Chapter 58 – Armor Variants.

“How does it look?”

“Hm… not bad…”

“It would have been better if it didn’t look so boring…are you sure that we couldn’t”

“We’re not adding any horns or spikes Aburdon.”

“Killjoys the both of you!”

Two orbs of light, one white and the other black, floated around an armored suit. Rusty, the owner, looked different than usual since almost all his parts had been replaced. His body had lost much of its symmetry and was now fully made of iron. All areas that might reveal the hollow interior were covered by a combination of cloth and chainmail, making it look more like something a human would wear.

“That was the point. The humbler it looks, the better. No one will bat an eye at him now.”

“I’ll need to get used to this…”

Rusty felt strange with the material stuffing out his body. There was chainmail along with thick blue fabric covering his joints and emerging from under his waist. His helmet had also been altered to include quite thin eye slits, much smaller than those on his old one.

The main plan was to use the possession skill initially to get through the first stretch, but he wasn’t planning on keeping it up forever. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to fight in the same fashion with someone inside his body. The increased weight could probably slow him down. Aburdon informed him it would be like controlling a flesh puppet, but Rusty wasn’t quite sure what that entailed.

This marked the first time he had altered his helmet design. It had been a strange feeling throughout, different from replacing all his other parts. First, he needed to transfer everything directly into his stash tab and pull the parts towards his main status screen. After being exchanged, his body and limbs were replaced almost instantly as they popped into this world. On the other hand, his helmet remained in place, and instead of being instantly replaced, it shifted around to fit the new design. The metal bent into the form he had created, and his monster core never lost its connection to the body.

“The chainmail isn’t as constricting as I thought it would be… but I won’t be able to use my skills with this shell.”

“If someone realized that your armor is made from Twilight Iron, they could get suspicious.”

Responded Alexander while hovering around Rusty’s head. Twilight Iron had a slightly lighter tint than regular iron, and any blacksmith could tell them apart. At this point, Rusty didn’t have any way of masking the material his body was made of. This meant he wouldn’t be able to fully utilize his elemental skills, though his hands could still channel this power. In difficult moments, he could use his skills, but he wouldn’t be able to use the rest of his body parts.

Fortunately, this space provided a lesser version of iron, which he used to create his armor. Creating armor from regular iron weaponry wasn’t necessary as he could just use the ones he received from the adventurers, which also included superior steel weaponry.

Weeks had passed, and Rusty had grown accustomed to the constant work. The continuous, rigorous forging sessions had paid off, and the iron shell he now inhabited felt quite adequate. It was made from lesser metals but was thicker than his previous form. The added weight provided more stability but reduced his agility. He realized this after a battle in the training chamber, which opened his eyes to new possibilities.

He could create variants of his body and use them depending on the situation. If he faced a sturdy opponent, he could produce a more reinforced frame to match them. If someone was too fast, a lighter form with flexible joints could help him win the battle. Inspired by the centaur’s armored body, Rusty realized he wasn’t as limited to this body shape as everyone had assumed.

“Oh, what are you doing there?”

“Just testing something out…”

Rusty had been stuck crafting for close to the time limit of his previous stay in the Soul Forge. Time was potentially running out, but luckily he had been able to fashion the basis for his new plan. With some potential time left, he decided to experiment with the joints and metallic limbs to measure the limits of this body of his.

“That joint will snap off if you make it like that… What about the elbow protection?”

“Who decided that I need an elbow?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Alexander responded in surprise as Rusty examined an adjusted link to his forearm. Humanoid creatures had joint limitations in their elbows and knees. The living armors in the dungeon mimicked this appearance and had the same limitations.

“Just look at this!”

Rusty presented his arm to Alexander. The usual elbow joint had been altered and replaced by something resembling a ball joint. With this structure, he could bend his entire arm back to nearly a ninety-degree angle. No normal human could bend their arm back without breaking it, but with this adjustment, Rusty had almost unlimited range of motion in this joint.

“It looks kind of floppy… I’m not sure if you can use that without altering your wrists to turn with the elbow movement…”

The hero was intrigued. He had faced monsters that moved their limbs at odd angles, but those limbs weren’t usually holding swords or using techniques dependent on the human form. While this type of movement looked interesting, Alexander wasn’t sure if it could be used effectively in battle.

“Well… it’s still not finished! And it doesn’t need to only be used for battle either.”

Rusty imagined creating a centaur form for himself without changing through regular evolution. Even if he couldn’t fight in such a form, beasts were usually faster than humanoids. He could use such alterations to boost his capabilities to escape or perhaps to hide. Creating a smaller form with limbs capable of grappling was also possible. Inside the library, he had seen many types of interesting creatures he had never met, and it seemed his crafting journey had only begun.

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Rusty’s focus shifted as he examined the various designs and configurations he could create. The freedom to modify his form provided endless possibilities, each adaptation potentially offering new strengths and advantages. His excitement grew as he continued to experiment. However, creating something resembling a centaur body within the Soul Forge wouldn’t be easy. It was a difficult form to shape, and first, he would need to see how easy it was to control multiple limbs.

At first, he attempted cutting a hole in his backplate to connect one of the arms he had from the other living armors. It wasn’t as easy as he had thought; the arm kept falling out, and his body didn’t accept it as a part. It seemed that the new limbs would need to be remade from the ground up to integrate properly. Perhaps his project to have four arms would need to wait.

“Let’s try something a bit different”

Rusty said, grabbing some metal plates and starting to forge a new piece. His idea of creating additional limbs would need to wait as he was running out of time. All the weapons had been made, and his disguise was as good as it could ever get. Instead, he could focus on creating two other shells fit for different extremes.

“What are you thinking?”