been killed by siege weapons, there was no System feedback, meaning no leveling up, and no upgrade of skills.

And, since the monsters’ attack on the town was one of the safest ways people could level up, the blacksmiths that tried to develop that direction had been quick to abandon that path. It was another reason to believe that, in the larger scheme of things, Blacksmiths were truly useless, even among the other production classes.

A fact I had also believed up until very recently.

Maybe I would try my hand on making some ammunition. Making an actual ballista was equally tempting, but since I either needed to coordinate with a woodworker, or forge it purely out of metal, which would take too much material.

Not to mention, I could hardly hide it when someone visited.

“I know it can be stressful to enter a dungeon, but please focus. You’re representing your guild,” Eleanor called, pulling me out of my pondering, also reminding me that I was supposed to be an employee for another guild.

“I was just checking the quality of the defenses,” I said loudly. “We need to make sure the dungeon won't be any trouble.”

“Not to worry. We’re very careful to defend both sides,” she said. “Now, follow me.”

I did, and stepped through the glowing gate. A brief vertigo hit me as I was enveloped by light.

The next time I was on the ground, I was in a land of twilight, surrounded by a thick mist. At the edge of the mist, tall walls rose, far thicker than the ones outside. Sixteen towers rose high, tall enough that I couldn’t see their top, but I had no doubt that they held multiple ballistas.

As I examined the defenses, I was starting to believe that I might have misunderstood the true power of the Griffin family. It wasn’t just the number of siege weapons. I didn’t know much about the dungeons, but I knew that not many organizations dared to establish permanent encampments inside the dungeon.

It made the operation far more efficient, but it also required a significant commitment to defend. It explained why Thomas taking the family forces away troubled them so much. Without the encampment, they would have been able to just reduce the number of trips but still work with a somewhat high efficiency.

Now, with their forces split into three different encampments, they had to keep their operation slow until the caravan could arrive with the new recruits.

No wonder they were losing money despite the incredible sales price of a shell.

I began to pay more attention to the operation as I followed her.

Unlike the other side of the camp, there were no buildings inside, just several open carts and a few workers currently piling them with bloody shells. “For now, you can use our fortress as a staging ground, but when your guild gets here, they need to establish their own fortress near ours,” she explained loudly enough for the others to hear. “For now, you can borrow one of our carts, but you have to drag it yourself.”

“That’s agreeable, Lady Eleanor,” I replied, playing the role even as I grabbed one of the carts and pulled it with me. It was not a challenging job for a blacksmith.

We didn’t say anything more as she led me outside, and I dragged a cart with me. Meanwhile, she passed me a small bundle. “In here, there’s a map, and multiple flares. It shouldn’t be any risk unless you go too deep, as the monsters can’t move fast enough to keep up with you, but be careful,” she said. “I won’t be able to stay with you. I have a patrol to lead.”

That was not a surprise. Dungeons were treated as a prime leveling spot, mostly because the risks inside were predictable, especially near the gate. Assuming, of course, there were regular patrols deeper to keep the monster density manageable.

I didn’t answer her immediately, but instead watched a scene at the edge of my vision. At a distance, there were two warriors, facing against an insect that was about two feet tall and five feet long, including the dangerous looking mandibles. One had poked it with a long spear, made of ordinary wood. The moment it poked against the shell, the wood started degrading.

The monster attacked him with a surprising burst of speed. He dodged the attacks multiple times, carefully leading it to his partner, waiting for an opportunity. Only when he caught the monster in the middle of its attack, he stabbed, sinking the blade to its mouth.

When he pulled, a sickly glow was around his sword, looking ruined. He probably could use it once more, but it would be the limit. However, the monster was not dead yet.

It required another stabbing, which turned the sword mostly useless. The two warriors managed to take an insect down in tandem in less than a minute. When it died, a small cloud of mana appeared. It dissipated even faster than usual. Even with my Meditation far higher than usual, I shouldn’t be able to absorb a point.

I smiled. While meditation wouldn’t have worked, the same wasn’t true for the mana blow trick I had improvised. It latched it to mana directly, so it should allow me to catch some mana.

I continued to watch as the one that had been playing the bait pulled a few weird looking implements, and used them to pull the largest piece of shell while keeping it pristine.

Interestingly, once the beast died, touching the shell didn’t cause any damage.

The shell piece they took was the biggest one, but it was still just a small piece, roughly round, from the center of its back. “They only take one piece?” I asked.

