Blacksmith vs. the System

"God damn it," I growled even as I threw the work hammer to the side, grabbed my spear, and moved aside. The last thing I expected was to be attacked by a gargantuan monster, tall enough to tower over me in a suffocating manner.

A desperate dash was not exactly the ideal way of measuring, but roughly eyeballing it, I measured it to be somewhere around two hundred yards tall, and about forty yards wide. An absurd size, reminding me of a battleship rather than a land animal.

A beast of that size shouldn't have been possible without being crushed under its own weight, particularly as an insect … but then, I was in a pocket dimension, using magic to hunt giant corrupted monsters.

It was three years too late to talk about what was possible or reasonable.

I turned my attention to more practical concerns, trying to understand its physical capabilities. It was huge, yet, despite its size, it reacted to my escape with shocking speed, adjusting its charge. Without the Fleeting Step, I would have ended up between its mandibles. I was glad I didn't have to test the durability of my armor in such a way, not with the way the ordinary anti-corrosive iron from the hydroponic garden snapping under its weight.

I didn't optimize the metal I used on the garden for durability, but even without it, it would have tanked the attack of an ordinary giant insect with limited damage. Yet, against the gargantuan variant, it wasn't able to resist the slightest.

Worse, as it drifted closer, the air I breathed gained an acrid quality, like I had forgotten to replace my silver air filter after using it for an hour. And, since that bitter smell got more intense the closer the beast got, it was easy to assume that the beast radiated some kind of intense corrosive aura.

The speed at which the distant trees wilted confirmed my theory.

Dodging didn't mean my problems were over. As I moved away, I was attacked by the other monsters. The burrower variants burst out of the ground, and the fliers fell down, trying to suffocate me, while the giant ones charged. However, there was something unusual in their approach.

Up until now, during every single encounter I had, the beasts had been attacking me recklessly, always picking the closest path possible with the exclusion of everything else. This time, it was different. The fliers circled around me in confusing patterns, the giant ones attacked in a way that forced me to a certain direction, and the burrowers did their best to block my path as they burst out of the water.

They were showing tactical acumen. It was elementary, but due to the numbers they attacked with, it was still effective. And, as if the situation wasn't complicated enough, their new tactical awareness meant that they could ignore the fear effect that was spread by the trees. Combined with the rapid destruction of the metal platforms under the mandibles of the gargantuan monster, the defenses I had created for myself were being destroyed with incredible ease.

In response, I drew my sword and released several ranged mana attacks, each attack cutting through several flying bugs before dispersing. As I did that, I jumped on the back of one of the giant monsters, using it as a platform, which prevented the borrowers from tangling with me.

Five ranged attacks were all I could throw out before my Mana drained completely. There, I switched to my spear, one hand slashing with ease. At the same time, I used my feet to roughly crush the mana-dense shells of the slain beasts, using the opportunity to replenish my mana.

Luckily, their tactics were not only elementary, but also rigid. As I jumped between the giant monsters, the attacks of the swarm slowed down, and their movement shuffled in a manner that could be called confused.

The gargantuan one didn't appreciate it, doing its best to turn to face me.

Luckily, for some reason, the mist around it was gone. It was similar to the effect of the trees in terms of the end result, but the process was clearly the opposite. In practical terms, the trees repulsed the mist, while the gargantuan beast was pulling it toward itself, devouring it, similar to using Meditation in a Mana-dense location.

I circled around it, leveraging its most obvious weakness, which was its turn speed. However, calling it a weakness was a stretch. It rotated remarkably well for a monster that was the size of the warship. Even with my improved Fleeting Step, taking advantage of that required me to stick close to it.

And, the closer I got, the more disgusting the smell started to get, warning me that my filter was reaching its limit.

I couldn't help but shiver even as I split between circling around the beast and dealing with the swarm, afraid to imagine dealing with the gargantuan beast without my long list of advantages. I stayed away from its attacks even as I focused on thinning the swarm, focusing exclusively on the fliers.

Whenever I filled my reserves, I used Mana attacks to whittle their numbers, or I switched to spear. Reducing the tactical complexity of the situation before I tested the endurance of the titanic insect seemed like a good idea.

However, despite my successful focus on fliers, the swarm showed no change of pattern, suggesting that their new tactical acumen was not only elementary, but also quite rigid. Another welcome change.

Only when the density of fliers reached a point where I could ignore them, I jumped on top of the gargantuan beast. The moment I stepped on its back, my lungs started to ache, its corrosive aura surpassing the limit of my filter.

[-6 Health]

It did not matter. I stabbed its back with the spear, first without covering it with mana. It sank well enough. Unfortunately, the beast was far too large for it to be effective. The sword reacted in a similar manner. Neither result surprised me. I switched to my hammer.

It was time to show it how a Blacksmith fought.

I brought down the hammer, using the mana attack I had designed based on my Quake attacks, depleting all of it in one attack.

[-210 Mana]

A large part of its shell shattered, and for the first time, it let out a sharp sound, one that I recognized as pain. It was good, but the even better part was the burst of mana that spread as I shattered its shell, allowing me to replenish my mana in quick order.

Its mana was far more dense in what I called tainted energy, but my Cleansing Meditation skill allowed me to separate the two efficiently, allowing me to replenish my mana as I delivered another attack … and another.

I had a feeling that the battle against the gargantuan beast was supposed to be an incredibly difficult battle. And, without the gear I had created with my Epic Skill, which allowed me to resist its corrosive aura almost completely, it would have been.

Even the iron I tagged as anti-corrosive proved to be only corrosion resistant, the broken remains of the platforms darkening and rusting at a shocking speed. Instead, it turned into a steady, almost tedious, process, not unlike another forging session. My hammer landed again and again, using its mana against itself.

Its shell recovered from the damage, but not at the same speed I could damage it, slowly weakening under my attack.

Yet, even with all my advantages, an hour after I started, I was still attacking against it. If it wasn't for the weakening of its corrosive aura as its shell got more and more damaged, I would have to retreat back to the fourth floor to replenish my Health.

Instead, I stayed on top of it, steadily destroying its shell and the flesh underneath, my hammer landing on it again and again … until the beast stopped moving, and burst into a sudden blast of light.

The sudden disappearance of the beast meant I found myself falling down. My limbs clenched in fear as I found myself in free fall, barely able to pay attention to the movement of the light. It gathered into a point, almost like it was about to turn into a skill stone, but when I got near, it turned into light back again, and infused my body.

It was a weird, ephemeral sensation, like there was some kind of connection between me and the land around me. It didn't last long, but when it faded, it left me with a nice surprise.

My range of vision had just doubled.

"So, it makes the gargantuan beast a dungeon boss," I said to myself even as I started dealing with the remaining swarm. It wasn't exactly a big surprise, as the length of the battle, along with all of its abilities, suggested that to be the case.

But, confirmation was always welcome.

I went back to the fourth floor, as I was exhausted, both physically and mentally. Not to mention, I needed to replenish my Health.

When I arrived on the fourth floor, I was greeted by a very welcome surprise. My vision range wasn't increased by three more yards as I had feared but directly doubled. Excited, I returned to the earlier floors, and realized that the same pattern held true.

I gulped, realizing its importance. An expanded range of vision would be useful while exploring the fourth and fifth floors, but it wasn't what excited me the most.

No, that honor went to the tactical flexibility provided by the ability to see more than the other people in the dungeon. It would solve my biggest fear, which was to be ambushed.

Maybe I should see if I could tempt the attacks from more dungeon bosses before I went back.