The next level was just as easy as the first, with some minor differences. There were more goblins in this first room and a hallway that probably led to a second. This new room contained two normal goblins like those he had encountered before and another that was riding a wolf-like creature. If he was going to continue to go off of video games and fiction about goblins the creature was probably a warg. Then he remembered that he had ‘Identify’ and didn't have to guess about what the creature was.

Warg Level 2

Tier I Beast. Class: War Mount

The beast had a class which, based on what Steve had said, probably meant that the warg was the animal companion of its rider; he wanted to try and confirm this suspicion by identifying the goblin.

Goblin Level 2

Tier I Class: Battle Rider

He still hadn't put any extra points into the Identify skill so the information he received wasn't anything impressive, but he decided it was enough to confirm they were bonded companions. The fight developed from there, the mounted goblin charged at them, and he saw an opponent activate a skill for the first time. They went from completely stationary to a full-on charge in one stride. Daniel had not been expecting how fast they approached him and was unable to react in time to avoid the attack. It was then that he got his second surprise. The goblin stabbed its spear at his leg. The spear itself was nothing impressive and was sized to fit the goblin’s small, child-like body, it was no longer than his arm. But when the spear struck his leg it glanced off, the only damage it caused was to his pants.

The goblin was just as surprised as Daniel. He capitalized on the closeness of the goblin after its charge and punched forward with his fist while activating heavy blows. The punch caved in its chest and threw it from the back of the warg. The warg, seemingly unaware that its rider had been dismounted, continued its charge past Daniel and looped around the room. It was then that the other two goblins in the room reached Daniel and tried to strike him with their shivs. He had learned quite a bit about how to combat these creatures now and took advantage of their insignificant reach. His next steps were easy: he pushed one of the goblins onto its back with his foot and brought his readied hammer down onto the other, killing it with one blow. He then brought the hammer down on the other prone goblin and ended the fight.

He looked around the room to try and find the warg only to see Kota locked in combat with it. Daniel moved to help Kota, but Kota looked back and barked at him. Daniel didn't know why Kota didn't want him to interfere but that's the impression he got. After a moment of thought he remembered stories that described wargs as a corrupted race of wolves, maybe this was personal to the wolfdog.

Daniel stood back and watched the fight. He was close enough that if things went bad he could interfere, but he didn’t think that would be needed. Kota was winning without a doubt. If he had to guess, it was likely because of the wargs class; without a rider, it would be far less effective. As he watched he noticed that Kota’s paws had changed color; they were pitch black instead of the light grey of the rest of his fur. The only thing that had changed was the Mutation he had chosen. With a name-like mutation, it made sense for it to alter the body in some way. It was then that Kota lunged forward for the killing blow, closing his jaws around the warg’s neck and ripping it out. It struggled for a second longer before going limp. After that, a surge of brownish-red energy left the wargs body and entered Kota. Checking Kota’s page he saw that his evolutionary progress had increased from 1% up to 5%.

Nodding at Kota they entered the last room. It was once again a hobgoblin warrior just like the last “boss.” This one was level 3 and had more gear than the last one: a helmet, shortsword, and breastplate. The main difference from last time however was that there were two others of what he was going to start calling puny goblins. This would make the fight a little harder and they wouldn't be able to do the same tactic as last time. “Kota you distract the puny goblins, I'll go after the boss,” Daniel whispered. They separated and began to walk around opposite sides of the circular room splitting the goblins' attention. Things didn't go as exactly planned; the puny goblins ended up focusing on him, while the boss tracked Kota.

The puny goblins rushed Daniel with reckless abandon while the boss charged Kota. He took care of them the same way he had in the previous room. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it right? Before he finished off his second goblin he looked over to see how Kota was doing, just in time to see the boss activate a skill that increased the speed of his blow. Kota was unable to move out of the way in time and got a large gash on his side. Daniel finished off the prone goblin and decided now was a good time to use the newly upgraded version of Death Blows and directed the healing he would have received to Kota. He quickly saw the wound on Kota’s side stop bleeding. Daniel sprinted up behind the hobgoblin boss and brought his hammer around in a horizontal arch, activating Heavy Blows as he struck the goblin in its side. He heard a loud snap as the blow connected; he had thought he’d just broken a few of the goblins ribs only to be proven wrong a second later as he felt the flow of healing begin to come towards him; he must have broken its spine. He once again directed the healing over to Kota and waited as the rest of the wound on his side closed up at a visible rate. Daniel could still see the wound, but it looked more like a scar that had been given a few weeks to heal. They appeared back in the training room a second later. “Are you okay buddy?”

