Blacksmith vs. the System

Silence in the meeting room lingered after Harold made the suggestion of using ships to collect mana. Soon, he started shuffling. "Sorry if I said something silly. I was just trying to be helpful," he added.

"No," I responded. "It was a good suggestion. It makes a lot of sense. We froze, because we missed the possibility. It's easier to think of the sea as the forbidden zone, so we hadn't considered it before."

Admittedly, there were a lot of reasons to ignore the sea as a source of strategic advantage. After the Cataclysm, even establishing a local trade route turned out to be a challenge, and that was on the ground, where the fighters had the advantage against the wild beasts. Most fighter skills require a strong footing to show their worth. Using them while swimming was hardly trivial.

An even bigger challenge was the unpredictability of the seas. On land, as long as one had a mediocre scout with Perception, the chances of an ambush were low. Only a few rare boss monsters could avoid detection, even among the flying. That was not the case for the sea, where a giant sea monster could emerge from the depths, far too late to react.

That alone would have been enough to make the sea far more dangerous than the land, even if the strength of the beasts were equal.

Which could not be further from the truth, which was due to the combined effect. The size was the simplest, yet still a significant reason. While the correlation wasn't perfect, larger beasts were often stronger than the smaller ones. The sea housed far bigger creatures than the land, a fact that had been true since the first multicelled creature had evolved. Cataclysm had changed many things about Earth, but that cardinal rule stayed the same.

The sea beasts deserved the title monster far better than the other creatures.

Then, there were other factors to make it even more dangerous. On land, environmental mana was mostly stable, which was probably affected by cities and larger towns already taking over the most productive ley lines under their control. That meant most of the land monsters maintained a territory, and only on rare occasions did they trigger a migration, turning into a beast wave.

In the sea, mana density constantly shifted, meaning the strongest beasts constantly moved around. It didn't help that most of them moved deep underwater, making their eventual appearance even more surprising.

All those reasons could be simplified as such. Beasts of the sea were stronger, stealthier, and more mobile. And, adding in the fact that fighters fought far better on land, and some of the most destructive mages like fire elementalists, losing their edge…

No wonder we had just discounted the sea as a potential target.

"Are you thinking about recreating modern metal ships, sir?" Liam asked. "Because, we don't have the necessary production for one. Not unless we stop all of our construction process."

"No. I'm thinking of copying the old ironclads. Their displacement is around five thousand metric tons, with less than a tenth of it metal. Even the smaller modern battleships are around thirty thousand tons of high-quality steel. Still, even if we go for ironclads, we need to increase our steel production capabilities. If we pick that direction, we can't limit ourselves to just one or two ships. There would be no point."

"It might be difficult," Liam responded. "The products from the dungeons are already our bottleneck. We can improve the quality somewhat, but what you are planning requires a jump in the order of magnitude."

"We still don't have enough Blacksmiths with Mana Forge or better, do we?"

He shook his head. "No, they are already a relatively rare class compared to Farmers, and only a portion of them managed to upgrade their skill successfully despite having Meditation still stone access. As for the people with external skills, they don't have the mana variant."

"It looks like I have my next big project," I said, making a note to improve the production. As for direction, I had two directions. I might try to find a way to create mana alloys without any direct intervention from a skill, or I could focus on my connection with the dungeon.

There might be a way to update which skills the dungeon continues to drop. Having mana variants available directly would make things far smoother.

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"We still need to discuss," Rosie cut in. "I see the value of having iron-clad ships and a fortified fort. Combined, it should be enough to ensure the safety, particularly if we deploy Maria there, along with at least thirty ascended, but logistics are still a problem."

"Can't we open a dungeon gate there like we did to the swamp?" Harold asked.

"Maybe," I said. "But that likely requires invading and linking another dungeon. It was not advisable to stretch the gates of the other two dungeons. Every gate other than the primary one stretches the dungeon further. That's also why I didn't add a third layer," I explained.

"That still leaves the risk of it being blocked," Rosie countered. "We have no idea how many methods the others have to target dungeons."

"Wouldn't they have used it already if they had it?" Liam asked.

