Blacksmith vs. the System

As Terry stirred, I could see the changes in him easily. His whole presence had shifted, with a substantial weight radiating off him. I didn't ask him any questions, letting him get used to the changes in his body.

Logan wasn't as patient. "What's the result?" he asked, his worry clear.

"A success," Terry replied. He closed his eyes again for a few seconds before he looked at me. "It's similar to your theory, professor. Ichor had transformed based on the overlay from the skill, and transformed into a supporting scaffold similar to the skill itself. I can show you. Maybe we can spar?"

"Not yet," I said. "Wait a few hours for your soul to settle before practicing your skills. And, only after you can smoothly use your new power, we will spar." I was interested in seeing his improved potential, but not before he had a general idea of his capabilities, and more importantly, his limits.

"Fine," he replied, slightly disappointed.

I could see that it was a way to prove himself and earn my praise rather than trying to somehow defeat me. Wisdom and my life experience helped to decipher his emotions easily. "Use that time to write everything about the process. Did you experience any discomfort? Were you able to use Meditation in conjunction, or just used your Mythic variant of Nurture? Can you feel your Vitality and Essence getting stronger, or just Wisdom?"

Terry smiled as he watched me pull a pen. "Still taking notes despite your perfect memory from Wisdom," he commented.

I made a gesture of mock affront. "Attention to detail is what separates amateurs from professionals. Taking proper observation logs is elementary," I responded, repeating the same line I loved to deliver when I first started teaching them.

His warm smile showed I wasn't the only one feeling nostalgic about those times. Not much time had passed from an objective sense, but with everything that happened, it felt much longer. "There's no discomfort. It might have been different if my skill were weaker. I could feel a slight strain toward the end of the process. Maybe if my skill were still merely at Epic, or my stats were considerably higher, it might be dangerous. But, it felt pretty smooth otherwise."

"That's good," I said. "It means as long as there's no problem, all five of you can ascend easily. The next point. Which skill did you use?"

"I have just used my Keeper of the Forest skill," he replied. "When I was starting, I felt like I had a chance to pick which one I could initiate, but once I did, it didn't feel like something that could be interrupted easily. But…"

"Go ahead," I said.

"I feel like it should still be possible to put a second supporting structure based on my meditation skill. Maybe we should try it."

"No. You know my stance when it comes to risky experiments."

Terry mock-frowned. "Yes. You like to do them yourself without a thought while lecturing us about them."

I opened my mouth to argue, then shrugged. He had a point. While most of the time, circumstances forced my hand, it was not always the case. "That's one advantage of being a king," I declared shamelessly. "Hypocrisy is a part of the job definition."

"For a man unhappy with being the ruler, you're very quick to play that card, professor," Terry teased.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Well, I have to use that title for some things. Since I don't have a long line of applicants trying to be a part of my harem, I have to use it as zingers."

That made both Logan and Terry explode in laughter, more than that weak joke justified. It must be a stress response, I decided. "In any case, no experimentation unless we have some good reason to believe it can work. More than just a feeling."

"Fine," Terry responded. "As for my Essence and Vitality, they have changed. Previously, they only got denser when I was using them. Now, I could feel them slowly transform even when they are stored in their reserves. But, it's … slow."

"Try to use Meditation, and see if it helps."

He closed his eyes. For a moment, I felt the presence of a tree, superimposed on him. I radiated some mana to the room, and he started absorbing it. Ten seconds later, he opened. "Meditation hastens the process, but not directly. It's automatic, transforming mana into a denser state as I absorb more." He reached for his belt and pulled a liquid vitality booster, consuming it in one big gulp. He waited for a while. "The same is true for Vitality. But, both of them are slow."

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"It makes sense. Eleanor and Maria both reported that reaching optimal density takes a couple of days."

Terry frowned. "I think it'll take less. But maybe the process slows down."

"The numbers might differ," I said. "You have too many differences, stat strength, your current ascension process, and reserve size. Even the nature of your class. The process taking shorter is not out of the question."

"We just need to observe it, then," he replied. He paused again.

"You have another thing to say," I said.

"Yeah. I'm not entirely sure. It was just a feeling, nothing more."

"No harm sharing it. Your observations are valuable," I replied.

