‘That was fun, but are you sure these will sell for anything? Why would anyone want this?’
Rusty asked, his confusion apparent in his tone.
‘Don’t ask silly questions, Rusty,’
Aburdon replied, with a somewhat awkward tone.
"There are some things kids like you shouldn’t be thinking about. Just know it was on the board and it’s a component for a potion that people use... for various reasons, that you don’t need to know."
Rusty glanced at the defeated Orc lying before him, its body already cut in several places. The tusks fetched a decent price, as did the ears and eyes. Aburdon had also instructed him to remove some of the inner organs, like the liver and heart. Taking the whole body would lower the value of the loot. But there was one part in particular that was the most valuable - a set of dangling orbs between the monster’s legs that looked almost comical.
Rusty stared at the Orc’s body, particularly at the orbs Aburdon had mentioned. A strange feeling washed over him - a mix of amusement and disgust. Some of Aburdon’s and Alexander’s memories still lingered in his mind, stirring up those emotions. Despite the oddity of the situation, it was valuable loot. After a brief stretch and a quick nick with his dagger, he dislodged the orbs, leaving the other protruding appendage behind.
‘Are you sure this is the most valuable part? It’s certainly... big, but the consistency is strange.’
‘Rusty... stop playing with the Orc’s ‘parts’ and put them away! Out of my sight, this instant!’
Aburdon’s voice was sharp, clearly appalled by Rusty’s casual handling of the squishy organ. To Rusty, still new to the world of monster parts, this was an unfamiliar experience. As living armor, he’d never considered examining trophies after battle. However, the loot was precious and he had defeated two orcs already but afterward, he was made aware of one problem.
‘This feels... inefficient…’
Rusty muttered to himself. He wasn’t particularly skilled at harvesting these parts. Back when he was in the small party of four adventurers, the thief or one of the archers always handled this task. His job was simply to watch their backs while they worked. They weren’t much better at it than he was, but at least he could focus on what he was good at - killing monsters.
‘How much money will I lose if I don’t do this?’
‘You want to leave the processing of the monster materials to the guild? If you do that, we’ll lose about twenty to thirty percent of the money… I’m not sure if that’s the best idea.’
If Rusty had a face he would be frowning. He didn’t like the idea of losing that much money, but taking time to harvest parts also meant fewer creatures to hunt, which cost him coins too. If each unprocessed body lost him twenty or thirty percent, he’d just have to hunt more to make up for it. Another option was to harvest the parts later, once he was back at the inn. For now, he decided to stuff the other Orc’s body into his storage space, along with the organs he’d already cut out.
‘I’ll just deal with this later…’
He thought. Then, something strange happened. His inventory system made a distinction between the unprocessed Orc corpse and the one he had cut up. It reminded him of how he could store living armor parts and exchange them for bronze ingots. Apparently, the same applied to monster bodies and parts. With just a few well-placed clicks, his inventory system could dismantle the monster bodies he had stored, separating them into valuable components.
The Lesser Dungeon Orc remains will be lost during the process of desynthesis, do you wish to continue?
‘It’s called desynthesis?’
At first, Rusty hesitated, but there was no reason to hold back. Once the process began, the system flawlessly dissected the Orc’s corpse into all the important parts and even some he had avoided due to time constraints. Every valuable piece was neatly extracted and placed back in his storage in a stack. The rest of the body was consumed in the process, but it didn’t matter; the processed organs were what counted.
‘Neat!’
Rusty thought, cheering at his newfound discovery. This would make hunting and harvesting so much easier. Aburdon, however, was shocked at the system.
‘What is this strange system? How can it do so much? That hero won’t explain anything to me either!’
To Aburdon, the former demon lord, the world’s system had always been nothing more than a record-keeping tool, tracking his accomplishments and skills. There was no such thing as a Soul Forge, and certainly, it didn’t automatically perform tasks like processing bodies into valuable parts. Even spatial magic required effort, and most magical items couldn’t perfectly disassemble materials into ingots or organs. Where was this process taking place, was there a hidden pocket dimension where it was processed by some type of being and then generated here? It didn’t make any sense to him, someone who had lived for hundreds of years and seen it all.
