For once, I was smiling even as I pulled myself to the back of the griffin despite my trembling hands. The trip had been productive enough that even my phobia couldn't ruin my excitement.

[Mana Blacksmith - Level 32]

[Health 960/960] [Mana 0/160]

[Vitality 64 / Strength 64 / Dexterity 48 / Essence 16]

[Skills (4/10)

Mana Repair (Rare) - 25 [Inspect]

Mana Forge (Rare) - 25 [Intuitive Forging, Mana Manipulation]

Meditation (Common) - 1

Hammer of Might (Uncommon) - 53]

"Do you mind if I ask you a question about a skill you have," I asked. The moment I did, she tensed up. Understandable, as it was rather rude to ask such questions. Of course, using identification magic on people without permission was even ruder, but I wasn't entirely surprised by her double standards.

It wasn't the first time I had dealt with the upper crust.

"Which one?" she asked, her tone deceptively calm.

"Just meditation," I replied quickly. "That's how every mage absorbs their mana, right?"

"Just the ones too poor to afford a better variant. Meditation kind of sucks," she said with a haughty chuckle. I didn't care about her unintentional insult. I much preferred that to a tense Maria who would second guess every question. "Why do you ask?"

"I was thinking of the mana alloy experiment we tried. Maybe if I know how mana behaves, I can develop some new experiments."

"About that…" she muttered. "I will be busy for the next few days. The caravan bringing the new recruits is passing through a dangerous spot, and I have to go defend them."

For a moment, I considered volunteering, tempted to spend some time in a location that didn't lack mana, but that thought went as quickly as it arrived. Just because I had gotten somewhat stronger didn't mean I should turn into a barbarian throwing myself into potential danger.

Slow and steady.

"Even better," I said, which surprised her. And, I even saw a hint of hurt on her face. "I need some time designing new experiments and working on some theories. If I prepare enough, I can make sure I don't bore you with repetitive stuff. Science can be somewhat monotone," I rapidly explained.

That earned a chuckle. "Don't worry. I don't find your company that offensive," she said. "I would have loved to spend more time, but with this damnable challenge —" she added, then cut herself. "Anyway, you were asking about meditation."

"Yes. How does it work?"

"Hmm, it's hard to describe it to someone lacking mana sensitivity. But, the easiest way to say that, the mana outside our bodies is different, reluctant to interact with us. Meditation allows us to align with the mana outside our bodies and pull it into our bodies."

"That's it?" I asked. "Any other use?"

"No, that's it," she answered. "It's a fundamental skill, but that's it. The rarer variants have more advantages, like selectively absorbing different types of mana and such, but at its core, it's limited."

"Interesting. And, are there any patterns as you pull it similar to the structure of the spells you use?"

She paused for a moment, thinking. From her attitude, I could see that she hadn't spent a lot of time pondering about it. A waste, but I wasn't surprised. Almost everyone was like that. Just like most people didn't know how electricity actually worked before the Cataclysm, most people didn't really care about the finer mechanics of skills.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A waste.

"It's … softer," she finally replied. "The spells usually work in hexagonal patterns at the center, surrounded by more complicated mana structures. Meditation lacks that. It's more like a gentle spiral."

I wanted to ask a few more questions, but I could see that her frustration was already building up. "Thanks, it helps," I said, ignoring the temptation to ask more. "B3," I called instead.

"Interesting start," she said as she responded, her mood shifting in an instant.

"Well, I have to keep you on your toes. Sooner or later, I'll win," I replied, more than happy to distract her from her earlier failure. I knew that she didn't like to look weak, and she was proud of her, well, Intelligence and intelligence. She would ponder on the question I asked if only to dazzle me the next time.

It would work far better than bombarding her with questions she couldn't answer on the spot.

Even as we played chess, I could see that it was working. Many times, the mana around her stirred and started flowing to her, only to cease its flow and reverse. Unfortunately, while Essence allowed me to see the way the mana moved, it proved supremely useless to glean anything. No more than I could understand a hurricane by just looking from the outside.

