Blacksmith vs. the System

Assuming, of course, I didn\'t reveal my upgraded skills. That particular secret was still too volatile to reveal.

Since I had decided to show off, I decided to focus on the biggest problem while she continued to examine his pockets. "Would I be wrong assuming that he\'s somehow behind our most recent supply problem?" I asked.

"Supply problem?" she asked, surprised.

"The bronze ingots. You mentioned it when you arrived before I showed you the body," I said.

"Ah, right," she said, then paused. "Yes, that\'s correct. He was here to refuse our latest request. Apparently, there had been some problems with the System Shop."

"What kind of problems?"

"We have purchased the swords and the bronze from the same System Store. It\'s in the middle of nowhere, and it\'s currently defended by four families. Our Griffin family is one of the five families that have shares in that System Store, which meant we could purchase some of the limited stocks every week. But, the traitor here informed us that there was a dispute about the shares, so the next delivery will be delayed."

"Supposedly," I said.

"Right," she said. "Since he proved to be a traitor, that might have been a lie," she said, looking relaxed. "Maybe there\'s no problem. I just need to fly and check. It\'ll barely take a few days."

"Maybe," I said, then paused. "Or, there\'s actually a problem, and he\'s deliberately underselling the importance of it to prevent you from seeking an alternative solution until it\'s too late."

I wasn\'t entirely honest in saying that. If the problem was as serious, he wouldn\'t have tried to assassinate me. From their perspective, I was just a blacksmith that could work a little faster. I would have been useless without bronze.

Not a nice thing to do, but it wasn\'t the first time I fibbed some of the details to get a bigger grant.

Still, thanks to a lack of remote communication, it would take a few days to check the situation, and meanwhile, I could use that as an opportunity to push for some new experiments. It wouldn\'t be with that particular bronze alloy, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

"You\'re right," she said, looking tense. "We have enough stock to keep us going for a few weeks, but if we are delayed, we will have to stop just as the dungeon starts operating. I need to fly there myself."

"Maybe that\'s not a good idea," I said, happy to delay things a bit more. "You\'re the strongest person in the camp. What if something happens in your absence." She looked thoughtful. "And, wouldn\'t it be better if you kept the fact that you\'re suspicious of him a secret? I don\'t know exactly what you are dealing with, but I\'m sure it\'ll be helpful."

"What do you mean?" she said. "He died in our camp while trying to assassinate someone."

"Did he?" I asked. "Or, did he leave the camp and disappear?"

"What do you mean?" she repeated.

"You mentioned that he had already left. Did you watch him leave, or did you just assume?"

"I watched him leave on a griffin an hour ago," she replied, then paused. "I see. Since he had already left, and he returned under invisibility, we don\'t have to explain anything. We have dozens of guards who would swear that he had left safely. Wilderness can be dangerous, even for someone at level sixty-seven."

I couldn\'t help but tremble when she mentioned that number. "That high?"

"Yes. He bragged about it a lot during our meeting. You were really lucky."

I gulped. I was lucky indeed. If I didn\'t follow Maria to that leveling trip, I would have been dead. A good reason to get even stronger. "It makes sense. I\'m sure Rosie will be happy to confirm the situation at that shop for a price. She\'s good at finding out stuff like that," I said.

There was no harm in sending some work for a nominal ally, especially since I needed her goodwill. I had a lot of questions to ask her during our next meeting.

"A good point," she said. "Still, it doesn\'t solve the main problem. If there\'s a problem with the supply, we\'ll be in trouble."

"What if we can find an alternative to bronze swords," I asked.

"No. We tried everything. That\'s the cheapest alternative we can purchase that doesn\'t just melt completely. Anything weaker, and the weapons get destroyed completely. And, anything that\'s too strong to resist the effect completely is not enough to make it economically feasible. We calculated them ourselves."

