I took down a few monsters while Eleanor walked away, still holding back, ripping the shells carelessly from their bodies. I didn't absorb the mana from them, both as a test of my abilities without mana assistance, and as a precaution in case she was still nearby.

Naturally, there was no reaction from the System. The insects were decent enemies, but not enough to help someone around level thirty to level up immediately. By spending about a minute each monster, the leveling efficiency would be much lower than trying to fight outside.

Then, there was the weapon destruction effect. While it wasn't as much as directly plunging into the mouth of the beast, every hit to the shell degraded the weapon somewhat. It was impossible to notice it with the naked eye, but with the Advanced Inspect, I could easily watch the damage. That effect got even stronger once a shell was cracked.

It was some kind of spell, sticking to the surface of the metal to worm itself to the surface, almost working like acid for a second before fading away.

It was interesting, but I couldn't focus on it as much as I wanted. Watching one of them bite a huge rock into two was enough to remind me that this operation was not without risk. Maybe I could spend more time testing it if the guards capture and immobilize one.

For now, it was time to improve my combat skills, and maybe gain a few levels. I first pulled the cart behind a rock. The monsters didn't seem to care about inanimate objects, but even if they did, I didn't care. Instead, I moved deeper into the rocky area, holding a broken shell in my hand.

Once I was sure that no one was around, I smashed it aggressively, and drained its mana.

[+3 Mana]

"Well, that was much less than I had hoped," I muttered. Normally, I would be able to drain almost twenty mana from a similarly damaged shell, but it was without the dungeon absorbing it back. Not that I cared much.

Then, I pulled the map Eleanor had given me, and examined it. The map only showed the first floor — as there were similar glowing passages that led to other floors — which was roughly circular.

With a radius of ten miles.

And, as if the idea of a pocket universe wasn't fascinating enough, I also knew that ten miles was relatively small as far as dungeons went. Truly fascinating.

Too bad I was here, inside an incredible miracle, only to kill monsters like a barbarian rather than exploring it as a proper scientist.

The map showed the patrol areas and the safe spots clearly. Eleanor had given it to me to keep me from getting into trouble, but I had the exact opposite intention. For me, it represented the best areas to operate.

"But first, a test," I muttered as I moved toward another monster, and pushed the mana to the head of the hammer. Though, once again, I was able to repeat the trick of mana attack only when I thought of the hammer as a forging tool.

Though, even as I faced the monster, and barely dodged the attack, I realized a small problem. Focusing on my Forging skill meant that the reflexive footwork didn't arrive. I was barely able to switch skills before throwing myself to the side, rolling painfully.

[Hammer of Might (Uncommon) - 53 - 55]

"Note to myself, be careful about switching skills," I muttered as I looked at the corpse of the monster. If that blow didn't kill it in one hit, it wouldn't be that easy.

I sat on the ground, watching the mangled remains of the beast. The mana blow, even if it was just worth three points, increased its effectiveness against the shell significantly. It had turned the loot completely worthless.

More importantly, since its shell had been destroyed completely, the mana cloud around it was much thicker. More than enough for me to catch some using Mana Blow. Meaning, I could deal with multiple monsters without the need for stopping to replenish my mana.

I was still stuck near the cart for almost half an hour, hunting the monsters until my mana reserves were full, and killing twenty more insects in the process. Without holding back, I was able to shatter their shells in merely four or five hits even without using mana. But, without mana, there was no rapid skill increase.

Stolen story; please report.

Absorbing Mana was a slow process, but even half an hour was only possible because of my high Meditation skill. If it was below twenty five, I wouldn't have been able to take even a drop of mana from the greedy pull of the dungeon.

I fully intended to use the Mana Blow trick to kill the beasts rather than using my stored mana, but wasting an hour was acceptable for additional safety.

"It's time," I muttered even as I moved forward, my hammer flipping in my hand as I left the safe area behind, and moved toward the edge of the dungeon.

The landscape got rockier and rockier, but I didn't care about it. I was more interested in the density of the insects. I deliberately positioned myself so that multiple monsters moved toward me at the same time.

The first one, I killed using my reserves. Unlike trying to reverse the flow of Meditation, mana leaked out of my body smoothly to land on my hammer head.

