Rusty began his ascent towards the distant lights. His body was not meant for climbing, but with the help of his weight control skill, he was able to manage. The winds that had previously plagued their ascent had dwindled, allowing him to move forward. He could sense that some spiders still lurked around, but his metallic form was far less appealing to them than flesh.

Rusty pressed onward, methodically placing each step and testing each grip to ensure stability. His weight control skill helped, but he had to be cautious - one misstep could send him plummeting back down into the chasm. The ascent was slow, but luckily the illuminated cave wasn’t far off, and right before his weight control skill was to reach its limit, he managed to grab onto the ledge.

He hauled himself up, using the last moments of his weight control skill to hoist his armored body onto the ledge. With a final push, Rusty pulled himself up, his metallic body clanging against the rocky surface. The faint light he had seen from below now glowed before him, casting eerie shadows on the cavern walls. It was something he remembered, a torch found inside of the dungeon he came from. The ledge led into a cavern and cleary, he had returned to the dungeon he came from.

“...t….u….r….e..”

“It’s that voice again, it must be the Dungeon Heart.”

The voice had returned during his climb here but it was a lot more silent than before. He couldn’t even tell what it was trying to say to him and he was also not compelled to listen to it, something that he had expected to be the case. His mind was elsewhere, the dungeon didn’t really matter as the issue with Gleam persisted.

“Gleam, where are you…”

Rusty looked at his status screen, but nothing had changed with the grayed-out status. He wanted to call the Demon Lord or the Hero for advice, but he had used up all of his MP. Crushing a mana stone was an option, but perhaps finding out where he was exactly was more important. He knew that his guides had no tracking skills, and neither did he. Even if they could confirm Gleam's survival, it wouldn’t help. It was best to assume that she was out there somewhere and go looking.

“I don’t see any spiders here, nor are there any on the walls, the one I fought might have been the last one…”

Rusty took a moment to survey his surroundings, trying to get a sense of direction. The illuminated cave was similar to the dungeon he hailed from but slightly different. He didn’t remember there being any bioluminescent fungi on the walls. There was no point in climbing into the chasm and going up, as there were no reachable ledges. It seemed that the best he could do was to follow this tunnel and see if he could reach the top another way. There was a big possibility that he had ended up in one of the lower levels of his dungeon. He knew that these floors always led to a set of stairs through which he would probably reach the chasm from a different side.

“There is no time to lose, I need to find her!”

It was a strange feeling and he wasn’t quite sure why he was acting this way. He had not spent much time with the small ant, but he had grown attached to it for some reason. Each time he imagined his friend being hurt or killed, a strange feeling of discomfort took over. He didn’t like it, and he would not let anyone hurt his new friend - this much he knew. Soon he started moving, his hands holding a shield and an arming sword, better suited than a longsword for this corridor.

“I’m really back in the dungeon.”

It didn’t take him long to encounter his first monster who was like a mirror image of himself. It was another living armor type made out of bronze. He could not see any corroded parts on its armor though, which confirmed that he was at a lower level than before he fell into the chasm.

Classification:

Bronze Armor L2 F+

Type:

Magical/Inorganic

“It’s only an F-rank?”

To make things more peculiar, the monster seemed to be of lower ranking than him. They both looked almost identical, though his twilight bronze gave him a somewhat deeper luster than regular bronze. This did seem like the immediate evolution from the corroded bronze armor and probably meant that his twilight variant gave him some kind of edge. However, while he was contemplating what to do, his metallic friend also spotted him.

“Hello? Have you perhaps seen a small white ant? Her body is covered in silver and she is quite peppy…”

Rusty stopped himself from talking as he remembered that these dungeon monsters never really had a mind of their own. They were more like puppets controlled by the Dungeon Heart, a fact he had learned from Aburdon. The true problem was the voice that was slowly vanishing from inside his mind. If what the Demon Lord said was true, then perhaps this monster here was not his friend anymore.

Just as he expected the bronze armor monster didn't respond to his inquiry, instead, it raised its shield and brandished its sword, preparing to engage in combat. It had the same equipment as him and approached him as a sort of skewed mirror. However, he was not afraid as his rank was higher and he also had one further advantage, his intelligence.

Without hesitation, the monster charged forward with its arming sword raised - a pattern he knew well because he had used it before. The monster executed attacks that he already knew: power slash, power thrust, and a shield bash. All of them came his way, and he either sidestepped or defended himself with the help of his own shield.

His opponent was like an older version of himself, lacking any semblance of battle experience. The bronze armor was not adapting to his way of fighting, and soon, all of its mana points had been drained. This was what he had been waiting for, and soon, his own shield bashed the other armor, making it hit the nearby wall. His opponent had the same strengths but also the same weaknesses. Its body was hollow on the inside, and just like the adventurers did to him, he did the same to his opponent, which found itself tipped over on the ground.

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“I should probably change my weapon.”

Before leaving the underground tunnels filled with insects. He had recreated all the weapons that were produced inside of the Soul Forge. His arming sword was good against opponents made of flesh, but living armors like Rusty were quite resistant against slashing damage. To defeat his opponent he took out a mace and even though he lacked proficiencies for it, this blunt weapon was much better to defeat his foe.

The monster attempted to stand but found its helmet being dented under the bronze mace. His strikes were precise, but the monster didn’t seem to have a core yet. However, this was still a weak point; when the helmet was struck, its vision was also affected. Continuous strikes rained down on the monster's body, causing it to take a lot of damage. Even without a core, if its HP pool was depleted, the monster would die like any other being. Soon, the defeated bronze armor collapsed into a heap of metal pieces, showing him what would happen if he ever died.