Kota whined and turned his head to lick the wound on his side only to realize a second later that it longer hurt and let out a happy yip. “Yeah, I guess it will take some getting used to for both of us.”

Looking around the room he saw that just as Steve had said might happen he was no longer in the room. “We should go for another run, Kota, I bet we can get that wound fully healed up for you.” as if waiting for a pause in their conversation The System message about their completion of the floor appeared.

Congratulations! You have cleared the second floor of the ‘Solo Dungeon.’ You and your companion have gained 750 (1,500 split) Exp. You receive 500 coins.

Item Received: Chieftains Iron Breastplate

Quality: Basic

Rarity: Widespread

Features: Moderate increase to defense

That was interesting. He had received an item for completing the floor. He wondered how that worked since he had not received one on the first floor and if maybe receiving one was random. He didn't remember Steve mentioning that he had received one. The item in question suddenly materialized in the air in front of him and fell to the floor with a loud clang. Bending over to pick it up he saw just how small the breastplate was, he doubted that it would fit his large frame. The piece of armor also seemed to be missing any form of straps that would go around the body to hold it in place. He decided to pull up the wiki to find out more information about armor and loot from the dungeon.

He was glad that he did because he found out that he had access to something called the equipment menu. When putting on a piece of armor, weapon, or jewelry you would have the option to add it to your equipment menu. This would allow you to remove and put on the gear at will though he didn't know where it went when he did. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to wear the armor he had gained from the dungeon. All gear had some small innate magic that allowed it to resize to more comfortably fit its user. This was especially helpful for rings and the like, but it was only to a small degree. The armor from the goblin was just too small and even with its resizing it would not come close to fitting him. He decided to keep it in his workshop until Steve came back and Daniel could ask if he wanted it, if not, he could always sell it later.

Walking back over to the dungeon he saw Kota sitting there waiting for him. “Let's go get you healed up buddy.” He and Kota once again entered the dungeon.

The next floor was again very similar to the others he had seen. Goblins in every room and one additional room they had to fight through. He assumed this trend would continue for the whole dungeon, every floor having one more room they would have to fight through. There were a few more battle ride goblins they had to deal with though it wasn't anything difficult and Kota got more evolution progress which was nice. With those additional kills, his evolution progress was up to 10%. He earned 1% less progress with each kill but Daniel wasn’t sure why.

There was also one new type of goblin they had to fight. In addition to the level 3 warrior in the boss room, and two lackeys, there was now an older looking, hunched over goblin holding a staff.

Goblin Level 3

Tier I Class: Shaman

It was a spellcaster that stood behind the Goblin warrior and the two puny goblins. Daniel stood a few feet in front of the corridor he had entered from, waited for the goblins to rush him, and just like every other time they quickly did so. He killed one of the puny goblins with his first swing. When he tried to take out the second, a blue ball struck him in the shoulder and threw his swing off course, missing the goblin by a few inches. The puny goblin, capitalizing on his miss, stabbed him in the arm through the shiv only penetrated his skin about ¼ of an inch before it stopped. Daniel let go of his maul with one hand and punched the offending goblin in the face. He activated heavy blows with the punch and watched as it caved in the goblin's face. The goblin warrior arrived and activated the same skill that had injured Kota on the last floor. Still off-balance from killing the second goblin the sword pierced into his shoulder with blinding speed.

It was at that moment that they both heard a cry of pain from behind the goblin warrior who immediately turned to see where the noise had come from. Daniel rushed forward and tackled the Goblin while he was distracted, raining blows down on his head and body, not stopping until he felt the now familiar flow of healing energy. Looking up from the now dead goblin he saw Kota sitting over by the corpse of the goblin shaman.

This had been a plan they worked out in the first couple rooms of this floor after what had happened in the boss room of the previous floor. Kota wasn't nearly as durable as Daniel was so when entering a new room, Daniel would get the attention of everything and prepare for the charge. Once engaged, Kota would silently enter and try to find a target to eliminate. Daniel had been surprised that Kota was able to follow such a complex plan. He assumed The System had made the dog smarter and better able to understand his commands as his companion. A second later they were once again out of the dungeon.

Congratulations! You have cleared the Third floor of the ‘Solo Dungeon.’ You and your companion have gained 1,000 (2,000 split) Exp. You receive 750 coins.

