Blacksmith vs. the System 81-85

— Chapter 81

Even as I watched the two spies disappear into the mist, I didn’t interrupt our sparring immediately. I didn’t know the reason why they were here, and even though their presence was suspicious, I couldn’t simply attack them. And, not just due to ethical reasons.

Information asymmetry was valuable in any circumstance, and had I attacked them, they would have realized that I possessed a way to see through the mist. Every other method I managed to learn about worked similarly to the effect of the trees, dispersing the mist to increase the range of vision, which worked for both sides.

Killing the dungeon bosses was the only method — that I knew of — that expanded the range of vision for the observer only. It was a strategic advantage I was not ready to give up. This meant that I continued to practice even as I wondered who was the target of the cloaked scouts: Me, or Eleanor…

My mind wandered even as I called my System. It was unnecessary, as I knew everything it would show. Still, I needed the confidence it would provide as I prepared to face a potential battle.

[Mana Blacksmith - Level 43]

[Health 1290/1290] [Mana 210/210]

[Vitality 86 / Strength 86 / Dexterity 65 / Essence 21]

[Skills (8/13)

Mana Repair (Epic) - 102 [Advanced Observe]

Mana Forge (Epic) - 107 [Advanced Creative Forging, Mana Control]

Cleansing Meditation (Uncommon) - 139 [Controlled Flow, Superior Sensing, Purification]

Nurture (Epic) - 219

Quake Hammer (Rare) - 200 [Persistent Tremor]

Blade of Retribution (Rare) - 200 [Strike of Retribution]

Breeze Spear (Rare) - 200 [Floating Stride]

Fire Bolt (Basic) - 25

Shoot (Basic) - 25]

My distraction was punished by a ringing sound as the flat of Eleanor’s blade slammed against my helmet. “You’re getting lost,” she warned.

“Sorry, I’m just getting used to the new skill,” I said. “Fighting against the monsters is a different experience.”

“That’s why we have to practice,” she responded. “You’re lucky that I’m willing to waste my time helping you.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “And, it has nothing to do with the boredom you have accumulated through endless meetings.”

She avoided my gaze, and a shy giggle left her mouth. “Anyway, you have improved quite a bit,” she said, changing the topic.

“The dungeon is working for me,” I responded, suddenly feeling encouraged. “Having access to endless materials is proving to be quite a boon. I came up with a few inventions, including one that allows me to catch if someone gets near,” I said.

Technically, it was true. As long as I used a silver-gold alloy, I was able to expand the detection range of my Observe Perk quite a bit.

“Really, can you teach me?” she asked.

“Unfortunately, no,” I said. “It requires me to use a perk I had received from the Repair skill, but it’s still quite useful. By burying a silver web, I can detect the presence of monsters and people alike.”

“Really, you did that through the Repair skill?”

“Yes. Is it a problem?”

“No,” she said. “I just never imagined a production skill having combat application.” She paused, and sighed deeply. “I can’t believe just how big of a misfortune your class is. You’re a natural-born warrior. You working as a blacksmith is a waste.”

“Don’t worry about it, I appreciate the variance,” I said even as I walked to the perimeter, and buried a long piece of silver string — which I created in my pocket by manipulating mana. At the same time, I watched Eleanor very carefully, trying to see if she noticed my ability to manipulate mana.

It was a risky test, but with the prospect of an ambush, I wanted to see what I could and couldn’t do near her without raising suspicion.

I was tempted to retreat, but after some consideration, I decided against it. I didn’t know whether the potential ambush was targeting me or Eleanor, but either way, acting unaware of the potential ambush was the better option than scaring them away.

If I were to fight against these spies, I much rather do that in the depths of the dungeon. Even before I started hunting the dungeon bosses, I had the home-ground advantage in the dungeon thanks to all the buried defensive bulwarks I had prepared for this exact eventuality.

My ability to see through the mist was even more important

“Handy,” Eleanor commented once I finished burying the silver string, and returned. Technically, what I buried wasn’t enough to catch any interloper, but it was good enough to make my warnings credible if they returned. Even if they didn’t return to attack as I feared, I could still warn Eleanor about potential assassins.

I wanted to keep my secrets, but not at the cost of letting Eleanor walk into the blades of a hidden assassin if I could help it. At this point, despite the number of secrets I had to keep from her, Eleanor belonged to the small list of people I could call a friend.

Speaking of friends, I wondered where Rosie was. Her guild was operational, but she was yet to return.

I elected not to ask Eleanor about it, but instead attacked her again, continuing our sparring session. I appreciated it, as even at the peak of the skill, the spar taught me a lot about fighting another human, particularly one that was flat-out better.

As we fought, the situation was interrupted by a sudden rumbling, and at a distance, the same two cloaked agents appeared at the edge of our range of vision once again, drawing a swarm behind them.

“Another stampede,” Eleanor gasped as she pulled out of an attack. “Natural or manmade,” she said.

