Heavy Metal [ A Monster Evolution LitRPG ]

Chapter 45 – Alone.

“Hey, be careful! I don’t think it likes that…”

“Calm down, it’s just a monster, it probably can’t even feel pain. Now, let me do my job.”

A middle-aged man with a scruffy beard let out a sigh as he tried to yank an insectoid monster from within a cage. The cage was placed on a strange-looking metal table, adorned with various magical symbols pulsating around a magic circle. Despite his efforts, the monster did not resist, or more precisely it could not. Instead, it only emitted peculiar chirping screeches.

Once it was out, its form was revealed to resemble that of an ant. It wasn’t that large at only perhaps the height of a middle-sized dog. As the ant was extracted from the cage, its chirping became more frantic, echoing through the sterile, well-lit room. The walls were lined with shelves holding strange tools, and jars with monster parts. The scruffy man placed the ant on the table, within the confines of the glowing magical circle.

“Hold still,”

He muttered while shouting at the monster. Initially, it seemed the creature would resist, but once the magical inscriptions began glowing red, its strength was suppressed, rendering it immobile and paralyzed. With the creature now disabled, the man reached to the side for a toolbox filled with various implements. From the toolbox, he took out something resembling a monocle with an elongated lens. It had a series of elastic strings attached which allowed him to secure it to his head.

“Well?”

The man was not alone; two others were with him - a young woman and a man, who urged him to hurry up. This annoyed the middle-aged man, who continued to sigh in protest. Soon, he activated the magical lens on his head, allowing him to view the monster’s hidden status screen.

“I have some bad news for you missy, you can’t take this thing back.”

“Why not?”

“I knew it, that thing must be cursed!”

“No it isn’t!”

The middle-aged man shook his head as he adjusted the monocle, allowing it to zoom in on the finer details of the magical status screen hovering above this Ant. The screen displayed various attributes and a blinking red line indicating a bond.

“See this?”

He pointed to the glowing line.

“This monster has a bonding contract. That means it already belongs to someone else, probably a Tamer.”

The young woman who had been anxiously observing the process stepped closer, she could not see the status screen that the man could see with the help of the magical monocle. The only thing she could do was to ask the man, hoping that he was not lying.

“Are you sure? We go this monster from the dungeon, could you be mistaken?”

The man let out another sigh and was quite annoyed with the assumption that he could not do something simple as read a monster’s status.

“I read the report but that doesn’t change the fact that this monster has a bonding contract and also a name.”

“A name?”

The woman was surprised by the revelation. Monsters didn’t usually have names; it was something people tended to give themselves, and Tamers were the same. If this monster had a name, it was likely given to it by its Tamer during the establishment of their contract. This confirmed the man’s claims that this monster belonged to someone and complicated things.

“But it was in the middle of nowhere, are you sure that the Tamer didn’t just abandon it there? Are they even alive?”

The middle-aged man scratched his beard, considering the woman's question. He adjusted the monocle once more and looked through the monster’s status to find the answers.

"It’s hard to say for sure. The contract is still active, which suggests the Tamer is alive, but it’s possible they could be far away or even unable to return for some reason. It might be possible that they abandoned it but we still have to follow the procedures and post a notice first, you should know the rules."

She clenched her hands clenched into fists at her sides. She knew the rules well but had hoped for a loophole that might allow her to keep the unusual ant she had found. The rules were in place to protect both Tamers and their bonded monsters, ensuring that no one could claim a bonded creature without due process.

“Fine. How long do we have to wait? And don’t think I won’t write a complaint to the guild master if you dare to sell it off at an auction!”

“Why would I do such a thing?”

This ant was quite unusual and rare. While it was still just an F rank monster, its rarity was something that would entice a lot of researchers and collectors. She had to make sure that this person didn’t pull some tricks.

"I wonder why?”

She rolled her eyes and continued speaking which soon turned to shouting.