This half-experience thing was really killing him sometimes. They were just 111 experience away from the next level. So far none of the fights had been hard, but he wondered if it would be a good idea to craft an item or two before attempting the next floor. Having that extra level might save their lives. He decided that he would. At the same time, he could also experiment with the new materials the workshop gave him access to. With them, he should be able to increase the rarity of the items he crafted. He might also want to craft a backup weapon as several times when he had missed an attack on a goblin the size and weight of his weapon let them score a free hit. It wasn't a big deal right now because of his stronger body, but mistakes like that in the future could kill him. He didn't want to get into the habit of letting enemies land free hits against him.

Walking over to the workshop he began to decide what he wanted to make and with what materials. He didn't want anything too expensive to start. If he was making a backup weapon for himself it would have to be made out of something that he could afford to purchase from the workshop. He would also like a metal with a similar malleability as steel, the metal he was most familiar with working. He didn't want to work with a metal that would lower the quality of his work because of how little experience he would have working with it.

Notice. The first of the 10,000 heroes, Lukas Kisan The Unyielding Wind has fallen on the 10th floor of the solo dungeon. The weight of responsibility falls more heavily onto your shoulders. His loss will become a burden for all those who remain.

Daniel stopped in his tracks at the message. After reading it he could almost feel the increased responsibility that this death laid on his shoulders. One less hero in the world, how many more people would die because of this loss? Daniel stood there for several long minutes unsure what to do. Then he realized something. ‘What am I doing? I told myself that I would use every advantage I had at my disposal and here I am about to make a weapon with the bare minimum of what I have access to.’ It was then that he changed his mind. If he was going to make a weapon and the training hall gave him access to anything that he wanted, then he would use that chance. Sure he wouldn't be able to afford the item, but he could just sell it, then with those profits, he could make another and buy it from the shop. Why should he limit himself in such a way when the workshop wasn’t. He had barely begun to scratch the surface of the knowledge he had gained and he should be using it all to the best of his abilities. Mind made up he began to come up with a new plan.

He still wanted a metal that was similar to steel. Just because he had access to anything that he wanted didn't mean he should be wasteful. But now, the cost was no longer a concern to him. He would make two new mauls. He would sell one then with the money he made he’d buy the other one from the workshop. The next question was what metals he should use. He didn't necessarily want to make the weapons out of the same metal. He would prefer to make them out of different materials and keep the one he liked best. His mind, still working through the problem, brought two metals to its forefront and he smiled. That would work nicely. Cryonite and Thermonite were basically the same metal. The main difference is where they were formed. The base metal both originate from is formed by great underground worms eating metals in the earth. The metals these worms eat go through some kind of process in the worm's digestive tract and, when excreted, a new metal is made. The name of the metal that leaves the worm has no name that can be translated to English, but roughly means ‘metal born of worms.’ Cryonite and Thermonite are formed when these worms excrete this metal in areas of extreme temperature. Areas of extreme cold and of extreme heat. It is in these places that mana changes the metal into its new form. ‘Metal born of worms’ is basically impossible to obtain in its pure form, for once it is exposed to mana outside of the worm's body it begins to change form. It is one of the most mana-sensitive metals in the universe and is greatly prized by all kinds of crafters.

The whole reason he chose these metals is that in their dormant forms they can be shaped just like steel and don’t require special tools that he didn't possess; a lot of other ultra-rare metals such as Adamantite require some insane tools and equipment just to begin forging.

Now it was time to choose all of the materials he would need when forging. He would make each maul out of one block of metal, including the handle. He would need magical reagents that would awaken the innate mana of the weapons. Then he would use the leather of opposing elements to wrap the handles. He would put a fire-aligned leather on the Cryonite Maul and a cold-aligned leather on the Thermonite maul. This would counteract the elemental alignment of the mauls allowing the wielder to hold them without burning or freezing their hands.

With all of the materials in mind, he began to call out hoping that the workshop would understand what he was saying and provide the materials. “I need twenty pounds of Cryonite and Thermonite. I also need an elemental sapphire of absolute cold the size of a golf ball and an elemental ruby of hellish fire also the size of a golf ball. Lastly, I will need twenty feet of leather strips from an ancient fire wyrm and the same amount of leather from an adult arctic phoenix.” Several seconds later each of the items appeared on the workbench in front of him one by one. “Oh, could I also get two mortar and pestles large enough to hold each of the gems?” A moment later those also appeared, and it was time for him to get to work.

Time passed quickly as he worked. At one time Steve came back and, seeing that he was working, went about doing his own things. He worked on both of the mauls at the same time alternating which one was in the forge and which was being worked on. This process made sure that he had no downtime between when he was working and when the metal was heating up. He ended up using his power hammer which the workshop had graciously brought from his shop. He had a lot of metal to move that would have taken a truly ridiculous amount of time if he tried to shape it with his hand hammer.

