Blacksmith vs. the System 61-65

— Chapter 61

As much as I wanted to start forging the sword that could potentially allow me to use better mana attacks by leveraging the new materials and properties I had discovered, I didn’t do so immediately.

Instead, I sat on the ground and started working on a conceptual design and making some rough calculations based on my observations. It wasn’t particularly easy to figure out the necessary design. I tried to do my best to get inspired by electrical system structure. It could have even worked if I was dealing with a perfect insulator and a perfect conductor, but neither material had been perfect for their role.

And, my skills were singularly unhelpful. Every single design I could access relied on one type of material, whether it was an alloy or a pure metal. What I was trying to do with the sword was more of a composite material, with layers of different alloys and shapes.

While the rough calculations helped, there was a limit to what I could achieve without a computer to do anything computationally intense. In the end, without any supporting materials, at best I could come up with a rough design.

It was a short sword, nothing too complicated. A shorter, thicker scimitar, to be exact. The one end had been made entirely of mana-resistant hexagonal pattern, as fine as I could manage, to prevent the leakage, and the main body also had a similar outer layer. However, there was a thin layer of conductive silver-iron alloy that started from the center, and went forward to reach the center.

Forging it hadn’t been fun … because, with every move I made, I had to ignore the asinine suggestions of my skills to ‘correct’ the process, which would have ruined everything. It registered the composite approach as a mistake, and Repair was even worse.

Still, I bit my lips ignored the intense sense of wrongness, and managed to finish it.

“What a piece of junk.” I examined the sword with a big smile. Admittedly, it was not for no reason that my skill had been giving me an incredible amount of negative feedback about my invention. It was thick, poorly balanced, and unwieldy. I doubted whether it could survive even one hit, as the hexagonal gaps had destroyed its integrity. And, the conductive alloy I discovered was too soft to support the center.

Still, it didn’t matter. It was just a training wheel equivalent.

“Let’s try,” I muttered even as I focused on my mana. A mana glow immediately appeared around the blade, extending two inches without problem. More importantly, it was stable. I swung the sword a few times more, shifting between skills to get a better understanding of the flow.

It was a beautiful process. I was able to extend the mana flow almost half a foot before it destabilized. “Excellent work,” I muttered even as I tried a ranged attack. And failed.

It didn’t matter.

I went back to the drawing board, and changed the design multiple times, trying to find a way to achieve ranged attack. Unfortunately, I was soon met with an unfortunate realization. I had reached the limit. Not the material, but the technique. Just like swordsmanship gave me better control and tactical awareness, Forge gave me better control of the minute details. And, I needed to improve it to get finer control.

For that, I needed gold.

I looked at my remaining gold coins, wondering if it was worth the sacrifice to enhance the speed of improvement. Eleanor and Maria should arrive in one or two days at most, and I could probably arrange the delivery of pure gold, which must have been cheaper than system gold coins.

I just needed to wait two days, maybe one extra for material delivery. Was it worth wasting forty coins, especially since there was no guarantee that the amount would be enough to trigger the System and improve the skill further?

I was reluctant because it meant losing all my money. While I already had eight hundred coins in my account, it was just a promissory note. There was no bank to cash it, and there was no government I could sue them to get if they decided to hold it.

There was a reason most transactions were based on cash, and even that was only because of the existence of the System-backed coinage.

However, delaying three days, when I had solved every other problem standing in my way, was unbearable. “Why wait,” I concluded even as I pulled the coins and destroyed them, turning them into raw material with confidence.

Then, I went to the forge and forged a small stiletto dagger made of pure gold, the smallest weapon I could imagine. The System didn’t respond. I tried again, this time once again bleeding over it and using the Health trick, and pushed all the mana I had in my reserves.

[-200 Mana]

It didn’t trigger again.

“Let’s see if you will work,” I said even as I looked at the steam-powered crusher I had in place.

I spent easily two thousand points of mana. It failed again. “Alright, no surrender,” I said even as I repeated the experiment. This time, I made a couple modifications to the setup, expanding the crusher area to make its mana output even more intense, started it, and forged another gold dagger.

It only responded when I spent roughly twenty thousand mana points, something that would have taken a lot of time to crush by hand and interrupt my forging repeatedly. The forging alone took ten minutes.

The reward was worth it.

[Mana Forge (Rare) 102 -> 117]

“Industrialization for the win,” I muttered even as I looked at the small, beautiful dagger in my hand. Curious, I tried to use it to create a mana edge. It conducted mana better than the alloy I discovered, but my sword maintained a better edge.

Confirming the viability of my composite design and my path to improve the class skills at the same time.

I once again started with the repetitive act of forging, damaging, repairing, and destroying. With my setup in place, I was able to extract mana easily. As an added benefit, the tainted energy was collected in a container, so whenever I ran out of material, I just needed to go to the edge of the base, open the container, and fight against the resulting swarm.

I was glad that I came up with a way to cut the shell with a mana blade, as it made the process far faster. And, I didn’t even need to carry them back. I just needed to put them in the conveyor belt, and they would go back on their own.

Excellent work.

