Chapter 52 – Ninth Floor.

A flash of light engulfed a dilapidated church, momentarily stunning an undead horde. Rusty’s elemental attack – an explosion of holy energy, devastated the dark creatures before him. Their rotting bodies disintegrated, leaving behind only a few stragglers, who were left with missing limbs and burned flesh. The main part of his armor was left mangled within the piles of burned zombies but his helmet was safely perched up on a ledge.

“Another successful run,”

He muttered as his body started reassembling itself piece by piece. Soon, a brand-new body took shape while the old one was discarded. With a leap, he jumped from the ledge and drew his longsword. The few enemies that remained could barely move, giving him an opportunity to use his skill.

“Let’s see… Do you have any worthwhile skills that are compatible with me?”

After approaching a high-zombie, he sliced off its remaining limbs. This monster could slowly regenerate and would not die easily. He positioned his helmet so that his core was away from its mouth, then quickly activated the skill absorption.

“Hm? There is nothing?”

This was a first for him. Usually, there was at least one skill he could absorb. It seemed that his metallic body was not very compatible with the zombies, but they weren’t the only enemies left. After quickly slicing off the monster’s head, he started looking around. There were two other zombies like it and one high-skeleton.

After finishing his search, he found one skill from the last high-zombie to choose from.

It was a skill that some of these zombies had attempted to use on him and had even marked his leftover shell. These monsters went down easily thanks to his light elemental attack, but they were quite strong. They could mangle his metallic body with their bare hands, and it seemed that this skill aided in that. However, before choosing, he still needed to see what the high-skeleton had to offer.

He examined the skill the skeleton offered him, and after seeing the spear it had been holding, it made sense. The lunge seemed like a variation of a thrust attack, but it was probably limited to far-reaching weapons. He had seen one of these monsters jumping forward with increased speed in an attempt to skewer him.

“This impaling lunge seems like a different type of power thrust, it just launches my body forward faster. The other one could be more useful…”

Rusty’s logic was simple, he already had a more powerful thrusting attack. Getting another one could be useful but a skill that enhanced his abilities once he lost his weapons sounded more appealing. With his decision made, he chose the Strangling Grasp skill. The skeleton was destroyed and after he absorbed the new skill, the zombie followed suit.

After adding the new skill to his repertoire, it was time to give it a test. His old discarded shell was still there and before he took it into his storage, he decided to test his grip on it. His bronze fingers tightened around the arm of his former body, and he felt an immediate surge of strength. The grip felt significantly stronger, almost as if his metallic hand had gained a life of its own. He squeezed harder, and the arm began to crumple under the pressure, the metal buckling and deforming with ease.

“Interesting, it lasts for a few seconds but it could be quite useful.”

Rusty knew that this world held many dangers and various types of enemies. Some were resistant to slashing damage, others to heavy attacks. His body had its advantages, but if an enemy with immense grip strength appeared before him, it could quickly mangle him. Satisfied with the new skill, Rusty absorbed the remnants of his old shell into his inventory and took stock of his situation.

The church was quiet now, the light from his elemental attack having purged it of undead threats. He had gained a decent amount of experience from the encounter, and there wasn’t much left until he would reach his next evolution. However, a large problem was arising. In his pursuit of causing chaos in the dungeon, he was making it difficult for himself to gain levels. This was not his first attempt at AOE farming, and this eighth level lost its resources a lot faster than the others.

This was a theory he had come up with: the stronger the monsters he defeated, the more the dungeon struggled to restore them. On this floor, there were more E-ranked monsters than on any others, and there were large quantities of them. Without light elemental spells, it would be quite difficult to cause this much destruction to the scenery. His light was also seemingly doing something to the gloomy environment, purifying it.

“There is no reason to stay here anymore, then. There don’t seem to be any treasures, either, I wonder if it’s also because of me?”

Once he realized that this place had stopped spawning more monsters, he headed towards the next set of stairs. If the hero was correct, he would soon reach a special area of the dungeon. He just needed to get past the ninth level, and then perhaps his journey would be at an end.

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“I haven’t seen those adventurers around for a while, so I should probably hurry.”