‘This is going to save so much time, Now I can focus more on hunting instead of harvesting! and the process has already started!’
Rusty thought with excitement as he glanced around the chamber. It was a small encampment of E-rank Orcs. According to the guild’s information, there should have been up to ten Orcs here, but so far, he’d only encountered two. The area was a popular target for adventurers and was periodically cleared out. Normally, with adventurers regularly around, the monsters wouldn’t respawn right away, allowing the area time to regenerate.
But Rusty wasn’t human - he was a living armor monster. Unlike other adventurers, he could stay here indefinitely, allowing the creatures to respawn without needing to move on to a different location. It made hunting much easier, as for a few seconds after they materialized, the monsters remained stationary. Even now, Rusty moved silently behind one of the green-skinned creatures as it began to form, materializing right before his eyes. Thanks to his Mana Sense skill, he could clearly see the process in detail.
First, pale mana particles gathered from the ground, swirling and twisting into the rough outline of an Orc. The body took shape first, followed by the limbs, and finally the head, complete with tusks and scars that added to its menacing appearance. Rusty watched in fascination as the creature solidified, completely unaware of his presence.
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The moment the Orc finished materializing, Rusty seized the opportunity. With deadly precision, he plunged his blade into the creature’s head before it had a chance to react. It gurgled, blood spilling from its mouth along with the iron blade that had pierced through its skull. Rusty quickly yanked the sword out, being careful not to damage the valuable eyes and tusks. The Orc collapsed to the ground, its body disintegrating into mana particles as it perished.
‘This will be easy~’
This cycle would repeat itself. The dungeon was a machine that created monsters endlessly, and Rusty had become part of that machine, exploiting it for his gain. His system’s new abilities meant he could hunt with brutal efficiency, maximizing his profit while minimizing risk. The only downside was that the dungeon’s regeneration took time, so Rusty would need to remain patient between hunts.
“Quite a way to gather materials, but... we can do better than this, can’t we, Rusty?”
Aburdon’s voice broke the silence. Rusty had spent several hours farming the Orcs. One appeared every ten minutes, leaving him with nothing to do for most of the time. Though his new system feature had made the process more efficient, it still wasn’t optimal. Killing only six or seven Orcs an hour, while safe, wasn’t going to cut it for long-term profit. What Aburdon said was true as it was time to move on and find more lucrative methods of earning money.
“You’re probably right. What do you think I should do?”
Rusty asked, knowing Aburdon had been scheming for a while and had disclosed parts of the plan previously. Aburdon had already crafted a plan for targeting adventurers, especially while they slept, and now seemed like the perfect time to put it into action.
“We already learned the best way to deal with adventurers during your little Iron-rank test.”
“Do you mean, the sleeping mist?”
“Bravo, Rusty. You’re learning!”
Aburdon replied, his tone smug as always. The plan was simple: use sleeping mist traps to put adventurers to sleep, then loot them off all their belongings. In this vast maze dungeon, there were several locations with traps already in place. With Aburdon’s keen navigation skills, all Rusty needed to do was move to these locations and wait for adventurers to arrive. Once they did, he could trigger the trap, let the mist do its work, and rob them blind while they slumbered.
The plan felt simple yet effective. Adventurers who hunted orc monsters like him could be the real treasure in this dungeon. It didn’t take him long to arrive at one of these locations, which differed in several ways from the chamber he had visited with his previous adventuring group. Back then, someone had knocked down the substitute weight, an incident still on his mind, though ultimately irrelevant to a monster like him.
‘This looks like a similar pressure plate trap. Why don’t we stick to the method they used? You should be able to trigger it from that corridor or we could use one of the shadows for cover if you have enough mana to remain hidden.’
Rusty nodded and glanced toward another passage. A small chest sat on top of the pressure plate, perhaps containing an accessory he could use later. Once the adventurers arrived, he could use his bow to knock it down. The walls were designed to close in once the trap was triggered. Blending with the shadows was also an option but it was better to use that skill as a backup plan when escaping. Now, all he had to do was wait for someone to show up, and in the meantime, he could pass the time by killing a few wandering monsters.
