dirk_grey

Immortal Freeloader 130

As I left Janassa, I was trying to keep calm, but failing. Once again, it was apparent that my smart scheme of calmly farming the System had backfired in a spectacular manner. The random person I had selected ended up being linked to Kartpa Valley.

If it wasn’t for my other experiences, I would have assumed that nothing bad would happen, but I had already experienced enough to know that, somehow, it would be relevant. 

“Well, at least I have a warning,” I muttered even ...

Blacksmith vs. the System 20

I took a deep breath in preparation for using my Mediate skill, my gaze already turning toward the only source of mana available.

The ingots.

I knew that what I was about to do was wasteful. It was like destroying a brand new phone for its materials, so far below its value to be unbelievable. I still didn’t have a good idea of how much mana each ingot contained in terms of mana points, but if I were betting, I would be betting on single digits.

Low single digits.

Blacksmith vs. the System 19

For once, I was smiling even as I pulled myself to the back of the griffin despite my trembling hands. The trip had been productive enough that, even my phobia couldn’t ruin my excitement.

[Mana Blacksmith - Level 32]

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

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

[Skills (4/10)

Mana Repair (Rare) - 25 [Inspect]

Mana Forge (Rare) - 25 [Intuitive Forging, Mana Manipulation]

Meditation (Common) - 1

Hammer ...

Blacksmith vs. the System 18

“Congratulations,” she called as the mana around me calmed down. “Now, you belong to a new tier. How does it feel?”

I killed another beast and realized that my movements were noticeably smoother. For a moment, I thought that it was my increased Dexterity, but her reaction suggested that there was another reason. “Smooth, like I weigh much less,” I said.

“That’s because stepping over the threshold makes you get more aligned with your stats. It’s very helpful,”...

Blacksmith vs. the System 17

The moment we landed, the monsters gathered around us like moths to the flame. Then, Maria took action, turning that into a rather unfortunate pun.

While she fought, I tried to feel the mana around us, but I failed. I had managed to feel the presence of mana when I had been working, but that was only through a combination of two of my skills. Without activating them, I couldn’t sense the mana around me.

I wondered if it would have been different if I spent my time practicing y...

Blacksmith vs. the System 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 didn’t expect 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 like a sword, my exhau...

Blacksmith vs. the System 15

I couldn’t help but frown as I twirled my hammer thoughtfully. The changes in my Forge skill were fascinating.

[Mana Forge (Rare) - 10 [Intuitive Forging]]

Too bad it had come with some interesting but potentially dangerous implications. How dangerous, I had no idea, mostly because I didn’t know what was common knowledge among the elites, what was known but kept as a secret for strategic reasons, and what was genuinely secret.

I was glad that Eleanor’s awkward yet po...

Blacksmith vs. the System 14

“… Nothing yet?” Maria asked even as I went through my notes.

I sighed. I could see that she was getting bored. While she had been interested in my lesson at first, as we reached the four-hour mark, she was getting bored. I couldn’t exactly blame her, not when her function was between a forge and a spreadsheet to make some incredibly boring calculations.

That meant, I needed to entertain her. Playing chess to help her pass the time would have been a nice option, as she w...

Blacksmith vs. the System 13

“So, what’s the plan,” she said, looking excited.

“We’re going to start with something simple,” I said even as I started thinking about what to try. I already had several experiments already designed, but every single one of those relied on mana under my direct control as I played around with broken enchantment. I had no idea how to replicate it directly.

A challenge.

“Like what.”

“First, let me warn you. Experimenting is a slow process. It might ...

Blackmith vs. the System 6-10

— Chapter 6

Decision made, I ignored the shouts outside as I focused on examining the forge. A forge that was far more expensive than I had ever worked with.

The first thing that caught my attention was the fire at the center, spilling out of the central forge. I walked closer, its heat washing over me intensely even at a distance, far more intense than I was working with. Still, I walked to the edge, letting the heat wash over me.

[-1 Health]

It was too intense fo...

Blacksmith vs. the System 1-5

— Chapter 1

”Hey, Devon, I have your letter as well,” the postman said even as he walked through the workshop floor, passing around parcels and collecting coins as payment. “You have the payment, right?”

“Five silver. Right, Sam?” I asked, but his expression showed that it was not the case.

“No, the rates went up, now it’s six,” he said.

“Again?” I asked even as I dropped my hammer, a frown on my face. “It’s getting too much. How the hell...

Immortal Freeloader 129

I had multiple reasons I picked Janassa. The first reason was her personality. She was kind enough to earn the nickname Gentle Rose, almost annoyingly so. She was a hard worker who helped everyone … a fact that was abused by everyone around her, including the servants.

I dug a while for the reason for it by interrogating the servants under hypnosis, and learned that she was the daughter of the previous master of the valley. However, once he died, the valley was taken over by his disc...

Immortal Freeloader 128

The Fortuitous Encounter with the cultivator that might very well be in the legendary Nascent Soul Realm had been significant.

The biggest impact was to confirm my earlier guesses about fate and providence. I had already been suspecting that some kind of mystic energy was manipulating some of my encounters. That ephemeral sensation driving me to the stall had just confirmed it.

However, while the encounter had been beneficial, it hadn’t been without its risks. I had no doubt t...

Immortal Freeloader 127

After leaving the cell, I found myself unsure of what to do. Technically, I had three directions: exploring the Misty Mountains, investigating the Treasure Pavilion, and trying to have a talk with one of the imprisoned beings.

Unfortunately, all three options were fraught with dangers that could threaten even me. The dangers of exploring the mist were obvious. While it was filled with treasures, it was also filled with dangerous monsters — and possibly more — that would make going ...

