"Don't forget to keep your helmet on, just in case," Eleanor said even as we landed. Only when the movement of the griffin stopped, I opened my eyes once again. "Your beard is impressive, but let's not take a risk."

I scratched my beard. Forcing it to grow faster was one of the pointless tricks I could do with Health. I just needed to keep it focused on my face, and it quickened the hair growth. A little bleach, and I comfortably looked like someone in mid-forties rather than thirty-one.

Not all disguises needed to be elaborate.

"Sure," I said even as I looked around, taking note of the environment. The first thing that caught my gaze was the gate made of glowing energy, about ten feet tall and half as wide, enough for two people to pass at once.

Dungeon Gate. The biggest problem Earth had ever faced, but also the biggest source of our growth. Talk about a mixed bag.

Interestingly, contrary to my expectation, there was no mana around the glowing gate. I had always assumed that they were dense in terms of mana. Another curiosity I wanted to explore, but it was not the time.

Around it, was a fortress to defend it, garrisoned by merely twenty guards. It was one benefit of mana dead location. The monsters around were much weaker, though inability to employ mages for anything other than emergencies reduced even that advantage somewhat.

It wasn't a fully fledged camp, but more of a keep, with merely a few buildings in its limits. From the open gate, I could see a secondary wall outside, currently holding several carriages, probably there to transport the gains to the camp.

Looking outside, I could see why they hadn't simply built their frontier camp next to the dungeon. It was on top of a hill, making any large-scale construction difficult. On the flipside, it was easy to defend against the monsters. A benefit, as it was a well known fact that monsters had a tendency to attack dungeon gates from outside.

A defensible location made a dungeon more valuable. And, one advantage of a mana dead location was that the number of monsters was considerably lesser. No wonder they continued to operate the dungeon even after Thomas took the official guards away.

However, it was clear that the fort wasn't relying just on an easily defensible position. It had four large towers, each holding three siege weapons. Large ballistas, to be exact. Their presence was rare, but they were still a part of defending towns.

I couldn't help but sigh as I looked at them. The existence of the siege weapons had been another problem that prevented the growth of the Blacksmiths.

They were just rarely used. A part of it was the cost. I didn't know for sure how much they cost, but considering our town only had a dozen of them to defend a much larger area, I guessed that they were valued based on platinum coins. Their ammunition was equally expensive, but effective, perfect for taking larger monsters that threatened the stationary defenses.

Ironically, their use case prevented the blacksmiths' growth even more.

One problem was making them. There was no recipe for making siege weapons in our Forge and Repair skills, something that continued to be true for my mana variants. Which meant, no easy construction.

If that had been the only problem, it could have been bypassed. Ultimately, the design of a ballista wasn't exactly the most complicated thing. Even if we couldn't make them as good as the other weapons, as long as blacksmiths could forge them for cheaper, the quantity could be used to cover up quality. Once the walls were covered up with hundreds of ballistas, the towns would be even more secure.

The real problem with that strategy was that using siege weapons didn't trigger the System. It meant, no matter how many monsters had been killed by siege weapons, there was no System feedback, meaning no leveling up, and no upgrade of skills.

And, since the monsters' attack on the town was one of the safest ways people could level up, the blacksmiths that tried to develop that direction had been quick to abandon that path. It was another reason to believe that, in the larger scheme of things, Blacksmiths were truly useless, even among the other production classes.

A fact I had also believed up until very recently.

Maybe I would try my hand on making some ammunition. Making an actual ballista was equally tempting, but since I either needed to coordinate with a woodworker, or forge it purely out of metal, which would take too much material.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Not to mention, I could hardly hide it when someone visited.

"I know it can be stressful to enter a dungeon, but please focus. You're representing your guild," Eleanor called, pulling me out of my pondering, also reminding me that I was supposed to be an employee for another guild.

"I was just checking the quality of the defenses," I said loudly. "We need to make sure the dungeon won't be any trouble."

"Not to worry. We're very careful to defend both sides," she said. "Now, follow me."

I did, and stepped through the glowing gate. A brief vertigo hit me as I was enveloped by light.

The next time I was on the ground, I was in a land of twilight, surrounded by a thick mist. At the edge of the mist, tall walls rose, far thicker than the ones outside. Sixteen towers rose high, tall enough that I couldn't see their top, but I had no doubt that they held multiple ballistas.

