Chapter 48 – Skills Go Up.

“That’s interesting, it lowers the use of stamina and MP on active skills?”

Rusty looked at the new skill description he received with a certain glint in his visor. While he did not have a stamina stat like many other living beings, he did have mana. It was his only battle resource, which he needed to watch carefully; once it was reduced to zero, he would fall into a state of slumber. If what this skill implied was true, then any active skills he used while holding a sword would cost fewer Magic Points.

However, his focus was not on the skill description but on what had just happened. One of his basic passive skills had actually turned into something new. His guides had mentioned something like this, but they weren’t quite sure if he would be capable of it. Rusty was an irregular dungeon monster who shouldn’t have been able to heighten his level or acquire new skills without the dungeon heart’s help. The dungeon created all the monsters and redistributed their stats, not the monsters themselves.

Now it was clear that his skill could reach new heights but there were also some limitations. From what his guides had told, the skill upgrades were determined by his form and level. It was possible that to gain an even more advanced version of this passive skill, he would need to evolve into a monster of D rank. It would probably take a while until he could confirm this new knowledge and before that there were other things he needed to check.

First he needed to confirm if the new passive skill actually did what the description said. While holding his bronze sword, he performed a basic power slash that had also begun reaching a higher point and perhaps would ascend to a higher tier skill. His weapon glowed red and slashed forward with increased speed.

“It does work!”

Previously, the power slash skill had consumed five points of his MP; now, it only cost three points. This meant there was a flat reduction of at least forty percent to his active skills, complementing his passive swordsmanship skill. This was not all he noticed; with the ascension of the skill came additional boons besides the lowered mana cost.

“It feels a lot lighter than before…”

Rusty held his sword and could tell that his movements had become sharper than before. It was as if his eyes had been opened, and he now realized how many unnecessary movements he had been performing during his attacks. Before, each sword swing had been planned but slightly awkward. Now, every movement flowed more naturally, almost as if the sword was becoming an extension of his arm. He practiced a few more swings, confirming the increase in his precision and speed.

“I wonder how it will feel if I reach advanced swordsmanship or eventually master the skill fully…”

This was just the tip of the iceberg, and his guides had mentioned the sequence to him beforehand. Soon after came advanced skills, then expert, master, and even grandmaster. There was still a lot he could improve, and he had multiple skills to train. With the help of this tactic, it was possible to do this at a record pace, but he was still working on a tough schedule.

He wanted to descend further down and start leveling, but he also recognized the importance of his skills. Stats weren’t everything, a lesson he learned after facing off against that adventurer leader. With the help of his Basic Elemental Charge skill, he was able to fend him off. Under normal circumstances, the man would have likely emerged victorious, given his more advanced skills and probably higher level. Yet, one skill managed to turn the tide of battle, making Rusty quickly realize that skills were just as crucial as his main level and stats.

“I don’t have any passive skills regulating Elemental Charge and Discharge though, so I won’t be able to lower how much MP it uses…”

When leveling active skills, they would usually just increase in power, or the area they covered would become wider. This held true for his Basic Elemental Charge skill as well, which, once leveled up, would affect everything further from the item he charged up. Gaining forty percent more time with the skill active would have been much better than just intensifying it. However, he wasn’t sure what would happen once an active skill had been upgraded. The tactic of using it to slay each of the living armor monsters was working, albeit not as quickly as with the passive skills.

Rusty continued with leveling up his passive skills along with his active ones, focusing on power slash and thrust the most. He was systematically luring in more living armors, even deciding to try multiple ones at once. With both shields and his body being hit from all directions, his defensive skills were being leveled quite fast and soon they also started advancing to the next tier of power.

Rusty nodded in satisfaction as he read the new skill description. His efforts were paying off, and he could feel the difference in his defensive capabilities already. With Shield Proficiency, he was more adept at using his shields efficiently and somewhat knew better how to predict enemy movement while defending. Soon, his other defensive skill had gone through a change without really much of a change in its description.

What had changed was his durability stat, which had gone from an E+ to an E++. Rusty wasn’t sure what to make of it, but it seemed that it wasn’t enough to elevate this stat to the D rank. Perhaps if his Metal Body was upgraded further, it could reach that level. Once the Metal Body skill had ascended, he also noticed a slight change in his armor plates. They had seemingly changed in some way, either increasing in thickness or density.

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With both his defensive skills now upgraded, he was able to focus on the offensive ones. For hours, he would lure in more and more of his living armor counterparts, lowering their HP to one point before using an active skill to finish them off. Eventually, multiple of his passive skills were reaching the threshold of advancement, and finally, one of his active skills had reached over level nine.

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