My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1400-1402

Chapter 1400

I used my Fire Control to my full advantage. With Temperature Gauge, I could see the change of temperatures, and with Heat Immunity, I was in no threat of being getting heat exhausted. In fact, it felt like a cool day for me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the one doing the work. That all fell to Sapphire. I knew how to blacksmith as much as my job allowed, but my methods would never be as refined as someone with actual practice. I hadn’t spent a single day in the forge, so while I theoretically could figure it out, I’d look sloppy to anyone with any skill.

Furthermore, I had only seen a silvthril sword made once, so whatever special techniques were needed to work with silvthril, I didn’t know them. I had to depend on Sapphire, and while she was a dwarf resistant to heat, she wasn’t as practiced in front of the blistering forge as her uncle. The forges she worked in on the surface typically had a lot of ventilation, and so it never got too hot. Yet, this room seemed to keep in a lot of heat, and even Pait sitting in the stands was sweating uncomfortably over the heat.

Sapphire who was directly next to the flames was being hit the hardest. She also didn’t necessarily have the physical strength of her uncle. Thinking about it, she would do well with a second job that had a lot of strength perks. Her stamina seemed to be weak, and by the time she had heated the metal and started striking it, she was showing signs of her stamina waning.

I felt I was at fault for this. This was far different from her time when she had made the silvthril sword. Besides the different environment, she had made that sword after a long time of training under a blacksmith and working the forge regularly.  It had been nearly a month since she last touched a forge when she made her journey to the deep, and then an additional month where her soul and body were allowed to atrophy within Twilight. Then, already in a weakened state, I had forced her to level up her Blacksmith. I had been treating her like she possessed my stamina, and few truly could keep up with a god soul.

As Gabbro reached the end of his forging steps, he glanced over at Sapphire as she hammered, her technique starting to slip, her cheeks flushed and red as she gasped for breath. He made a dismissive snort. I wasn’t sure if Sapphire noticed his look, but I hoped that she didn’t. I began to realize that going on like this, we wouldn’t be able to win.

That led me back to the Soulsmithing job. Ever since I had unlocked it, I had become fascinated with it. There was another name it could potentially have been called. Lorecrafting. It was the ability to refine, alter, and create lore. You could manipulate the story… wasn’t that nearly equivalent to altering the state of something?

Soul merging was one of my new skills as well. If I could use a Slaves skill, then there had to be a way a slave could use mine, and if they could use my slave skills, then why couldn’t they use my other skills as well.

“Ahh!” Bang

Sapphire had made the most embarrassing of mistakes. She had accidentally hit her finger, causing her to drop her hammer. Even over the roaring sound of the forge, I could hear the disapproving sounds. Doing such an act was something even an apprentice wouldn’t do. Sapphire shook, looking like she was a second away from breaking. I left my post and walked around, wrapping my arms around Sapphire’s body.

“I-I can’t…” Sapphire shivered, even though her body was covered in sweat.

“I told you, you don’t have to do this alone,” I whispered in her ear. “We’ll do this together. Soul merge!”

Chapter 1401

The idea of Soul Merge was to merge lore into your soul. At least, that’s what I had originally assumed. However, now I was thinking that maybe, soul merge could also be used to push two souls together. Typically, the only way to be able to achieve such an act was through physical intimacy. When you had sex, your soul and their soul would become close, and possibly even touch. This is what happened when Alysia took my soul. As our souls grew closer during intimacy, her soul sucked mine out of my body.

This wasn’t quite the same thing, but it had a similar feel. I was essentially trying to push our souls together, attempting to touch them. I wasn’t looking for our souls to merge. When it came to lore, forcing it to merge took a lot of effort. It took Twilight years to get people to merge their souls with her. For Sapphire and I to merge our souls, we’d need to be beyond intimate. We’d need to be united in body and soul. We simply weren’t that close.

Yet, our souls could touch, and when they touched I’d be able to lend her my power, my strength, and my lore. That was my intent. I pushed my soul out, pressing it against hers. Sapphire gasped as this happened.

“Ignore everyone else,” I whispered. “It’s just us.”