“Definitely manmade,” I said. “There’s two people just at the edge of the swarm,” I said.

“Not for long,” she said even as she dashed forward to meet with the swarm. I bit my lip, holding back a curse as I followed her. She was as fast as me when I used Fleeting Step to the limit, making me glad I had gone through all that trouble to integrate Floating Stride into my repertoire.

Still, I let Eleanor ditch me before I started following her. “Wait for me, I can’t move as fast as you,” I shouted.

“Then, you can clean up!” she shouted, her attitude showing that she didn’t feel the slightest hint of threat from the ambush.

While I understood where her sense of invincibility came from — I was dealing with a version of it myself — it didn’t mean I approved. Especially since the enemy knew about both Eleanor and me being here, but despite that, they attacked.

As Eleanor went forward, the cloaked figure went behind the swarm, mana around them once again making the swarm ignore them. Eleanor burst forward, trying to engage with them. The swarm barely slowed her down, but she still failed to engage with the cloaked figures.

Despite that, the cloaked figures didn’t try to ditch Eleanor. Instead, they retreated in a smooth manner, slowly drawing her to a certain location.

It was not something I was willing to allow. I started rushing forward, only for ten figures to appear from the mist. Nine of them were clad in pitch-black armor, while the tenth one was cloaked as well.

The cloaked one, who was clearly some kind of scouting class, directed the rest. I changed my direction slightly to catch up with Eleanor, only for them to cut my path.

I wanted nothing more than to retreat, but I couldn’t do that without revealing I had detected their presence. And, at this point, it was not an acceptable sacrifice, so instead, I moved forward, but didn’t show my Fleeting Step.

Soon, I found myself face-to-face with the three armored figures. “Get out of my path, or die,” I called in faux anger even as the nine armored figures spread out, ready to cut my path. Their formation was enough to reveal what they had been trying to do.

It wasn’t a formation designed to surround someone, but to support each other in case I tried to ignore them and push forward. That alone was strong evidence to suggest that they were trying to delay me.

Their armament suggested it as well. Their armor was heavier than I expected, and every single one of them carried shields. Their equipment was identical, making them look like some kind of an assassination squad.

I didn’t want to engage with them, but I needed information. So, I rushed forward, and attacked the one at the center of the formation, my sword covered with Vitality. The shield was sturdy enough to resist the blow, giving them a chance to counter-attack if they wished.

It was a risky move, but a necessary one, because, during the brief contact, I managed to use Observe, which gave me a brief, yet accurate snapshot of the shield. I attacked a second one before the first recovered, ready to retreat before they closed around me.

To my surprise, instead of leveraging the opportunity, they stayed spread in their formation, showing their intent to delay me. That alone had granted me a very important piece of information. They didn’t want to kill me but wanted to split me and Eleanor up.

I paused for a moment before I attacked the line again, but my intent was more about testing their equipment. It was new, not showing any sign of damage from anything but very brief sparring. No one had touched them since they had been purchased from the System Shop, not even to cast a repair spell — which was something I could distinguish at my current skill level.

They were also thick, heavy, and most importantly, optimized to resist sword attacks. As long as I used a spear or a hammer, I could have easily killed them.

It was purchased to delay a certain guild master who had famously only used swords. They targeted me, and not Eleanor, as Eleanor was too fast to be restricted by them.

Someone had gone through a lot of trouble to set up a unit to delay me. The only question, was whether they were trying to split Eleanor so they could kill me … or the other way around.

Ironically, I found myself desperately wishing that it was the first version, as that was destined to fail. At this moment, I had too many hidden advantages for such an attempt to succeed as long as I stayed in the dungeon.

Eleanor’s abilities were not as much of a secret.

I needed to make a decision, and I needed to make it immediately.

*****

— Chapter 82

“You bunch of whipper-snappers think that you can kill me,” I laughed boisterously even as I suddenly started running away, but limited myself to ordinary running speed. “I didn’t get to my age by stupidly letting people ambush me.”

Before they could make a decision, I had passed the forty-yard mark. The cloaked one followed me from a distance, using hand signals to command the other armored figures. Once again, I enjoyed the luxury of having a better range of vision, as it allowed me to see their movements clearly.

They were happy to keep me separated from Eleanor.

That left the question: why bother setting things like that in the first place? Couldn’t they have just ambushed Eleanor when she was alone?

I didn’t waste too much time thinking about that, and instead focused on my first problem. How to ditch the cloaked scout, who was constantly updating the rest on my location. Then, I turned my gaze toward a nearby cliff.

At this point, I was familiar with Quake Hammer enough to create the same effect with a punch. It shattered the cliff, which came tumbling down.

That had two advantages. First, it was very loud, enough to confuse the scout who relied on his hearing. More importantly, the destruction of the dungeon fixture released the tainted energy that was captured in the dungeon, which pulled the nearby beasts toward me.

