Heavy Metal: Chapter 79 – The Iron Bandit. (Patreon)

“Huh? Why is it so cold?”

A man’s voice echoed in the large, open chamber. He clutched his head, trying to ease the pounding headache. His name was Richter, and just moments ago, he had been enjoying a regular trip into the maze dungeon with his three companions. It took him a second, but then he remembered - someone had triggered the trap, releasing the sleeping mist.

“What?”

His vision, initially blurry, sharpened, and he realized why he was so cold. His expensive armor was gone. Even his silk shirt was missing, leaving him stripped down to his underpants. The same fate had befallen his companions - three women, all missing their newly bought adventuring gear, left with nothing but their undergarments.

Panic surged through Richter as he scanned the room, realizing the extent of what had happened. His beloved sword, the one he had saved up for months to buy, was gone. The enchanted rings he wore on his fingers were gone. Even his prized potion belt was missing. His heart pounded, his mind racing to comprehend how they had been so thoroughly robbed without waking up.

“W-What happened?!”

One of the women, Lilly, stirred awake, her fox-like ears twitching as she heard Richter's voice. She, too, quickly realized her missing armor, her face turning pale.

“Where’s all our stuff?”

The other two adventurers, a human named Kara and an elf called Elara, began to rouse as well. Elara, usually the calm one, sat up slowly, a deep frown creasing her face.

“We’ve been looted? They even took my boots?!” 

She glanced around the room, searching for any clues, but the stone chamber was empty aside from their discarded bags, a few torn pieces of clothing, and a small pile of crude weapons. All eyes turned to the pile. The items were crude, worthless, barely fit for use. It seemed that whoever had robbed them had left these behind out of pity.

“Who did this? Do they expect me to use this rusty sword?”

Richter staggered to his feet, anger boiling inside him. He sifted through the pile of crude weaponry and pulled out a rusted iron blade. Holding the sword high, his hand trembled with fury. The blade was chipped, dull, and barely held together at the hilt. It was a mockery - a pitiful replacement for the finely crafted weapon he had lost. His heart raced as he glanced back at his companions, all of them sharing the same stunned expression.

“Whoever did this... they’re going to pay!” 

Richter shouted, nearly hurling the rusted sword to the ground in frustration. But with nothing else to arm himself with, it was the only weapon available. They were four unarmed adventurers, and even this broken sword was better than bare fists.

“T-There’s something coming… maybe we shouldn’t be shouting!” 

Lilly, the fox-eared woman, said, wrapping her arms around herself. Her ears twitched, picking up sounds of movement from one of the corridors. The maze was still teeming with monsters, and it became clear they needed to retreat. Without wasting any more time, the group hastily grabbed whatever crude weapons they could. As soon as they saw a Lizardmen emerge from the shadows, Richter barked the command.

“Run, and don’t look back!”

“Why did they have to take our boots… this floor is so cold!”

“Don’t talk, you’re bite your tongue!”

“Ahhhhh!”

******

Unbeknownst to the group of adventurers, the person who had robbed them wasn’t that far away. Rusty stood in the distance in one of the empty corridors, his life detection skill informing him about the adventurers departing. 

“Bah, we should have just killed them.”

“If we kill them, then an investigation by the guild might be launched, Alexander said that the guild won’t investigate robberies as much as murders.” 

Aburdon grumbled, not entirely satisfied with Rusty's approach. While robbing adventurers of their gear was effective and avoided the unwanted attention that murder would bring, it still felt inefficient to him. Rusty, however, was pragmatic about the situation. Looting them and letting them go meant they'd likely survive, return to town, and replenish their supplies - making them future targets.

“I wonder how much this will go for?”

Rusty was looking at the display of his system with all the icons representing the loot he had gotten. The armor set that the person called Richter had was made from some kind of strange alloy. It wasn’t steel but something that condensed mana and also had strange magical words written over it. There were also many accessories, some that he had already equipped to exchange his old ones.

“Probably not that much.”

“What do you mean?”

Aburdon interrupted his thoughts as he answered his question. Then he quickly explained himself.

