Chapter 218 – Back For Real.

“(˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)”

“It was less than a minute? That’s interesting.”

Rusty was greeted by Gleam, his partner whom he had not interacted with in quite some time. Once again, she had watched over his body while he checked out the new function that had appeared. The time he spent in the mini summoning chamber amounted to less than a minute in this world, similar to the time he had spent in the mini soul forge.

What made things even more interesting was that he now had two separate cooldowns. One applied to accessing the smithing portion of the soul forge, while the other applied to the new summoning chamber. This made things easier, since he no longer had to choose between them, but there was still a drawback. The wait before he could return to summoning was much longer, amounting to half a week.

“( ╹ -╹)?“

“Ah, sorry. It’s nothing. I was just thinking about a few things that happened. Why don’t we get out of here and stretch a bit? Maybe we could go to the dungeon as well.”

“(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)”

Gleam seemed genuinely happy at the mention of the dungeon. She had been cooped up in the lair with little to do, which had only added to her boredom. Now that Rusty was back in his regular body, it was time to make further progress. From what he could remember, the section of the dungeon he had previously been unable to access should be opening soon, now that the rare monster that had terrorized the adventurers had been slain.

“A shame. I wish we could have hunted it instead. I bet it would have had some good materials.”

Rusty could not help but think about the magical enchantments he could create using new monster parts. With his recent evolution, his crafting skills had grown, and he was now aware of new methods and techniques for producing stronger enchantments.

“( •̀ ᴗ •́ )و”

“I see you can hardly wait. Oh, and I almost forgot.”

As he was about to open the door, he stopped himself when he remembered his guides. He had not summoned them since returning from the Soul Forge, and it was always better to have the two of them around. Even though they could be annoying at times, their advice when dealing with humanoids was valuable. There was also another reason for summoning them, as he had a separate project that the two were involved in.

“Ah, Rusty, when will you learn? You should have saved those precious resources. Why spend them on such a brat who will probably die soon anyway?”

Aburdon’s light appeared, and the first thing he did was complain about Rusty spending summoner coins on the young wood elf. Alexander, of course, was quick to rebut the claim, and the two began to argue.

“The child is traumatized. He needs all the help he can get. Rusty did the right thing.”

“Hah, silly hero and his sense of justice. What did following that code reward you with? That’s right, death was your reward.”

Aburdon cackled, and Rusty almost laughed along with him. At times, he genuinely enjoyed listening to the two of them bicker. However, at the moment, his attention was focused elsewhere, on the metals he had smelted. One was a dark ingot, aligned with the element of darkness, and the other with the element of light. With these, he could create two frames for his guides, vessels they could potentially inhabit and fight through, similar to his puppet armors. There was, however, a small problem he was facing.

“I need more materials…”

He had completed the smelting process for both ingots while he was in the soul forge, which would allow him to create the ingots directly using SP. However, the number of ingots required for a full suit of armor was quite high. Mana stones were needed to create the steel, and those stones also had to be processed by him. The mana within them needed to be skewed toward either light or darkness. This was a process he had to perform manually, as it was impossible to achieve through SP alone. The only exception would be if he managed to find specific creatures that dropped such resources.

“Well, first I will need to get enough mana crystals, and then I can start working.”

“( •̀ ᴗ •́ )و”

Gleem cheered Rusty on as he finally decided to head upstairs. There, he found the smithy mostly empty, as always. The prices for his wares were still high, and the quality of his enchantments was not superior to what other merchants offered. However, in his current state, and with new talismans to recreate, he might finally be able to match his competition.

The kids were all present. The twins were outside, sweeping dirt from the entrance and trying to lure people over, while Rolo stayed inside as the main seller. Natia, on the other hand, was sleeping in the corner, drool dripping from her mouth.

“Should I just leave it as it is or…”

Rusty was not quite sure what he wanted to do about this place. He had stolen a large amount of gold from corrupt mercenaries and merchants. By now, he had realized that the group of merchants he had joined was scamming him. They wanted his store to fail so that he would be unable to pay the fees. The reason was not entirely clear to him. Perhaps they simply disliked him, or perhaps they wanted to take over his shop.

With the extra funds, he could pay them off for a while, but it was not a permanent solution. There was also the risk that his scheme would be noticed.

Humanoids were not that foolish, and they might start wondering where all the money was coming from when he was not selling any wares. If that happened, guards could be sent to tear his shop apart. While they would not find any gold, since it was hidden within his system storage, he was not sure the shop itself would survive such a search without needing repairs.

‘Well, I’m listed as an adventurer, so I can offset things with what I earn.’

Rusty made a mental note of how he would tackle the problem, and then he looked towards Rolo.

“Why don’t you close early today and go eat something? I’ll be stepping out for a while.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author’s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Ah… are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Rusty said, with the head of Edmund residing behind his helmet. Rolo was certainly happy at the prospect of closing early and eating with the others. Once he decided, Rolo was quick to poke Natia awake.

“Aahwo?”

The girl opened one eye, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and then perked to attention.

“Fwood?”

Her other eye snapped open as she shot upright.

“We’re eatin’?”

She asked with her hands stretched toward the ceiling. Rolo chuckled and ruffled her hair.

“Yeah. Mr. Edmund says we’re done for today, so go get Ria and Isan.”