Chapter 116 – Over Points.

Gleam perched on a nearby table, her antennae twitching as she observed Rusty’s unmoving body. The eerie silence of the hidden chamber was broken only by the faint hum of latent magic. Then, without warning, his frame began to tremble.

She chirped in alarm and lept back as Rusty’s iron body convulsed, cracks forming along its surface. A soft glow emanated from within, flickering between shades of deep purple and silver. The transformation had begun.

Rusty’s armor shifted, the old iron plates shedding like molted skin, revealing a refined, gleaming metal beneath – Twilight Steel – an improved alloy infused with both shadow and light. Ethereal wisps danced along the edges of his plating for a moment, giving him an almost spectral appearance.

Gleam chirped in awe, her eyes reflecting the glow of the new body. Rusty slowly lifted a hand, flexing his fingers as he adjusted to the changes. His frame felt lighter yet more resilient, the magic coursing through him more potent than ever before.

“( •̀ ᴗ •́ )و “

Gleam cheered, fluttering closer as she examined his new form. The changes were minimal but it was clear to her that her friend was now a lot stronger. The helmet was slightly more angular and the plating a bit thicker. Rusty turned his gaze to her and once his sight returned he spoke out.

“Gleam, I’m back!”

Rusty looked at his friend whom he had not seen in months. He wasn’t sure how long he was gone for but now he was back and their adventure could resume. As he adjusted his new body he felt stronger, faster, and more dexterous. The twilight steel shimmered under the light of the chamber that Gleam conjured up.

‘My shell hasn’t changed much but it does feel a lot better, how does my status look though?’

Quickly he brought up his status screen to see what he was working with. Only after inhabiting this steel alloy form could he glance over his stats and he noticed a few things that were out of place.

First of all, a few of his stats seemed to have reached the limit of E rank. Constitution and Strength had always been his top stats, and both were now at 150. It was already clear to him that E-rank stats were divided by increments of fifty points, whereas when he was an F-rank creature, that number had been thirty-three. However, some strange brackets appeared next to those two capped-out stats, perhaps indicating that he had more of them than met the eye.

‘I should probably ask Aburdon and Alexander for advice, but first…’

Just like before, he should have received one more skill. He had gained Mana Sense previously and had hoped that this time, he would obtain a skill that would allow him to cast spells like Gleam. However, upon glancing at his system screen, he was disappointed to find an entirely new skill – one that had nothing to do with mana at all, but with fear.

‘It could be useful… I suppose…’

In short, this was a crowd control skill that would allow him to momentarily stun enemies around him. He assumed it would only last for a second or two and was likely more effective against weaker foes, as stronger ones with high willpower would probably resist its effects.

‘I’ll need to test it against some goblins perhaps?’

“ ( ⊙ _ ⊙ ) “

“Oh sorry Gleam, I was just looking through my skills.”

As he was going through his status screen, he noticed that Gleam was staring at him with intent.

“Speaking of which, how long was I gone?”

Previously, he had no way of telling how long his evolution had taken, but with Gleam watching over his body, the mystery could finally be solved.

“( •̀ ᴗ •́ )و”

“Oh, it was a whole day?”

He was a bit surprised by this revelation, expecting it to be closer to the few hours it had taken for Gleam’s recent evolution.

“I’m sorry, I thought it would be faster. Were you bored?”

“(￣﹃￣)”

“Oh… well, once we’re out of here, I’m sure we’ll find some food for you.”

Gleam had been surviving on mana-infused water for now, but he knew she much preferred the mana crystals from dungeons – which, unfortunately, they had none left of. Once outside, he wondered if he could find something to fill her little ant tummy a bit more.

After finishing his chat with Gleam, he turned back to his status screen – this wasn’t quite over yet. All his loadouts needed to be remade, as he now had new armor variants, making the old iron armor somewhat pointless. Besides the Ogre and Wraith variants, he had also reforged the adventurer armor using the new twilight metal and was ready to restore his forms.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

After dragging and dropping a multitude of items, he was finally set. With that done, he decided to summon Aburdon and Alexander back into his eye sockets.

“Finally! I was wondering if you were mad at us.”

Aburdon grumbled, his tone laced with irritation from being kept waiting for so long. Alexander, on the other hand, remained silent on the matter. Instead, before Rusty could even ask for guidance, he pointed out the strange numbers in his status.

“It seems you’ve become an Elite Monster, Rusty. You even have over-stat points.”

“Over-stat… points?”

“Indeed, hundred fifty is the point limit for an E-rank monster. Normally it is a barrier that can never be crossed.”

Rusty listened with interest and interjected before Alexander could continue.

“It can not? Then why was I able to?”

“Well, that’s because…”

Alexander was about to continue but Aburdon was the one to interrupt now.

“It’s because your evolution is pushing you through the threshold, my dear Rusty. Once you cross it, a whole new world will open up to you!”

He replied in an overly dramatic manner, making Rusty believe this was a big deal. He glanced at the few extra stat points and the double plus mark, indicating that this was indeed something special. Did this mean he could handle D-rank monsters even as an E-rank? His durability already exceeded that of D-minus monsters, so with these additional stat points, perhaps he could.

“I see that you’re excited, but I’ll have to disappoint you, my dear Rusty – it doesn’t work quite the way you think.”

“Oh?”

Soon, Aburdon and Alexander began explaining, painting a clearer picture in Rusty’s mind. The extra points didn’t mean he had jumped an entire rank; rather, they simply added to his existing stats, as if they exceeded the usual 150-point limit. Normally, monsters couldn’t surpass that cap, and any points beyond it wouldn’t be counted. It was as if there was an imposed restriction on ranks to prevent them from reaching too high.