Aburdon had chosen a spot where adventurers were sure to pass through, and they waited. Rusty used his free time to battle skeletons, lizardmen, and a new creature an oversized, flesh-eating bat. The bat was especially annoying, producing disorienting sound waves while clinging to the ceiling. It would swoop down to attack while he was preoccupied with other monsters and usually flee once he started firing arrows in its direction. Eventually, his life detection skill activated, signaling that his first victims were approaching.
‘Here they come, Rusty. Stay perfectly still and take aim. Once all of them are inside, shoot the chest!’
Footsteps echoed in the distance as Rusty focused on the number of people approaching. His life detection skill was proving useful, covering a range of almost fifty meters. He could sense four people heading his way, and soon their voices filled the chamber. Three of them sounded female, with only one male among the group.
“Hey, you’re sticking too close to Richter.”
“Richter just likes me more than you. That’s not my fault.”
“That’s not true, I’m his favorite. Isn’t that right?”
“Girls, please, calm down. I love you all the same - how could I choose between you?”
‘That’s a strange conversation…’
Rusty thought, holding perfectly still with his bow and arrow ready. He could tell that two of the females were sticking unusually close to the male, with the third trailing slightly behind. While he was aware of some human courting rituals, having multiple people this close seemed like abnormal behavior to him.
Rusty listened intently to the group’s banter. Though he found their conversation strange, he quickly dismissed it. It wasn’t his concern what these adventurers did in their free time or even during their hunts. His only objective now was to trigger the trap and loot them once the mist had done its work. He could feel the tension of the waiting game, his metallic fingers twitching, ready to release the arrow.
The adventurers entered the room, their footsteps echoing against the stone walls. They were probably aware of the pressure plate hidden beneath the chest, but that didn’t matter. As long as they stepped into the center of the chamber, his plan would still work.
"Lilly, go grab the chest."
"Why should I? You just want Richter all to yourself, don’t you?"
The two girls began arguing, their attention fixated on Richter. Neither wanted to budge, which made Rusty wonder if they’d even move closer into the chamber. Fortunately, the third woman intervened to settle the matter.
"Can you two be quiet? The monsters will hear you. Fine, I’ll do it... but I’m sharing the bed instead of you!"
"Hey, that’s not fair!"
"That’s cheating!"
For some reason, their conversation was making Rusty angry. Memories that belonged to Alexander, the late hero and his life of chastity, stirred with rage as if something about the situation was deeply wrong. He couldn’t understand why, but the frustration was there, bubbling beneath the surface.
Finally, the third woman stepped forward, and Rusty took aim. Just as she approached the pedestal to place a replacement weight, he released the arrow, knocking the chest down.
“W-who did that?”
“Huh?”
The four adventurers, preoccupied with their flirting, were caught off guard. Before they could react, the walls began closing in, and the sleeping mist rose from the floor. Rusty could barely make out their gasps for air and frantic screams as the trap took hold.
“That reminds me of the old days, The succubi never left me alone... Ah, it’s hard being popular.”
Aburdon made a few sly comments while Rusty just waited for the blocked door to open itself up again. As the chamber door slowly slid open, Rusty cautiously stepped forward, peering inside at the now unconscious adventurers. The sleeping mist had done its work perfectly. They lay sprawled on the ground, their weapons and gear scattered about.
“Look at them, Rusty. Helpless, vulnerable, and brimming with valuable loot. These adventurers come into dungeons expecting danger from monsters, but they never expect someone like us to be lurking, always so gullible.”
His guide gloated while Rusty silently observed the scene. Two of the women lay unconscious, draped over the man - one of them had animal ears, while the other appeared to be fully human. The third, a pointy-eared elf, had collapsed in the middle of an attempted retreat, her body sprawled a short distance from the trio. Now, they were all there, defenseless and vulnerable - with no one capable of stopping his next move.