Too bad the conveyor belt was too much work to expand even at moderate distances. Conveying power mechanically had its limits, not to mention every yard of metal belt took some time for me to forge and assemble.

Not the best use of my time, especially when the monsters were kind enough to visit my base in the first place.

As usual, improving the skill got harder the more it improved, and the incredible amount of mana it required to trigger made it even more difficult. However, in the end, I received my reward.

[Mana Forge (Rare) - 202]

[Mana Repair (Rare) - 201]

The perk selection had been almost trivial. Advanced Observe was a no-brainer. And, while I might have been split between Advanced Mana Control and Advanced Creative Forging, I only received Advanced Creative Forging as an option, which I accepted.

Advanced Creative Forging didn’t allow me to forge the composite weapons, but every little bit still helped.

“I wonder when I will be able to push it to the next stage,” I muttered, feeling impatient. It was greedy, I knew, but I didn’t care. Now that I had discovered the method of improvement faster and faster, I couldn’t ignore the addictive pull of its sensation.

I wondered if platinum would have given me the same boost gold did. Admittedly, the only reason I believed that was the fact that the next coin in the System was the platinum coin. Still, the theory was worth experimenting with.

But, even if it did, I couldn’t even imagine how much mana it would consume in the process. The mana requirement between silver and gold to trigger the system had gone up almost thirty times. I didn’t want to even imagine how much it would require for platinum, assuming the original trick held true in the first place.

Which, unfortunately, was not guaranteed.

“Prioritize,” I grumbled, reminding myself about the more important problem. One step at a time. I still needed to solve the issue of the ranged mana attack. However, instead of making a new variant of the sword, I started experimenting with gold, wanting to utilize its superior conductive properties.

With the setup in place, it didn’t take too much time to design a gold variant that conducted mana far better. Then, I simply replaced the silver core with the golden one, focusing on the hexagonal structure at the back of the scimitar.

An hour later, I was looking at a successful ranged attack. It barely went five yards before it dissipated, but I didn’t try to improve it. Instead, I destroyed the sword and instead started to work on a new weapon based on the same principles.

A hammer.

*****

— Chapter 62

For the hammer, I wasn’t exactly designing a ranged attack the same way I did with a sword. I could, but there wasn’t too much of a point. It wouldn’t give me any benefits. Instead, I picked a different direction.

Namely, the quake attack.

For that, I designed a new hammer. Its surface was covered with hexagons, gold and silver conductive patterns etched inside it like wires to not only carry the mana, but also distribute it in the same pattern as the Quake attack.

With this brand-new toy, I was able to create a weaker version of the quake effect. To test, I was once again at the mining pit, using the hammer to steadily destroy ore deposits, replenishing my reserves at the same time.

I tried to use it on the monsters. Unfortunately, the weapon proved too fragile, shattering upon impact. And, since I had a limited amount of gold, I couldn’t make a dozen hammers to bring it with me.

But, since I needed to replenish my ore reserves in the first place, I just continued crushing ore and loading it to the main feeder for the conveyor belt. Occasionally, I went back to the forge to redesign the weapon.

Of course, from a single-attack perspective, there were not many benefits to actually creating a mana attack, as the vitality attack was already superior. Yet, I focused on mana attacks first despite that.

While the vitality attacks were strong, they were also costly.

Of course, mana attacks cost even more to achieve a similar effect. Combined with the fact that my mana reserves were much smaller, its utility was supposedly limited.

If it wasn’t for one important fact: Cleansing Meditation allowed me to absorb mana far faster than I could replenish my Health. While my high Vitality allowed me to metabolize the food faster to replenish my Health, all but most concentrated extracts required several minutes to refill my reserves of Health. I just needed to stand still for five seconds to replenish my mana.

And then there was the fact that Health was a literal tool for survival… Armor could help to survive a lot of things, but it didn’t make me impervious. Blunt force trauma, in particular, still required Health to recover from.

However, the biggest part was that I didn’t have the research on vitality that I had on mana. I needed to once again experiment on many materials to understand how they worked when interacting with solid materials.

And, the recovery speed of Health meant that I couldn’t easily replicate it.

Not without a large number of assistants.

With all those factors included, trying to develop a mana attack was the better path until I had the necessary manpower.

I swung my hammer again, this time crushing a shell into pieces, and used meditation to absorb it. Five seconds of standing still, and my mana was replenished once again. “Maybe I should try and see if I could figure a way to meditate while moving,” I muttered even as I swung my hammer again, destroying another small section of the ore mine.

[Quake Hammer (Rare) 184 -> 185]

So, I started trying to activate the meditation effect whenever I tried to move around, but it didn’t work as well as I had hoped. Whenever I tried to move, the mana shape destabilized or stopped rotating, which made the process of figuring out how to Meditate while moving rather annoying.

I could maintain the existence of the orb, but without the movement, it didn’t work.

However, repeated attempts failed to give a result. “Well, do I actually have to,” I suddenly realized. After all, I had already realized that mana had been reacting to the shapes. Why not transform that orb into a different shape.

But first, I decided to finish improving Quake Hammer to its limit. As much as the idea of experimenting with Meditation had been tempting, I didn’t want to do so immediately. Instead, I chose to focus on Quake Hammer.

