Blacksmith vs. the System 283

“… And, that’s when they decided to cut their losses and retreat, and I returned to the city,” I said, finishing the tale of my battle. We were in the council room, which followed a quick celebration as I returned to the city, with several guards quickly recruited to spread a sanitized tale of my victory, omitting just how close it had been.

Morale was important.

Though we were in the council room, it wasn’t fully assembled. My students were in the city, walking around, doing their version of a victory walk, celebrating their Ascension. That hadn’t been the plan, but when the city had been attacked in my absence by a suspiciously well-timed flock of corrupted birds, attacking two towns at once, each led by a boss monster, they had to reveal themselves.

Eleanor took down one. They killed another.

As far as reveals went, it was an exceptionally good one. While their reputation was set among the older residents, the new ones, especially the warrior classes among them, didn’t respect them much, which could have been troubling.

Nothing like the sight of them cooperating to take down an overwhelming boss monster. But, I had learned from my mistakes. Just the achievement was not enough. They needed visibility. Without them, I didn’t summon Harold or Liam as well.

The meeting room was occupied by Eleanor, Rosie, and Maria. Since each of them was missing a part of the story, or all of it in Eleanor’s case, I told the story from the beginning.

“That was reckless,” Eleanor said immediately. “You should have called me.”

“You’re correct on that, but you were almost certainly being spied upon. We decided it would alert them.”

“Before, or after you decide destruction of their safehouse is the best strategy,” Rosie cut in.

I shrugged. “You’re right,” I said. “It was reckless. I thought they might attack the town if we dealt with the first team. But, I was overconfident, thinking that Charisma would be enough to flip the battle if anything went wrong, but I didn’t consider all possible circumstances.” I looked at Maria. “I’m sorry. My overconfidence…”

Maria scoffed. “No, it was me who needed to apologize. If I hadn’t fallen into their trap like an idiot —”

“Enough,” Eleanor cut in. “All of you but me screwed up. Devon, you were overconfident. Maria, you were reckless. And, Rosie, you need to work on scouting. Something is clearly wrong if they could sneak such a force near us. Enough apologizing.”

“It’s not fair, Eleanor,” I said. “It’s not Rosie’s fault. There’s almost nothing that can be done if our enemies decide to deploy a small but elite force.”

“No, she’s right. Failing to detect their arrival is one thing, but I should have gotten some news. Changing the deployment of thirty Ascended is not something they should be able to hide if I were paying attention. At least, I should have contingencies.”

“That’s enough. Everyone screwed up, and no one got permanently hurt. No need to turn this into a pity party,” Eleanor intervened again. I had to admit, she had a point. Her dismissive attitude went a long way to help the mood. “I have another question.” She turned to Maria, and smirked. “How does it feel to finally cure his fear of heights by risking yourself?”

That question made Maria blush and stammer. Probably some kind of inside joke. “Eleanor, shut up,” Maria growled, making Eleanor laugh even more. Even Rosie cracked a smile.

Once the laughter was gone, Rosie turned to me. “It’s a good question. How did you actually get over it? For a moment, you were … well, you looked very different.”

Maria shivered. “Yeah, even your aura shifted. It was like you were preparing to cast a spell, but it was not.”

I sighed. “Yeah, it was … let’s call it weird,” I said. I thought about hiding the source.

“You don’t have to tell if you’re not feeling comfortable,” Eleanor cut in.

I would have loved it if it were the case. But, it was not. The memory I managed to connect had too many dangerous implications. “It’s tough to explain. When I faced the challenge, I basically supercharged my Wisdom and Intelligence to turn inward and browse my memories, trying to break that fear. And, to do that, I needed to understand the source. Soon, I realized that I wasn’t afraid of flying. It was a psychological transference, like my own mind finding an excuse for my true fear. The sky?”

“Like agoraphobia.”

“No,” I said. “What lies after. The corrupting energy. The void,” I said. “It all started when I visited a planetarium, and looked at the sky using an antique telescope … and saw the same corrupted creatures invading one of the moons of Saturn.”

“T-they were here. All those years ago? Before the System?” Eleanor asked, shocked. I nodded.

