Blacksmith vs. the System

As much as I wanted to start working on my new mana-resistant material, I decided to focus on something different. Another skill that I had received during my most recent class upgrade.

[Identify (Common) - 1]

If things went as planned, Identify would be a critical part of my future experiments.

Unfortunately, just like the Command skill, I didn't have much public resource I could use to my benefit. Though, this time, it was less about the confidentiality, and more about the way people used it. Most of the classes that had it worked as scouts, and for them, the ability to correctly assess people's levels and classes was a lifesaver.

That, combined with the limited number of people who had similar skills that I could talk with in the first place, meant I was alone.

Luckily, while I was alone, I was not helpless. I still had my Observe, which was exactly how I wanted my skill to develop, only not limited to analyzing metal and other alloys. I wanted to be able to assess not only the other materials, but also the atmospheric mana.

And, if things went well, maybe even observing that mysterious, corrupting energy.

The forge was quiet, enchantments already in place. This time, the aim wasn't to hide what was going on, but to keep the sound out. The last thing I needed was for my attention to slip while I was playing with my skills.

Once the isolation was in place, I had activated several wards to contain the mana inside, and started to increase the density, creating an easy target for the skill. Only after that, I closed my eyes, and reached inside, activating my Advanced Observe, focusing on the mana-filled air in front of me.

At this point, I didn't need the assistance of the materials to activate my Perks. I could invoke them directly. That didn't mean they were useful. Without anything metallic to target, the Perk didn't provide its usual deluge of information. That was the point.

I kept my attention focused on the air, and reached for Identify, my lowest skill by far, and switched it. I still targeted the mana-dense air, but switched the skill. A tricky operation, one that I doubted I would be able to achieve without the familiarity of looking into my soul due to the dungeon connection.

But, it came with a beautiful reward.

[Identify (Common) 1 -> Mana Detection 1 (Rare)]

The jump didn't surprise me. What surprised me was the flood of information that followed, the skill still locked to the mana-dense air in front of me.

[Mana Detection (Rare) 1 -> 17]

[Perk Options — Mana Awareness / Elemental Detection / Assessment ]

A tough call, I decided as I looked at the available perks. It hadn't been my intention to actually improve the skill. Unfortunately, in that rare case, my stats actually worked against me, my high perception giving the skill enough information to push it to the next stage in a mere second.

In the end, I picked Mana Awareness. Once that was done, I split the room into multiple sections, each separated by different amounts of mana — one even low enough to dip below detection limit — and used the new skill, curious about the information it would provide.

[Mana Detection (Rare) 17 -> 22]

It was a flood of information. Essence allowed me to sense the mana in the air, but it was always a vague feeling, like trying to see through an icy glass, not to mention the other limits, like being unable to sense when mana presence dropped down to a certain point.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I expected the result to change using a skill that seemed to be designed for that purpose, but the result was even better than I had expected. It wasn't just a cloud switching between liquid and gas, with a vague set of attributes felt by Wisdom. It was far closer to using Observe on metal. A detailed breakdown of the structure, including the flaws.

And, its accuracy had already surpassed Observe. Maybe I shouldn't be too surprised, as Observe was merely a Perk, while Mana Detection was a standalone class skill, one that was supported by a dedicated stat.

Emboldened by the success, I was tempted to push the limit. The question was, in which direction should I push? "I wonder if it's possible to support it with multiple stats," I wondered.

Technically, I knew that it was possible, as it was the main principle of Runic Forge. Using that required four of my stats, Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Intelligence actively; and two others, Vitality, and Essence, indirectly.

Compared to that, Mana Awareness was only using two. Perception directly, and Essence indirectly.

I closed my eyes, trying to reach inward, to somehow involve Wisdom and Intelligence. The result was … mixed at best. My awareness of the skill as a discrete entity was already weak, and trying to push the other two skills to merge didn't work.

"Indirect path, it is," I decided, and forged a metal puzzle, one that contained mana with enforced concepts, while the metal itself carried complicated patterns.

[Mana Detection (Rare) 22 -> 29]

[Perk Options — Advanced Mana Awareness / Elemental Detection / Assessment ]

It did not work as intended.

I chose Elemental Detection as the next perk, which gave me better clarity when it came to mana, but otherwise had limited impact.

What followed was a complicated set of experiments, trying to create a great variety of situations to trigger another skill upgrade. But, there was no miraculous jump, limiting me to a more linear upgrade.

[Mana Detection (Rare) - 136 [Advanced Mana Awareness, Advanced Elemental Detection]]

While I was unhappy to miss the opportunity to get an even more useful variant, I decided to stop the experiment. The current state of the skill already allowed me to sense mana in a much more granular fashion, both in terms of density and quality.

It also allowed me to see that, what I called pure mana wasn't as pure as I had first assumed. In that way, it was similar to density. Once it was mostly pure, it registered as the same monotone blue. A good development, as further accuracy would mean that the tools I developed would be even more accurate.

"Let's see if my initial design is viable," I said, and used my skill to create a layered metal sheet, as fine as I could manage. It was merely half an inch thick, yet it had a hundred different layers, each made of metal. I shaped it into a hexagonal cylinder to act as a pipe, but closed both ends with enchanted plugs.

I filled it with mana, using both Observe and the new Mana Detection skill to check the situation. The pipe worked well … for a prototype.

The biggest problem was the metal itself channeling the mana. The beehive-patterned gaps helped, but the inevitable connections carried the metal. The leak was far less than the steam-mana condensers that were already in place. Those pipes leaked almost ten percent of the mana they contained each minute, while the new design reduced it below one percent.

But it was not usable due to differing purposes.

The pipes for the steam-based mana condensers worked, because they only had to hold mana for a minute while they carried it toward the nearest dungeon gate, which then gets absorbed into the dungeon. A ten percent loss each minute was that. Just ten percent.

Meanwhile, the new design had to keep mana far longer. For that, a percent leak every minute meant ten percent of the initial storage was lost by the ten-minute mark, forty-five percent was lost by the first hour, and by the end of the first day, only twenty percent remained.

All assuming a constant rate of escape, of course, but even if the lesser amount of mana had been contained marginally better, the loss was still too much to be sustainable.

"Maybe if I alternate material," I questioned. First, I alternated different metals, which didn't work as well as I had hoped. Then, I switched to one skill I had neglected quite a bit.

Nurture.

I quickly grew a small tree, carefully cut its trunk to cut layers of wood, and cut hexagonal gaps, hoping that it would work. It did … technically, but there, the problem was simpler. Wood was not the correct material to punch millions of tiny holes and expect to survive.

Worse, unlike metal, which was able to handle as much mana as I could push, wood didn't play well with higher densities of metal. It started to absorb it, and depending on the type of wood, it either grew, decayed, or caught fire.

But, it was still promising. By decreasing the leak by an order of magnitude, the daily loss had dropped from eighty percent to fifteen percent, at least at the current density. Not viable for actual production, but useful as a proof of concept.

I was about to dump that as another project for Rebecca to develop a variant that handled higher mana densities better, when I remembered something else. The semi-organic crystal that I had traded from the swamp town, one that Spencer had used to develop the Intelligence-variant nurture.

Maybe it could give me what I was looking for.