[-4 Mana]

A single blow, and the target had been dealt with. This time, knowing that it would die in one blow, I hadn't thrown myself to the side in panic.

[Hammer of Might (Uncommon) - 55 - 57]

Instead, I shifted back to Mana Forge, which allowed me to gather the mana around my hammer far faster than I could with Meditation. A step forward, and another beast died. Killing them unassisted allowed my skill to improve far faster.

[Hammer of Might (Uncommon) - 57 - 59]

"Let's go," I muttered as I moved deeper recklessly, especially once I realized that using mana blow prevented the erosion effect from their shell sticking to my hammer, preventing durability loss.

A dungeon where I didn't need to share with others was an incredible treasure, especially one that fit my skill configuration perfectly. It was the perfect environment to use the benefits of the System. So, when I drifted away enough to see a swarm of insects, the count easily reaching hundreds, I moved forward.

The only thing that I paid attention to was not to be surrounded by the swarm as my hammer danced, my movement getting smoother and smoother.

Once my hammer skill reached seventies, it only started to increase once with every kill. At around eighty proficiency, it started going up once in several monsters. A pity, but not a big one. Having an external combat skill in the eighties was already fascinating enough. After improving my skill so much, I was able to shatter the shell with one hit, even without using Mana.

The skill didn't increase my Strength, but it gave me many new tricks to create an unbelievable sense of leverage, which was only possible due to Dexterity helping my body move.

As I destroyed the insects, their bodies continued to disappear. However, not all of them had disappeared into nothing. Several of them had left glowing orbs behind. Skills.

However, I didn't have time to stop and take them, since I was dealing with a swarm of huge insects. Instead, I continued killing, and counting.

As my skill proficiency passed the hundred and fifty mark, an even more welcome notification appeared.

[Level 32 - 33]

[+2 Vitality, +2 Strength,, +2 Dexterity]

I started moving smoothly. It was even more efficient than leveling with Maria's help. Experiencing it directly, I could understand why people were charging for dungeon access. Fighting against only one type of enemy made things far easier.

As I fought, I realized an unexpected situation. As I continued to kill, the surrounding monsters started to get antsy. Still, I wasn't deep enough for it to be a risk, so I merely decided to deal with the mess.

I fought for almost twenty minutes without interruption, which was a challenge that would have exhausted any warrior. But, that was another benefit of being a Blacksmith. There were some classes that didn't even receive Vitality, while most of them only received one point. Blacksmith received double, giving us a considerable endurance even without burning Health to reinforce the muscles.

As I fought, another reward arrived.

[Level 33 - 34]

[+2 Vitality, +2 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Essence]

When the onslaught was over, I had killed a total of five hundred and forty six monsters, though there was no sign of it other than a few glowing orbs, the rest had long disappeared. However, I didn't bother gathering the skill stones just yet.

While I was curious to check them and see if there was anything useful, something else was far more important.

[Hammer of Might (Uncommon) - 100]

[Perk Options — Shattering Blow / Smooth Step]

I was as happy to learn that there was an unexpected benefit to leveling external skills as much as I was happy about leveling once more.

Too bad it seemed to hit its limit by reaching hundred, not improving further. Another choice." Smooth Step was tempting. It was clearly related to dodging, which was helpful. However I chose Shattering Blow.

I already had a new skill focused on defense. For the moment, trying to focus on my strength seemed like a better idea.

That way, even without mana, I could deal with a horde, an ability I could reveal to Eleanor. Not today, maybe, but it would be convincing after a few more trips. It would still be hard to swallow, but I could always spin a tale about discovering my aptitude toward fighting with a hammer, maybe mixing with some kind of desperate battle against ten thousand bugs.

It was well known that the desperation of death helped skills improve faster.

It would mean potentially revealing a secret — that external skills granted a Perk once they reached proficiency one hundred — but I wasn't afraid of it for multiple reasons. First, I had a feeling that it wasn't a big secret. I was sure that bigger organizations had long discovered it.

Unlike my Mana Skill upgrade, its discovery was far more straightforward. Meaning, it was a secret I could give up safely to improve her impression of me.

I made a note to proudly declare that I had already reached sixty today. A good lie benefited from a good foundation.

Then, I started walking toward the glowing skill orbs.