Blacksmith vs. the System

"… Terry certainly had a point when he claimed the process was too risky," I said and looked at the cumbersome device in front of me, its seals buckled open after the latest explosion.

I had spent an hour of my time building several versions of Liam's device, as I was quick to realize the benefits of the initial versions weren't high enough to make it worthwhile, which, combined with its explosive potential, made Terry's rejection justified.

However, once I increased both the speed and the pressure five times — something they couldn't have achieved with their available material — I realized the efficiency of the process had changed significantly.

Too bad when one of the particles passed the critical threshold, they would burst into energy that activated the other fragments as well. Combined with the existing pressure and heat, the results were enough to destroy the device I personally forged.

Such a catastrophe would have killed Terry and Liam. I wrote it down on a small piece of paper, adding to the pile of such papers I would drop whenever I travel outside. Just because I wanted them to operate independently didn't mean I wouldn't warn them about a potentially fatal risk.

Once that was handled, I turned back to the matter at hand, and tried to apply several solutions. One idea was to have several linked centrifuges, first stage was to have a stable set of canisters at varying pressure and temperature levels, holding the crushed material based on the patterns Terry had discovered. I could move the material to the centrifugal steam pressure machine before I used them directly, subjecting them to the treatment for a limited time before I removed them.

"Still, I need to find a way to prevent it from going critical," I muttered, then my eyes widened. The chain reaction of particles had too many similarities with a nuclear reactor. Not in terms of actual mechanics, as the similarities were merely surface level, but it was enough to give me an idea "Could I fashion some kind of control rod?" I questioned.

Something that would remove the activated particles from the System by absorbing them.

I wouldn't have tried it if I didn't already have the perfect material: fire-resistant trees. I didn't even need to turn them into rods. I just generated several pellets, wrapped in reinforced materials that would be shredded by activated particles once collided.

That way, the more materials activated, the more wood chips would be added to the mixture, hopefully preventing an explosion.

Putting it to the test took less than five minutes, and the results were enough to put a smile on my face. "Perfect," I celebrated, which was an exaggeration. Even with the solution I had added, it was still a volatile process, with the potential to go critical, but compared to the advantages, it didn't matter.

It had the potential to reduce the preparation time for lizard claws by eighty percent, which was far better than anything I had expected to attain. It had the potential to be even better, assuming a stronger centrifuge and a more automated control mechanism, but those were matters for the future.

"With two of my biggest problems resolved, it's time for mass production," I declared happily, and started forging.

Since it was a complicated process with a lot of potential issues, I started with the easiest part, that being the artillery shells.

I didn't directly copy the fragmentation shells that I had used against the lizards, as they had been heavily reliant on the relatively large size of the shells combined with the lizards' weaknesses to the specific metal I had created.

Radiant Flame destroyed armor with ease, but it didn't simply act like poison. It destroyed the bodies of its target.

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Which was why, instead of fragmentation shells, I went with a different shrapnel design, which essentially functioned as a two-stage grenade more than a proper cannon shell. The main shell was sent out from a cannon, traveling the majority of the distance, and a secondary fuse mechanism was triggered while the shell was still in the air, spreading the shrapnel around.

Even that was not a perfect weapon against people with Vitality, allowing them to recover from their wounds, but I had a different plan in mind. I wanted to use them with conduction with decay shells, taking advantage of the weakened magical shielding to destroy their armor completely.

It might not be lethal, but considering the importance of armament for warriors, it would work just as well as reducing their combat capabilities.

"The theory is solid, but it requires some testing," I said and started forging. But, merely a minute into forging, I received a welcome notification.

[Shaper of Quintessence (Legendary) 60 -> 61]

"Perfect," I muttered happily at the faster-than-expected improvement. It looked like Wisdom-based forging rewarded mixing multiple conceptual materials more than I had expected. Of course, that likely had something to do with the scale of our production, each shell containing more Radiant Flame-based alloy than a dozen daggers combined.

I tested the product against both the metal walls and the shield I had erected, including the barrier device I had taken from the carriage of the mages. The results weren't as amazing as I had hoped, but it was still effective enough.

By the time I visited the experiment area, it was late afternoon, which meant that I had spent a decent portion of the day, and the whole night forging the new shrapnel shells.

Well, almost the whole night. I had been interrupted several times during the night by the warnings from the dungeon, each signaling the intrusions from boss lizards, which forced me to interrupt my work to handle it.

Technically, I could have let the insect army handle them, but earlier, I had watched the great losses they had taken even with all the advantages. It was one reason to interrupt my work. Also, each slain boss represented a lot of materials that I much preferred to preserve rather than letting the insects destroy them.

And, for each trip, I stopped by the third floor to get the saplings they prepared, each session strengthening the dungeon floor for future intrusions.

However, altogether, those interruptions didn't even take one hour combined, and the rest of my time was spent forging.

During my forging, I prioritized the shells for two reasons. First, it allowed me to familiarize myself with the new method, as the weaker shrapnel pieces hardly needed to be perfect. Second, and more importantly, only by deploying these shells en-masse could I dissuade the attack from a large army, which was more urgent.

If Drakka had decided to attack us in the middle of the night, I would have rathered much more to deal with the elites myself while their main force got weakened by the shells, instead of facing their full might with the assistance of an army of under-leveled farmers.

I had high hopes in terms of the future performance of said farmer-army, but they were not ready to face even an auxiliary force from a city. Though, it was too bad that once Shaper had reached the nineties, the skill gain slowed, and almost completely ceased when it hit a hundred.

[Shaper of Quintessence (Legendary) - 102]

I guessed it was a combination of the metal I used — iron — and the quality of the monster parts. Since I had to forge four pounds of metal for each shell, I limited myself to the relatively weaker, but not the weakest, insect shells and lizard claws.

I followed that by using stronger metals for arrows and spearheads, enough to arm several small but elite forces, perfect for harassment under the leadership of Rosie. Despite containing significantly less metal, creating the arrows and spearheads was the bigger challenge.

By the time noon arrived, I already had enough spears to arm forty people, with less than three hundred arrowheads, both only requiring shafts before they had been put to use.

[Shaper of Quintessence (Legendary) - 127]

That was not enough material. Unfortunately, before I could truly act, several flags had been raised at the entrance, signaling that enemy forces had been sighted.

"It looks like Leona wasn't able to get us enough time," I sighed in frustration even as I prepared to leave my workshop, but before doing that, I spent ten minutes forging myself a sword for Radiant Flame, using the material shortcuts. It was not the weapon I wanted for myself. I much rathered creating a weapon based on the latest techniques revealed once my Shaper skill had surpassed a hundred.

But considering those techniques required at least two days of uninterrupted forging, it was not a luxury I could afford. Regardless, even mentally, I couldn't complain much. The more I lived here, the more I realized what a luxury time was.

"At least the first batch of shells is ready to be deployed," I said as I created a portal, dragging a cart behind me.

Once again, it was time for battle.