"That\'s probably true, but that\'s not what I was talking about," I replied. "What if we forge something ourselves?" I said. "I\'m sure there\'s a mine nearby, and even if there\'s not, there\'s too many ways to buy ordinary metal. And, we have a dungeon next to us, providing us with a lot of excess material. As long as we use them to forge weapons, we don\'t have to deal with a long and dangerous supply chain."

"We already thought of that. The dungeon has no material that can be used to make any alloys, let alone one that could resist the corrosion of those damned monsters," she countered.

"No, that\'s not correct," I said. She looked confused. "There\'s no material with a recipe that\'s already included in the skill," I corrected. "We can experiment and see if there\'s an alternative," I said.

"Would that work?"

"Maybe," I replied.

"What do you mean, maybe?" she said.

"It\'s an experiment. I can\'t guarantee you results, certainly not in such a short time," I said. Admittedly, I was more interested in the opportunity to experiment endlessly in the next five days than the possibility of success. "But, either way, it\'s not a big investment. Some ordinary metal, and a lot of material that you get from the dungeon. And, it\'s not like I\'m too busy," I said.

"Makes sense," she said.

I paused for a moment as inspiration hit. The opportunity was actually greater than I had first realized. "Actually, there\'s something else we can do," I said, hoping that she would buy the idea.

"What?"

"Well, it\'s clear that your opponent wants to prevent Maria from succeeding in her mission. It\'s inevitable that they\'ll have some spies, and they might do something more excessive if we make any progress. And, we still need a better story for the death of our traitor."

"He died in the wilderness. It\'s good enough."

"As an official one. But, the one that sent him here knows better … unless, of course, there\'s a better explanation."

"Spill."

"We frame it like I have died, and during the process, the forge somehow exploded, burning the building. You can say that there was a second unidentified corpse. Meanwhile, we bring the forge to a basement that people can\'t access, where I work alone, hidden from anyone but you," I said. "That way, you won\'t have to dedicate a team trying to save me from assassins."

"And, you would be alright living in a basement without getting to go outside?"

"It wouldn\'t be the first time I locked myself in a dark room trying to solve a problem," I said. "And, there\'s a lot of people that walk around wearing helmets. I can always disguise myself as another newly hired guard. A beard and some hair dye should solve everything."

She looked at me with a frown. "You come up with that plan quickly," she said.

I couldn\'t help but smirk, my mood was admittedly too good for someone who had been just assassinated. But, the idea of a private lab where I can actually experiment to my heart\'s content was a good tradeoff. Still, I wasn\'t above using guilt to push the limits of science. "There\'s something about being assassinated by invisible people that really inspires me," I snarked.

"Good point," she admitted guiltily. After all, the defense of the camp was her responsibility. If I was found dead with no assassin around, it would be a big black mark against her. Not to mention, without my teaching, there was no guarantee the other blacksmiths could discover the repair trick in a reasonable timeline.

In both ways, I had saved her ass.

She pulled a ring from the dead man\'s finger and threw it to me. "Put this on, and don\'t make any sudden movements," she said. A little morbid, but I still put that on. A weird, fuzzy sensation covered me even as my skin started to show what was behind me.

An interesting effect.

I walked a little, careful not to make any sudden move. "Good, now follow me," she said. I did so, staying behind her to not run into anything or anyone. We stayed near the walls, and soon, we were at the center building, which functioned both as a headquarters and a residence for the two.

Interesting choice, but considering it was the most defended building, it made sense.

I pulled the ring from my finger and put it in my pocket. It was a beautiful survival tool for emergencies. Eleanor said nothing, too distracted by the next steps to care about an item with limited effectiveness under most circumstances.

For me, it might be the difference between life and death.

"You\'re familiar enough with the building," she said, clearly unhappy about the fact. "Go to the basement and pick a room that we can fit a forge into. I\'ll return in an hour."

As I walked toward the basement, I couldn\'t help but think that she was right. I was too chipper for a man who had just survived an assassination attempt.

But, the payoff made it worth it.