The crab boss squeezed the Smith's legs. There was a grinding noise and James could feel his cuisses start to warp, pressing down on his legs as he was lifted into the air.

His shield, knocked out of his hand, clattered to the pebbly ground below.

His left hand met his right and wrapped around the handle of his Earth War Hammer, and he manually shoved as much mana as he could into the enchantment. He tightened his core and struck!

[Technique: Hammer Strike]

[Heavy Blow]

BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM…

Over and over he struck, and as the pressure on his legs grew worse–

Crack

The thick shell of the crab boss' claw started to fracture.

The crab boss started moving James through the air, and closer to the other claw…

But James single-mindedly continued, and after a few more desperate blows, the claw holding him shattered. No longer held aloft, he fell down, scattering pebbles as he landed on the ground several yards below.

But he was back on his feet in a flash.

[Technique: Hammer Strike] has reached level 5.

Ignoring the intrusive thought, the Smith stepped in towards the boss' main body and slammed his hammer right in the crab boss' face.

Crunch!

It tried to skitter to the side and away, but it was slowed by the broken remains of its claw throwing it off balance, and James followed.

Crunch crunch crunch… Crunch!

Over and over he struck until WHAM!

The remaining claw swiped at James, catching him square across the chest, sending him flying.

BAM!

He flew and slammed into the cliff face and was knocked unconscious.

It was already too late for the crab boss, however. It writhed in pain, causing cracks in its shell to spread and scattering gore and viscera around the beach until it eventually stopped moving. It collapsed to the ground, twitching occasionally, and then even that stopped.

Waves continued lapping at the shore.

Everything was pain.

His whole body was sore. There was an uncomfortable tightness about his legs. His head hurt, in both the front and the back.

James forced himself to breathe, first and foremost. The pain didn't diminish, but eventually, he mastered it. He was able to force himself to his hands and knees on the pebbly ground, then he moved to a kneeling position and lifted the visor on his helmet to look around.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The beach was empty save for the carcass of the unmoving, dead crab monster boss.

[Enchanter] Class has reached level 8.

[Smith] Class has reached level 7.

James couldn't bring himself to smile, but he was relieved. The boss was dead.

He forced himself to his feet, wincing at the pain in his thighs. He scanned around and seeing no threats, removed his helmet to get a better look at the damage.

There was a huge dent going across his cuisses, on both legs. Thankfully it hadn't damaged the latches, and he was able to remove them. Pins and needles flooded his legs as circulation was restored, and he saw a terrible bruise starting to form.

[Appraisal]: Water Cuisses, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 3/13, Enchantment: Water Resistance (8)

The damage was bad. James wasn't sure if he'd be able to repair the cuisses at all. It might be better and faster to reforge and re-enchant them entirely.

He looked back up and saw something in the water.

Instantly he was moving, forcing his battered and weary body up and towards the stairs and the iron door. No chance he was fighting anything without his full set of armor on. Fortunately, he was only a dozen yards from the stairs, and as he approached them–

He entered into his ward.

He could feel it now. The magical energy field spreading from stake to stake. It hadn't formed while the boss monster was alive, but now it worked.

James was torn between frustration at magic being arbitrary again, and joy that he had a ward up. He collapsed to the ground again, the adrenaline that had gotten him moving spent, and he observed.

It was… a weird looking crab thing. It remained in the area of surf, with a long body lined with short little crab-like legs,and two claws at the front, but smaller. Still, it was about two feet tall, and the claws looked like they could do serious damage to his unarmored legs.

James quickly took his Green Iron Cuisses out of his bag and put them on, wincing as he put pressure on the tender bruises.

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Cuisses, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/10, Enchantment: Water Resistance (17)

The enchantment wasn't as strong, but it didn't need to be, not right now. Plus, it was getting boosted by the amulet he had found.

For an hour the Smith sat, watching several more of the weird crab-like monsters appear in the surf, recovering from the battle, until eventually a normal crab monster appeared and skittered out of the surf, heading towards the carcass of the boss monster.

James hauled himself to his feat, groaning.

He wasn't about to let some crappy monster take his winnings.

He strode outside the ward and instantly the crab rotated and started skittering towards him, waving its claws. The weird monsters also snapped their claws at him, but didn't leave the surf line.

BAM!

First James dispatched the crab monster, then he turned to the new creatures. He approached them slowly, partially out of caution but largely out of weariness, and he attacked.

[Technique: Hammer Strike]

[Heavy Blow]

These monsters didn't even seem to try to dodge. They were significantly slower than the normal crab monsters. Soon all five of them were dead and their carcasses tossed onto the beach, and then into the ward along with the crab monster carcass.

James then took six warding stakes out from his magic bag and formed a large warded area around the boss monster's carcass. He could already see crab meat spilling out from the shattered claw. Lots of meat.

He pulled out his smoker and collected the easy to reach meat, and set it to smoking. Then, secure within his wards, he ate a loaf of bread and fell asleep, exhausted.

For the next couple days, James remained there in the boss room. First, he dismantled the crab boss carcass, harvesting all the meat he could, and in the center covered in slimy viscera, he found a blue jewel full of undine essence.

This he stored in his magic bag, still unsure how to incorporate it into his forging and enchanting.

The meat he set to smoking, and the viscera he shoveled out of the ward, a short ways away from the surf line. This he sat and watched, letting it lure in more crab monsters from the water, letting him collect more crab meat and water magic stones. Thankfully there were no bird monsters in this room, so it was easy to lure in several dozen crab monsters before they stopped appearing.

The weird new monsters, it turned out, had slightly more meat than the crabs did, located in the tail as well as the claws, but only a few more ever appeared, and James couldn't figure out how to lure more in if there were more out in the water.

He refused to go more than ankle deep into the surf, remembering his near death experience at the bottom of the undine essence pond.

After the third day, or at least his third long sleep, he packed up his things and dismantled his wards. He had re-opened the iron door leading to the previous floor and propped it open, but this time with a rock positioned so that it would just get pushed out of the way rather than get pinched in the door.

He also finally approached the treasure chest at the far end of the boss room, near the stairs leading down to the next floor. To his surprise, this chest actually had something inside!

It was a glass bottle, stoppered with a cork and sealed with wax, with a shimmering blue liquid inside.

[Appraisal] completely failed to activate.

The bottle went into the magic bag, and James stood at the top of the stairs, looking down; down, down, down.

A gentle breeze blew up at him from the depths.

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