Blacksmith vs. the System

Bringing down the hammer was a scary experience. I was tense, afraid of the pain that might arrive. Luckily, it was easier than facing my fear of flying. All I needed was to trigger the skill, and my hammer landed on the metal.

I wasn't forging anything fancy. Just an ordinary iron dagger, but even as every blow helped it to bring to completion, my fear was in place. Only when it was completed, did I let out a relaxed sigh, enjoying the absence of pain.

"It went well," I muttered as I examined the edge of the blade, stopping to appreciate my masterful craftsmanship. It was smooth, incredible, and utterly perfect. "Enough to sell for at least five silver coins," I muttered in amusement. Not that long ago, it represented a small treasure for me, and earning that amount would have been an incredible profit.

And, now, I had a dungeon of my own and a provisional army, preparing to deal with dangers I couldn't properly foresee.

"It's interesting how quickly things can change," I muttered. I put the dagger to the side. The moment I took a step back, it started corroding, as it wasn't forged by dungeon products, and it was my presence that had been preventing its destruction.

I sighed. Watching the dagger slowly corrode felt oddly poetic … in a pointlessly edgy artistic way. I wanted to sit down and rest, but I couldn't afford to, not when I had to deal with the management of the dungeon … and the absurd number of issues that came with it.

There were the management issues that I had to deal with now that Maria and Eleanor were gone, the monsters outside the dungeon that were growing in numbers every minute and needed to be addressed, the concern regarding how to handle the sudden presence of skill stones such as Meditation and Forge, both rare to acquire in their own right, the improvement plan for the farmers, the possible retaliatory strikes from the enemy…

"That's a lot of work," I grumbled as I grabbed another chunk of ore, and turned it into another dagger.

[-10 Mana]

[-10 Mana]

[-10 Mana]

[-10 Mana]

[-10 Mana]

Another success. This time, it was a mana alloy, but not the Epic variant. In that particular experiment, I decided to delay for the moment, as I needed to forge a lot of fire-resistant equipment to prepare for the intensity of the upcoming fire monsters.

I didn't know what would happen when the monsters arrived at the dungeon entrance, but I much rather be prepared than the alternative.

Now that my horrible exhaustion had recovered, I was able to run to the first floor with ease. I found Harold there, along with the other guards, defending the perimeter intensely. "Sir," he greeted me.

"Follow me to the third floor, and bring every guard there. It's time for a meeting," I said.

"What about the security?" he asked.

"Don't worry about it," I replied. "No one could come in and out without my notice so long as I keep my focus," I said. He just nodded in acceptance, which surprised me. "Really? You believe that. Just like that?" I said.

"Sir, merely half an hour ago, the gate had disappeared and reappeared again. What you say is not exactly a stretch."

"Good point," I answered with a chuckle. Just as I was about to lead them to the third floor, I decided to experiment. I closed my eyes and once again focused on my connection with the dungeon. Another gate appeared, this time leading directly to the first floor. "Gather them quickly, I don't want to waste time," I responded.

"Yes, sir," he said, looking even more impressed.

I hadn't impulsively decided to show off. I wanted to give him a reminder of my power, which was a good way to assure him and the rest of the guards that all was well. I had read too much history to miss the importance of morale.

Though, it was not just a tool of assurance, but also intimidation. One that was required as I was considering revealing my true class as a Blacksmith.

I sighed, wishing that Maria or Eleanor were still here to discuss the idea. After finally having some peers to discuss my plans, going back to the silence of my head was not fun. Especially when it came to revealing my class.

There were a lot of cultural expectations around classes, expectations that I was starting to suspect weren't all natural. But, regardless of its source, one thing was clear: people were set in their expectations and roles when it came to production classes. The moment I revealed it, I would open Pandora's Box.

Admittedly, I wasn't comfortable with the idea, but I felt that the moment the dungeon started creating Forge, Repair, and Meditation skills, hiding it from our enemies was likely impossible. I couldn't isolate the dungeon forever.

The benefits of revealing my identity as a Blacksmith were significant, but so were the drawbacks. Admittedly, if hiding it from my enemies was still an option — which it no longer was considering the dungeon had started dropping Forge and Repair — I would have erred on the side of caution.

