Chapter 07 – Soul Forge.

Chapter 07 – Soul Forge.

“The Soul Forge, had I known you possessed a blessing like this, Hero, I would have struck you down much sooner.”

“That's the price you pay for being an overconfident oaf, Demon King.”

“Despite such a gift, you still ended up getting backstabbed by your close aides. That's quite an accomplishment for someone with so many talents. Quite an accomplishment in itself, don’t you think?”

“Really? I recall a certain demon army inexplicably retreating, allowing me to stroll right into your grand demonic castle. Perhaps if you treated your aides as individuals rather than cattle, they might have supported you!”

“Nonsense, they were born to serve me, and their purpose was to follow my orders without question. Loyalty is a weakness, Hero, one that I have eradicated from my ranks! How loyal were those people you trusted, Hero?”

Rusty listened to the back-and-forth between the two orbs of light. It seemed that this place was called the Soul Forge, and it was supposed to make him stronger. However, before he received an explanation, the two beings of light started arguing with each other, as if harboring some unresolved resentment.

“Um... What is loyalty?”

During their conversation, Rusty finally decided to interrupt. The two orbs of light turned their attention back to him, and the white one sighed as if dealing with an ignorant child.

“Loyalty is when someone is devoted and true to another, usually out of a sense of duty or love. It's a concept that you probably never had the chance to experience in your dungeon full of mindless monsters.”

“Sense of duty? Love?”

Instead of answers, he was given more words that he didn’t understand and to make things worse, the two beings of light didn’t seem to agree with each other. The dark sphere was quick to interrupt and say that the white one was wrong and the two started to argue with each other once more.

“Ignore my ignorant friend here, loyalty is a weakness, a chain that binds you and limits your potential.”

“Limit my potential?”

“Indeed and you seem to be someone that wants to be strong, don’t you want to be strong?”

“I do!”

“Good, then accept me as your master and I shall bestow upon you immeasurable power!”

“Don’t believe this idiot demon, he doesn’t even know how this place works.”

Rusty found himself uncertain about what to do; the two glowing lights weren't making any sense. They used words that he didn't fully grasp. One thing was clear: they were more akin to the humans he encountered inside the dungeon than the silent, less intelligent monsters. While he didn’t trust them, there seemed to be something that they knew about this soul forge that was supposed to make him stronger.

“I don’t care about those words, just tell me more about this soul forge. Can it really make me stronger?”

The two orbs ceased their bickering just as the dark one responded.

“Well, Hero, this is your gift. I'm genuinely intrigued. How does this 'Soul Forge' work? It appears that it, along with my demon castle, has become one with our hollow friend here. Probably a result of the merger after our untimely demise.”

“It’s not exactly the same... I used it to refine my enchanted equipment by gathering rare materials and refining them... but this one...”

“Hm, considering that the only thing of note is that heap of junk in the middle, do you mean that this place can somehow refine and improve on our friend's metallic body?”

“Hey, I have a name, it’s Rusty!”

“Oh, my apologies~ What a magnificent name, Rusty. Rolls right off the tongue...”

The dark orb chuckled in a way that Rusty, for some reason, didn’t appreciate. Unaware of concepts like sarcasm, he decided to let it pass.

“How do I improve my body?”

“If it works the same as before, you’ll have to gather the proper materials and learn the skills required for metallurgy and ore refining...”

“Now that’s a good one, a living armor becoming a blacksmith and forging its own body!”

Rusty, despite not fully understanding the implications of becoming a blacksmith for his own body, felt like he understood the gist of it. They were telling him that he could use the tools here to somehow enhance his own body, the only question was how. While the tools were there, he didn’t see any raw resources like ores or ingots. There wasn’t really anything to work with so he turned to the white ball of light that seemed to know this place more.

“Where and how do I gather proper materials, how do I learn skills for this metallurgy?”

“I...”

He waited for the answer while the white ball of light gathered his thoughts. This was it, he would finally be given the answer that he was waiting for his whole existence.

“I don’t know... and I don’t quite remember ...”

“Haha!”

The black ball of light started laughing and it sounded quite menacing with that deep voice of his. Rusty was baffled by the response, not understanding how the white ball of light could do this to him. The answer was right there but he was being denied and he was starting to feel something strange coming out.

