Blacksmith vs. the System

I wore a big smile, ignoring the temptation to activate Reformation to reshape the hammer into something greater. There was no need. Not even when the metal started bubbling helplessly without my touch.

I had finally upgraded my Forge skill into a variant that worked with Wisdom, even though the name of Shaper had been an interesting twist. It felt simple, yet grand at the same time.

I was excited to start working on even superior equipment immediately, but I refused the call. "No," I said to myself. "First, focus on the basics."

I had simply started with a mere ordinary dagger, each blow refining the metal and the concept at the same time … yet, the change had been incredible. Previously, I needed to maintain an absolute focus on the idea of a dagger to leverage even a portion of my Wisdom, like I was trying to wrestle from a pinned position.

But, right now, each blow carried the idea perfectly, and the 'daggerness' of the weapon shined in a way I couldn't imagine before. And, it had been translated into the results.

Before, when using an ordinary dagger, I had struggled to maintain the coherency of mana attacks once they reached ten. Now, throwing attacks worth a few hundred mana was trivial… I couldn't wait to test the epic variants.

"What a fascinating upgrade," I said, then frowned. While the weapon was clearly superior to anything I had created with similar materials before, the upgrade wasn't comprehensive. There was one aspect it was weaker at.

The material integrity. The weapon lacked the nearly perfect crystalline structure of the other weapons I had developed with the epic Forge variant.

"Is it the difference between Wisdom and Intelligence variants?" I asked absentmindedly. One focused on design and calculation, the other on spirituality.

"Highly likely," I decided. As much as the potential loss of capability hurt, what I had gained was more than worth it.

Even when my new skill was merely at level one, it functioned better than Epic Forge with over three hundred points, which hadn't been the case with the other skill because of Wisdom's assistance. And, it would change even further once I created something new.

Things would have been different if I had been reliant on enchantments, I realized, as their whole existence relied on the pure, robust metal being strong enough to house their complex presence. Luckily, I had no such enchanter to disappoint, so it didn't matter.

Satisfied with the first step, I continued with the experiments. I created a mana alloy dagger, then one that was worth being called an epic variant. The same results held. The performance of the weapons had been improved greatly, while the structural perfection had been sacrificed to some degree.

"I wonder how large the gap would have been had I possessed Intelligence," I questioned, but not for long. As things laid out, actually acquiring Intelligence in the short term was impossible.

Maybe even in the long term if Rosie's theories about dungeon connection ruin my chances of ascension —

My thoughts froze as I tested my most recent product: the mana container, merely made of a hexagonal honeycomb pattern, designed to hold mana. I had been expecting it to hold mana merely three seconds before it dissipated.

Not hold it for almost a minute.

"Did I just imbue the idea of containment," I said as I examined the structure. It had promises, including a complete redesign of many devices I had used back when I possessed a meager amount of Essence to assist me.

I needed them no longer, but the same wasn't true for the other blacksmiths. If I could provide them with the correct set of equipment…

Not only that, it also reopened the potential of composite weapons, not just tools to rapidly enhance skills, but actually creating battle-worthy equipment that ordinary soldiers could use. Things would be very different if the ordinary farmers could use mana attacks stored in their weapons, especially if I could figure out a superior container.

Then, there was the potential redesign of the cannons…

"Things will change once we deal with the siege," I said happily as I moved on to the next task. Forging a dagger using the insect shells. And, like everything else, the change between the old and the new process was significant.

Previously, I had been doing my best to create a facsimile of the product that was being created with the assistance of dungeon crystals, which only came in the form of a passive defense. But, with the new form of the skill, other expressions of it were possible.

All it took was a mental push to turn the dagger into a sickly green implement that would work offensively to deliver the corrosive effect of the dungeon, yet maintain enough passive defense to protect itself from the same effect.

A little trip to the fifth floor later, I killed the boss monster from my own dungeon, this time forcing the shell apart before it faded … but to my surprise, once the rest of the body turned into the light, so did the shell, disappearing from my hands.

"That's inconvenient," I muttered. My attempts to contain the crystal had failed in the same way.

"That means no easy way to progress the skill, then," I said even as I returned to the fourth floor, and started forging weapons.

I started with the simplest thing. New spearheads, to arm the farmers, focusing not only on their anti-lizard properties but also the concept of Storm Spear, to support their current skill even further.

Admittedly, the initial plan was not to give them weapons too strong and hide our capabilities, but at this point, that particular ship had been long sailed.

A situation that had been further highlighted by Rosie's explanation about the situation behind Horizon Institute, and the pure chance that allowed me to avoid a fate in their hands.

The first spearhead, made of pure copper, gave me two points of proficiency increase. So did the second. Though each cost me almost five thousand mana each. Not a lot of mana in terms of high-grade weapons — I certainly needed a better classification system — but enough to make me struggle if it wasn't for the dungeon providing me with more constantly.

[Shaper of Quintessence 1 -> 3]

[Shaper of Quintessence 3 -> 5]

However, the lack of speed when it came to forging was annoying. Creating proper spearheads took twenty minutes each. Admittedly, it was nothing compared to what I had been dealing with in the past when I was living in the town, but once one got used to speed, it was hard to go back. The speed of creation lagging behind was hard to get used to.

Also, as I got used to the process of creating with Wisdom, I would figure out at which steps I could use tools to hasten, which ones I could skip by using more mana, and all the other sundry.

Until then, I had no place to complain. Ultimately, I was still leveraging the benefits of a dungeon, one that had its mana reserves constantly replenished thanks to my enemies.

"Work, work," I muttered.

The next forging only gave me one point, and so did the one after.

[Shaper of Quintessence 5 -> 6]

[Shaper of Quintessence 6 -> 7]

The last three points had been only possible after half a dozen more spearheads.

[Shaper of Quintessence - 10]

Just like that, the number of recipes I could access expanded to include Bronze as well. Not the best material on its own, but not the worst either.

In conjecture with all the potential my new Shaper skill allowed me to pack in…

"Too bad I'm about to run out of material," I said. Ultimately, I had only four claws with me, acquired from two boss monsters, and even when using them carefully, they were mostly consumed between the spear heads and the earlier experiments.

However, I still had enough to reforge my three weapons, Rosie's daggers, and even a proper sword for Harold, all made of bronze, but gleaming with an inner heat that couldn't be explained by the color of the metal.

I took a quick trip to the fifth floor to test the new weaponry I was able to forge with my skill. I traveled until I met another boss. One slash, and it went forward, carrying the full size of my current reserves, yet not empowered by my Wisdom explicitly.

[-3150 Mana]

"Success," I celebrated as I watched the boss monster topple down with only one hit, split into two, dead. And, that was not my full potential … not in terms of applying my stats, or actually pushing my Legendary forging variant, let alone actually conducting research to explore the mysteries behind conceptual forging and push it even further.

Even with the prospect of stronger and deadlier enemies, I felt the courage to face them. Not that it was an excuse to stop practicing, I decided as I switched weapons, ready to repeat.

My new Legendary skill, and everything that it represented, was just another step in the long road of progress.