It required two more trips to the forge to optimize the structure of the hammer based on trial and error before I could actually start delivering a decent facsimile of the first vitality attack, but it still depleted all my mana.

[-200 Mana]

[Quake Hammer (Rare) 199 -> 200]

[Perk Options — Persistent Tremor / Shatter / Swift Dodge]

“What a tough choice,” I muttered. Swift Dodge was easy to ignore, as I had long adapted to using Fleeting Step without using the spear art as a crutch thanks to repeatedly using it to move around. The choice between Persistent Tremor and Shatter, on the other hand, was harder to decide on.

I had a feeling that, with my combat style, Shatter would be more useful, but I still chose Persistent Tremor. The implication was that it would create a lasting effect, and the experimental value of such a thing was too important.

“Let’s try,” I said as I used it on a thick section of ore.

[-300 Health]

“Well, that’s expensive,” I muttered even as I examined the surface. Unlike Quake Hammer, the attack didn’t disappear at once, but maintained its presence between the shattered pieces, throwing them around wildly.

It still had a mere two feet radius, but the devastation was incredible. It would work incredibly against a monster … or an armored human.

Though, I didn’t want to imagine how the remains would look.

I first moved back to the forge and activated the crusher. Then, as the mana flowed around me, I activated the meditative orb, but I didn’t rotate it, curious if it would absorb. It did, just very slowly despite the density around me.

I turned that into a hexagonal prism, and, even without moving, the effect of rejecting mana was displayed, but it was weak. It implied that, along with the shape, the movement was also important. Soon, I added a triangle to the intersection point, and it started channeling mana inside, once again with an absurd slowness, certainly not enough to make it worth it.

I added a triangle to every corner, but after a certain point, I was struggling to maintain the shape of the entity even without rotating it, as if I was trying to juggle a dozen balls in the air. Trying to maintain the shape of the orb was an interesting experience. I couldn’t just do something and start ignoring it.

Every piece of construct required me to maintain it separately while rotating seemed to be using something completely different.

I reduced the number of triangles and started rotating, but it failed. While the sphere — which I was starting to realize was not exactly a smooth structure, but the surface details were a mystery — was able to function better the faster it rotated, the triangles lost their effectiveness.

The lack of stats, I realized. No wonder Intelligence was a critical requirement for every mage. The sheer focus necessary to maintain even half a dozen shapes was incredible.

I stayed like that for hours, repeating various methods to increase mana absorption, but the best I could get was one point of mana in twenty minutes. Hardly groundbreaking.

Maybe the research institutes were right in rejecting me —

“Nonsense,” I growled even as I shook my head. It was absurd to feel depressed, especially after my string of successes. Absurd enough that I would have suspected that there was some kind of spell over me. But, an easier guess was in place.

It was the side effect of what I was doing with the meditation.

When I stood up, I felt tired and drained, like I had been lost in the deepest recesses of a dark depression, tired in a way I had never felt before. “Alright, that’s enough experimentation for today,” I muttered as I started tidying up everything.

It was the second time Meditation had caused some kind of trouble. Maybe I shouldn’t play around with it without consulting Maria first.

While I was mentally drained, I felt fine physically. So, I chose to pick the cart and went back to the third floor. However, after a few attempts of removing the shell with a mana attack, I realized that trying to use Mana turned out to be much more difficult. So, I stopped that as well and instead relied on the ordinary spear and extractor combo to collect.

 I was exhausted mentally, but I didn’t feel like sleeping. Some pointless, mind-numbing physical activity might have been exactly what I needed.

And, if I could make more money in the process, even better.

Since I had been distracted by the latest set of experiments, I decided not to go up before collecting around four thousand shells, which would explain my longer-than-usual disappearance.

I could always say I took a trip to the third floor.

As I fought, I could feel that weird exhaustion disappear slowly. It wasn’t completely gone, but the sudden listlessness had disappeared. Still, I didn’t stop until I collected the target number of shells.

I went back to the fort, only to be greeted by smiling guards. “Good news, sir,” one of them declared happily. “We have just received the news. The caravan will be here in just an hour.”

“Excellent,” I said as the guards rushed toward the cart, enthusiastic about processing it. My habit of leaving big tips was already doing wonders.

Hopefully, it would also help when it came to recruiting. My experiments needed help. Just a few people would be enough, but finding someone trustworthy seemed like a challenge. Instead, I could just hire a bunch of people to work in the dungeon, both to help me make money, and to allow me to identify trustworthy assistants.

I wanted nothing more than to rest, but with the arrival of the caravan, things wouldn’t be as simple.

“So, does anyone have any interesting stories about the first days of this dungeon?” I asked, which was just an opportunity to question them.

Now that Eleanor and Maria had arrived, I needed to decide on a solution that was just innovative enough to help without being too suspicious.

I much preferred experimenting over killing monsters…

*****

— Chapter 63

While I knew Maria and Eleanor were on the way, I stayed in the dungeon nevertheless, talking with the guards to learn about the various methods that they had used to explore the dungeon. It started as listening to them about the stories, but soon it turned into a Q&A session as they proved very willing to answer my questions, where I started to ask very pointed questions about the tactics they had used to first explore the dungeon and determine its profitability.

