As I walked through the third floor of the dungeon, I felt even more enthusiastic. I wasn't able to see Eleanor in the morning, but thankfully, she hadn't forgotten to drop the maps of the first three floors.
She even marked the doors to the fourth floor — with a note warning me to stay away for my safety — which meant I didn't need to search the entirety of the huge area. And, that area was truly huge. Almost thirty miles in radius. Combined with the limited visibility, it would have been torture to search through it.
I truly needed it. After realizing that my plans of setting a forge on the fourth floor were more infeasible than I had realized, I decided to move my small forge to a new spot. And what better location than the gate that was farthest from any entrance.
Having a real map made moving easy, and I was strong enough to pull everything — including the large crucible — with me easily. This time, knowing I had to move, I brought it with me.
I didn't need to leave the cart on the first floor after taking over the gate protection and maintenance. And, having the cart with me, I didn't need to waste the material from the beasts I killed, piling the broken shells into it.
When I arrived at my destination, I picked a hilltop a mile away from the gate leading to the fourth floor. After some effort to set everything at the forge, I started digging a small pool not too far away from the gate, and covered its bottom with anti-corrosive metal. It was a thin layer, but it should be enough to maintain it.
Then, I forged two large buckets, but I didn't bring them with me.
Instead, I changed into my combat set, took the spear and hammer with me, and jumped through the gate. After experiencing the sudden onslaught at the other gate, I was prepared for the challenge. However, being prepared didn't make the challenge easier, particularly since I had been doing my best to rip the broken shells.
I needed a lot of material for my setup to improve Nurture.
Since I wasn't trying to push through the monsters, I filled my oversized buckets before going back, carrying some of the stuff. Several trips later, I had enough water to swim in if I wished, which meant I could experiment as I wished.
I filled one of the buckets with the best fertilizer with the least poison I was able to come up with, and brought it near the forge. Behind the hill where I set up my forge, there was a small deep valley. One that was perfect for growing an experimental orchard.
"Let's try it," I said as I set twenty cuttings from half-dead shrubberies, and fed the first one with a drop before flooding them with enough Health to satisfy the requirement of the skill.
[Nurture (Uncommon) 34 - 35]
"Excellent," I said, happy to see a response from the System. I was even happier to see that the sapling had grown considerably, sprouting almost two inches. Not exactly a great amount, but considering it only took a smidgen of health and a drop of poison-fertilizer, the growth was incredible nevertheless.
While using dungeon water allowed the dungeon plants to grow outside, the actual growth was next to negligible compared to what I had achieved inside the dungeon.
I repeated the process even as I grabbed one of the vitality-dense bars I had brought along — this time with enough presence of mind to leave them on the third floor — to replenish my Health slowly, once again amused that a Blacksmith could increase the skill level faster.
[Nurture (Uncommon) 34 - 49]
Still, whenever I repeated it, I focused on the sensation of Health leaving my body, doing my best to get familiar with it. I had already been planning to learn how to use Health directly, to see if I could push Repair and Forge higher by using just silver — as finding a sufficient amount of gold to forge weapons seemed to be a challenge — and Eleanor's attack had only intensified that desire.
It was a dangerous world, and having an extra weapon was always welcome.
After several rounds, my Nurture had stabilized in the mid-fifties. Which would have been an easy pattern.
Instead, I returned and mixed another fertilizer, this time both the poison and fertilized effect stronger. However, for this batch, I also mixed the purest fertilizer I could manage. After playing around, I realized the best way was to use a stronger poison effect.
While, at the same time, giving the plant enough material to trigger its growth.
"It can't be that easy," I muttered as I replicated the same process with a sapling I had brought from outside for this exact purpose. It … died.
"Not a surprise. It doesn't have any inherent resistance," I muttered. "Maybe if it's stronger," I said. I used some water from outside I had brought for this exact purpose and carefully enhanced its growth. Soon, I was looking at a sapling that was two feet tall and looked far healthier than the others.
It cost me almost ten minutes, and three hundred Health. And, it didn't even increase my skill.
Then, I used the cleanest dungeon fertilizer I had discovered. One drop had been enough to make it wilt helplessly. I tried to reverse it, which cost me even more.
To make it even more annoying, there was no skill improvement.
