After confirming the mine had collapsed, I flopped onto the ground.
I tried to lie down.
My falling body abruptly slowed.
So that was what they meant by acquiring a skill as a reward for raising my combat rank.
‘I don’t need any of this, I just want to rest.’
I wished it would just stop tormenting me already.
Unaware of such thoughts, three cards appeared before my eyes.
[ 「Powerful Strike」 ]
[ Slams down on the opponent hard, knocking them unconscious.]
[ 「Hammer Charge」 ]
[Charges a short distance. Pushes aside enemies in your path.]
[ 「Warhammer Mastery Lv.2」 ]
[Proficiency with the warhammer further increases. Skill efficiency improves.]
None of them looked particularly appetizing.
Powerful Strike was basically trash tier.
There was no reason to choose it when I had a strictly superior AoE skill.
That left Warhammer Mastery and Hammer Charge.
Setting Warhammer Mastery aside for a moment since it was a passive skill, that meant Hammer Charge after all?
Having a charge skill would be convenient.
It would be useful for finding a way out when being chased or surrounded, like just now.
The moment I was about to choose Hammer Charge.
A different thought suddenly occurred to me.
‘Can’t I just attach nodes and use it?’
I recalled when I had used Seismic Wave.
It was definitely a more powerful skill than Powerful Strike or Hammer Charge.
Maybe it was several tiers higher.
The fact that I could activate Seismic Wave at my current stage meant I could use other skills too.
As long as I ground nodes hard enough, that is.
On the other hand, Warhammer Mastery was different.
A passive skill unrelated to nodes.
It probably couldn’t be grown through simple repetitive grinding.
'It increases weapon proficiency and skill efficiency….'
Later on, if I learned ten skills and it raised their efficiency by even 10% each, wouldn’t that have a huge effect?
It seemed like a typical king-class scaling skill.
Let’s go with Warhammer Mastery.
Who knew how much proficiency and skill efficiency would improve, but it couldn’t get worse, right?
I chose the card.
Time resumed its normal flow.
My body fell to the ground.
Thud-!
"Fuck."
***
When I opened my eyes, I was in the workshop.
I remembered throwing myself onto the sofa as soon as I returned to the smithy last night.
"What time is it now… the clock…."
My smartphone was far away on the table.
No matter how far I stretched my hand, I couldn’t reach it.
‘What a hassle….’
This time, I summoned my third arm.
I stretched it out long and thin.
The third arm dangled, nearly touching the phone.
Carefully, like playing a claw machine, I lowered the arm.
Clatter-
Was it working? I didn’t think it would…!
Did this mean I could exert physical force with my third arm?
If I practiced this well too—
Tuk-
The moment I thought that, the smartphone dropped.
I had lifted it maybe less than 1cm.
Nothing works out.
"Ngh…!"
In the end, I got up and fetched my smartphone.
Even moving briefly made my muscles and joints scream.
The facilities for living were roughly in place, but a workplace was a workplace.
It seemed my fatigue hadn’t completely worn off after all.
‘I should dispose of some magic stones and get a room nearby at least.’
I had plenty of money.
I had secured a considerable amount of magic stones despite having only cleared the 1st floor.
Wasn’t it thanks to the overlap of difficulty correction and achievement rewards?
I had gathered enough money to rent a decent room in a small city at once.
I should go house-hunting tomorrow.
Today, I had today’s work to do.
I transferred the kobold scrap iron I had stuffed in my bag into a large sack.
It was quite a lot at a glance.
As long as I didn’t make mistakes, I should be able to make several hundred rings.
I stood boldly before the furnace.
Then I realized.
I didn’t know the recipe yet.
I posted on the Artisan Gallery.
[I got a ton of dark iron, so how do I make stuff with it?]
Author: Python
The materials Metallurgist gave me didn’t have a recipe for using dark iron.
└Metallurgist: Ah, wait a sec uploading it now.
Not even a minute after the comment was posted.
A new post appeared on the Artisan Gallery.
[Understanding the Production of Disposable Mana Barrier Rings Using Dark Iron]
Author: Metallurgist
(Video)
Hey, you can do this too.
└Python: Couldn’t you have sent this in a private message?
└└Metallurgist: The others should watch and learn too.
└Yoyoi: Kyaaaah!!! Unnie is so cool and prettyyyy♡♡♡
└└DaggerThrone: Q u e e n M e t a l l u r g i s t
└DressedForCold: Ha, life really isn’t fair. What on earth doesn’t this unnie have?
└FrostedWatermelon: I’m getting jealous again… Am I going to turn black from this?
└Metallurgist: Crazy bitches, get lost;;;;;
What Metallurgist uploaded was a lecture video about 15 minutes long.
Once again, she was personally standing at the lectern giving the lesson.
Unlike the previous video, there were no other students.
— Uh, well, it’s me.
Professor Eponine Roche, starting right off with informal speech.
I’m pretty sure she used formal speech in the last lecture.
— You might have realized it too, but the production result changes depending on how you connect the nodes.
— If node connection is the basics, you can think of this as the advanced course.