Cryonite and Thermonite, while similar to steel in many ways, but still had their own unique traits. The main ones being their higher working temperature and significantly lower malleability. It took him a little bit of time to get used to but after a while, it began to feel second nature to him. While he worked he heard nearly constant whispers in his head about the proper way to shape the metal, how long to keep it in the forge, when he should work by hand, and when he should use his larger machinery. He didn't know why the voices told him some of the things they did, but he listened the best he could and he soon began to see the logic behind his own actions. The work felt effortless and sooner than he expected he was done with the shaping process.

Each of the hammers were significantly different; the one made of Cryonite was sleek and narrow. The flat of the hammer was no wider than the flat of his own hammer, the spike on the other side came to a wicked point, the whole hammerhead was very elongated like an icicle. The maul made of thermonite was almost the opposite. The flat, striking surface of the maul was wider than the rest of the hammer, giving it a bit of a lip, the spike was short and stubby, and the handle was a bit shorter than expected. It looked like a regular maul had been squished while the Cryo maul looked like it had been stretched out. The Thermo maul might be wieldable in one hand while the cryo one would require two hands. He had used almost all of the cryo metal in the forging while he had used only half of the amount he had requested in the thermonite one.

The second to last step was wrapping the metal handles in their complementary leather. He used a light adhesive to keep the leather in place for the time being, but once he awakened the metal that adhesive wouldn't be needed. By the very nature of the weapons, the Cryonite maul would freeze the fire wyrm leather to the handle like if you stick your tongue to a lamppost in the winter. While the thermonite maul would slightly melt the phoenix leather to the handle making it almost one piece. Once he had finished wrapping both of the handles it was time for the final step: the elemental gems.

He put each of the gems in their own mortar and began to arduously grind them into a fine powder. He alternated between the two gems, never getting too far ahead on either of them. It took him over an hour to grind each of them to dust and the only reason he had been able to was that the gems weren't actually true gems like how he knew them on earth but mana constructs that weren’t nearly as hard as true sapphire and rubies.

Walking over to the two hammers that were lying finished on his workbench he began to slowly sprinkle the elemental dust on their corresponding hammers. He did this at the same time because once again the voices in his head were telling him that this was the proper way to do it. He did not currently understand why, but he figured that would be revealed soon just like the many other things they had told him to do.

He slowly sprinkled the powdered mana gemstones onto the hammers and watched as the dust absorbed into the metal. He marveled at the gradual transition from the grey of steel to vibrant ice blue and the ever-shifting color of lava. He felt the heat and cold radiating off of the weapons increasing with every passing second as he added more and more of the powdered gems. He noted that while he could tell the temperatures of the weapons were increasing and decreasing, the temperature around him remained the same. It was almost as if the weapons were balancing each other out. Then it clicked. This was why I needed to do both at the same time. I could have gotten heat stroke or frostbite if I did them one at a time. Then, with a flash of light, it was over and new messages entered his vision blocking his view of his newly completed weapons.

Your skill, Master of the Forge, has been activated. The quality of paired weapons increased by one level.

Congratulations, you have created a Cryonite Maul. Quality: Excellent. Rarity: Rare. Awakened Enchantment Quality: Excellent. Awakened Enchantment Rarity: Rare.

Awakened Enchantment: Exploding Icicle. Effect 1: Shoot an icicle at an opponent from the spiked end of your hammer, explodes on contact. Icicle regrows over time. Regrowth speed based on ambient mana. Effect 2: Stab spiked end of maul into an opponent leaving behind an icicle. The icicle explodes five seconds after separating from the hammer. Icicle regrows over time. Regrowth speed based on ambient mana.

Congratulations, you have created a Thermonite Maul. Quality: Excellent. Rarity: Rare. Awakened Enchantment Quality: Excellent. Awakened Enchantment Rarity: Scarce.

Awakened Enchantment: Searing Blows: Heat slowly builds up inside of the maul. After enough energy has been gathered it can be released in a single melee attack that does bonus fire damage with a small chance of lighting the target on fire. Energy gathering speed based on ambient mana.

~~~~~

Experience received Cryonite Maul: 4,000 profession experience. 1,000 class experience: Juggernaut (1,000 experience diverted to animal companion).

Experience received Thermonite Maul: 4,000 profession experience. 1,000 class experience: Juggernaut (1,000 experience diverted to animal companion).

Experience received Awakened Enchantment x2: 0 profession experience. 0 class experience: Juggernaut (0 experience diverted to animal companion). Awakened enchantments are enchantments born from the mana of the world and not your own mana. Because of this, you do not gain credit for the enchantment.

