Heavy Metal [ A Monster Evolution LitRPG ]

Chapter 68 – Familiars

“So, ten silver coins amount to one gold coin?”

“Yes, but the copper coins are divided into two? Big and small?”

“Mhm.”

“That feels a bit unnecessary… why isn’t it also just ten?”

“Because simple food costs just a few small copper coins, a silver coin is worth a hundred of them, so they decided to make a larger one to simplify transactions for goods of slightly higher value, like tools or better-quality food. It's all about convenience, though I agree it can be confusing at first."

If Rusty had a face then he would be frowning now. Between his metallic fingers were two copper coins, one thicker and larger than the other. Alexander along with Aburdon were just teaching him about this strange currency and how the people of this world operated. They were trading these small pieces of metal for other goods, even weapons and armor. He now found himself in a situation where he needed to gather several of these to comfortably win the Auction Gleam was in.

“How many of these do I need for Gleam?”

“That’s hard to say… the more the better. Gleam was still only an F-rank monster, even though rare… I don’t think it should go over twenty gold coins. I’m not sure…”

Gleam had a bond with Rusty which had not yet faded. Going by the rules of this world, he shouldn’t have to pay anything. However, it seemed that things weren’t equal and the strong dictated which rules were enforced and which weren’t. Even though the bond had not been canceled, it would be with some form of magic after the auction was over. Then, Gleam might not be able to adventure with him anymore, something that he didn’t want to happen.

“What can I do to get more coins quickly?”

“Have you tried making some with the copper you have?”

Asked Aburdon his black light form pulsating inside of the room.

“Yeah… it doesn’t work for some reason, I can only recreate weapons and armor.”

Rusty took out a bar of copper from within his inventory. Compared to the small copper coins it was much larger and heavier. If it were possible to turn this into coins through his system then his troubles would be instantly over but it wouldn’t be that simple. 

“Well, our Rusty can recreate anything that he previously crafted right? So in theory, he could sell everything he made.”

Aburdon proposed while Alexander chimed in from the side.

"That’s not a bad idea. He could probably get rid of all the bronze weapons, and we still have a lot of those monster parts lying around. All of them could be melted down into ingots and repurposed into weapons, but…"

"But?"

Rusty liked the sound of this plan. He had stored large quantities of living bronze armor parts and some iron variants in his storage space. At this point, he was able to recreate both iron and bronze equipment pieces. He could make a large number of bronze swords and shields, but Alexander saw a problem.

"Bronze weapons aren’t something adventurers use much. You probably noticed - even at the lower levels, they prefer crude iron weaponry or jump straight to steel."

"That’s true…"

He tried to recall the gear that adventurers liked to use and it was usually iron armor and leather. Most of the material in his storage was bronze which meant that he probably wouldn’t be able to trade it in for that much. 

“We can probably still sell them in bulk but that probably won’t be enough.”

“Are there any other methods?”

“You could take on some quests, maybe gather rare materials or hunt monsters. Adventurers often get paid handsomely for bringing in difficult-to-find items or taking out dangerous creatures but…”

“Why is there always a but?”

“Hah, sorry… but for you to take on quests that are worthwhile, you’d need to go through a rank-up test and I’m not sure if that will be possible.”

Rusty prodded for more answers, and Alexander began to explain. In this world, adventurer ranks corresponded to monster ranks. Albert was a Copper-rank adventurer, or as most people called them, an F-rank adventurer. For Rusty to enter a higher-tier E-rank dungeon, he would need to become an Iron-rank adventurer.

This posed a problem. Typically, the main way to achieve a higher rank was by having one’s status evaluated by the guild. The guards used a low-quality item that couldn’t detect the possession skill, but this wouldn’t work within the guild. Even if the skill managed to deceive the guild's device, it would only display Albert’s old status - that of a lower-level fighter, much weaker than the thugs he had just faced. With such a low level, he wouldn’t be able to convince the guild to grant him a higher rank. His options would then be limited to the F-rank dungeon he had just come out of, which would yield a much smaller amount of money.

