dirk_grey

Mage's Cultivation Journey 41

Once she declared her readiness, I gestured to her to sit down in front of me. She did so, looking tense. “Are you sure you want to do it right now?” I asked.

“Earlier, I was nothing more than a burden. A burden that almost killed him. It was just like —” she started, only to cut herself short. She shook her head. “I refuse to be a helpless bystander anymore.”

“I can’t argue with it,” I responded. “The world is a dangerous place. Without personal power, you...

Mage's Cultivation Journey 40

Watching Elder Kai and Hun Chu walk away, carrying the bodies, I couldn’t help but wonder if mentioning the potential inside job was a good call.

Not because I was afraid of that judgment being wrong. The whole setup had been suspicious, and the execution of the last guard had been definitive proof of internal treachery. I didn’t want a potential civil war to actually burst out, as it would ruin the point of my whole stay.

It was also why I didn’t work particularly hard to...

Mage's Cultivation Journey 39

Hun Chu had never been a fan of staying in the headquarters of Iron Mountain. A part of it was the boring monotony of the headquarters. He found it unsettling, especially when the outer branches were under constant pressure.

“Well, today is the exception,” he muttered as he looked at the incapacitated attackers, bound for future interrogation. Who would have expected a bunch of madmen to attack the main compound with a bunch of explosives?

Amateur madmen, while such explosiv...

Mage's Cultivation Journey 38

The door opened, and one of the invaders stepped in, the other three waiting in the corridor. He tried to hide it, but his internal energy was churning, ready to retreat back to the corridor the moment I made a hostile move, afraid of getting closer.

It was good to see that my performance against the expert at the city gates had made a lasting impression.

“We’re sorry to interrupt, Lord Steward, but we’re under strict orders to escort you to a safe spot. Our enemies are at...

Mage's Cultivation Journey 37

I stood up immediately, but didn’t rush out to check the sound. This time, it wasn’t about maintaining my role, but true caution.

The explosion at the gate was loud, and likely devastating, but, for a night raid, it wasn’t the best choice … especially since I suspected it wouldn’t be very effective against higher-ranking martial artists. It was not a certainty, but…

I smelled a distraction.

Which was why I moved back inside the house. A good thing. Just as I st...

Mage's Cultivation Journey 36

After Elder Kai had left, I expected him to return with an immediate request for help. To my surprise, that did not arrive. Instead, I had received a delivery of material. It was mostly books and scrolls, though there was more than one painting.

The content was even more varied. Some of the books were on elemental theory, both in general philosophical terms and in more practical applications to understand martial arts. The others were about cultivators. There were some handwritten acco...

Blacksmith vs. the System 285

Observing dungeons was not a simple affair. How could it be, considering their miraculous nature, one that people ignored because of their commonality?

But, when one stopped to think, dungeons were truly a marvel of existence, one shrouded in mystery. The simplest issue was their existence. They didn’t exist in our reality, but instead overlapped it. That alone would have driven most of the scientists crazy, while likely vindicating many other theoretical physicists, allowing them to...

Blacksmith vs. the System 284

The decision to start expanding toward the East Coast was a monumental one, one that shifted our whole paradigm of operation, one that required us to bet the future of our city. But, they had to do that without their king.

I was busy with another experiment.

It wasn’t just a selfish desire. For the first phase of assault, keeping my whereabouts hidden was a critical strategic advantage. While the strategic situation had been a mess, there was no arguing that I had slain nine A...

Blacksmith vs. the System 283

“… And, that’s when they decided to cut their losses and retreat, and I returned to the city,” I said, finishing the tale of my battle. We were in the council room, which followed a quick celebration as I returned to the city, with several guards quickly recruited to spread a sanitized tale of my victory, omitting just how close it had been.

Morale was important.

Though we were in the council room, it wasn’t fully assembled. My students were in the city, walking around...

Blacksmith vs. the System 282

The Drakkan force was surprised by my sudden burst of movement. Not for long, just for ten seconds or so before they realized their mistake.

But, it was enough for me to change my path and start going directly toward the swamp, which had the nearest gate. The faster my mana recovered, the better. Other than that, I didn’t need to consider anything. We weren’t in a condition to bait them. Either they would follow, or not.

