Blacksmith vs. the System

Once I felt the tapping pattern at the crate, followed by a shift, I counted to thirty before I pushed open the hatch, and stepped into the ditch.

As far as plans went, this was a simple one. Once I hid in the crate that was mixed into a bigger delivery to the town, Harold brought me out, only to drop the crate into a deep ditch when the vision around them was blocked.

Just to be on the safe side, I dug a tunnel from the bottom of the ditch rather than climbing directly. Luckily, mana attacks were equally excellent at digging through hardened Earth as it was at killing monsters. I dug for almost half a mile before I finally arrived at the surface. And, once on the surface, I used the Fleeting Step to move in a straight line, almost perpendicular to my destination.

My little detour added some extra travel time, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make. Since I suspected the sudden timing of the dungeon break was not a coincidence, it stood to reason that they had some people inducing the dungeon to break, and if there were, they would have scouts, particularly on this side of the town.

"However, the implications…" I muttered, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by what it would mean if my assumption that the dungeon break could be induced artificially was true. Did it mean that it was being used as a weapon, to get rid of the troublesome towns, or deal with enemies?

I wanted to say that humanity would never do something so cruel … but sometimes, knowing history was more of a curse than a blessing. Humanity was capable of incredible cruelty, particularly when there was a layer to isolate them from the action.

Like letting dungeon monsters loose.

"We will see," I said to myself as I ran, dodging the monsters I faced. After all, the beasts outside didn't share the dungeon monsters' convenient feature of disappearing once they died, so killing them would create an inconvenient track. Luckily, I was fast enough to dodge most of them, helped by the fact that the surrounding area was cleaned regularly by the patrols.

During my journey to this unknown dungeon had a lot of time to think, particularly since I was taking the long route. So, I pulled the long page of formulas Maria had written, trying to model the way the mana moved. It was not accurate, but I didn't expect it to be.

Mathematical modeling was a tricky process even though it didn't look that way to a layman. It required a choice between abstraction and accuracy, particularly when studying systems with discrete parts that couldn't be predicted easily, like turbulent fluids…

Or, people.

It was the whole idea I had based my career on, that as long as driving factors could be understood, the development of society could be predicted. Not in a perfect manner, but enough to guide the actions of the decision-makers about complicated topics. At least, the rare times they chose to care about the benefits of the people rather than the election results.

"Oh, the irony," I said even as I continued to read all the formulas Maria had written for me. Before the Cataclysm, I often read various physics and math papers, trying to find ones that I could use for my own discipline. And, now, I was doing the exact opposite.

Well, the exact opposite as long as we assume mana was a phenomenon of physics, which was an assumption the jury was still out on.

However, the best part about this step was that it didn't require a computer. It was required for the initial collection and processing of the data, but ultimately, that was what Maria had given me. But, once that data was collected, the benefits of computers dwindled to nothing.

Conceptual modeling required a very rigorous mathematical background, reinforced by clarity of thought and inspiration. It was why, even when computers were an option, I preferred to work with pen and paper.

As I got further away from the town, the density of the monsters started to increase, enough that I had to pull my spear to kill the occasional beast that was too fast to be ditched easily. But, even then, I held the papers in my right hand, trying to find a general function that not only confirmed the general objectives but was also simple enough to be useful.

It was a far trickier process to handle.

For example, asking for someone to pick an apple. While it was too simple to be classified as such, 'one apple' could be treated as a mathematical model. It was certainly an abstraction. It was certainly useful when asking one's roommate to bring one from the fridge, however, it was less useful as a part of a recipe, where ounce and pound served as a much better representation.

And, it carried no information when it came to many other features, from whether it was rotten or not to taste. And, that was just what we called a descriptive model, arguably the easiest mathematical model to construct.

What I was trying to do was not a descriptive model, but a predictive one, one that could allow me to push the mana into that state without assistance from Maria. Even if she was willing and able to help me — which was not a fair demand in the first place — the process I used currently created a significant bottleneck for the production of epic-grade metal.

It was alright for making spears and daggers, but less so for swords and hammers. As for armor, it didn't come close to being enough, and my experience against those transformed monsters had shown how critical of a role armor could play.

Then, there was the skill improvement aspect. Finding a way to artificially create 'dense mana' was critical if I wanted to reach Legendary before I reached level fifty and faced another opportunity to upgrade my class.

The trip to the area took almost six hours even at my full speed, as not only did I take an indirect path to the area, but I also did my best to stick to the forested areas and other canopies in case they had a flying scout, which gave me enough time to study the formulas she had collected, meaning it was the time to test them.

When it came to testing, my first reflex was to mentally complain about the lack of a computer once again. After all, the validation process of the model was as critical as the initial model, and only detailed simulations allowed to —

"Oh, I'm a moron," I growled as the realization hit. In sociology, I had to rely on computer models, because for the topics I worked on, experimentation ranged from merely extremely unethical to plain impossible.

The same wasn't true for smithing.

I had to admit, it was tempting to drop everything and start testing, to see if it worked. And, if I was dealing with a lesser threat, I might have actually done that.

Unfortunately, for the threat I was facing, that was clearly not the case. The only exception I made was to pause for a few seconds and write down my insights. I didn't expect to forget them, but it was better safe than sorry.

Once I put my notes inside my armor, I stopped thinking about it, and instead checked the map given by Rosie. It didn't pinpoint the location of the dungeon, just identified a valley as a potential target.

Curious, I had used a metal tube to check the content of the air, and noticed the presence of dungeon taint. It was light enough that I would have missed it if I had merely used Analyze, but Advanced Observe was much better for it.

And, the density increased as I got closer to the valley.

"As far as confirmations go, that's a good one," I murmured as I paused, doing my best to examine the geography of the place.

The valley was a double-edged sword for them. It concealed them from airborne griffin scouts and allowed them to funnel anyone who might stumble upon them accidentally, but it also gave me an angle to approach them without being noticed.

The climb was slow, almost tedious. As I approached, I was prepared to kill any wild beast that came close, but to my surprise, the mountain was empty. At first, I thought it might be the scouts that killed them, but then it clicked.

Tainted energy was a good way to lure the surrounding monsters.

Sneaking to a random mountain that was empty yet, teeming with monsters, would have been impossible. But, the situation was similar to the town, where most of the surrounding monsters had been killed, likely by attacking toward the dungeon gate, lured in by the energy from the dungeon that was about to break.

"Well, I'll take any advantage I can get," I muttered even as I climbed the steep surface of the hills with the surety of a mountain goat, glad that my phobia for flying didn't trigger as long as my feet were on solid ground.

It didn't make much sense, but no phobia truly did. However, I didn't have any time to ponder upon the situation, as once I reached the peak, I looked down the valley.

Only to see a small, enclosed fort at the center.

I had my target.