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Blacksmith vs. the System 36

The moment I stepped through the gate, I got charged by multiple monsters. I could easily count forty of them around me, making it a challenge. That would have been dangerous enough, but a few of the insect monsters had stopped their charge to spit out some kind of discharge.

Eleanor had mentioned that their attacks only damaged armor, but I wasn’t willing to test it. Instead, I dodged them first before I turned the momentum into a charge, shattering the armor of the first beast. I w...

Blacksmith vs. the System 16-20

— Chapter 16

My dreams of sleeping until noon had been ruined by a sudden stirring. Panicked, I opened my eyes, only to see Eleanor looking at me with a sharp expression. “Explain!” she ordered.

I froze. I hadn’t expected to be discovered, not after spending the whole night cleaning. Could it be that Maria had revealed something and Eleanor managed to connect the dots.

One good thing about being forcibly woken up by a scary woman with an even scarier aura that felt...

Immortal Freeloader 138

“That’s intriguing,” I said even as I approached to the cave that supposedly led to the ruins, surprised by the lack of savage beast attacks even as I isolated the whole mountain. Previously, even the smallest disturbance of the ruins had triggered their reaction. Right now, there was nothing.

It wasn’t just the lack of existence, as I could sense the hints of essence, one that reminded me of the Snow and Volcano essences Elsana and Lannayin had mastered. It meant I was at the ...

Immortal Freeloader 137

“I did the right thing by not trying to purchase it myself,” I muttered even as I examined the pavilion from a distance … from a great deal of distance, examining the formations around it.

When I had first visited to exchange for Aisnam’s pill, I wasn’t able to understand the true value of the protection. But, now that my formation had increased significantly, I could see more. And, what I could see scared me.

It wasn’t that the formation itself was complicated. It w...

Immortal Freeloader 136

“… And, another checkpoint complete,” I muttered even as I put the finishing touches on another formation, about to fill with more plants letting out constant Qi that could refill my boat. Since I needed them to accumulate Qi, I decided to add ten of them in a row before I started expanding them horizontally.

It was a long, tedious work, even with the formations, one that took a month. It was long, backbreaking work, and even with my formation, alchemy, and spiritual plant tendin...

Blacksmith vs. the System 35

I let my mind wander even as I moved with the group, walking toward the dungeon, easily matching their pace even as I walked on foot.

High Vitality meant that running while wearing thick armor barely counted as exercise.

Using Nurture had reminded me of the plight of the Farmers, which had distracted me. There’s not much I could do for them now, but that wasn’t true for the future. I just needed to experiment more. All I needed was to find a way to upgrade their Nurture skil...

Blacksmith vs. the System 34

“This is your new house,” Eleanor said. “You have until the return of the caravan to make it a livable place and move here permanently.”

“Beautiful place, very airy,” I said teasingly. Not an unfair comment, considering I was standing in front of an empty stretch surrounded by a thin wooden rail. I needed to build a building from scratch. I deemed two of my new home’s details to be the most important.

The first thing was the location. It was outside the walls. Howe...

Blacksmith vs. the System 33

“Do you think anyone would recognize you?” she asked.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “To their knowledge, the blacksmith you brought along is already dead. And, I didn’t interact with many people. As long as my beard grows a bit more, no one should.”

“Good,” she said. “Then, we’re going to register you as a guild representative of that wretched woman.”

“Rosie?” I asked.

“Yes. Her guild is already registered here?”

My eyes widen...

Blacksmith vs. the System 32

Eleanor arrived as I was in the middle of another fight. She walked toward me rather than running, but I could see her freeze for a moment even as I fought against the monster, throwing it around easily.

It was hard to pinpoint the skill level without some direct tests, but a rough guess was far easier. Even a conservative estimate would put that over thirties. I said nothing as she approached, stabbing the monster through its mouth after a fight that lasted about half a minute.

Blacksmith vs. the System 31

After killing another three hundred monsters — half with their shells ripped, half left intact — I had received three rewards, with ascending importance. I had collected six skill stones. I had reached level thirty-five.

And, I gathered enough data to reinforce the idea that the intact monsters had a higher likelihood of dropping a skill stone. I received two stones from the first group, and four from the second. It could still be a coincidence, but the numbers were still reliable....

