Blacksmith vs. the System

Before starting, I mined another huge pile of iron ores, and refilled the blast furnace. I didn\'t need more iron under the circumstances, but it was not an excuse to waste the capacity. I could always store the excess. Also, watching the rhythmic movement of the steam engine was calming, reminding me that my work was not for naught.

I forged a hundred different variants of anti-corrosive alloys, each shaped into the same hexagonal cylinder with thick walls and a hollow core, and half a foot tall. A boring process, so the reminder was certainly welcome. I only stopped to refill the blast furnace, and occasionally to mine more iron ore — which was rapid thanks to Quake Hammer.

Then, I filled each of those containers with five different intensities of mana, noting down the rate of dispersal for each set — this time writing them on clay tablets as paper disintegrated on the fourth floor — while leaving the containers on the shelves I had created.

Once the results were compiled, I picked the ten most promising results and created ten variants for each result. And, I repeated that cycle until I was looking at five hundred different cylinders. Luckily, with my Forge skill above a hundred, forging all those different materials barely took four hours.

"A good halfway result," I said. Without the skill to help me, even with a modern materials lab, the same experimental cycle would have taken months, and a dedicated team of tab technicians, manufacturers, and assistants.

I could have continued to experiment, but I decided to visit the first three floors, and maybe even leave the dungeon momentarily to see how it worked outside. For the trip, I only took five cylinders with me, making sure there was a great performance variance between them. I wanted to bring more, but it would be too suspicious.

Hiding the cylinders wasn\'t the only preparation I had made for the trip. I stopped by the third floor and reforged the armor I wore whenever I went outside. Its surface stayed the same, but I added two layers of protection underneath.

I still remember how easily I was able to kill my assassins due to their poor armor. Just because I was in disguise didn\'t mean I had to wear substandard armor.

With that done, I tested the experimental hexagonal cylinders and observed the dispersal rate of mana change between the third and the fourth floors. Mana dispersed faster on the fourth floor. The difference was significant, but the relative dispersal rate stayed the same between the cylinders.

That much could have been accounted for by environmental differences, but the mechanics were in doubt. A glass of water cools down at different paces in a room and in a freezer. But, the cooling rate would be different if the glass was in front of a ventilator as well.

My current setup wasn\'t designed to detect the difference.

"One step at a time," I muttered even as I traveled between the floors, and confirmed that it was true for the first two floors as well. The higher the dungeon was, the slower the mana dispersed.

And, since I was returning to the camp, I spent some time hunting insects on the third floor, bringing another thousand shells to the guards. Just because I was experimenting didn\'t mean I had to stop making money. It was also a good chance to check in with the guards and confirm there was no problem.

Finding out mana dispersed at different speeds in different dungeon floors had been curious. But, ultimately, the difference had been minor. However, the real interesting phenomena occurred when I walked out of the dungeon to \'get some fresh air\'.

The mana dispersal rate outside was far weaker. Even on the first floor, the mana I pushed in had merely stayed in for two seconds before disappearing completely, while outside, it stayed in the container for almost thirty seconds. The difference was resounding.

What was even more interesting was the direction Mana flowed. Inside the dungeon, the mana had dispersed in every direction at the same time. Meanwhile, outside, the dispersal seemed to be moving toward the ground. It was hard to be certain, particularly since I needed to keep the cylinders concealed from the guards.

My new status didn\'t mean I could act with impunity.

I wished that I could stay out to observe the differences between the dungeon and the outside world more, but I didn\'t want the guards to notice anything extraordinary. I could go into the wilderness, but I didn\'t want to do so without Eleanor around.

It would be a pity if I died in another assassination attempt.

This meant that, the difference between the dungeon and the outside world was added to the list of interesting phenomena I couldn\'t explore any further because of more immediate concerns. "Frustrating," I grumbled as I started walking through the empty wasteland of the dungeon once more.

