The crab monster repeatedly waved its clacking claws forward, as though it were banging them against the ward. It skittered side to side as it did, as if looking for any weakness in the invisible wall preventing it from getting closer to its prey.

James approached slowly, mindful of his injury and his poor footing. With each step he slid a bit, while the crab seemed to move effortlessly over the pebbles with its many legs. When he got close, the crab did back away, luring James out of the ward. And as soon as he set foot outside the ward, the crab monster darted in, claw clamping down on his Green Iron Boot clad ankle.

Screech

There was a loud screeching sound as the claw scraped against the iron, leaving scratches and scrapes but not able to crush the boot. James took aim with his Earth War Hammer, but as he began swinging the crab monster let go of his foot and skittered away, dodging the strike.

Even without using the [Heavy Blow] enchantment, the impact of the hammer caused a small explosion of pebbles. As soon as the pebbles clattered back to the ground the crab monster darted back in, claw aiming for James' hand holding the hammer.

But James was already standing back up, and the claw failed to grab his arm, instead skittering down the handle of the war hammer. With a jerk, James tugged the hammer out of the claw, causing a twinge in his side.

Strike after strike, the crab monster continued to dodge while James was growing more and more fatigued. The crab monster's claws proved unable to injure James, although they were slowly damaging his boots and greaves.

Finally, James stood fully upright and stowed his Earth War Hammer back in the magic bag.

"Green Iron War Hammer." he said, as the crab monster once again clamped down on his ankle, trying to crush it.

He grasped it by the handle and in one smooth motion, raised it high. The crab monster remained clamped on his ankle but it's eye stalks waggled about, clearly monitoring the hammer.

[Technique: Hammer Strike]

The hammer swung down, slightly faster due to its lightness. The crab monster loosened its grip on the Smith's ankle, preparing to dodge.

[Enchantment Activation]

[Rapid Blow]

With technique polished against nearly invisible enemies that moved in three dimensions in the air, a large crab monster dodging linearly in brightly lit conditions didn't stand a chance.

The war hammer lacked a spike, but the broad striking face still collided with the crab monster's main body with enough force to pound it into the pebbly ground, causing another minor explosion of pebbles.

The claw relaxed its grip.

But James didn't let up for even a second.

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He continued to strike the monster like a stubborn piece of iron in the forge until its tough outer shell broke into tiny pieces and its briny innards were scattered all over the beach.

Only then did James stop hammering away at it, and quickly scan around for more monsters.

He put away his Green Iron War Hammer and then withdrew a shovel, and quickly flipped what remained of the monster into his ward. Still wary of the lake, he retreated, eventually bringing the monster carcass to the back of his camp, up against the wall.

The organs of the crab monster were a lost cause and smelled foul in a way James had never experienced before. Buried in the gore was a Water Magic Crystal which he stowed away in the magic bag.

James was mildly interested to discover a lack of bones in the legs and claws themselves, mostly spared from the wrath of his hammer in the fighting. Once the carapace was broken, they were filled with nothing but white flesh unlike any he'd ever seen before. So he took the time to set up his smoker and put the meat to smoking.

For the next hour he dug out a small tunnel, just long enough to lay down in completely out of site of the lake.

Returning to the smoker, he pulled off the tiniest bit of the white meat, examined it, and tasted it.

It… tasted good. Surprising so. Better than the mole monster meat, certainly.

But there was much less of it. Each leg was slender and only contained a little meat. The claws were large, but the carapace was so thick that they didn't contain much meat either.

As good as the crab monster meat was, mole monster meat wasn't coming off the menu.

With that discovery putting him in a good mood, James retreated to his small sleeping tunnel and finally removed his armor.

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Greaves, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 9/10, Enchantment: Water Resistance (15)

[Appraisal]: Green Iron Cleat Boots, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 9/12, Enchantment: Water Resistance (14)

His boots had taken the worst of the fighting with the crab monster, although his greaves had also taken a little damage. And none of his armor had actually taken any damage in the… debacle with the spider monster.

No, the worst was the torn muscle in his side.

A large patch of skin on his left side was bruised black and yellow, and extremely tender to the touch. Trying to twist side to side immediately caused him pain and he reflexively stopped.

With no healer, there was only one thing James could do: wait for it to heal on its own.

For the first time since packing up his camp and leaving the first floor of the Dungeon, James lay down and went to sleep.

What followed was about two weeks of rest. Since he had nothing better to do, James forced himself to eat the rest of the coal-smoked mole monster meat. Day by day his skin's discoloration cleared up, and the pain of twisting grew less and less.

He also sat on his sitting stone and gazed out at the lake over the top of his Green Iron Tower Shield, [Reflect] enchantment activated all the while.

[Enchanter] Class Skill [Enchantment Activation] has reached level 3.

The lake remained ominous in the near distance, but no magical attacks shot out in the weeks James observed it. Every day large white bird monsters would fly about, squawking loudly but never actually forming flocks. They seemed to ignore James and his camp, more interested in flying over the water of the lake and stalking awkwardly here and there around the pebbly beach before taking to the sky again. The crab monsters would appear every day, crowding around the edge of James' ward. Their numbers increased starting from the moment James came out of his sleeping tunnel until the end of the day, when there were eight to ten of them skittering around and clacking their claws at him. At some point while James was sleeping they would leave, apparently losing interest once he was out of sight, only to come back throughout the day when he was awake.

After a fortnight, James rose as usual and checked his side.

It was clear. No more bruising, and no more tenderness. He slowly stretched and twisted, and found that although he was stiff, there was no pain or weakness.

He had recovered.

Although the lake was still too dangerous to explore until he confirmed how effective his [Water Resistance] enchantments were, he wanted to at least check out the closer pond. How would undine essence affect a [Frostbite] enchanted knife, and would it make a difference if he used regular iron or Blue Iron? Or maybe even the other types of colored iron? He intended to take ingots of each and see if they would absorb undine essence the way his Earth War Hammer had absorbed the essence from the mole monster's blood.

Armed with his Green Iron Tower Shield and Green Iron War Hammer, and armored in a full set of Green Iron Armor enchanted with [Water Resistance], the Smith set out for the pond.

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