“Huh? You don’t remember? Did you lie to me?”

“Why would I...”

As the ball of light was trying to answer, the whole chamber started shaking as Rusty’s voice became packed with more anger.

“What is happening?”

The two orbs started flickering along with the soul forge and the whole castle. It was as if this whole place was reacting to the rise of Rusty’s emotions, not something that the late Hero and Demon Lord thought he had.

“Calm down, I just don’t remember! My memories, parts of them are missing, I really don’t quite recall how this place worked!”

“Rusty my friend, calm your nerves. The Hero might be a fool but at least he is no liar.”

“...”

The two observed the angered armor as the tremors subsided. Their forms, once trembling, started to recover along with the glow. Rusty, devoid of any readable expression, gazed at the two orbs, as if anticipating an answer.

Corroded Twilight Bronze Armor [ F + ] L1

Type:

Magical/Inorganic

Hit Points [ HP ]

62/62

Magic Points [MP]

44/44

Special Points [SP]

20/20

Strength

59 [ F ]

Agility

39 [ F ]

Dexterity

39 [ F ]

Constitution

57 [ F ]

Intelligence

39 [ F ]

Wisdom

43 [ F ]

Willpower

42 [ F ]

Durability

F+

‘Oh? All the minuses have vanished, and I’ve even gained a plus here!’

The first thing he noticed was that his attributes had increased by a minimum of thirty points, with his constitution and strength being even greater. Although he still had a lot of 'F' letters in his status, there were no minuses, and even a few pluses, indicating that he had become stronger. While moving around, he could feel that his body was more responsive and agile. The once armor filled with many holes was now restored. To make things even more interesting, he could feel a strange energy radiating that could perhaps be attributed to the Twilight part of his new classification.

‘This is incredible! I feel stronger, faster, and more alive than ever before! But this might not be all, I should go through everything!’

Basic Elemental Charge

Active Skill

Allows the user to imbue objects with elemental mana, outcome will differ depending on the type of the object.

His previous skills like Basic Power Thrust or Slash didn’t see any changes, but there was one new skill that he had acquired from his evolution. After reading the explanation, he had an idea of what it did, so he was quick to give it a try. However, there was also another skill that sounded similar to the skill absorption one, this one focusing on materials, which he didn’t truly understand.

Material Absorption

Active Skill

Allows the user to absorb compatible materials from various objects

As he went through it, he recalled what the white sphere of light had said about the Soul Forge. He was supposed to be able to upgrade his body there, but there were no enhancement materials to work with. Perhaps this skill would allow him to gain such materials, or perhaps it would directly augment his body.

This concluded his exploration of his new status and his visit to the strange Soul Forge. There didn’t seem to be a way to return to that location at this moment, and it was probable that he would need to max out his current level to revisit that area. It was time to test out these new skills, and the Elemental Charge one was first.

Rusty gripped his sword, which had also changed to fit his current form more. He somewhat knew how to use his new skill, and as he attempted to activate it, he was presented with a question.

Basic Elemental Charge has been activated on the Corroded Bronze Sword, please choose an element.

‘Oh?’

He was presented with two choices: infuse the sword with the light element or the dark element. Without waiting for long, he decided to select the light element first and watched as the sword started glowing brightly. The light was more intense than any of the torches there, illuminating the area nicely.

‘Is the light the only thing that it does?’

While he found this effect to be intriguing, he wasn’t sure if it would give him an advantage during combat. It would obviously give away his position to anyone in the vicinity, but perhaps there were some uses for it that he didn’t fully understand. After noting that his mana had dwindled by exactly twenty points, he activated the element of darkness. This time around, the blade was surrounded by a strange black haze.

‘Is this good or not? It takes a lot more mana than the power slash and thrust... so it should be good?’

Rusty asked himself the question while holding the darkened blade. The effect lasted for about a minute before the black smudge disappeared from his blade. He wasn’t sure, but perhaps after hitting someone with this darkened blade, it would have some kind of added effect to the strike. However, before he could truly grasp these new skills, there was more work to be done, and perhaps with his heightened stats, he would finally be able to challenge some of the humans and emerge victorious...