The scouts were able to prevent the monsters from attacking them by using some kind of item — which was another suspicious point, as I had no doubt such an item was extremely expensive, or it would have been a common gear for the dungeon guards — but the armored ones didn’t have it.

This meant that, with the swarm between me and them, I was free to retreat.

The scout tried to follow me, but I didn’t let him succeed. He was fast, but nowhere as fast as my modified version of Fleeting Step, which incorporated some principles from Floating Stride. Still, I made sure not to show that fully as I retreated back, bringing down two more cliffs on the way.

Then, I circled the whole area, moving at full speed, doing my best to calculate Eleanor’s current position.

A minute later, I was looking at Eleanor, still chasing the two scouts. There was no threat there, so I moved forward, wondering what kind of trap was awaiting her.

I moved forward, hoping that the commotion Eleanor was creating to conceal my approach. Though, I didn’t have to move too far. Following the path the scouts had been drawing Eleanor, I had found a relatively deep canyon. On both sides, there were two ballistas, ready to be launched.

Of course, that was not the full extent of the ambush. I could see almost a hundred people, their blades ready. I was able to recognize most of them as members of the various guilds, including a few leaders.

Seeing their identity, their ploy had turned apparent.

They wanted to kill Eleanor, and blame me for it. After all, Eleanor had publicly visited me before we left for the dungeon.

I had to admit, if they were trying that, it was a good ploy. It would not only weaken Maria’s support significantly, but also force her to distance herself from her biggest supporter, forcing her to rely on the other guilds.

Assuming, of course, Maria was able to handle the loss of her best friend. Knowing her, abandoning the dungeon to her family while she left to harrow in her depression was a much likelier option.

However, while the plan offered a lot of benefits, trying to target both me and Eleanor at the same time made the plan unnecessarily dangerous. From the perspective of the guilds, safely dealing with Eleanor was safer than the alternative. Refusing their offer to collaborate wasn’t that big of an insult.

Then, there were the resources that they had committed to the attack. The team I fought against before had been equipped to defend against me, which was a significant level of financial commitment.

I suddenly had a hunch as I circled the group, trying to see the face of a figure who seemed to be in charge.

A bodyguard of Thomas.

I had no intention of directly attacking the group. The existence of six ballistas alone was enough to make the position unassailable, let alone the forty extra fighters ready to intervene.

I reversed the direction, using Fleeting Step to cut the path of the two that had been pulling Eleanor into an ambush, and managed to cut their path about four hundred yards away from the ambush spot. I rushed with the full speed of the Fleeting Step, and cut their path from the opposite direction.

They were fast enough that I couldn’t take them down easily, but I didn’t need to do that. I just needed to slow them down. Eleanor caught up with them, her blade glowing with vitality, and a few slashes were all it took to kill them.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “How are you this fast?”

“I also learned an Uncommon spear skill to surprise you during our spars,” I said, quick to explain and give an excuse even as I focused on killing the swarm around us. “But, the ambush forced me to reveal my hand.”

“I know. They are not as subtle as they think they are,” she said.

“And, you’re moving toward it regardless,” I said, unable to suppress my shock.

“Well, yes. How else would I deal with them?”

“And, you’re not afraid they have a force that’s overwhelming enough to take you down?” She snorted dismissively. “Even if they have siege weapons?” I asked.

That made her eyes widen. “No, that’s impossible. How do you know?”

“One of my attackers slipped it as I was retreating, trying to taunt me,” I said, inventing a credible source to what I had seen.

“Your attackers?“

“Yes. My attackers. The moment you left me behind, ten more warriors appeared to cut my path, geared specifically so I couldn’t support you.”

“Still, I’m sure that together —”

“No,” I cut her off. She looked frustrated, ready to refuse. Her attitude was radiating confidence to the point of recklessness. The fact that she was killing the monsters around us with incredible ease just reinforced the image.

I had to admit, her arrogance was not entirely unjustified, but the ambush that was waiting for her was too significant, particularly with the ballistas in place. But, I didn’t know how I would convince her without telling her I had already seen it.

I was afraid that I had to reveal I had already killed a few dungeon bosses to convince her. It was not something I wanted to reveal, but it was better than letting her walk into a deadly ambush. My secrets were important, but not to the point of letting her walk to her certain death.

I would reveal it if I had to. But, before that, I had one more thing to try. “Please,” I continued. “If you follow my lead, I promise that I’ll spar with you every day for a week.”

Bribery worked where honesty and common sense failed. “Alright. Don’t forget it. Even if Maria wants to play chess, sparring takes priority.”

“Deal,” I said, doing my best to ignore the two bodies that we had left behind. “Now, follow me.”

With that, I led her back to the initial ambush location. The squad was not there, but finding them hadn’t been too difficult. Their scout had tried to bring them away, which was a valiant, but ultimately useless effort. My range of vision meant that I was able to see them even when they were trying to hide.

I still made a show of searching for them by going in the wrong direction first before switching. “Good instincts,” Eleanor said as she dashed forward. “Take the scout while I deal with the armored ones.”

