Blacksmith vs. the System

"Finally," I muttered once the trip had been dealt with, and I returned to my office, which also doubled as a lab for my less destructive experiments — the dungeon is the place for the stronger ones.

It was time to finally experiment with Intelligence.

I started by rebuilding the magical defenses around my office, a move that served two functions. Not only would it make it near-impossible for anyone to spy on me, but also it give me a better sense of how to reach one particular stat.

Intelligence…

I had to admit, a part of me was feeling like a kid who had just received his favorite toy as a surprise gift. It was a heady feeling. Before that stat, trying to cast a spell was a difficult affair. Every rune had to be created painstakingly with mana, requiring absolute focus. Even then, most of the time, they collapsed onto themselves.

Now, adding new spells was as easy as breathing. A silencing field. I just needed to think about the general functions, and the runic pattern directly appeared in front of me, giving me exactly what I wanted. Did I need to create a field to erase the potential vibrations from sound? Just as easy.

The only problem, it was like using a well-written computer program. The only thing I really did was to give the input, and the spell output appeared, almost completely out of my control.

"Not that it will stop me," I muttered in excitement. In many ways, my Forge and Repair skills were exactly like that, an automatic response that followed the plans and recipes buried in the skill with little to no input.

It hadn't stopped me from unraveling them, and that was when I had to develop a brand new methodology blindly. Now, I knew exactly how to utilize the fascinating library of information buried in the skills.

All I needed was time. Time that I no longer lacked thanks to my most recent power boost.

However, I didn't delve deep into the puzzle of spellcasting. The old proverb about the sharpened axes and lumberjacks was always true. And, in my case, the axe was my Intelligence stat, and sharpening was my understanding of it.

I already had a good idea of how Intelligence worked thanks to many discussions with Maria, and more recently, Spencer. I knew that, for most intents and purposes, Intelligence was like adding extra processing cores to a computer. It didn't directly make the thoughts faster, but helped to multitask in a way ordinary minds were not capable of.

Meaning, it was excellent in topics like chess, or detailed calculations with many variables, but not as beneficial when it came to creativity and problem-solving.

To test, I wrote a random equation to test myself. A long linear equation, relating to an integer maximization problem. Linear equations were conceptually simple, yet it took a long time to calculate the results, mostly because they might have hundreds of different variables. Perfect to solve in a computer, but a torture to resolve in hand.

There was a reason they were first used during the Second World War — to calculate the optimal radar deployment along with other uses — despite their simplicity.

I had asked Maria and Spencer to solve many similar equations during my research, so I wasn't surprised by my own ability to solve them. However, the feeling of a solution surprised me. I could just … see the answer.

In a way, it was like an adult looking at a simple multiplication table. The answers were simply evident. Of course, the multiplication table, is related to rote memorization in childhood.

Intelligence just took the problem, and gave me the answer…

"No, that's not entirely correct," I said as I solved several more problems, branching out to some of the problem types I wasn't as familiar with, only for answers to arrive slower.

"Makes sense," I muttered. For linear optimization, I was not just familiar with the problem, but also various different algorithms and tricks that went to the nature of their solution. Just like how Strength mobilized the muscles in my body to truly exert its capabilities, Intelligence pulled that available information.

Stolen novel; please report.

It reminded me of the many chess games I played with Maria, somehow managing to extend the games by pushing into areas she was not familiar with.

Speaking of it, I decided to reach into the deep recesses of my mind, pulling some of the hardest puzzles I encountered regardless of the topic. Chess, sudoku, go… Didn't matter. All of them had been solved just as easily.

Admittedly, the ease didn't surprise me. I continued to go through the recesses of my memory, testing Intelligence on different types of problems, each repeat giving me a slightly better handle on the stat.

In some ways, it was easier to handle than Wisdom, particularly when compared to its features to strengthen the conceptual weight of various aspects. Though, I suspected it was more about fitting my way of thinking.

Was it a surprise after I had dedicated my life before Cataclysm to the analytical field, basing my whole career on how to represent complex features numerically. I could easily break down many phenomena into numbers.

In the past, computers handled the computation. Now, Intelligence solved it.

"Which, in some ways, works better than a supercomputer," I muttered in fascination as I tried to understand exactly which types of problems it worked best. Interestingly, I found out that it functioned better when solving problems of higher complexity, rather than just pure computational power.

For example, calculating prime numbers — which was the problem with no clever algorithmic solution other than trying to divide a number by all prime numbers that were smaller than its square root — was still a challenge despite my Intelligence, while more complex problems were easier to handle.

It was truly a fascinating experience, I muttered. I would have loved to spend several months developing a new class of complexity algorithm by slowly testing the limits of Intelligence, but a small issue like the potential destruction of the world put a little snag to that ambitious plan.

No matter how much it offended my scientific sensibilities, the moment I got a good handle on how Intelligence affected me, I turned to my next problem. To deliberately activate it, or completely shut it if necessary.

Trying to control Intelligence deliberately was harder than Charisma, which, ultimately, had an external manifestation. To control Charisma, getting familiar with the general sensation it provided from a different perspective had been enough. Once that was done, turning it off was easy.

Intelligence was far more complicated. I had no idea how much time I would have spent on it if it wasn't for all the practice I had with Wisdom, which gave me a sense of what to look for. Even then, it took a full hour for me to get good control over it.

While it might be incredibly useful, I wasn't unaware of the potential to pervert the way I thought. A rudimentary control of where to utilize it was the least I could do to protect myself.

A project that had been interrupted when I felt another warning from the dungeon, alerting me to the presence of yet another dungeon boss. "It's time for another test," I said as I moved to the forge, and started forging a prototype weapon. A chain, in which every single link had been etched with six runes, the pattern repeating itself in every six links…

It was a simple, crude tool, one didn't even give me a skill point once the huge chain was completed. I grabbed my sword and passed through a gate, the chain floating behind me.

The hulking figure of the giant corrupted insect might have awakened fear or disgust in someone else, but it only put a smile on my face. It represented another experiment.

I had already tested my old abilities against the corrupted boss monsters on the surface while defending the town. There, in front of everyone's eyes, I couldn't be too creative. Not that I needed to. With my usual blade attacks stronger by an order of magnitude, their regeneration, which had been their biggest advantage, had been temporarily neutralized.

Previously, I had to attack more than fifty times in quick succession, while mixing it with decay attacks to slow their regeneration. Now, I could probably take it down in one slash the moment I reforged my blade to handle ten thousand mana in one slash without dispersing it.

But, the current experiment wasn't about that. It was about testing my limits. I doused the metal of the chain with my decay mana before launching it against the monster, which had barely wrapped around one of its legs.

The beast roared helplessly as it tried to rip the chain, but failed. I sent an attack.

[-1000 Mana]

The ranged blade attack made a deep cut through its torso, but that was to be expected. It wasn't the surprise part.

No, it was about the speed it recovered from the wound, which had been hampered significantly, until, fifteen seconds later, the beast succeeded in shattering the chain.

I slashed my blade thrice more.

[-5000 Mana]

[-5000 Mana]

[-5000 Mana]

The boss monster collapsed, dead.

"My first attempt of making a proper enchanted artifact, was a success," I said, making a note to summon my students back to town. They had been desperately trying to level up by hunting corrupted monsters, and avoiding bosses. They had to, as even with mine or Maria's protection, all it would take was a slip-up for them to die.

Not anymore. It was time for their teacher to give them a little help.