Blacksmith vs. the System 288

An hour after my entrance, the dungeon gate fluctuated, and Rosie stepped inside. She glanced around. “Wow, this place is a mess,” she said. “I expected you to be deeper into the dungeon.”

“I promised I wouldn’t,” I said, though I couldn’t blame her for saying that. I wasn’t entirely reliable.

I had been here for an hour, still where I started, with no progress. But that was inaccurate. The biggest gain was the state of the dungeon, finally showing a flicker of life after I had supplied it with mana for one hour, the endless rush of corrupted wolves making it easier.

Though, there were some side benefits.

[Meditation of Decay (Mythic) - 481 [Controlled Flow, Superior Sensing, Advanced Purification]

“It’s tricky,” I explained. “Whatever they did depleted the available mana, which essentially halts all processes. It’s why I’m here.”

“Should I bring a bigger army?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No. At least not now. The real benefit comes from converting tainted energy to mana directly, and even a Legendary skill might not be as efficient. It’s not worth alerting Drakka by getting inside. It’s better to target the next location, and leave a defensive force here.”

“You know you can’t stay here for long. A day at most.”

“I know,” I replied. “It’s good to keep Drakka on their toes, but not at the cost of our morale.”

“Exactly,” she said and turned her back.

“Before you leave,” I interrupted. “Do you mind giving me a hand with something specific?”

“What do you need?” she asked.

“I need you to delay the horde and keep them away from the gate for a minute while I go and search for it,” I asked.

“I can go and find some. Wouldn’t it be more efficient?” she said.

“You still don’t have Nurture, right?” I asked.

“Not my kind of skill,” she said. “But, I don’t accept it. It’s clear you’re afraid of me getting ambushed.”

I tried to look surprised at her declaration, and failed. My stats might allow me to catch lies easily, but the same benefits didn’t apply to lying. Especially against someone like Rosie. “Fine, if that’s the case.”

“Too bad,” she said as she dashed into the monster horde.

I thought about following her, but it wouldn’t help. “Try to stay concealed. They might have another trap,” I shouted.

That made her laugh. “Of course. Why do you think I made you promise to stay here?” she said, which was all she was able to say before she disappeared. I stayed near the gate, continuing with my operation.

She returned five minutes later, far faster than I expected. But, her frown told me that it was not a victorious return. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It’s a trap, worse than I expected,” she said. “I used the gate farthest from the others to get inside, to get a glimpse of what is inside,” she said. I gestured to her to speak before I brought down a hammer to destroy another batch of monsters.

“Worse than what you expect? In what way?

“I used the gate farthest from our position, slipping away from the monsters,” she explained.

“A good call.”

She nodded. “Luckily, they only left a scout at the nearest gate. He’s watching the gate, with some kind of pillar next to him, radiating mana.”

“You suspect a dead man’s switch,” I asked. She nodded. “What’s the direction the connection is pointing?” I asked.

“That, I don’t know,” she said. “I could feel the presence of multiple wards around him, but that was it. I didn’t risk it.”

“Good call,” I replied. “I need to see it directly.”

“Are you sure? We might just destroy the dungeon. Even if they push corruption to the limit, we have the ability to achieve it.”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t want to give up,” I said, and reached to my pack, pulling out an ingot. A temporary focus was enough to reshape it immediately, dousing it with mana.

[-6000 Mana]

I slammed it with my hammer a few times to stabilize the runes, and a blow soon departed its structure, landing among a pile of wolves, pulverizing them. “It’s not as efficient as my attacks, but it should conceal my absence,” I said as I ran immediately.

I wasn’t as good as Rosie in stealth, but luckily, a few costly spells were enough to temporarily close the gap. I passed through the gate, and saw the communicator she had referred to. The destination of the mana line was interesting, channeled toward a gate that led to the lower floors.

I paused for a moment, wondering if it was worth trying to go down to see exactly what was waiting for us . The gate was close enough. Risky enough that I would have ignored it, but if we lost this dungeon, our logistic chain would stretch; resulting in the death of many loyal soldiers in the inevitable ambushes, whether by our enemies or the beasts.

No, I needed to take that risk.

The absence of the dungeon mist made things somewhat easier, allowing me to see the location of the nearest gate. I took a trip to the third floor. There, I discovered the location of the issue. Some kind of fortress, getting attacked by corrupted beasts despite the layers and layers of protective measures they had in place, which included the bosses.

It seemed that the commotion on the first floor was nowhere near as bad as it could have been. The intense attacks from the corrupted beasts had one reason. Even from such a great distance, I could see that the walls were piled up with void crystals, ready to be launched.

“So, the first few crates are just bait to drive us inside the dungeon,” I muttered. “Just how easy they are to produce?”

I paused for a moment, crossing my fingers while reaching into the deep recesses of Runic Craft, to see if there was a spell that would protect me in case of a dungeon mishap and I ended up exposed to whatever dimension that the dungeon floors were located.

Luckily, there were a few runic spells for that purpose, unlocked after the latest burst of improvement, raising proficiency over three hundred, ready to be leveraged in case of an emergency. “What am I doing?” I suddenly asked myself after taking a few steps.

I was once again being arrogant. If things went wrong, I could likely save myself, but it would take a while for me to get back to the material plane; as I had no idea how it would actually go in practice. No, I couldn’t just go deeper into a dungeon about to collapse and hope all would go well.

“I’m acting more and more recklessly,” I muttered. Worse, I couldn’t even blame the System for it. It was just plain arrogance, inflamed by my latest power-up.

I stayed on the third floor only for a moment, just enough to dig a few dried roots from the depths of the snow-covered tundra, able to feel a hint of life from one of them.

When I returned, the runic spell I had put in place was still working, though it was on its last legs. Rosie visibly relaxed when she saw me. “At least this time you hadn’t done anything reckless…” she started, then paused. I tried to act nonchalant, but she must have noticed it. “What did you do?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I declared confidently, but under her sharp gaze, I just nodded. “Well, I have discovered the trap on the third floor, and I might have considered going deeper to find a way to dismantle it without alerting them. But, I didn’t do it,” I explained.

“What a shocker,” she replied, deadpan. Then, her expression turned serious. “Let’s evacuate and start reinforcing the defenses, then,” she said.

I shook my head, then pulled the tiny roots I had found in the dungeon. “Not yet,” I replied. “I still have one more idea to try.” She looked at me, tense. “It’s not too risky,” I quickly added.

“Are you sure?” she asked, but followed with a deep sigh when, instead of answering, I buried the half-dead roots I had unearthed into the snowy tundra, and used another spell that I had been neglecting for a while.

Nurture.

[-51 Health]

A small dose of Health was all that was needed to trigger the rapid growth, especially since I channeled some of the tainted frost energy from the wolves. I had been expecting a hardy tree towering over everything else, so I was surprised to find a small, fragile flower, its red petals contrasting with the snow.

Rosie caught my eye, her eyebrow quirked, as if asking this tiny flower was my plan.

I nodded.

“Fine. I’ll go out and start organizing a strike force. It should give you between an hour and two before they realize something is wrong.”

“Make sure Rebecca is part of the strike force. I’ll need her expertise if my plan works,” I said. She nodded before stepping out of the dungeon, leaving me alone.

I cracked my fingers. It was time to work hard.