I had no problem with that assignment. The scout split from the group, while the armored ones gathered together.

The moment I got out of Eleanor’s range of vision, I sped up even further and caught up with the scout. I hurried up, because their actions made it clear that they were using a method to communicate with each other.

They acted like they had been promised reinforcements. Technically, it could be a lie, but I wouldn’t bet on it. The enemy had invested too much into their ploy to turn back immediately.

I attacked the scout, using my Strength advantage to the limit, his lack of metal armor putting him in an even more disadvantageous position. The skill difference between us was stark enough that I could just rely on the skill to deal with him, which meant I could split my attention between my fight and Eleanor’s massacre.

She was good. Intimidatingly so. I was aware that she had been holding back during our spars, but I clearly underestimated the extent of it. Her blade danced with an alacrity that I could never imagine matching.

I wondered if her Dexterity was that high, or if it was a difference due to the perks. Either way, she danced around the nine armored figures, making sure that their presence was more of a restriction to each other than actual benefit.

One of them had already fallen, and two others looked in critical condition.

Since she seemed to be in control, I once again rushed forward.

I needed to see what the main group was doing.

*****

— Chapter 83

Finding the main group had been easy. I didn’t have Perception, but the rushed movement of forty people, particularly when it was accompanied by a monster horde, was not too difficult. Luckily, not every single one of them had a movement ability, so they had to split their forces into two.

The main group, the bigger crowd, had rushed forward, while the second team, consisting of merely ten members, with six of them pulling the carts the ballistas were placed on, trailed behind them.

Their burst of speed confirmed that they were in communication with the other group, doing their best to catch up with Eleanor before she could finish with the armored team.

What I wanted to do was to talk with Eleanor and convince her to retreat, but I doubted that she would follow that suggestion. She was too confident, too headstrong.

I needed to equalize the stakes. The distance between the first and the second group wasn’t far enough for me to deal with all of them before the reinforcements could arrive — the distance between the two groups was merely two hundred yards, and I didn’t have the luxury of delaying them.

Luckily, killing them wasn’t my objective.

I attacked them from behind, which cost them a valuable second before they could raise an alarm. They tried to put a defensive line around the ballistas as they shouted, trying to raise an alarm, but it was too late.

I was already on top of the carts, and delivered the mana variant of the Quake punch, figuring out if it would be enough to destroy an immobile target. It was not. The siege weapon was able to resist the attack better than I had expected.

Thankfully, letting out a secondary blast of mana, this time under the control of Mana Forge, had been enough to deal with them. An Epic skill, even if it was merely a production one, was an incredible asset when used correctly.

I didn’t even need to destroy them completely, just damage the main shaft and add a large crack — one that I could repair just as easily if the need arose.

They made an attempt to catch me, but none of them had the necessary speed. I retreated, not only leaving them with their precious ballistas, which were turned into expensive junk, but also dragging a large box of ballista bolts with me.

I departed in a hurry, as I saw ten people splitting from the main group, including Thomas’ bodyguard and three of five guild masters I had recognized. It was an elite force, one that I wasn’t ready to confront.

I didn’t expect Thomas’ bodyguard to be as strong as Eleanor — or he wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble to set up such a huge ambush — but that didn’t mean he wasn’t as strong as me. And, supported by three guild masters and a few other soldiers, he had an overwhelming advantage.

Unless, of course, I changed the equation somewhat.

I picked a route that was almost perpendicular to Eleanor’s direction, which, as an added benefit, allowed me to stay near her without restricting my escape path. But, the real benefit was that it was on the path of the safe houses I had created, which also doubled as an armory, filled with javelins.

Manipulating their pursuit was easy. Several members of their party were faster than me unless I used Floating Stride, which was still not something I could use, but they didn’t dare to confront me without the rest. So, they moved near the group, spread to cut my path in case I wanted to make a beeline for Eleanor.

I changed direction occasionally, acting like I was trying to do that to make the scouts’ job of trying to find my location harder. Even with the help of Perception, tracking the location of someone solely by sound was not easy, especially when the man in question could incorporate wind into his steps, and monsters were hardly silent either.

When combined, my advantage in vision allowed me to easily avoid the traps they tried to place. I had to admit, their attempts weren't half bad both in terms of creativity and robustness.

In a way, it was like playing chess with Maria, where every move was done with a strategic robustness that I couldn’t come close to matching. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t a chess game, where both sides had equal resources and equal information, where pure calculation ability of the stat and mindless repeating solved their problem.

It required them to systematically analyze the information granted by the Stat and direct it efficiently. Without a deliberate restriction and being pushed in the correct direction, the Stat didn’t work. A classic garbage-in-garbage-out problem. They were not even able to understand the reason for their continued failures, still under the assumption that we shared the same range of vision, just setting even more elaborate traps.

In any other situation, I would have lamented about it being a waste, but coming from my enemies, it was always welcome.