“Its body can’t hold itself together anymore…”

Rusty was a creature of mana and in some kind of way, his body was being held together by magic. Once it was gone, the body seemed to crumble into separate parts which to his surprise, he could take with him. This monster’s body was very similar to his and even though it was dented in a few places, most of the damage was on the helmet.

You have gained +1 experience points.

The rewards were all there and he had become able to kill the denizens of his own dungeon to become stronger. Even though he could take the other monster's body as loot and store it in his inventory, it didn’t give him much joy. Without Gleam who loved to dance around, it all felt a lot less special.

After packing up the monster parts for later, he pressed on through the dungeon. The eerie glow of the mushrooms illuminated his way as he continued to encounter other monsters. All of them seemed hostile now and impeded his progress. However, he kept moving and smashing them to pieces. His rank was above the creatures here, and with a few swings of his weapon, the skeletons, living armors, and zombies were quickly dispatched.

“Huh? This statue, I think they always appear close to the stairs…”

His previous knowledge of the first and second levels proved important. He identified a skeletal statue that was usually found near paths close to staircases. Following this clue, he quickly arrived at a familiar-looking area and, without waiting, charged upwards. The chasm appeared on the second level, so once he arrived there, perhaps he would find Gleam’s whereabouts.

Rusty climbed the final steps of the stairway, emerging onto the upper floor. He looked around as he had before, but he did not recognize this place either. There was a possibility that he was on the third floor now, but he had no way of confirming it.

“I need to keep moving.”

His mind was made up: he needed to reach the chasm through which he had fallen. It was his only clue, as he assumed that Gleam continued climbing up after hiding him under some rocks. He ignored the monsters around him and rushed toward his destination. The creatures were annoying, but they would eventually be left behind once he found the next set of stairs.

“Huh?”

As he was moving through the corridors something caught his visor, the status of Gleam on his screen had shifted. It was for a second but her status did turn normal for a moment before going back to gray. He wondered why this happened and decided to take a few steps back towards a corridor he previously ignored and once there, it happened again.

“Does this mean that she is close?”

Once the status returned to normal, it updated all of her stats. Her health pool seemed to have restored itself but she had various other status effects listed now. One of them was an ‘exhaustion’ status along with a ‘fainted’ one. Then there was one that concerned him the most ‘missing limb’. It was clear that his friend had suffered a lot of damage but she semed to be still alive.

“Maybe if I go this way?”

Rusty assumed that the status update indicated he was getting closer to Gleam’s location. Just knowing that she was alive already alleviated his mood. She had been injured and even lost a limb, but perhaps it could be healed or restored after another evolution.

“Don’t worry Gleam, I’m on my way!”

With hope restored, he began running through the dungeon tunnels. Along the way, he picked up a row of skeleton soldiers which kept pursuing him all the way until he reached a new set of stairs. It had already taken him some time to get here, and he also noticed that Gleam's status had begun to flicker. It was as if she was moving away from him now, which was strange considering she had the fainted status.

He continued upwards, finally reaching a familiar area: the entrance to the third floor he had been unable to pass through in the past. It seemed that he was on the right track, and his friend had managed to climb out of the chasm. However, for some reason, she was moving away from him again as her status began to flicker. The monsters didn’t seem capable of mercy, which meant that perhaps someone else was at fault.

With haste, he moved towards the area where it all started: the bridge he had used to combat some of the adventurers. He had fallen into the chasm below, and it looked the same as before. However, Gleam was not here; instead, a few monsters stood in his way. Just like before, he decided to ignore them. After dodging one attack and allowing a weapon to hit his body for almost no damage, he pushed onward through the bridge. Once on the other side, he started looking around, and a little glimmer caught his eye.

“This… she was here.”

Near the edge of the chasm, a glint of silver caught his eye. It was a small shard, unmistakably part of his friend's body, and confirmed her presence in this place. He could only surmise that she had fallen into the hands of adventurers, who, for some unknown purpose, kept her alive. As he looked around this floor, he saw no sign of them. It suggested they had either ascended to higher floors or remained on this one.

The chase continued and the monsters in his way were swiftly dealt with as he pressed forward. His mind was focused solely on finding Gleam, and nothing would stand in his way. As he moved deeper into the dungeon, the air grew heavier with the scent of damp earth, and the sound of echoing footsteps filled the corridors. Rusty knew he was getting closer; he could feel it in his metallic core.

Suddenly, he heard voices ahead, echoing off the stone walls of the dungeon. Rusty approached cautiously, his grip tightening on his weapon. After peering around a corner, he saw a rather large group of humanoid adventurers. They were moving through a dimly lit chamber. There were seven of them, with two peculiar individuals in the middle.

Rusty noticed that their clothes were rather out of place and lacked any form of armor. The other adventurers gathered around them, in some type of protective formation. His attention was drawn to a peculiar box held by one of them, and in that moment, he realized that Gleam had been seized by these strangers.

Her silvery ant body seemed to be inside a cage that one of these people was carrying. This sight filled Rusty with a sense of dread and rage. His friend, Gleam was in their hands, and he couldn't stand idly by while she was kidnapped. He needed to save her from this group of adventurers but they outnumbered him seven to one. If he just jumped in without a plan, it could bring death to him and perhaps his friend as well. However, before he could devise a plan, a lot of noise from behind appeared again.

‘Those guys never stop… wait…’

A horde of monsters, whom he had dashed past in his pursuit, now trailed closely behind him, their numbers swelling as they summoned reinforcements. Though they remained his foes, the group of adventurers was not aligned with them either. This presented an opportunity: with the creatures serving as a diversion, he could rescue Gleam and then quickly retreat to a safer area. He just needed to get the cage and run…