“That’s the only piece that can be sold for eight silver,” she replied. “The other pieces merely go for a silver, and it’s hard to extract them on time.”

I didn’t ask what she meant. When they pulled back, the monster started fading into some kind of weird blue and white light that matched the dungeon’s entrance.

Another feature of the dungeons. Absorbing the dead monster back.

Merely two minutes of work, and they were eight silver richer. Of course, minus all the costs, the fee for the access rights to the dungeon for access, and the cut the guards of the System Store would take… Still, not a bad profit.

“Looks easy,” I commented.

“It is, when they are alone,” she answered. “When they are more crowded, properly taking them down is very troubling.” Then, she looked at my hammer. “Not for you, of course,” she said as she led me away from the camp.

We walked about half a mile, before she brought me to a rocky area which limited mobility significantly. “This is the best place for you,” she said. “Our hunting teams don't get near here because it’s hard to properly bait them without a proper movement area.”

“But, it’s perfect for me,” I said even as I moved toward the nearest monster. It attacked me, but stepping sideways had been easy. I smashed my hammer down and retreated from the path of the attack smoothly.

My skill might be offensively oriented, dodging was still a part of it. It still took ten blows to bring the beast down, almost a minute.

Of course, that was without using mana.

“Excellent. You have eight hours before we return. Don’t get too far away, or do something stupid,” she said before she walked away.

I twirled my hammer. For the first time, I was feeling excited for a fight.

*****

— Chapter 29

I took down a few monsters while Eleanor walked away, still holding back, ripping the shells carelessly from their bodies. I didn't absorb the mana from them, both as a test of my abilities without mana assistance, and as a precaution in case she was still nearby.

Naturally, there was no reaction from the System. The insects were decent enemies, but not enough to help someone around level thirty to level up immediately. By spending about a minute each monster, the leveling efficiency would be much lower than trying to fight outside.

Then, there was the weapon destruction effect. While it wasn’t as much as directly plunging into the mouth of the beast, every hit to the shell degraded the weapon somewhat. It was impossible to notice it with the naked eye, but with the Advanced Inspect, I could easily watch the damage. That effect got even stronger once a shell was cracked.

It was some kind of spell, sticking to the surface of the metal to worm itself to the surface, almost working like acid for a second before fading away.

It was interesting, but I couldn’t focus on it as much as I wanted. Watching one of them bite a huge rock into two was enough to remind me that this operation was not without risk. Maybe I could spend more time testing it if the guards capture and immobilize one.

For now, it was time to improve my combat skills, and maybe gain a few levels. I first pulled the cart behind a rock. The monsters didn’t seem to care about inanimate objects, but even if they did, I didn’t care. Instead, I moved deeper into the rocky area, holding a broken shell in my hand.

Once I was sure that no one was around, I smashed it aggressively, and drained its mana.

[+3 Mana]

“Well, that was much less than I had hoped,” I muttered. Normally, I would be able to drain almost twenty mana from a similarly damaged shell, but it was without the dungeon absorbing it back. Not that I cared much.

Then, I pulled the map Eleanor had given me, and examined it. The map only showed the first floor — as there were similar glowing passages that led to other floors — which was roughly circular.

With a radius of ten miles.

And, as if the idea of a pocket universe wasn’t fascinating enough, I also knew that ten miles was relatively small as far as dungeons went. Truly fascinating.

Too bad I was here, inside an incredible miracle, only to kill monsters like a barbarian rather than exploring it as a proper scientist.

The map showed the patrol areas and the safe spots clearly. Eleanor had given it to me to keep me from getting into trouble, but I had the exact opposite intention. For me, it represented the best areas to operate.

“But first, a test,” I muttered as I moved toward another monster, and pushed the mana to the head of the hammer. Though, once again, I was able to repeat the trick of mana attack only when I thought of the hammer as a forging tool.

Though, even as I faced the monster, and barely dodged the attack, I realized a small problem. Focusing on my Forging skill meant that the reflexive footwork didn’t arrive. I was barely able to switch skills before throwing myself to the side, rolling painfully.

[Hammer of Might (Uncommon) - 53 -> 55]

“Note to myself, be careful about switching skills,” I muttered as I looked at the corpse of the monster. If that blow didn’t kill it in one hit, it wouldn’t be that easy.

I sat on the ground, watching the mangled remains of the beast. The mana blow, even if it was just worth three points, increased its effectiveness against the shell significantly. It had turned the loot completely worthless.