It was appropriate to add some more complexity to their plight. I opened the box I had taken and pulled one of the bolts. It was mostly metal, but a quick check with my Repair skill showed me that the metal was nothing more than a relatively ordinary iron alloy, once again there to hold the enchantment in place.

And, the enchantment was far too complicated to even start making sense. I didn’t waste any time before I threw it toward my enemies. It managed to catch them in surprise even as it hit one of them in the chest … only to bounce helplessly.

Whatever enchantment was on the bolt, it didn’t trigger when I threw it by hand.

I threw two more, and they bounced off nearby rocks, and their lack of reaction implying that my method of using the bolts was utterly useless. Still, I threw a few more until I had reached one of my safe houses. I pulled the hatch to enter, placed the remaining ballista bolts there, and grabbed a bunch of throwing spears, as well as the spear-thrower I had designed.

Well, “designed” was a big word. A spear-thrower, or atlatl as my anthropologist friends insisted to call it, was one of the first inventions the early humans had ever come up with, believed to be in use for almost thirty thousand years.

It was attached to the bottom of the spear and folded against it. Then, the spear was thrown by the action of the upper arm and wrist. Atlatl acted as a low-mass, fast-moving extension of the throwing arm, increasing the length of the lever, and allowing the thrower to impart force to the dart over a longer distance, thus putting more energy and allowing for higher speeds.

Though, in my case, there was one other advantage. I designed the atlatl to hold my mana so that I could imbue the javelin as I wanted. Not only did it cause more damage, but, as an added benefit, it might have caused an outside observer to mistake the source of the attack, and assume that I had some kind of magical device rather than Essence Stat.

It wasn’t a guarantee, but I had done all that was needed to do so, including making the atlatl needlessly ornamental, with gold and silver fittings on the surface. It did look like a weapon purchased from the System shop.

Now, it was time for a field test. I moved away from the entrance, zeroing in on my first target: The scout. Not only was he not wearing heavy armor, which made him a good target for the ranged attack, but also his direction was a critical part of their strategy.

I channeled some of my Mana to the spear, weakening its structure appropriately as I targeted him, and released it.

[-40 Mana]

To his credit, the scout tried to dodge the attack. The combination of Dexterity and Perception gave him a chance despite the mist significantly restricting his vision. When all of it added up, however, even his supernatural abilities didn't help.

The spear not only hit, but the weakened structure started to shatter into razor-sharp, mana-soaked shards as it hit his chest with enough momentum to shred his clothing. The damage was severe, but Health was already helping him to recover.

[-37 Mana]

[-28 Mana]

Two more spears, one targeting his head, stopped that recovery. I couldn’t help but wince as I killed another man. It was not a good way to go.

“Take cover,” one of them shouted in panic. The one with the Intelligence tried to give some orders to change it, quick to realize that ranged attack had only been effective on the scout because of his lack of armor, but his command went unheeded as the orders conflicted.

One disadvantage of mixing the various guilds.

I decided to fuel their worry even further. I threw another spear, but this time, the mana worked the opposite way. Rather than spreading through its structure to weaken its integrity, it focused on the spearhead, reinforcing the impact point as much as possible.

[-95 Mana]

Then, I threw it to the one with Intelligence, one that was doing his best to control them. The spear sank into his right elbow, making him drop his sword in pain.

Loss of the only calm voice didn’t help their panic. It was a good moment to attack them … if I had the ability to deal with a team of armored soldiers. Unfortunately, I did not. Health made that process very troubling.

Even with the hammer I used against the gargantuan monsters, it wasn’t a challenge I would be willingly embracing. Without it, it was hopeless. Instead, I had just absorbed the mana from a few shells while they tried to recover, threw two more spears at the stragglers, and forced them to gather together to defend against the inevitable assault.

Then, I ran away to meet up with Eleanor.

*****

— Chapter 84

I found Eleanor fighting a surprisingly effective hit-and-run battle, using her speed and Dexterity to the best of her ability. She wasn’t incredibly fast. I could see that her speed was somewhat comparable to Fleeting Step, though it was considerably more flexible. She was making movements too sudden for me to replicate even with Floating Stride, and it helped her to be never surrounded.

However, while that ability helped her to never be surrounded, it wasn’t helping her to actually deal the finishing blow. The reinforcements — the ones that failed to distract — had arrived, their numbers ensuring that Eleanor couldn’t focus on one enemy at a time. There were a few bodies on the ground, but it was likely that they had been slain before the reinforcements had arrived.

And, whenever an exhausted one retreated back, the potions and concentrated nutrition bars were in place to help them recover their Health.

Eleanor was incredible as she danced around them despite the numbers, her confidence not faltering even for a second, but I could see that her fighting style had been geared more toward evasive action and defense than stopping power. Not shocking, considering stopping power was one thing Maria didn’t lack. She just needed to keep Maria safe against the enemies while she spread destruction.