“I’m more interested in the telescope. We have known that Horizon Institute was active before the Cataclysm, but for a decade. Maybe two. Certainly not far enough to put fake antique telescopes in random locations.”

I sighed. “I agree. It implies that magic was present far before Cataclysm, but likely in a much restricted form. I could imagine some ways to use mana without System in between, but the time it requires would be too much, and the impact would be limited.”

Eleanor cut in. “I’m less interested in what happened in the past. Do you think the creatures you have seen would attack here, and not just corruption?”

I nodded. “Without a doubt,” I said. “The dream-sequences from the dungeons had been pretty clear, that they arrived from the sky directly, and not just limited to corrupting the world. Honestly, the Void energy, as it’s called by my newest skill, might be just a side effect of their approach. I will try to see if I can detect it.”

“Maybe we can try to communicate with Drakka and tell the truth. Maybe, if they know what’s coming…”

“No,” I replied. “It won’t work. We already know that they were very reluctant to commit any sizable force to Earth, and they already transferred away anyone with a strong enough soul to handle Legendary skills.”

“They did it, because they know it’s coming. When the time comes, they will just run away,” Eleanor completed.

“It stands to reason,” I admitted. “It also explains some of the inexplicable choices Horizon or the others made. They didn’t care about the long-term implications, because they believe there’s no long-term.”

“Would we…” Maria added.

I chuckled, though it was a touch darker than I expected. “No, it’s not even a question. Do you ever wonder why they didn’t deploy any strong Ascended? One with a stronger class could swipe off all their enemies, yet interplanetary forces are limiting themselves to the weakest local candidates.”

“They can’t transfer the Ascended,” Maria completed. “It means we’re stuck. They have said that our fate —” she added, then froze, wincing in pain.

I sighed, recognizing the magical restriction preventing her from talking about her Ascension. “You are right. It’s either impossible, or the cost is prohibitive enough to make such a move impossible for us. Unless we find evidence to the contrary, we should expect that all Ascended are stuck on Earth regardless of the danger. And, the way I’m bound to dungeons, the same is true for me.” I added.

A part of me was glad for the restriction. At least, I didn’t need to face a horrible choice. There was a certain comfort in that. A fatalistic comfort, but still…

Eleanor turned to Rosie, her expression the most serious I had ever seen. “You’re the lucky one. If you never want to Ascend, we won’t blame you—”

“Not even a question,” Rosie said. “Never mention it again. The moment I find a viable method to handle my stats, I’m ascending.”

I caught her gaze, and she glared at me sharply. I nodded, accepting her decision. Both at the moment, and in the future if she changed her mind.

Though, knowing her, I would be shocked if she actually did.

“What do we do? Do we tell people that’s about to Ascend?”

I nodded. “We have to. We can’t force people into a fight they are unwilling to fight. We won’t go into much detail, but we’ll mention the core highlights.”

“Including the hopelessness of the fight?” Rosie asked.

“No,” I said, feeling a sensation of indignation rising off me. “It’s not hopeless. I have seen others fight against it, all relying on their bodies and magic.” I touched the desk, and a small clockwork toy rose. “I have a different battle in mind.”

Maria cut in. “Fighting against monsters is good, but it’s clearly not too soon, or Drakka and Asterion wouldn’t have bothered with their war. Let’s leave those plans for the future.”

Rosie replied. “Red has a point. Nothing about those monsters would matter if we lost to Drakka. Either by blade or a tentacle, death is death.”

“Excellent point,” I said as I reached to the side and rolled a map open. “Then, let’s discuss our plans. After losing ten Ascended, Drakka would have to reduce their forces around us. It’s a perfect time to start creating the path.”

“Why now?” Eleanor asked. “I thought we were planning to delay until we could build multiple ships at the same time.”

“That was the plan. Initially, I wanted to delay that expansion plan as long as possible, trying to stay under the radar. But the assassination plot shows that they are already paying attention to us. We need to change the equation, and make them hesitate.”

They nodded.

I smiled. It was a joyless, sharp smile. “Let’s plan an invasion.”