Heavy Metal [ A Monster Evolution LitRPG ]

“Are you sure?”

“It’s quite probable. Your ant friend should be safe for the time being, probably for another month, that is if they haven’t changed the guild rules since my untimely demise. Let me explain.”

A white orb replied to a strangely relieved-looking suit of armor. A plan was made to cause chaos and escape in this dungeon. However, this did not fix the immediate problem of Gleam being captured. Rusty posed a question about his friend's safety, and the hero, familiar with the ways of adventurers, gave him some good news.

“The ant.”

“Her name is Gleam.”

“Sure… Gleam will probably go through an examination process. They will likely discover that she is under a bonding contract with someone. Normally, this will make them assume that she is owned by a Tamer.”

“A Tamer?”

“Tamers are people that use monsters and beasts as their weapons, they are able to subjugate and control these creatures through these contracts, with the bonding one being a bit special, usually they use it for their first monster. Since Gleam bonded with you and you are still alive, the contract will come up during the first examination…”

“So, that means that…”

The hero sighed as he continued his explanation. He wasn’t sure what to make of Rusty. Sometimes, Rusty reacted like a child who didn’t know anything, while other times, his mind was sharper than an adult’s. His ability to strategically take out adventurers using traps showed his high intelligence, but he lacked a lot of the common sense a human would have.

“That means that Gleam will be treated as someone’s tamed monster, there are laws prohibiting others from harming such monsters.”

“That’s great! So that means that Gleam is safe?”

“At least for the time being…”

“Time being? Is there more to it?”

“Yeah, there are certain rules, or at least there were, but everything is on a timer. I think it was around a month. If no one claims a bonded monster, the guild would seize it and more than likely allow the people who captured Gleam to take possession of her. Even though you have a bonding contract, such things can be forcefully removed even if the owner is still alive.”

Rusty nodded at this revelation. It seemed that there were a lot of strange rules in the outside world populated by these humanoid beings. Luckily, these rules were working in his favor, as for the time being, it seemed that Gleam would be safe. Captured monsters like her would need to remain at a certain facility, and once there, they would stay for a month.

During this time, nothing would happen to her, but eventually, after the timer ran out, the people who captured her could claim her as their possession and probably overwrite his bonding contract with a more unfavorable one. This meant that he had around a month to turn this place upside down and leave the dungeon he was born in.

“Good, that will be enough, thank you.”

“No need to thank me, I’m just nothing but a skill…”

“Stop being such a downer, little hero.”

The two lights started to vanish as Rusty canceled the skill before his mana ran out. During the conversation, he had already used up his last mana crystal to prolong their talk. He was now back to square one on the first floor of the dungeon. The only difference was that he was now being hunted not only by the adventurers but also by the dungeon heart. It wanted to kill him and restore his form to the one it could control, something he could not allow.

“How should I start… if Aburdon is right, then I might have to attack the dungeon heart directly or gain enough levels to evolve further.”

Rusty found himself back in the dim, musty corridors of the dungeon’s first level. His metallic body was still and silent as he contemplated his next steps. The weight of his newfound purpose - saving Gleam and breaking free from the dungeon pressed heavily onto his armored shoulders.

“I’ll need to get stronger and do it fast, a month seems like long but it’s not…”

Rusty glanced at his status screen and his stats. After having defeated the insectoid monsters inside the chasm, his progress had stagnated. His rank was E minus, and fighting F minus ranked monsters didn’t give him more than one experience point. It was clear that he had to delve into the lower levels of this dungeon to find stronger prey. However, there was also a different option: fighting adventurers, something the hero had tried to dissuade him from doing.

These humanoid adversaries would yield more experience points but were quite troublesome. The more he killed, the more likely they were to call for reinforcements. If he did too much damage, he would probably be forced to hide for a while, a tactic his helpers had already mentioned.

Aburdon offered another solution, which would be the safest: Rusty could simply bury himself in a hole and wait a few months. Eventually, the adventurers would forget about him, and the dungeon monsters would not be able to see him if he was hidden behind a newly created wall. With his pickaxe, making a temporary shelter wouldn't be hard. His disposition as living armor didn't require oxygen or food for survival, so he could just stay there until everything blew over. However, such an approach would put Gleam’s life at stake, and he did not want to risk that.

“The lower levels it is then … I need to go deeper and level up more.”

With a resolve set, there was nothing else for Rusty to worry about as he decided to delve deeper into the dungeon before the adventurers could organize themselves further. While they posed a problem, within the dark and musty dungeon, he could conceal his presence. His enemies were searching for a living armor, but his form didn’t look much different from his dungeon brethren. One of them was right before him, slowly approaching, weapon drawn as it charged forward.

“Was I really this slow before?”

It felt strange to see the corroded armored pieces coming at him and being dispatched in a matter of moments. He didn’t even need to hit them with his sword; a few punches and kicks were enough, and probably better. Slashing damage was something his body was quite resistant to, but there was still a limit, which he observed just now. After one of the armors went down, another charged at him. In response, Rusty raised his sword hand and brought it down with the help of his Power Slash skill.

His sword connected with the monster's shoulder and dug in deep. The corroded form, riddled with holes, could not hold and was sliced apart. A massive gash appeared on the monster, which died instantly. His E-rank weapon was powerful enough to cut through the F-plus durability. With this amount of strength, he felt confident in progressing. Thanks to the sheer number of monsters here, it would probably not take that long to gain the experience he needed.