~~~~~

Your profession blacksmithing has reached level 5 (2 -> 5) you gain +3 points to strength, +3 points to endurance, and +3 Profession points.

Your class Juggernaut has reached level 3 (2 -> 3) you gain +4 points to strength, +4 points to constitution, +5 free attribute points, and +5 Skill points.

Your companion Kota has reached level 3 (2 -> 3) He gains +2 points to strength, +1 attribute point, and +1 Mutation point.

~~~~~

You have completed the hidden quest For the Forge 1 of 5 (Rare). by crafting one item of good quality or better out of Rare rarity materials.

Rewards: You have unlocked the For the Forge (Rare) Crafting Legacy questline and one Profession point as well as additional knowledge about the Blacksmithing Profession.

~~~~~

Quest: For the Forge 2 of 5 (Rare): Craft 20 items or better of good quality or better and 1 of superb quality or better out of Rare Rarity materials.

Reward: Knowledge, 1 Profession Point and unknown (The reward may change depending on how the quest is completed).

Pain far more intense than any of the previous times pierced Daniel's mind. He fell to his knees clutching his head as the new influx of knowledge forced its way into his mind, he could feel the blood leaking out of his ears. He fell on his side and curled into the fetal position. The pain was so intense that he wished he would blackout like the previous times, but there was a voice in the back of his mind telling him that if he did black out he would die. It was the same voice that had helped him and guided him through the crafting of the paired mauls. It urgently tried to tell him something, but he couldn't make out the words as a new wave of pain entered his mind.

“I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me!” Daniel screamed.

The whispers came again this time more numerous and more urgent in their prodding. When they noticed his continued lack of comprehension there was another round of whispered mumblings before something changed. As one the voices spoke and, though their voice wasn't loud, the words pierced through his pain-addled mind and he heard the message clearly. “Powerful Organs!” At that moment he understood what the voices wanted him to do, but like the previous times, they had directed him he couldn't piece together their logic. With the pain growing increasingly stronger each passing second it was hard for him to put together a single coherent thought.

Trusting the voices he opened up his status menu. He had leveled up when he had finished crafting the two weapons. The pain almost overwhelmed him once again. The brief respite from the pain the voices had given him was the only thing keeping him conscious. It was almost too much effort to open up his Skill tree but when he finally managed it he put 3 of his newly gained skill points into the skill, bringing it straight to level 2. The pain lessened, and a new skill was revealed in his reinforcement skill tree. He skimmed the new skill, but it wouldn’t currently be of any use to him.

Dense Tendons and Efficient Veins ( 0/5 ): Your Tendons are strong like corded rope and your veins are a perfect vessel for blood. Passive. Your tendons are stronger and able to absorb force better. Your veins are more efficient at carrying oxygenated blood, nutrients, and water. Cost to increase: 1 Skill point.

After he increased the skill the whispers started up again. They still seemed agitated and mumbled to each other, but now that his mind was mostly free of pain he was better able to make out their words. “Not enough!” a seemingly endless number of hissing voices repeated in concert. Then a new voice spoke up quieting the sea of whispering voices “There is more we can do!” the voices took up this new call and once again began to chant in concert “More! More! More!” It was then that the pain returned, and this time it returned with a vengeance. He had not been prepared for this new wave of pain and had let his guard down. The pain shattered his thoughts leaving nothing behind but the ever-increasing pain. He tried to think, tried to block out some of the pain, but as soon as he mounted even a small amount of resistance it seemed that the pain increased its force and washed away his efforts like a flash flood. It wasn't until the voices once again spoke in unison that there was any break in the storm. “Constitution!” He seemed to stand in the eye of a hurricane. A brief respite from the pain. It took him a moment to become coherent enough to parse what the voices had said this time. He understood what they wanted, but he still could only vaguely understand why, but he had trusted the whispers this far, what was one more step. Looking at his character sheet which he still had open he focused on his stats and put all 15 of his unused attribute points into constitution.