“The rules state that the person who discovered the monster first gets to keep it! Do I also have to remind you that you'll be held accountable if something happens to it? Don’t think that I won’t take you to court and do you know who my master is?"

"I know the rules, lass. Calm down, it's just a procedure."

The man was taken aback by the reaction of this young lady, her friend that was with her needed to start holding her back.

“Sorry, she is just a little bit tired… Alanna, calm down already!”

Alanna took a deep breath, trying to reign in her frustration. Her friend’s words were a welcome reminder to keep her emotions in check, especially in a situation like this. This didn’t keep her from angrily shaking him off and landing a kick against his shin.

“You don’t need to remind me Eugene!”

“Ow…”

“Fine, let’s just follow the procedure then. But I’m keeping an eye on you, old man.”

“Sure, that’s fine, just fill out the required paperwork.”

She warned, pointing a finger at the middle-aged man who seemed unperturbed by her threat. With that settled, they began the process of documenting the ant’s discovery and the presence of the bonding contract. It was a tedious task, involving paperwork and numerous signatures, but necessary to ensure that everything was done by the book.

“Gleam huh? I guess you’ll be staying here for a while.”

“ ( ˙◠˙ ) “

Eventually, the process was finished, and the two young people left, leaving the ant creature behind. It was now alone in the room with the man, who brought out a trolley with a similar magic circle on it. The monster could not move and was defenseless.

“Here, this will be your new home for a few weeks.”

He carted the monster to a separate large area, with many more creatures everywhere. The room was spacious, with cages lining the walls and various magical apparatuses scattered about. Gleam felt weak but started looking around to discover that the strange magical suppressing magic was everywhere here. All the cages here were imbued with similar magical circles, keeping the monsters within powerless and subdued. Soon, she too was moved over to one of them, which was not much bigger than the one she initially arrived in.
“This thing is supposed to only eat magic crystals? … Well, as long as it lives until the deadline, it should be fine, right?”

The man mumbled to himself while shoving Gleam into one of the smaller cages. Around her, many monsters opened their mouths in protest, but the enchantment seemed to silence any sound. Gleam felt trapped and helpless, surrounded by strange creatures in a place she couldn't understand. Despite her fear, she reminded herself that she was still alive, and that counted for something.

“ ( •̀ ᴖ •́ ) “

Things looked grim, and though she was being suppressed, Gleam clung to the fact that she was still alive. The magical inscriptions on these cages were strange, but they still emanated mana, something she, as a spell-slinging monster, was born with. Perhaps, if she tried hard enough, there would be a way to free herself and reunite with her one and only friend, whom she was certain was looking for her.

*****

“So… I’ll need both of these for a polearm and something like a greatsword?”

Rusty looked at the defeated bronze armor before him. It bore a striking resemblance to him, its monster core embedded within its helmet. Activating the skill absorption on his look-alikes was proving troublesome, as his helmet couldn't be placed over theirs. Instead, he needed to remove both their limbs and scatter them so they couldn't reform themselves. Only then could he place his helmet onto the living armor’s torso to initiate the process.

He had been warned by the demon king not to abuse this skill too much, but Rusty needed to grow stronger. As planned, he decided to acquire the polearm skill first, giving him something with long reach. After the absorption process, the skill went into cooldown, rendering it unusable for several days. It hadn't been long since he gained the skill required for mace use, and he noticed that the more frequently he used the absorption skill, the longer the cooldown period became.

However, after abstaining from its use for a while, he observed that the cooldown period shortened, a fact he realized after refraining from its use while fighting insectoid monsters. It was as if just like the demon king, the skill in itself didn’t want to be used often and saved for really important skills and not for basic ones. While this might have been true for humans he was a monster who couldn’t pick up these skills through regular training. He was locked to a set of abilities given to him by his evolutions.

“Even the F plus monsters don’t give me that much experience, I must go in deeper.”

