Chapter 22 – Soul Forge Expansion.

‘Choose what path? It looks different than last time…’

Rusty was confused while staring at his evolution options. Previously after clicking forward, he was greeted by a singular evolutionary path. This path presented him with his current body, but this time around there was none. Instead of a better-looking armored form, there was only a phantom of a door.

‘I don’t want to turn into a door. How would a door even hold a sword or fight monsters?’

However, the more he looked at this door the more it reminded him of something. It looked exactly the same as the large castle gate doors he encountered the first time he went through his evolution. They were just much smaller on the system screen which confused him.

‘Hm… does this just mean that I will arrive inside that large hall instead?’

It made more sense that he would be brought before the soul forge instead of turning into a castle door so he just carried on like the last time. He pressed the ‘Select’ button that was waiting for him and waited. Just like before it took some time but eventually the surroundings started to shift. The glowing crystals that were everywhere vanished and were replaced by the same grand hall adorned with intricate designs as the last time he was here.

“I’m here.”

He had made it inside of the floating castle while skipping the trip through the long bridge. Once inside he actually possessed a voice that could echo through the empty halls. This was his second time here so he knew where the soul forge was but before going there, he decided to explore this vast place once more.

“Hello? Is anyone here?”

After watching adventurers communicating with each other, he kind of knew how to do it himself. Previously he encountered two glowing orbs here, one dark and the other similar to the crystals from his cave. He wondered around wondering if they were here once more but it didn’t seem so.

“Could they be inside the soul forge, like last time?”

There weren’t many changes to this place and even after picking up some silver plates, he was not able to absorb the metals inside. This place might have worked under different rules than the real world he came from but perhaps with time, this would change. With nothing else to do, he decided to walk up the stairs and into the soul forge that had his new body.

“It’s there!”

He shouted in joy as he saw his new form standing tall. It resembled his current body but was devoid of any rust over parts, it was a fully functioning bronze armor. While it didn’t really change in form it felt more powerful and radiated some strange power. However, before he could charge in and take up his new and improved form, his old friends finally decided to show themselves.

“The prodigal son has returned!”

First, the dark sphere of light made itself known and it was quickly followed by the white one.

“Son? Don’t give him strange ideas, we aren’t related.”

“Aren’t we, Hero? It… I mean, Rusty has both our memories and seems to have inherited some of my cunning!”

“You call using poison and cowardly tactics for killing, cunning?”

“Why yes? What else would it be? It does not matter how you are victorious just that you are the one left standing!”

“Only a demon would think like that?”

“Your friends seemed to think the same, they lived and you died~”

“Shut up!”

The dark sphere that represented the defeated Demon King started chuckling after making the Hero mad. The two seemed to be at each other’s throats and Rusty somewhat knew the reason for it. Their emotions were mixed up with him and he seemed to have actually inherited some of their traits.

“Well… he also has inherited some of your… foolish traits and gets absorbed in combat too easily…”

“Hah, finding joy in a fair exchange isn’t foolish. What is life with no honor and compassion? I was not the only one betrayed if you treated your subjects with some empathy…”

“This again? Compassion only brings weakness, you need a calculated mind.”

It was clear that the two orbs could not find a middle ground which for some reason brought Rusty some amusement. Despite their constant arguing, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of gratitude towards them. After all, it was thanks to them that he was able to unlock the Twilight form of his body which later on allowed him to survive and get stronger.

If it was the previous him, then he would have probably already approached his new form and started fusing with it. However, now he was different, his short life had taught him that it was best to analyze the situation around him. There were a few things that had changed in this place, with multiple new passages appearing from within this forging chamber.

When turning to the right he could see a door with writing over it. It led to something called The Armory and had a symbol that looked like a sword and a shield over it. Previously there was nothing there but now the door was wide open. Then to the left, there was another one, with a symbol of a book that led to something called a library. To top it all off there was also a third path, leading to something called the training area.

While he wasn’t sure how this came to be, he realized that each of these paths could offer him valuable resources and knowledge to aid him on his future journey of strength. The Armory could provide him with new weapons, perhaps eliminating the limiting longsword that was his only weapon. The Library might contain ancient texts and scrolls that could teach him new skills or perhaps give him new ideas for better strategies. Then the Training facility could allow him to hone his skills to a greater extent.

“Hey Rusty, are you listening?”

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“Huh?”

“Oh, you were?”

“Of course!”

“Hah, look at him lie instantly~ Reminds me of me when I was little! He will make a great demon lord in the future!”

“Why would he ever become a demon lord you bastard?”

“He is a monster, do you think your kind will accept him? They’ll attack him the moment he enters one of your cities. Becoming a demon lord and dominating the world is the obvious path for him! And with this soul forge around, this might be a possibility…”

The orb of darkness seemed to dim while talking about Rusty’s future. The one representing the hero instantly started going brighter and tried to rebuke him.

“You must be mad if you think that I would allow something like that to happen!”

“As if you will be able to do anything in your current form, hero. He is a monster, eventually, he will give in to his desires of domination and deceit!”

“No never!”

“He had no remorse when handling those adventurers with poison, what do you think he will do once… Huh, where did he go?”

As the demon king and hero were in a heated debate, the target of their discussion vanished from their sight. Both quickly looked at the bronze suit of armor which represented the next evolution for their armored friend. It was luckily still standing there and had not been touched, however, some sound was coming from one of the side chambers.

“Maybe try not to make these boring speeches anymore, demon king…”