Blacksmith vs. the System 30

I walked around the battlefield, collecting the skill stones. Not that it took a long time, as there were merely fifteen of them. It meant, about only one in thirty of the beasts had dropped a skill.

Of those fifteen skill stones, nine of them didn’t react, showing that I lacked the prerequisite conditions to activate them. And, since the dungeon didn’t drop anything truly rare, I guessed it was related to missing stats rather than anything I could match. Perception, Charisma, Wisd...

Blacksmith vs. the System 29

I took down a few monsters while Eleanor walked away, still holding back, ripping the shells carelessly from their bodies. I didn't absorb the mana from them, both as a test of my abilities without mana assistance, and as a precaution in case she was still nearby.

Naturally, there was no reaction from the System. The insects were decent enemies, but not enough to help someone around level thirty to level up immediately. By spending about a minute each monster, the leveling efficiency w...

Blacksmith vs. the System 28

“Don’t forget to keep your helmet on, just in case,” Eleanor said even as we landed. Only when the movement of the griffin stopped, I opened my eyes once again. “Your beard is impressive, but let’s not take a risk.”

I scratched my beard. Forcing it to grow faster was one of the pointless tricks I could do with Health. I just needed to keep it focused on my face, and it quickened the hair growth. A little bleach, and I comfortably looked like someone in mid-forties rather tha...

Blacksmith vs. the System 27

During Eleanor’s next visit, I wasn’t able to bring my Meditation skill to a higher level, but it was close. A few times, I tried to practice my combat skill, but without an enemy to target, its progress was very limited.

I had dispersed my attempt to devour mana and instead grabbed the paper in front of me, making a show of taking notes.

[Mana Blacksmith - Level 32]

[Health 960/960] [Mana 0/160]

[Vitality 64 / Strength 64 / Dexterity 48 / Essence 16]

[Skil...

Blacksmith vs. the System 26

As much as I wanted to spend the next month reading every book Eleanor had brought and carefully learn everything I could, I knew that it wasn’t the best method to go forward. Improving my skills as far as possible by creating mana alloys was the far superior option.

The amount of information skills contained was incredible, and the perks were even more fascinating.

So, I restricted myself to reading material science articles that were relevant to my objectives, and merely ski...

Blacksmith vs. the System 11-15

— Chapter 11

When the evening finally arrived, I had no plans other than eating before collapsing onto my bed. My day had been incredibly productive, but also exhausting. I just needed to sleep, wake up early, and come up with a new proposal that would convince Eleanor to provide me with more ingots to improve my Forge skill further.

I could probably excuse the disappearance of a few bronze ingots by failures and experiments, but I couldn’t use all of them easily.

But,...

Immortal Freeloader 135

As much as I wanted to spend a long time in the ruins, I did not. The beast wave that had been triggered by my operations at the ruins was too big. I could have dealt with the beasts, but there were too many Golden Core cultivators around the region.

I didn’t want to risk facing them.

So, instead of staying in and examining the ruins, I just picked anything that I could feel an echo of Everdawn Essence, and anything with some kind of writing.

I needed the material to de...

Immortal Freeloader 134

For once, I didn’t feel tense as I used my flying boat to cut through the mysterious existence that was misty mountains. With my new formation in place to isolate me from the effects, I wasn’t feeling tense as I went deeper and deeper.

My destination was the location of the first ruin, one that I had learned from my prisoner. Luckily, thanks to the primitive lie detection setup I had, I knew which locations had been genuine, and which destinations were filled with danger.

I ...

Immortal Freeloader 133

Visiting Janassa had been relatively straightforward. I just needed to ask her a couple of questions, and she was more than happy to turn that into a long, detailed lesson, more than happy to go even deeper about the practical aspects of the technique.

However, even with that, it took three days for detailed, repeated work for me to get the next reward I had been working for, one that had been only possible thanks to her breakthrough in the process. Not just her cultivation, but also m...

Blacksmith vs. the System 25

“You look tired,” was Eleanor’s first words when she visited me the next morning, pushing a huge cart that was taller than her with ease. It weighed at least three tons, but stats were useful for more than just fighting.

“I want to make sure I don’t disappoint you,” I said, which was once again not exactly the truth. However, keeping the supervisor unaware of the intricacies of the experiment budget was never a bad idea.

I was simply lost in the excitement of experim...