More importantly, since its shell had been destroyed completely, the mana cloud around it was much thicker. More than enough for me to catch some using Mana Blow. Meaning, I could deal with multiple monsters without the need for stopping to replenish my mana.

I was still stuck near the cart for almost half an hour, hunting the monsters until my mana reserves were full, and killing twenty more insects in the process. Without holding back, I was able to shatter their shells in merely four or five hits even without using mana. But, without mana, there was no rapid skill increase.

Absorbing Mana was a slow process, but even half an hour was only possible because of my high Meditation skill. If it was below twenty five, I wouldn’t have been able to take even a drop of mana from the greedy pull of the dungeon.

I fully intended to use the Mana Blow trick to kill the beasts rather than using my stored mana, but wasting an hour was acceptable for additional safety.

“It’s time,” I muttered even as I moved forward, my hammer flipping in my hand as I left the safe area behind, and moved toward the edge of the dungeon.

The landscape got rockier and rockier, but I didn’t care about it. I was more interested in the density of the insects. I deliberately positioned myself so that multiple monsters moved toward me at the same time.

The first one, I killed using my reserves. Unlike trying to reverse the flow of Meditation, mana leaked out of my body smoothly to land on my hammer head.

[-4 Mana]

A single blow, and the target had been dealt with. This time, knowing that it would die in one blow, I hadn’t thrown myself to the side in panic.

[Hammer of Might (Uncommon) - 55 -> 57]

Instead, I shifted back to Mana Forge, which allowed me to gather the mana around my hammer far faster than I could with Meditation. A step forward, and another beast died. Killing them unassisted allowed my skill to improve far faster.

[Hammer of Might (Uncommon) - 57 -> 59]

“Let’s go,” I muttered as I moved deeper recklessly, especially once I realized that using mana blow prevented the erosion effect from their shell sticking to my hammer, preventing durability loss.

A dungeon where I didn’t need to share with others was an incredible treasure, especially one that fit my skill configuration perfectly. It was the perfect environment to use the benefits of the System. So, when I drifted away enough to see a swarm of insects, the count easily reaching hundreds, I moved forward.

The only thing that I paid attention to was not to be surrounded by the swarm as my hammer danced, my movement getting smoother and smoother.

Once my hammer skill reached seventies, it only started to increase once with every kill. At around eighty proficiency, it started going up once in several monsters. A pity, but not a big one. Having an external combat skill in the eighties was already fascinating enough. After improving my skill so much, I was able to shatter the shell with one hit, even without using Mana.

The skill didn’t increase my Strength, but it gave me many new tricks to create an unbelievable sense of leverage, which was only possible due to Dexterity helping my body move.

As I destroyed the insects, their bodies continued to disappear. However, not all of them had disappeared into nothing. Several of them had left glowing orbs behind. Skills.

However, I didn’t have time to stop and take them, since I was dealing with a swarm of huge insects. Instead, I continued killing, and counting.

As my skill proficiency passed the hundred and fifty mark, an even more welcome notification appeared.

[Level 32 -> 33]

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

I started moving smoothly. It was even more efficient than leveling with Maria’s help. Experiencing it directly, I could understand why people were charging for dungeon access. Fighting against only one type of enemy made things far easier.

As I fought, I realized an unexpected situation. As I continued to kill, the surrounding monsters started to get antsy. Still, I wasn’t deep enough for it to be a risk, so I merely decided to deal with the mess.

I fought for almost twenty minutes without interruption, which was a challenge that would have exhausted any warrior. But, that was another benefit of being a Blacksmith. There were some classes that didn’t even receive Vitality, while most of them only received one point. Blacksmith received double, giving us a considerable endurance even without burning Health to reinforce the muscles.

As I fought, another reward arrived.

[Level 33 -> 34]

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

When the onslaught was over, I had killed a total of five hundred and forty six monsters, though there was no sign of it other than a few glowing orbs, the rest had long disappeared. However, I didn’t bother gathering the skill stones just yet.

While I was curious to check them and see if there was anything useful, something else was far more important.

[Hammer of Might (Uncommon) - 100]

[Perk Options — Shattering Blow / Smooth Step]

I was as happy to learn that there was an unexpected benefit to leveling external skills as much as I was happy about leveling once more.

Too bad it seemed to hit its limit by reaching hundred, not improving further. Another choice.” Smooth Step was tempting. It was clearly related to dodging, which was helpful. However I chose Shattering Blow.

I already had a new skill focused on defense. For the moment, trying to focus on my strength seemed like a better idea.