At first, I was surprised by the candid way they answered the questions, even with Eleanor leaving me in charge unofficially. At first, I assumed it was my generous tipping that had earned me this privilege, but even that felt a bit excessive.

Then, it clicked. It was my power. More accurately, their perception of my power. From their perspective, I was already at least level hundred — with the gossip split equally on whether I had passed the threshold — and with that power, came respect.

It was just that I underestimated the intensity of it.

It was my mistake considering my job. While equality had always been more of an idealized concept than a true reality, it didn’t change the fact that, before the Calamity, all people had been in the same baseline. Yet, even then, people had a tendency to idolize the strong and the famous. It was inevitable.

Ultimately, humans were social beings, and the more complicated the society, the more we relied on heuristic patterns of thought. In the past, the rich, the strong, and the famous had been revered.

Here, a sufficiently high level meant all three. Levels meant power, in a direct, visceral way that was impossible to ignore. Then, with the world economy regressing to a primitive level, power also meant riches. It was a reason that there wasn’t anyone above level fifty trying to get into this dungeon. They had better dungeons to make money from.

Dungeons that didn’t require them to get away from what passed for civilization.

More importantly, the ones that didn’t put them in the middle of a political dispute.

This meant that, other than Eleanor and Maria, I was perceived to be the only high-level person here, and with that, came respect. However, it was one thing to acknowledge it in theory, another thing was to live through it. Even as a professor, I wasn’t used to it, though that was mostly due to my age making it difficult for my students to respect me.

Suddenly, I was glad that I didn’t have to deal with it for long. Arthur was a fake identity, one that I would abandon as soon as I made enough money. But, that was for the future. I still had too much to learn here.

I continued questioning them, trying to learn the tactics they had used. It seemed that they had already utilized some of the more obvious methods. Spears had worked to kill, but their wooden handles degraded even faster under the corrosive effect.

As for bows, the cost of ammunition made it unsustainable. Special arrowheads were required to penetrate through the thick shells of the monsters, which inevitably ruined the arrow itself, making it more expensive.

I questioned whether they tried to raise some native plants. They confirmed that they tried and abandoned it quickly. Apparently, the native dungeon plants pushing back the dungeon mist was a known trick, but it wasn’t well explored, because there were better magical alternatives that could dispel that mist and reestablish better visual clarity.

Alternatives that didn’t work in a region that lacked mana — or, as my experiments showed, had a low mana density. And, according to them, the desert nature of the dungeon meant that growing any kind of plant was not worth the effort.

It meant that no one had bothered to experiment with the water from the fourth floor, at least properly. I could have revealed that, but it would have told Eleanor that monopolizing the fourth floor was possible despite the corrosive effect, which would ruin my business model.

Instead, I wanted to try something simpler.

“Lend me your bow. I want to try something,” I asked one of the guards. While they didn’t use them for hunting insects as it was expensive, some of them were still armed with bows to defend the fort.

Not many of them, which was probably why Thomas’ trick had been that devastating.

He passed the bow immediately, but I noticed the hesitance as he passed the arrows. “Just two arrows is enough,” I said. “And take ten shells from the latest order. It should be enough, right?” I said. I knew it was overpaying, but it was always better to keep people happy while asking for a favor.

I went back into the dungeon, once again relying on the mist to hide me from the view. But, instead of targeting them directly, I reached into my bag, and pulled a skill stone — one of many I carried with me — which I had been planning to consume.

[Skill Stone: Shoot (Basic)]

“Let’s add a ranged attack to the mix,” I muttered even as I consumed it. The sensation of absorbing a skill was disorienting as always, but a basic skill was easy to ignore.

[Shoot (Basic) - 1]

The first few times, I used the bow to aim at the rocks, testing the skill. Just like the other basic combat skills, shooting only came with the most basic motion, nothing else. It gave me a general understanding of how to hold, how to pull back, aim, and shoot.

Even with the skill barely at one, I was able to hit a target accurately from ten yards away. Dexterity helped me with aiming, but the greater the distance, the more inaccurate my aim became. Compensating for that inaccuracy was possible, but it slowed the process of aiming even more.

There were several reasons that most people preferred melee over ranged. The first was the logistic challenge. While arrows could be used multiple times, they were still more fragile than weapons. They broke and got lost, and collecting them was a significant chore. Not to mention, it meant it was harder to replenish them during longer expeditions.

Especially since the best arrows came from the System Shops, like everything else.

As a result of all these factors, not only was killing monsters from the range more expensive, but it was also more challenging. Stronger monsters were either armored, which made arrows a very bad — or expensive — method of dealing with them; or they had been agile enough to avoid arrows even after they were shot, making the task of hitting them at a distance impossible.

Sometimes, they had just excess vitality, requiring an absurd amount of arrows to take down.

They were not really useful other than for support — unless someone had a special class — because magic was much more effective as a ranged weapon. Stronger, more accurate, and, most importantly, cheaper.

