Blacksmith vs. the System

"So, how do we start?" Terry asked as every single one of them got seated.

"Sorry, I often get distracted while thinking. You'll have to get used to it," I said, which was merely a distraction as I stopped myself from looking at Soren. For some reason, he had volunteered despite having an external skill.

After a momentary consideration, I decided to ignore it. If he was an enemy, he had better options. While information leak was a possibility, I was not exactly in a position to care about it. On the contrary, the more information leaked, the better.

It would give the established powers something else to care about.

I expected Jennifer to have some kind of comeback. Her annoyance implied that she had one, but the fear that followed stopped her. It looked like she remembered our relative power difference made her attitude a bad idea. Too bad, I was enjoying it.

"Now, the first thing you need to know is that I'm still exploring what Mana truly is, and my information is about as developed as a caveman's perspective on fire. I can use it skillfully, but that's it." Admittedly, that was underselling it, but not by as much as I wished it to be true.

I expected them to scoff, but none of them did. "Mana is a curious thing, it works both as a substance and energy, yet it reacts to our thoughts."

"Isn't it just the System, like Health?" Terry asked.

"Yes … and no," I replied.

"That's helpful," Jennifer scoffed.

That earned a smile from me. "Not supposed to be," I said. "I'm used to teaching doctoral students, not kindergarteners, and there'll be many times I'll have unclear answers. Get used to it."

Amusingly, my reaction made not only her, but the others relax as well. Maybe it was the fact I didn't start threatening her with violence the moment she stepped out of the line. It shouldn't have been a relaxing fact … but in the world we lived in, it was.

"Would you mind going a bit deeper, sir?" Terry asked.

"Call me professor while I'm teaching," I said, which was not entirely necessary, but I hoped it would help them relax. I didn't know if it would work, but it was worth a try.

"As you wish, professor. The answer?" he asked.

"Better. Yes, because just like mana, Health can operate outside the strict control of the System. No, because the way they work is different. If Health is water, mana is gasoline, which is not only more potent, but also potentially explosive."

"Is this why you had warned us?" Spencer asked.

"Exactly. I almost killed myself while experimenting with mana, and I don't want you to ignore that it could easily happen to you as well. Be careful."

That earned nods, but the intensity changed, from a perfectly solemn nod from Spencer, to a confident, bordering on dismissive one from Ryan.

I didn't need Wisdom to know that he would be a problem student.

Instead of saying anything, I raised my hand, and let a glow of mana surround my palm. "None of you can see anything, right?" I asked. They nodded. I focused on mana, and turned it visible.

"Now we can see," Rebecca said. "Does it mean mana is normally invisible?"

"In a way," I said. "The mechanics behind it are more complicated. I'm not just turning it visible, but actively using it, which turns it visible. It doesn't act entirely the same in its natural state, but it's a good approximation," I said. "Now, touch it."

I observed them as they looked at the mana, knowing that it would be a good way to assess their personality. A lifetime of teaching had already given me a good idea of how to manage them, and Wisdom was essentially a cheat code.

They reached, hesitant. Well, mostly. Ryan was unhesitant, yet Logan was still the first one to touch. Jennifer almost had a challenging frown as she touched, while Rebecca was hesitant. Terry was trusting. Spencer was the last one to touch, but I could feel that it wasn't the fear that held him back, but a habit.

Yet, it was Soren that was most interesting. He managed to disguise it, but he had managed to be the fourth one to touch, staying in the middle to look unremarkable. Ironically, with my earlier suspicion, it was even more attention-grabbing.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"It feels weird," Terry spoke, once again showing initiative. "Like it doesn't exist, yet somehow does."

I let it disperse. "Now, have any of you used one of the basic Meditation skills?" Two hands rose, Logan and Rebecca, both hesitant.

"Did it help?" I asked.

"Not really," Rebecca said hesitantly.

"Explain to me how it felt," I said.

She bit her lip, looking hesitant. "I don't know," she said, flinching as she did.

"Calm down and take a breath," I said. "Nothing bad will happen. Just answer my questions. When did you first take the skill?"