“I probably won’t run out of bronze either…”

His brethren were made of bronze which he could absorb with the help of his skill. Even though he ran out of mana crystals, he would have a way of restoring his body to a seemingly infinite amount. With this in mind, he could let loose and not care about his well-being, as long as his helmet remained intact, he would be fine.

There was another bonus to returning to the dungeon besides being able to absorb materials from weapons and monsters. He had another use for his absorption skill that he hadn't been able to utilize for a while. The skeleton approaching him with a mace was the perfect subject to see if it still worked. It charged forward, but with one sidestep and a quick swipe, Rusty disarmed the monster, its limbs landing on the ground.

It was a similar type of skill to ‘Basic Swordsmanship’ and even encompassed more than one type of blunt weapon. At first, he wished to limit himself to as few weapon types as possible, even thinking that more than three would have been too much. However, his two guides were different type of creatures as they actually required sleep and rest. Rusty on the other hand, could function all day and night, using his weapons and leveling up skills constantly.

‘What are my strong points?”

Rusty pondered his approach and concluded that using multiple weapons could become his fighting style. He could switch out new ones and repair old ones during combat. Just like with his javelin throw, he could ambush his opponents when they least expected it. There were all kinds of weapons in this world, none definitively better than another. This was showcased by his body, which could shrug off slashing attacks but crumbled under blunt hits that indirectly damaged his monster core.

Then there was also the Soul Forge, a place where he could construct all types of weapons. What was the point of the blacksmithing skills he was learning if he couldn't even use the weapons he was creating himself? He could customize them to fit all his needs, and in the future, enchanting could also be possible - something that could bridge the gap between skills as well. The ability to craft and enhance his own weapons would give him a big advantage, allowing him to adapt to various combat situations and opponents.

“Let’s take this skill but maybe overdoing it is also bad… Getting a polearm instead of a spear should be enough, I don’t really need to overlap when the weapons are similar.”

Thus, with his mindset and priorities clear, he headed back down to the lower-level floors. The second level presented not much of a challenge as the monsters there weren’t all that strong. Nevertheless, he kept to the side tunnels he remembered and made his way to an old location. There he found some old friends in the poison-filled leeches. To his dismay, others decided to come out to play.

The ruined graveyard he could previously just walk by was activated as if he were one of the adventurers. Zombies and skeletons emerged to stop his plan, or at least become a minor inconvenience. These monsters were rather slow and not particularly bright. Rusty had seen adventurers clear out this cavern and knew how to handle them all, even by himself and without a priest.

A zombie's head tumbled to the side and was quickly followed by another one. The best tactic here was to defeat the zombies while they were rising up from their graves. It took them a while to do so and with swift movements, Rusty made quick work of the rising undead. His blade cleaved through the air, severing limbs and decapitating heads before the creatures could fully emerge. It was an efficient method that minimized the number of active threats but it was still not perfect.

The graveyard was large, and some monsters were still able to rise. By the time Rusty reached their position, they had already fully emerged. He swung his blade in broad arcs, each swing taking down one foe. Skeletons were also present, and with his new mace skill, he could easily shatter their fragile bones. While he would need a skill to use two weapons at once more efficiently, against such low-leveled targets, his current abilities were enough. Soon, the number of undead enemies dwindled, and he had successfully cleared the area without needing to use his light element.

The experience points came, but they were quite meager. Even after all the monsters were dealt with, his experience bar had not budged at all. It was clear that he should leave quickly, as this place wasn’t worth his time. Luckily, the poisonous exploding leeches were able to enter his inventory. With them around, he felt a bit safer, as they worked wonders on the adventurers. They would be his trump card if he ever got surrounded.

Rusty tried to focus on his journey, but his mind kept drifting back to memories of his old friend, Gleam. He wasn’t sure what these emotions truly were, but the more he thought about her, the more something hurt inside him. To distract himself from this strange new pain, he decided to concentrate on other things, like the armor pieces he had picked up from the other living armors. While they were not made out of twilight bronze, they were the same size as his own body parts.

He had stored a few pieces inside his storage space but could also place them in his stash tab. On the system screen, the icons representing equipment weren’t quite lifelike and resembled two-dimensional sprites. He had two versions of the armor: one belonging to the corroded variant of his old body and the other to an evolved bronze variant he had vanquished in the lower levels.

As he walked, Rusty started playing around with these items and placed one in the spot of his left arm. To his surprise, the corroded piece replaced his left gauntlet, which felt quite normal. He couldn’t feel any reduction in his stats, but this piece was certainly less durable than the body part made of twilight bronze. While it wouldn’t be the best option, he could still replace damaged parts with others. Perhaps he could even use different types of body armor, like the ones the humans were wearing.

After a few more tests, he realized there was an interesting exploit. Once he replaced his arm with the lesser damaged variant, he was given the option to repair it. It cost the usual ingot amount, but his system created a brand-new arm identical to the original. It seemed that, through this method, he could produce replacement limbs for future use. This discovery was intriguing as it allowed him to stock up on undamaged parts.

This trick didn’t work with weapons, though; he could only restore the ones he himself created. He wasn’t sure why, but perhaps the monster parts were seen differently since they came from similar monster variants with identical builds. The weapons, on the other hand, were more universal and could be used by many other creatures.

“I should go back down and explore that fifth level. The monsters there gave a bit more experience than these…”

With a determined mind, he set off on his journey. He had a month to gather enough experience to challenge the dungeon heart, and he intended to do it. Once the connection was severed, he would move above ground, where a whole new world would await him.