Chương 61: Chapter 59 – Approaching The Heart.

Within a seemingly empty corridor, a small rock tumbled down from the ceiling. It collided with a motionless suit of bronze armor that had crumbled to the ground. A faint clang echoed through this tunnel and soon the place returned to silence. For a moment, nothing stirred, and the corridor remained shrouded in a dim, eerie stillness. Then, with a slow creak, the armor began to move. Its form which consisted of bronze plates started to gradually shift to iron.

The metal creaked as the coloring shifted to the new grayish tone. Every joint and every plate started creaking as it continued to change into a new twilight iron metal. The change taking place was rapid but still took around a full minute for it to fully encompass the whole body of the armor. Soon after, a glow appeared on the visor and the monster creaked to life.

"I'm back…" Rusty felt as if he was waking up from a long dream as one of his digits twitched. His body, though not changing in form all too much, had gone through a massive change. The bronze that he had been born with was no more, replaced by a thick mass of twilight armor. He attempted to stand up but quickly felt that his body was balanced differently, the two metals clearly having a different weight to them.

"This might take a while to get used to…" Rusty stood slowly, feeling the weight of his new body settle into place. Bronze was heavier than iron but this new body had thicker plating. He moved his limbs around, adjusting to the different balance and heft. The new iron shell was actually slightly heavier, and he knew it would offer him more protection in the battles to come. The corridor was silent, and Rusty took a moment to gather his bearings.

He had just gone through a new evolution and spent months inside of the Soul Forge. His current location was before the Dungeon Heart chamber, in which he wished to alter his fate. However, first he needed to check his new status screen to see what he had turned into.

Name: Rusty Classification: Twilight Iron Armor [E] L1 Type: Magical/Inorganic Hit Points [HP] 237/237 Magic Points [MP] 198/198 Special Points [SP] 50/50 Strength 84 [E] Agility 62 [E] Dexterity 60 [E] Constitution 87 [E] Intelligence 67 [E] Wisdom 68 [E] Willpower 67 [E] Durability D"All of my stats have risen, but I'm only an E rank…" There were some good things about his advancement but also some bad ones.

His durability had broken into the D rank, but he was still only an E rank monster, not even rated as high as the boss he had defeated. In the past, he had skipped the middle evolution and directly achieved the F-Plus rank, but this time around it seemed like he would need to work more to enter a higher tier of being.

"I wonder if that scary-looking form was an E-Plus rank? Maybe I should have gone with it… but then I probably wouldn't have been as good at crafting." Rusty pondered if he had really made the right decision in going with the middle armor option. It looked the simplest of all of them but was also the most balanced option. His guides told him that sometimes it was better not to rush things, and going through more evolutionary options would allow him to gain more skills.

"Did I learn any new skills?" Usually, after going through an evolution, he received some type of skill. This time around, it was the same, but he didn't get a new one. Instead, it was something he had previously seen before. Basic Mana Sense Passive Skill Allows the user to sense the presence of mana in the environment, a requirement for spell-casting"Isn't that the skill Gleam had? Does this mean that I can cast spells now?"

Just like with any other skill, once it was given to him, the information on how to use it was integrated with his being. It granted him the ability to sense mana and was probably responsible for the glow that his visor was producing. Once the skill was active, he was able to see tiny pale blue dots in the vicinity; it was mana.

"But… I don't have the Mana Manipulation skill." While he was granted this skill, Gleam had more than just mana sense. Without a skill that could turn this mana into spells, it couldn't be used for battle or anything else. At most, it would let him identify places with high amounts of mana or enchanted items, as they had a higher concentration of it. Rusty's glowing visor flickered as he tried to get used to this skill. The first thing he noticed was a strange trail of mana particles.

He saw them increase in size and quantity the further down the corridor he looked. They eventually became a mist of magical energy, which made sense since the dragon heart he was after was supposed to be there. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. The walls were different; they seemed to be pulsating with power like some type of organic veins. His visor stopped glowing, and the skill was suppressed.

It was a passive skill that usually stayed on constantly, but luckily, it could be halted to restore his previous vision. The mana pollution was quite intense here, making other things hard to see.

"Now what…" His body was undamaged, and the adventurers were not here with him. The plan was always to confront the Dungeon Heart and free himself from the voice. His new Twilight Armor body was more robust and seemed to be able to resist the voice. Before he evolved, he could still hear its whispers from this location. However, before advancing, he needed to see how his other forms would react to this world. Before confronting his final foe, he decided to test his two new forms.

The transition between them was somewhat of a problem. He needed to go into his inventory and place each part into his stash tab. Then he had to replace every piece of his current main equipment individually. This also meant that his old equipment would be stuck in his stash tab, making it difficult to switch out later on.

"Wait… what is this option?" Before he even started with the exchange, he noticed something. There was a strange new tab that hadn't been there before. It was not a word he was familiar with, but he pressed it instinctively.

"Loadout? Save and then apply? What does this mean?" It was a separate window that was empty at the moment. The only function available was a save button. Rusty wasn't sure what this was about, but the button's label sounded promising, so he decided to press it with his iron finger. As he did, several two-dimensional icons appeared in a horizontal line, representing all the current equipment parts he was wearing, including the few accessories he had gained from the adventurers.

"Wait… I think I know what this is for…" Although Rusty was a monster and not fully familiar with these terms, something in the memory he had absorbed from his guides reacted. To test it, he decided to replace his main-hand weapon, a mace, with a longsword. Once the longsword was equipped, he pressed the save button again, and another row of icons appeared, this time with the mace having been replaced. To finalize the test, he pressed the apply button on the previously saved loadout.

In a miraculous fashion, the longsword in his hand vanished and was replaced by the mace.