Immediately he could feel a lessening of the storm of pain that was outside of his small pocket of safety. Not wanting to feel any of that pain again he tried to reinforce this small pocket of space. He decided that starting his mental constructs would be the way to go; he first started with imagining stone walls around the circular clearing. After they were in place and around ten feet tall he realized that the area above him was still open, and the storm could easily come over his walls to get at him. Changing his plans he changed the grassy clearing into solid stone. He then added a hollow cylinder of stone around where he was standing with a solid oak door. After that was finished he left the room and thickened the exterior walls before being added a roof made out of solid stone sealing him in. He decided it wasn't good enough. Next to the panic room he had made he started a spiral staircase heading up around the cylinder he’d made. Once he reached the roof he made an opening and walked to the next floor of what would become his tower. He repeated everything he did on the previous floors, but this time he added 12 arrow slits in the exterior walls, and instead of a stone roof he made one out of wood. He didn't know if weight mattered in this place but he wanted to make sure his tower was structurally sound. Following that logic, he returned to the first floor and further thickened the walls. He would make them slightly taper as he increased the height of his tower. After that, he continued his work.

He had no idea how long he worked for, but after finishing the fiftieth floor of his tower he was finally above the storm of pain that raged endlessly outside. Though he thought that it might have gotten a bit weaker, it didn’t matter, he was so tired, but he needed to finish his tower. He added crenellations evenly spaced around the top of the tower before he made a bed and layed down on it. He was just so tired and the sky was so beautiful. His eyes closed, unconsciousness finally found him, and Daniel slept safe atop his tower.

~~~~~

When Daniel finally awoke he felt better than he ever had before. He jumped up to his feet in one quick motion and startled Kota who had been laying on the floor next to him. He quickly stretched his limbs to get the stiffness out. He had no idea how long he had been out and decided he would see if Steve was here. Exiting the workshop he called out. “Steve! You here?” He heard the sound of a small explosion coming from the weapons hall. Walking over to the room, he entered and saw Steve holding his new wand and casting spells at shadowy humanoid entities. They rushed at him each wielding a variety of weapons and armor. Steve ran dodging past the blows of the creatures around him while at the same time casting spells. He summoned a shield of water to block off two creatures that were bearing down on him; he quickly turned and launched a stream of fire similar to what Daniel had seen on the news, but different somehow. Keeping the spell active he swung his arm sideways, the stream of fire following the tip of his wand. The stream cleaved through two more creatures. As soon as he took care of that threat a new one appeared. The creatures he had blocked with a water shield had made their way around it to come at Steve from two different directions. Daniel wondered what Steve could do in this situation. If he took care of one of the targets the other would be on him before he would be able to react. Surprisingly, Steve did not seem to panic, instead, he began to back peddle while pointing his wand at one of the creatures. The one he targeted was halted in its tracks as tendrils of stone came out of the ground and bound the creature's legs. It was forced to use its sword to chop away at the stone as the other creature continued its charge. Even with Steve’s quick reactions and his timely retreat the other creature was almost upon him. Steve pointed his wand at the creature as it was bringing its blade down on him. Steve used a new spell that knocked the creature back with a burst of wind. From there the rest was easy for him and after two more fire spells the creatures were dealt with.

Daniel had felt worried for Steve when that creature had almost struck him, but Daniel knew that these creatures were just training constructs and couldn't really hurt Steve. “That was quite well done. I hadn’t seen you use any of your spells besides that fire one and I'm impressed.”

“Thanks, Daniel, and it's good to see that you're up and moving again. You had been out for about a day. I was starting to get worried.”

“A whole day? Really?”

“Yeah, you were lying on the floor of the workshop when I finished my dungeon run. You had some blood coming out of your ears when I found you, but other than that you seemed fine. I wasn't sure what to do so I asked The System what was wrong with you and it told me you were fine and recovering so I decided to leave you alone for a while. It's good to know that it was right.”

“But really? I was out for a full day? And what do you mean you asked The System?”

“Well, you were out for about twenty hours, but we’re in training halls which have time compression so you were really only out for close to 5 hours. And yeah I talked to The System. Apparently, each of the training halls has a small piece of The System or something in it, maybe like an AI? We can ask it questions and it maintains the training rooms for us.”

“That's very interesting. I wonder if it can answer questions about what will happen after The System fully initializes.”

“It can’t. I already asked it and it can basically only answer questions about stuff pertaining to the training room. But you're distracting me. What about you? I saw those weapons you made in the workshop, good work, and congrats on making them, but why were you out cold?”

