In Loki's Honor Life 29 - Chapter 68 - Symbols

We had plenty of people to test the mini-Dungeons, as I called them. Configuring the Dungeon Core was easy, considered I did that in another life. The soul Bit placed in this Core was a mimic and as long as I let it have so treasure, it was happy to oblige.

That freed from one shift in our combat training schedule and I dedicated it to crafting. The first thing I explained to the dwarves was that I had a few million monster corpses in my item box that could be slted for tals. I brought one of the monster hunters with for the demonstration

"This is what the minotaurs call 'claw-fiends'. The red carapace yields iron, the blue part so tal they call blue-iron, and the rest contains a good amount of copper. Demon-Slayer Brother Karraduk here will guide through the process of dismantling one."

Long story short, I needed to break the carapace, scrape the corrupted flesh, then put the hard outer shell in a diluted alchemical bath for a few hours to soften the outer layer. The flesh and organs were utterly useless because of the demonic corrupted blood and its only purpose was to unlock the resistance Perk, as announced.

That didn't stop from testing. As I set as many vats with carapace baths as the Shadow Workshop would let , I used {Property Prospection VII} on the organs and flesh to see if I could co up with sothing. Most of them ca up with nothing, but I unlocked two new materials from the heart and liver of the demons. One was a precursor catalyst for a Potion of Corrupted Blood Resistance, the other was a poison that corrupted the target's blood. I buried the nasty stuff but we worked on a process to distill the resistance potion from the demon hearts.

You gained 3 points of Alchemist Proficiency.

You created the recipe for Potion of Corrupted Blood Resistance. You gained 2 bonus points of Alchemist Proficiency.

You gained 4 points of Dismantler Proficiency.

You gained 32 points of Miner Proficiency.

These were the fruits of three days of work in my off-shift. Miner had a lot of Fast-Growth left, and it showed. It was ti to pick my Abilities. While the dwarves learned how to slt claw-fiend carcasses from Karraduk, I joined Baritono and Helter in the castle smithy.

"Ah, Haru! Glad you joined us! What brings Your Majesty here?" Baritono greeted and was imdiately elbowed by Helger.

"You're making my daughter uncomfortable, you fool!" He grumbled. "Lass, welco. Wanna hamr so tal? Maybe slt a dwarf? As hard as this one's head is," he wrapped an arm around Baritono's neck, "I think we can get an ingot or two outta it."

"Nah. He's not worth it," I gently pulled the two n apart. "I think I need to pick a few Abilities in my [Miner] and [talsmith] Professions, father. With all the revolution and counter-revolution and killing armies at our doorstep happening one after the other, we never got back to it."

Proficiencies without Abilities were boring little shits, just like the Skills in old versions. Worse, because they didn't have a baseline bonus. Sothing to complain to the Administrators. A raw proficiency by itself should have a baseline ability. Like the damage and accuracy bonuses of the forr weapon Skills. Having to spend an Ability on that sounded dumb.

"What's your Proficiency level looking like?"

I pulled the info and told them.

Miner (*) [167 / 233]. Select 11 Abilities.

talsmith (*) [130 / 228]. Select 8 Abilities.

"That's a tad higher than we expected," Baritono confessed. "So of the lads work for years to reach your levels."

Helger slapped his friend, "But they don't have the growth ratios you do, so don't let it get over your head. Let's pick your Abilities then. Mining is all about finding ore and extracting ore. You already have {Survey Resources} under [Cartographer]. While it is slow, it covers a decent amount of ground and you have other abilities to find ore. Let's focus all of your Abilities on getting the most out of your ore vein.

Gem Node I: Gemstones you mine are (Proficiency/10)% bigger.Gem Node II: [...] (Proficiency/7)% bigger.Gem Node III: [...] (Proficiency/4)% bigger.Geode Shards: Gemstones you mine have (Proficiency/5)% better quality.tal Yield: Resources you process for tal yields (Proficiency/5)% more.Slag lter: You lose (Proficiency/5)% less tal to slag.Motherlode: Ore you extract contains (Proficiency/5)% more useful materials.Odd Vein: Ore you extract contains (Proficiency/5)% more secondary tals.Precious Vein: Ore you extract contains (Proficiency/5)% more precious tals.Nine Pound Hamr: You mine (Proficiency/5)% faster.Sixteen Tons: You extract (Proficiency/5)% more ore.

