“Could you two knock it off… You were supposed to make all of this easier, not harder…”

  “( ?_? )”

  “See, even Gleam is getting tired of it.”

  Rusty said this while looking at the two suits of armor. Both were pushing against each other, their hands locked together in a contest of strength. It was a battle neither of them could win, as they shared the exact same stats.

  “I will, my dear Rusty, once this buffoon of a hero accepts my superiority and learns to follow tactics commanded by my superior intellect!”

  “You’re full of it as always, Aburdon. Who would ever follow someone like you? Even your own armies abandoned that so-called superior intellect of yours!”

  “What did you say? I could not hear you very well, hero who was betrayed by their so-called friends.”

  If Rusty had a human face, he would be frowning. After creating bodies for both Aburdon and Alexander, they had headed back into the dungeon for another round of tests. Even though the mana cost was high and he had less than sixty percent remaining, the two proved to be quite useful, at least when he was actually able to deploy them.

  With them around, battles ended more quickly, but there were several downsides. One was their appearance. They looked like living suits of armor, which naturally drew suspicion from adventurers. Rusty could pass himself off using his special armor and speech abilities, but whenever the two were present, his disguise began to fall apart. Moving as a larger group became troublesome, as it often invited attacks.

  To alleviate this problem, he would probably need to fashion different frames for them. More unique appearances that could blend in with the people around them and keep their visors or eyeslits from glowing. Each time they spoke, the light would flash slightly, indicating that there was no human beneath.

  The other issue was simpler and far more irritating. The two would start fighting the moment they were given the chance. This diminished their fighting power, as they seemed to be working against each other. They competed over who landed more strikes or who was more useful during battle. While it was amusing at first, it was something that could cost him dearly. In a world focused on power and combat, even a small flaw could lead to disaster.

  “Quiet down, you two. If you keep fighting like this, I’ll stop giving you bodies altogether.”

  They were forced to stop, as Rusty’s commands were still absolute. Even so, yelling at them in the middle of combat was not advised. If he issued an order that conflicted with their current actions, they would freeze for a second or two, leaving themselves open to damage. Despite this, Rusty remained in good spirits. He hoped that, given time, the two would learn to work together. He had already seen something similar among the humanoids. At first, Gwen and Syber had not cooperated, but in the end, all of them managed to work together to achieve their goal.

  “Okay, let’s try going deeper into these crystalline caver… hm?”

  *DING*

  Before Rusty could continue, he heard a chime in his mind. For a moment, he was confused, then he remembered a new feature he had enabled recently.

  “Oh, did the summoning chamber become accessible again?”

  His access to the crafting portion of the forging section of the soul forge had become available for frequent visits. The same could not be said for the Summoning Chamber. To make it easier to track its availability, a notification option had appeared. He had previously enabled it for the crafting downtime timer, and it had chimed several times before. This chime, however, was slightly different, indicating that it belonged to the second feature.

  “Now this complicates things…”

  “( ? -?)?”

  Gleam tapped the side of his helmet as he came to a stop, silently asking what was wrong.

  “We might have to head back, Gleam. I want to use the summoning option as soon as possible.”

  “( ? ? ? )”

  Rusty knew that the timer would only begin once the chamber had been used. The situation was further complicated by the fact that returning now would take several hours, requiring them to travel back through the dungeon and all the way to the safety of the city.

  “Why wait? Just do it here, my dear Rusty.”

  Aburdon stepped closer, having instantly identified the issue.

  “You’ve tested it before, right? Even if you enter the soul forge, our bodies can still move.”

  “That’s true…”

  Rusty pondered the idea. They were still in the crystal covered dungeon, where the monsters were only D rank. The last time he had entered the soul forge, he had been gone for less than a minute. This was not a full evolution, only a brief visit where time functioned differently.

  “What do you think?”

  Rusty looked toward Gleam and Alexander, waiting for their decision.

  “( ?? ? ?? )?”