Unfortunately, without Maria, her lack of stopping power, particularly against armored figures, was showing. Her ranged attacks weren’t enough to easily pass through the high-grade armor. Not that she was using them often, no doubt careful about depleting her Health.

Admittedly, I was tempted to just turn my back and leave. I didn’t know what encouraged — or forced — Thomas to pull such an intense ambush, but it was certain that this wasn’t the end. From what I could derive from my limited interactions in mind, he seemed entitled and greedy. A bad combination, particularly when confronted with failure.

Back before the Cataclysm, I had dealt with people like him a lot, often in the form of trust-fund students who were under the impression that their family money should somehow afford them a passing grade. But, occasionally, I had dealt with them as a part of a disciplinary committee — yet another pointless time sink I had to deal with before the Cataclysm — where I had to examine their ‘discretions’ quite a bit.

Rich and popular, they were not used to losing on topics they cared about, feeling entitled to success. Some just threw a tantrum before avoiding the topic of failure, while others doubled down.

Thomas clearly belonged to the second category, the kind that would take such a loss personally. Another attack would inevitably arrive.

In that attack, it was certain that he would escalate things further. Yes, I had my setup, but now that the proof of concept of dungeon exploration was in place, I could easily move my things to another location. It was a smart decision. Looking rationally, no one could claim that I actually owed Maria or Eleanor anything. Anything I took, I had paid back more than tenfold.

Yes, I earned a lot, but I didn’t owe them for the benefits they hadn’t intended to give.

However, it didn’t change the fact that, since the Cataclysm, they were the first people I had truly bonded with. Hours of playing chess with Maria despite being demolished repeatedly, Eleanor’s constant badgering for another spar, the long dinners whenever we managed to get some time from our busy schedule.

“God damn it,” I growled as I had committed to a stupid, short-sighted, sentimental decision that I was sure would give me an endless amount of trouble.

 I swung my arm, bringing the atlatl down.

[-46 Mana]

Another spear let loose. This time, I wasn’t targeting a scout, on alert against the possible attacks, but one with his back turned at me, unaware of the risk. The spear exploded and took him from the back of his head.

The result wasn’t pretty.

Once again, the dungeon mist worked to my benefit, especially since the scouts had been working hard to stay out of Eleanor’s way, spread at the outside of the formation to track Eleanor to limit her mobility advantage. It meant, they weren’t able to see each other, the shocked cries of the other fighters weren’t enough to inform them about the true nature of the threat.

Before the crowd could even realize what had happened, I moved around, taking down all of the scouts. Eleanor looked equally surprised about the development, but it didn’t prevent her from moving forward to take down the surprised attackers.

I stayed outside their range even after I had finished dealing with the scouts, this time aiming for the armor joints. The damage from the armor-piercing variant might not be as dangerous, but it still blocked their mobility enough to give Eleanor an opportunity. The tacit cooperation was enough to allow us to take down six more permanently before they pulled back into a defensive formation that made my throwing spears useless.

Since only two spears remained, it was not exactly a great loss.

Eleanor, realizing the situation had reached a stalemate, pulled back. I approached her from the other direction, and once I walked her into her field of view. She looked at me in shock, which was to be expected. What I was afraid of was to find suspicion or hostility. Luckily, those emotions were absent. I was sure of it, as Eleanor wasn’t a particularly difficult person to read.

A part of me was glad that it was Eleanor and not Maria I had revealed it. While Eleanor had a sense of directness that didn’t appreciate subterfuge, she was grounded enough not to take my sudden reveal personally.

At least, under the current circumstances.

She had enough presence of mind to not speak at the earshot of the others as we retreated back. She just made a questioning gesture, but when I gestured for her to follow me, she didn’t complain, moving full speed as she followed me.

I didn’t know whether it was the reveal of my surprise, or the overwhelming number of enemies that convinced her to retreat without complaining, but either way, I was too happy with the outcome to question it.

“Someone has been keeping secrets,” she said, but only after we had put almost a mile distance between us and the hostile party.

“I have been told a little mystery looked good on a man,” I responded even as I gave her a comical pose with my sword. With my bushy silver beard, no doubt ridiculous, but she didn’t laugh. I shrugged. She must be still under the effect of the adrenaline.

She spoke almost a minute later, when we stood at the dungeon gate leading to the third floor. “Why are we going down?” she asked. “Shouldn’t we return to the first floor?”

I was glad that she was asking about it rather than ordering what to do. I must have really impressed her. “Not before we pick some gear from my stash. We don’t know if they have any other nasty surprises.” With that, I stepped through the gate.

“Nasty surprises, like what?” she asked.

”Well, the ballista squad, for one,” I commented casually, only for her to actually stumble.

“Ballistas, really?” she asked, shocked. For once, she actually looked unsettled. I didn’t blame her. A lucky ballista shot might not have killed her, but it didn’t need to. All it would have taken was for it to impair her mobility for a while, and the fight would have ended very much differently.