"Yesterday," she admitted. "The others that absorbed it already claimed that it doesn't work, but I hoped that for me it would," she said. "I purchased — I mean I went out to hunt a beast —"

"I'm not blind. I know that there's a black market selling and buying them," I said. I thought about mentioning I was the one who had sent orders for it to be set up, but I let that slide for the moment. Not because it was a huge secret, but because I didn't want to distract them further. "Now, how long did you use it?"

"At once, probably twenty minutes, but it makes me very sleepy," she said. "In total, probably something like two hours."

Interesting. That was somehow aligned with my experience, but I only got tired once I transformed it into the uncommon variant and actively modified it. Though, I had Essence helping me, so it was not exactly a fair comparison.

"No one reported any deaths to me, but sometimes, those things can get into reports. Do you know anyone that has been harmed by Meditation?" I asked.

Matching shakes. "Not to our knowledge," Terry verbalized.

It meant no one was as crazy as me to try to run an unknown skill in reverse, which was good. "Any mental image while using the skill?" I asked.

"No," she said. "Just a sense of calm, but it's weird. Almost like … the world loses its color."

Logan nodded. "Everything just gets silent for me," he said. "But, it's not a comfortable silence.

"Interesting," I said, then looked at the others, disappointed that I missed the chance to get their unaltered views, but I had been expecting everyone to have the same rotating sphere as I did, which was also aligned with Maria's descriptions.

But then, it was likely that my initial Meditation skill was still Intelligence-based since she was the source of it, and there was no guarantee that it would be the same, as they might very well be based on Meditation of Decay. It might be that they are Wisdom-based. Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire

Possibly even carrying the concept of decay somewhat.

Unfortunately, the lack of time between the beast wave and mysterious enemies meant that I had to cut some corners. It was regrettable, but between losing some information and turning the experiments into unethical monstrosities, I would always pick the former.

Rebecca continued to explain how she felt while using the skill some more, but ultimately, even with Logan chipping occasionally, there hadn't been any more useful information mixed in.

"Good enough," I said. "Now, who among you wishes to absorb the skill," I said.

"Want?" Jennifer scoffed. "Do we have a choice?"

"Yes," I said sharply, happy with the question. It gave me a chance to reiterate my perspective. I didn't expect it to stick, but repetition wouldn't hurt. "Any time you wish, you can skip certain steps that you feel uncomfortable with, or stop completely. Just because you accepted the initial offer doesn't mean you have to follow everything I have in mind."

"But …" she started, then paused.

"Well, if all of you refuse, the experiment will not progress. It'll probably mean failure," I said.

"Then, nothing will change," she said, but I could feel her anger was mostly performative, mostly mixed with fear. She was testing me, and in doing so, she was actually afraid of death. Admittedly, seeing how other people operated, I couldn't say that it was a misguided general worry.

"It won't," I admitted. "Hence the part I asked volunteers while explicitly mentioning the risk of death. If you think my ideas are too dangerous to even try, we'll stop the experiment, and see if we can empower you in a different way, like pushing Nurture further," I said.

"You'll still help us even if we ruin your experiment?" she asked in disbelief, ignoring Rebecca poking her from the side in actual fear.

"Yes," I replied. I could see that she didn't believe me, which I didn't blame her for. From their perspective, the situation was hardly easy. They had accepted a job offer to move to an expedition to a new town, then accepted an offer for semi-permanent residence in the dungeon … only for the rest to join anyway before the guards abandoned them.

All the while they were being ruled by me, a mere Blacksmith that could fight against hundreds of guards, all the while resisting another dungeon break.

Her doubts were certainly understandable.

I let the silence rule for a moment before I repeated my offer. "Feel free to refuse it," I added, but I could feel that none of them truly believed me. Unfortunately, I didn't have several days to slowly let them process my intentions, not when the situation continued to force my hand in many ways.

None of them did. All absorbed a Basic Meditation. I watched them in silence, waiting for them to finish absorbing the skill, though, since it was a Basic one, it didn't take too long.

Now, it was time for the real lesson.