It wasn’t like I had much to complain about. Our cou...

Blacksmith vs. the System 281

It was fascinating just how much time could stretch when under pressure. And, the sight of five Ascended warriors flying toward Maria, exhausted and disoriented, while the other five moved to block my path, I was under enough pressure. The presence of another seventeen just behind me, didn’t make things any easier.

All the while, I had to resolve my biggest fear, one that had defined my life in many different ways.

Easy, right?

At that moment, I was glad that I had bot...

Blacksmith vs. the System 280

There was a way to understand their true objective. I changed my path slightly, trying to cut directly to the city. However, I didn’t display my full speed, instead, I kept it similar to what I had displayed during my last battle against Drakka, just somewhat higher to be explained by my class upgrade.

The moment I did that, they had split, the archers and some of the guards moving at an angle to cut my path, their attacks focusing on blocking my path rather than damaging me. I tried...

Blacksmith vs. the System 279

The moment I noticed the size of the team targeting us, I was tempted to act, whether to move to support Maria, or to alert the city.

In the end, I did neither. My presence was already suspicious enough, and if I moved the moment they moved out of their camp, I would alert them further. I needed to wait until the first team had gotten far away before I tried to breach their defenses.

I didn’t plan to wait until they engaged with Maria, even though it would make my task easier....

Little info about the delay

Hi Everyone,

I failed to update the stories on time due to a little issue forcing me to travel without my computer. However, it's dealt with an I'm back.

So, as a little gift, I have also posted this week's update early. So, there will be no additional update at first of August.

Blacksmith vs. the System 278

“No,” Rosie simply replied. “No way! Simply out of question.”

“Why?” I asked. “I have already sneaked out of the city without letting them know, and unless you have a way to get Maria from her patrol without alerting them, you don’t have any other option to go through the wards they inevitably have around their safe house.”

“You’re too important for everything. We can’t risk you, not before we check the place. You should stay and defend the city. I’m su...

Blacksmith vs. the System 277

Despite their sparring against me meeting an ignoble end, I didn’t lose my confidence in my students. On the contrary, watching them throw themselves into training with a renewed passion made me trust them even more.

Their Ascension meant that, unlike before, they couldn’t fight for hours without stopping. Luckily, that was not needed. It wasn’t their personal capabilities that needed to be fixed, but their coordination. And, for that, they didn’t need to fight full power, but ...

Blacksmith vs. the System 276

After the meeting with a surprising nautical conclusion, things fell into another routine, a very beneficial one. A week passed, with the growth of our town showing no sign of stopping, and the population already surpassing a quarter of a million.

The corrupting might have been localized, but a radius of three hundred miles was still too much for them to evaluate successfully … especially after their strongest ran away to join the cities, leaving the weaker warriors and farmers behin...

Blacksmith vs. the System 275

Silence in the meeting room lingered after Harold made the suggestion of using ships to collect mana. Soon, he started shuffling. “Sorry if I said something silly. I was just trying to be helpful,” he added.

“No,” I responded. “It was a good suggestion. It makes a lot of sense. We froze, because we missed the possibility. It’s easier to think of the sea as the forbidden zone, so we hadn’t considered it before.”

Admittedly, there were a lot of reasons to ignore th...

Blacksmith vs. the System 274

After the development of the crystal, I wondered if the same process could be replicated with germanium, another element belonging to the same category as silicon and carbon, closer to metals. But, instead of trying it, I added it to notes, to be passed back to the team.

While it was interesting, I couldn’t afford to delve deeper into the topic, especially not when it wouldn’t be as easy. Silicon made up more than one-fourth of the Earth’s crust, with a corresponding simple metho...

Mage's Cultivation Journey 35

When I went out, I found Elder Kai sitting near the pond, watching the fish dance in the clear water. Su Mi must have invited him to sit, but even then, he had been careful enough to sit in the farthest part of the pond. His intention to avoid even looking like he had been trying to spy on what was going on was apparent.

“Elder Kai, welcome to our temporary abode,” I greeted him. My voice wasn’t particularly welcoming, but despite that, I caught a hint of a smile on his face. 2025-07-18 20:05:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Mage's Cultivation Journey 34

“I … I still can’t believe it,” Yu Xing muttered once he returned from his bath, wearing new clothes. Clothes that had been provided by our host, far more expensive than anything we had provided.