Well, cheaper anywhere with abundant mana. But, even in mana dead zones, it was probably a close call. Of course, the biggest reason for their relative lack of use was that they required Perception, even for their Common variant, which was not exactly a common stat.

And then, there were even fewer classes that had Perception and Strength at the same time, the second stat necessary to use bows with higher draw weight. Of course, they were still useful in many circumstances, especially near settlements, and more expensive crossbows with certain enchantments removed some of those drawbacks.

When all those facts combined, it explained why they were not as popular as melee while exploring dungeons, even in ones like ours.

“Now, let’s improve it,” I said. I could have practiced it again and again until I was confident in taking down the beast. Instead, I touched the arrow I had borrowed, and modified its surface with my mana, adding a few hexagons and arrow structure to make it better to hold mana.

Then, I pumped it with mana, treated it as a spear, and shot it to a nearby target. The rock I targeted had been demolished.

[-9 Mana]

[Shoot (Basic) 1 -> 25]

One step was enough to maximize the basic skill. “Excellent,” I muttered even as I used the other arrow to practice a few more times, getting a better sense of the abilities and limitations of the skill. I quickly made a few simple bows and crossbows, all made purely of metal, reusing the bowstring from the bow I had borrowed.

Of course, those bows were useless garbage. Pure metal was not a good material for making bows. However, since my aim was to understand which weapons triggered the basic skill, it still worked.

And, a smile popped on my face when I noticed crossbows were included on that list. It gave me an idea for an interesting pitch. I broke down the weapons I forged into base metal — mana once again allowing me to bypass very cumbersome steps under automatic control of my skill — and returned to the fort.

Eleanor was waiting for me there.

*****

— Chapter 64

Eleanor didn’t say anything material until we were once again riding the griffin.

“I didn’t miss the sensation of flying,” I said, grabbing the saddle tightly.

“We can walk if you want,” she offered.

“No. I like being assassinated even less,” I replied.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “It was our mistake. It won’t happen again.”

I nodded. That promise was worth nothing, but I appreciated the intent behind it. “So, how was the recruitment?”

“Good,” she said. A one-word reply was not out of the ordinary for her, but I was able to catch a chipped tone, which meant it wasn’t particularly good.

That would have put a smile on my face if we weren’t currently mid-flight. Unfortunately, it took something far more incredible than the prospect of great riches to put a smile on my face while I was being tortured by the fact that there was no solid ground under my feet.

I kept my mouth shut as we covered the short distance between the town and the dungeon. I wanted to close my eyes as well, but the ability to catch a glimpse of the caravan that approached was too important to neglect.

It was a significant crowd, more than I had expected. Even a rough head count suggested at least ten thousand people, maybe even more. However, their subpar equipment — along with Eleanor’s dissatisfaction — suggested that there weren’t many elites among them.

Once we landed, we immediately walked toward the headquarters. Some distance away from us, I could see many blacksmiths going on a building that was no doubt the new forge, but this time, there were many more guards.

My failed assassination — the first one — had taught them the importance of security.

Maria was in her office, with a dark expression on her face. It immediately turned into a shocked expression, which was followed by a giggle. “D-Devon?” she asked, shocked by how I looked. I didn’t blame her. The thick beard and long hair looked ridiculous, but it was a good disguise. “You look … distinguished.”

“The word you’re looking for is old,” I replied as I sat across from her. Technically, my action was a little presumptuous for the medieval culture people were insistently pushing. A week ago, it would have earned a very disapproving glare from Eleanor. Two weeks ago, Maria would have punished me with second-degree burns.

Neither of them even blinked, showing how much progress I made in turning myself into a critical part of the town management. It was good, as that was the only reason I was willing to stick around a location where I was facing the risk of assassination.

“As much as I want to mock Devon for his horrible beard, we have more important things to talk about,” Eleanor said as she sat next to us. She didn’t wait for an invitation either, though it was more about the relationship between Eleanor and me. She was a stickler when it came to propriety around the other people, and the fact that she was willing to relax near me meant a lot.

Their trust might have made me feel bad for tricking them, but luckily, I was able to come up with a method that would actually help them.

“True,” Maria said, with sadness back on her face. “All but six of the guilds have pulled back from the agreement, and of that six, five of them had reduced their investment.”

“Only that annoying woman is willing to stay. She even promised to increase her investment,” Eleanor said, talking about Rosie.

“What about all those people?” I asked.

“Support staff,” Maria replied. “Almost eight thousand of them are Farmers, and most of the rest are the various classes here to build the second wall, secure the farms, and do other support work. We barely had three hundred people to join the dungeon, meaning it was only a hundred and fifty teams. Slightly more than what we had before Thomas proved what a monster he is. And, almost half of those teams work for Rosie.”

“Is it a problem?”

“Somewhat. They are low-leveled, so it’ll take a while for them to get into the rhythm.”

“We can’t support the town with that much operation. We couldn’t before, and we certainly cannot now.”

“Really, that many Farmers?” I asked. “That’s surprising.”

“Not really,” Eleanor replied. “The current batch of food we have came from the city, and they are dense enough to make logistics not a problem. But, we can’t keep importing food. Maintaining such a long trade route through wilderness is next to impossible.”