I thought about actually trying to maintain a double identity, but I couldn't pull it off. I wasn't that good of an actor. I was able to convince everyone as 'Arthur' mostly because no one had interacted with me in my true identity other than a few dismissive talks before I 'died'.

"At least there're a lot of magnificent benefits," I muttered. It was one thing to work alone, conducting every experiment alone, but potentially having hundreds of assistants to help me test my hypotheses … would be incredibly useful.

Just by replicating the work I had done and handling the more common parts of my research, they would multiply my efficiency. More importantly, that was the smallest benefit they would provide.

While I had made great progress during my expedition from a practical perspective, most of the practical benefits came from a few clever tricks that allowed me to upgrade my skills, which then allowed me to unlock the benefits of the dungeon.

Essentially, I was not too different from a landowner who got rich because he discovered an oil field under his farm.

Hopefully, once I had hundreds of people that I could work with, we could put together a more decent outline.

Then, there was the issue of mass production. The current method I had was enough to supply the dungeon with medieval tech, but the same wasn't true if I wanted to start making something closer to modern.

I needed that because the most recent battle had been an amazing wake-up call. My current skills allowed me to bring out the benefits of my class in an incredible way, allowing me to fight above my potential.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that impressive in a practical sense when my combat potential was equivalent to that of a flyweight, and I fought against featherweights. Fighting against heavier weight classes was impressive, but not when the world had the equivalent super heavyweight boxers like Maria, able to literally evaporate me.

"Man, I'm happy I didn't use that metaphor against her," I muttered in amusement, knowing she wouldn't take being compared to a two-hundred-and-forty-pound man. Instead, I watched the guards pass through the gate.

I doubted a comment about weights would have gone well.

Unfortunately, the amusement I derived from the imaginary interaction wasn't enough to sustain my good mood when the implications of the last fight were significant. Not just in terms of fighting against the force behind Thomas, but more in general.

What Maria — and her unfortunate rival — had shown had been incredible. Even on an extremely favorable battlefield, I would have failed against them in anything but outright assassination.

And, they were not the strongest combatant the world had to offer. Not even close.

I needed to change my way of thinking. Modern weaponry was tempting. Unfortunately, unless I came up with some incredible adjustments, most of the small weapons that changed the modern battlefield, from machine guns to artillery, weren't exactly effective. With everyone having Health, their area effectiveness wasn't as high, and their lack of mobility was deadly in a world where people could fly and turn invisible while also easily dealing damage that would be measured in kilotons.

I needed something armored, mobile, yet hard-hitting. Or, in other words, tanks.

Unfortunately, such a device was filled with complications. Just the material alone was prohibitive. Every tank alone would require somewhere between fifty to a hundred tons of metal, enough to make tens of thousands of swords.

And, considering all the effects, making it from ordinary alloys was not feasible. Mana alloys were required at a minimum, but Epic alloys would be better. Alone, it was impossible.

But, it might be different if I had hundreds of people to assist me, especially if we could put together a decent production line together.

My thoughts were interrupted again when the guards finished passing through the gate. Only Harold was left, but I gestured for him to stop. For all intents and purposes, he was my second-in-command, and I didn't want to ambush him with it, no matter how starved of time I was.

"Yes, sir," he said.

I took a deep breath, trying to find the best way, before I sighed. "It's about my class. I'm about to reveal that I'm a Blacksmith."

I saw his eyes widen at the mention, followed by a revulsion, as I had just admitted a disgusting secret. It was a deep, instinctual shock, one that supported my theory about the System coming with some kind of cultural indoctrination.

To his credit, he was able to suppress that reflexive reaction soon. "I see, sir," he said.

"No questions?" I said, surprised.

"Well, I'm curious about the timing, but it's not exactly an urgent line of questioning," he admitted.

I chuckled. "And, no problems following someone with production classes?" I added.

"Not particularly, sir," he said with a chuckle. "I have seen you spar with Lady Eleanor. You can still take me down with ease." Then, his expression tightened. "More importantly, you are doing your best to keep everyone that follows you alive. I can't imagine a better quality in my guild master."

I nodded in appreciation. "Do you think the other guards would accept it just as easily?"

He shook his head. "I think a demonstration about your capabilities might be in order."

I smiled. "That, I can do."

With that, we turned and walked toward the gate, my mind already occupied with how best to deliver that reveal.