Wearing them, Yu Xing truly looked like a young master from a martial arts family; the intensity he carried easily lending itself to a noble look.

“Believe it,” I replied.

That didn’t help him process his success. “It really took just an hour. It’s … impossibl...

Mage's Cultivation Journey 33

When I summoned Yu Xing, Su Mi arrived with him. I thought about sending her away, but after some consideration, I decided otherwise. It would be helpful to watch.

“Good morning, steward,” Yu Xing greeted me, his attitude tense and confrontational. Also, very fake.

“You can speak normally,” I replied. “There’s no one close enough to listen to us,” I replied. It seemed my repeated displays of competence had made them weary about spying directly.”

“Finally...

Mage's Cultivation Journey 32

I knew that the show at the training field had impressed them, but knowing that didn’t prepare me for the surprise waiting for me. One of the rooms in the guest house was a small library, but I suspected most of the books and scrolls on the shelves had been added recently.

Particularly, some of the more valuable-looking martial arts manuals. While I suspected nothing they had put was truly a secret, most likely they were far more valuable than anything I could fund by selling medicin...

Mage's Cultivation Journey 31

We didn’t walk in immediately. Instead, Hun Chu stepped forward, and talked with the guards. “I have returned home, bringing exalted guests with me,” he declared. It was clearly a ceremonial display — or at least, a poor attempt to be one — as unless they were utterly incompetent, our arrival had been long delivered.

That assumption turned out to be correct. An older man, likely in his late forties, walked out of the gate. He was merely at Skin Refinement, but he walked with ...

Blacksmith vs. the System 273

After helping Rebecca and Jessica kill the boss, which, amusingly, had no impact on their ongoing spat, I wanted to return to my research.

Unfortunately, life got in the way. Terry made a comment about how the arrival of the boss monster was just perfect for my daily walk around the city. I wished that I could miss his sarcasm as he said it, but the combination of Wisdom and Perception made it impossible.

Worse, he had a point, one that I knew. My daily walks around the city, vi...

Blacksmith vs. the System 272

I arrived at the fifth floor, only to find it surprisingly crowded, with all my students — well, all that stayed around instead of mysteriously disappearing — in the small fortress we had built away from the other outposts.

The presence of some of them was not a surprise, as the plan was to have at least one of Rebecca, Spencer, or Jessica down here at all times to streamline the leveling assistance, with them hunting for ordinary beasts in the process.

Terry and Logan, on t...

Blacksmith vs. the System 271

I would have loved to have Spencer’s direct assistance while experimenting with the crystal, as he was the one who had used the material the most, even awakening his new class variant through it. But, since he was busy preparing for his upcoming ascension, I decided not to disturb him.

Especially when I had his experimental records, each written in enchanted paper and bound in leather harvested from the beasts on the surface. They looked nice, but more importantly, they were properly...

Blacksmith vs. the System 270

As much as I wanted to start working on my new mana-resistant material, I decided to focus on something different. Another skill that I had received during my most recent class upgrade.

[Identify (Common) - 1]

If things went as planned, Identify would be a critical part of my future experiments.

Unfortunately, just like the Command skill, I didn’t have much public resource I could use to my benefit. Though, this time, it was less about the confidentiality, and more abou...

Blacksmith vs. the System 269

“That’s a lot of Charisma,” she muttered once she finished processing the surprise, which took a minute. “I hadn’t even known that stats went up that high. I had always assumed ten was the limit.”

I shrugged. “You know me. Always with that one surprise.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” she said. “What would you do?” she asked. “It can be very useful, especially with the town growing…”

“For the moment, very little,” I said. “Just because I hav...

Mage's Cultivation Journey 30

After the sudden and mysterious death of a Bone Forging expert, no one attempted to stand in front of us. The talk of searching us disappeared just as quickly.

I expected that result. After observing the locals for so long, I had long deduced that martial prowess was a currency of its own, one that came with great prestige. Albeit, what just happened with my unlucky challenger was too much even by the local standards.

That was where my seemingly effortless take-down paid off. Th...