Blacksmith vs. the System

The wave of fire lizards climbed the mountain as a devastating tide threatened to drown us. The rain of arrows from the crossbows reduced their numbers somewhat, but they were still abundant enough to send tendrils of fear through defenders.

Thousands of lizards climbing the mountain was a scary sight.

I shifted to my sword, which was the best to deal with the enemies like the lizards. I sent multiple slashes, each.

"Don't worry," I called while I slashed my blade dozens of times, each attack carrying my full power. While I didn't want to waste too much mana, it was better than risking lives. Especially since we were yet to understand the limits of the new variants. There was a chance that some of the lizards looked near-identical from outside, but had much greater speed or strength.

And, it wasn't like it was a great loss, as the claws would be able to replenish the losses easily.

[-210 Mana]

…

[-210 Mana]

Now that there was a significant density of beasts attacking, each attack took down hundreds of lizards, reducing the number to a more manageable level, which had been only achieved once thousands had fallen. I was ready to take down a few more, but a notification distracted me.

[Level 43 -> 44]

[+2 Vitality, +2 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Essence]

I paused. It was not exactly a problem I had been expecting, but maybe I should have. I remembered Eleanor explicitly mentioning that the monsters outside didn't have the same hard limit the dungeon monsters had.

"Well, that was not a problem I expected," I muttered even as I checked the remains. "Harold, you're up. Show me how good your trainees are," I ordered loudly as I retreated back, ready to intervene if necessary.

As he took over, holding the front line with the twenty newly upgraded farmers he had been leading, I moved to the back, ready to intervene in case of an emergency. But, there was none, which left me free to focus on my next problem.

My class upgrade.

It was not a problem I had thought about for a while, mostly because I assumed that it couldn't be solved in short order. Of course, that was before I realized I could use the dungeon as a source of infinite mana, which gave me the ability to kill monsters en masse.

Thousands of monsters fell under my power in less than a minute. I paused for a moment, making a few rough calculations. I didn't know the exact curve of effectiveness when it came to higher levels, but any reasonable estimate indicated that, unless I retreated back to the dungeon, I could push to level fifty.

Potentially settling for a weaker class in the process, since I hadn't pushed Forge to the next level.

It was a tougher decision than I had expected, owing to my Meditation, which was already at its Mythic variant, which should have given me a class that was significantly stronger than the one I had, potentially with some mental stats to compensate.

The mere thought was enough to excite me. Having access to Intelligence could potentially open a new world to me, one where I could truly start experimenting with mana. But, to make that more likely, I needed to push my Mana Forge and Mana Repair skills above epic.

Frustratingly, it was actually possible. A week, maybe two at most, and I could actually achieve it. But, that would mean monopolizing the mana from the lizards, which would mean no widespread class upgrades for the farmers.

Not even new weapons, as that would mean I would have to focus on weapons that were complicated to the point of uselessness in the hopes of triggering the System, even co-opting a great part of the new blacksmiths to understand the way the System behaved.

Doing so would mean casualties. Many of them. Without me to whittle the large portions of the waves, the defenses wouldn't hold.

A big part of me wanted to ignore those deaths. Why would it matter if a few hundred Farmers died while enabling my growth? Would that really matter? Didn't they owe me for saving their lives and providing all those opportunities in the process? If they joined any other expedition, their death rate would certainly be more than half, so it should mean that I was morally in the clear, right?

Not to mention, it was a strategic decision every general could understand, sacrificing a portion of their forces to ensure ultimate victory. My abilities were the only thing that was keeping them truly safe, and making sure my improvements were significant enough mattered even more.

I had no doubt that I could explain it to Maria and Eleanor, and get them to admit that I made the right decision. It was a simple decision, one that resonated with me both rationally and emotionally.

I watched the newly improved farmer-warriors finish the last of the lizards, coming to a decision.

"You have five minutes to gather all the claws," I shouted. "We will have a second wave soon. We can't let them pile up!" Then, I turned to Harold. "Pick twenty more farmers for me, we will need another squad soon."

I had made my decision.

A stupid, inefficient one, one that didn't make sense under the circumstances. But, as I looked at the Farmers, I found myself unable to do anything else.

I had asked them for their loyalty and hard work, and I promised them protection. I couldn't violate that, not in such a ruthless fashion.

While Harold arranged the next batch, I went back into the dungeon, but only to pick about a hundred tons of metal, which took multiple trips. Only about ten tons of it was anti-fire, while the majority of it was anti-corrosive iron.

Not due to any special strategic reason, but because we had an abundance of it. I also brought along a few blacksmiths to handle building the encampment — which was merely a low wall and metal floors — and while they were busy setting the defenses, I started creating a larger crusher to enable leveling, which had three critical features.

One, it allowed leveling up to twenty farmers at once, which was enough for our purposes. Two, it had several layered storages buried deep underground with enough units to hold the tainted energy from almost a hundred class upgrades at once, which was a significant upgrade.

Three, it had the ability to channel out both the mana and the tainted energy. Another quick experiment showed that the dungeon gate was more than happy to take in the pure mana as long as it was brought right underneath it, while it had multiple exhausts for tainted energy to make the act of drawing the lizards toward the gate easier.

It was a simplistic structure, mostly underground pipes I built directly with my mana, but it didn't make it any less useful.

Once that was complete, the rest of the night passed in an acceptable, predictable pattern. I used the excess tainted energy to bait the lizards from a great distance, used the mana to cut them aggressively, including their giant variants, used their claws for mana while rolling their bodies down the hill for the other creatures to feast on, keeping them close to the mountain.

I had a few breaks, where I went back to the third floor with a cartful of claws to rapidly create some extra metal, some of it to be used for the defense, while the rest had been left behind for extra weapons and arrows.

But, even during the rush, one certain notification continued to ring.

[Level 44 -> 45]

[+2 Vitality, +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity]

[Level 45 -> 46]

[+2 Vitality, +2 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Essence]

[Level 46 -> 47]

[+2 Vitality, +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity]

[Level 47 -> 48]

[+2 Vitality, +2 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Essence]

[Level 48 -> 49]

[+2 Vitality, +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity]

I continued to fight against the waves as dawn set, which was not exactly accidental. After several levels, I was able to calculate how many new lizards were required to level up — the answer being in low ten thousand — and used the extra time to focus on creating some extra materials for the other blacksmiths, help more farmers level up, and even adding several contingency plans in place.

Between two breaks, I gestured at Harold, bringing him back to the dungeon to prevent eavesdroppers. "How can I help you, sir?" he asked.

"I'm going to be away for some time. It shouldn't be more than a few hours, but in case it gets delayed, I have some orders for you," I said, and gave him several directives, including where I hid the weapons I designed to quickly level up the common and uncommon combat skills dropped by the dungeon.

"You can trust me, sir," he promised.

I nodded, hoping that was the case. Not that I had any other options. He was literally my only option.

With that, we returned back to the plains, the guards looking exhausted after a night of fighting, but none of them complained. Though, that had nothing to do with my sudden expertise as a leader. As guards, their levels were not yet fifty, meaning they benefited from the killing just as I did.

Not enough to level up six times in one night, but then they weren't killing lizards by the hundreds —

No, I corrected it. Seven times.

[Level 49 -> 50]

[+2 Vitality, +2 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Essence]

[Class Upgrade: Mana Blacksmith / Master Blacksmith / Expert Mana Mender / Smith of Decay]