“Yes, all organized by a bodyguard of Thomas, I have seen him,” I said, then gave her a quick summary of everything that happened, all while still running at her maximum speed, easily killing any monster that we came across.

She listened to me without interruption, but I was too familiar with her to miss her growing suspicion. I didn’t blame her, as she lacked one critical piece of information that explained how I was able to outplay the enemy with such ease.

“Is it the camouflage ring?” she asked, finally interrupting me toward the end of my story, only to pause. “No, it doesn’t make sense —” she continued, only to gasp in shock. “No, you can’t be serious,” she said even as she put some distance between us.

It wasn’t the fear that made her retreat. Instead, she just raised two hands and raised six fingers from fifty yards away … a distance that I wasn’t supposed to be able to see her.

“Four and two,” I said, unable to keep a smirk away even as she looked absolutely shocked. I wasn’t stretching the reveal to mock her. Instead, I was letting her piece things together on her own, hoping that it would help her to process the other secrets I was planning to reveal.

I didn’t know if I would reveal all my secrets, but any decent subset would be shocking enough to be worth wasting a few seconds here.

She showed me a few numbers, and even wrote a few words in the air for me to read, which I told her with ease. As her shock melted into acceptance, she made one last gesture. “And, what’s this number?” she asked.

It was one. A special one. “Well, that’s just rude,” I said with an exaggerated offended tone.

“Sorry, professor,” she responded with a soft laugh even as she closed the distance, and we started moving once again. “So, you have managed to kill a dungeon boss,” she commented.

“No,” I said, and she looked insulted. It was a mean way of extracting information from her, but her disbelief just confirmed that there was no way of expanding the vision range without actually dispelling the mist — at least, to her knowledge. Old habits die hard. I quickly amended my statement. “I have killed four of them.”

She fell into silence once again, thinking for a long while. “You consumed the crystals yourself, right?” she asked. I nodded. “No wonder you were able to outplay the ambush so easily,” she commented. “Surprising.”

I nodded. She was right. It was surprising, but she was handling it well. I must have impressed her more than I had expected for her to so easily accept my claim of soloing a dungeon boss, let alone multiple.

I just hoped that she would be just as accepting of all the other secrets I was about to reveal.

*****

— Chapter 85

Soon, we were standing in front of the cave that held my best gear. I could have gone in and grabbed my weapons immediately, but before doing that, I turned to her. “I need you to promise me something.”

She gestured for me to continue. “Go ahead.”

“I need you to swear that you’ll keep what I’m about to reveal to you a secret. It’s a matter of life and death,” I said. For a moment, she looked affronted, like I had just asked her to deface a monument to her religion. It clicked. “Except Maria, of course,” I added. “I know you two come as a package deal. I won’t ask you to keep secrets from her.”

I would have if it had any chance of working, but it was a moot point.

She lost her tenseness. “Better,” she said. “But, I won’t make any promises in her place.”

“As long as you help me convince her to keep it a secret,” I bargained. I wasn’t entirely sure if it working, but I wasn’t under any delusion. The moment I decided to help Eleanor openly, I knew that they would pay more attention to my actions.

It was inevitable. Previously, no matter how much potential I had offered, I didn’t represent an actual threat. What I had displayed while helping Eleanor proved that I was able to fight on the same stage as them. It meant attention, which would eventually lead to the reveal of my secrets.

Voluntarily revealing them looked much better.

“Let’s see what makes you so tense,” she said even as I swiped the rocks from the entrance and revealed the safe house to her. There were several notable items, but at the center of the room stood my armor, placed on a mannequin, and next to it, stood my three weapons.

“Looks pretty, but hardly a big reveal,” she commented even as I walked toward the stand. “I was kind of suspicious that you’re holding back a new alloy based on the number of shells you collected without the assistance of your new guild, but mentioning killing a dungeon boss pretty much settled it. You need to be able to ignore the corrosion completely to actually spend that much time on the fourth floor.”

“Fifth floor, actually,” I corrected, which made her look at me with a sudden shock, which made me believe that it was a big deal. Admittedly, considering the difference between the fourth and fifth floors, it was certainly a big deal, but I seemed to guess that just by the mention of the fifth floor.

I needed to learn what was common knowledge and what was not.

“How?” she asked.

“Well, I’m sure this will answer some of your questions,” I said as I threw her the sword, hilt first. She caught the sword, almost absent-minded, but the moment she swung the sword absentmindedly, she froze like she had been struck by thunder.

“Impossible,” she gasped as she let Health cover the sword, which stretched significantly. “I … just…”

I smirked even as I realized the best way of getting rid of her. “Why don’t you go out and test it for a moment and meanwhile, I can change.”

She didn’t even deign to answer my question even as she stepped out. I changed into the other armor, grabbed my hammer and spear, and went out. On my waist, I still had the sword I used publicly, which wasn’t as good as the one I had given to Eleanor.

