Chapter 215 – New Feature Unlocked.

“I can feel it. Time is up.”

Rusty looked around the forge with a hammer in his hand. Ever since his adventure in the summoner mission had ended, he had spent weeks working in the soul forge. During that time, he managed to remake many of his weapons and armor pieces using a new and improved high-steel alloy, complete with several added enchantments.

His blacksmithing skills had grown dramatically, and he had even been fortunate enough to recreate the lightning enchantment he once used on his old halberd and helmet. The soul forge provided the elemental materials he needed, and now his entire body was protected from the weakness that had troubled him for so long.

From what he could tell, as long as he received an elemental talisman from a summoning chamber mission, the soul forge would provide the materials needed to recreate it. Since he possessed both the lesser flame and lightning enchantments, he was supplied with everything required to reproduce them. Because of this, he was able to forge weapons that carried both elements at once.

From time to time, he sparred with the mercenary leader in the training facility, studying his patterns and even facing multiple opponents at once to sharpen his tactics. After completing his summoning chamber mission, he was also permitted to challenge people like Bartholomew. He spent long hours in the library as well, steadily expanding his knowledge.

Yet the summoning chamber remained silent after a single attempt, just as it had before. The lack of response was disheartening. It was the only feature that granted him direct rewards through the talismans, while everything else demanded massive amounts of time and effort.

“It is time to go.”

Rusty left the smithing area and entered the central heart of the soul forge. Alexander and Aburdon were already waiting to send him off.

“See you on the other side.”

Alexander said.

“Do not forget to summon me first and give me my new body. You promised it.”

Aburdon added, though Rusty recognized the lie.

“I never promised anything like that.”

He shook his head and moved toward the middle armor. As before, a strange force pulled him in, and the world faded to nothing.

Everything seems in order. Rusty appeared in the hidden compartment of his smithy. He did not know how much time had passed in this world, but his life detection skill assured him that everything was fine. Gleam was nearby, and so were the children. This gave him a moment to check his system.

As always, his stats had increased. He also noticed a pattern. Within the D rank range, seventy-five points appeared to mark the threshold between D minus and regular D rank. This suggested that one hundred fifty points likely indicated D plus, while the upper limit of the rank seemed to be two hundred twenty-five.

‘I should be able to earn many Overpoints if I stay on track. Now for the new skill.’

Rusty could tell he was progressing well. His body had grown strong, perhaps even strong enough to challenge beings of higher rank.

He read the description and wondered if the system was guiding him toward a particular path. The skill appeared designed to enhance his puppet armor henchmen by increasing their abilities or stats. It also functioned on ordinary armor, suggesting that he might even strengthen humanoids who wore armor in his presence.

‘Not that good but not that bad either…’

He had expected something more powerful, yet he could not complain. He was someone who could absorb skills from others whenever a particularly strong one appeared. The problem was the cooldown, which had grown rather long. Even though he had obtained the skill from the knight hobgoblin quite some time ago, it was still on a two-week cooldown.

‘It seems the skill uses this world’s time standards instead of the Soul Forge. I should remember that.’

The skill was precious, but the longer he used it, the fewer skills he could take. It was best saved for boss monsters like the hobgoblin knight or for powerful humanoids such as the mercenary leader.

‘I should stretch my legs and tell Gleam she can stop guarding my body.’

Rusty began to move. He stepped out of the compartment, and immediately something strange happened.

“Oh?”

“◝( ᵔᗜᵔ )◜”

He had barely stood up before Gleam launched herself at him, tackling his face. Her antennae wiggled as she examined his new body, which did not look very different from before. He barely noticed her excitement because a window appeared before his visor.

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