Forging a completely new set of gear had been an exciting prospect. Even if the skill didn't give me a better variant of the anti-corrosive alloy with some silver mixed in, the difference between sixty points and a hundred points was incredible enough to make it worth the effort.

After all, such a radical jump didn't just bring with it more materials, but completely new techniques to use. Some of those techniques revealed new ways to use Mana to manipulate the underlying material, while the others were purely physical methods like folding the metal more and more to manipulate its crystallization structure.

However, I didn't choose to forge the best weapon that was offered, for one simple reason: It required a long and delicate forging process, requiring me to turn the metal into a sheet before folding it back again and again for hours for every ingot.

While it would have made the resulting weapon considerably better, I didn't have a week to forge a weapon and a month to forge a piece of armor.

No, a set that used most of the silver I had while still being forged in under one hour was the best option. I compensated for some of the weaknesses by using an excessive amount of mana, while the others stayed in place.

Even this was only possible thanks to Creative Forging and Mana Control, a combination that allowed me to bypass a lot of restrictions inherent to these techniques, though the quality suffered significantly.

I wondered just how incredible my weapons would have been had I chosen the Masterwork path, but it was just an idle curiosity. Ultimately, my new set was more than enough to handle the challenges offered by this dungeon, and that was all that mattered.

"Still, it had been an interesting experience," I muttered as I spent ten minutes, and used the last of the available silver to make the shell removal device I had been trying to make. It worked beautifully, but it was not commercially viable.

Simply because it was too precious. The device I had envisioned last night had many moving parts out of necessity, and they didn't work very well. Instead, what I forged was essentially three small thin knives with an absurd elasticity and even sharper edges, perfect to scoop under the shells.

Unfortunately, its materials were too precious, which would be suspicious.

"I can always keep it with me while showing the prototype," I decided.

I needed the money it would bring.

Technically, with my current abilities, there were far better methods of making money. I could go and start forging mana alloys in a mana-dense location. I didn't know how much a silver mana alloy would go for, but ten gold coins for an ingot was far below the actual price.

Unfortunately, I didn't know a way to do so without suddenly becoming a 'guest' to one of the stronger families. After all, I didn't just offer rare resources, but a chance to replicate, which was the kind of thing that needed to be monopolized to maximize its impact.

"Hunting insects is more than acceptable," I decided. Maybe I could try something better once I believed myself to be strong enough, but I still had a lot to do before that step. Even with all the things I had solved, I was still three years behind schedule.

Even as I started walking toward the fourth floor, I started thinking about how to close that gap. The most urgent step was obvious. Before reaching level fifty, I needed to find a way to improve my class skills to the next stage.

Which, in turn, would give me a better class once I reached level fifty. Hopefully.

Of course, I couldn't exactly experiment blindly. Even with the Mana variants of my two skills, I had a solid direction of where to go. I had worked with mana alloys, and Maria had helped me by infusing mana into the metal. Even then, only the coincidence of being in a mana dead zone allowed me to make that jump.

For the other possible improvements, I needed direction.

For direction, I needed information.

And, for information, I needed money.

"Let's hunt," I said, even as I delved into the fourth floor. I had achieved a lot, but I still had some time. And, I wanted to see if the improved equipment helped me against the giant insects.

The short answer, it did. Immensely.

Before, I still needed to use a combination of spear and hammer styles against giant beasts, climbing on top of them before using the hammer. It wasn't slow by any means, taking less than ten seconds.

But, the difference between ten seconds and one blow was too much. Suddenly, I was able to push the spear art to the limit as I ran through the bog without even slowing down, each blow killing a giant insect. Most of the time, I didn't even bother changing my path to kill one of the smaller ones.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The increased speed had paid off greatly. When I finished the time I had allocated to pure leveling, I had already improved further.

[Level 38 - 39]

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

[Level 39 - 40]

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

On the way back, I shifted to the sword, trying to replicate the mana attack.

To my shock, it took only three tries for me to succeed … somewhat. It was a combination of a minute amount of silver conducting mana better than I had expected, my new Mana Control perk allowing me to control the flow better, and a greater understanding of how to shape it to get an approximation of a cutting edge.

[-2 Mana]

I stopped using the sword once the skill proficiency reached the low seventies, which I had accomplished easily by killing a dozen insects. I slowed it down, once again trying to stay within reasonable bounds.

With my spear and hammer skill in place, the only function of the sword skill was to impress Eleanor.