Announcement about this week's update

Hi, everyone. I wasn't very happy with this weeks' Wild Dragon of Rome, so it'll skip this week. I know it's a cliffhanger a bit, but the upcoming battle is very critical for the future of the story, so I want to perfect it.

Instead, I'll be uploading 8 whole chapters for Blacksmith vs. The System, while also making the first 10 chapters available for 5$ tier, which is more than my regular updates. Hopefully, it's good enough as an apology.

Also, I'm getting quite a bit excited ...

Blacksmith vs. the System 12

I finished repairing another sword, and reached to my left, and pressed a button, triggering the primitive feeder I had constructed. When it had been dropped to just below three minutes, walking to the damaged pile to pick a new weapon was actually slowing me down, especially when the first fifteen seconds were waiting for the sword to warm up.

The feeder not only brought the sword closer but also placed it at the edge of the forge so it started to warm up properly while I finished pol...

Blacksmith vs. the System 11

When the evening finally arrived, I had no plans other than eating before collapsing to 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, those plans died when ...

Blacksmith vs. the System 10

“Now, let’s see if the Inspect is worth it,” I said to myself even as I grabbed another damaged weapon. I dragged my finger over the blade as I closed my eyes, a subtle mental command enough to activate the feeling.

The internal structure of the sword once again appeared in my mind. I wanted to focus on the physical structure first, as the Inspect increased the amount of detail I could catch significantly. I was able to catch many microfractures and other stress points. The detai...

Wild Dragon of Rome 52

Once I broke through the first layer of the surround, I ran deeper into the valley, with the sorcerer and the cavalry behind me, and the shifter auxiliaries still gathering to cut my path … one that I deliberately started to reveal once more as I pushed the dragon heart to generate more mana, keeping it in a level that would allow the others to detect me, but not enough to prevent me from revert the transformation of my arm.

I needed them to believe my ability to conceal myself was t...

Wild Dragon of Rome 51

“Damnation,” I cursed even as I threw myself from the tree, knowing that there was no chance for me to suppress the flare of mana as the Dragon Heart responded to my anger, the mana density of the valley insufficient to cover such an intense outburst.

I threw myself off the tree, just in time for a column of fire to collapse against the tree, far stronger than any mage should have been capable of.

A sorcerer.

Not that it was a surprise. The moment I saw the Spear of S...

Wild Dragon of Rome 50

Scouting during the daytime was always a challenging affair even with all my new abilities. When we had bypassed the checkpoints, we were moving through the passages that were supposed to be impassable. Quite different from dealing with alert mages who were actively searching for me.

I kept a tight hold on my mana as I moved around, carefully erasing our tracks and laying false tracks. It was a slow, time-consuming affair, especially since I had to worry not just about the physical tra...

Immortal Freeloader 126

Returning to Markas was always a pleasant feeling. Too bad I didn’t have time to go back to my base and linger happily while I worked.

Instead, I stopped by the spirit vein to recharge the reserves of my flying boat before I moved to my real destination. The cell that was holding the Foundation Establishment prisoner.

I watched him for a while before showing myself, to see how he was coping with imprisonment. He had a large smile on his face as he continuously used his Qi to slo...

Immortal Freeloader 125

Before leaving the inner sanctum, I had stopped by the center of the defensive formation, and made some small adjustments, making sure that I would be able to travel near the formation with my flying boat. The detection feature of their formation was complicated, which meant adding some exceptions had been easy.

I stopped by the barracks and kidnapped two people. The bully that targeted me, and one of the new recruits that had managed to reach Muscle Refinement in Everdawn Fist. Carryi...

Immortal Freeloader 124

Memorizing the Everdawn Fist hadn’t taken too long. It was not a complicated martial art, clearly designed for foot soldiers and ordinary recruits. Meanwhile, Everdawn Saber was trickier and demanding, both in terms of essence purity, and the complication of the techniques, designed for the elites.

That part hadn’t been a surprise. I had already seen others practicing the Everdawn Fist, and that had been a clear process. What had been a surprise was to access the next sections of t...

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Blacksmith vs. the System 9

I woke up at dawn. And, a quick bath later, I rushed to downstairs — my room was conveniently above the workshop — feeling very enthusiastic to work. Normally, I would say that my work ethics weren’t driven by external factors, and it was true … to an extent.

But, not only my new employer was far more generous than I expected, giving me a higher salary and assistance for leveling up, but also I was doing something other than just following the instructions of my skill.

A...

Blacksmith vs. the System 8

I had a new armor, a new uncommon fighting skill that increased my fighting capabilities significantly, and there was even a proper warhammer on my back. Unfortunately, none of them helped against the challenge I was about to face.

Another flight. This time, with my new boss.

I said nothing as I climbed my part of the saddle, and grabbed the leather hard, glad that she wasn’t particularly observant. I didn’t exactly enjoy talking to people about my anxieties, and even if I d...

Blacksmith vs. the System 7

I examined the camp as I moved forward. As far as I could see, the camp population had dropped significantly to something around two hundred, which no doubt made any dungeon incursion a bigger challenge. Even working overtime, most of that number had to be dedicated to camp defense, which probably ruined any chance of making decent progress with the dungeon until the reinforcement Rosie promised arrived.

Though, I had a feeling that Rosie would offer them another batch of recruits, nat...

Wild Dragon of Rome 49

Sneaking to a mage was not a good idea even under the ideal circumstances. Having the said mage in a tense patrol while she was under the impression that her strongest ally was currently unconscious wasn’t even in the same country as the ideal case.

Unfortunately, I knew for a fact she would make a loud noise the moment she saw me, unaware that the enemy was already close. She lacked the combat awareness to do anything else. So, I carefully moved to her, ready to throw myself to the ...