He still paused. "It's difficult to explain, but I felt like my Keeper of the Forest skill wanted to absorb Ichor directly, but it failed to do so. Like there was … a mismatch in nature."

I took a note. "Interesting. You suspect it might be something to do with your inability to go past Mythic."

"That's a possibility," Terry said.

"We'll look into it," I said. "Especially if we can secure a more reliable channel for ichor."

"Do you think there's a chance we can produce it?"

I shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea. It's clear that ichor is a valuable material, but that's the extent of our knowledge. There's a good chance it's only produced on other planets, and trading with their outposts here is the only option."

"Maybe some System shops sell it, but the cities monopolize it," Logan suggested.

"Maybe," I said. "But, Rosie had mentioned that some of the System-shops were mostly drained of their reserves, with replenishments purchased instantly —" I started, wondering why the System had such an inefficient and sporadic benefit, only to pause as a realization hit. "Do any of you have any System currency with you?"

Logan passed his pouch to me, looking surprised by the change. I touched the silver and gold coins, examining them carefully under my Advanced Observe perk, looking for certain patterns. Patterns that were trivial to discover with the assistance of Intelligence.

Patterns that showed signs of multiple creators.

"Damn it," I growled as the realization hit.

The so-called System-currency was forged by blacksmiths. I could even identify the skill level of the Blacksmith responsible for it. Mana Forge, Epic, with maximized skill level, probably with a perk or two to assist them.

I should have realized it before. It fitted perfectly well with the rest of the details, including the fact that only some of the dungeons actually dropped System currency. For a sufficiently capable mage, adding a ward that used dungeons' flexible dimension structure to conjure some coins from a pocket dimension should be easy.

The objective of it was clear. It would give legitimacy to the monetary system while keeping the source hidden, especially when combined with so-called System shops, which functioned in two ways. One, it provided high-quality items in limited quantities, reinforcing the monopoly of the feudal ruling class without letting them scale up.

And, it discouraged communities from being self-sufficient.

It was an even more ingenious way of social engineering than Peace Wards, which I hated the moment I had discovered them. It not only stemmed the progress and reinforced the feudal structure, but also gave a perfect method to gather raw materials they needed without lifting a finger.

There was a reason I struggled to get my hands on enough gold, and had to destroy weapons I forged again and again to improve my skills; and still lacked Platinum. Every single town gathered them and processed them through System stores, receiving a few paltry coins in return.

Not to mention, many dungeons had been operated just to collect monster parts, only to sell them through the System shop. Then, they received back the weapons that had been created from those materials, probably paying a thousand times more than it cost.

Talk about an exploitative cycle. The best part, no one knew that there was someone to blame. Everyone just assumed it was a part of the System. Including me. Intelligence just made discovering patterns easier. Even without it, I just needed to spend a day discovering it.

I just didn't look for it.

As for the source, I didn't need to have three guesses.

Like, I didn't have enough to hate about Horizon Institute. I still didn't know if they actually triggered the Cataclysm, or if they were just aware of its arrival, but it didn't matter. They not only hid its arrival, but also set a structure to exploit it without giving a crap about what would happen.

"Are you alright, professor?" Terry asked.

"Don't worry. I just realized it's really easy to counterfeit money," I responded. "Probably enough to trick the System shops." I didn't share my suspicions about Horizon, so don't worry about them. They had no idea about the true extent of manipulation. Though, the thing about counterfeit money was true. There were a lot of magical tricks in the coins. Without Intelligence, it wouldn't be worth the effort to reverse engineer them, but now… "Keep it to yourself. Alright? It might prove useful."

"Yes, sir," they replied seriously.

"Good," I said, then turned to Logan. "It's time for your ascension. Talk with Terry for a while, share insights, and process your own." Then, I turned to Terry. "From this point on, you're the leader for Operation Ascension. Coordinate with Rosie and Harold, and start picking some trustworthy candidates to ascend. I'll only help during boss fights to level them up. Everything else, including interviews and data collection, is your responsibility."

It was easy to delegate when there was very little to be learned from the process. Just like how it had been before Cataclysm, it was the post-doc students who handled such processes.

The more things changed, the more things stayed the same…