Different results depending on node connection methods.
I had personally realized this during the process of learning Seismic Wave.
└Python: What happens if you connect them differently for crafted items?
└Metallurgist: I’m literally about to explain that next. ㅡㅡ
— Node connections always require caution. Unexpected effects can attach themselves.
— A ring you made as a defense ring could become a suicide ring that explodes 5 seconds after being worn.
— Or it could become a cursed ring that causes mental confusion in the wearer.
It had been the same when learning the warhammer skill.
Sometimes I felt intense discomfort.
If I had pushed through that state, an extremely ominous skill might have activated.
└BlackMageHee: You know catching that discomfort is a talent, babe? I think you’re a dark magician, aren’t you?
└└Python: Ugh, buzz off!
Shaking off the dark magician’s temptation, I focused on the lecture again.
— Usually you get a feel for it as you make things. Even with a connection method you’re using for the first time, sometimes you can predict the output.
— Later, you might reach a state where you can freely guide options and enhancement directions… though that must be a distant future.
To reach the true realm of a master artisan….
With those words, the basic explanation concluded.
Metallurgist drew a node connection formula on the blackboard.
It concisely indicated how and where to flow mana at each point.
— Just do it like this.
— Actually, for a blacksmith, how many light sources you can see is also a measure of skill.
— If you can’t see them, you can’t use them.
— This is a simple production item, so you won’t have any trouble seeing the light sources.
— You know how to make rings, right? Go make one.
The video ended.
Now it was time to try making it myself.
Truthfully, I had no experience making rings separately.
I had planned to gift a personally made ring to my lover when I got one later, but somehow that ended up not happening.
That’s not important.
I just wanted to say rings are pretty easy to make.
I connected nodes to a suitably sized piece of dark iron.
I had worried about what if I couldn’t see the light sources.
But all the light sources were captured by my eyes.
Now I had to connect those light sources without losing them until the work was done.
Clang-!
I struck the red-hot dark iron and flattened it.
Thanks to its soft nature, it quickly spread into a flat strip.
Now I had to roll it into a circle.
When I placed the iron on a cylindrical rod and struck it with a hammer, the dark iron bent easily.
‘It’s so soft that making rings is easy.’
This time, I sprinkled borax so the two ends would join smoothly, then heated it again.
The process of joining the separated parts into one.
I had to heat it until the iron appeared white.
Increasing the mana injected into the furnace quickly raised the temperature.
If I hammered the iron that was on the verge of melting together, it was 90% done.
Trim the surface and adjust the size, and it would be complete.
"Wow, easy, so easy."
One ring was made in 15 minutes.
Was it okay for it to be this easy?
Of course, merely making dark iron into a ring shape wasn’t important at all.
What mattered was whether I had contained the mana well inside it.
It was time to check the result.
[Will you complete the production?]
[A Standard-Issue Disposable Mana Barrier Ring (Rare)+0 has been completed.]
[You use 「First Ability」.]
Now the three cards were familiar.
The colors weren’t very flashy.
Since it was a test item anyway, perhaps that was fortunate.
It would be a waste if a disposable item got good options.
[Normal] A Little More
-The barrier’s duration increases by 10 seconds.
[Rare] The Final 1 Minute
-The barrier’s duration increases by 1 minute.
[Advanced] Getting Sturdier
-The barrier’s strength increases by 10%.
Without much thought, I chose The Final 1 Minute.
I had to test the barrier’s durability, so I excluded options that added variables to the barrier’s strength.
"Shall we test it now?"
I tied a string to the ring and slipped it over a watermelon.
It looked like the watermelon was wearing a necklace.
I assembled the rifle parts I had tossed aside while emptying my bag.
If the ring was made properly, it should block rifle rounds perfectly.
Click!
BANG─!!
The watermelon… was pristine.
The moment the bullet was fired, an opaque barrier formed, protecting the watermelon.
How much more could it block?
I flipped the selector to full-auto and pulled the trigger.
Ratatat─!! Ratatatat─!!
Bullets bounced everywhere.
Despite being attacked numerous times in quick succession, not a scratch formed on the barrier.
If sky-blue dots hadn’t floated up, I would have suspected whether it had even been hit.
Click, click.
The shooting stopped.
The barrier maintained the same smooth appearance as at the beginning.
Even when I struck it with my warhammer just in case, the result was the same.
A perfect success.
I announced the test results to the gallery.
[Season 1 whatever ring completed]
Author: Python
(Video)
Emptied a whole magazine and it’s fine.
└Metallurgist: Um… if you shoot guns randomly outside, don’t the police come?
└Python: Who knows?
Maybe they will?
Maybe they won’t.
Metallurgist clicked her tongue in chat as if she couldn’t understand.
└Metallurgist: Anyway, did you secure distribution channels?
└Python: I need to talk about that now.
└Metallurgist: You said you were confident….
└Python: I’ve already thought it through.
└Metallurgist: Anyone can think. So where are you planning to sell them?
I replied while scrolling through my smartphone contacts.
└Python: The government.