When I returned to my team of students, I found them gathered in a circle, a worried expression on their faces. "How's everyone?" I asked.
"I would have been better if someone just hadn't evacuated us without saying anything," Jennifer spat out angrily. The others looked at her, trying to calm her down.
"I deserved it," I said, smiling. While her attitude wasn't entirely deserved considering the situation, I preferred that to the way people looked at me outside, like I was a celebrity, or worse, an object of worship. "Still, it was an emergency, and it's not solved completely."
"What's the problem, professor," Terry asked, looking enthusiastic to help.
"Just a little mishap at the dungeon," I said as I waved my hand, and a gate opened. "Follow me."
I was bringing them along both because their help would be useful, particularly when it came to insights about Nurture, and to use it as an opportunity to work with them. Together, we might actually make a significant improvement.
When I arrived at the dungeon, I was met with a calmer view than I had been expecting. The insects and the lizards were still fighting, but the line of trees I had created had not been breached. The insects and the lizards tore each other apart, though I noted that there were no boss insects in sight.
Whether they had all fallen, or they succeeded in passing through the breach to the other side was a different question. For that, I needed to get closer.
Still, the aura of decay in the dungeon had recovered somewhat, likely due to the mana I had provided generously, giving me hope that I was on the right track. However, the gap was not visible due to the dungeon barrier.
"What's going on?" Terry asked.
"We're dealing with a dungeon invasion," I started, giving them a quick breakdown of the situation, including the trees I had created hastily.
"Can I have a look, sir?" he said.
"Let's move together," I said. They neither had the level nor the equipment necessary to be safe alone. "I want all your opinions on the direction it could be improved."
That earned enthusiastic nods from all of them, which didn't surprise me. After all, all of them had accepted my offer to teach them despite the risk of death I had highlighted several times. Compared to that, approaching a dangerous location under my protection didn't register as risky.
Once we reached the tree line, they put their attention on the trees, touching it in turn as they used their skills to analyze what I had done. While they were busy with it, I turned my attention toward the breach.
The first thing I noticed was the about two dozen crystals near the breach, explaining what had happened to the boss monsters. They probably had died in their reckless charge, eviscerated by the constant flares.
I collected them at once, feeling my connection with the dungeon strengthen even further. Unfortunately, that increased connection didn't come with an instant solution to my problem.
The next thing I examined was the conflict between the two dungeons. It was still dangerous and chaotic, but less so compared to earlier. The breach seemed to be stabilizing, which was both good and bad news. Good news because hopefully it would stop consuming all the mana I had provided.
Bad news, because if it stabilized like that, it would mean a constant connection between two dungeons. And, every single indicator was showing the other dungeon to be the stronger one. Not exactly happy news.
Maybe I could turn that into something beneficial.
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"Professor," Terry called, bringing my attention back to them. "We think we know how to adjust it."
"Easily, I might add, professor," Jennifer added. "Real shoddy work."
"I was in a hurry," I said. "Show me."
Terry cut a sapling placed it on the obsidian floor, and started feeding it with his health. I touched its branch, my gauntlet allowing me to use Observe at the area I touched.
Observing the changes was a true delight. His skill was merely Epic compared to my Legendary. However, it was also a class skill, which came with significant flexibility, almost alive compared to the static external skills.
However, as I watched the tree change under my touch, I could sense that the difference in external and class skills wasn't the only source of the change. Ultimately, my approach was heavily based on my learning as a blacksmith. I did my best to control each step as I sculpted the concept, while Terry coaxed and directed gently.
He could not have achieved what I did by transforming the concept of the tree, but that was more about the power I could put behind those changes.
Soon, I was looking at a tiny, yet much purer sapling. "Let's see if it works," I said as I touched it, boosting its growth.
As the tree grew, the dungeon mist spreading from the fire dungeon had been pushed back immediately. A complete success.
"Good work," I congratulated. "Now, let's see if it works on a bigger scale."
Luckily, the environment had enough dead lizards — which didn't disappear unlike the insects — to act as fertilizer, so growing a full line of trees, each hovering high enough to completely block the presence of the fire dungeon, didn't take much time. I even prevented any overflow from the sky by focusing on the growth direction of the branches, letting them spread high enough.
I wasn't under the impression that it had solved the problem completely, but it was an excellent stop-gap measure.
When I returned to my students, I found them in the depths of an intense discussion. "… It has to work," Terry said. "That gives us the ability to modify the concept directly. Therefore, a skill upgrade is likely."
"I still think it lacks robustness," Spencer replied, his tone calm, but with the assistance of Wisdom, I could sense that his passion for the subject wasn't any lesser. "If we go at it your way, it's impossible to achieve controlled growth."
"But, that just means losing the biggest advantage of growth, " Terry replied, which triggered Spencer to reply. Curious, I stayed away, wondering how the debate would go. Unfortunately, it devolved into a quick squabble, raised voices and pointless repetitions.
It reminded me of every fruitless argument I'd ever witnessed between academics when they forgot what they were searching for was the truth, and focused on winning. I could see it, in their eyes. Moreover, I could see the others ready to join the 'debate', which wouldn't have ended nicely.
Still, there were no snide personal insults mixed in, so it was better than what I could have hoped for.
I cleared my throat as I approached. "Why don't you take a small break," I called.
"Sorry for the commotion, sir," Spencer said, quicker to recover.
"Don't worry about it. I understand the passion of defending one's idea. But, your method needs work."
"It's more on the objective than anything else. There's a fundamental difference between debating to win and debating to explore ideas, and you two were too focused on the former."
"Does it make any difference?" Jennifer interrupted. "Ultimately, debating is debating, right?"
"Not necessarily," I replied. "When you debate to win, you're focused on proving your argument superior. You cling to every detail that supports your perspective, and as a result, you end up ignoring or dismissing anything that doesn't support your point."
To my surprise, the next question came from Soren, despite his apparent desire to fade into the background. "And, how does debating productively work?"
"The core difference is the objective. Your focus needs to be on your own argument, as you're the one who knows it the best. The arguments of others are opportunities to catch the weaknesses you can identify so that you can refine your argument."
"What if we realize it can't be fixed."
"Then you throw it out and start searching for a new hypothesis. Ultimately, our objective is not to win, but to search for the truth. That's how science works."
Though, even as I delivered that, I felt a touch dishonest. After all, it never worked like that. There were too many academicians who were happy to push points that they knew to be wrong, just to collect more grant money or have more postdoc researchers. Power mattered more than truth.
Which was a sad facet of the world.
"Don't frown," I continued. "How to debate constructively is another thing you need to learn as my students alongside how to manipulate mana and kill monsters more effectively."
"A true classical education," Spencer quipped.
"Exactly," I said even as I opened the gate. "But, before that, we have an even better tool to use when exploring the truth."
"And, what's that?" Jennifer asked.
"Experimentation, of course," I said as I took a step through the gate, and they followed. On the other side, my workshop awaited.