Chapter 05 – Playing Dead.

Chapter 05 – Playing Dead.

Congratulations you have gained a level.

Congratulations you have gained a level.

The ‘First Kill’ title has been acquired.

Basic Power Thrust has leveled up.

In the blink of an eye, he had reached level nine after slaying just one human. The man emitted various strange noises as he was being stabbed, but eventually, it was over. Rusty felt quite pleased with himself, having instantly gained two levels by defeating a single enemy. What made it even better was that he didn't suffer any damage, as he used one of his monster friends to absorb the brunt of the attacks.

His tactic of placing his helmet on the human while he was distracted had worked. Similar to the previous encounter with another human, this one couldn't remove the helmet. While the man focused on his head and was blinded, Rusty began poking, and eventually, he bled out. There was one mishap during this tactic that he was examining closely.

Skill Absorption has failed to activate, the host has died before the absorption process could finish.

The status he came equipped with had a log window that displayed all the recent system messages. It appeared that killing a person while absorbing their skill was a prohibited action, and he might have been too focused on stabbing the target to notice the issue. It was a finicky skill, and it seemed that he would need to either bind his next target or render them unconscious to some extent before attempting it again.

‘Oh, should I test it on this one?’

His body turned, emitting a loud screeching sound. There was still another human being in this dead-end corridor with him, and they were still stunned. Rusty approached the woman while holding his helmet under his metallic armpit. Uncertain of what to do but his status screen pointed towards only one option.

‘Ah... my special points went down because I activated the skill, so I can’t do it anymore, I’ll need for the cooldown to refresh...’

He placed the helmet back into its original spot as he realized that he couldn't use the skill again. Before even looking at the new title he gained, his body moved forward. The sensation the leveling up had given him was strange, and he yearned for more of it. His gauntlet clenched tightly onto the corroded sword that was about to break from the previous chaotic stabbing. It aimed true at the groaning woman’s neck, but just as he was about to go through with it, something strange happened.

‘...?’

There was something inside him that made him stop; it wasn't a voice or any skill from another opponent. It was as if he couldn't bring himself to deliver the finishing blow to this injured woman. Rusty wondered what was wrong; it made no sense to him. This human was just a source of experience points, a means to make him stronger, but for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to plunge his weapon into her neck.

‘Why?’

Rusty asked himself, but no one answered. The memories within his core seemed to be running wild, presenting him with random tales of enemies being spared, but also different ones where other creatures were shown no mercy. He couldn't really understand why he should give up on this kill here, and soon the turmoil within him subsided. With newfound determination, he gripped his sword again, and this time around, he saw nothing stopping him from claiming this bundle of experience for himself. However, just as he was about to plunge it in various voices echoed from behind, people were coming and they were close.

‘Oh no!’

It seemed he had taken too long, and perhaps the humans were guided here by something similar to the voice he had. It was strange that this part of the dungeon, which had remained empty, now had so many visitors. Time was running out, and this was a dead end. Rusty knew that if he started running, his clunky body would give away his position, and he would likely be attacked. The humans were faster and had keen hearing; there wasn't really any place to run.

‘What do I do? I don’t want to be slain again! What if I lose all these levels?’

While his skills didn’t seem to be affected by his deaths, he wasn’t so sure about his levels, which were abnormal for this dungeon floor. This uncertainty had triggered something akin to a survival instinct in him. Empowered by it, he devised safer battle tactics that aided him in reaching this ninth level. His gaze landed on the shattered body of his monster ally, eventually giving him an idea of navigating through this situation without the need for a direct confrontation.

*****

“Hey, there is some blood here, it’s still fresh! We need to hurry!”

“Don’t stop, we might be too late! Did that bastard really go through with it?”

Three people emerged at the entrance of the dead-end corridor, their footsteps echoing in the narrow space. Leading the way was a tall and muscular woman wielding a large two-handed sword, with an elvish man and a woman half his height following closely behind. The trio cautiously advanced, their eyes scanning the surroundings for any signs of danger.

“Hey Sylra, stop!”

“What, did you find something?”

The large woman stopped for a moment while the smaller one called out to her. She pointed to something on the ground before replying.

“Fresh blood... and monster tracks, we are close, get ready.”

All three nodded before tightening their grip on their weapons. The elven man wielded a bow, while the smaller companion carried double daggers that, at her shorter height, looked like regular longswords. The largest of the three took the front as they all moved slowly into the darkened corridor. Soon, they discovered the gruesome scene that had unfolded not long ago.

“Is he dead? Did he get killed by these low-level monsters?”

The urgency in Sylra's voice sent shivers down their spines, and without wasting a moment, the group hurriedly gathered the injured Layla and started retreating from the dead-end corridor. The echoing growls were getting louder, indicating that the pack of monsters was closing in.