That way, even without mana, I could deal with a horde, an ability I could reveal to Eleanor. Not today, maybe, but it would be convincing after a few more trips. It would still be hard to swallow, but I could always spin a tale about discovering my aptitude toward fighting with a hammer, maybe mixing with some kind of desperate battle against ten thousand bugs.

It was well known that the desperation of death helped skills improve faster.

It would mean potentially revealing a secret — that external skills granted a Perk once they reached proficiency one hundred — but I wasn’t afraid of it for multiple reasons. First, I had a feeling that it wasn’t a big secret. I was sure that bigger organizations had long discovered it.

Unlike my Mana Skill upgrade, its discovery was far more straightforward. Meaning, it was a secret I could give up safely to improve her impression of me.

I made a note to proudly declare that I had already reached sixty today. A good lie benefited from a good foundation.

Then, I started walking toward the glowing skill orbs.

*****

— Chapter 30

I walked around the battlefield, collecting the skill stones. Not that it took a long time, as there were merely fifteen of them. It meant, about only one in thirty of the beasts had dropped a skill.

Of those fifteen skill stones, nine of them didn’t react, showing that I lacked the prerequisite conditions to activate them. And, since the dungeon didn’t drop anything truly rare, I guessed it was related to missing stats rather than anything I could match. Perception, Charisma, Wisdom … and, my biggest achilles heel, Intelligence.

That, or they might be some commonplace spell schemas or construction recipes that required a specific ability. Then, I started examining the six that I received.

[Skill Stone: Overhead Strike (Basic)]

[Skill Stone: Ice Blast (Basic)]

[Skill Stone: Nurture (Basic)]

[Skill Stone: Nurture (Basic)]

[Skill Stone: Swipe (Basic)]

[Skill Stone: Stab (Basic)]

Ice Blast had immediately caught my attention among the available skills. A magic skill, something incredibly tempting in more ways than one. However, no matter how tempting it was, I didn’t absorb it immediately.

A dungeon wasn’t the best place for starting a new experiment. It was better to focus on the one I had in front of me.

The other five skill stones weren’t as interesting. Nurture was the sole class skill of Farmers, which was a class that was even more unfortunate than Blacksmiths. Not only were they limited to receiving only one point of Vitality, but they also received only one class skill, which could be used to hasten the growth of the plants.

One that used their Health in return.

They almost exclusively worked in greenhouses, growing food. While monster meat could be used as a food, metabolizing the enhanced food they produced was faster. The basic variant, in particular, was useless at this point.

Of the three combat skills, two of them were worthless. At this point, the basic skills were plentiful enough to be picked for a few copper coins, and even a common combat skill wasn’t too different. I hadn’t changed mine before, mostly because I hadn’t been planning to go to the trouble of improving my proficiency from the start.

Actually, absorbing Stab was tempting as well. Just like how Overhead Strike was a basic hammer skill, Stab was a basic spear skill. Adding another weapon to the mix was an alluring idea, particularly after confirming that I was able to gain a Perk from improving external skills.

A simple perk, maybe, but only through the existence of my Perks was I able to break through the limits of the skills.

“One step at a time,” I said even as I collected the skill stones, not absorbing any of them.

Before absorbing them, I needed to confirm that the rapid improvement trick actually worked with weapons other than hammer, which was not a given.

“Let’s see if it works,” I muttered even as I retreated back toward my cart. On the way, I had killed a few insects, but I didn’t bother using any mana. Instead, I focused on collecting their shells to put on the cart. It was better to be safe than sorry.

When I arrived, the cart had been untouched. I put the shells I collected there as well as all skills except three — Stab, Nurture, and Ice Blast — before I changed my weapons to sword and shield. It was finally the time to test the skill properly.

I attacked the air. My movement was direct, straightforward, and most importantly, incompetent, which was inevitable. One point of proficiency didn’t mean much, and the glaring mistakes were even more obvious after bringing another combat skill to hundred.

I ignored them, and instead tried to use mana in my storage to attack. It would be easier to use than Mana Blow.

[-2 Mana]

It failed.

“That’s not good,” I muttered. I was very confident that I could use the mana to enhance the attack, but it didn’t even take hold around the sword. I tried the same thing multiple times, trying to modify the shape of the mana.

Even when I depleted most of my mana, it failed. My unfamiliarity was not helping. “I need to watch a swordsman use mana attacks,” I deduced, which was not exactly easy to find. I didn’t know if Eleanor was capable of using mana. She might be depending on the class, as there were multiple hybrid classes. But, I didn’t see her use one. And, I couldn’t ask her about it without looking suspicious.

