Once I had learned the key features of Spencer’s new skill, I imdiately canceled all my etings for the day unless it was an actual ergency, ignoring Harold’s annoyed grumbling in the process.
But what was the point of being the King if I couldn’t even skip a eting in the process? I was filled with excitent once I arrived at my Forge, ready to create a similar setup, and maybe even upgrade my Shaper into the next stage.
… Only for those hopes to shatter.
“Damn it. Another failure,” I growled, frustrated as I threw the shattered ingot back into the fire. I spent the whole day in front of the forge, with various attempts to copy Spencer’s skill, all t with failure, wasting my whole day in the process.
It wasn’t the failure itself that bothered . I had been working on various experintal topics for too long to be bothered by them. The fact that I made no viable progress was slightly more annoying, but not a dealbreaker. The problem was that every attempt ended in total failure. Sotis, very explosively.
I stared at the workbench, arms crossed, trying not to scowl as I examined the remains on the forge and the workbench, hoping that the fragnts of tal would give an idea.
The sa tal that would have destroyed my face if it wasn’t for my helt when exploded.
“What a day,” I muttered with a deep sigh. When Spencer had successfully transford his skill, I was so sure that I could apply that to my forging. After all, wasn’t I already growing into an expert when it ca to mana and skills…
The results disagreed. Vehently.
The idea was elegant on paper. Apply the sa principles of crystal etching to tal while forging, which would add spell effects to the alloy, and maybe even allow to assist in casting. But, every single spell I tried to etch into the tal destabilized the crystal structure of the tal, turning it into ruins.
It wasn’t too bad with ordinary tal. It just weakened and deford the tal while the runes turned useless. But, things were different when it ca to alloys. Worse, I soon ca to learn that, the stronger the tal was, the more spectacular the explosion.
It ended the sa, even when I had used all the techniques that I had discovered in my adventures.
“Maybe it’s not a full waste,” I muttered while I tried to take a ntal catalog of the possible reasons for those failures.
The most glaring possibility was the incompatibility of the process. The crystal Spencer used was a unique substance, and there was a chance that the whole approach was impossible to copy to a rigid inorganic substance like tal, any attempt shattering the ruining the internal structure of the tal, therefore letting the trapped mana loose.
I hoped that wasn’t the case, as it would an the whole process was simply impossible. Instead, I hoped that the reason was one of the many other possibilities. The fundantal difference in etching technique, the mana purity, the side effect of Wisdom, rune selection… They could be solved, unlike a fundantal incompatibility.
I sighed. “It’s ti for a long pause,” I decided, no matter how much it annoyed . Not only did I have more practical experints I needed to focus on, but also I needed to go back to the surface and fulfill my ‘kingly’ duties, mostly amounting to simply being seen.
A bother, but one that I had signed on. I needed to visit to see everything. But, when I opened a gate, my target wasn’t the surface, but the fifth floor, where Eleanor currently was, overseeing the dungeon hunt.
The mont I appeared, Eleanor dashed at , her sword drawn. For any other person, it would have been a show of great fury, but for Eleanor, it was a greeting.
Well, a greeting that was reflecting her annoyance, I realized when I pulled my blade to the counter, only for her to hit hard enough to push back. One that she needed to use her Health to empower her weapon to achieve.
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It was an interesting trick, because her ascension, which was currently in progress, ant that only her Health had been elevated, while her Strength lagged behind. It wasn’t low, but it wasn’t enough to match mine.
The reason she was able to push back was the Health aura around her weapon. After a lot of spars, we learned that the aura had a tendency to … well, violate rules of montum even worse than the System usually did, adding a certain presence to her attacks to compensate for her lower Strength.
It was not sothing she used in spars without warning.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“What’s wrong?” she repeated, which made her sound more annoyed. “Is this sothing you need to ask after skipping yet another spar, and you didn’t even bring an apology gift.”
I sighed. “Sorry about that,” I said even as I parried another attack, but this ti, deflecting the attack rather than countering it directly. “I had been hopeful about the new thod, but…” I added, preparing myself for another attack.