As they rushed through the dungeon's passages, Elwin finally decided to throw the corroded helmet away and instead grabbed his bow. Even though it was peculiar, it was still only a corroded piece of metal that wasn’t worth the space it occupied. All of them quickly left the dead end before they could be trapped in it by the charging monstrosities.

The group navigated through the dark passages, trying to put as much distance between them and the approaching pack of monsters. Layla, still recovering from her injuries, stumbled occasionally, but Maeda and Elwin supported her, ensuring a swift retreat.

Soon, from behind, a group of several skeletons made themselves known. They charged at them as if they had set off some type of trap. There were many, and now that they were spotted, they knew that more of them could appear. Luckily, these creatures were only between levels one to five, not something that this trio would ever worry about.

“Are we going to take care of them?”

“That depends, how are you feeling Layla?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me. I can fight too.”

“Good, Let’s clear these bastards out then!”

Sylra shouted while charging into the group of skeletons like a mad woman. Her shoulder collided with the first undead creature and sent it flying into the others. Maeda and Elwin followed suit, engaging the skeletons with precision and efficiency. Layla, still recovering, stayed back but assisted them with some well-placed arrows if the moment allowed for it.

Despite the overwhelming numbers, the trio fought as a well-coordinated team, exploiting weaknesses in the skeletal structure of their opponents. Sylra's powerful swings shattered bones, Maeda's swift strikes targeted vital joints, and Elwin's arrows found their marks with uncanny accuracy. The clattering sound of bones hitting the ground echoed through the dungeon as the skeletons were systematically dismantled. As the last of the skeletal remains fell, the group took a moment to catch their breath. Elwin grumbled under his nose which the others noticed.

“Is something wrong?”

“These numbers are strange... and how they found us in that secluded corridor was also odd...”

“Was it?”

Sylra held her large two-handed sword over her shoulder while making nothing off it but her elven friend couldn’t shake the feeling that something was amiss. The monsters in the dungeon weren’t able to pinpoint the location of adventurers unless a certain few conditions were met.

“... Was one of those living armors still alive? It couldn’t be...”

The elven man looked towards the darkened corridor they had just gone through, a foreboding feeling washing over him.

“Hey, Elwin. Snap out of it, we need to go; there might be more on the way now.”

“You’re right... Let us move.”

While he couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was off, more monsters could be on the way. They were here to rescue Maeda’s friend, not investigate the strange activities of the monsters within. There was still some ground to traverse, and his party needed him to detect traps and watch out for ambushes. The monsters weren’t the only problem, and there was always the possibility that one of the crescent-scythe bastards could be there.

However, after their departure, something began to move in the darkness. The sounds of corroded metal echoed through the dead-end corridor as the being there could finally relax. The metallic entity that had played dead among the shattered armor of his fallen monster ally, emerged cautiously from the shadows its head missing.

*****

‘Did they need to throw my head that far... I can barely see my body... this is quite hard...’

Rusty would frown if he had a mouth. He had decided to play dead after seeing the group of adventurers approaching, and it seemed to have worked. They had focused most of their attention on the dead man and the woman who had been alive. He wasn’t sure what to make of these creatures. One of them had attempted to kill the woman previously, while these three, who were clearly stronger, decided to help her.

While this was on his mind now, something more troublesome had happened. His helmet that acted as his eyes had been thrown to the side, further away from his body that he disassembled slightly to make it seem as if he was dead. Now he was having trouble reassembling himself into one piece again. Despite being able to move his metallic limbs, the visibility was limited, making it challenging to see them clearly. It took a few good minutes until his body appeared in the distance with one arm still missing.

‘This is annoying... but at least I have survived and my level is still nine!’

After placing his helmet back onto his shoulders, it magically reconnected with his armor. He then quickly returned to the previous scene of his battle where parts of his armor were scattered around. They weren’t in good shape; even though he had not been hit much, the fact that he was moving around so much was straining his body. It seemed that it wasn’t designed for this much movement.

For a moment, he contemplated if it was possible to use the parts of his fallen brethren, but before he could give that a test run, a strange light appeared on the ground. It was where the adventurer had died and also where the other living armor was lying. The two were starting to bubble up, and the longer this bubbling effect took, the smaller their bodies became.

Rusty was fascinated by this strange phenomenon and continued to look as the other living armor disappeared first, its metallic parts being absorbed into the dungeon floor. The man was going through a similar process, but his body was vanishing at a much slower rate. Soon there was nothing left besides the blood that for some reason was left untouched.

‘Hmm... Neat! Now... what should I do next?’

Rusty glanced at his status screen and could see that his level was at nine. There was a bar representing the experience he needed to gain for the next level up, and by the looks of it, there wasn’t much to go. Even if he still could only defeat smaller dungeon creatures, it wouldn’t be long until he achieved level ten, and for some reason, he expected something substantial to occur at that point. He was certain that, for lower-rank monsters like him, level ten was the limit...