Blacksmith vs. the System

While waiting for Spencer and the author of the report to arrive, I planned to do nothing. Rosie had a point about pushing myself too much.

Too bad the world disagreed. Another corrupted monster boss had been detected, but it was the location that was scary. It had been detected in the lower floors.

"Damn," I growled the moment I received the news, immediately moving back to the fifth floor. The same corrupted feeling was present on the fifth floor, only stronger. I didn't need to talk with anyone about the location of the corrupted monster. The moment I arrived, their location burned in my mind like a lighthouse, the dungeon alerting me about the location of the corrupted bosses.

Three of them. The report only mentioned one.

I couldn't blame the scouts. As the corruption spread, we had to pull the defensive encampments to camp around the pathways between floors, each point heavily fortified. We have done it for practical reasons. Even without sending some of our best fighters away to support the other towns, we lacked the numbers to properly control the fifth floor as we did before the corruption.

Though, it wasn't entirely necessary. If there was one advantage to the corrupted monsters, it was their utter hatred toward anything living. They didn't just wait in the dungeon floor until their numbers built up. They just attacked the higher floors, doing their best to escape.

"It's probably why we're facing so many small monster hordes," I commented as I closed in the distance with the first boss. A giant insect monster, but any familiarity I might feel had been long corrupted by the mysterious energy, its shell melted and filled with tentacles. "Come on, rotten calamari. Let's see how strong you are," I said and closed the distance.

The answer, it turned out, was not too much.

[Level 89 -> 91]

[+10 Vitality, +8 Strength, +6 Dexterity, +10 Essence, +6 Wisdom]

It endured more attacks than the boss that had been outside, and the difference was significant. It recovered from decapitation twice, and regenerated its limbs more than a dozen times. As a tradeoff, it was slower to move, which was pretty much a death sentence against my fighting style.

But, it would have been a nightmare against a fixed defensive position.

"Let's handle the other two since I'm here," I said, quickly jumping to the location of the other two bosses, killing them just as easily.

[Level 81 -> 93]

[+10 Vitality, +8 Strength, +6 Dexterity, +10 Essence, +6 Wisdom]

[Level 93 -> 94]

[+5 Vitality, +4 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +5 Essence, +3 Wisdom]

"The rapid leveling is finally giving me a clue about why System exists," I muttered. The birth of the new monsters presented a dangerous curve, one that could easily trigger the collapse of any civilization, even a magical one.

Only by empowering people rapidly, people could have a hope of resisting. All that was needed to protect a few weaker warriors until they could deliver the death blow against the target, and a day would be enough to raise a dozen candidates, ready to ascend.

At any other time, the rewards would have been a cause for celebration. But, right now, they were merely a blip on the radar, as I was far more concerned about why the dungeon had spawned another corrupted boss in the short time I had been dealing with the first three.

"Perfect, another thing to get wrong," I muttered in protest. A petulant declaration, but it was the only thing I could do when facing such a disaster.

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[Level 94 -> 95]

[+5 Vitality, +4 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +5 Essence, +3 Wisdom]

Luckily, once I dealt with it as well, the dungeon didn't spit another one, leaving me free to explore the reason.

I crossed my legs and closed my eyes, focusing on the connection. For the last few days, I hadn't paid much attention to the dungeon, distracted by more critical issues on the surface. I had assumed that, since I had already deciphered the mechanics of the dungeon and mysterious energy interaction, I didn't need to pay too much attention, assuming I could predict the situation by observing the energy flow from the gates.

But, since that didn't predict corruption to such a degree, I had to delve deeper into the connection, which took some time. In the end, I got two news. One bad…

The other was worse.

The bad news was that, since the last examination, the dungeon had acquired a new channel to pull that mysterious energy to itself. From the lowest floor, the speed was even faster than I expected.

"At least it explains the function of the dungeons," I commented absentmindedly as I realized the function. Many dungeon gates I had opened were absorbing all the energy that fell on our area, but the same wasn't true for the surrounding land. They either had no dungeon to absorb, or those dungeons were close to being overwhelmed.

It meant the energy was tainting the land … which was then absorbed by the dungeon to clean it. A welcome function, but it made our situation more dangerous.

Then, there was the worse news… I had detected the same mysterious energy in the dungeon connection. It was a tiny hint of energy, one that disappeared halfway without touching me. But, the risk it represented was too scary to contemplate. Would I turn into another monster if the dungeon corruption had become too much?

"It looks like there's a good reason to keep the connection to the dungeon weak enough to be snapped," I said. Unfortunately, it was too late to change things. I stood up, preparing to leave; when my gaze fell on the corrupted boss, which, unlike the other monsters, still stuck around.

"Let's get rid of it," I said as I pointed toward it, channeling the strongest decay mana I could output. Under its constant washing, the remains slowly melted, until only a crystal remained. Said crystal was larger than usual, but it also radiated a sickly feeling.

I continued to channel decay mana from a distance, afraid of absorbing it.

Before returning to the surface, I patrolled the lowest floor of the fire dungeon as well, making sure that there were no hidden boss monsters there. Thankfully, there were none. It was also absorbing less of that mysterious energy from the land itself.

Either the swamp was cleaner, or it had something to do with the weaker efficiency of the fire dungeon. If it was the latter, it could be explained by the fact that it had been damaged in the moving process, or simply requiring time to connect with the land properly.

If it was formed, it had the possibility to be trickier. Maybe it was pure luck, the area being targeted by the heretics to a lesser degree. But, I was worried that it had to do with the leyline. What if it was acting like a well to collect that energy, only to overflow when the time arrived.

I made a trip to the surface. It didn't take long to see my latest fear was correct. The gate was pulling less mysterious energy from the environment, because the leyline was having a pull effect.

Meddling with the leyline was not a prospect that could be taken easily. Mana represented a source, but also danger, and the implications of a mistake could be more than we could afford. I had no choice but to leave it alone.

Needless to say, when I had finally finished patrolling the area. I returned to the fifth floor, and found Logan there. "My king. Is everything alright?" he asked, though instead of worry, I could see him radiating enthusiasm.

That, I didn't blame him for. Unlike me, he had been fighting nonstop, and leveling rapidly gave them confidence.

"Everything has been dealt with," I responded. "But, I have dealt with four boss monsters, each spawning in quick succession. Try to increase the scouting radius, and if the lines get overwhelmed, immediately retreat."

"As you wish, my king," Logan replied, his expression serious. I was glad that, even with his recent leveling, he wasn't clamoring to fight the bosses himself, aware that one boss monster and multiple monsters represented a completely different threat.

One monster could be slowly defeated, but the multiple monsters meant that whenever one was weakened, the others could cover for it until it recovered. Without overwhelming firepower, they were impossible to deal with.

"Keep your eyes open," I said, then opened another gate, returning to the surface. Spencer and Rosie were waiting for me. And, with them, there was someone else. A young kid, barely sixteen, undersized and hesitant.

"What's your name, kiddo?" I asked the moment I stepped out of the gate.

The kid trembled in panic, and then he knelt down on one knee and toppled to the side before struggling to stand up. Whether he had a class with Dexterity was no great mystery.

But, I needed to say something before the kid suffered a heart attack.