The hot air and fumes from the forge buffets me as I make my way inside. Everyone is working at their usual pace. It seems almost frantic, but someone with experience can tell the difference between frantic and fast. And this is not a sloppy place where hurrying would do any good.

I take a moment acclimating myself to the feel of the forge again, before doing a little busywork as Mr. Blackwood finishes this latest piece. As I move around, I pay a little attention to the spearhead in his hand, and there is something different about it.

Minutes pass, and reaching the probable conclusion sends me laughing. After a moment, I can see the obvious, this is a higher quality weapon, probably with +3 attack. That means somebody with good enough control was just at the mana plate. Curious about it and why it took so long I ask the news hire, hired weeks ago when I left the village.

“So, that is a +3 weapon. Do you guys manage to get a lot of them?”

“Most days we get 2. Merlin and one other mage have achieved the prerequisite levels in mana control to run the forge.”

“I never asked before, but why aren’t dozens of mages running the forge around the clock hotter?”

“We tried. But even if we get another runic plate connected that provides mana very steadily and at any rate desired, all that does is increasing the temperature of the forge. The only thing that increases the quality of the weapon is if a single person with good enough control and mana to last the whole forging process sits there. Even changing between Merlin and the other guy mid-way yields the common +2 weapon.”

“That is a bummer.”

“At least we have two people that can give us a steady stream of stronger weapons.”

“Did you figured out why?”

“Mr. Blackwood dropped a couple of hints. Apparently, it has much more to do with unlocking his limits than any help heating the forge, which is mostly a pretense set up by the system. That is why we were surprised when you forged a +3 weapon, but thinking back, it was probably mostly about the better materials or a lucky fluke.”

I send my perception to my inner world and the staff standing right in the middle of it. It is a wonder. After a brief pause, I reply finishing up the discussion.

“Just lucky I guess.”

We all continue until the Smith finishes grinding the spearhead and attaches it to the bean. After using Inspect, I confirm it is a +3 weapon. When he goes back a moment later to the forge, I sit beside the mana plate. I then hear his voice, which seems to only grow deeper as the days passed.

“So, you are finally going to put your mana to good use, hum?”

Looking at him, I see the smile hiding in the corner of his eyes, and say nothing as my simple task becomes all-consuming. With absolute concentration, I send my mana in. A steady stream of mana, that barely counts for the increase of the forge’s temperature. A single mana point lasts over a minute. And while my pool is nowhere near full, it should be more than enough.

Smooth, flow, smooth.

These thoughts take all my concentration and I became the mana entering the little device. Everything around me is simply there for me to observe, but I’m focused on the task, and keep going until I feel something different. My efforts redouble, but it is like the plate is getting further and further away. When the connection is broken, I open my eyes and look around.

I’m in the back room where all the wood is stored with two people dragging me. Ryan and the new guy each hold one of my arms, and I speak just as the Smith speaks:

“That is enough.”

“That is enough.”

Everyone stops. Even if my voice is not quite as commanding as his, everyone can tell we spoke the exact same phrase. Aa they help me up, I walk back now missing a little over 100 mana. That means about an hour and a half or two. I hear him continuing.

“Well you may not have improved extraordinarily as a Smith, but the better mana control was enough to push these blades up a little. Let’s see how much.”

With that, he takes the two spearheads to the grinding stones, and everyone continues doing their normal work. Before joining the others, I take a page from my inventory and quickly draw the running formation inside the mana plate. Even without paying attention to it, I remember almost all of it. The circuit is actually quite simple, and I’m not sure why the whole secrecy, after a moment I can clearly discern the rune that was obscuring the whole formation.

Besides the single new rune, there is nothing else that seems valuable, except perhaps the logic behind how the runes are organized, which would probably help us a lot in reverse engineering other system devices. Maybe even improve our understanding of how runes can be used. An idea that takes me by surprise a few moments later is the applications of this single new rune. We can both understand how it is used, which will make any endeavors in nondestructive exploration much more fruitful, and something even more important. It is an amazing tool to increase the stability and control of mana given that we now could engrave it wherever we wanted.

We keep working for almost an hour before he lets us see the results of his work, and it is magnificent.

Well-made spear. A simple spear made by a master craftsman. Atk. +4 Very well-made spear. A simple spear made by a master craftsman. Atk. +4

We just stare at them for a minute before he puts them on the balcony for the next pickup. We slowly come back to work and I go back to my second impact spear. It was probably a better overall weapon, even if swords can be more convenient.

“Did you guys like it?” After a moment of pause for dramatic effect, he continues: “I thought about making the second one a +5 weapon, but the trade-offs would have been too much. It would be far too brittle, and any benefits from unlocking the +5 tier would not count. You will already be getting the benefits of +4 from now on. Minor as they are compared to +5.”

Wei Li, the most dependable of the beginner Blacksmiths asks:

“But didn’t you make a +4 saw?”

“No, I made a saw that had teeth with the sharpness of +4, the overall weapon was still considered +3 quality. From the fact that you guys took much more care with the saw than any weapon and it didn’t last even a month before there were so many missing tooths you melted it for scrap. Imagine how long a weapon forcibly raised would last.”

At that I volunteer:

“It would probably break on the first few clashes, maybe a dozen if we are lucky.”

“Depending on how far you push yes. Even if it lasts a hundred strikes. Weapons need to last thousands at the minimum.”

We keep listening and asking questions as he continues to expand on a few topics, and I guess this is one of the benefits of moving to a +4 tier. I will need to come here a couple more times until I can unlock tier 5. Given his hints about how much better it is than anything we experienced until now, it is a priority.

Having already spent a decent chunk of my day on the village and running around the mines, I deliver the scribbles along with a few notes to Merlin before heading back.

---------------------------------------------------

As I run back to my house, I feel even faster than before. It seems as if every single day I get faster, and not by a small margin, but by a lot. Curious, after over a week without a proper look at my status screen, I stop and look it over.

Name:Nash

Level:10

Titles:3

Class: [Expand]

65644/0 EXP

Strength

25

Soul

35

Constitution

22

Agility

24

Dexterity

24

Endurance

32

Perception

27

Intelligence

29

Willpower

43

Health

380/380

253

/day

Mana

505/505

50,25

/hour

Stamina

248/248

3,75

/min

Just a single look at it sends my head spinning. I increased all my stats by around 5 points. Endurance even increased by a whole 6 points. It was amazing. I stare at the screen for another few moments and the reason comes to mind. Most of this was the work of my Aether as I was cycling my katas. It’s the only thing that made sense.

With giddiness and anticipation, I wonder how far I could push this mechanic. Even if took me a week to increase all the stats by one point each, after a year there would be no comparison between someone like me and anyone without some game-breaking mechanic they exploited.

As the thoughts start to race through my mind, a calm settles over me. And in the eye of the storm, my gut tells me something. Something I always knew but just wasn't connected enough to really take to heart. This was always within my capabilities. It was not at the forefront of my mind, but each time I exceeded my limits in strength or endurance, I knew that was not the limit for me, and I had long exceeded the limits of even the fastest and most dedicated athletes.

Especially in the endurance department. The numbers may not tell all, but I started with an endurance of about twenty. Even the most hardcore endurance runners would probably not have been able to break the 12 or 13 point endurance barrier. And even that they would have done that by trading off other stats. So they may have only 8 or 9 in strength, constitution and agility.

I had no idea where this feeling came from, but I didn’t think even Pando had anything to do with it. It was more like he helped me in realizing what was always inside me, perhaps inside everyone, if only they could hear their inner voice.

I give another once over the stat screen and stop at the accumulated Exp. I have over 65 K. that is enough for level 15, but that would require a class. I have yet to find a class that suits me. I could always choose something nearly random, but it seemed like such a waste.

Wondering about my skill levels and also class. I groan a little at the massive dump that is going to be. I haven’t looked at it in quite a while, and the messages are probably quite pilled up. After a moment of steeling myself, I open the interface and start going over it.

What greets me is very different than before. For the skills a single big table with all the skills that have changed, and I’m grateful.

Mana Manipulation

Lv. 52

Free Form Magic

Lv. 3

Deep Meditation

Lv. 58

Mana Infusion

Lv. 51

Space/Time Interaction

Lv. 3

Fire Manipulation

Lv. 16

Water Manipulation

Lv. 34

Earth Manipulation

Lv. 35

Wind Manipulation

Lv. 9

Nature Manipulation

Lv. 21

Blacksmithing

Lv. 41

Staff Mastery

Lv. 30

Carrying Skill

Lv. 28

Running

Lv. 59

Unarmed Combat

Lv. 29

Runic Language

Lv. 37

Telepathy

Lv. 3

Perhaps the system just heard my pleading and made this for my benefit, while there is plenty it doesn’t accommodate, the system interface is unique for everyone, though most people if not everyone on Earth should have gotten a fairly similar generic system window. And it seemed more and more clear it did customize by itself. Let’s hope it sticks to some format I like.

Looking over all the skill increases, I’m blown away. Two skills are almost hitting Lv.60. This is quite a bit higher than expected. My highest stat is only in the low 40s. It is again probably the fault of my soul stat. Getting it this Early, and more important, unlocking it opened all kinds of possibilities to ‘game the system’.

Now let's see what I have unlocked in terms of classes. Perhaps it will surprise me. At least a little. Ohh, boy how I was understating things.