I finished repairing another sword, and reached to my left, and pressed a button, triggering the primitive feeder I had constructed. Since the repair time had been dropped to just below three minutes, walking to the damaged pile to pick a new weapon was actually slowing me down, especially when the first fifteen seconds were waiting for the sword to warm up.

The feeder not only brought the sword closer but also placed it at the edge of the forge so it started to warm up properly while I finished polishing up the sword in hand.

That, alongside other improvements, allowed me to drop the Repair time to three minutes. "Assuming, of course, this stupid device stops malfunctioning," I muttered even as I turned to the side. There had been some trouble with the feeder despite its simple mechanical structure.

It was harder to make things without the convenient schematics from the System.

However, when I looked at the machine, I noticed something different. It didn't feed, because there weren't any. The swords had been repaired. All of them.

"Well, that was faster than I had expected," I muttered. It had been barely five days since arrival, and not only was I able to meet the daily consumption but had also finished the backlog. Of course, that was only because the dungeon operations had been slowed down to a crawl once Thomas took away their best fighters. Once the new recruits arrived, I wouldn't be able to meet the demand alone. Still, it was a fascinating achievement.

If I played it well, I could get some more concessions from Eleanor, who was mostly responsible for running the camp despite the fact that Maria was supposed to be the leader. A dynamic that I started to get familiar with since I had been invited to their dinners regularly.

Technically, I could bypass Eleanor and ask Maria directly. She was much more careless when it came to financial matters — one disadvantage of a privileged upbringing — which meant she would be even more generous. However, I ignored that temptation. Doing so would sour Eleanor's feelings. Maria might have warmed up to me, but I doubted that it was to the point of ignoring her best friend's negative suggestions.

No, I wouldn't take that risk for a potentially minuscule reward.

Especially since my hard work came with some incredible rewards of its own that made any payment from them just a bonus.

[Blacksmith - Level 22]

[Health 660/660]

[Vitality 44 / Strength 44 / Dexterity 22]

[Skills (3/8)

Repair (Common) - 36 [Inspect]

Forge (Common) - 23 [Intuitive Forging]

Hammer of Might (Uncommon) - 7]

My Repair skill had improved by another ten points as I had worked on the swords, which played a role in my increased performance. Too bad it was already slowing down. During the last work day, I merely gained a point for Repair. The benefits to my new process was slowing down, which meant that I would probably need weeks, maybe even months to reach fifty points.

Then, I chuckled. "It didn't take long for me to get greedy, did it?" Just a week ago, I was expecting it to take a month to just improve from twenty-four to twenty-five, and now, I was looking for a similar timeframe to reach the next threshold and feeling as though it was going to take too long.

The sensation of getting better in three days in a way that should have required years of work was truly addictive. My improved skills had not only given me better instincts when using my tool, but also more information.

However, I wished that information was freely available rather than triggering when required.

"Now, what to do?" My Forge skill was yet to clear the threshold, but unlike Repair, it had been intentional. I had been hoping to do some research and see if I could find something about the conditions to trigger the unusual perk.

I didn't ask Eleanor or Maria about it. Even if they knew such a thing was possible, I doubted that they would know the conditions to trigger it for Blacksmiths. They were not really interested in the process, just the results.

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And, if they didn't know, seeking such information might have made me even more of a target.

Maybe I was paranoid about not revealing it. It was entirely likely that Eleanor would confirm that it was a well-known fact among warriors of their calibers.

But there were too many ways it could go wrong, and I had already achieved too much, which had already marked me. I didn't want to push my luck too much.

That left two options: I would either waste time trying to read the same dozen journals on material science, hoping to learn more … or I would take the risk to push Forge into the next threshold.

Pushing myself to the next stage would have been simple. Just by forging three more daggers, I would reach there. But, I was starting to have a different plan. One that depended on whether Maria would trust me enough to let me borrow an item from her.

Or even enough to reveal whether she had one in the first place.

The enchantments like sharpness, piercing, and resistance were relatively common. The System Shops held them in abundance. But, there was also much rarer equipment that increased Health and Mana capacity, which were invaluable for anyone fighting in the field.