As I examined the defenses, I was starting to believe that I might have misunderstood the true power of the Griffin family. It wasn't just the number of siege weapons. I didn't know much about the dungeons, but I knew that not many organizations dared to establish permanent encampments inside the dungeon.

It made the operation far more efficient, but it also required a significant commitment to defend. It explained why Thomas taking the family forces away troubled them so much. Without the encampment, they would have been able to just reduce the number of trips but still work with a somewhat high efficiency.

Now, with their forces split into three different encampments, they had to keep their operation slow until the caravan could arrive with the new recruits.

No wonder they were losing money despite the incredible sales price of a shell.

I began to pay more attention to the operation as I followed her.

Unlike the other side of the camp, there were no buildings inside, just several open carts and a few workers currently piling them with bloody shells. "For now, you can use our fortress as a staging ground, but when your guild gets here, they need to establish their own fortress near ours," she explained loudly enough for the others to hear. "For now, you can borrow one of our carts, but you have to drag it yourself."

"That's agreeable, Lady Eleanor," I replied, playing the role even as I grabbed one of the carts and pulled it with me. It was not a challenging job for a blacksmith.

We didn't say anything more as she led me outside, and I dragged a cart with me. Meanwhile, she passed me a small bundle. "In here, there's a map, and multiple flares. It shouldn't be any risk unless you go too deep, as the monsters can't move fast enough to keep up with you, but be careful," she said. "I won't be able to stay with you. I have a patrol to lead."

That was not a surprise. Dungeons were treated as a prime leveling spot, mostly because the risks inside were predictable, especially near the gate. Assuming, of course, there were regular patrols deeper to keep the monster density manageable.

I didn't answer her immediately, but instead watched a scene at the edge of my vision. At a distance, there were two warriors, facing against an insect that was about two feet tall and five feet long, including the dangerous looking mandibles. One had poked it with a long spear, made of ordinary wood. The moment it poked against the shell, the wood started degrading.

The monster attacked him with a surprising burst of speed. He dodged the attacks multiple times, carefully leading it to his partner, waiting for an opportunity. Only when he caught the monster in the middle of its attack, he stabbed, sinking the blade to its mouth.

When he pulled, a sickly glow was around his sword, looking ruined. He probably could use it once more, but it would be the limit. However, the monster was not dead yet.

It required another stabbing, which turned the sword mostly useless. The two warriors managed to take an insect down in tandem in less than a minute. When it died, a small cloud of mana appeared. It dissipated even faster than usual. Even with my Meditation far higher than usual, I shouldn't be able to absorb a point.

I smiled. While meditation wouldn't have worked, the same wasn't true for the mana blow trick I had improvised. It latched it to mana directly, so it should allow me to catch some mana.

I continued to watch as the one that had been playing the bait pulled a few weird looking implements, and used them to pull the largest piece of shell while keeping it pristine.

Interestingly, once the beast died, touching the shell didn't cause any damage.

The shell piece they took was the biggest one, but it was still just a small piece, roughly round, from the center of its back. "They only take one piece?" I asked.

"That's the only piece that can be sold for eight silver," she replied. "The other pieces merely go for a silver, and it's hard to extract them on time."

I didn't ask what she meant. When they pulled back, the monster started fading into some kind of weird blue and white light that matched the dungeon's entrance.

Another feature of the dungeons. Absorbing the dead monster back.

Merely two minutes of work, and they were eight silver richer. Of course, minus all the costs, the fee for the access rights to the dungeon for access, and the cut the guards of the System Store would take… Still, not a bad profit.

"Looks easy," I commented.

"It is, when they are alone," she answered. "When they are more crowded, properly taking them down is very troubling." Then, she looked at my hammer. "Not for you, of course," she said as she led me away from the camp.

We walked about half a mile, before she brought me to a rocky area which limited mobility significantly. "This is the best place for you," she said. "Our hunting teams don't get near here because it's hard to properly bait them without a proper movement area."

"But, it's perfect for me," I said even as I moved toward the nearest monster. It attacked me, but stepping sideways had been easy. I smashed my hammer down and retreated from the path of the attack smoothly.

My skill might be offensively oriented, dodging was still a part of it. It still took ten blows to bring the beast down, almost a minute.

Of course, that was without using mana.

"Excellent. You have eight hours before we return. Don't get too far away, or do something stupid," she said before she walked away.

I twirled my hammer. For the first time, I was feeling excited for a fight.