Blacksmith vs. the System

"Tell me your name, young one," I said after a momentary struggle, distracted by the weird mix of fear and shame the kid was radiating.

"M-my name is George, my king," he said, then turned to Spencer, silently begging.

Spencer took a step forward, sighing in exhaustion. "George is a promising lad that I recruited our research team, my king," he explained. "He's showing a good aptitude when it comes to using his new stats cleverly."

I nodded. As much as I wanted to question the kid directly, I could see he was overwhelmed. Admittedly, my entrance didn't help, with my blade still in hand. Instead, I questioned Spencer. "He's the one that wrote the report?" I questioned. Spencer nodded. "And, is the data accurate?"

"Yes, I checked it myself before coming here," Spencer said, but this time, he was more hesitant. It looked like he didn't see the value. "May I ask exactly what caught your attention?"

"You can, but you won't get an answer," I said. Spencer looked surprised, while Rosie looked at Spencer suspiciously. A note to myself. Be careful about making lame jokes, as people might interpret it in a dangerous way. "Because I don't know it yet. I only know it doesn't fit the rest of the data."

"I … I'm sorry, my king. I promise I will do better," the kid interjected, trembling in fear.

"Damn it," I groaned, rubbing my nose in annoyance to stave off a completely different headache. "No, kid. You haven't done anything wrong. It's a good thing that it shows some difference. Cast the same spell you had on the report."

He did. Six runes that consisted of the spell appeared in the air, the spell flew to the target, and dissipated. However, I cared less about the impact, and more about the spell structure, and how runes affected each other.

"Spencer. Cast the same spell," I asked. He did, and I examined the result. The spells were identical, and so was the resulting impact.

Why then, the spell the kid cast was more stable. Curious, I cast it as well, and the results matched Spencer's unless I used Wisdom to empower the runes. But, that didn't explain, as Wisdom had nothing to do with the relationship between runes. It just made the runes stronger.

I was missing something. Maybe it was something to do with the kid's natural talent. Or maybe, there was something important.

"Do you see anything different while casting?" I asked Spencer. He shook his head, equally vexed. "Then, why does the result differ."

For the next hour, we repeated the same experiment in different spell structures that the kid knew, all limited to the growth category. All had shown the same pattern.

"Let's see if it works for the other stuff. Spencer, teach the kid how to cast a fire bolt," I said. Spencer nodded, and brought the kid out. He had to, despite spending an hour, the kid was still scared of me.

I sighed. "You're really bummed about the kid fearing you. Why?" Rosie said.

"It's not the kid's fear, exactly, but what it represents. The moment I was crowned as a king, people's attitudes started to change. It's this stupid social perception of the System, changing people's attitude."

"I think you're wildly overestimating how much it's affected by the System, especially without Charisma to create a feedback loop. People are quick to fall in line, because you represent hope that somehow, despite everything, you're strong enough to protect them. Fear is just an inevitable side effect."

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"Still…"

Rosie looked at me, surprised. "You're more bothered about it than I expected," she said.

"Not as much as our experiments bore you," I replied, changing the topic. "You look like you're about to die of boredom."

"Hey. I just watched you three doing the exact same thing again and again, interrupted only by you writing a new formula while they solve. It isn't exactly what I expected from a magic experiment."

"Did you expect explosions and fighting?"

"Well, maybe. I hoped it was a good way to kill time before I leave with my contact from Asterion, but I'm revisiting the idea."

"A contact from Asterion. A spy, you mean?"

"No, more of a connection," she replied. "He's a low-ranking soldier, previously assigned to patrol a small perimeter, covering a few towns and a dungeon, but he had been pulled along with the rest of his forces to fight against Drakka. It must be something important to make him reach to me."

"Be careful," I said.

"You too," she replied, patting my shoulder. "I know you're tempted to push yourself to save everyone, but remember, you can't help others if you fall apart. We all depend on you."

With that, she left. I fulfilled my promise to her by resting for another half an hour before I returned to the forge, once again losing myself in the monotony of crafting.

I didn't work for long before Spencer and the kid returned. "Show the spell, George," Spencer asked.

"A-as you wish, sir," the kid responded, her hand trembling while the runes appeared in the air, slowly turning into a bolt of fire. It was still more stable, even though the change was marginal. I nodded to Spencer, and he cast the same spell, letting me observe the phenomenon.

"Alright, both of you, cast your spells into this metal tube," I said. Maybe Observe would provide me a better way to understand. They cast both the fire and the growth spell. It was a good thing they did, because only by the contrast of the fire spell, I was able to catch a slight discrepancy.

There was a hint of Nurture skill while he was casting the spell, but not in the runes themselves. It flashed just for a moment, connecting the runes together as one entity before dispersing. Other than that, the spell had been maintained as usual.

"Explain to me how exactly you cast the spell," I asked George.

"I … yes sir," he said, followed by a long, panicked, and difficult-to-trace explanation. He didn't seem to be aware of what he was doing, and his fear didn't help.

Still, I was able to get enough of his explanation to understand what was going on. He was using Nurture to impose a superstructure to the spell, enforcing a new connection between spells.

It was a simple idea, but it had the potential to be groundbreaking. It was one I hadn't considered. I had always treated the runes as the only component of the spell, and relied on their interaction.

But, watching George, I could see where that misconception came from. The runic spells, I learned mostly from Maria, assisted by the skill stones, all exclusively based on Intelligence variants. And, for an Intelligence caster, treating the runes as individual components was better.

All that remained was to see if I could apply that to my own skills.

In particular, Shaper and Reformation.

"Thank you, George. You have done a great service to our town," I said, then walked to the forge, and quickly formed a sword. One that aligned with Nurture skill, but was more ornate than I usually do. "Here's a little reward for your contribution."

"I … my king … I don't deserve this honor," he stammered.

I turned to Spencer. "You have done excellently as well," I said.

Spencer shook his head. "I have done nothing," he tried to argue.

"Nonsense. If it wasn't for your careful work, both developing them and reporting their achievements, this would have been lost. Believe me, the contribution you have made already rivals my other students."

"Really?" he asked.

"Probably," I said. "The idea is there, but turning it into a practical result will take a while. I want you to stay next door, and bring all apprentices with Intelligence we could afford to start. I need you to run the calculations."

"Right now?" he asked, surprised. "With everything…"

"Yes," I said. "If it doesn't work, there's nothing to be said. But, if it works anywhere close to what I expect… Let's just say it's worth the risk."

Spencer left in a hurry, taking George with him.

Meanwhile, I raised my hand, and focused on replicating the achievement. Eight runes appeared in front of me, seven of them arranged to contain and shape a central, overpowered decay rune. The structure was already crumbling when I finished drawing the last rune.

Then, I tried to … fix it. It still shattered. I tried again and again, trying to activate the skill the way the kid did.

It took almost half an hour to find a method that worked. Pure mana, shaped into a hammer, hitting the connection between the runes. A clumsy, ugly method, too impractical for any battle, but neither mattered.

All that mattered was the runic structure maintaining its stability for almost half a second before it shattered.

The first success.