Chapter 13 – Tactical Retreat.

‘What was up with that guy? Why was he so fast?’

Rusty asked himself while almost tumbling down the stairs to the lower floor of the dungeon. A hole remained from the arrow that had pierced through his arm, but its size didn’t warrant spending his precious bronze resources on repairs just yet. One bar of bronze from his stash tab could mend a much bigger opening so it was better to save it until his injuries increased.

As a monster, he didn’t experience pain and wouldn’t suffer from conditions like bleeding but was instead reliant on external factors for his healing. If he ever found himself battered without enough bronze ingots around, he would be done for. Until finding or developing a passive method for repairs, he needed to be extremely watchful of his body’s status.

The encounter had left him with more questions than answers. He hadn’t anticipated such a powerful opponent appearing out of nowhere. Fortunately, his secret technique had proven effective and it confirmed his observation of his humanoid enemies. Their eyes were a weak point that he could exploit with bright lights, something that he was also immune against.

‘Well, I should be safe now… at least I got in some practice, so it wasn’t totally a waste, next time I’ll be victorious.’

He was not someone to dwell on past mistakes and even in this loss, he could see the value in the experience. It demonstrated that he had indeed become much stronger than before and showcased his capability to contend directly with adventurers. At least the ones that visited the first floor of the dungeon, without truly needing poison. It gave him a small confidence boost but also showed that he wasn’t quite there yet either.

‘My attacks lack a bit of weight to them though… is there something that I can do about that?’

After the confrontation, he realized that his hollow body was a serious weakness, and addressing this fact could enhance his all-around strength. While contemplating this important issue he encountered his old friend, the zombie with the slacked jaw that he caused. After observing this monster’s size he was surprised by its perfect dimensions that were just below his. Instantly a thought crossed his mind, what if he allowed himself to be worn by this zombie, would he be able to become a lot more robust?

This was quite an intriguing idea and he approached the slack-jawed zombie to test it out. Placing his helmet on top of its head was relatively easy, but it became increasingly challenging to position any of his other parts. He managed to dislodge his breastplate and strap it to the monster but anything after that became a puzzle he could not solve. The moment he removed one of his gauntlets it became impossible to affix anything else. Also, removing his sabatons or greaves just caused him to lose his balance instead.

‘Even though the zombie isn’t moving much…’

The main problem was that he had to split his perception between multiple parts, something that he was unable to do at least at that moment. Moving each part independently proved to be quite challenging for him, and without some external assistance, it seemed unlikely that he would be able to place himself onto the other monster.

Feeling a bit frustrated with the failed attempt to combine with the zombie, Rusty decided to focus more on his current concern. He was able to get away from the adventurers but he might not be lucky the next time. It seemed that he might have to abandon his more honorable approach of one-on-one fighting. Instead, he would need to revert to his old tactics or further develop his abilities to eliminate those fighters before they could seek help.

The lower floor was dimly lit by flickering torches, casting long shadows that danced across the stone walls. The faint echoes of distant water drips echoed through the distant passages but were interrupted by something. Rusty had not gone far from the stairs and suddenly heard some footsteps coming his way. Normally, he wouldn’t make much of it and just move to a location that the adventurers didn’t usually travel to. However, the voices that he heard sounded quite familiar.

“Let us hurry, my skill won’t last for long, that living armor could not have gone far.”

“Aye, right behind you!”

The first voice sounded similar to the archer that had pierced his body with a simple arrow and he was not alone. At the moment they were still far away but these sounds that the tunnels were producing were sometimes misleading. Rusty knew that he was unable to defeat that one adventurer, even more when he had more help.

‘There are others with him… I should probably hide…’

For the time being he didn’t think much of it. This second floor was bigger than the upper one and the many winding corridors made it harder for anyone to track anything down. After spending some time here, he knew of a few hiding places that were usable. After blending into the shadows as best as he could, he began to make his getaway.

‘… those footsteps, they just keep getting closer, how do they know where I am?’

The footsteps drew nearer and it didn’t seem that even ducking into other corridors was achieving the result he expected. Typically, adventurers would eventually choose the wrong path, allowing him to escape. However, for some reason, these individuals were able to track him down immediately. At this juncture, Rusty was not fully aware of tracking skills or how they functioned. He could only increase his pace and attempt to get away in a different fashion.

Eventually, he managed to reach the graveyard area where his undead allies were waiting. Swiftly, he grabbed a new bow and a few arrows from a nearby skeleton scout and made his way toward the poisonous leeches. Just after securing some ammunition, his pursuers finally emerged from the same corridor he had come from. They were quite vocal about their arrival and it became clear that he was their main target.

“There it is!”

“It looks slightly different than the rest…”

“That classification… A Twilight variant? Ever heard of something like it?”

“No, but I bet that its parts will sell for a lot if it’s a unique irregular variant! Let’s get it!”

If he had eyes they would be opening wide now. The people came all the way here just to get to him and it seemed that they were even aware that he was a Corroded Twilight Bronze Armor, different from the rest. He was not sure why this made him a better target than the other monsters as he was not aware of adventurers selling monster parts for money. However, he did not panic but instead aimed with his trusted bow and arrow.

‘They don’t have a cleric in their party, so I should have the advantage.’

Rusty held the environmental advantage in this area, as it had been a proven hunting ground for him. The only downside was that these adventurers weren’t attempting to round up the undead skeletons and zombies beforehand. While the creatures were rising from their graves now, they would likely not be able to surround the adventurers as easily. Thus, he began employing the old poison tactic and soon a cloud of purple mist began to envelop the area.

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“This thing… How intelligent is it? To actually use those poison bugs like this? Quite the crafty rust bucket.”

“Wouldn’t it be a corroded bucket?”

The archer turned to the party leader with the question while she was left without a retort.

“Huh?”

“You know that bronze doesn’t rust right? It corrodes. It’s iron and steel that does that, you didn’t know that?”

“… Just shut up.”

The lone woman from the adventurer party shouted back at the archer. Rusty looked from afar and was slowly starting to get irritated. There was a sense of leisure around the group as if they weren’t taking it seriously. It started becoming clear that these people didn’t consider him a tough opponent and he could tell it from their expressions. The other adventurers that he managed to hunt were different when he confronted them, but these people showed no fear, just contempt.