Rusty crushed the monster core embedded in the living armor’s helmet to defeat it. This served as a stark reminder of how vulnerable he was if someone managed to obtain his own helmet. These cores were quite brittle, and Rusty pondered if there was any way to safeguard them. Perhaps, if he could access the soul forge, he could insert some type of protective layer. His biggest fear was sustaining a blow to the head with a mace or some other hard object. While there were ways to reinforce his core and helmet, he would have to wait until his next evolution to make such adjustments.

It had been a few days since his return to the dungeon, and Rusty was still struggling to adjust to the persistent animosity. Everything within its confines was his enemy, with no safe spots or crystal cavern to use. The only silver lining in this bleak environment was the abundance of bronze armors he could use for resources. With their parts, he didn't truly need a safe area to hide in as he could repair anything that broke on his body.

“I wonder how far down this place goes…”

The fifth level he now traversed was quite spacious, though not much different from the preceding floors. However, it provided access to areas he would normally avoid - those infested with a bothersome creature known as the goblin. Now deemed an enemy of the entire dungeon, Rusty found himself considering hunting these monsters. Much like humanoid adventurers, goblins fought in packs, albeit with inferior equipment. However, their gear contained a metal he previously lacked access to: iron.

His current goal was to save Gleam, and to achieve that, he needed to grow stronger. His metallic body was his greatest asset, and upgrading it further was his best path to gaining power. Rusty was well aware that bronze wasn't the most durable metal, and advancing to iron and eventually, steel was necessary. Previously, he had been unable to separate iron from the weapons wielded by adventurers, but now, as an E-rank monster, he potentially could overcome that limitation. To test this theory, he needed to delve into the goblin-infested floors. Fortunately, this fifth floor boasted a bustling population of these green-skinned devils.

“Gigi?”

“It’s not like the other monsters…”

These small creatures behaved differently, reminiscent of Rusty when he was younger. Unlike the mindless skeletons, zombies, and living armors, the goblins seemed capable of assessing the danger level of their opponents, at least to some extent. They never attacked when alone and instead attempted to lure their enemies into traps or ambushes. It was no different for Rusty as he began making noise and then turned to flee.

While Rusty was still an inexperienced dungeon dweller, he could tell that something was wrong. Such obvious tactics would not work on him but he still wanted to hunt some of these green goblins for their crude iron weaponry. Luckily, he had just gotten a new type of weapons in the polearm that he lifted from the living armor that was holding it. To save on his own twilight bronze, he started to sometimes use the weapons other monsters dropped on the ground. Once he was holding on to them, the dungeon could no longer absorb them either.

“You’re not getting away.”

With the Power Throw skill at his disposal and the bardiche in hand, Rusty prepared to strike. It went under the umbrella of poleaxes with the main difference being its elongated, curved blade at the end of the pole. It wasn’t quite shaped like an axe but thanks to this, it could still be used for throwing. After activating his active skill, Rusty timed his throw precisely. The weapon hurtled towards the retreating goblin and connected solidly with its back.

The goblin let out a high-pitched shriek as it stumbled forward, tumbling to the ground with a thud. Rusty rushed forward, his metallic form clanking with each step, to finish the job. He wasn't interested in a prolonged fight; he needed to dispatch his enemies quickly and efficiently.

As Rusty approached the fallen goblin, it attempted to scramble to its feet, but the injury was too severe. Blood flowed onto the ground, and with one follow-up attack, the monster fell, lifeless. The experience points he received were fewer than those from the bronze living armors, but that wasn't the aim of this confrontation. Instead, he focused on the goblin’s weapon, which in this case was a crude iron dagger.

His visor pulsed with glee as he was presented with the option to extract the iron metal from within the dagger. Though it wasn't much, Rusty understood that if he mastered the mechanics behind this skill, after four more absorptions, he would be rewarded with one iron ingot. With this revelation in mind, he delved deeper into the tunnel that the goblin had tried to lure him into, eager to continue his hunt for both experience and resources.