Blacksmith vs. the System 310

“Sir, what’s going on,” Liam, the nearest commander near me, shouted in shock as we watched a ray of energy rippled in the sky, as if an earthquake was targeting the clouds.

“I’m keeping an eye on it; focus on your task,” I responded, my gaze split between the sky and the crystal detector that was going crazy. It looked like we had our answer as to whether the device was malfunctioning. “But, be ready to retreat back to the gate if I give you the signal.”

“Yes, sir,” Liam responded, and I turned my attention to the sky, but I didn’t stop preparing the wards, several spells anchored to the castle, each waiting to be released.

My declaration made several soldiers hesitate, but it was to be expected. When the commander looked uncomfortable, soldiers panicked. But, I wanted to be ready, just in case. Leading an army wasn’t just about the statistics and logistics.

The sky rippled once more, and I noticed three things. First, the source of the fluctuation would have been difficult to detect even with my stats if I hadn’t known exactly where to focus. The ripple was chaotic, without an apparent pattern. The reaction of the sea monsters was another thing, particularly the bosses. They simultaneously turned to the sky, tense, as if they were waiting for something bad.

The last reaction was to the heretic army. The remaining corrupted soldiers each shouted in ecstasy, and rushed forward.

That would have been all I had detected, but Void Sentry allowed me to catch the sudden rain of void energy, following the initial burst, raining upon both the sea monsters, and the heretic army.

“Alright,” I muttered as I started priming the first wave of spells, ready to be released. Technically, activating them early was a gamble. Even anchored, they started to lose their coherence. I would have to release them in less than five minutes, or waste all the effort I put into creating them.

A risk I was willing to take. Either what I feared would happen, and something would arrive from the sky, or I would find different targets. Considering we were under attack from both sea and the land, finding alternative targets wasn’t exactly a challenge.

Then, merely a minute later, the risks had paid off. The sky rippled once more, but this time, at the exact point of detection, a gap appeared, rending the sky in two. It reminded me of a dungeon gate somewhat, but unlike dungeon gates, there was no magic to stabilize it . Just a huge gap, one that spilled void energy aggressively.

That spill alone would have represented a threat, but immediately, I saw a castle on the other side.

A flying castle…

“Well, that’s a choice,” I muttered, finding it interesting that they chose it as a clear transportation method, but that was just a passing thought.

At the same time, I released all the spells I had primed, some made of pure mana, the others radiating the conceptual focus of the four dungeons. Fire, devastating and unrelenting, was the first, shattering whatever magical protection that was in place. Then, wind and frost followed, damaging the stone walls. Decay landed last, infecting the damaged walls like a disease, further damaging the flying castle.

“Liam, target all experimental cannons to the gap, and attack until they are destroyed,” I added when I noticed the castle was still approaching the gap despite tethering at the edge. I pushed myself, setting a second wave of wards, ignoring the exhaustion that started to bite.

Using the dungeons was far more impactful on my soul than just relying on my skills, but I didn’t want to confront that flying castle once it left its protection.

While I cast the spells, the experimental cannons fired, allowing me to examine them. Calling them cannons was a bit of a misnomer, but only because they had no direct physical medium. The soldiers loaded them with crystal shells, filled with natural mana.

Their muzzles were also made of multiple layers of crystals, each layer filled with runes. Examining it, I could see that they were more of a spell launcher than cannons, releasing concentrated pure mana toward the target.

Unfortunately, each attack devastated them significantly. Almost half of them shattered after the first salvo, and the second salvo had been even more devastating, wiping out eighty percent of the surviving devices.

Worst of all , some of them malfunctioned badly enough to damage the operators, even when they were behind their mana shields.

Luckily, they seemed to be merely wounded, and not killed.

Any other time, I would be gushing about the performance of their invitation, but instead, I watched the rend in the sky, fingers crossed, hoping that they wouldn’t last long.

The castle got even closer, enough that, by using a spyglass, I could see the expression of the soldiers on the walls, each wearing a Drakkan uniform. Instead of confidence, however, their faces marked with panic, which was good news.

Even a cursory examination showed the reason. The dimensional gap they were in was not hospitable, and the void itself was attacking their castle, devastating the inner mechanisms of their flying castle. They probably had many spells and wards to protect themselves for that exact purpose.

Wards that were destroyed in our previous salvo.

I released the second batch of the spells, deliberately targeting the remaining wards, each shattered protective layer increasing their panic. Then, the flying castle changed direction. Good, as I doubted how many more waves I could deliver.

The rend in the sky slowly started to mend, but the void energy continued to spill. The sea monsters raged, but as the void energy spread, the boss monsters retreated, showing that they had a rudimentary awareness of the void energy.

The ordinary sea beasts attacked us even more aggressively, but that was much easier to handle. Our cannons devastated the most, while the rest were handled by the spells from ascended farmers.

The heretics were a bigger problem, but luckily, with the attack from the sky prevented, I had nothing to distract me, allowing me to snipe any dangerous figure that got too close to our walls from the highest tower.

I even had time to split my attention between finishing the construction work of the castle. I didn’t intervene in the command, trusting Harold to handle it .

The enemies attacked our castle wave after wave, both heretic and beast, neither having enough intelligence to retreat even when it was clear that their attack was hopeless. They lacked the ability to punch through our metal wards.

When the battle finally came to an end, it was late afternoon, with monster and beast corpses piled high enough to look like mountains. “Victory!” Harold shouted once the last enemy had fallen, and the rest of the army cheered.

I moved to the edge of the tower, raised my arms and joined the celebration, but inwardly, I didn’t share their happiness. While our victory was overwhelming in terms of numbers, I was aware of just how close it was to going the other way. Things would have been very different if Spencer’s device hadn’t alerted us to a possible dimensional shenanigan, one that we only managed to push back because we were ready.

That flying castle had been devastated, but the dimensional gap they were in did far more than our cannons or my spells. Things would have been far worse if they had managed to arrive back on a material plane. Once above us, they would no doubt have other wards, geared more to protect from spells and physical damage.

And, with the castle providing air support, our situation would have turned far worse. The best scenario would have been a costly victory, likely forcing me to reveal my Charisma as well.

Close call indeed.

After the battle, I stayed at the castle, occasionally intimidating the sea bosses while overseeing the next stage of construction. I stayed while we expanded a third layer of wards, this time stretching right into the sea, complete with a giant sea gate, functioning both as a wave-blocker and a bulwark against the sea monsters.

Behind those walls, Liam and the logistics team were already putting together a shipyard, one that would be the birthplace of our navy.

It was past midnight when the work was complete. I stood at the highest tower, watching a significant part of our army slowly man the walls, ready to defend our first port against any enemy. Despite everything, I felt proud.

We had successfully taken another step toward success…

Hopefully, we wouldn’t drown under its weight.