“Those four if they survive will probably report everything to that guild or even the guards. The armor that one human was wearing is quite peculiar, it will get identified the moment you try to sell it to any merchant and that’s why I said, you should have just killed them!”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course!”

“Isn’t there some way to sell it though?”

“There is but…”

Aburdon had a point but he also couldn’t keep his knowledge hidden away. Rusty already knew how to manage his words around this demon lord who liked to withhold information. The armor set he’d taken from Richter was unusual, and selling it could attract unwanted attention, but there were still ways of getting around that problem.

“A thieves Guild should exist in that city.”

“A thieves Guild?”

The glowing orb of black light hovered closer as Aburdon continued by explaining to Rusty what this guild was.

"A Thieves Guild is an underground network of criminals who specialize in smuggling, fencing stolen goods, and performing jobs most people wouldn't dare to touch. They're like the adventurer's guild, but for, well, the less savory types."

For some reason, Rusty felt like Aburdon had some appreciation for this guild of thieves. It was an organization that lacked proper rules and was less honorable. Perhaps it reminded him of the way demons handled things by force and subterfuge. 

"They operate in the shadows, far away from the eyes of the law. If you want to get rid of that armor without anyone noticing, they'll be your best bet."

Rusty considered this. A Thieves Guild? He’d never dealt with criminals before or at least, not intentionally. The three thugs who had attacked him at the inn might have been members. He wasn’t sure what to make of it, but the loot adventurers carried could fetch a high price. They didn’t seem to carry much gold on them, likely storing it in the city’s banks for safekeeping while they ventured out. He’d heard that one could open an account with just an adventurer's card, making it easy to secure their valuables.

"How do I find this Thieves Guild?”

Aburdon let out a low, sinister chuckle. 

"In every major city, there are certain signs. You'll need to keep an eye out for the subtle clues - symbols scratched into walls, strange patterns in the cobblestones. But the easiest way is through the black market. Find a merchant who deals in questionable goods, and they'll likely be connected."

Rusty nodded, mentally storing the information away. He later needed to consult Alexander about further information. He had gone through this city in his past and knew a few things, maybe even where this Thieves Guild was located. Getting this amount of gear from adventurers was great but without a place to sell, it would be pointless.

“Let us continue then, lead me to the next sleeping chamber.”

“If you wish.”

The two vanished into the maze, continuing their quest to find more treasure. Rusty relentlessly fought off various monsters like Orcs and Lizardmen, while also setting traps for unsuspecting adventurers. Although he didn’t need sleep, Aburdon warned him not to overdo it. 

Rusty was playing the role of an adventurer, and some people might have taken note of his actions. If he stayed inside the maze for too long, it could raise suspicion. Nevertheless, his priority was still to rescue Gleam and then leave this place, so he decided to spend a few more days hunting before returning to the city. The date for the auction could be announced at any moment, and he still needed to check on that.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes… is there a problem?”

Eventually Rusty had emerged from within the maze dungeon. He had spent close to five days roaming around the first floor, killing monsters and setting off sleep gas to rob the adventurers inside. Once he emerged he was approached by one of the city guards.

“You seem to be still in possession of your goods, have you seen anyone suspicious inside of the dungeon?”

“Suspicious? No, I have not…”

Just like Aburdon had claimed, there was a downside in letting people live. The place seemed to be in an uproar after multiple people got robbed blind. Rusty replied quickly, his voice hollow and devoid of any nervousness. His metallic body was incapable of sweating, and his experience with adventurers had already grown so handling such a question was not a problem.

“Very well. Just be cautious. Whoever's behind these thefts is clever, using traps and tricks to avoid detection. If you hear anything or see anyone acting out of the ordinary, report it to us. They seem to target everything and everyone, we believe they should be in possession of a rather large spatial bag or backpack.”

The soldier nodded. Ordinary people didn’t have access to the kind of massive storage system Rusty had. They couldn’t just make things vanish into thin air. Instead, they had to stuff items into bags, and if the opening was smaller than the item’s size, it simply wouldn’t fit. Rusty, however, had taken everything - even large suits of armor that wouldn’t fit into a regular bag of holding. Without carrying anything that resembled such a bag, no one would suspect him as the potential perpetrator, something Aburdon had already explained to him.