On my way back, I chose to practice an enhanced version of the Fleeting Step, this time dragging the cart behind me. It was an interesting experience. I fell many times, and broke the cart more times than I wanted to admit, but the improvement had been interesting.

Once I returned to the fourth floor, I brought my attention back to my material research. However, in the third cycle, the returns started to not be so worth it.

Still, I had my material. First, I created another thin tube, this time in a hexagonal shape, and kept one end blunt.

[-20 Mana]

"Success," I muttered as I used Observe on the tube again to examine the movement of the mana. This time, rather than just slipping out of the tube, it stuck around, dispersing in a directional manner, giving me the chance to get a feel for the mana movement.

It didn\'t teach me anything practical, but that was the nature of scientific experiments. The aim was to reach a better understanding, not to develop anything useful. Once the working principles were in place, the technology would inevitably follow.

Speaking of technology, I wondered if I could scale up the tubes enough to function as mana storage. I forged two more tubes. From the outside, they looked the same, but one of them was solid, while the other was made of thin layers, kept apart by the thinnest connectors I could forge.

The layered one kept the mana inside far longer. The difference was between three seconds and eight seconds. At first glance, it felt like an unimportant practical difference, but it was not so.

At this point, forging required more and more of my mana, which meant I had to take a lot of breaks to destroy the shells. However, maybe I could create a device, and link it to the steam engine. Add in a simple gravity feeder, and it would output mana far more regularly.

Creating a crank system that would power that device, and making sure it ran constantly wasn\'t easy … but then again, I didn\'t need to do so for an experiment. A manual variant was much easier to create.

Soon, I was looking at another layered tube, with a thick crusher attached to the end. I used it to shatter the shell piece into smaller pieces, and a burst of mana followed.

With an unexpected result. While the pure mana passed through the layers easily, the same wasn\'t true for the tainted energy. It stuck around, unable to penetrate the layer.

"That\'s interesting," I muttered. Up until now, I had been running the experiment using my own mana, as it was far easier to control and measure. And, excited by the progress, I didn\'t even consider how the tainted part of it would have reacted.

From an absorption speed perspective, it wasn\'t really important. I already had Purification, which made the absorption much faster.

However, it didn\'t mean it was useless. On the contrary.

Excited by the process, I immediately forged another hexagonal tube, large enough for me to fit in, and with a hexagonal door that could be sealed from inside. Then, I sealed myself in with my hammer, and with a lot of shells, and started shattering the shells.

The pure mana escaped easily, but the same wasn\'t true for the taint part. Its density started to get more and more intense. Once I destroyed half of the shells, I crouched down, and started channeling my Meditation skill.

It took fifteen seconds for the first notification to appear.

[+1 Mana]

However, rather than stopping, I kept going. I could feel the strain as I ran the skill, which signaled excellent progress. I stopped only after a minute had passed, ignoring the rare notifications of mana alert.

What was really valuable was the one that appeared once I stopped.

[Meditation (Common) 53 - 61]

"Beautiful," I muttered, happy that my research was already paying dividends. I wondered why the jump was so sudden. But, at this point, I was used to seemingly nonsensical ways skills could jump. Luckily, one thing I wasn\'t lacking was shells. I repeated the same thing again and again, running the skill longer every time.

[Meditation (Common) 61 - 78]

[Meditation (Common) 78 - 92]

[Meditation (Common) 92 - 99]

"One more to receive my perk," I said as I repeated the experiment once more. I received my reward.

Just not the one I had expected.

[Meditation (Common) 99 - Cleansing Meditation (Uncommon) 1]

"That\'s interesting, but it\'s a waste of Perks," I examined. I could have always repeated the same thing with Skill Stones … or could I, I suddenly added. After all, I still didn\'t know if I had the prerequisite stats for the Uncommon version of the skill.

Then, once I checked the skill, I was met with another surprise.

[Cleansing Meditation (Uncommon) - 1 [Controlled Flow, Enhanced Sensing, Purification]

My perks were still in place.