Blacksmith vs. the System

I said nothing until l opened another gate back to the first floor. Harold led the team he had collected for me. Six hundred people in total; a hundred guards, supported by five hundred Farmers.

"How are we going to handle the class upgrade, sir?" Harold asked me as we watched the rest of the team arrive.

"We're just going to use the Mana from the claws for the first one, then revisit," I said. I had multiple concerns relating to how the dungeon operated still, but one thing I wanted to do was to limit mana spending if possible.

Yes, the dungeon created mana, but before I could get a better understanding of its actual limits, lowering the consumption was a better idea. An easy decision to handle when I had an alternative delivery method that brought themselves to my feet.

Harold nodded. "It feels weird to destroy all of them rather than sell," he admitted with a sigh. "I have no idea how much money the claws would go for, but I'm sure it'll be a fortune. Those will be the most expensive class upgrades for Farmers in history."

"We need to stay alive to spend the money," I said. It was easy to dismiss the financial ramifications when we lacked an opportunity to actually use it for our benefit.

Then, while Harold was busy assigning the weapons, I went back to the workshop to quickly fashion two hundred containers. The mechanics of it were simple. A button to compress the metal to crush the shell inside the box, while the walls of the box had been optimized to separate mana and the tainted energy. All they needed was to press and throw.

While they put on the equipment, I created some fragmentation boxes for them, which should be enough for a while.

"Ready?" I asked once I arrived.

"Yes, sir," Harold replied. "The first team, ready!" he ordered, and two hundred people split from the crowd, predominantly the guards. The others also lined up, ready to follow.

They looked around at the broken fortifications — demolished by the ascended warriors during their initial approach — before Harold shouted. "Attention!"

"Dealing with the lizards is not too hard, at least for the moment," I shouted. "They are more agile than the insects, but they lack their defense. Shooting at them from range shouldn't be too hard as long as ranged attacks are used in waves. As for drawing them closer, watch me carefully," I ordered.

Then, I repeated the earlier trick, using four boxes to draw them to a reasonable distance before I moved forward and dealt with them. While dealing with them, I made sure to dodge their attacks for a while to give them a chance to observe the attacks.

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However, once the number of lizards had dropped to half, I shifted to my sword. Behind me, I could already see the guards watching me, disdain creeping to their faces. I would have found their rapid loss of respect weird considering my earlier display of dominance, but with my suspicions about the System, I decided to treat it as a constant hostility.

I just needed to show off constantly to remind them of my power.

I smirked as I let the mana gather around my sword, amused by the ironic familiarity of the situation. Back before Cataclysm, I had to deal with many professors who assumed their age somehow made them better than me, meaning the only way to keep them reasonable was to constantly remind them I was better than them.

At least, I had the tools to make it easy.

Instead of letting the mana attack go at once, I gathered it until it had been gathered thick enough to gain an intense glow, and then let it out as one ranged slash, killing all that remained. "I think that's enough to teach you the movement patterns," I said in a casual voice, like it was just a casual attack, not something I pushed myself to do.

But, seeing the disdain replaced with a healthy dose of respect and awe, I was happy with the subterfuge.

"It better have been, sir," Harold said, quick to catch up.

"Good, then the command is yours," I said as I went back into the dungeon. I wanted to stay and watch, but the way the expressions of most of the guards had changed convinced me that it was not a good idea.

Naturally, I still stayed near the entrance, watching them through the dungeon connection, ready to intervene in case of an emergency. Harold proved himself to be a capable commander, and I trusted him to handle the situation, but with all the unknowns we had been dealing with, it was still a challenge.

But, just because I was on standby didn't mean I was wasting my time. I spent the time writing a treatise on how to develop mana variants of the skills, which included a combination of my own experiences and Eleanor's attempts.

Luckily, the fact that the dungeon produced Basic Meditation, which could be absorbed without any precondition, should help people get used to the concept of mana more easily. A few specially-designed devices from my side to support their skills, and having a small cadre of mana-capable people was not out of the question.

But, as I completed the booklet, I realized that it was not the best idea.

"I can't hurry up," I muttered as I watched the guards and farmers battle against the monsters, the gap between the classes clear even when fighting a common enemy.

We were isolated, away from any major population centers, constantly being assaulted by hordes of monsters that would inevitably grow further. Our situation was already complicated enough, then there were other variables, such as the potentially brainwashing powers of the System, and my hasty decision to rekindle modern technology in the form of industrial production.

A critical variable like widespread mana usage could wait a few days, especially since, ultimately, mana was still a restricted resource. It did feel like a limitless resource as long as I was the only one who constantly used it, but I doubt it would be the same when we had hundreds of users … let alone thousands.

But, there was still one critical question. What to do with Meditation. With the monsters starting to drop that skill, I doubted that I could exert any meaningful amount of control unless I integrated a police-state level control that would have made Stalin jealous.

I sighed and decided to let that be. Letting people experiment instead of trying to control was the better idea. I doubted that without my guidance, there would be hundreds of people, mostly due to people's attitude toward experimenting.

I hoped that I wouldn't underestimate people since, if I was wrong, I would be dealing with the consequences directly. I folded the notes to keep them in a corrosion-resistant box and brought them to the fourth floor before I returned to the first floor.

After ten waves, Harold returned to the dungeon, bringing a cart full of claws, enough to arm every single occupant of the dungeon with weaponry that could deal extra damage against the lizards.

"Here they are, sir," he said before launching a report of what had happened. I had watched it, but I still let him deliver the detailed report, as it was a good habit.

Meanwhile, I quickly sorted the claws, making plans for the next step.

I had to admit, that the ability to assign hundreds of people to the task rather than doing every single step myself was certainly liberating. The cart was filled to the brim with claws, and alone, it would have taken me at least a day to collect that amount. And, even more to process and turn them into weapons, which was another chore I didn't have to deal with. Not with hundreds of apprentices I acquired, each enthusiastic to put their newest skill to use. I just needed to turn them into ingots, and the rest would be handled by them.

Of course, arming everyone was just the beginning. While the number of claws that I possessed was enough to arm everyone, it was only true when the weapons in question were limited to medieval tech.

"Excellent work," I said.

"Thank you, sir," he said happily. I was glad that, unlike the other guards, he wasn't showing any sign of disdain toward me.

"I think I promised you a reward," I said. He nodded, trying to hide his enthusiasm, but failing. I passed him a sword, connected with a chain so I could check his skill in detail. "Use every attack your skill has," I said as I closed my eyes, glad that his class skill was a sword art.

Thanks to Eleanor, I was familiar with the variations of it. Even without his explanation, I could see that it was a Rare skill, probably just below a hundred in proficiency. It was a more balanced style, relying on Strength and Dexterity in equal amounts. It only had one Vitality attack, one with no special features.

Designing a composite sword to follow the attack path to supercharge the skill growth took me less than a minute. "Try to keep this sword hidden," I said as I passed it to him.

He used it once, using a Vitality attack, only for his eyes to widen. He swung again, the smoothness of the attack showing a marked improvement. Then again. "Good, it's working. Come talk with me once the growth slows down," I said and opened a gate to the third floor.

I still needed to create enough weapons to keep the dungeon safe before I experimented with my epic forging properly.