Blacksmith vs. the System

"That's a lot of Charisma," she muttered once she finished processing the surprise, which took a minute. "I hadn't even known that stats went up that high. I had always assumed ten was the limit."

I shrugged. "You know me. Always with that one surprise."

"Isn't that the truth?" she said. "What would you do?" she asked. "It can be very useful, especially with the town growing…"

"For the moment, very little," I said. "Just because I have it doesn't mean my mind changed about it, or any other mind-altering products, System-driven or manmade."

"It will help to integrate the newcomers, especially with the city growing more and more," she said. I was too familiar with her to ever think that she was serious about the suggestion. More likely case was that she was playing the devil's advocate.

"Yes, but at what cost?" I asked. "People had already crowned me as a king. What would happen when I start throwing orders, they will be forced to follow with a supernatural force? Would they fear being turned into puppets if they refuse? Or, would they decide following the instincts given by the System is the better idea?"

"You can't just ignore it," she countered. "It represents a lot of power."

"You're right on that. I'll figure out a way to turn it into a shield. If I could use it to block others using Charisma, and counter the fear from the beasts, it would be more than enough." I paused. "It should."

"We just have to hope," she replied, and fell silent. I said nothing. "Your students finally started to ascend," she said. "That's excellent news."

"It certainly is," I said.

"Any development on Asterion, about why they gave such a big gift?"

I shrugged. "It has to be about distracting Drakka in some way," I replied. "Scout reports show that they are in deep trouble, under siege by corrupted monsters and Drakkans alike. If so, empowering us might prove a good strategic direction. We will inevitably clash with them."

"Maybe," she replied. "A hundred sets of … material to support Ascension is a significant investment, even if they are on the lower range."

"Still can't talk about it, huh?" I commented.

She shook her head. "It's not a restriction I'm willing to test. Avoiding the topic altogether is the safest path."

"Fair," I said. Then, I noticed something. "What happened to your items that empower your stats? I just noticed them gone."

"We had to sell them to make the difference for ascension. The spears we brought with us weren't enough to pay for the more expensive option," she replied.

"A pity. I would have loved to have a sample. Maybe I could figure out how to craft them now that I could decipher spells."

"I'll try to get my hands on one," she replied.

"How?"

"Now that the city is temporarily secure, I'm thinking of expanding my operation range, and helping people evaluate us. We don't want to lose our convoys."

"Coordinate it with Rosie. With Terry busy with Operation Ascension, she's the one who's most familiar with the distribution of the satellite organizations," I said.

"Perfect, more time with her," Maria declared, not hiding her distaste. I chuckled. Their distaste for each other was amusing at this point, even though I never understood the root of their hostility in the first place.

Maybe because they were too similar deep down.

"Do you think I should try to take over another dungeon, maybe far away from us?" I said. "If we can link it with the others —"

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"No way. I forbid it," she responded sharply. "You are already pushing yourself with two dungeons. We still have no idea about the true side effects. No looking for unnecessary risks just to get some convenience."

"Well —"

"Do you have any idea how badly this place will shatter if you fell into another coma for a week at this juncture?" she countered. I found myself nodding. She did have a point. "Promise me," she said.

"I will do my best," I replied, which was the most I was willing to give. With everything going on, not targeting another dungeon out of convenience was the best I could promise. "But, in exchange, while traveling, do your best to get your hands on remains of a destroyed dungeon. I wanted to get my hands on one since I had learned they were supposedly critical to establish a guild, but I never had the chance until now."

"You won't change your mind about it, will you?" she asked, sounding resigned. "Fine. I'm sure we'll get our hands on it when we inevitably are forced to destroy a shattered dungeon in a dangerous location. I will bring you the remains of a core, but only if you promise you won't experiment with them without me being present."

"Deal," I replied, knowing it was the best I would get. And, it was difficult to argue against every condition she had about my safety.

"So, now that you have the stat you have been searching for all along, what's next?"

"Good question," I said. "I have already reforged the personal equipment for the elites, good enough to serve our newly ascended. Ascended are handled by Terry, and the security issues are well in hand. It leaves three issues. Figuring out a better power delivery system, better than steam, focusing on mass production to figure out a way to create mana alloy without direct intervention from blacksmiths, and exploring the corruption."

"Corruption seems like the most beneficial direction."

"True, but it's also one direction I had absolutely no idea how to handle. I don't even know where to begin."

She nodded. "You don't want to focus on a project with no foreseeable timeline, not when you have more urgent tasks?" I nodded, confirming her guess. She paused. "What's the problem with the steam? I thought it was working well."

"It does, but it has many restrictions, particularly when it comes to vehicles. A lot of space is being taken up by the freshwater. Currently, they are still using the fresh water sources on the way, but…"

"You're afraid that they will be even more difficult to access as the corruption gets worse."

"Yes," I replied. "There's no sign of stopping, and while our dungeons are able to handle it, the same isn't true for many of them. Eventually, the environment will get dangerous enough to make stopping dangerous. But, that's not the biggest problem."

"What is?"

"We don't have any fresh water source next to the city. The underground water source we're using is enough to keep us going for a long while, but not when our population continues to increase. The sooner we get rid of our biggest source of water consumption, the better."

"A valid reason," she said. "So, what's the idea? Are you going to focus on making some kind of gasoline alternative?"

"That's one option," I said. "But, not one I want to take."

"Why?" she asked.

"There's a better candidate to deal with it. Terry ascended, and Rebecca is about to ascend in the next week or so. Combined, they should be able to create a plant with appropriate fruit, combusting when burned. That way, scaling it up will be easier as well."

"You're thinking about using the fire dungeon," she said.

"What better location," I said. "It might even create a viable gunpowder alternative in the process, making the cannons more portable."

"And, Liam and the other techies will figure out a better shell design, I presume."

"Exactly," I said. "Replicating a modern, self-sufficient technology tree is not a job for one person, no matter how many Stats available."

"You seem to have a direction already in mind," she said. "Are you trying to recreate electricity-based transmission?"

That earned a sigh. "I wish, but electricity reacts horribly with mana. I might recreate it in a small, sealed room, but as a city-wide initiative, it's impossible. No, I have my eyes on something more direct."

"What are you talking about—" she started, then her eyes widened. "You can't be serious?" she gasped. "A mana engine?"

"Ultimately, yes," I replied. "What better way to put all that excess mana into use than that, especially if this corruption never stops. It might be a good idea. However, I had a less ambitious target in mind at first. One that is critical if we're to ever use an engine."

"And, what's that?"

"Inventing a way to contain and transfer mana," I replied.

She frowned. "Is that really the best way to spend your time? There are many different wards and enchantments for that."

I shook my head. "It won't work. Both wards and enchantments actively consume mana to maintain their effect. They can be used next to a leyline or another mana-rich location to manage mana density, but in the wild, they can't be used. Nor can they be used to operate in so-called mana-dead locations, which is critical for our survival."

"Does it mean you can't use runes as well to create them," she said. "How are you going to do that?"

"I have a few ideas," I replied, my mind going back to my old experiments, where I discovered the way mana interacted with the simplest patterns like triangles, hexagons, and other shapes, their effectiveness getting greater the more I miniaturized their design.

What would happen if I carried that to lower scales, and started creating hexagon-based layers, as small as possible, creating in micro-scale, maybe even nano-scale if possible.

After all, products couldn't be enchantment-based, but the same wasn't true for the tools I could create.