However, as I passed near the dried remains of the tree I tried to raise, I decided that I still had time for one more experiment. And, with the small plantation in place, even if Rare skills proved harder to improve than I initially assumed, I could always go the slow way.

I went back to the third floor, once again refilling the small pond. Then, I grabbed the Rare skill stone, and absorbed it.

[Nurture (Uncommon) 100 - Nurture (Rare) 1]

"That's a big drop," I muttered even as I started using the rare variant, trying to see how it changed, trying to compare it with the other variants.

The first thing I noticed was that it was far more effective when it came to dealing with the poison aspects, easily cleansing it from the sapling with a little bit of mana. That had been incredible enough, but also the growth effect was more pronounced.

Then, there was the final result. The saplings that had been enhanced by the Rare variant looked far more healthier. Its branches were smoother and thicker, and the leaves were brighter. It actually looked like a tree rather than a sorry excuse.

The only disadvantage was that the skill was slower to grow. The poisoned tree trick had been able to push the old skill to eighties easily, while the Rare variant slowed down at below fifty. Though, considering it was functioning better at that level, it was hardly a drawback.

"And, it's not like I don't have a method to handle it," I said even as I uprooted another tree, refilled my health by eating — glad that my Vitality made that process even faster — and went back to the fourth floor.

"Let's see how long you'll be able to survive," I said as I buried the tree that was as tall as me. I injected it with a burst of Health.

[-22 Health]

[Nurture (Rare) 42 - 46]

"Excellent," I said, and repeated the trick, curious just how much I would be able to push it before it died … but it didn't take long for me to realize I had made a slight miscalculation.

The rare variant was better at dealing with the poison aspect … to a significant degree. Which meant, the tree wasn't slowly corroding, but actually growing, a pattern that had started to get more and more obvious.

Ten minutes later, I was looking for a giant tree that hovered above me, taller than twenty yards. An important detail, because I could see its branches without being blocked by the dungeon mist. Interesting.

[Nurture (Rare) - 82]

"How curious," I said even as I walked back, only to realize my vision range still included the tree. Only when I walked back, I realized that, effectively, there was a second bubble around the tree, which overlapped with mine. The moment I walked away sufficiently, the mist blocked the way.

Since I needed to keep things going, I moved back, wanting to add seven more trees around the dungeon gate. Having a better vision around the gate would have made my life much easier.

Raising seven more trees allowed me to raise Nurture back to nineties, which took another half an hour. A nice surprise. Another surprise followed soon after.

The insects avoided the fully-grown trees.

Another fascinating little detail.

"Incredible," I said, but while I wanted to play around, it was also true that I needed money. A lot of money. For that reason, I went back to the third floor, and used a combination of shell extraction device and the new silver spear with great efficiency.

Thanks to the device, it took less than a second to extract the shell without damaging it, which was an incredible activity. Extracting a thousand shells took barely more than an hour, traveling took more than the task itself, and even then, it wasn't much.

The third floor was teeming with monsters, which gave me more than enough prey. I might have even extracted more, that would have been suspicious even with the extraction device.

With that, I piled everything onto the cart, and started going up.

When I arrived, the guards looked at the cart with a shocked expression. "Wow, that's an … incredible haul. Particularly since you're alone."

"Nothing too much," I replied even as I smiled. "A good friend of mine made this for me. It's a bit of trouble to maintain, and I paid a hundred gold for it, but it's worth it." It was not without reason I gave such an absurd number. It needed to look like something that was not affordable.

"Really, what does it do?" the guard asked.

"It helps extract the shells," I said. "Also, I was lucky to find a swarm or two, and a few good Samaritans were kind enough to exchange weapons with me so I didn't have to return every hour."

"Wow, really," he said.

"Of course," I replied even as I raised my sword, and told a quick story about how I achieved it while also showing my sword skills. An explanation … and if someone was having some thoughts, a warning.

When I left the dungeon, I was thirty gold coins richer. It would have been thirty-two, with some spare silver, but the extra, I left as a tip.

Well, I let them record as such, at least. Currently, they weren't paying with coins, but giving some kind of credit, which could be used for services. It had to be redeemed in the town, after all the expenses from repair fees to guild rent had been paid.

Still, a reputation for generosity wouldn't harm. Especially when, tomorrow, I would probably borrow at least twenty swords to make things more believable, which was technically against the rules. Everyone could borrow three swords, and had to bring them back in an acceptable condition to get a new one.

Getting twenty swords would eat into my profits even more, but I didn't need Eleanor to start wondering if I discovered some kind of resistant alloy this early on.