Instead, she lowered her blade. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“You don’t sound like yourself.”
I blinked. “What do you an?”
“Well…” she said, sounding confused. “Whenever you finish experintation, you either walk away giddy, like a kid overdosing on candy, or you have a kind of focused intensity that makes you look…”
“Makes look what?”
“Doesn’t matter,” she said, though she blushed. “The important thing is that you actually look depressed. I never seen you look like that after working on one of your experints.”
A defeated sigh escaped . “Because it was a big failure,” I admitted. “I was so confident that I had the last piece of it, but it went very differently than I expected.”
“I see…” she replied. “We can do sothing else, if you want.”
“No,” I replied and closed in the distance, swinging my blade in a devastating blow that would have killed a weaker opponent, but Eleanor parried with ease. “Actually, a spar might be exactly what I need to burn my frustration.”
“That, I can help with,” Eleanor replied. She countered, and then we fell into a rhythm of battle as we danced around each other, each blow dodged, parried, countered. But, that felt unsatisfying, so I started letting her blows slip my guard, using the opportunity to counter-attack.
“Nasty,” Eleanor called, but with her smile growing, there was no heat in her voice.
It was a simple strategy, but not an easy one, especially against an opponent of her mobility. Even without relying on her ascended abilities, she was faster than . I barely delivered a blow for every five I received, a great disadvantage that would have eventually spelled my doom if I tried to pull that against an ascended.
Naturally, it would have been the ti I put my near-infinite mana to play, but there was no harm in pushing my sword abilities to a new level. The skill was maximized, but that wasn’t everything.
“So, how’s things in the dungeon front?” I asked once we got used to the new rhythm.
“A mixed bag,” she replied. “It’s a good thing that the corruption is drained, but without it, the leveling bonus for the dungeon had dropped significantly. We are once again unable to push people over fifty with dungeon, which slows our military growth.”
“A necessary compromise,” I responded. “That mysterious dark energy … it’s not good news.”
“Maybe, but it’s pretty utilitarian,” she said. “At least both dungeons once again started producing bosses, which helps to raise so of the elites near the target, and the rest could be handled by so outdoor hunting.”
“That must be simpler with proper military support,” I said.
“For certain,” she said. “Having a mobile fortress with enough armant to deal with a small beast wave alone is a godsend.”
”Too bad tanks and cannons doesn’t register as an attack to the System, or things would have been much easier.”
“It’s better this way,” Eleanor responded. “Otherwise, people would have grown too soft. It’s not sothing you want in a military force. Without practicing against beasts, they can’t fight against a bigger beast wave.”
“Do you think our walls wouldn’t be enough?” I questioned.
“Eventually, yes,” she said. “One day, our luck would run out, and we’ll co across a beast wave migrating from a mana-rich zone, or worse, the sea,” she replied. “Not only their numbers are endless, but even the weakest is as strong as one of those lizard bosses. That day, we would have to fight in lee, trying to kill the beast that controls the beast wave before the whole area is buried.”
“It would be a dangerous encounter,” I said.
“You never visited an environnt teeming with beasts, did you?” she asked despite knowing the answer. I nodded. “We live in a dangerous world,” she responded. “Don’t let the calm fool you.”
Before I could respond with a swing of my blade, I was distracted by a sudden increase in the mysterious energy the dungeon started to absorb from the environnt. A glimpse to the surface showed that there were several signals raised at the gate.
“We need to go to the surface. We have an ergency,” I said.
“Did I jinx us?” she asked.
I gave her a sardonic sigh while a gate popped in front of us. “Seems that way.” When we returned to the surface, I had been expecting another crystalline attack.
Instead, I found myself looking at so kind of corrupted creature, flying at high altitude, already retreating. But, my focus was the aftermath of what was left in the sky. A dark red energy, one that reminded of the heretics, illuminating the source of the beast.
I had a very bad feeling about it.
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