“Are you sure we should be here?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, it’s just the first floor, there are only goblins, skeletons, and rusty armors around; they are all trash.”

“I don’t know… wouldn’t it be better to go to an easier dungeon? The monsters from the lower levels sometimes travel to the upper ones…”

“Hah, that very rarely happens, and if something does, I’ll just protect you.”

An older teenager responded to a girl who was slightly younger than him. Both of them were slowly going down a very long set of stairs leading to a mostly empty chamber. Within it were paths leading to different places, each marked and given a symbol.

“Oh, I know those, we should probably avoid the goblins, right?”

The girl pointed at one of the markings and the young man that she was with nodded.

“That’s right, the goblins are weak, but they work in larger groups. It would be hard to deal with just the two of us, but we should be fine if it's just one or two of those green bastards.”

The young man laughed while puffing out his chest. He was wearing a cheap set of armor along with a sword strapped to his side. The younger girl had some leather armor, and her weapon of choice was a bow that she was already holding in her hand. Even though there was no danger in sight, she seemed worried about this little expedition.

“As I said, stop worrying. The monsters here are rather weak. How about we just go get some skeletons? Those guys are quite slow.”

The man pointed to another path on the right side of the chamber.

“What about the living armors?”

“Those bundles of rust will fall apart from one good kick. Nothing to worry about; they are actually weaker than a skeleton, just take a few more hits, are really slow, and you can hear them coming instantly.”

“If you say so…”

The girl nodded while the young man continued to grin. He moved in close and placed his hand around her waist, which made her slightly frown.

“Don’t worry, just stick close to me, and there won’t be any problems.”

For a moment, she noticed that he had a strange expression when getting this close. Her instincts were telling her that something was wrong, but due to some circumstances, she needed to get stronger. Leveling up in this dungeon was the fastest way to alleviate her troubles. Even if her companion wasn’t the most trustworthy, without him, she would have been unable to come to this place.

“How about you lead the way, then.”

“Sure thing, just leave it to me.”

After wiggling out of his grasp, she made the man move in front. He was just a regular fighter type, while she was best at ranged combat. Their combination had an obvious synergy, and she intended to use it to battle the monsters here. Soon, the two disappeared into the corridor and were on their way to adventure.

*****

Congratulations you have gained a level.

Name:

Rusty

Classification:

Damaged Corroded Bronze Armor [ F - ] L7

Type:

Magical/Inorganic

Hit Points [ HP ]

20/20

Magic Points [MP]

17/17

Special Points [SP]

8/15

Strength

16 [ F - ] +1

Agility

8 [ F - ] +0

Dexterity

8 [ F - ] +0

Constitution

15 [ F - ] +1

Intelligence

8 [ F - ] +0

Wisdom

12 [ F - ] +1

Willpower

10 [ F - ] +0

Durability

F

‘Is there any way to hasten this process? How long have I been doing this?’

Rusty lowered his head and gave out a sigh as if he was a human. He had spent many days exterminating small critters and bugs around the dungeon and at this point was having an issue finding more of them. Sometimes humans wandered in but he was lucky enough to avoid them for now. It didn’t seem like they wanted to stay in this dungeon too long or at least not on this floor.

One more discovery was a set of stairs going up, which like before he couldn’t approach. Rusty was even unable to enter the large empty chamber before the stairs started and could only glance at them from far away. It seemed to be an even more forbidden zone that the voice inside of his heart kept him and the other monsters away from. However, he was able to resist the orders some more, and perhaps his higher levels had something to do with it.

‘If I could only grind something else…’

Rusty produced a new word that he somehow knew the meaning of. If he continued like this, his levels would only continue to rise at a very slow rate. It was impossible for him to attack the other monsters in the dungeon, which left the humanoid creatures that came from the stairs above as his targets. He had done his best to observe their movements from a safe distance while the other monsters had been destroyed. There was one main reason that he did such a thing, and that was his current level, which he was afraid to lose.

The levels of his allies ranged from one to five. He was now the highest-level monster wandering this dungeon floor. After observing the deaths of his fellow creatures, he realized something. Every one of them had an assigned level that they always returned to. It didn’t seem to decrease, but it also wasn’t increasing either. It was possible that if he died now, his level would be reset, and he would again be a level one monster. This was something that he wanted to prevent at all costs, as the multiple days of killing critters would go to waste.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Resisting the voice wasn’t easy; at most, he could slow himself down and wait for the orders to subside. Eventually, as the battle came to a close and there were no other monsters around the fleshy enemies, the call to arms would cease. It was as if without the monsters' involvement, the voice inside his head couldn’t perceive any enemies. The creatures like him were its eyes, and if he didn’t explicitly look at an animate humanoid, it wouldn’t trigger the voice's orders.

There was one more interesting effect that he also needed to watch out for. If another monster from the dungeon encountered an enemy, they would send out some sort of hidden signal. If he was close by, the voice would also be activated. It was some sort of way to call for reinforcements, but it was easily avoided by him with a small ruse. He just avoided locations that were hotspots for combat. Even if he was ordered to patrol, there was some wiggle room for him, and he used that to prevent any deaths from happening lately. Something that he wanted to pat himself on the back for.

Basic Shield Bash

Active Skill

Perform a bash with a shield.

Basic Power Thrust

Active Skill

Perform a powerful thrust attack.

Rusty had managed to acquire two new skills: one through absorption and the other through regular leveling. When he reached level five, he was given the basic power thrust. It made him realize that he needed to deliberate more on what skills to get. If they were attainable by regular level-ups, then it was a waste of time to use the absorption skill that had some more drawbacks.

One of them he recently discovered. After attaining the Basic Shield Bash skill, the timer had been reset and doubled in length. It was possible that it would become harder and harder to use that skill. Perhaps saving it for something more special would lead to better outcomes. However, he still needed to test it further, and perhaps absorbing something from the humans in the dungeon was a better idea.

‘Those creatures are strange, what is their purpose? They always come from that place and always travel through the same path down, what lies there that they would risk their lives for? Will I be able to see it?’

His interest was piqued, but he couldn’t do much about it. Even now, as he was doing his rounds and passing by the staircase, he tried to head down, but the annoying voice inside of his head kept preventing him from progressing. However, he was not going to give up; each time he attempted this feat, he was able to get half a step more in. It seemed that maybe, he would eventually be able to head down and unveil the mysteries on the lower floor.

Thus he continued on his way while looking out for some smaller creatures. Even though their numbers had decreased there were still there for him to slay. Even his power slash skill had reached the second level and so did his basic swordsmanship. It was the only way for him to level up so he made his way towards one of the best grinding spots.

‘ENEMY!’

“GAH!”

To his surprise, he heard a commotion at a part of the dungeon that was usually empty. Rusty had been using it for a while now, and no humans had ever wandered in. There were only large bugs and rats in this side of the dungeon, along with a few of his monster brethren. One of them had just been dispatched by what seemed to be an armored human, similar to the one that had previously defeated him.

‘Should I try it? But there is another one… and I’m alone…’

After ducking behind the corner and losing sight of them, the voice inside his head quieted down. Just as previously, if he didn’t keep looking at the humans, it would not be able to see them. Staying here behind the corner and waiting for them to pass was the best solution, as he didn’t think that he could handle them quite yet. His levels and skills were going up, but after getting easily defeated previously, Rusty decided to take a safer approach. This was also a perfect chance to eavesdrop, as his language skills had started to improve and he could now mostly understand what was being said.

‘Hm… are they fighting with each other? Can they do that?’

“Hey, stop that, I told you that I’m not interested, if you’re going to be like that, then maybe it would be better if we just return now.”

The tone that this person was talking exuded an aura of annoyance. Rusty strained to listen, his metallic hearing tuned into the conversation between the two humans. It seemed like a disagreement of some sort, and he was curious about what was happening. The monsters in the dungeon didn’t respond much, and he couldn’t actually produce a voice himself, so this was quite intriguing. The second voice, deeper and more assertive, responded,

“Come on, don't be like that. I was just joking around.”

“No, I think we are done here!”

The other voice didn’t let up and he could hear this maddened person walking in the other direction which led out of the dungeon. The other person remained in the same place for a moment before he finally said something in a now annoyed tone.

“This damn bitch… who does she think she is? Is she going to report me to the guild? Fuck…”

It was quite an interesting tidbit; Rusty wasn’t sure about the relations of these humanoid creatures, but he could feel animosity and something similar to killing intent coming from this man’s voice. He wasn’t sure how he was aware of something like this besides the memories he came equipped with giving him the answer.

‘What are they doing? They aren’t like us? Isn’t there a voice keeping them from attacking each other?’

Not long after the man voiced his dissatisfaction with the situation, he ran back after the other human person. Rusty was able to hear the two shouting some profanities at each other before a fight broke out. He could clearly hear the two beings clash against each other, something that wasn’t possible for him and the monsters in this dungeon.

‘They are fighting?’

They had moved into one of the dead-end corridors that was not normally patrolled by any monsters. Rusty knew this as it was close to his grinding spot where he spent a lot of time. He slowly approached while trying to minimize the sound of his rusty body, luckily the two humans were shouting too much to notice anything. When he arrived at the scene he took a little peak so that the voice would not be alerted.

There he saw a strange scene playing out: the bigger human had taken out the lower half of his armor and was wrestling around with the smaller one. What they were doing was unknown to him, but it didn’t seem like the one on the bottom liked it too much. The fight continued, but eventually, a rock was used to disable the smaller opponent, which gave Rusty an idea.

‘Isn’t this a chance? They seem distracted, maybe I should…’

He knew that he couldn’t win against one of those beings in a fair fight, but perhaps they had injured each other enough for him to capitalize on the situation. Nevertheless, Rusty knew that he needed to be cautious; there was no telling what his enemy would do, and there was still some ground to cover before he reached that dead end. His body producing loud noises was a big weakness but luckily, when he looked behind himself, he spotted something that could aid him in this endeavor…

*****

“You shouldn’t have been such a prude and just let me do it… now look at you!”

The man panted while tossing a bloody rock to the side. The woman that he tussled with lay passed out before him with a gash to the side of her head. It was too late to go back now, and he did not want to stop either. However, just as he was about to do the deed, a strange clunking sound echoed from behind him. There he witnessed a living armor monster charging his way, a corroded blade in his right hand.

This corridor was rather dark and mostly lit at the end. He could barely see the monster by the reflection that its corroded armor was producing. It charged with reckless abandon while scraping its corroded weapon on the walls. The man quickly jumped up to his feet but instantly lost his balance as his pants were around his ankles. He was caught off guard by the monster, but luckily, it was quite sluggish and uncoordinated.

A massive swing came his way but he knew how to handle this situation. Instead of blocking or evading, he jumped forward. His shoulder collided with the chagrin monster which was toppled to the side. The man didn’t go uninjured as his shoulder felt as if it had been hit by a mallet. However, the monster had taken a lot of damage as well and most importantly, lost its balance.

“Fucking piece of shit monster, die!”

The man shouted as he managed to grab the metal gauntlet that was holding the sword and overpower the creature. The two tumbled to the ground and the living armor was slowly losing. Eventually, its corroded blade was used against it as the human adventurer started delivering multiple hits while shouting. The difference in levels and stats was apparent and the hollowed suit could not survive the beating.

“Huh?”

Yet, even though this one had been defeated, it was not alone. Suddenly, darkness took over as the man found himself with something on his head, a corroded helmet quite identical to the monster he had defeated. It was not alone; another one of the living armors had crept behind him and placed his ‘head’ onto his.

“What the hell?”

The man quickly grabbed the helmet in an attempt to throw it off, but to his surprise, he couldn’t. For some reason, the corroded helmet was stuck, and quickly after, he felt something similar to a splitting headache taking over. The pain was tremendous, and he felt like a needle was being poked through his eye socket. He panicked and started squirming around.

“W-what is this thing… GUH!”

As his attention was on the helmet, he forgot about the being that it belonged to. He was not alone, and an even sharper pain took over his right thigh. Something had pierced the unprotected part of his body and was quickly yanked out after. He could not see what was happening, and the continuous pain was making it even more difficult. The man started to furiously swing his hands around, but without connecting with anything, he soon felt his other leg being pierced by the same object.

His legs gave out, and he found himself down on the ground. At this point, there was far too much blood that he had lost, and the strength that he once had was gone as well. His body weakened by the continued injuries finally gave out and he found himself down on the cold dungeon floor, his last breath soon to be drawn.

As he lay there with almost no life left in him, the helmet was removed, and he caught a glimpse of his executioner. A similar-looking armor to many he had easily dispatched in his life. It took the helmet and placed it back onto its chestpiece, now covered in his blood along with the corroded blade that had been used as the weapon. It didn’t say anything as it raised its blade for a final time to deliver the finishing blow.

The blade was brought down with a swift motion, ending the man's life. The dungeon fell into silence once again, with only the distant echoes of the battle lingering in the air. The victorious living armor stood there, its corroded exterior splattered with fresh blood, unmoving and seemingly lifeless. Yet, it was roused again by the groans of another, it turned to face the second adventurer that was still alive, its sword still dripping with blood from the previous encounter and itching for more…