“I’m also not sure how they handle things now. I think it was possible to ask for a personal test and fight against a higher-tier adventurer, if you won, then you got the higher rank, if you lost then you needed to pay a fine and couldn’t take another one for at least a month… but…”

“What did I say about buts?”

“... Well, you still need to reach a minimal level to be eligible for that test and with Albert’s body being like that, it probably won’t work…”

“Hey, isn’t there an easy solution to that problem?”

As Alexander and Rusty were conversing, the bored Aburdon called out to them. He sounded bored as he didn’t have the opportunity to talk much. Alexander had been human and also an adventurer in his past life but the demon lord had some insights as well.

“Oh? What’s the solution?”

“Quite simply, if the body is too low leveled to fool the identification device, then how about we get another one?”

“Oh… that does sound simple!”

Rusty liked that idea but Alexander instantly tried to stop this line of thinking.

“No, you can’t!”

“Uh? Why can’t I?”

“Yeah, why can’t our little Rusty not just get a better, stronger body? There are many E-rank adventurers in this city, just pick one, and no more problems!”

“That’s what I thought. You just want him to kill someone and take his identity!”

“Why, of course? Why shouldn’t he? Rusty is a monster, we could solve this entire problem in one day if we just target the right person~”

Rusty wasn’t sure what to think. The idea of killing another adventurer and using their body instead made some sense. Albert’s identity was becoming troublesome, especially since he was being targeted by criminals. If Rusty could switch to someone else, it would solve a lot of problems in a short amount of time. And time wasn’t something he had in abundance, so this tactic seemed to have some merit.

“Rusty, don’t listen to this idiot!” a voice interjected. “It’s not like you can just find someone thin enough to fit into your current body. If they have any close friends, they’ll figure out something’s wrong almost instantly!”

He had to admit that finding a dried-out body with a functioning head was rather lucky. This one was perfectly mummified by the spider’s special poison and wasn’t decomposing. If he took on a new body, it would probably start to stink and leak bodily fluids.

“Then what? Will you let him take the adventurer test and get identified? Or go to the other dungeon that is probably swarming with people looking for him?”

“Well…”

Alexander was at a loss for words, unsure how to convince Rusty to see things his way. If things continued as they were, Aburdon might force him into unspeakable actions, like ransacking the merchant district and killing people there for money. He could even use his twilight metal body as cover during the night, and no one would know it was him by day.

“Huh?”

While the two guides were at it, Rusty noticed that his Call Guide skill had gone past level nine and evolved. He didn’t expect it to go any further as at this point, his two guides weren’t using up any of his mana and he could have them out indefinitely. 

“What a peculiar feeling…”

“What’s happening?”

Both Aburdon and Alexander started going through some kind of transformation. Their bodies were radiating brighter light so to stop people from peeking through the little window he raised the bed to block it. Once the light subsided they continued to look exactly the same but something had changed. 

Rusty was quick to notice a new window inside of his system that presented itself to him. Through it he could identify his new helpers and both of them had actual stats. All of them were at the lowest and they both seemed to lack any skills, so he wasn’t sure if this had been a helpful change.

“Hah… I can feel it… mana! Does this mean…”

While Rusty was looking through the status screen Aburdon started cackling. The demon lord had always made it clear that he wished to leave and now he had been given some power along with a body capable of storing some mana. Instantly he attempted to use it and to Rusty’s surprise there was a spell forming.

“Yes…. YESSSS! … y…e……”

He sounded excited but suddenly his voice started to break and his form burst into nothingness. When looking at the status screen, Rusty noticed that the five points of mana that Aburdon was given had gone down to zero. The moment they did, he was whisked out of existence and vanished from the room. 

“Idiot…“

“What happened?”

“Not much, he used up too much mana so his form could not sustain itself. This happens to familiar spirits that overtax themselves. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to resummon him again after a cooldown period.” 

“I see.”