I recognized so of these Abilities' nas. Bless your soul, rle Travis. But if that doesn't prove the System ca from Earth just like and those crappy Gods, nothing would.

Onto [talsmith].

Keep'em Hot: tal cools (Proficiency/5)% slower.Precision Hamring: Crafting speed increases by (Proficiency/4)%.Hamr'em Flaws: tal has (Proficiency/5)% fewer flaws.Durability: Increase by (Proficiency/5)%.Wear Resistance: Items take (Proficiency/5)% less damage.Tenacity: Increase by (Proficiency/5)%.Hardness: Increase by (Proficiency/5)%.Corrosion Resistance: Reduce item damage from acid and the onset of rust by (Proficiency/5)%.

The Abilities relied heavily on the Proficiency's context. For example, {Precision Hamring}. It increased crafting speed only for tal articles that were crafted with a hamr, like when forging a sword. The resistances wouldn't make an item indestructible at 500 Proficiency, because these were capped at 75%. But having a weapon that could endure four tis more punishnt was more than four tis as valuable.

I was eager to put my new Abilities to the test. I used my free shift to work with Helger and Baritono at the smithy while batches of demon carapace were processed and slted in the {Shadow Workshop}. It didn't put a dent in the number of demon corpses I had. Unless I upscaled my processing power, I'd look at centuries of dismantling and processing demons. And all I needed to get more was to pay a visit to that place again.

On the eve of my priest recruitnt, several things happened at once. The first batch of tal extracted from the demons finished. I got about seventy kilograms of iron, two hundred of copper, and fifteen of a blue-ish tal. I didn't trust {Appraise} for this. I conducted a series of tests to determine its nature. It was a magic-rich alloy similar to steel. It was magnetic and almost as good as gold for enchanting. I cut a small piece and ate it. {Chemical Awareness} gave the run-down on this material.

50% iron

5% Chromium

5% Cobalt

15% Titanium

5% Silver

5% Gold

15% Carbonium.

The "Carbonium" was heavy and densely packed with mana. It was very hard to digest and quickly decayed once the magic was absorbed.

You took 1 HP of radiation damage.

You took 1 HP of radiation damage.

You took 1 HP of radiation damage.

You took 1 HP of radiation damage.

You took 1 HP of radiation damage.

[...]

I ended up with a huge indigestion, so radiation damage that was artificially dampened by the System, and silicon. That was freaking insane. To go from carbon to silicon, radioactive decay had to add eight protons to the nucleus, not counting the ones gone from alpha emissions but these lighter atoms seldom emitted alpha radiation, it was mostly beta electrons, free neutrons, and gamma radiation. Just how heavy was this "Carbonium"? I needed to do in-depth research on this blue iron alloy. Slting the demons netted enough Proficiency for another Ability. It also unlocked a special Ability that required working with mana-rich ores, which the demon corpse counted as. Don't ask why.

Miner (*) [183 / 233]. Select 1 Ability.

Mana-Lode: Increase the odds of finding mana-rich materials by (Proficiency)%.

This one worked on the percentile, so while it looked great, it didn't do much. If I had, say, a 0.1% chance of finding mana-rich ores in a given vein, it increased that to 0.28%. Better than nothing, but still too little.

Grinding for Exp finally gave results. I reached the next level.

You reached Half-Dvergar Half-Zenko-Kitsune level 20

You gained 1 Attribute point.

You gained 1 Endurance, 1 Willpower, and 1 Magic.

You gained 2 rank 3 species Perks.

Ultimate Surpasser granted you 1 Attribute Points

You reached Grandmaster Crafter level 20

You gained 1 Endurance, 1 Magic, and 1 Luck.

You gained 1 rank 3 Class Perks.

Ultimate Surpasser granted you 1 Attribute Points.

You gained the Perks,

Apprentice Shadow Workshop (ultra-rare): Your shadow workshop can be used by another person with the sa Proficiency with no bonus.Shrine Maiden (very rare): While in the area protected by your Shrine Guardian Perk, your magic lasts 100% longer (increasing the ti to pay maintenance costs) and is 50% harder to dispel.Ranging Defender (ultra-rare): You still gain the benefits of Shrine Guardian outside of your guarded grounds, up to a distance of 100*Soul ters from the previous limit.

You ranked up. Your unallocated Exp was divided by 100,000,000.