“I think it has something to do with my crafting legacy feat. I unlocked another questline to make items using rare rarity materials and when I completed it I got a reward of more knowledge. I think what might be happening is that when I get these bursts of knowledge from my feat that it's overloading my brain or something. I had to put two levels into the ‘Powerful Organ’ skill and even then it wasn't enough. I had to put all fifteen of my unused stat points into constitution.”

“Damn that doesn't sound good. Have any ideas what you are going to do about it?”

“I think I'll probably hold off crafting anything for a while until I am able to max that ‘Powerful Organ’ skill of mine. Other than that though I’m not sure.”

“Hmm, well what are your plans for the weapons you made? They seem pretty strong.”

“Well, after that message appeared about one of the heroes dying it hit me kind of hard. My plan was to make the two best weapons that I could then sell one of them and use the money to buy the other from the workshop.”

“Not a bad idea and yeah I saw that message too it's unfortunate and a little sad. But if you won't be crafting for a while, how will we earn enough money to buy the mana stone you need to open your mana channels?”

“Ah, I’m not sure. We might want to first see how much each of them will sell for and what my profits out of that sale will be. I had to get the Workshop to give me the materials so I’ll only be making back my time and labor and nothing on materials used.”

“Well, let's go find out.”

Walking together back to the workshop they entered. Daniel picked up one of the mauls in each hand, walked over to the appraising table, and set them down. He was interested to see how the table would appraise the hammers. On the Thermonite hammer, he had used a lot less metal than on the Cryonite one so he wondered if that would be taken into account. And it turns out that it was, that meant the Cryonite hammer was more expensive, it also had the: he didn't know if better was the right word. It had the rarer enchantment. Based on the numbers shown each hammer would sell for a lot of coins. The Thermonite hammer sold for about 59,000 coins with about 25k of that being removed because of material costs. while the Cryonite one could sell for a whopping 77 thousand coins with 31 thousand of that being lost to material costs. He could sell both of these hammers to get enough money to buy the mana stone, but he didn't think that he had enough points yet into his reinforcement tree to be able to survive the process. So he would have to go back into the dungeon to fight more monsters which was the whole reason why he’d made these weapons in the first place. He would like to keep the Cryonite maul. Not only did it have a rarer enchantment and in his estimation one with more utility, but he also had been using a two-handed maul up to this point and would like to continue using one. Since he would only have to pay for the material costs when purchasing the maul from the workshop, if he sold the Thermonite maul, he would have just enough coins to purchase the Cryonite one. And so he did. He sold the Thermonite maul for a profit of 33,668 coins and he was able to purchase the Cryonite maul for 31,224 leaving him with a profit of 2,444 coins after the whole affair. After the purchase, he decided to bind the Cryonite maul to him using his equipment interface tab, but first, he wanted to give the weapon a proper name. Holding the maul at arm's length in front of him he said aloud. “I name you ‘Ice Fang.’” Nothing happened at his pronouncement, but he hadn't expected anything to, without any more fanfare he equipped the weapon and made it disappear from his hands to wherever equipped items are dismissed too.

“Well, that's an okay name if I ever heard one.”

“I didn't hear you recommending anything.”

“You're right I didn’t. Also, why not sell both weapons? We could buy the mana stone you need.”

“I still need more levels. I don't think I have nearly enough Skill Points in my reinforcement tree, and selling both weapons would just leave me sans a decent weapon which is why I made them to begin with.”

“Makes sense, but what will you do next since you are postponing crafting for the time being?”

“Well, the other reason I made the weapons was because I had been like 100 Exp from level 3 and wanted to reach it before challenging level 4 of the solo dungeon. It hasn't been difficult yet, but with the death of the first hero I want to make sure I have every advantage I can get before challenging the floors.”

“I think I know how that guy Lukas died.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I managed to beat up to the sixth floor while you were out, and on the fifth floor, there was a... mini-boss? I’m not sure what to call it, but it was a single arena-like room with only one creature in it. On the next floor, the enemies changed from goblins to these creatures called kobolds, small lizard-like creatures. Kind of dragon looking, but at the same time not really. My guess is if that trend continues there is going to be another miniboss on the tenth floor or maybe a real boss, I’m not sure.”

“That is interesting, but what do you want to do? Maybe do a team dungeon together?”

“I think we should, but you go on and clear the next couple of Solo Dungeon levels. I have some stuff I need to do first, and I got a pretty nice reward for clearing the fifth floor. I'm hoping you will get an item reward you can use as well.”

“What do you need to do?”

“I get no signal on my phone here. I’m hoping that I have a few more messages from some other heroes that we can get to meet us here. If you don’t mind, of course.”

“That's fine with me. Getting a few more people would be great, especially if we can get enough people for the arena. I’m looking forward to that class item you were talking about.”