“That, and it’s really difficult to grow food on a mana dead zone,” Maria completed. “Even in the mana-rich areas, the best farms rely on mana-gathering wards to feed the plants.”

“I didn’t know farmers could use mana,” I commented, acting unaware of the secrets, which would allow me to ask follow-up questions.

“They can’t, but the plants absorb it. The poorer the environment, the more Health they need to grow the plants. At one point, they spent more Health than they could get from the food, making it a problem.”

“I see,” I replied. “Can’t we use some of them to plant trees in the dungeon, then? I’m sure it’ll be helpful.”

“We tried, but alchemical fertilizers are required to do anything in the dungeon, and they are too expensive to be used in scale, especially in a hostile dungeon environment like a desert.”

I wondered if it was Eleanor and Maria’s inexperience that was making them miss the obvious solution of mixing them by hand and experimenting, or was it the dependence on the System that made people ignore the common sense solutions?

Admittedly, both were possible.

As much as I wanted to let them talk a bit more to despair so that they could appreciate my solution more, I decided to give them an alternative. “Actually, I might have a solution for you?”

“Really?” Maria had gasped.

Meanwhile, Eleanor smiled. “Yes, I forgot about that,” she said as she turned to Maria. “Our sword genius here can actually kill a thousand monsters in a day. While it’s not enough to keep us going, it should be enough to bridge the gap. As long as we delay the promised payment for the Farmers, and delay a few payments, we should be able to work until we hire a second batch.”

“But, what about the Blacksmiths,” Maria replied. “We need Devon to train them, so that they can learn how to repair the swords the same way.”

“We need to cancel that plan,” Eleanor said. “It’s a waste for a sword genius to waste his time in the forge. He needs to spend his time developing his Rare skill,” she said.

“Rare skill?” I interrupted.

Eleanor passed me a small box. “Surprise,” she said, her smile wide. “Finish learning it, and I’ll do my best to find you an Epic one.”

Maria seemed to be unhappy about that. But, why, I didn’t know. My best guess was that she didn’t like Eleanor changing her plan without consulting, but even that was sketchy. Maria trusted Eleanor more than that.

“Actually, I have a better plan. One that not only solves both our problems but can actually increase the dungeon production significantly. However, I need you to trust me on how to handle it,” I said. Both turned toward me. “I have discovered a way to make corrosion-resistant material.”

Their shocked gasps were a thing of wonder. “That changes everything. If we can arm everyone with swords made of them —”

“No, that doesn’t work. The material shatters quickly,” I said, quickly cutting that path. “But, it’s good enough to make arrowheads.”

“So, are you going to teach it to the other blacksmiths,” Maria asked.

“No, we can’t do that,” I said. “Whatever family dispute you have leading Thomas to sabotage you, it’s clear that he’s determined to pull something even harder. If we reveal that we can forge arrowheads that could be used in the dungeon, he might escalate.”

“What’s your plan?” Eleanor asked, but from her gaze, I could see that she was already convinced. And, I was sure that it had nothing to do with the plan, and everything to do with my melee performance.

“What would Thomas do if I occasionally received a box from the outside, filled with arrowheads,” I asked.

“He’ll do his best to find the delivery and rob them,” Eleanor said.

“That, or he’ll find which System Store you’re purchasing the arrowheads from, and bribe them to stop doing business with you,” Maria added.

“And, it means, he won’t have that much time sabotaging the camp,” I said. “However, I need both of you to swear that you’ll never reveal I’m the one forging them. Not even to the rest of your family. Let’s just maintain the fiction that I’m an old warrior friend. I don't want to die to an assassin’s blade.”

“That’s a good idea,” Eleanor accepted. Technically, I didn’t know just how sensitive that ploy was, but I wasn’t willing to take the risk. “But, how are you going to forge them?”

“Easy,” I said. “I’m going to set up a forge in the depths of the second floor, and forge them there. The boxes will only have the raw materials. As long as you order the guards not to search me, it’ll be enough.”

“That sounds good. What about the blacksmiths?” Maria said. “We still need them to repair swords.”

“Easy,” I said. “I will write them some notes, as well as forge you a set of weapons from bronze ingots without enchantment. They can use it to quickly level up their repair. Just don’t forget to have them sign better contracts this time.”

“Sounds good —” Maria started, but Eleanor interrupted.

“We can’t afford it,” she said. “We’re already deep in red, and mana alloys are expensive.”

There, I smiled, ready to deliver the big stuff. “What if I sell the intact shells to you for two silvers each,” I said. It would have been a terrible sacrifice on my part if I hadn’t been earning far more from the dungeon itself.

“Really?” she asked. “And, will it be profitable at that level? We don’t have many sharpshooters.”

“The recipe I discovered requires some silver, so no. I still need you to purchase it for me secretly. I won’t be able to break even, but I should be able to keep going as long as I spend half a day hunting,” I said, which was another lie. Using an iron alloy would be more than enough for the arrowheads, and I certainly didn’t lack that.

