Blacksmith vs. the System 295

Once I returned to the City of Steel, I found myself lost. A part of me wanted to take several pieces of the ichor that we were about to receive, but I pushed that temptation down. I had too many things to focus on without adding another critical line.

Instead, after walking around to show my presence, I retreated back into my dungeon hideout.

I could focus on it, because against Drakka, my staying hidden was a much greater threat than my standing in a specific place, especially after their latest attempt had been defeated without my attempt. With the dungeons connected, I could respond to any aggression from their end and still have access to near-infinite mana.

Whether it would actually prevent their aggression was another question, as it wouldn’t be the first time they had defied my expectations, but that part was inevitable. I couldn’t just wait for their attack without doing anything else.

Instead of worrying myself to death, I crouched down and started meditating, with the intention of handling one skill that I had been delaying for a long while.

Meditation.

With four dungeons connected to me, the temptation to design a stronger alternative was in place. Not just to maximize the skill, but also to see if I could break down void energy, something that has been tempting me since I had managed to upgrade my Observation skill.

After all, I could break down the weaker dungeon variant. Why not the complete version?

Unlike the past me, I didn’t immediately start with experimentation. First, I started casting various spells, relying on the concepts of the four dungeons that I was connected to, casting combination effects to get a better sense of how they interacted.

It was far from straightforward. After all, frost, fire, decay, and wind didn’t exactly create a solid, reasonable set that could be easily mixed and matched even before adding their extraordinary nature. It was a tedious, complicated, confusing process, a challenge even with Intelligence and Wisdom simplifying the process. With them, it took almost a day to get a general sense.

Without them, it would have taken years.

Once I got a general sense of the process, I started with another set of trial and error, mixing conceptual and structural casting in several degrees, my objective making it far more difficult.

While I was working, a guest arrived. Eleanor, finding me trying to balance four elements, two in each hand. “Are you busy?” she asked.

“Nothing, I can’t take a small break,” I responded, letting the elements disperse and instead cast a spell to create two rock chairs.

Only for Eleanor to smash it to pieces. “No sitting; I’m here for a spar.”

Coming from anyone else, I might have taken it as an insult. “Fair. I promised you one,” I said.

She chuckled. “No, Your Royal Highness,” she responded, her derision enough to make me chuckle. “You have promised me many spars, only to cancel them because of … well, everything. I’m done waiting.”

“As you wish. I wasn’t making as much progress as I wanted in any case,” I responded.

“What are you trying to do? Create a new spell?” she asked, pointing to the crevice I created when one of my spells went awry.

“No, that’s just a side effect—” I started, then paused. “It’s easier to show you,” I said, and raised my hands. Four motes of energy appeared, fire, decay, wind, and frost, each radiating a threat far greater than the mana that went into their construction.

[-100 Mana]

Then, fire moved to the center, with wind creating a shell around it to both feed and contain its energy. At the same time, frost turned into a set of needles, penetrating the surface of the wind shell at certain points, acting like primitive spell nodes, allowing decay to infuse the structure slowly.

Bit by bit, the four concepts started to merge, the threat growing … until it destabilized. With a flick of the wrist, I sent it to the sky, and it exploded, spreading devastation.

“That’s a big explosion,” Eleanor commented as she watched. “Especially since I could feel just how little mana you put on its structure. Very promising.”

I shook my head. “It’s flashy, but useless,” I responded. “For one, it takes too much to mix the concepts, and the more mana I put, the longer it would take. It already takes almost a minute.”

“Still, isn’t it good to save mana?” she said.

“Not with the way we are set up,” I responded. “I can see some niche benefits, but at this point, the thing we lack the least is mana. It’s a dead end.”

“Why are you working on it, then?” she asked.

“Because I’m not trying to create another attack spell,” I said. “I’m trying to see if I could combine the four energies to achieve a breakthrough in my skills, particularly meditation. I don’t need a bomb, but an engine.

“Sounds complicated,” she responded, then pulled her blade. “Maybe a little movement will help you find a breakthrough,” she added, then attacked.

I barely managed to smile before I had to parry her attack. Her delivery was strong, but with her ascension incomplete, her Strength lacked the sheer might it ought to have, particularly against me.

Eight hundred points of Strength was no joke.

With a flick, I sent her blade back, yet before I could counter, she was already moving, trying to find an angle to attack. A perfect way to prevent me from bringing my full Strength into the equation. Technically, I could pull some ugly maneuvers to counter it, turning the duel into an ugly slugfest, but there would be no point.

Instead, I shifted my grip, shifting to a far more mobile stance, and did my best to match her mobility.

It was not easy. Our Dexterity was pretty much equivalent, and so was the grade of our sword skills. When it comes to our skills, there was one glaring difference. Mine was an external skill.

Hers was a class skill.

When it came to flexibility and content, two could never match. Soon, I found myself retreating with each step, my blade dancing back and forth. She attacked from the flank again, her attack carrying even more weight, making me stumble back.

I smiled despite myself before I seeped myself into the gift of my newest dungeon. Wind. My Radiant Flame skill might be lacking in flexibility, but the same wasn’t true for me. The wind wrapped around me, adding an alacrity to my movement that I previously lacked, allowing me to tap into my stat deeper.

“Cheating,” she said, but her amusement was in place.

Amused, I let wind seep into me even deeper, and started to move even faster, pushing Eleanor more.

Yet, the more I pushed her, the faster she moved. Her riposte wasn’t a line; it was a weave, pushing my mobility to the limit, so much so that the deficiencies of my skill started to show. In response, I delved deeper into the concept of wind, trying to compensate for it, but often, I chose to respond differently than the skill direction to keep up with her.

“Faster,” she declared, her chuckles mixing with the clanking of our swords, and I obliged, pushing deeper into the dungeon far deeper than I previously had done except when I was desperately trying to weaponise decay, but even then, it had been just a focus on destructiveness rather than selectively using only one feature.

It worked surprisingly well, reminding me once again that I might have been playing too safe when it came to truly exploring the importance of the dungeons.

Taking a big risk, I reached the fire dungeon without letting go of the wind, mixing the two energies together, with fire fueling the endless rage of the wind. My speed got even faster … though it came at the loss of control. Still, the sudden change was all I needed to take a dash, a strong swing ripping Eleanor’s blade from her hands.

It had been surprisingly effective, I decided, though not entirely without cost. Nothing devastating, but something to pay attention to.

[-219 Health]

“What was that?” she declared angrily, which surprised me until her next words reached me. “If you tell me that you had been holding back all along, I will gut you, royalty be damned.”

That earned a chuckle from me. It was good that no matter what, she hadn’t changed. “No, I wasn’t holding back. Just something new came up mid-fight.”

“That’s fine, then,” she said, her mood brightening in an instant. “Another spar, then. Let’s see just how effective it has been.”

I wanted to refuse. Now that I finally figured out a novel way to mix two dungeon energies, I could easily push not only my Meditation but also my Forge skills to the limit, giving me the edge I desperately needed before the next attack.

But I decided against it. Sparring with Eleanor was fun, and it had been a while since I had done something that could be classified as fun. Not to mention, having practice fighting with a competent ascended pushing to her limits was not exactly a frivolous way to spend time.

“Come at me,” I declared as I raised my sword, inviting her in.

Research could wait for a few hours…