After an hour of frozen terror and scanning for approaching monsters with nothing else happening, James calmed down enough to take stock.

A spider monster had sneaked up on him, and it was only dumb luck that he had spotted it before it attacked.

All his hammers and both his shields were over there, outside his wards.

His ward was a tiny little thing against a wall anyway, and would need to be reset. As he stood, he felt a sharp pain in his side. Moving slowly and gently didn't make it hurt as much, so he tried to move slowly and smoothly.

To start, he picked up all the scattered warding stakes and stored them away, save four, that he used to create a large square ward up against the Dungeon wall. Then, he lifted the visor on his helmet and took a better look around. The tunnel entrance was disturbingly close, a mere twenty yards. His shield and hammers were also twenty yards away from where he was now, but only five yards from the tunnel entrance. The lake was a fair distance away.

James took a wide, curving path, keeping his distance from the tunnel entrance as he approached his gear. First, the Green Iron Tower Shield. He wanted the [Reflect] enchantment in case any more magical attacks came flying from the lake.

As he grew close a rancid stench filled the air. Bending over to pick up the shield nearly made him fill his helmet with vomit from the one-two punch of the stench and the pain in his side. He wound up having to do an awkward half squat to pick up the shield, his movement hampered by the joints of his armor.

He then went around storing his hammers in his magic bag by waving his hand over them, forgoing the need to bend over and pick them up. Eventually, he had all his hammers back, and all that was left was is Iron Tower Shield and his anvil. The stench near the shield was exponentially worse, so he held his breath and waved his hand over the shield to store it away.

It wouldn't go in.

With great effort and at the cost of irritating his injury, James managed to flip the shield over, revealing the gore of the dead spider. James knew that monster materials typically wouldn't go in the bag without at least a little processing, though he couldn't imagine what rancid-smelling yellowish ooze from a spider monster could be used for. He took out one of his water jugs and poured it out over the shield, washing away the gunk surprisingly easily. And underneath there was a black-colored magic crystal.

[Material Identification]: Dark Magic Crystal

Mentally worn out from the terror of his fight, James stored the magic crystal in his bag without further thought, and once the shield was cleaned, stored it in the bag as well. Finally, James walked over to his anvil, rinsed it off as well just in case, then carefully picked it up and carried it back to his wards.

Sadly there was nowhere to sit in his newly expanded warded area. It was a boring stretch of pebbled beach with no notable features, and even the Dungeon wall contained no ores, not even regular or Blue iron. James didn't want to stay so close to the tunnel entrance anyway, not now that he was aware the spiders didn't just stay in their passage like he'd thought. In the end, James leaned against the wall and forced himself to eat some bread, though he had no appetite. Anxiety was like a spur pressed against his back, preventing him from relaxing.

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Fatigued, unable to rest, but at least fed, James stood upright and took three warding stakes in hand. First, he put one against the wall ten yards distant from the tunnel entrance. Then, carefully, with Green Iron Tower Shield pointed in the direction of the lake and [Reflect] activated, James placed another stake twenty yards in front of the tunnel entrance. Finally, he placed the last warding stake ten yards from the tunnel entrance against the wall and filled it to the brim with magic power, creating a large ward blocking off the area in front of the tunnel to the upper floor.

Hopefully that would prevent any more spiders from coming through.

With that accomplished, James walked back to the ward with his anvil and continued past it, exploring the beach in the direction away from the tunnel. The walking was hard going, each step causing pebbles to slide about until they settled enough to carry his weight. If anything, James suspected the spiky cleats he had were making it harder to walk now. He wanted to forge, but remembering that he didn't have a forge, pressed on.

Eventually, the gently curving Dungeon wall gave way to a shallow alcove with a sizable trickle of water pouring down the wall. [Water Identification] indicated it was Pure Water, so James set down a number of warding stakes to bound off the alcove, a section of wall on both sides, and a large area in front. About fifty yards in front of the boundary of his ward was a decent sized pond that James could tell even from this distance was brimming with undine essence. And another two hundred yards beyond that was the deceptively peaceful looking lake.

Good enough for now.

James retrieved his anvil and dismantled the ward there, then returned to his new base camp. He set up his water collection trough and started his jug to refilling. Then he took up a pick-axe and started to mine some stone out of the Dungeon wall, body moving in practiced ways, when a bolt of pain in his side nearly made him drop the pick-axe mid-swing.

It was the slow and painful work of an hour to mine out enough stone for a rock to sit on and stones for a new forge and smelter. James' [Mining] skill proved to be more of a hindrance, and he wound up relying more on his boosted strength to swing the pick-axe in a less efficient way that didn't irritate his torn muscle.

In all this time, James had still not removed his armor, not even his helmet. Though the lake was far, he could still see it. He would just wait until he had dug out a small tunnel with a corner to keep him out of sight.

Once he felt he had enough stone, and after a short break sitting on his new stone seat, James gingerly and slowly used a shovel to dig through the pebbles, hoping there was regular dirt underneath them.

What he found was even better. First, there was a layer of pebbles about a foot deep. Beneath that was white sand, for about two feet. And beneath that was the real prize: clay. High quality clay for at least another two feet, which was as far as James was willing to go in the interest of exploration.

Clay was exactly what he needed to upgrade his forge and smelter to reach hotter temperatures.

Time flew by as James constructed his new forge and smelter. Protected by his wards and psychologically comforted by the idea of being "in camp," James devoted himself fully to the construction process. During testing to see how hot the new smelter could get, James was pleased to realize his [Heat Resistance] skill had improved. The smelter must be reaching a high enough temperature to even melt Red Iron.

[Smith] Skill: [Heat Resistance] has reached level 3.

James wiped the sweat from his brow through his visor and was about to sit down when he heard it.

Clack clack.

The forge and smelter were built up against the dungeon wall in the alcove, so it was a faint sound, but it still brought James back to full alertness. He quickly picked up his Green Iron Tower Shield and his Earth War Hammer and turned to face out towards the beach.

At the edge of his wards, disturbingly close to the edge of the wards in fact, closer than the mole monsters had ever come, was a large crab. Its main body was about as tall as James' knee, but its large claws were the same size, and it waved them in the air, clacking them at James in challenge.

James stepped forward.

Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack.

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