Harold answered. "Not necessarily. At this moment, we're still a minor adversary, more of a target of opportunity than an actual threat. But, if we can successfully establish a port, it'll be proof that we are a real threat. That will change the nature of the weapons we were fighting against significantly."

"If the dungeon is a risky path, why don't we establish two main lines. One, a shortcut through the dungeon, which can also be used to the

"How about if we establish two paths? One through the dungeon, giving direct access. And, another direct connection through the railroad. It's merely something like a hundred miles to the shore. Would it work?"

Rosie pulled a map, one that had shown the latest situation. "It should be possible. We're not too far away from the East Coast. A direct path is not viable, but if we expand the route to a hundred and thirty, we can take over two critical dungeons and three smaller leylines from Drakka."

Harold examined the map, his frown growing. "I disagree," he replied. "Two of the leylines forcing us to expand too close to their city. Worse, it means most of the railroad goes through open terrain. It'll be hard to defend."

"It's worse if we try to expand it to the North," she replied. "The railroad will go through a messy terrain, creating too many opportunities to ambush."

"It's better to lose a train than a full fortress."

I tapped the desk. It wasn't loud, but it still cut through the argument. "You both have excellent points, but we haven't made a decision about whether expanding to the sea is a good idea, especially with the growing corruption. We need more information before we make a decision. It relies on all three."

"Scouting reports will be my responsibility," Rosie guessed.

"Exactly. I want a detailed breakdown of the latest force distribution of Drakka, and not just in terms of the northern side, where we might put our railroad. We can't rely on Asterion for information once they inevitably ask for our help. Also, a full report on how the corruption ploy is affecting the sea."

"That, we don't have to worry too much," Rosie replied. "I was late because I had just received the last batch of scout missives. The reports are just preliminary, and it still needs to be confirmed, but no scout that had traveled farther than three hundred miles had reported the presence of a corrupted monster, and their density drops off significantly after two hundred miles."

"Centered around Asterion, I expect," I said. Rosie nodded. "That's better than we had feared," I replied. I turned to Harold.

"I will start working on assessing multiple routes, their feasibility, and strategic importance," he said.

"That's good. But, try not to spend too much time there. I need you to focus on something else."

"As you wish, sir," he replied, seriously.

"You were a marine before all this mess, right?" I asked. My memory didn't need refreshing, but sometimes, it helped to frame it that way. Harold nodded. "Good, that means you have to carve out a good amount of time to work with Liam on the ship designs."

"That's not exactly something I excel —" he started.

"Not the physical ship. Your presence is critical in designing the operational guidelines. How many soldiers, the cargo space, maybe the weapon loadout? You already have experience designing the same for our army. The sea should be even more of your forte."

He looked hesitant, but still nodded. That was enough for me.

"Sir, won't you be a part of the design?" Liam said, a hint of panic infecting his tone. I shook my head. "How about Terry?"

"No Terry either. He's responsible for Project Ascension. He can't afford to be distracted. It'll be your project."

His face lost some color. "M-my biggest one. Maybe—"

"I trust you, Liam. Trust yourself."

"But, I don't know where to start."

I chuckled. "Don't be scared of the size of them. It's not too different from the scouting gliders. Start by searching the designs for ships. Ideally, something that was created in the late nineteenth century, but older steam ships will work as well. Use that as a basis, and start redesigning it piece by piece, and trust your team."

"Will you be there to help, sir?"

I sighed. "Not as much as I would have liked to. And, in this case, my assistance will be limited. I know next to nothing about building something that size. I will still help by forging the critical pieces, but try to keep it to a minimum. My plate is already overflowing with tasks."

That earned a hesitant nod. It was likely the best I could get. "Any last advice?"

"Try to keep it as modular as possible, from armor to weapon. Retrofitting them whenever we make a breakthrough will be a better use of our time."

With that, the meeting came to an end. While it left me with even more tasks than I had started, I wasn't too annoyed. The meeting had been surprisingly inspirational. If we could pull it off, we would have the strategic initiative for the first time since the mess with Drakka had begun.

At least, that was the plan.