Blacksmith vs. the System

"Sir," one of the guards spoke as I walked out without Harold. "Will you be leading us tonight?"n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

To his credit, he tried to hide his distaste, but even without the new emotional sensitivity granted by my Wisdom, he had no chance to succeed. "No, Harold will return in a few hours. Meanwhile, maintain your usual command. I'll be exploring the mountain for a while," I replied and walked forward.

The more I interacted with the guards, the more I was bothered by the mental manipulation. Maybe I should put my Wisdom to better use by examining their emotional responses in a way that couldn't just be captured by a survey.

However, even without it, I had suspicions that classes were the source, with my earlier surveys from the Farmers not only confirming the idea but also leading me to believe that there was some kind of hidden variable that was in play also affecting natural skill upgrades.

The surveys had already confirmed that the farmers who lacked that hidden variable — or possessed in excess — were also lacking in courage and initiative.

Too bad I couldn't apply the methodology with the guards, not without empowering a bunch of guards to the point they treated rebellion as an achievable option.

The guards said nothing as I left them behind as I moved down the mountain, easily stabbing the lizards that started to climb the mountains. My climb down wasn't just a blind courage, I wanted to test three critical abilities at once.

The most important one, I wanted to test if opening a second dungeon gate between Earth and the dungeon was possible. While the connection between me and the dungeon came with some instinctual information, it was not even as good as what the skills were providing. Often, only when attempting something was I able to figure out if it was possible or not.

However, while it was the most important objective, I didn't immediately try it. If possible I would have liked to keep it hidden from the guards, which meant I needed to be away from the mountain peak, preferably with something to block the view.

This brought me to my second objective, figuring out how far I could get away from the dungeon before the connection between me and the dungeon prevented me from moving further away. It was a critical piece of information that would change my strategy going forward.

Additionally, I wanted to kill more lizards, which had multiple benefits. Leveling up was one. I also wanted to test my combat skills against a more challenging opponent and gather even more shells, but those benefits didn't make the third one as important as the first two objectives. However, the number of lizards that started to climb the mountains desperately told me that it was the case.

My spear danced as I moved down the mountain with great speed, each lizard lasting only one hit. The weak variants didn't help me improve my skill even by one point, but that was to be expected.

About a mile later, I paused, examining my connection, which pointed toward the dungeon gate. The more I got away, the more uncomfortable the connection was getting. Not painful, but merely discomforting like trying to hold a box for a few minutes too long.

It was hard to mathematically calculate something as vague as discomfort, but even my most optimistic estimates were below a ten-mile radius.

The dungeon connection was both a lifeline and a chain.

After a few attempts, I stopped trying to absorb the energy from the claws, as the strained connection meant the process was considerably slower. I could still break down the fire-natured tainted energy easily, but just like how the speed of mana recovery had slowed down as I got away, the reverse was also true.

Making the process too slow to be replicated, meaning straying away from the dungeon to kill the lizards wasn't an effective way to reinforce the place.

"One last item to be tested," I muttered as I moved farther away until I found a nice cave for myself. Once I threw a rock at the entrance and blocked it, I flooded the cave with mana, more as a precaution than anything else.

From there, I used the old digging trick to move about half a mile beneath the ground, creating an artificial cave away. It was most likely unnecessary, but, better safe than sorry.

Only then, did I reach into the connection, opened a new gate, and a blue glow appeared in front of me. "Nice," I said as I was hit by exhaustion. It wasn't as intense as what I felt when I had shifted the other end of the gate from the first to the fifth floor, but it was significantly more than opening gates between different dungeon floors.

I was happy despite the exhaustion, because the moment I had done it, I could feel that my connection had been snapped back to full power. I used another flare of mana, and my mana replenished immediately rather than the slight delay I had experienced earlier.

"Let's see if it works both ways." I crushed some claws I had with me, absorbing them with ease. The mana went into the dungeon without the slightest delay, which was good. The way the fire-natured tainted energy moved, was less good.

Next to the dungeon gate, any tiny scraps would have been blown away by the gate's repelling effect. My new gate also had a repelling force, but it was much weaker. The new gate wasn't as strong as the main dungeon entrance. It was flimsier, but how much was about my subconscious impression that it would be temporary, and how much of it was the nature of the additional gates, I didn't know.

"One last experiment," I added while I focused on the gate, giving it the mental order to close. I was able to do it, but closing the gate was more exhausting than opening it in the first place.

Moreover, I could feel that even after I had closed the gate, I could feel its presence. It wasn't that the gate was on standby, but there was, for lack of a better word, a mark. The sensation was curious enough to change my plans about adding another experiment.

I touched my connection, and the gate appeared in place again, this time considerably easier. However, closing it was still just as exhausting.

"I wonder if I could reopen it from inside the dungeon," I said as I climbed through the same tunnel I had disappeared from. I didn't know if it would be possible, but if it was, it could be a significant strategic advantage.

"I guess we will see," I growled as I arrived at the original cave, carefully covering the tunnel behind me once more. I even used Nurture to regrow the wild plants around the tunnel to hide the spot I dug in the first place.

Once out, I moved down the mountain some more, which was more in an attempt to confuse any potential spies than any practical need. The trip had already served most of its purpose.

However, instead of climbing back, I continued to descend down, killing more lizards. All but one regarding my ultimate limit of travel from the gate, which I was reluctant to push my luck about by increasing the distance too much. In the end, I traveled three miles away, and even then, it was because of my newly discovered ability to open more gates in case of an emergency.

Whether that emergency came in the form of a sudden snap in the power of the connection, or an assassination attempt from the mysterious organization that was backing Thomas.

I returned to the gate once that last point was determined. Since the distance prevented me from absorbing the claws properly, there was no point in expanding my reach for the moment. Instead, I returned to the dungeon gate. When I returned, Harold was already back outside, leading the defenses.

"I hope it was a fruitful trip, sir," he said.

"It was," I replied. "I have seen enough to understand the danger around us. Do you think our new recruits could handle some more action?" I kept my tone jovial, but Harold knew me enough that it was not a frivolous request.

"I'm sure they would appreciate a proper challenge, sir," he replied. "And, it'll be a good opportunity to test our new siege weapons."

"Good," I said even as I flipped my hammer in hand, curious how far I would be able to push my new skills in one night of endless combat. It annoyed me that staying outside to fight was the best way to spend my time despite having multiple critical tasks to accomplish, including something as monumental as understanding how Wisdom worked, but there was no helping it.

The advantages of staying outside were too vital. For one, my presence and mana attacks would allow us to draw far more lizards toward the defenses and deal with them directly. Their claws were critical to reinforce the dungeon further while also helping me to level up.

Killing tens of thousands of them — maybe even more — directly would improve my skills somewhat, but that side benefit at best. Improved skills would be beneficial, but if my past experience was any indicator, learning how to use Wisdom would be a much better path to improve them.

Also, there was another benefit. Fighting all night would allow me to observe thousands of people fight all night, each attack carrying a varying amount of 'conceptual weight'. While observation was not the best way to figure out such things, it would give me a good basis, which was all I needed.

The sum of those reasons equaled another sleepless night for me.

But, I had one more thing to do. Before the battle started, I went back into the dungeon, and focused on the gate I had opened earlier. I could feel the presence of it, even though it was somewhat faded. It felt like I could reopen it like I had suspected.

But, instead of testing it, I returned. I had experimented enough for the moment. Now, it was time to level up.