"Alright, it's clear that the dungeon plant has some kind of resistance to the poison aspect," I determined. The mechanics were no doubt interesting, but I didn't have the equivalent of Repair to properly analyze it.
"It looks like the theme of the day is pointless repetition," I said even as I increased the number of saplings. Soon, I was feeding them with stronger and stronger fertilizer first, pushing them to a certain size before I poisoned them.
My Nurture skills climbed higher and higher. Then, noon arrived. I had depleted the small pool I had created, but it was not for nothing. I had reached my glorious point of success.
"Beautiful, " I said even as I looked at my small, unambitious tree plantation. None of the trees were taller than my height, and they were the ugliest little things I had ever seen with crooked branches and thin, listless leaves.
But, it represented two things. One, unlimited fuel for my forge.
Two, another beautiful experiment.
[Nurture (Uncommon) - 72]
"Let's see if you'll be able to survive the poison," I said even as I used the shovel to carefully uproot it from its place while I stuffed my mouth with some extra food. Then, I brought the tree next to the gate.
I left the tree behind as I went down, killing the monsters around the gate — their presence wasn't as intense, but I still had to kill several giant monsters. Then, I broke their shells into a mixture of small and big pieces and picked a small spot near the gate that wasn't submerged in water.
The wet mulch wasn't too difficult to dig.
Then, I returned to the third floor and brought the small, ugly tree I had brought with me. The moment it arrived, it started to wilt.
I immediately put my hand on its surface, pushing as much as Health as I could manage in short bursts.
[Nurture (Uncommon) 72 - 74]
Unfortunately, despite that, the tree started to wilt rather than grow. I repeated the attempt multiple times, each attempt slowing down its demise to some extent. But, ultimately, it ended up as a dead, dried tree, and my current health was insufficient to resolve the issue.
However, while it was a sad loss, there was a great benefit to it as well.
[Nurture (Uncommon) 99 - 100]
[Perk Options — Growth / Harvest]
"Excellent," I muttered even as I went back to the third floor, once again going back and forth until I had refilled the pool. Not only that, but I had also added a hundred more saplings to my little tree plantation.
With the skill already at its peak, I was able to grow those saplings far more efficiently, both in terms of Health required and time. Raising a small orchard didn't even take enough time to reach midday.
Now, it's time for another forging experiment," I said. I cut ten of the trees and used them to create a nice cozy fire, capable of easily melting and cleansing the limited silver I had.
This time, I tried to engage Nurture to push Health directly to the molten metal, followed by slowly feeding mana. It worked enough to hold the material. Unfortunately, suddenly, it was my speed of releasing mana that was a problem.
"Luckily, it's not a big problem," I said as I looked at the large pile of broken shells, each representing an incredible amount of mana I could directly use in the form of a mana blow. Especially since the new trees had been able to burn brightly enough to release the mana from the shells completely.
"Fascinating," I said as I rapidly started to forge the smallest silver daggers I could manage, using the poisonous dungeon water to quench them, and then destroying them just as quickly.
Now that I wasn't trying to ration the mana I was able to use, the skill started to rise rapidly once again.
When it was past midday, I was looking for a beautiful new text.
[Mana Forge (Rare) 99 - 100 ]
[Perk Options — Modify / Masterwork / Rapid Forging / Mana Control (Mana Manipulation) / Durable]
If there was a further variant of Creative Forging, it would have been a tough choice. Without it, Mana Control was the clear option. Maybe, with that, I might break the limit on my sword skills.
However, as much as I wanted to try that, improving Repair was more important. So, I forged the strongest, most mana-dense silver dagger I could manage before systematically destroying and repairing it until the skill reached its limit.
I didn't even have to think before I chose to improve Advanced Inspect, as it was still my single most important Perk.
[Mana Repair (Rare) - 104 [Observe]
Mana Forge (Rare) - 102 [Creative Forging, Mana Control]]
"Beautiful," I celebrated, ignoring the temptation to tinker with them even more. With the materials in hand, I had already reached the limit. For the next stage, I needed gold, probably in bulk, and likely even more mana than I could get from the broken shells of giant monsters.
So, as much as I wanted to play with them more, I decided that it was time to fight some more.
However, not before I completely reforged everything.