Blacksmith vs. the System 24

“And, that’s the last piece,” she said as she placed the forge. Thanks to its nature, it had been easy to carry, though how she excused its extraction from the forge building, I didn’t know … or care. All I needed was to connect the fire to the building chimney, and that would be enough.

“I’ll start working immediately,” I said, looking at the pile of dungeon materials. A lot of crystals, and some herbs, but the most attention-grabbing thing was the pieces of a large sh...

Blacksmith vs. the System 23

Finding myself mixed in a conflict I had no idea about was not a pleasant feeling, but it was far from the worst case. I certainly didn’t expect to end up as a primary assassination target as the sole blacksmith.

However, the flip side of the problem was equally interesting. Since their conflict was bigger than I had expected, it meant that they would be willing to accept some demands that might otherwise be assumed to be excessive. The more problems I solved, the more I could ask fo...

Blacksmith vs. the System 22

I was glad that I chose to fake repairing a sword, as it meant that I could cede control to the skill while I observed the approaching mana cloud … one with a roughly humanoid shape. Considering they had to open the door to enter, it was less likely to be a spell.

What was more likely was that they were someone under an invisibility spell. Someone that was most likely holding a weapon, considering the mana cloud on the right was a foot longer than the one on the left. From a purely t...

Blacksmith vs. the System 21

When I woke up, my body was still aching somewhat, reminding me that using Health from the System to heal wasn’t exactly perfect, or painless.

“I can’t believe I was that reckless,” I muttered, my body reminding me of the cost of trying to use a skill without understanding it fully. It was arrogant of me to self-experiment without properly assessing the situation. I had assumed a mere one point of mana wouldn’t be a problem.

At least, instead of a painful injury, I had...

Wild Dragon of Rome - End of Book 1 notes

Hi, everyone.

The battle is finally over, and our dear bastard Marcus has finally taken the first step of his revenge.

A few quick notes about the schedule. First, the schedule. I'll stop publishing Wild Dragon for a while to plan the second book and tidy up the first book for publishing publicly on Royal Road and other platforms.

That means I won't be publishing new chapters for a few weeks. I'll probably start publishing it somewhere mid August. Meanwhile, you'll be get...

Wild Dragon of Rome 55 - End of Book 1

As I retreated from the burning remains of the sorcerer, I couldn’t help but lament the easy death he had experienced. Cursed and burned at the same time was not exactly pleasant, but it was quicker than he deserved.

“It’s a problem,” I muttered even as I started running, feeling my body struggle with the effort. Whatever the sorcerer had done with the mana I pulled, it was refusing to be expelled easily. I had no doubt that, if it wasn’t for the dragon heart constantly pumpi...

Wild Dragon of Rome 54

I started running forward at full speed, ready to use the distraction of the sorcerer to my benefit. 

While their attack had ruined my initial plan, I had to admit, the opportunity it generated wasn’t too bad. They attacked two sides at the same, which, combined with my earlier efforts, actually forced them to commit not only their reserves but also some of the forces at the center. 

Initially, trying to force them to commit their reserves was just a fake plan.  2024-07-20 06:03:46 +0000 UTC View Post

Wild Dragon of Rome 53

Three mages flying toward me at full speed was the first problem I needed to face. Fortunately, they had all but gift-wrapped themselves to me. 

Of the four elemental specialties, each group had its own advantages, and just like earth mages had an incredible advantage on defense, especially when given time, the air mages distinguished themselves in their mobility. 

At least, that was true in general terms. The individual perception of their elements relied on the mage in...

Immortal Freeloader 132

“It’s lucky that you’re unconscious,” I muttered even as I started examining the imprisoned being. Looking at him, it was clear that his imprisonment was not some kind of punishment, or even a way to suppress some kind of evil that couldn’t be suppressed. 

Nor, it was a way to keep cursed Qi somehow contained like I had initially assumed. 

No, I could vaguely sense that the chains were suffused with some kind of energy, transferring it to the corpse that was so...

Immortal Freeloader 131

Once I had left Janassa for her studies, I moved immediately to my next challenge. 

Creating a proper alchemy room. It wasn’t exactly a great challenge. While alchemy knowledge didn’t come with plans on how to set one, my two alchemy techniques came with hazards to avoid. Some were easy to predict — steady heat and no Qi fluctuations from outside — while the others had been more esoteric. 

Ideally, creating a room like that in the form of an artifact was the best...