Chapter 164 – Mini Soul Forge.

“I did it, I’m a D-rank now!”

Rusty had finally achieved his goal of evolving past the E-rank, a stage he felt trapped in for nearly a year. All his stats had increased and were further enhanced by his overpoints, which were stored in separate side brackets.

Alexander and Aburdon had explained a few important details about the D-rank to him. Just as the requirements had changed when he advanced from F-rank to E-rank, they shifted again for this new level. Now, he needed to reach level twenty-five to progress further, instead of the previous requirement of fifteen level-ups. In addition to this change, the maximum number of stat points he could gain also increased beyond the previous cap of one hundred fifty.

This wasn’t all. As with his previous evolutions, he was granted one new skill to accompany the first level of becoming an Enchanted Twilight Steel Armor. It wasn’t as groundbreaking as some of the other skills he had received, but considering the number of crafting abilities he had gained and the fact that he could now apply enchantments to his own body, it was more than enough.

It was a straightforward buffing skill, seemingly similar to Twilight Embrace, but focused on enchantments he could apply to his body, weapons, or possibly both. He wasn’t entirely sure and would need to experiment.

“But first… I should probably get out of here.”

While he could still see his status screen, the place he was in was shrouded in darkness. For safety, he had left his body inside a small, coffin-sized compartment beneath his lair. It gave him just enough room to reach the latch and unlock the simple mechanism securing the lid. Now that it was disengaged, he only needed to push with some force to get out.

“It’s much lighter than before.”

He immediately noticed the difference in strength. When he had first climbed into this hiding spot, it took both hands to lift the heavy stone lid. Now, he could do it with just one.

“Everything seems to be in order.”

He felt calm. He had already activated his life detection skill and could sense that both Gleam and the orphans were still within his lair. With the lid removed, he emerged into the workshop he had been building up. After spending several months inside the soul forge, it was a sight for sore eyes.

The smithy he had constructed for himself no longer matched the level of his smithing skills. If he wanted to begin selling enchanted weapons and armor, he would have to replace much of it. The current smelter, for example, couldn’t handle magically infused metals and would need to be rebuilt entirely. There was a lot of work ahead, but it was work he truly enjoyed.

“As long as I create something once, I should be able to recreate it with the help of the system, right?”

He had already crafted a few items that incorporated both his darkness and light spells. Just like with previous creations, replication would be possible as long as he had the necessary materials stored in his internal inventory. However, at the moment, he lacked any enchanted steel or similar materials capable of containing enchantments. It was clear that he would either need to construct a magical smelter and produce the alloys himself or begin trading with the city’s merchants to acquire them.

Inside his storage space, he had a large amount of iron and steel saved up. These could potentially be refined into more mana-conductive twilight steel. That was where the real issue began. The metal he worked with was rare and somewhat unique. Selling weapons made from it would draw unwanted attention and make him a target. To avoid that, he would have to restrict himself to using regular enchanted steel, which would need to be enriched with mana to hold enchantments properly. In the soul forge, all of these resources had been readily available, but out here in the real world, things were not so simple.

“Will I be able to restore my body with regular steel though?”

He asked himself as his gaze drifted back to his storage. His body had evolved from being composed of ordinary twilight steel to the enchanted version. Previously, he only needed raw materials and some SP to create usable ingots. Now, without steel infused with mana crystals or another appropriate substitute, he likely wouldn’t be able to produce materials capable of repairing himself. This posed a serious issue. Heading into a dungeon to gain levels without a reliable way to restore his body was not only risky, it was outright dangerous. It was a problem he needed to solve soon.

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“I might be able to find some inside the dungeon, and I usually only need to obtain the resource once to unlock it in the system storage. That means I either have to buy some mana-infused steel or smelt it here myself.”