The mana just gathered around her in complicated patterns before disappearing into her body.

Still, I was hopeful that, once we landed, she would have interesting insights for me. Too bad those hopes were dashed the moment we landed, and found Eleanor waiting for us. She glared at me. "We have an emergency meeting, my lady," she said.

"Sure. Devon, do you want to join?" she asked.

"He has some emergency repairs he needs to finish," Eleanor cut in. I was pretty certain I did not, considering the halted state of the dungeon operations, but her glare was easy to read.

"True. I need to stay ahead of the curve until the other blacksmiths join in," I replied, not willing to antagonize Eleanor just to join their important meeting.

"Alright," Maria said. "Have a good night," she said, and I went back to my workshop. A lot of damaged weapons were waiting for me there. A quick count confirmed their numbers at eighty. I could easily repair them in under five hours, even lower if I pulled some new tricks thanks to my improved skills. Enough to finish everything before going to sleep despite my exhaustion, but I did not do that.

First, Eleanor was still under the impression that it took me just under ten minutes to repair a sword, so it would be suspicious if she arrived only to find the order was complete. More importantly, I had yet to test my Mana Repair and Mana Forge skills properly.

I had been too busy trying to get rid of any evidence regarding my success to test them properly.

Of course, I had used them to make a few new weapons and fix a few others, but it was mostly following the directions of the System. Certainly not something I would call a proper test, let alone experimentation. "First, let's gather some more data," I muttered even as I started repairing the weapons.

Previously, I wasn't able to see mana. The Inspect skill gave me a good idea about what I had been doing, but the difference was stark. In contrast, Essence didn't give me the ability to see the mana trapped in the metal, but I could use it alongside Inspect to change that. Previously, I was using an X-ray, and currently, I was using a combination of X-ray and MRI, giving me a lot more information than I had expected.

And, with that information, far too many tricks to fix the weapons came to mind. I wondered if I could figure out some kind of cold forging trick with mana. Without a need to continuously heat up the swords, the repair would take even less time.

Intriguing, and utterly useless for the current situation. After all, the whole reason they needed blacksmiths to repair the weapons rather than using repair spells was the lack of environmental mana.

Technically, it was not correct. I knew that repair spell took a hefty chunk of mana. I didn't know the exact numbers, but I had seen mages at work. They had to stop and meditate after a few times. Hard to guess the exact number without knowing their levels, but I would be shocked if it cost less than a hundred mana.

Depending on how much mana I would need, technically it could still be sustainable even without environmental mana. Of course, that was just a theory. I still didn't know exactly what a point of mana represented, how much it would take to repair a sword, the cost of mana supplements, the speed of repair…

Ultimately, however, it was nothing more than a thought exercise. Regardless of the result, I couldn't use it here, because I wasn't planning on revealing my rare skills. I continued to repair the swords, trying new tricks thanks to my ability to better view the structure.

A routine task, but not without its rewards.

[Mana Repair (Rare) - 25 - 26]

Seeing my class skills improve had always been a nice thing, but it turned into something truly wondrous now that I was aware of the benefits. So, I was more than happy to stretch the work to try new tricks with the hopes of gaining more points. It meant I was once again pushing myself to work instead of sleeping … but it wouldn't be the first stretch when I neglected sleep.

Too bad it made me crave a hot cup of steaming, bitter coffee. Or several.

I ignored that desire as I worked, discovering some new tricks thanks to my enhanced vision. Some of those tricks even triggered some nice responses from my Repair skill, allowing it to improve far faster than I had expected. As midnight came, I had merely finished repairing ten swords.

But, the other benefits made it worth it.

[Mana Repair (Rare) - 26 - 34]

One of my class skills had improved significantly. Now, it was time to see if I could repeat it with my newest skill.