I reached down and grabbed her hammer, and then handed it to her. After a few seconds of hesitation, she grabbed it and began again. I went back to my place. It wasn’t like I had to physically touch her to keep our souls together. Only someone sensitive to such things like Miki would be able to see it, but there was a connection between us at that moment far closer and thicker than any bond. We began to work.

Our motions began to sink perfectly. It was reminiscent of the first time we had made a sword. We had fallen into a kind of zone, working in sync, me using my experience and our bond to guess what she wanted. Now, it was no longer a guess. Our bodies and minds worked as won, seamlessly working together. I didn’t need to refresh her, as my body directly gave her strength and stamina. While I worked as her two extra hands and kept our souls together, she swung the hammer and worked with precision and speed.

Our movements steadied and became like an art. She hammered, shifted, heated, hammered, and I assisted her in every task before she even knew she needed it. The lore of blacksmithing floated between us, and as I used my Advanced Learning to unlock the secrets behind it, they were also shared instantly with her. Insights were unlocking within her as we went. If we kept this up, I was certain she could level very rapidly.

However, we only had a single small blade to make, and with the hotter forge and the higher levels of experience, it didn’t take nearly as long as the sword had taken. It was only when I let our souls split back away that I was strong with bone splitting exhaustion. Sapphire slumped, all but collapsing to the ground. However, we had finished it; we had made the dagger.

Chapter 1402

It wasn’t until we were finished that I realized that the entire room had gone quiet. The often talkative and boisterous dwarves were all watching intently. None was watching harder than Gabbro, who had a strangely intense and peculiar look on his face. Whether he was confused, pleased, or disgusted, it was impossible to tell what emotion he was displaying. I used refresh on Sapphire and then held her to help her up. When I touched her, she jumped a little bit, her eyes darting at me before looking away shyly.

I had been intimate with so many women, I hadn’t considered how comfortable she would have been with my soul touching against hers like that. I wanted to apologize, but just then Gabbro slapped his hands together.

“Well, you at least finished it. I had my doubts you’d even make it that far. Since this is the case, then let’s get this over with!” Gabbro growled.

He picked up his knife and then handed it hilt first to Terra. Terra glanced at me curiously, and so I did the same. Terra seemed to have a pretty high tolerance for heat too, but she did stay off the main platform with the forge, so many it wasn’t quite at the dwarf’s level, especially since she didn’t sweat. Gabbro’s dagger was very normal, and the quality of the blade was clear to see. Ours had a slightly curved appearance.

Terra looked over each blade and then slashed them a few times. Her analysis continued for about five minutes, and during that time, Gabbro impatiently tapped his foot.

“Will you get on with it already!” He snapped.

Terra jumped, and then let out a sigh. She shot me a regretful look before placing them down on a counter.

“Both blades are good. They have a similar sharpness, and the silvthril is pure.” She started first, deflating slightly under Gabbro’s look. “However, Gabbro’s blade is much more balanced. The integrity of the blade is superior, and the weight is perfect. I’m sorry, Master. You asked me to speak honestly.”

Gabbro chuckled. “There’s nothing wrong with speaking the truth. A bad blade is a bad blade.”

“It’s not bad!” Terra cried out and then blushed, not meeting my eyes. “It’s just, this is a superior dagger.”

“It’s okay, Terra.” I sighed. “Thank you for being honest with your assessment.”

“Since she has accepted, I’m the best, this is already over.” Gabbro shrugged. “Sister, please tell them who is superior.”

Lapis approached the blades as well but hesitated. “Can you remind me of the conditions of victory again?”

“What? It’s just whichever is the best weapon! Go ahead and tell them which is the better weapon.”

“I won’t just randomly state something. I’m a queen, and my word is my honor!” Lapis chastised, causing Gabbro to quickly back down.

“Ah… s-sorry…” He coughed.

Lapis picked up each blade. Compared to Terra, who seemed to be comfortable wielding the blades, she seemed to barely know what she was doing. However, after looking over both blades and putting them back down on the counter, she nodded to herself.

“I have decided which blade is the superior weapon,” she said.

“And?” Gabbro asked.

“That would be Sapphire’s blade.”