Chapter 78 – Desynthesis.

‘That was fun, but are you sure these will sell for anything? Why would anyone want this?’

Rusty asked, his confusion apparent in his tone.

‘Don’t ask silly questions, Rusty,’

Aburdon replied, with a somewhat awkward tone.

“There are some things kids like you shouldn’t be thinking about. Just know it was on the board and it’s a component for a potion that people use… for various reasons, that you don’t need to know.”

Rusty glanced at the defeated Orc lying before him, its body already cut in several places. The tusks fetched a decent price, as did the ears and eyes. Aburdon had also instructed him to remove some of the inner organs, like the liver and heart. Taking the whole body would lower the value of the loot. But there was one part in particular that was the most valuable – a set of dangling orbs between the monster’s legs that looked almost comical.

Rusty stared at the Orc’s body, particularly at the orbs Aburdon had mentioned. A strange feeling washed over him – a mix of amusement and disgust. Some of Aburdon’s and Alexander’s memories still lingered in his mind, stirring up those emotions. Despite the oddity of the situation, it was valuable loot. After a brief stretch and a quick nick with his dagger, he dislodged the orbs, leaving the other protruding appendage behind.

‘Are you sure this is the most valuable part? It’s certainly… big, but the consistency is strange.’

‘Rusty… stop playing with the Orc’s ‘parts’ and put them away! Out of my sight, this instant!’

Aburdon’s voice was sharp, clearly appalled by Rusty’s casual handling of the squishy organ. To Rusty, still new to the world of monster parts, this was an unfamiliar experience. As living armor, he’d never considered examining trophies after battle. However, the loot was precious and he had defeated two orcs already but afterward, he was made aware of one problem.

‘This feels… inefficient…’

Rusty muttered to himself. He wasn’t particularly skilled at harvesting these parts. Back when he was in the small party of four adventurers, the thief or one of the archers always handled this task. His job was simply to watch their backs while they worked. They weren’t much better at it than he was, but at least he could focus on what he was good at – killing monsters.

‘How much money will I lose if I don’t do this?’

‘You want to leave the processing of the monster materials to the guild? If you do that, we’ll lose about twenty to thirty percent of the money… I’m not sure if that’s the best idea.’

If Rusty had a face he would be frowning. He didn’t like the idea of losing that much money, but taking time to harvest parts also meant fewer creatures to hunt, which cost him coins too. If each unprocessed body lost him twenty or thirty percent, he’d just have to hunt more to make up for it. Another option was to harvest the parts later, once he was back at the inn. For now, he decided to stuff the other Orc’s body into his storage space, along with the organs he’d already cut out.

‘I’ll just deal with this later…’

He thought. Then, something strange happened. His inventory system made a distinction between the unprocessed Orc corpse and the one he had cut up. It reminded him of how he could store living armor parts and exchange them for bronze ingots. Apparently, the same applied to monster bodies and parts. With just a few well-placed clicks, his inventory system could dismantle the monster bodies he had stored, separating them into valuable components.

‘It’s called desynthesis?’

At first, Rusty hesitated, but there was no reason to hold back. Once the process began, the system flawlessly dissected the Orc’s corpse into all the important parts and even some he had avoided due to time constraints. Every valuable piece was neatly extracted and placed back in his storage in a stack. The rest of the body was consumed in the process, but it didn’t matter; the processed organs were what counted.

‘Neat!’

Rusty thought, cheering at his newfound discovery. This would make hunting and harvesting so much easier. Aburdon, however, was shocked at the system.

‘What is this strange system? How can it do so much? That hero won’t explain anything to me either!’

To Aburdon, the former demon lord, the world’s system had always been nothing more than a record-keeping tool, tracking his accomplishments and skills. There was no such thing as a Soul Forge, and certainly, it didn’t automatically perform tasks like processing bodies into valuable parts. Even spatial magic required effort, and most magical items couldn’t perfectly disassemble materials into ingots or organs. Where was this process taking place, was there a hidden pocket dimension where it was processed by some type of being and then generated here? It didn’t make any sense to him, someone who had lived for hundreds of years and seen it all.

‘This is going to save so much time, Now I can focus more on hunting instead of harvesting! and the process has already started!’

Rusty thought with excitement as he glanced around the chamber. It was a small encampment of E-rank Orcs. According to the guild’s information, there should have been up to ten Orcs here, but so far, he’d only encountered two. The area was a popular target for adventurers and was periodically cleared out. Normally, with adventurers regularly around, the monsters wouldn’t respawn right away, allowing the area time to regenerate.

But Rusty wasn’t human – he was a living armor monster. Unlike other adventurers, he could stay here indefinitely, allowing the creatures to respawn without needing to move on to a different location. It made hunting much easier, as for a few seconds after they materialized, the monsters remained stationary. Even now, Rusty moved silently behind one of the green-skinned creatures as it began to form, materializing right before his eyes. Thanks to his Mana Sense skill, he could clearly see the process in detail.

First, pale mana particles gathered from the ground, swirling and twisting into the rough outline of an Orc. The body took shape first, followed by the limbs, and finally the head, complete with tusks and scars that added to its menacing appearance. Rusty watched in fascination as the creature solidified, completely unaware of his presence.

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The moment the Orc finished materializing, Rusty seized the opportunity. With deadly precision, he plunged his blade into the creature’s head before it had a chance to react. It gurgled, blood spilling from its mouth along with the iron blade that had pierced through its skull. Rusty quickly yanked the sword out, being careful not to damage the valuable eyes and tusks. The Orc collapsed to the ground, its body disintegrating into mana particles as it perished.

‘This will be easy~’

This cycle would repeat itself. The dungeon was a machine that created monsters endlessly, and Rusty had become part of that machine, exploiting it for his gain. His system’s new abilities meant he could hunt with brutal efficiency, maximizing his profit while minimizing risk. The only downside was that the dungeon’s regeneration took time, so Rusty would need to remain patient between hunts.

“Quite a way to gather materials, but… we can do better than this, can’t we, Rusty?”

Aburdon’s voice broke the silence. Rusty had spent several hours farming the Orcs. One appeared every ten minutes, leaving him with nothing to do for most of the time. Though his new system feature had made the process more efficient, it still wasn’t optimal. Killing only six or seven Orcs an hour, while safe, wasn’t going to cut it for long-term profit. What Aburdon said was true as it was time to move on and find more lucrative methods of earning money.

“You’re probably right. What do you think I should do?”