I wasn’t stupid enough to try and get back the sword from Eleanor … at least, not before I forged one of her own that fit her style even better. I shrugged. I still had my hammer and spear, which was already more useful against the upcoming battle.

The hammer in particular. I could hardly wait until I smashed their faces and —

I paused, my own smug satisfaction made me do a double-take. I was thinking about killing people. It was a deep, solemn event. But, I was treating it as a challenge to be cleared, almost like an exciting problem.

I wondered if it had something to do with the fact that they were determined to ambush us, or if was I simply getting too used to violence because I had spent my days in violence. Yes, it was against mindless monsters, but it was clearly making me more callous to death.

“Maybe I’m the crazy one for actually trying to treat life as something sacred,” I muttered as I continued to put on my armor. After all, people had been doing their best to treat life as a currency — and not a particularly valuable one — as they tried to climb the ladder of power, both the system and the social kind.

However, the moment I finished putting on armor, I abandoned those thoughts. Not permanently, but there were better ways to handle a potential ambush. Regardless of my own feelings — or lack thereof — the ones that ambushed us needed to be dealt with.

I was afraid of what they would do next.

I replenished my throwing spears, and left the hideout. Outside, Eleanor was practicing her skill attacks, her face contorted in a familiar excitement while the life aura around her sword was thicker than I had ever seen. “Let me guess, you have earned a few skill points.”

“Try a lot instead. I have gained six points. It’s absurd,” she responded even as we started to run back. “Is this how you managed to improve that much in such a short time? I can see why you want to keep this a secret.”

“Yes, I don’t think a lot of city lords would appreciate the prospect of lower classes getting stronger,” I said.

“But they would love to have those swords,” she commented, looking confused.

“Enough to keep me a guest forever,” I responded. “Before I make any kind of decision, I want to be strong enough.”

“Then, why did you come here in the first place and play along,” she said. “Aren't there better ways to access a dungeon.”

“Well...” I said, realizing that she misunderstood the timeline of my development. I wanted to let her continue believing in that. Not due to any practical reason, but solely because I was ashamed. But, even the harmless lies had a way of coming out, and the last thing I needed was for her to believe my presence to be some kind of conspiracy.

So, as we traveled back, I gave her an abridged version of my story, up until their recruitment. It didn’t take long, as it was hardly a riveting story. “Really?” she said, chuckling in amusement. “The genius professor wasted three years of his life doing nothing but sending applications.”

I shrugged. As much as I wanted to defend myself about the impact of the peace field and how it potentially impacted people who lived in towns, I held back. Not because I wanted to keep it a secret, but because that particular topic needed far more time than we currently had to properly explain. “I have to admit it was not my finest moment, but it worked out. Without your help, I doubt I could improve my combat skills in such a short time,” I said. I wasn’t sure if it was entirely true, but being generous with credit was almost always a better choice.

“Yes, you owe me,” Eleanor said, her smile widening. “Wait until Maria learned I managed to help you more than those silly experiments.”

“I wouldn’t go that far. After all, it was her experiments that allowed me to unlock Essence. Without her, I couldn’t use Mana ...” I continued, only to stop when I noticed Eleanor had stopped, and was falling behind me.

“Y-you can use mana,” she gasped in shock.

There, I realized that I had yet to mention that fact. “Well, yes,” I said even as I raised the sword, and let the mana gather around the edge, which turned mana into something actually visible rather than something that could be sensed through Essence.

“How?” she repeated. “The only way to unlock new stats is to upgrade class skills, and the skill stones that allow it are nearly impossible to find,” she said.

“Maybe, but it doesn’t exclude upgrading the skill directly,” I said. She looked at me blankly. “I’m sure upgrading the rarity of the skills through practice is not a secret.”

“Well, no,” she said. “But, it only upgrades to the rarer variant of the same skill.”

“Not always,” I replied, remembering my own experience with Meditation, which upgraded to Cleansing meditation. “And, sometimes, achieving something incredible, like creating a mana-infused metal alloy can actually upgrade the skill to a rarer variant.”

She gasped. “T-that’s a game changer.”

“Believe me, I’m aware. Why do you think I’m keeping all those secrets? People kill for much less.” I didn’t have any concerns about revealing that to Eleanor, as paradoxically, it would help her to keep my secret even better.

Ironically, the bigger the secret, the harder it is to sell. My ability to forge weapons that even Eleanor couldn’t access from the market was a secret she could have sold for a king’s ransom.

The potential to upgrade production classes … was the kind of secret the buyer would have killed everyone just to prevent any accidents.

Hopefully, Eleanor was smart enough to realize that as well.

She stood silent for a while, her expression shifting. “We will talk about it later,” she finally declared. “We have a battle to win.”

“Don’t worry, we will,” I said, feeling excited at the prospect. The information I managed to glean from both of them allowed me to improve significantly. I was enthusiastic about what a true collaboration could bring.

But first, we had a battle to win.