I took a deep breath as I stood in front of the forge once more, looking at the damaged spear in frustration. I had tried dozens of times, but using the Decay in conjunction with repair proved to be more difficult than I had hoped, leaving me with another choice. Either abandoning the project altogether or using it in combination with Forge.
"No risk it, no biscuit," I said and made a quick decision. I would go forward with the experiment.
It was a quick decision, but not a poorly-conceived one. Even if my skill had transformed and I lost access to some of the common benefits, there would be no loss in the short term. And, the opportunity to figure out how to use Wisdom before the inevitable attack seemed too valuable to miss.
Especially since the beast wave had yet to show any sign of moving, indicating an even bigger attack than we had presumed.
I took a deep breath as I sank myself into the concept of decay. It would have been a difficult concept to envision if I didn't have three different sources of reference, my Meditation skill, the dungeon itself … and the mysterious dreams; all three containing similar yet different features.
I immersed myself completely and began forging daggers, combining my hammer and my mana in equal amounts. The first attempt failed. So did the second one. But, the third one resulted in a slightly transformed dagger.
One that had radiated not only the sensation of a dagger, but also a promise of corrosion. Once again, it was a faint feeling, difficult to notice, only clear thanks to my Wisdom. I launched an attack as a test.
It was promising. For the first time, the attack wasn't a pure wave of blue mana, but a promise of decay. One that reminded me of how I anchored the corrosive aura at the fifth floor around the gate, even if only temporarily.
There, I had just moved the effect that belonged to the dungeon. Here, I created something directly.
I stopped forging for a moment, and instead, launched several attacks through the dagger, using the faint aura of corrosion on the dagger as an anchor, pushing the effect further.
The result was surprisingly good, enough to actually melt the dagger in my hands.
"That's progress," I said and returned to the same cycle of creating daggers, launching attacks until destroying them, then repeating it. Every attempt gave me a more acute sense of how Wisdom interacted with the act, allowing me to apply it even more strongly.
Around midnight, I was able to create daggers that radiated the sense of corrosion with an intensity that reminded me of the weakest insect attacks. "Progress," I said, though I wasn't entirely happy. I had been hoping to force the skill to transform, but it had not worked.
I didn't need to search for a reason. In the process of giving Eleanor the mana variant of her skill, I had already discovered that the transformation required a significant jump, the kind that would put us several stages ahead. Considering my current Mana Forge was an epic skill, even gaining a point was a challenge, let alone jumping it several steps ahead.
"Suddenly, I'm glad that I had been neglecting to improve Repair," I muttered. Maybe that, combined with my other Epic tricks, could make the difference. But, I didn't start working on it immediately.
First, I needed to understand the limits of it. I had forged another dagger, but this time, I actually used the shells from the insects, using Wisdom to enhance the effect —
The dagger exploded, the pieces bouncing off my armor.
"Well, at least that proves it was a good idea to work on it alone," I said to myself. A little pause to think, and I detected my mistake. The recipe using the shells was designed to ward off the impact of the corrosion. Trying to forcibly infuse it with the same corrosion naturally ended in an explosive state.
I tried again, but this time, I focused on the pieces of the shell, trying to empower their effect. It worked … for a second. The moment I pulled away my mana, the balance between the crystal and the shell had been disturbed, and the dagger lost its form. This time, there was no explosion.
I repeated the same trick, then realized the effect was very similar to trying to use the lizard claws without the dungeon crystals from their dungeon. "It's nice to have a solution," I said and made the necessary calculations before I forged another dagger.
I forged several more, increasing the mana I had been infusing into the structure of the weapon with each repeat. Once I was confident that I got a hang of it, I moved on to the next step. This time, I stopped using dungeon crystals, and just used the shells to give me a basis for empowering corrosion.
However, this time, rather than simply empowering their default effect of protection, I did my best to take hold of it and reverse to follow the concept of Decay more closely, turning it into an offensive attack.
Several attempts had been cut halfway as the dagger disintegrated. I adjusted the calculations as much as I could manage, and then repeated them. Each attempt brought me closer to success, until one actually did.
"Disgusting," I said, but with a huge smile. The moment I completed the dagger, it started radiating a familiar aura, one that reminded me of the fifth floor. Curious, I stabbed a nearby tree with it, only for it to start showing signs of death like I had transplanted it to the fifth floor.
Success had never smelled so awful.
For a while, I played with the dagger, once again using the opportunity to get more familiar with the concentrated sense of corrosion. I also used Observe on it repeatedly, which, unfortunately, showed nothing different between it and any other dagger. At least, nothing I could point to as the result of the change.
"I wonder if I can impart it to a weapon based on dense mana," I muttered. However, this time, instead of a dagger, I created a sword, using both gold and silver liberally on its structure. It took several tries, but having near-infinite mana certainly helped.
An hour later, I was holding a sword that radiated an intense feeling of corrosion that was even stronger than the fifth floor, though not intense enough to match the decay of my Meditation. However, I was happy with the result.
It wasn't even about the practical results. Not when I had received a very welcome notification.
[Mana Forge (Epic) 313 -> 314]
Seeing my skill move once again was certainly welcome. Curious if it was just a general accumulation, I forged another weapon, this time a spear.
[Mana Forge (Epic) 314 -> 315]
"Excellent," I said, feeling giddy, but instead of stopping, I forged two more weapons, one hammer to be used in combat. And another sword, which then I promptly damaged.
"Let's see if I could upgrade my Repair skill," I said and looked at the weapon that lay on the workbench, feeling amused. A month ago, I would have been sure that it would be a wonder that could only be purchased from a System Shop.
"Another sword to repair," I chuckled. There was a certain amount of irony embedded, considering I had been hired at first to repair the swords that had been used against the insects. It was certainly appropriate.
I heated up some ordinary silver, and started building a new edge, each blow of my hammer infusing the ordinary metal with not only dense mana but also the concept of corrosion. The juxtaposition of imbuing a metal with an effect that was supposed to destroy should have been confusing … but somehow, it was not.
It felt natural. Maybe it was the effect of my class. Maybe it was all the time I had spent in the dungeon … or maybe, it was my connection with the dungeon itself.
It didn't matter. All that mattered was that I could feel it working. And, I was glad that I had all three advantages, as without it, even with Wisdom helping, I doubted that I could make any progress. Instead, I steadily worked, each blow giving me a deeper understanding of what I had been doing.
With a sudden insight, I doused the sword with my mana as I sank the metal into the depths of the forge, pulling only when it was red hot. As I continued to work on it, each blow not only melded the new material into the old one but also solidified the concept of corrosion on the sword.
I could feel that I wasn't just repairing it anymore. I was elevating it…
When I had delivered the last blow, a sense of happiness spread through me, knowing that, even if it had no impact on the skill itself, it didn't matter.
But, the sudden familiar pain that followed, intense enough to put me on my knees, told me that I was worrying for nothing.
[Mana Repair (Epic) 103 -> Reformation of Quintessence (Legendary) 1]
My eyes widened as I read it. It wasn't supposed to be . The skill proficiency was supposed to stay at a hundred, not regress back to one, as it had been the case for every other time.
It looked like I had yet another line on my ever-growing list of discoveries to be researched further.
A scientist's job was never done.