  “Oh, that’s right, you’ve learned a few things. We could do that. Great idea, Gleam!”

  “(?? ? ??)”

  Even before Alexander could answer, Gleam offered a solid proposal. The area was filled with crystals and various rock formations. Normally, it would be difficult to hide in such an environment, but if someone could use earth magic to shift the terrain, that changed everything.

  “I think it’s worth a shot, but we should move into an area other adventurers are unlikely to wander into.”

  Alexander shared his thoughts, and Rusty nodded. There were places adventurers avoided since they led nowhere and offered no resources or monsters. A few such areas existed here as well. They could search for one themselves or simply ask Aburdon, who knew the entire layout from studying maps. It did not take long to reach one. When they arrived, they found nothing but a wall, its sides embedded with crystals.

  “( ?? ? ?? )?”

  “Okay, I’ll leave it to you then.”

  Gleam’s idea was simple. Along with Aburdon and Alexander, he moved close to one of the walls while she raised the earth around them. Soon, a solid earthen barrier rose and shifted into place, enclosing them for protection.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “While I’m out, listen to Gleam. No fighting between you two, okay?”

  The space they now occupied was cramped but large enough to fit the entire group. Even so, the two guides ended up bumping into each other and immediately began complaining.

  “Get that elbow out of my face!”

  “Only if you move that foot.”

  Is this really going to be fine…

  “(?? ? ??)”

  “I’ll leave it to you, Gleam. I should not be gone for more than a minute.”

  Gleam seemed confident that she could handle things. He sat down on the ground and entered the summoning chamber. It looked the same as before. As he approached the console, he tried to see if he could visit Gwen again, but just like last time, he could not.

  “I expected as much. It probably will take her a while to get stronger, so that leaves me with…”

  He glanced at the other summoner he had recently visited, Teral, but just like Gwen, his icon was grayed out, and there were no missions there with him involved.

  “Why isn’t this working… He was able to summon me before, so he should be able to now…”

  “Such a thing can happen?”

  The chamber’s response was not what he had expected. There were far more restrictions to this process than he had realized. In Gwen’s case, he had become too strong, and Teral did not seem to need his help anymore.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t have unlocked those skills for him…”

  He was not sure if that was the reason, but he could not be summoned by the new summoner this time. Perhaps the chamber wanted him to wait until he was truly needed. If he left now, maybe the cooldown would also not reset.

  “That could be possible… but I do have two other options.”

  One option was exactly the same as before, becoming a dungeon core’s defender, the very mission he had ignored previously. The other option was similar, but not quite the same. He had always avoided missions involving a necromancer, but this time his choices were limited. It was either this or becoming bound to a dungeon heart once again.

  It looked like some kind of bodyguard mission, similar to the jobs adventurers took on. His goal was to protect his summoner and reach a destination, but he was not sure how far away it was or what kind of terrain they would travel through. If brute force was required, using his Goliath frame would be the best choice. If stealth was more important, the Wraith would be better. However, he did not know what he would be facing, so this time he would probably need to use his regular form, which was not too specialized in any one area.

  “There is no reason to go out without completing a mission first. If I run out of options, I will test that theory, but until then…”

  Rusty chose to proceed with the new mission rather than wait for Teral to decide whether to summon him. The true rules of the chamber were slowly becoming clearer, but he would rather not wait another three and a half days only to discover he was wrong.

  With everything settled, he organized his inventory. Normally, he appeared with a halberd in one hand and a smaller shield in the other. This time, however, he decided to change things up. He selected a medium-sized heater shield fashioned from his current alloy and reinforced with a protective enchantment. In his right hand, he equipped a wider longsword, an all-purpose weapon suitable for most situations. Then, into his storage, he placed the usual halberd, a mace, and a battle bow with a full quiver of arrows.

  “That is all the space I have. I should get that storage upgrade soon.”