“I have not seen anyone like that, can I go now?”

"Of course, Adventurer. Be on your way, and remember, report anything unusual."

“I will…”

The guard gave Rusty a final scrutinizing look before stepping aside, allowing him to pass through the checkpoint. Rusty walked while glancing around and saw a few complaining adventurers, some of his most recent victims. All of their belongings were inside of the system inventory and selling them back to the merchants would probably be unwise. It was better to first sell all the monster parts he had amassed and then search for that Thieves Guild Aburdon spoke about.

“We wouldn’t be in this mess if you’d taken me instead Rusty!”

“I don’t think there is a mess… I still hunted a lot of monsters, just look at all those parts.”

The moment Rusty left the dungeon he replaced his demonic guide for the hero. Alexander gave him an earful about robbing the adventurers blind but he couldn’t deny the facts that he had earned more through this. Some of the adventurers even had monster parts which he could now sell to the guild for profit. 

“You need to get that bag ready, don’t even try using your special storage in the guild or when other people are looking.”

“I’ve been trying to but there were a lot…”

Once he arrived in the city, the first thing he did was slip into a secluded alleyway. There, he retrieved one of his looted items: a much larger bag of holding. After ensuring no one was watching, he began depositing the desynthesized monster parts he had collected. A small dark hole appeared in the air as claws, eyeballs, and hearts tumbled into the bag. Opening his storage to transfer everything was draining, as it consumed a significant amount of SP. During his dungeon hunts, he had to keep some SP in reserve to swap out his loadout, but now he was free to use up everything.

“That’s all of them. See, I told you that it was fine.”

“We will see, I just hope they won’t make a fuss.”

Alexander seemed unsettled by something, but Rusty didn’t have time to worry about it. Nearly five days had passed, marking almost a week since he arrived in this strange city. Gleam’s auction was set to take place in a week or maybe two, leaving him with little time to gather more money. Although he had earned a lot from the dungeon, he still needed more.

After filling his bag to the brim, Rusty headed to the adventurer's guild. This time, he didn’t need any guidance—he simply got in line and waited for his turn. Just like before, the guild worker pressed something to open a spatial box. That was his cue to take out his bag and hold it steady.

Once he was in position, a small flood of monster parts began pouring out, drawing the attention of a few onlookers. Normally, processing monsters took time, so most adventurers just hacked off limbs to maximize what they could fit into their bags. But thanks to the system, Rusty was able to perfectly sort everything and even remove the blood, making the process remarkably clean.

The guild clerk’s eyes opened wide as he saw the torrent of perfectly preserved parts. Soon the magical device responsible for counting the monster parts began whirring, calculating the value of the bounty Rusty had brought in.

“W-Whoa! This is impressive!” 

The clerk exclaimed, his hands moving quickly to grab the money that Rusty was owed. After witnessing all the well-preserved parts coming out of that bag, he wasn’t even surprised by the high reward the magical device indicated. 

“You’ve really outdone yourself this time. This batch will net you quite a sum.”

Rusty felt a swell of pride at the praise but did not reply to the man. Instead, he noticed that some of the adventurers were looking at him in strange ways. He was given a large sack filled with coins that he promptly deposited into his spatial bag. 

‘Remember this well Rusty, it's not good to show off at least not until you’ve made a name for yourself.’

‘I’ll keep that in mind.’

Soon, Rusty left the guild, his earnings having more than doubled. While this pace was promising, he wasn’t sure it would be enough to buy Gleam back at the auction. What he needed to do was gain access to the Thieves Guild and, more importantly, the black market. There, he could sell off the stolen goods he had acquired. However, he had no idea how to find it; his guides had been frustratingly vague in their descriptions, and Alexander wasn’t sure of its location either. He was a hero, not a thief, and while he could recognize the mark of the guild, he had no idea where it was situated.

“Well, look who it is…”

Luckily, he had gained some attention and a bit of notoriety. From the distance, a familiar voice called out to him and they weren’t alone…