"T-this is great! With this, I won't have problems changing my body!" With glee, he began replacing his parts and switched to the lighter variant of his body. The balance had shifted once more and holding heavy weapons became a hindrance. He created a new loadout but before moving on he looked at his status once more. To no surprise, there was an effect on his stats.

Name: Rusty Classification: Twilight Iron Armor [E] L1 Type: Magical/Inorganic Hit Points [HP] 207/207 Magic Points [MP] 198/198 Special Points [SP] 50/50 Strength 64 [E] Agility 82 [E] Dexterity 80 [E] Constitution 57 [E] Intelligence 67 [E] Wisdom 68 [E] Willpower 67 [E] Durability D First, his health points were reduced along with his constitution and strength stats. On the other hand, his dexterity and agility stats had increased, while the rest remained the same.

He was slightly more nimble in this form but had reduced attacking power and health. Perhaps this form was best suited for quicker weapons like daggers and shortswords. Dexterity also helped during archery, so it was better when using ranged attacks. The next loadout followed, and his body expanded in all directions. He was now in his bulkier form, and his stats had been altered as before. Both his agility and dexterity were reduced, but his strength and constitution went up.

This form was the exact reverse of the previous one: a bulkier armor with slower movements but better potential for powerful strikes. Then he had the middle ground with his default appearance, an all-rounder. The last test involved switching out loadouts, and he soon realized a few drawbacks. One of them was the use of special points (SP); each time he switched, it cost him points. It seemed that for each piece of armor that was different, it would cost him one point.

This meant a minimum of six points per change just for the armor, plus two more if he included the weapon and shield. Although his SP had increased by ten, he would run out of them quite quickly. Next was the time it took to switch. If he only changed weapons, it happened almost instantly. However, changing his whole body type took around five seconds for the agility-focused variant and ten seconds for the bulkier model.

Five or ten seconds might not seem like much, but in the middle of a battle, even a second could decide victory. Without disengaging from combat, it was best not to switch, as he also lost a significant amount of mobility during the transition.

"That's about it I think, I've been postponing this long enough." After finishing all the tests and reviewing his status screen to ensure nothing was missed, Rusty turned his attention to the tunnel leading to the Dungeon Heart. The whispers had stopped, but as he started moving forward, the noise began to pick up again. He had no more time; the core of the dungeon needed to release him from his shackles. While he did not wish to destroy it, he knew that if it didn't relent, he might have no other choice.

Once back in his default form, he equipped a large kite shield together with a longsword and moved forward. His visor glowed once more as he analyzed the magical energy around the area. The further he went, the more pronounced it was and the sounds continued to get louder.

".... S…t…o…p…"

"D… o… n… t… g… o…" His old master attempted to use its power once more, but Rusty refused to stop. His new Iron body was much more resistant to this effect, and eventually, he reached the end of the corridor and ventured through the entrance he had previously been unable to cross. Once inside, he finally spotted the source of his trouble: the core of the dungeon, known as its Hearth. Rusty entered through the chamber's threshold with care.

The clinking of his new iron form echoed softly in the vast, mostly empty space. The Dungeon Heart, a massive, pulsating crystal, was right in the middle, floating between two thick black columns - one emerging from the ceiling and the other from the ground. The air was thick with magical energy, and thanks to his newly gained skills, he could truly see what he was dealing with. Without the mana sense, he would only see the crystal, but there was far more there than met the eye.

Massive tentacle-like energy constructs were emanating from within the dungeon core crystal. They entangled with the two massive columns, creating a strange energy net made of mana. Every second or so, a strange pulse would make everything brighter, as if the Dungeon Heart had blood circulating through.

"STOP, DO NOT MOVE ANY FURTHER." He was here now and wanted to step forward, but, just like every other time, he was stopped by the Dungeon Heart's voice. His body started to quiver as he attempted to resist. After taking a few more steps, the shouts became louder, and the mana within the whole area started changing to a more reddish coloring.

"HALT, GO BACK, IT IS FORBIDDEN!"

"Is this as far as I can go?" Rusty felt more indignation in his armored form. He managed to get through the threshold but was still many steps away from the center of this large chamber. While he retreated, he knew this was not the end. After placing his shield down on the ground, an iron javelin appeared in his left hand. If he couldn't advance any further, then perhaps the heart would relent after it was struck by his metal projectile.

He took aim and, with a surge of anger, hurled the iron javelin at the Dungeon Heart. The projectile soared through the air, producing strange sparks as it collided with the magical energy. His aim was slightly off, but if it continued on this path, it would connect with a smaller side of the heart. However, before the collision could happen, the mana veins around it expanded. His weapon collided with this energy net and promptly bounced off to the side.

"What?" Rusty watched in frustration as the iron javelin clattered to the ground, failing to penetrate the protective net around the Dungeon Heart. The pulsating veins of mana had reacted instantly, deflecting his attack with ease. It became clear that a direct assault wouldn't be easy, but he wouldn't give up easily. Once the first javelin was down, another one appeared in his hand. Luckily, he had stocked up on a lot of iron before advancing and also had bronze reserves.

To make things easier, he switched to his nimbler form with its longer arms and higher stats, producing an even stronger throw. It flew much faster but, just like before, bounced off without doing any damage. After a couple more throws, he finally realized that this tactic wouldn't bear any fruit. The barrier of mana was too strong and wasn't budging even a millimeter. However, he refused to give up.

Drawing on his newfound mana sense, he began examining everything around him and focused on the strange mana strings connecting to both the ceiling and the ground near him. In anger, he swung at one of these energy constructs with his longsword. The initial swing caused no harm to the mana, but after a breakthrough, something finally happened. Out of sheer desperation, Rusty activated his elemental skill, giving his blade a radiant glow.

Once his blade was clad in his own magical energy, a reaction took place and perhaps showed him a way to free himself.