She wasn’t like Maria, willing to entertain my random questions. Nor was she careless enough not to realize she would be revealing potential secrets.

Waiting for Maria was the easiest way. It was likely that she had a melee external skill that she could use for emergencies. I remembered that she carried a dagger. However, I needed to wait almost five days for her. There were other ways to handle things.

“And, I don’t need mana for the first step, do I?” I said to myself. Just because the mana trick didn’t work didn’t mean I didn’t have any other option.

I made a simple forward attack with the sword a few times, then switched to hammer, replicating the attack. Of course, the weapons were really different, but so was the difference between one point of proficiency and a hundred.

More importantly, there was a lot of overlap between two melee skills, just like there was a strong overlap between Repair and Forge. The concept of balance, momentum, maintaining a distance … all had been a relevant part of it.

It took merely five swings to improve my skill once.

[Stalwart Guard (Uncommon) 1 -> 2]

I was more than happy to discover another way to improve the skill. Clearly, it wasn’t too effective, barely matching the speed of killing monsters, especially with the momentum lacking. I practiced for ten minutes.

[Stalwart Guard (Uncommon) 2 -> 11]

The improvement was nice, but not as high as it could have been. It slowed down significantly once I passed the ten point mark. It was barely enough to fight against monsters.

However, I didn’t rush to fight against them immediately. I only had one shield, and I didn’t want to ruin it with a mistake.

“Speaking of shields,” I said even as I paused, focusing on the skill once more. I referred to it as a sword skill, but it wasn’t, was it? It was a sword and shield skill. Once I reached ten proficiency, several moves that included the shield in a more offensive manner had opened up.

That put a big smile on my face for one, good reason. In terms of momentum, a shield attack was more similar to a hammer than a sword. ”Let’s try it again,” I said. I started another round of practice, this time focusing on shield attacks over sword ones.

The skill continued to rise. Half an hour of practice had been enough to bring my skill to a new stage.

[Stalwart Guard (Uncommon) - 25]

“Cheating is fun,” I said even as I started moving deeper once again. While I had been fighting, I had been interrupted by the occasional monster, but I chose to deal with them using my hammer. It was the first time I was going to use a sword.

I approached an insect, trusting the skill to do its job. When the beast attacked, I took a step to the side, and slammed it with my shield. Unbalanced, I followed with multiple attacks, a combination of shield and sword, relying on the direction of the skill.

[Stalwart Guard (Uncommon) 25 -> 26]

The reward was nice, but the damage to both my sword and shield was considerable. No wonder they dealt with the monster by distracting it.

Still. It was a reasonable sacrifice. The damage to weapons would explain how I was able to improve the combat skill that quickly. An improvement I wanted to reveal, at least to some degree. It would be less suspicious than suddenly defending myself with incredible proficiency if the need arose.

“Now, the next trick,” I said as I tried to time my attacks with a mana burst.

It wasn’t like the mana blow. It didn’t impact my attack. However, it managed to interfere with the corrosion effect, preventing the weapons from slowly getting damaged. It was another trick, but not a particularly valuable one. Simply repairing them was easier.

“Still, it’s always better to know more rather than less,” I said, more than happy with my performance.

After killing a few more beasts, I started experimenting once more, doing my best to correct the skill based on the feedback of the hammer attacks. I occasionally switched weapons just to refresh my memory.

Soon, another dozen insects fell under my attacks, and I ripped their shells before they faded. Though, even as I repeated the attack, I noticed an interesting detail. The ones with their shells ripped didn’t seem to drop skills at the same rate.

“Interesting. Too bad it’s not statistically significant,” I pondered. I needed to kill a lot of beasts and test it that way. However, first, I wanted to finish improving my sword skill. I continued killing, not only collecting shells, but also improving the skill high enough to — hopefully — impress Eleanor without alarming her.

[Stalwart Guard (Uncommon) - 41]

“Impressive, but not groundbreaking,” I finally said. The best part, the way I improved it was actually replicable. She could test it with another hammer expert, and they would get some results.

Not at the same level, but enough to keep her from getting suspicious.

I returned to the cart to drop my sword and shield along with the excess shells. Then, I moved deeper, hammer in hand, feeling strangely excited that I would be able to run the experiment myself. The day had been filled with fascinating discoveries.

Maybe that had been my mistake all along, I decided. I relied on others to collect data, rather than doing it myself.

I had another experiment to run.