The Legend of the Meta-Defying Smith Who Saved the Kingdom

The Smith and Enchanter woke, donned his Dark Armor, and in his hands he held a length of chain festooned with twenty heating strips. Careful not to actually touch the strips themselves, he carried them up the stairs and then set them down. The rest of his heating strips he left back at his forge, in case something went wrong.

He threw some more stones into the pool, to see if he could bait out the monster, but nothing happened.

Good.

Next, he dipped the chain with the heating strips into the pool of water while it was still disturbed from his stone throwing, and threw some more stones in, and secured the ends of the chain to the rock wall just inside the staircase. A few more stones, and still no reaction.

Excellent!

James ate his last of the monster meat. His stomach had been cramping from the moment he woke, and although his last food vanished in what felt like the blink of an eye, he still felt hungry.

This was it.

The Enchanter sat down in the stairwell and flexed his [Enchantment Activation], activating the heating strips at roughly quarter capacity. The drain on his mana was small, but significant.

And then the waiting game began.

Slowly his mana drained, and the heating strips heated the water. Occasionally it rippled as the monster moved about, but it didn't seem to have noticed his heating strips.

Hours passed.

When James' mana felt a quarter depleted, he reduced the heating strips' output. He tried to balance his expenditure with his recovery, and eventually found a point where it was roughly even, and he maintained at that level for several more hours.

The water rippled every now and then, but that was all that happened.

The hunger pains returned, but James persisted.

The plan was showing no signs of success, but James stubbornly pushed on.

Enchanter Class Skill [Channeling] has been acquired.

James ensured his mana output was steady, and then allowed his mind to ponder the intrusive thought. That sounded like something a Mage would do, [Channeling]. Then again, he supposed that's what he was doing now. Just instead of pouring mana into a spell, he was pouring it into his enchantments.

His mind wandered until, suddenly, tentacles burst from the water and swept the arena as far as they could reach, slamming down and sweeping the ground rapidly, as though trying to attack an invisible enemy. James flinched, and nearly lost his focus, but managed to keep pouring mana into the heating strips.

The tentacles had once been a pearly, slightly off-white. Now they were a light shade of brown.

James' eyes narrowed. He wanted to creep forward and check how warm the water was by now, but he didn't dare.

After several minutes of blind attacks, never once into the stairwell where James lay, wrapped in shadow, the tentacles retreated, and eventually, the pool of water settle down. But the ripples were more frequent.

James pressed on.

And on.

And on.

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And on.

James lost track of time, but judging by his fatigue, it had been well over a day of channeling mana. The pool, now, was visibly steaming, though not to the level of the hotsprings on the second floor, between the boss room and the snowy passage. The water rippled even more frequently, but that was it.

Still, he pressed on, forcing his eyes open. If he fell asleep now, he might lose all his progress.

And there was no more food.

He might not have the energy to try again.

James hadn't noticed, but he'd lost a significant amount of weight by this point in his journey through the dungeon. He was even skinnier than he had been as a slave.

His mana started to dwindle again, and he had to reduce the output of his heating strips to match.

But still he pressed on.

He fell into a mindless waiting, focused on nothing but the pool and on channeling his mana, and so it took him by surprise when amid the steam rising from the pool, a brown tentacle floated to the surface, followed by another. And another. They sluggishly rose from the water, and slapped down onto the dirt before the pool, twitching. One made a grasp towards the center before collapsing.

The tentacles didn't move, but James continued for another hour, until—

Enchanter Class has reached level 15.

Smith Class has reached level 15.

Smith Class Skill [Stubbornness] has reached level 9.

Enchanter Class Skill [Persistence] has reached level 9.

Enchanter Class Skill [Channeling] has reached level 2.

Enchanter Class Skill [Mana Recovery] has been acquired.

James nearly allowed himself to fall asleep then and there, but hunger drove him. He stood and took a knife and his tongs in hand and removed his helmet.

He needed to eat, now.

He walked unsteadily towards the nearest intact tentacle, brown and steaming. Boiling food was okay, right?

Authors note: No, it's not. Do not eat meat you suspect is undercooked.

Editor's note: Andrew of Longthorn is correct. Although the Legendary Smith survived in the Dungeon by consuming monster meat, none of it was properly prepared. Only consume monster meat that has been prepared by a skilled Chef, ideally a Monster Chef.

He sliced into the rubber flesh, cut off a small mouthful, and crammed it into his mouth. The flesh was salty, and slightly sour, and the texture was nauseating. Rubbery and wet and so hot he could barely keep it in his mouth.

But he did, and he swallowed.

It sat in his stomach uncomfortably for a moment, and then he retched.

He vomited, fell to his knees, retched some more though his stomach was empty, and then passed out next to the puddle of his own sick.

Steam continued to rise from the pool, though the heating strips were no longer active.

James awoke to stomach cramps and nausea.

He forced himself to his feet, and looked around the room.

The pool was still steaming. Tentacles sprawled out along the ground. The iron door at the far end of the room was still closed.

What followed was a struggle of intestinal fortitude.

He set up his smoker, and even roasted some of the meat over an open fire. Eventually his body's craving for salt and food overcame his nausea, and he was able to choke down the most well-cooked, nearly charred pieces of monster flesh.

He supposed there was probably other materials he should collect from the carcass but he couldn't bring himself to care. More important was eating. For a day he did nothing but force himself to eat small amounts of the disgusting monster flesh, and smoke more to take with him.

When next he woke his mana was fully recovered, and he was merely hungry, rather than suffering from hunger pains. His nausea had returned, but he forced down more monster meat, and cleaned up his things.

Once he was all packed up, he walked to the iron door with heavy steps. He paused with his hand on the door a moment, looking back at the pool of water which had stopped steaming, and then he faced forward and pushed.

The door swung open, revealing a small room that appeared carved from the grey slate stone. The floor was sand, and he ensured his [Shadow Concealment] and [Silence] enchantments were active.

He stepped forward, and had barely gotten a view of the space beyond the small room, when he saw spears of water flying at him. He ducked behind his Light Tower Shield and groaned.

But he didn't shout or swear aloud. He merely endured the attacks chipping away at his mana as they were reflected back.

Pingpingpingpingpingpingping!

Boomboomboomboomboomboomboom!

Despite the noise, the spears didn't let up. If anything, more seemed to come flying.

So James retreated back to the iron door, but made sure he didn't go back in.

The water spears stopped, and James thought. His stomach growled, but the thought of eating more of the squid meat made him nauseous, so he ignored it. More importantly, how was he going to get through this next floor?

He double checked his armor, and he should have been fully concealed and silenced. And yet, he had immediately been attacked. Even the boss had had a hard time finding him while concealed.

Nor had his [Reflect]-enchanted shield killed the monsters shooting at him, as far as he could tell.

The glimpse he had gotten before retreating was of a wide open space, with a lot of water…

His stomach growled again.

James sighed bitterly and set up his ward.