Blacksmith vs. the System

[Class upgrade - 01%]

Finding myself in a dream the moment I triggered the class upgrade was no surprise. I had experienced the same when I got into Smith of Decay class, finding myself in that dark, damp forest ruled by insect mages.

The current dream was also in a familiar location … but not that forest. No, the current location was seven more familiar.

Our current town, was recently named City of Steel. However, this time, I wasn't a floating, invisible figure watching from the distance. I felt like I was split into a hundred pieces … yet somehow solid.

It felt like drowning, yet somehow, I was happier than ever. One moment I was alone. The next, I felt the connection. For a fleeting moment, I could feel people in the town. Some fighting, some eating, some gambling…

It was a gentle breeze, yet an onslaught.

I felt the thoughts of a farmer, gruff and exhausted. "…Please let the scythe old. Just one more line, and I'm finished for the day…"

A mother, clutching her infant, watching her husband as he cleaned a tiny room to them, one that felt like a treasure. "We're finally home, my beautiful child. You don't have to be afraid of the dark anymore…"

A young soldier, gritted his teeth as he swung his sword, trying to find that unique feeling that would allow him to upgrade his skill, one that belied his understanding. "… Come on, you bastard System. Let me upgrade it…"

A spy, hidden behind a window, carefully taking notes silently so he could report the status of the town to his superiors. "… Just one more week, then I could return…"

A worker on the walls, patching a recent breach, his worry supreme. "…Will the walls hold if the monsters come again. What if… "

They were not all I had felt. I felt hundreds at once. Those few were the ones I could feel.

Yet, that was not all. I had gotten a glimpse of their thoughts, but I also received more. Their feelings underneath. The farmer, underneath his daily effort, was feeling thankful for the security provided by the rapidly growing town … and me as his king.

He wasn't the only one that was feeling thankful. The young mother was a recent arrival, who believed my grace was the only thing that saved them from a certain death.

The young soldier was thankful that, after three years of fighting without being allowed to learn anything important, he was finally free to act as he wanted, thanking me.

The spy was frustrated by the challenge of the town, each day giving him more to record. Yet, he was also afraid that Steel King would catch him. After all, he was in his famous City of Steel…

The worker volunteered to repair the outer walls despite knowing the risk of a follow-up attack, determined to do his part, contributing to my vision…

Every single thought came wrapped in a distinct tone, one of genuine gratitude and loyalty toward me. Some were hopeful, some were angry, some were bitter… But every single one of them was loyal to me … to a degree, I never asked them to.

Worse, I could feel that those thoughts were the ones I could feel. I could feel many others outside the town limits, but their existence was too vague to properly get a count. It might be just one person, or a thousand. I couldn't tell.

It was overwhelming.

It was only recently I had been called a King, and even then, I had always believed it was nothing more than a little public relationship trick. An excuse to talk with the cities more seriously. At best, a placeholder until Terry or one of the others properly ascended and surpassed me in power so I could pass the crown to them.

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What I was feeling was different. Every single person in the town accepted my kingship … even the spy walking into the town, albeit reluctantly and with fear.

That acknowledgment was subtle, yet domineering.

Then, along with it, I could feel something from the System. Like it was capturing all of it at once, crystallizing the process. Despite the dream, the line of text that appeared in front of me was real.

[Domain Acknowledged]

The dream faded.

I dropped down to my knees, breathing hard. Not from pain, but shock, along with the emotional weight of the dream. I could feel something settling on my shoulders. A subtle, immaterial weight that nonetheless threatened to suffocate me.

[Class upgrade - 100%]

[Class upgrade complete]

"Finally," I muttered, loudly enough to dissipate the eerie sensation that covered me. For a moment, I had felt connected to everyone in the town and beyond. It had been even more eerie than my other dreams. And, that was saying something, when the last foreign dream had been about a race of intelligent dragons flying together to defend their planet against the corrupted monsters of the dark.

Even the fading memory of it was overwhelming.

I breathed deeply, and the familiar air of the dungeon was sharper than usual. "Too sharp," I suddenly found myself muttering. And, I summoned the Status Screen. The first thing I looked, the class name, expecting to find the new class, Master of Rune Forge.

There, I found a different name. A surprise.

[King of Rune Forge - Level 100]

"What the hell…" I muttered in shock. While I didn't have any direct knowledge about the difference between the two classes, it stood to reason that any class that carried the title of King as a part of it was not ordinary.

Especially considering the very strong medieval slant the System favored.

Yet, a part of me couldn't help but worry while I summoned the rest of the Status screen, afraid of what I would find. What if I lost my stats helping to fight against the darkness…

[King of Rune Forge - Level 100]

[Health 11000/11000] [Mana 10000/10000]

[Vitality 1000 / Strength 800 / Dexterity 500 / Essence 1000 / Wisdom 500 / Intelligence 500 / Perception 500 / Charisma 2000]

[Class Skills —

Meditation of Decay (Mythic) - 310 [Controlled Flow, Superior Sensing, Purification]

[Rune Craft (Mythic) - 102 [Advanced Creative Forging, Advanced Mana Control, Advanced Spell Forge]

Rune Harmonizer (Mythic) - 5 [Advanced Observe, Inscription Mender]

Command (Common) - 1

Identify (Common) - 1

External Skills —

Nurture (Legendary) - 400 [Persistent Growth]

Blade of Radiant Flame (Legendary) - 400 [Incandescent Slash]

Hammer of Avalanche (Epic) - 300 [Shattering Strike]

Spear of Storm (Epic) -300 [Mercurial Movement]

Fire Bolt (Basic) - 25

Shoot (Basic) - 25]

"T-this is impossible," I found myself stuttering in shock. I had certain hopes when I first received the Master of Rune Forge option, hoping to unlock Intelligence stat, the scale of it unimportant.

Yet, even in my wildest dreams, I didn't expect to fulfill some kind of hidden condition based on people's perception of me. I didn't even know there were such hidden conditions. At any other time, that information would have been sent to me to a dedicated research part.

This time, the rewards were too distracting.

The first shock. Not only I had unlocked Intelligence — by a huge burst of five hundred points — but also I had unlocked two other stats. Perception and Charisma. The less that was said about the true scale of Charisma, the better. The number alone was enough to scare me.

Two thousand.

Then, if that wasn't enough, I had received two other class skills, each common. Each primed to be enhanced and upgraded… First, the skills. Every single stat I possessed had a significant upgrade, even the weakest going up by two hundred points, some like Vitality and Essence directly doubling.

Then, there were my new stats.

For anyone else, Charisma would have been the first thing they focused on. After all, it represented the potential to rule. One that could be used to turn others into loyal soldiers in a few days. Even less, if I used some of the simplest sociological tricks.

For me, it was an afterthought, just like the new class skill, Command. It was not a curse or anything melodramatic. I could see it being very useful when facing a dangerous enemy, either to counter their pressure, or to prevent the army from shattering from fear…

Yet, ultimately, it was something that could only be used on battlefields where I was present.

In comparison, Perception was more promising. I had no idea about its limits — in its natural state, or used in conjunction with Identify — but I could already see it being extremely useful in developing a better variant of my fateful Observe skill.

Then, there was the true reward. One stat I had been dreaming to have from the moment I had learned of its existence. Intelligence.

It didn't matter that, after all that time, I had learned all its limitations and side effects. It was still a treasure, the equivalent of an organic computer … and, having it, I no longer had to carefully write every formula, explain it in detail, and hope they could finish in quick order.

I could finally do it myself.

I just needed to figure out how to actually use it.