When I arrived on the first floor, I was t with a surprise. Not an unpleasant one. Far from it.
I could see fifty people, a combination of farrs and blacksmiths, led by Terry, working around a new workshop, with endless wooden shelves near them, filled with both bows and crossbows and at least a dozen ballistas.
"Soone has been busy in my absence," I said. Every worker flinched in surprise.
"Sir," several gasps rose, shocked by my presence. Not that I blad them, the sudden visit from one's boss was never pleasant, especially since that boss had the power over their life and death. I could feel most of them radiating fear, while Terry and a few others radiated excitent —
That brought to a stop. "Sothing wrong, sir?" Terry asked.
"No, just examining the weapons," I said as I walked toward him. "They look good," I added while I touched the first crossbow. My words were just to distract them from my awkward pause, but ultimately, it wasn't a lie. The crossbows looked impressive enough. The tal parts were easy to understand, but the sa wasn't true for the wood or the string. "Explain to how you did it."
"With pleasure, sir," he said. "I'm sure you have no need for an explanation when it cos to tal parts," he said. I nodded. I detected their structure already, and they were rely a copy of the other crossbows we were able to purchase. "The real challenge was to create a type of wood that maintained the necessary strength and endurance while also not burning up when the lizards with fire aura drifted closer," he explained.
I nodded, acting like I was aware of the lizard variant he had ntioned.
I was not, but it was reasonable progress, and asking follow-up questions would an revealing unnecessary secrets.
Instead, I listened to him talk about how they created an assembly line to optimize production, busying myself with a sudden new understanding when it ca to the emotions of others, which was clearly another benefit of Wisdom.
Which, admittedly, had been a little problem I had. It wasn't that I couldn't understand people, but it was one I had cultivated through working in a hostile work environnt for a decade, where I had learned to pick up micro-expressions carefully rather than the kind of instinctual understanding people had. I had gotten pretty good at it, but that was nothing compared to the instinctual understanding Wisdom started to provide.
It was an interesting experience, but ultimately, it didn't matter too much under the current circumstances, particularly since my position in the dungeon ant that everyone's feelings toward were quite intense. People who disliked did it intensely, while the ones who were in favor of were almost fanatical in their expression of their fascination.
However, I had a feeling it would get useful when we had to deal with the inevitable spies … I just hoped that we could survive enough that spies beca a problem once more.
"Impressive," I said once he finished his explanation. Wisdom proved useful once more, helping to not miss anything he had spoken despite letting myself get distracted. It wasn't as impressive as the multitasking from Intelligence, but a stronger mory allowed to repeat the sa thing. "But, you need to be more careful about the production line," I said after pointing at several mistakes. So of them were one-offs, so persistent. "Maybe think of implenting quality checks for individual pieces before the assembly."
"A good idea, sir," he said. "Maybe that can help us with the ballistas as well. We're having trouble getting them right."
I recognized the implied request for help. "Work on it another day, and if you still can't figure it out, I'll have a look," I promised before walking away, which had two objectives. One was for the tasks to fit into my rather tight schedule. Helping the dungeon recover its mana was critical, and so was exploring the advantages — and possible blind spots — of Wisdom before I faced a dangerous situation.
More importantly, I was already impressed with the initiative they were showing in creating the crossbows and the ballistas. Admittedly, I much rather see so kind of steam-powered bolt launcher than an inferior ballista, but every bit of initiative was welco.
Once outside, I t with an improved encampnt, with Harold leading the construction of an outer line. "It looks good," I called.
"Sir," Harold said, his attitude stern, but with Wisdom, I could also feel his sudden relief at my appearance, which contrasted greatly with the disdain and the disappointnt of the other guards.
"Co here and give a report," I called loudly, and he approached. I led him back into the dungeon, away from the others before we started speaking. "First question, how long have I been gone for," I asked.
"You were away for one night, sir," he answered professionally. He did look sowhat surprised, but not too much. After all, there were too many credible reasons to suddenly lose a day when magic was concerned.
"Good. Is anything worthwhile to report? Start from the good news."
"The best news is that we managed to handle the night with no losses, and we have another thousand farrs ready to upgrade their classes," he said. "The new ranged weapons, in particular, are coming in quite handy."
"That's good news indeed," I said. "How about the lizard claws, do we have enough to help them level up?"
"The last ti I checked, the number was just below two hundred thousand, sir," he said.
"That much, yet no losses. Very impressive," I said, but my complint didn't change his attitude. "And, the bad news."
"The guards, sir. They are getting … restless. Lady Eleanor's orders are enough to keep them obedient for now, but not forever, especially as they level up," he said. "They are getting more confident, and with that…"
"They believe that they should lead the camp rather than an upstart blacksmith," I added. He looked ready to argue, but I waved it off. "Don't worry about it. I'm not bothered," I said. "But, we might need to look toward improving your capabilities faster," I said. "As long as you're strong enough, they should be dissuaded."
"It's probably not a good idea, sir," he said, which was impressive because I could feel his excitent toward the idea. "I'm doing my best to hide the full length of my improvents, but sooner or later, I'll slip, and they'll get suspicious."
I paused. He was right, and while after my class upgrade, I was considerably more confident in holding the dungeon under control, it didn't an that inviting trouble was the smart thing to do. "Alright. Pick an external skill, and we'll make sure to improve it further," I said, making a note to do the sa as well.
With my Stats upgraded, I could equip Epic skills at a minimum, and maybe even Legendary ones might be possible — assuming the current dungeon created them in the first place.
"That makes sense, sir. That way, I can keep it concealed easily," he admitted.
"Good. Now, go and arrange farrs for to level up. Ten at a ti," I said, then went out once more.
None of the other guards approached , their fear and disdain keeping them back, not that I blad them.
Not with my suspicions about how the System affected our ntality.
I started operating the crusher before Harold ca with the first farrs, not wanting to lose any ti. The pipe leading to the gate pumped the mana directly toward the dungeon gate, letting the dungeon refresh its mana.
I sighed. With my connection with the dungeon, it felt similar to finding water after getting lost in a desert for a week. Too bad I needed to drink a lot of water. With what my class change had consud, it would take at least a week to replenish the reserves —
Or not, I corrected the mont I ran my ditation skill, expecting the tainted energy from the claws to stick at the cloud of decay for a second before it disappeared, only for it to happen instantaneously.
My eyes widened as I let larger and larger amounts of tainted energy, only for them to disappear instantly. Then, I slapped my head, realizing I had missed sothing completely obvious.
That my ditation technique was a conceptual one, empowered by Wisdom. Significantly so, if the performance was any indicator. I was expecting to spend at least one second per claw, which would an that, even if I dedicated a full half of my day to it without a pause — the most I could reasonably do with everything else I needed to address — it would have ant I could process forty thousand a day at most, likely less considering all the miscellaneous steps slowing down.
But, empowered by Wisdom, the ditation technique operated with a speed that was worthy of its rank, devouring the tainted energy instantly while I increased the rate. I continued to crash the claws. So of it I used to help the farrs to advance their class, but the most, I just crushed to support the dungeon, which had worked wonders to not only replenish the reserves out of the dangerous point it was in, but also give enough mana to experint.
I saved only about ten thousand claws, which I planned to bring with to the fourth floor for experintation.
I returned to the dungeon an hour later, for once glad for my unwanted leadership position. While many details were a big chore, one thing was certainly valuable.
I didn't need to argue for days for grants and resources.
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