Blacksmith vs. the System

"And, stay down, ugly bastard," I said even as I pushed my abomination of a spear through the skin of an even uglier giant insect monster, feeling excited and satisfied at the same time.

After all, I had just brought a skill from nothing to its limit in less than half an hour.

[Swift Spear (Uncommon) 98 - 100]

[Perk Options — Fleeting Step / Charge]

"I wonder if that's a record," I said even as I ripped the shell of the giant monster I had taken down, and started my trek back to the forge. Now that the skill had reached its limit, I could create a more fitting weapon than the ugly monstrosity I had created to abuse the mismatch.

Just like Hammer of Might required a proper heavy-headed hammer to show its benefits, Swift Spear required something tall and with a decent elasticity to properly show its power.

While I probably couldn't create something that would show the full potential of the technique without high-grade wood — as there was a limit to the elasticity that could be shown by a pure metal handle — I should still be able to replicate it somewhat.

However, while I was on the way, I made sure to choose a perk option, one that didn't require even the slightest thought. Fleeting Step.

After all, I had my Hammer of Might for situations that required power, and Stalwart Guard was excellent when I needed to defend myself. Meanwhile, Swift Spear, true to its name, focused more on mobility. It wasn't exactly my strongest suit, but considering the effort it required, I was still more than happy to take it.

Fleeting Step transformed the skill somewhat, giving me an even better ability to dance between the attacks. But, even as I tested it, I could feel that, somewhat, it was my stats that weren't supporting it properly.

My guess was that my Dexterity had been barely enough to allow me to learn it.

"Not that I'm complaining," I groaned as I charged among a small swarm, intentionally letting them surround me, yet dodging them with ease. Not even a splatter of a ranged attack landed on me. I could have dealt with them easily, but instead, I let them attack me, while I limited myself to deflecting their mandibles.

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Just because I had a skill at its limit didn't mean that I could use it well.

The skill was fascinating, especially with Fleeting Step mixed in. It allowed me to dance among the attacks from the monsters with the elegance of a dancer. It didn't make me run faster at longer distances, but it actually helped me to climb the cliffs and other surfaces.

I couldn't simply climb a ninety-degree surface, but anything with a rough surface was a fair deal. If a mountain goat could climb it, I had a fair chance. "Fascinating." Of course, in a world where people could actually fly, it wasn't as fascinating, but that was just the reality.

It meant I could actually ditch the swarms by using the natural impediments, which was a good thing. That way, I didn't have to kill the monsters in the first two floors, which should keep the others from getting suspicious about the lack of monsters in a certain direction.

"And, that's not the only benefit," I muttered as I switched weapons, and started engaging with monsters using Stalwart Guard. I had already used my lessons from the hammer technique to improve it, and when it came to it, sword and spear had much more in common regarding the fundamentals.

Which was why, the progress I had made when I had arrived back at to forge was only to be expected. More than enough to impress Eleanor.

[Stalwart Guard (Uncommon) - 57]

The best part was that I hadn't even pushed it to the limit. But, for once, I decided to slow down. I wanted it to look impressive, not unbelievable.

Once I forged myself a new, seven-foot-long spear, I decided to leave everything but my hammer in my forge. Searching the gate for the next floor while running as fast as I could manage seemed like a fitting task.

One particularly great advantage I had was my Strength, allowing me to break the shell just as easily without waiting for the beast to attack. It was even a better fit for hunting on the first floor without damaging the shell as long as corrosion wasn't a concern.

But then, without the corrosion effect, a lot of things were easier.

As I faced my next challenge — four giant monsters in one horde — I was suddenly glad that I decided to add the spear to the mix. Hammer had the necessary power to take down the beast in one hit as long as I could hit a weak spot thanks to Shattering Blow, but reaching that weak spot had been the problem.

With Fleeting Step, I could simply climb on top of them, the corrosion effect uselessly crashing against my metal greaves.

Suddenly, the fights were less like a deadly struggle, and more like an action movie. Cheating was truly fun. Once I climbed to their back, all I needed was to switch to the hammer. One blow and the giant insects died.

Too bad piling four of them together still granted me with an Uncommon skill, one that I couldn't even use.

I had been hoping for a Rare one.

"Maybe next time," I muttered even as I continued my dedicated dash, not even slowing down to pick up the shells or the crystals. The only thing I slowed down for was to take note of the various geographical features to prevent myself from getting lost.

No, I just wanted to find the gate, and while the density of the giant monsters had given me a direction to search, it was not exactly a compass. And, the twenty-yard vision range wasn't exactly making it easier.

The dungeon fog — which was not a real fog but a weird energy — was a mixed blessing. Its existence was an inconvenience to be sure, but only because it was there, I had dared to set up a hidden forge.

"Finally," I shouted in celebration when I arrived at the gate I had been searching for. Around it, there were eight giant monsters, which had been not exactly inconvenient to deal with with the trick of combining two skills at their limits.

I was able to kill all of them in under one minute. Throwing them together had been the bigger challenge.

They were not exactly small. Even with my strength, I couldn't casually pile them.

"It's worth it," I said when I found a skill that had been glowing in an unfamiliar pattern.

[Skill Stone: Nurture (Rare)]

I examined the skill. It was rare, yet it didn't have any kind of qualifier. I wondered if it was something that could happen for all skills. Was there an inferior version of Mana Forge that I could get from dungeons, or was it only something that was relevant for the Nurture skill…

Frankly, it wouldn't be the first way the System discriminated against the Farmer class.

I was tempted to absorb it, but I decided not to. It was tempting, but it was far from the most urgent task I had in mind. I put it in my sack before I turned toward the next challenge I wanted to face.

The gate.

"Unto the breach once more," I said as I took a step forward, finally ready to face the next batch. It was a risky step, one that I would have been far more reticent to take without Swift Spear and Fleeting Step. But then again, it wasn't the first time the dungeon offered a nice solution to the problem it presented.

As I landed, the first thing that caught my attention was the mist. Not just the dungeon energy we referred to as such, but a real one, enough to make the vision even more difficult.

That meant I had no idea how many monsters I had to deal with. But, I could already count six giant monsters mixed with a true swarm.

They charged.

I jumped.

Frankly, I didn't know what I could call the following encounter. It was a baffling mixture of boring and exciting. My conscious mind treated it as a disaster, wave after wave of insects popping out of the mist to overwhelm me, like I was in a desperate last stand.

But also, it was boring. The only thing I really paid attention to was keeping track of the death of the first monster of the pile while they routinely disappeared because I had been using them as a platform to fight rather than letting the bog close around me.

But, their disappearance was not a waste. As, without exception, they all faded into Rare skill stones. Two of them were Nurture, which I recognized without touching. The others were a mystery. However, the endless wave of attack continued, preventing me from checking it.

The monsters continued to appear endlessly, showing me the reason why Eleanor regularly cleansed the first two floors.

It was truly endless. I fought and fought, the battle slowly turning into something as routine as forging another weapon.

I would have complained if it wasn't for a very welcome notification.

[Level 36 - 37]

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