Rusty looked at the status screen again and saw a timer of thirty minutes ticking down. He now had the option to summon Aburdon as either a guide or a familiar. Summoning Aburdon as a familiar required a higher upfront cost of MP but did not seem to generate a constant drain on his mana.

The bed wasn’t worth using, so he decided to leave it at the window to prevent anyone from peeking in. However, the problem of needing more money remained. First thing in the morning, he planned to visit some stores, as Alexander had suggested, to sell the excess bronze and iron weaponry. Once that was done, he needed to consider whether Aburdon’s advice was the right path forward.

He didn’t feel guilty about killing adventurers in self-defense, but the situation felt different now. Alexander was trying to convince him that it wasn’t worth the trouble, but Gleam remained a priority. If there were no other viable options, this might be a course he would have to consider. 

“Are there really no other ways?”

“You could try buying some armor from the stores, turning it into more weapons, and then upselling them later. But I’m not sure the merchants will appreciate you flooding the market with cheap iron weapons, it could become troublesome.”

“That’s not good… if only I could hide my status and take that adventurer test…”

“Hm hide your status… Wait maybe there is a way…”

“There is?”

“Yes, summon that idiot again, he might be the key here.”

The timer finally reset so he was able to summon Aburdon again. A moment later, Aburdon reappeared in a swirl of darkness, his form solidifying into the familiar demon lord. One change that Rusty noticed was a set of red eyes in this new form, one set that Alexander also had but that was golden. 

“That was… uncomfortable, I shan’t do that again… blasted form of a familiar…”

Aburdon returned annoyed at his vanishing which seemed to have been an uncomfortable experience for him. His familiar form was still somewhat ethereal but solid enough to interact with the physical world. The red eyes glowed faintly as he looked around the room.

“Aburdon, you can use some of your magic now, right?”

“Not really, I only have five mana points… do you know how much mana I had when I was the demon king!”

“Rusty… can you make him shut up for a moment so I can ask him something?”

“Aburdon, can you be quiet and answer Alexander’s question?”

The demon lord was still compelled to follow all of Rusty’s orders. He was forced to quiet down and Alexander was able to ask him one important question.

“Good, you only have five mana but that should be enough to cast ‘Alter Body Status’ can you do that?”

“Alter Body Status? … I suppose I could do that, but it won’t last for long.”

Alexander who now had eyes wiggled around in joy. Rusty could tell by this spell's name what it was all about.

“Can you change my status?”

“Well, not yours - that would use too much of the mana I’m lacking. However, if it’s the body inside you, I could probably make it appear as a higher-level fighter. But why bother? Why don’t we just hunt down a rich merchant and get this over with instead!”

“Shut up, Aburdon. That will just get Rusty killed. He isn’t an assassin or a thief; he’ll get noticed!”

Soon, Alexander explained the spell Aburdon could use. It required barely any mana and was commonly used by necromancers on dead bodies. The spell had limited purposes but could alter certain aspects of a body’s status. Some used it to conceal the cause of death or disguise a person's true identity for various unsavory reasons.

All they needed to do was make it appear that Albert was a level twenty-five fighter, which was the minimum requirement for the E-rank test. Once that was accomplished, the higher-tier dungeon would be unlocked for them. Inside, they could potentially gather much better materials or even ambush adventurers to seize their loot, something that Aburdon was for. 

“I see, thank you two, we will begin first time in the morning!”

“Oh joy, I can’t wait, I haven’t been in a human city in a while… or in one that wasn’t destroyed~”

“Rusty, just get rid of him, he’ll just get us killed.”

“Hah, if you listen to this idiot hero this will take a year! Remember Rusty, always cheat if you can and if someone discovers it… just get rid of them!”

The two argued for a while, but he had already begun to make up his mind. As dawn broke, Rusty decided to put the plan into motion, but with caution. First, he would visit the merchant district to dispose of all the weapons he had created. Once that was done, his career as Albert the Adventurer would officially start. Then, perhaps with some luck, in two weeks, he would have enough gold to save Gleam.