Blacksmith vs. the System 287

Once the steam car arrived at the destination, I slipped away from the squad and searched for Rosie. My search brought me to the entrance of a dungeon gate. One that gave me a dangerous, bloated feeling, like it was about to shatter. Rosie was near, watching it carefully, accompanied by Jessica and Spencer.

I didn’t immediately call for them, not wanting to alert a possible spy. Instead, I used Void Sentry on the dungeon gate. The sight was even worse, with void energy spilling out of the gate, and it was not a controlled release.

The dungeon was at its limit.

I doubted that I was the only one who noticed the issue with the dungeon. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone through all the effort of building a bulwark around the gate, all defenses pointing at the entrance rather than the other way.

I walked to a nearby empty tent, one that was marked with Rosie’s personal sigil, and then cast a spell at Spencer. A message spell, but it contained a set of numbers. He would recognize it as sent by me, and alert Rosie of my arrival.

Unsurprisingly, Rosie arrived a few seconds later. “That’s boring armor,” Rosie said.

“I try,” I responded with a smile, but the situation was too dangerous for banter. “What’s the situation?”

“We have managed to rout the Drakkan garrison easily. They had no Ascended, and their magical defenses were weak without environmental mana to support.

“They weren’t prepared,” I commented.

“I wouldn’t say that,” she responded and opened a crate. One that was filled with familiar crystals that Drakka used to sabotage our dungeon, right before they had picked a more direct route. It was nothing more than void energy, concentrated through some unknown method.

“That’s not the only crate, is it?” I asked.

“No, that’s the one that we managed to get. They threw three more into the dungeon before we could break through the defenses. So, we focused on building defenses around rather than invading it directly.

“A good call,” I said. “I don’t want to imagine just how bad the situation is inside. Not a fitting place for anyone else.”

Rosie looked at me. “You want to go inside, don’t you?”

I shrugged. “I have to. This dungeon is critical to our plans. If we can take over, I can open another gate, and even if I can’t connect it to others, it’ll allow us to bypass a nice area.”

“What about the risks?” she said.

“There’s not much. I can use Dungeon Mist to replenish my mana, and if there’s any danger, I can retreat unfettered.

“That doesn’t sound like a good strategy,” she said. “What if they realize that you’re in the dungeon?”

A sigh escaped my mouth. “They won’t. I just solved the skill stone drop issue in the dungeon, so they wouldn’t expect me to depart immediately. You know we can’t let the dungeon burst, not at this moment.”

“What’s the plan?”

“Just activate one of the wards to conceal the entrance, and I’ll slip inside,” I said. Then, I pointed at the box. “Also, make sure that it reaches my lab. I want to examine them further.”

Rosie nodded.

I didn’t blame her for her frustration, but I didn’t plan to change my mind either. I knew that going alone to a dungeon that was about to burst was dangerous, but we were fighting a much superior enemy. One that finally realized just how much of a danger we represented.

We no longer had the luxury of playing it safe.

Though, it helped that, at this point, most of my fears about entering another dungeon had been laid to rest.

“I’ll help, but only if you promise you won’t go to the second floor until I arrive.”

I thought about arguing, but her determination was clear. “I promise,” I replied.

“Good. Be careful inside,” Rosie said before leaving. “The snow is thick, and the wolves are perfect for ambushes.”

Once she left, I cast an invisibility spell, and waited for the commotion until I slipped inside the dungeon gate, confident that I had managed to stay under the notice of the spies.

The first step into the dungeon was an … experience.

Ordinarily, the immediate surrounding of a gate would have been empty, with monsters repulsed by the aura of the gate. But, that was not true for a dungeon that was at the edge of bursting. The moment my foot touched the snow that covered the dungeon floor, a horde of corrupted wolves lunged at me, threatening to drown me in their sheer presence.

Worse, I could see that the horde was not just one or two monsters, but a full wave, covering every inch of the first floor, easily visible without a dungeon mist to block, signaling that the dungeon was about to run out of power.

The whole floor was covered with monsters.

In response, I brought down my hammer.

[-1000 Mana]

A shockwave exploded, pulverizing any beast that was closer than a hundred feet, and pushing the snow covering the floor away.

Underneath the snow lay a thick, rocky ground. I could feel an echo of frost from the ground, similar to how I could feel the hint of a volcano from the fire dungeon, but there was a difference. Back when I had first visited other dungeons, it gave me a subtle, yet threatening impression. Like I was stepping into the cave of a sleeping lion. That, underneath the echo, I could feel something else.

Here, I could merely feel an echo.

I wondered if it was the case for each dungeon break, or it was a side effect of the void crystals they had dumped into the dungeon to overwhelm it. Or maybe, they had also sabotaged the dungeon in another way.

It was a critical question, so I expanded my senses, watching the way the dungeon worked with both mana and the tainted energy that filled the place, both released by pulverizing the wolves.

The dungeon absorbed the free mana immediately, while the tainted energy and the pure void energy were captured by living beasts. “Alright, that might be a problem,” I said as I looked around, taking note of the dead landscape.

No wonder the dungeon was about to shatter.

But, I didn’t immediately delve deeper into the dungeon. Instead, I examined my connection with my own dungeons, to see if anything was interfering with them. Luckily, there were no such problems. Either the other dungeons didn’t pose any risk, or more likely, the current dungeon, at the edge of a total collapse, lacked such a method.

I exhaled slowly. “First, let’s make sure it doesn’t collapse,” I muttered, and looked around. The wolves, lacking the mental capacity to be afraid, had already covered half of the distance. I could have smashed them down, but I did not.

Not immediately. Instead, I had released most of my reserves.

[-6000 Mana]

The free mana was absorbed by the dungeon immediately, which was not a surprise. On the edge of a collapse, the dungeon was about to experience a total collapse. I let the wolves drift closer, and brought down my hammer once more.

[-300 Mana]

The attack was deliberately weak. As the second cloud dissipated, I activated one skill I had not been using for a long time.

Meditate.

[+2120 Mana]

The moment I did that, the concept of decay spread, competing for the tainted energy of the corrupted wolves. Though, I had to keep it focused high, as void energy was heavier, sinking into the dungeon floor.

And, the ground of the dungeon didn’t repel it like Earth did.

“Not bad for the first attempt,” I said. I had managed to get far more than my attack had consumed, but most of the energy was stolen by the other beasts. That meant I needed to be better.

Luckily, I had recently worked on the theory behind the skill. My version of Meditation was purely based on Wisdom, which meant there were a great deal of shape manipulations I could add easily to improve it.

I started simple. A giant globe, split with a fractal pattern to split and channel the energy, while the central form of decay worked as a furnace.

[-300 Mana]

[+4190 Mana]

[Meditation of Decay (Mythic) 317 -> 331]

“Much better,” I said to myself as I released most of what I had captured, letting the dungeon absorb it. Admittedly, that made no visible difference to the dungeon. It was the flip side of dungeons’ capability of supplying near infinite mana. Refilling it was just as challenging.

“It’s a good thing that rely entirely on my skill to handle the process,” I said. Unlike what happened in the past when I tried to modify Meditation, I didn’t lack the supporting stats. That meant, modifying Meditation put no pressure on my soul, and I could work on it for a long time.

I put some distance between me and the gate, not wanting to accidentally hurt anyone in case they tried to visit, and brought down my hammer once more.

Hopefully, my mana infusion would solve the problem. If not … well. That was a problem for me in the future me.