  After checking that all of his equipment was ready, he selected the mission and stepped onto the summoning platform. Soon, the familiar magic took hold, and his body vanished, drawn into a new place where perhaps the same necromancer he had always ignored now resided.

  *****

  “Blast it all, how could everything go so wrong? Someone must have cursed me. None of this makes any sense. First, they somehow find my lair, then they interrupt the ritual and force me to abandon decades of work. It must have been one of those blasted warlocks. If I survive this, I am going to…”

  A hooded figure stumbled through the darkened forest, his frantic thoughts spilling out as muttered words. Just as he was about to curse again, he heard something in the distance, a man’s voice.

  “That bastard could not have gotten far. Spread out and find him!”

  “Blasted dogs of the church. They managed to track me even here. Is this truly the end for me?”

  He ducked behind a large tree, his knees buckling under the weight of fear and exhaustion. The wind tossed his hood aside, revealing a pale man with white hair and a matching beard. He was thin, with greenish veins spreading across his sickly face. Though frail, he was not yet reduced to skin and bones.

  “I need help, but my mana is low. Should I risk it?”

  The man dropped to his knees, his thin finger tracing a line along the ground to form a circle. His power was nearly depleted, forcing him to limit the spell to summoning a single minion. Even so, the magic was a gamble. While it had the potential to call forth a powerful creature, the chance of success in his current state was barely fifty percent.

  “Please let it be a death knight.”

  He muttered the words as his thoughts drifted to the past and how everything had gone so wrong. He had secluded himself in his lair, rarely venturing outside, relying on his minions to handle his affairs. That was when the trouble began. One of his lesser skeletons had been spotted, drawing the attention of the church. After a series of strange mistakes that never quite made sense, he found himself here, weakened and clinging to his last breath.

  “Why can’t they hunt one of the others? I never bothered the villagers. I’m the most ethical necromancer there is!”

  He spat the words in anger, convinced he did not deserve this fate. While other necromancers experimented on the living and unleashed plagues and massacres, he had done nothing of the sort. The only crime they could accuse him of was grave robbing, and even then, he took care to minimize harm to villages and cities. Yet the religious fanatics focused solely on him, the most peaceful necromancer in this world, or so he believed.

  “If I live through this, I’ll turn all those church bastards into my puppets and make them massage my feet. I’ll use their skulls as cup holders!”

  After muttering a few more words, he finally managed to draw the circle successfully. Usually, he relied on some kind of medium to summon creatures, most often reanimating them. In this situation, however, he had no corpse to work with, nor any dead spirits to aid him. Instead, he had to focus on a modified summoning spell, one that would bring forth a creature powerful enough to get these paladins off his back.

  “Yes, it’s working. The great Vesperus Mortis will not perish this day!”

  As he finished the chant and infused his mana into the circle, it began to glow with a greenish light. At that moment, he knew something was taking shape, and the initial sight was promising. A heavily armored being emerged, resembling a Death Knight, one of the most powerful undead. His cackle echoed through the clearing, but it quickly died as he noticed something was wrong.

  “Wait… this isn’t a Death Knight. It’s living armor. No, I’m dead meat!”

  Vesperus tore at his hair as the monster fully took form before him. He instantly recognized what it was, and in his mind, it was not enough to save him from his predicament.

  “I found him. The necromancer is here!”

  As if things could not get any worse, the spell drew the attention of the church’s hounds. One of them burst from the bushes, blade raised to decapitate him. Vesperus nearly made peace with his demise, but then something miraculous happened. The suit of armor he had summoned charged forward without a single command. Its blade met the paladin’s in a violent clash, and the armor emerged victorious.

  “Huh?”

  “Gah!”

  The paladin cried out in pain as he was sent flying ten meters back. His body slammed into a tree, bones snapping from the sheer power of the summon.

  “Wait… this armor isn’t simple. This energy… yes… YES!”

  Tears of joy welled in Vesperus’s eyes as he finally realized that what he had summoned was no mere living armor, but something far more deadly, something that might actually save him.