But, I needed an excuse to bring piles of silver inside the dungeon, so a little lying was inevitable. Especially since, the more profitable I made it for them, the less incentive they would have to try to get the recipe and teach it to other blacksmiths.

“And, everyone will think that we’re paying you four silver, so we can earn more money than people expect. It will give us an edge during the auction.”

“You can even tell that we have a deal, and you’re purchasing the shells from me for five or six silvers,” I said. “That way, it’ll be more believable that I’m a level hundred.”

“Good idea, professor,” Maria said. “Too bad you’re still garbage at chess.”

“I’ll defeat you one day,” I responded, more than happy to play into her enthusiasm and entertain her.

“That still doesn’t solve the problem of recruitment,” Eleanor interjected. “We need to have a lot of archers.”

“No, we don’t,” I said. “I just need permission to recruit among the farmers while one of you went to the nearest town and purchased a lot of crossbows for me.”

“But, they still need the strength to pull back.”

“Not if I hire a couple workers with Strength only tasked to rearm the crossbows,” I replied. I was confident that I could figure out a small device that could figure it out, but no need to overwhelm them with too many ideas at the same time.

Maria looked at Eleanor, and they shared a pointed glance showing agreement.

Just like that, my first step to monopolize the dungeon was complete.

*****

— Chapter 65

The meeting didn’t end after we agreed on the details of my guild. There were still a lot of small details that needed to be determined. They were unrelated to me, and most of it was exhaustingly monotonous like the town layout and patrol schedule, but I stayed.

Having even an unofficial say in the town's development was too important to be ignored. Since I seemed to have been defaulted into the management of the town, I was happy to embrace it.

Once the meeting was done, we split. Eleanor went to meet with the guards to arrange the new patrol schedule, trying to make sure there would not be any problems. Maria flew to the nearest city to purchase as many crossbows as she could carry on a griffin along with some alchemical fertilizers. I didn’t need it since I had a better alternative, but I had requested some in order to have an excuse for keeping those plants in my possession.

Meanwhile, I stayed at the headquarters for a while, writing notes on how to improve Repair quickly, then forging a set of weapons in increasing complexity that could be damaged and repaired at the same time.

They should be able to use that combination to quickly push their Repair skill to forties, which, combined with the Warm Blow perk, would allow them to repair the enchanted weapons. I didn’t write down my own Repair trick, instead derived a full set of simpler tricks that could be used with Warm Blow.

The situation was complicated enough without another Blacksmith stumbling their path into Mana Forge.

As for the recruitment, I asked the guards to handle that, and ask for volunteers. Knowing how the warriors could treat the production classes, I made it very clear that I needed volunteers, and not coerced farmers.

If none of them wanted to join me in the dungeon, which was possible considering the danger, so be it. I could always find a different method. I wanted to improve, but not through forced labor.

Not when I could finally do something about it.

Once I stepped out, I found a sergeant I was familiar with from the dungeon waiting for me, but I couldn’t remember his name. Luckily, my new status meant that not remembering people’s names wasn't treated as something rude. “What was your name, sergeant? Sorry that I’m bad at names.”

“Harold, sir,” he said. I wondered if it was his real name, or if he was one of the people that changed theirs for a more old-timey feeling. But, I didn’t ask. It would have been pointlessly rude. “The potential recruits are waiting for you, sir,” he said.

“Where are they?” I asked.

“They are at the farm. I thought bringing a crowd here might be too much.”

“A crowd,” I asked. “You remember what I said about no coercion, right?”

“Of course,” the sergeant said, looking surprised. “I actually had to turn down bribes to bring them forward,” he declared.

“Really?” I asked. “I would have thought that Farmers wouldn’t have been willing to risk themselves in a dungeon.”

“Not when you offer them double what they are already getting.”

“What?” I said. “I thought I offered them only a silver a day, with performance bonuses?”

“Yes, double what they are making,” Harold said. “We offer them half a silver, plus food and residence. Honestly, Lady Maria’s offer was already generous enough. Apparently, they had almost fifty thousand farmers respond to the application, so they were able to pick the best.”

“What about the danger?” I asked. I had known that farmers were struggling, but not to the point of moving to a potentially dangerous new town.

“Well, some of them. The money is already more than what they earned in the city. After removing costs, they are lucky to earn a silver a week in the city. Most barely break even,” the guard explained. “More importantly, it’s hard to level up in the city. They have to save for months to get access to even the simplest dungeon.”

“So, my offer to work in a dungeon…”

“Frankly, you can probably find volunteers that would work for free. It’s a waste of silver,” he said.

“Interesting,” I said. “No wonder they didn’t even ask about how much I will pay for the bonus,” I said, which made the guard skip a step. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“The performance bonus? That’s more money?” he asked, surprised.

“Well, yes. What did you think it was?”

“I thought it would be the right to kill monsters so that they can level up,” he said, surprised. “That’s the traditional way. The opportunity to be protected by someone at level one hundred while doing so…”

I frowned. I knew that the situation with the Farmers was bad, but I had clearly underestimated the extent of their plight.

“I didn’t know that,” I said. Suddenly, I realized that my offer of letting them hunt monsters with ranged weapons was more attractive, enough that I could probably make them pay for the privilege through weeks of physical work.

