Chapter 32 – Spells.

“Now Gleam, use it while I distract the Matriarch!”

“!”

The sound of an insect exoskeleton against bronze echoed as a large centipede monster species collided with Rusty’s shield. Gleam, now transformed into a Lesser Gleaming Mana Ant, stood behind the long monster, ready to unleash her newfound spellcasting abilities. Rusty engaged the Matriarch in combat by deflecting its strikes with his shield and counter-attacking with his sword. Meanwhile, Gleam focused her energy, conjuring a ball of vibrant blue mana between her antennae.

As the Matriarch lunged forward with its jagged mandibles, Rusty sidestepped and delivered a swift strike to its exposed flank. The creature recoiled in pain, giving Gleam the opportunity she needed. With a flick of her antennae, she released a condensed bolt of mana. This bolt of energy crackled and streaked toward the Centipede Matriarch.

The spell struck true, engulfing the centipede in a brilliant explosion of arcane energy. The Matriarch screeched in agony as the mana bolt tore through its chitinous armor and burrowed itself into its flesh. Rusty could tell that this was an opportunity to strike and seized it. His blade was engulfed in a radiant haze before he plunged it into the monster’s mouth. Then, with a resounding boom he discharged the radiant energy into the centipede’s throat.

Immediately after, a cascading effect took place and the inside of the elongated monster started expanding. The energy injected through its mouth started exerting pressure from within and burst out through the wound Gleam had inflicted.

The Centipede Matriarch thrashed and convulsed as the energy tore through its body, causing it to thrash wildly in pain. Rusty and Gleam watched as the creature’s movements gradually slowed until it finally collapsed to the ground, its body now lifeless. The cavern fell silent once more with only the crackling of residual mana energy dissipating into the air.

As the system’s sound echoed, the cave they inhabited remained silent. Sprawled out around them, were the bodies of defeated centipedes. They were futile in their attempts to aid their leader as it was thwarted by the combined might of the living armor and his ant companion. Despite their victory, the metallic figure didn’t appear entirely pleased with the situation.

“?”

“Oh, sorry Gleam, I was just thinking that it’s becoming a lot harder to level up… Even after defeating so many of them, I’m not even level three…”

“! ~”

“Well, some of us can’t get levels that fast!”

Gleam performed her happy dance as she was eager to showcase her achievement of reaching level four, while Rusty remained stagnant at level two. He attributed this to two factors: firstly, as an E-rank monster, he found that the F-rank opponents didn’t offer much experience. Secondly, he had to share all of his points with the ant, who seemed to be rapidly progressing through the levels.

After attaining three additional levels, Gleam could cast her attacking spell without risking exhaustion. During the battles, Rusty discovered the difference between spells and skills. Skills proved superior mainly because they didn’t require concentration to cast and couldn’t be interrupted. Spells, on the other hand, appeared as inferior versions of skills, limited by various strenuous requirements. The main one, was a long casting time and the need to remain still in place, which could be deadly during battle.

This was why he decided to take on the tanking role in this party of two. He would bring all the attention to himself, while Gleam aided him from afar. Nonetheless, Rusty couldn’t help but feel a hint of jealousy that he couldn’t perform spells. From what he knew, it was possible to learn these abilities not only through the means of leveling up. At least that was something his fragmented memories were telling him but he would need to ask his two guides to confirm it.

“Hm, did you learn a new spell or skill?”

“Mana Bolt was the old one… So Dancing Lights is the new one.”

Gleam did something akin to a nod before attempting to get the hang of the new spell. However, before she could produce the effect, Rusty decided to raise up his hand in protest. This wasn’t the first time she did this but his ant friend tended to forget about her mana pool. At the time being, it was rather small so he was sure that she would pass out after already having cast Mana Bolt before.

“Don’t do it Gleam, you’ll go to sleep again!”

“~?”

“The mana crystals? Well, yes we could use them but we should conserve our resources! What if we get ambushed while we are going back, there could be other monsters lurking around!”

“… >_< ”

Gleam communicated through movements of her antennae and mandibles, prompting Rusty to presume that the bonding contract had bestowed upon him some form of skill enabling communication between them. Despite the absence of audible words, information seemed to flow effortlessly into his bronze head.

“Don’t worry Gleam, how about you see if we can find something here, maybe there will be some tin or copper here?”

“!”

Rusty pondered over what to do with the remains of the defeated monsters. It seemed wasteful to leave them lying dead on the ground, destined to decompose without purpose. Some parts looked interesting, like the monster’s large jaw that could even damage his armor. He couldn’t shake the feeling that they held some value, although he wasn’t certain what. A decision was made to ask one of his guides for some advice and this time around, it was the hero’s turn.

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Thus, while Gleam scoured the surroundings for mineral deposits, Rusty patiently waited until his MP recharged to a certain point. Then when the time was right he spent the points required for the skill to activate. Once again, the orb of light materialized before his visor, casting a radiant glow that illuminated the whole underground cave.

“I’m out?”

The hero was a bit confused while looking around but quickly realized that he was still just a spirit tied to a living armor. Rusty could hear him sighting before posing a question.

“Can I help you with something Rusty?”

“Indeed, hero. I seek your guidance regarding the remains of these defeated monsters. They seem to possess some value, but I am uncertain how to utilize them.”

The hero pondered for a moment before responding to the question that he was compelled to answer.

“Well, Rusty… They are probably useless to a mons… being like you.”

“They are? But I think they should be good for something… like those large mandibles or those poisonous claws?”

The monster’s head was larger than on the smaller variants and it had a set of large poisonous claws. Rusty knew that poison could be used in various ways to help him achieve victory.

“This species of centipede typically possesses a poisonous gland, but it appears you’ve already destroyed it. Without the gland, even if you were to stab someone with those claws, it wouldn’t be very effective. If you were an adventurer, you could likely sell some of the parts at the guild and then exchange them for something worthwhile… The poison gland could fetch a good price at an alchemist’s shop.”

“I could exchange them for metal?”

“Not really, you’ll be dead before you even enter the city… Do you think they would let a monster wander in?”

“I guess … I killed a few adventurers? But I was just defending myself…”

“Were you really? If I remember correctly, you prepared traps and even used poison against them. But, that doesn’t matter, monsters and people see each other as enemies. Don’t think too much about it.”

“I’m not sure that I understand…”

Rusty was a bit perplexed. He was a monster, an armor with a mind of its own. He didn’t harbor any remorse about defeating those humanoid adversaries. However, he also didn’t feel that they necessarily needed to be enemies. Since forming a bond with Gleam, it seemed that cooperation was indeed a possibility.

“Could you be growing a… no that’s impossible, you’re just a monster like the other ones.”