There were also rumors of items that directly increased Stats … but that's all they were: rumors. Their existence certainly made sense, but ironically, that made it even harder to guess whether they were real or not. Even if they existed, they would certainly be too valuable even to borrow, and I couldn't ask for them.

Luckily, for my plan, I didn't need to ask for that. Just an item to increase Mana would be more than enough to test my theory. If it worked, excellent. If not, I wouldn't lose anything.

I just needed to wait for the next dinner to probe for the opportunity.

But I wasn't planning to waste time waiting for said opportunity. I grabbed a sword with Sharp enchantment. It wasn't made of the mysterious bronze alloy, but a more ordinary type of iron, the kind that many people had.

I had purchased it from one of the guards, paying forty silvers for it. It would have been a steal if it wasn't for its significantly damaged state. It wasn't just the blade that was damaged, but also the enchantment, making it far less efficient. Forty silver was a significant overpay.

However, considering that I couldn't risk ruining the bronze swords without annoying Eleanor, it was a good trade. For the last two days, I had been using my Inspect perk on it repeatedly, trying to get a better sense of how Enchantments worked.

I had been working on it for two days, poking and prodding the enchantment to understand how it worked, but to no benefit. To be fair, claiming that I had been playing around with the enchantment was a better way to describe it. I had no ability to manipulate the enchantment itself, so I had been deliberately breaking and repairing the metal, trying to get a better sense of how the enchantment worked.

I had spent quite a bit of time on it, and all I achieved was to weaken the enchantment even further. I felt like a caveman repeatedly banging a computer case hoping to learn how it was made.

But, I had to start somewhere. And, the caveman banging on a computer might have better luck if he could get a real-time view of all the internals. Every little bit counted.

I was lost in my thoughts when the door opened. I looked up, expecting Eleanor, bringing another batch of swords to repair. Instead, it was Maria. "Hello, boss," I greeted her cheerfully.

"Did I finally catch you wasting time on the clock?" she asked, far too happy to do so.

I chuckled. My cheer was not just about the opportunity to ask for a chance to borrow her items. It was genuinely amusing to see her longing for a chance to tease me. Not due to any malice, but because for once, she wanted to be on the other side of the experience. Mostly, it was Eleanor trying to convince her to be more responsible and hardworking.

"Unfortunately, not the case, boss. I ran out of swords to repair," I replied, more than happy to crush that particular hope, earning a cute pout back.

"Good, then I don't need to plan anything before we go for another leveling trip. Let's go."

"Right now? We don't have much time before it's evening," I commented. "Factoring in the flight time, we will have less than an hour. Do you think it's worth it?"

Maria shrugged. "Maybe, but I have just finished dealing with that annoying woman, and I don't have anything else to do. Since you don't have any work as well, why not use it. Or are you afraid of losing again, professor?"

"Never," I said, playing into her hobby of demolishing me in chess. "However, I have some experiments to run before the recruits arrive…" I started, knowing that she would ignore that. "Actually, since you're here, I have a quick thing to ask."

"Go ahead," she said.

"May I borrow one of your items, one that grants Mana? I have a feeling that, by using it, I might actually figure a trick to bypass it."

"No," she said, her smile gone.

"Sorry if it was too much to ask," I quickly said, not wanting to annoy her too much.

She shook her head rapidly. "No, that's not it," she said. "I said no because it wouldn't work. Any items that grant additional Stats or Mana only work up to a percentage of the existing state," she said.

"Meaning, it won't work if you don't have the original stat. I see," I said, unable to hide my frustration. I had been very hopeful about that fact.

"Sorry about that," she said.

"Not your fault," I answered. It wasn't like she was the one that decided how the System worked. Still, it was frustrating to see the plans I had worked for during the last few days had been ruined because of one detail. One that was quite common in her circles if the ease she revealed that was any indicator, along with the confirmation of the existence of Stat boosting items.

"I can try to help, I don't have anything to do," she offered, no doubt taking pity on my mood.

I was about to refuse … but then, I changed my mind. It might not work … but then, it might.

"That would be excellent, boss," I said with a big smile.