Not that I had any intention of actually doing that. What was the point of such cruelty? Just to keep salaries low? It was like the worst parts of capitalism and feudalism mixed in to create an unholy abomination.

Humanity… somehow always capable of making a bad situation worse. Even when there is no need.

I said nothing as we left the town, and started walking toward the farming center, where the farmers were working hard to tile the land and plant, leading the horses. The part nearest to the town was being turned into an orchard, while the more distant parts were being tiled to the beast land.

With the beasts pulling the plows, the process was fast. While Farmers only had Vitality as a stat which didn’t give them the ability to deadlift half a ton with ease, it was still enough to raise their endurance to an inhuman degree. They tiled the land with a steady pace, showing more enthusiasm than I had expected.

However, as I came closer, I realized that their steady work had a frantic edge, and I could already hear a few whispers about the guilds leaving the caravan to go back. They were probably assuming that some of them would be fired and sent back.

Admittedly, it was a realistic fear. Without my intervention to save the finances, Maria was already considering delaying the payment, and firing some of them to reduce the cost was the logical next step. Especially, with the number of guards gone, it would be a reasonable setup.

“The volunteers for the dungeon, gather around,” the sergeant shouted. “Sir Arthur is here to make the selection for the team that’ll join his guild.”

The workers froze before they all started to gather, already pushing each other. “Anyone that creates a commotion will be disqualified. I don’t want a stampede!” I shouted, which had been enough to freeze them. “No running. Walk calmly, and don’t push each other.”

Even as I shouted at them, I didn’t blame them. I knew exactly where they were coming from. It wasn’t even two weeks ago that I would have been a part of a similar group. Not for a silver coin, maybe, but five coins would have made me just as desperate.

While they gathered in a calmer manner, I climbed on a rock so that they could see me, and looked at Harold. “Listen to the rules well. I don’t want any guard violating them either,” I warned him.

“Understood, sir,” he said enthusiastically.

Machiavelli might have had a dubious reputation for his statement about it being better to be feared than loved, but his book had another, lesser-known quote that was certainly true. If one could arrange it, it was best to be loved and feared at the same time.

Luckily, the inherent threat of someone level one hundred — even if it wasn’t exactly true — and my new role in the inner circle handled the fear part, and my generosity worked well for the loved part.

“I’m sure the guards had mentioned what I want to do. I need people who will accompany me to the dungeon. I have already arranged with Lady Maria, so I can borrow you for a day or two before you return to your tasks,” I said. “Since we have that many volunteers, I want to make a few changes.”

“I’m willing to work for free—” one of them shouted.

“I’ll pay a silver as long as I can spend five minutes hunting in the dungeon!” another one shouted.

“I will —”

That looked like it could turn into a stampede. “Enough. No commotion,” I shouted. While I didn’t want to act like a jerk, trying to explain something to eight thousand people at once was not an easy thing. That was why I didn’t explain the exact details of the offer. They seemed to be ready to kill each other for an opportunity to visit the dungeon and kill a few monsters after a full day of work.

I didn’t want to see what they would do if they learned the job was to kill monsters from a safe distance.

From a pragmatic perspective, I could have easily convinced them to work for a pittance, or even sign some very punishing debt contracts, which I could easily enforce because of my direct contact with the management. I had no doubt that many in my place would have done exactly that.

It was pointless. I paused for a moment, which both allowed them to process the importance of the moment, while also giving me a chance to adjust my recruitment plan. My initial plan was to just hire the volunteers to join my guild, but I decided against it.

Not only could it turn messy to give them the opportunity, but it was also a waste. The higher their level, the less benefit they would get from killing monsters. I expected them to reach level fifteen quickly, and progress to twenty-five at a reasonable pace, only to be stalled during their class upgrade due to the lack of mana.

I decided to level up all of them. While it might slow down setting up my operation, it would give Maria a bunch of farmers who could work longer and produce more food. Selling it back would have been cumbersome, but it would mean the town could grow without expanding the number of farmers, which would be a bonus.

And, I doubted she would have a problem with increasing the self-defense capabilities of the farmers. Giving them both Stab and Shoot, which was produced in the dungeon, would make things very easy.

I just needed to prepare a set of armor for all of them so they didn’t die in an accident.

“Now, let me explain the rules. We’re going to set up a small raffle, and every volunteer will have a number. We will be rotating the dungeon workers, so all of you will have the opportunity to level up. The ones that impress me in the dungeon will have the chance to join my guild directly for even more payment. But, anyone who risks their fellow farmer’s life in the dungeon will lose that chance. Safety first!” I warned. “Feel free to change your mind if that’s not attractive.”

No one answered, their enthusiasm growing. I was about to stop when I realized how people could act when faced with such opportunities. “There will be no buying and selling your places in the line, and anyone that tries to force others to give up their place or anything else, I’ll deal with personally,” I warned.

Then, I pulled my sword as I jumped down, cutting the huge rock I had been standing into smooth pieces with a few Vitality attacks.

Sometimes, the best way to avoid punishing anyone was to show the power to do so.