“Okay, then it's settled. I’ll take care of this and you clear level 5 of the dungeon then we can challenge the team dungeon together.”

“Sounds like a plan. First, though I’m going to look over my status to see what changed after what happened, then I’ll go into the dungeon.”

“Take your time. I’ll be out of time compression while I’m looking over my messages, so there's no real rush.”

“Okay, I’ll see you in a bit.” Daniel waved to Steve as he exited the training room and when he vanished he sat down on one of the sofas. Kota had also gained a level, but he wouldn't have enough evolution points yet to purchase anything else so he wouldn't bother to check it, instead he opened up his own status menu to see what had changed.

Daniel Martin

Age: 27

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Level: 3

Tier V Class: Juggernaut (Class Specialization Perk Available)

Primary Profession: Crafting Legacy: Level: N/A

Secondary Profession: N/A

Tier I Profession: Blacksmithing Level: 5

Strength: 25 -> 32

Endurance: 13 -> 16

Constitution: 23 -> 42

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Willpower: 11

Charisma: 10

Free Attribute Points: 0

Free Skill Points: 2

Free Profession Points: 4

Coins: 4,305

Class experience to the next level: 1889 out of 3,000

Profession experience to the next level: 550 out of 5,000 (Blacksmithing)

Feats: Troll Regeneration, Crafting Legacy

General Skills: Identification ( 1/5 ), Mental Fortress ( 2/5 )

Class Skills: Tough Skin ( 2/5 ), Heavy Blows ( 1/5 ), Reinforced Muscles ( 2/5 ), Death Blows ( 2/5 ), Powerful Organs ( 2/5 )

Profession Skills: Hammer speed ( 2/5 ), Master of the Forge ( 2/5 )

Spells: N/A

There were a couple of things of note that he saw that were interesting. The first thing was how many Profession Points he had. He had gotten three from his blacksmith class leveling up and one for unlocking the ‘For the forge (Rare)’ questline. He decided he would put three of those points into the skill he had gotten access to when he increased ‘Hammer Speed’ to level 2

Hammer Strength ( 2/5 ): The strength of the blows of your hammer shakes the ground as you work. Passive. Increase the strength of your hammer strikes by 15%. Cost to increase 3 Profession Points.

At level 2 the skill increased the strength of his hammer blows by 15% he still wasn't entirely sure if the ‘Hammer speed’ and now ‘Hammer Strength’ Skills affected anything in combat. It could have just been a placebo effect because he was expecting it to be better.

The second thing of note was the general skill ‘Mental Fortress’ he had somehow gained. Well, he had an idea of how he had gained it, but he pulled up the description to find out more about the skill.

Mental Fortress ( 2/5 ): Your mind is unbreakable for you have an army to stand against any who try to invade. Passive. Increased mental fortitude and access to your mindscape. Cost to increase 3 Skill Points.

He didn't know what the skill meant and he also didn't know how he had gained and leveled a skill without putting any points into it. He decided to do a little reading on the wiki to learn more.

After a bit of reading, he learned that general skills were skills that any class could learn, some of the more common skills people gained being identification which only worked on living creatures. An appraisal, like the table in the workshop, could give the value and some other hidden information about items. Other skills that were also common were skills like mana manipulation which all mage classes learned. The most interesting thing about general skills. Or at least the most interesting thing about them to Daniel was the ways you could obtain them and level them up.

You could obtain them in a few ways. Someone with the skill maxed out at level 5 could teach it to someone else directly, or if they had an empty skill gem they could impart the skill into it, removing the need for the teacher to physically go to the person wishing to learn the skill. There were downsides, however. The teacher can only impart a maxed skill that they knew a total of five times. This included putting the skill into a skill gem or physically teaching it to someone. The other problem was that you can only learn a skill from a soul gem five times and the same thing goes for being physically given the skill. This caused most people to be very picky about which skills they chose since they had a limited number of ‘shortcut’ skills available. The other way to learn them was of course the hard way. They could figure out how to use the skill by themselves or with the help of a teacher without having the knowledge directly imparted to them. This was the most common way to gain general skills since if they worked hard they could eventually learn the skill. Learning skills through a skill crystal or by imparted knowledge was mostly only used to learn skills that were extremely difficult or impossible to learn from general knowledge.

That led Daniel to the most interesting thing about general skills, at least to him. General Skills, like spells, can be upgraded without the use of Skill points. The only problem was that he currently didn’t have a way to be taught any general skills since he didn't have a teacher. He might be able to buy Skill Tomes from the shop to try and figure out how to learn some of the skills, but it would be almost impossible for him to learn any other skill like how he had done it with ‘Mental Fortress.’ After all of his reading was done Daniel rose to his feet. It was time to enter the Solo Dungeon once again.

“Come on Kota we got work to do.” Kota hopped to his feet and gave him that doggy smile with his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth.