‘I’m really doing it!’
Rusty's sword grazed his opponent's cheek, causing his rage-filled expression to waver. The poison was doing its work, further weakening the adventurer. Rusty seized this opportunity to push the advantage, relentlessly pressing his attacks. The Fighter who was now visibly fatigued, struggled to defend himself against the relentless assault.
Meanwhile, the other fighter, along with the thief, was having some trouble against the other monster skeletons and living armors. It seemed they were not prepared for this type of situation, as only on the floor below did the poisonous leeches exist. Without having to worry about these status effects, it was possible that these individuals didn't bring any antidotes for such an occasion, and Rusty's tactic was relying on this possibility.
He persisted, slowly improving his own movements. It was a strange feeling, but he could sense his actions becoming more refined and his body reacting in a more streamlined fashion. The fact that his opponent was affected by the poison also helped, but Rusty was actively becoming stronger and learning from his first real one-on-one confrontation.
Basic Swordsmanship has leveled up.
A message sounded out, but he ignored it and stepped in to deliver a blow to his opponent. Instead of the scratches he was making before, this one strike drew blood on the man’s side. Rusty didn’t go uninjured, though, as the man’s blade also made its way towards his chest. However, even though this wasn’t the first gash on his armor, he was still able to continue. His body was made of metal and ran on mana and not blood. As long as his limbs weren’t pulled apart or destroyed, he would be able to continue without ever tiring.
This was one thing he noticed about these adventurers that he didn’t have - a stamina meter. Rusty always kept his distance before attacking, and he had observed that his enemies suffered from a debuff of sorts that made them sluggish. There was a similar state when it came to him when he depleted all of his mana, but as long as he had some left, he could move around without ever getting slower.
As the Fighter stumbled backward, Rusty seized the opportunity. With a powerful swing of his poisoned blade, he aimed for a critical strike. The sword connected, slashing through the Fighter’s armor and inflicting a deep wound. The adventurer fell to the ground, defeated and writhing in pain. It was time to savor his victory and deliver the final blow.
Rusty moved in, his blade raised high as he prepared to activate his power slash skill. With one grand attack, he was attempting to dislodge the man’s head from his neck - a rather large weak point that these humanoid creatures had. The other two were close to beating the other monsters, so he needed to hurry, but before the last strike could be carried out, an unfortunate event occurred.
The attack came from behind, connecting with his raised arm that was holding the sword. It went into the metal and took his whole forearm, along with his sword to the ground. To his surprise, the three adventurers here didn’t seem to be alone, as another person appeared to aid them. He quickly turned to the person to attempt an identification check, but to his surprise, he could not perceive this person’s level - a situation that had never happened before.
Archer L??
The mysterious archer, who appeared seemingly out of nowhere, was an enigma to Rusty. His level remained hidden and shrouded in mystery. Despite the shock of losing a large portion of his arm, Rusty was still able to remain calm. He was an inorganic being that could not feel any pain, even if his arm was gone it would not affect his psyche. The archer held a longbow and was already nocking another arrow and ready to fire.
“What’s with that living armor, it’s different from the others?”
The archer spoke out from afar and was ready to fire again, but some luck was still on Rusty’s side. Monsters from within this large chamber moved towards this man’s location and forced him to focus on them. However, this person was much more nimble than anyone that had previously visited this dungeon. With one shot of his bow, he was able to pierce through multiple monsters and embed them on a nearby collapsed pillar. It was clear that this person was vastly superior to anything that Rusty had seen before and probably not someone that he could face without subterfuge.
‘It might be time to use that…’
While the fourth adventurer was momentarily busy, Rusty decided to grab his arm that was now on the ground with a large arrow inside of it. This arrow had pierced right through his gauntlet and vambrace parts, just in the place where they connected. The ground was brittle enough for him to be able to yank it back out and after connecting it back to his body, he was able to move it around as the elbow joint went undamaged.
However, the enemy that he had almost defeated had used this chance to get away. Pursuing him would inevitably expose Rusty to another arrow from the skilled archer. Instead, he hoisted his blade high into the air in a manner visible to all. This tactic successfully diverted the adventurers’ attention, as their gaze fixated on the raised sword.
“What is that thing doing?”
The adventurer who had previously appeared called out, having quickly cleared the monsters around him in less than half a minute. His gaze was fixated on the raised sword, and simultaneously he readied another arrow to target Rusty standing nearby. To his surprise, before he could release his projectile, a blinding surge of light erupted from the rusty blade.
“W-what? Damn, my eyes!”
Rusty had just enough mana in himself to use the Basic Elemental Charge skill that he had learned. Opting for the light element, he infused his sword to create a dazzling burst of radiant light. Although it wouldn't inflict direct harm on the adventurers, it served its purpose by momentarily blinding them and providing Rusty the opportunity to escape. With haste, he dashed into one of the numerous corridors, stifling the persistent calls of the dungeon voice urging him to continue the fight.
The compulsion to heed the voice lessened upon activating the elemental skill, a perk Rusty had tested and discovered earlier. His secret technique involved fleeing while suppressing the commands for slaughter from the persistent voice. The other monsters could not hold themselves back from attacking which would keep the adventures from catching up to him. Despite being encased in heavy metal armor that hindered his speed, he remained unconcerned about traps or monsters, something the pursuers would have to contend with.
‘It might be better to go down to the lower floor!’
Rusty made his way to the staircase leading down to the lower floor. His metal footsteps echoed in the narrow corridor as he made his escape. The adventurers, still recovering from the blinding light, struggled to give chase. The archer, in particular, had difficulty adjusting his vision and the pursuing monsters proved to be an additional hindrance.
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*****
“What the hell was that? I’ve never seen a living armor act like this… or any monster before?”
“Oy, what's the hold-up?”
Having successfully eluded capture, Rusty left the adventurers behind in the chamber where the vitality leaf spawned. As he made his way to safety, three other people arrived from behind the corridor that the archer ventured through. The one that called out to him was clearly of the dwarven race.
“I think we are finished with the scouting job.”
The archer squinted while some tears escaped from his eyes. The dwarven companion started chuckling mockingly, clearly trying to rile up his companion.
“Are you crying? Do you need me to call your mommy?”
“What? That thing just uses some type of blinding spell… It caught me off guard, it won’t happen again”
“Haha, are you sure you didn’t just pee your pants instead?”
The dwarf's grin widened, and his laughter echoed throughout the expansive chamber. The archer, growing increasingly irritated, pointed his bow in the direction of his carefree ally. The dwarven man, in response but still grinning, raised his large halberd in a defensive stance. However, before the situation could escalate another voice resonated from behind them.
“Hey, Reistel knock it off, leave Keyon alone, we all saw the flash of light, you’d have been blinded too.”
A woman wearing dark leather armor appeared between the two and managed to calm the situation down.
“Hah, you humans are easy to rile up!”
The woman shook her head around and turned to the man named Keyon for some clarification.
“What happened? What was that bright white light?”
“I’m not sure, either the monster was using a magical blade or it’s an Irregular.”
“An irregular monster has spawned on this floor? But the information stated that strange things were happening on the second floor but not on this one? If it’s an irregular, then we need to chase it down!”
“Wait, calm down Livi, I got it with one of my arrows, as long as it has it, I’ll be able to track it. We should probably help those three newbies first, two of them seemed to have been poisoned by that thing.”
The woman, referred to as Livi, sighed and nodded in agreement. A fourth member emerged from behind, clad in a heavier set of armor and wielding a large tower shield. Without uttering a word, he moved toward one of the corridors where a few monsters began to emerge. While the trio focused on assisting the lower-level adventurers, he effortlessly dispatched the small wave of insignificant monsters, each with a single strike from his large mace.
“You have our thanks.”
“No problem, but first take this antidote and then tell us about what happened here.”
“Of course.”
The thief quickly received a blue potion to aid his two party members, with the majority administered to the injured fighter who had fallen victim to the surprise attack. Despite losing a considerable amount of blood and succumbing to poisoning, the mysterious mending liquids allowed for rapid recovery. Following the administration of the antidote, the fighter's skin complexion gradually shifted back from its previous purple hue. Afterward, a red potion was employed to seal the wound inflicted by the living armor’s blade.
“This should do but your friend lost some blood, he will still need some time to recover. Now, tell us what happened here.”
Livi posed the question now after the trio of adventurers seemed to be alright and they quickly replied.
“It all happened when that weird armor appeared, it actually surprise attacked my friend here.”
“Do living armors have a sneak attack skill?”
“I don’t think so… they should be more similar to fighters and later knights? But if it’s an irregular monster, then perhaps it had gained some thief skills?”
The adventurers began pondering the situation among themselves as the party that had encountered the living armor recounted the events. They explained how the armored adversary had struck with a weapon coated in poison, incapacitating one of their comrades. Additionally, the metal monster had cleverly employed the other ones as a shield, isolating the remaining fighter from the group.
“That’s quite the intelligent monster… either it was all luck or this thing is more like a natural monster than a dungeon-created one, what do you think, Keyon?”
“Considering that it had chosen to escape when in danger, it seems to have a sense of itself and survival instincts, could a monster from outside have wandered into the dungeon instead of it being an irregular?”
“This is quite strange indeed… but weren’t normal monsters supposed to be afraid of dungeons? Wouldn’t the other monsters attack them instantly?”
“You make a good point there… It must have been a monster from this dungeon, there is no other explanation for it.”
Keyon responded to Livi, who was grappling with the strangeness of the situation. The behavior of this irregular monster seemed to be different and didn’t make much sense. From time to time such an irregular monster would appear in a dungeon. They were usually mini-bosses that had heightened stats. The monster that almost killed a man in this party at first seemed like one. However, just the fact that it chose to escape made it seem like it was not a typical irregular monster.
Then there were outside monsters that had a more self-centered identity, it would make sense for them to act like this. However, typically, monsters with higher intelligence, born outside dungeons, would not venture into such domains. A force usually kept them at bay, and as long as a dungeon heart was present, they would be repelled. Only higher-tier creatures could overcome this barrier, and the living armor they encountered did not seem to possess that level of strength.
“Oy, what you two worrying about?”
“Huh?”
As Keyon and Livi attempted to comprehend the situation, their bushy-bearded dwarven companion chimed in from the side. Leaning on his halberd with a grin, he quickly added.
“Don’t we just need to slay that thing and our job will be over? If it runs away from someone like Keyon here, then it can’t be that strong. I bet the guild will give us a nice bonus if we take care of it!”
“Well, that’s… True…”
Livi replied while Keyon frowned as Reistel implied that he was weak.
“This mission was just to scout out the second floor, but tell me Keyon how strong was that monster?”
She asked again while assessing the situation. Livi, as the leader of the party, faced the need to make a decisive decision. The targeted monster might be nearby, which would enable them to swiftly accomplish their mission. Despite not deeming this dungeon overly dangerous, they remained cautious and recognized that a few areas could be problematic even for them.
“I don’t know, some Irregulars are capable of calling in reinforcements quickly…”
“What of it? All these monsters are just F-rank, we can deal with all of them easily!”
The dwarven man chimed in, his halberd now positioned over his shoulder. It was clear that he wanted to push on to take care of this creature now and not wait for later. Livi turned her attention to her archer companion for some confirmation as it was he that had seen the creature.
“How strong was it?”
“I didn’t manage to identify the name but by its movements, I’d say that it’s at most an F plus rank.”
Distracted by the presence of the three adventurers and the other monsters, Keyon was unable to identify the monster's classification and level. Nevertheless, his keen observational skills allowed him to gauge the opponents’ levels to some extent, even without directly consulting their status screens.
“F plus? Haha, this is going to be easy money! I say we go after it! You said that you would be able to track it, right?”
“Sure but what about these guys?”
Keyon pointed to the three young adventurers who had been injured previously. They had been weakened and one of them could not walk on his own. This was when the previously silent member of the group approached. Despite his imposing appearance, his eyes showed a glimmer of concern as he examined the injured adventurers.
“I’ll take them to safety.”
“Aye, let us leave it up to Dedrick!”
Eventually, the leader of the group gave in to the request and they split into two groups. Dedrick took charge of guiding the three injured adventurers to safety, with the plan to reunite with the main party afterward. Meanwhile, the remaining members decided to pursue the monster, their aim to complete their mission and perhaps get a better reward after.
They moved quickly through the corridors, effortlessly dispatching the low-ranked F monsters that posed no challenge to their skilled party. After a while, they reached a juncture, a place that they didn’t expect.
“Hey, isn’t that one of yours?”
“Yes, it is…”
“Can you still track it?”
“For a short while but…”
The group found themselves in an unexpected location - at the stairs leading to the lower floor of the dungeon. The arrow that had pierced through the living armor's forearm lay on the ground, indicating that the creature had descended further into the lower level.
“Can Irregular monsters normally go between floors?”
“They shouldn’t…”
“Now this is getting even more interesting, an irregular monster that acts like a monster from outside the dungeon!”
The dwarven man was quite intrigued by this turn of events but now the party needed to make a decision. Should they venture further down into a potentially more hazardous area, or would it be wiser to contact the guild and request backup before proceeding?