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The 'secret room' where Veronica had been born was filled with scattered pieces of armor and different weapons, most of them rusty and barely holding any sharpness. Just some moments ago, all of such materials were 'alive' and possessed by souls. ​​

Veronica, who was reincarnated as a Rank 1 Living Armor monster had triumphed against her siblings and her 'father', a monster two ranks above her. Thanks to recalling her past life memories, she regained some of her skills and used the Job System to her advantage, leveling her skills. By outsmarting the primitive monsters, she managed to evade death and came out of it even stronger.

Though she had won, she was in a terrible state, if she had just failed in the decisive moment of throwing her helmet, she would have been crushed by the Living Armor Commander's fist.

Her arms were completely broken, she lacked her helmet and her leg armor had cracked and collapsed, she was currently in the ground, barely being able to move her torso armor.

From within the torso armor, there was a white, semi-transparent mist, which held a bluish flame inside, her soul.

"Haah… I have managed to survive, but my condition is terrible… my HP had decreased a lot as well. Thanks to being a Living Armor, I cannot bleed, thankfully. If I were to bleed… then I would be surely dead" she said, as her soul waved around, showing her previous life face appearance slightly.

She needed to recover herself, quick, evolve, and select a new Job to strengthen herself furthermore. She was not sure if the secret room would spawn new Living Armors, but she did not want to risk it and laze around.

Veronica glanced at the large dark armor that was once the Living Armor Commander's body, its entire torso armor was completely shattered into pieces due to her powerful blows, and the soul inside was destroyed by her mana-imbued punches.

"I wonder what would happen if I use 'Absorption Healing' in this Rank 3 Living Armor body… Would I evolve? Would I strengthen myself? I have never investigated Living Armors enough in my previous life, and I wasn't even aware that they could recover their bodies by absorbing materials… they may have been too dumb to even acknowledge their own skills to the point of abusing them to become a greater threat, perhaps"

Veronica manipulated her soul, which was covered in the ghostly white mist, using it as if it were a hand… she had never tried this before in her previous life and was quite a novice in the manipulation of the soul. Yet, since she became a Living Armor, the manipulation of her soul had become just as natural as moving her flesh body in her second life.

Why would that be?

"I need to mold myself… into a hand… I need to picture myself… be a hand! Be the hand!" shouted Veronica, to mold her own soul, she needed to picture herself as what she wanted to be.

Her soul became a strange and deformed phantasmagoric claw… which gripped the floor and moved her torso armor towards the ��price'.

When she had finally reached the Living Armor Commander's 'corpse', she tightly grabbed a large chunk of the scattered dark metal with her 'Soul Claw'.

"Absorption Healing!" she shouted, activating the command of the skill.

Flash!

The large dark piece of metal suddenly liquefied into a dark and metallic matter, that moved towards her body, reforming a part of her original armor. It held the same dark luster, but it had a slender appearance, similar to her original body design, different than the Living Armor Commander who was a bulky and heavy armor.

"It worked! But I didn't get anything special though… I wonder if I should evolve first. But would that regenerate my body? Would my new body be able to absorb this armor and benefit from it? Or would I be able to benefit more by merging it while I am still Rank 1?"

After pondering it for a few seconds, she decided to just use it as a material right now. Perhaps by doing this, her next evolution would be stronger that way, rather than evolving right away and then absorbing the armor after having evolved.

By using her 'Soul Claw', Veronica activated 'Absorption Healing' constantly, absorbing each scattered piece of the dark armor.

Flash! Flash! Flash!

The dark and metallic liquid matter moved around her body as it regenerated each part, her arms and hands were back, alongside her legs and her helmet. Alongside this, her torso, which had its shoulders destroyed, was regenerated and covered in this dark metal.

When Veronica 'consumed' everything, she felt a strange feeling of fulfillment, similar to having eaten a large amount of delicious food.

"That was awfully good! Although I cannot taste anything… it really felt like a fulfilling meal. This is really what I needed. That hits the spot. The other Living Armors tasted quite dull in comparison, like eating paper. Meanwhile, this felt like eating a full dinner meal, with beef, potatoes, vegetables, and fine wine" Veronica thought, if her soul would drool, it would be doing so right now.

Her new appearance resembled her original armor design, slender and quite simplistic, but it gained some small gothic decorations such as horns on each side of the helmet and shoulders, alongside sharp metallic claws in her gloves.

As Veronica considered what to do with the rest of the armor and weapons, a holographic window appeared before her sight.

Ding!

[Cursed Living Armor Commander] Material Successfully Absorbed; Health Points Restored]

[You acquired the [Armory; Level 1] Skill!]

"Hm?! Armory?! Wait… don't tell me…"

Veronica had never heard of such skill as 'Armory' in her previous life. Her effects were unknown to her, so she immediately used 'Appraisal' in her own skill.

Armory, Level 1/10: A Skill granted to those capable of absorbing pieces of armor and weapons into their bodies, and store their components. It grants the user the ability to save each absorbed component and freely switch them around, each equipment will have their own advantages and disadvantages. Increase the level of this skill by absorbing new and stronger equipment to unlock more Armory Slots.

[Current Armory Slots: 2]

[Slot 1: [Cursed Living Armor Commander] [Armor]

[Slot 2: [None]

"Interesting… this is very useful, but the slots are too few to become something overly absurd… until I level it up enough. Would I be able to absorb a weapon and always have it with me?" Wondered Veronica, as she glanced at the several types of weapons scattered around.

Aside from 'Archery' and 'Rapier Technique', Veronica was never such an adept in weapons usage... and she considered that she now had 'Unarmed Fighting Technique' at level 3, using weapons and trying to learn a new technique skill would waste all the effort she put into leveling that skill.

She wondered if she could recreate the shield by absorbing the bit and pieces that it had become after exploding, so she kneeled and grabbed on the pieces, quickly absorbing them.

Ding!

[Medium-Sized Copper Shield] Material Successfully Absorbed; Health Points Restored]

"It worked!"

Veronica considered the idea of wielding the giant naginata used by the commander, but she never had any experience using it in her previous lives, it was better to stick with what she was comfortable with.

She tried out the Armory Skill right away, making the shield appear. She was able to freely 'equip' it in her own armor, she could even select which arm she wanted it to be stuck into.

"With this, I would be able to freely fight with my 'hands' while using my shield to defend myself at the same time… If I were to absorb a lance or a sword, would I be able to stick the blades into my hands? Perhaps whenever the 'Armory' Skill levels up, I may try it out"

Before evolving, Veronica did some last experiments, trying to see if she could endlessly create shields to throw away with 'Throwing'.

The results were as she expected, she couldn't.

She could only have one item created by 'Armory' at a time.

Perhaps she could use them as projectiles if the shield were to be instantly destroyed the moment, she sent it flying away towards her foe… but it was better for her to stick to it being in her arm. If the shield were to be damaged, she was capable of recovering it with mana, the same with her armor.

She did not need physical materials to restore her body anymore… but it required a sizable amount of Mana to restore her entire body to normal. She was capable of a full restoration once before her mana was completely depleted, even considering her large pool.

If she were to use any skills or techniques before, she would be incapable of, but other areas like regenerating her fists were easier, as it was only a piece of her body.

'Armory' had more functions than she had thought, as it brought her the ability to regenerate with her own mana, although it was still more convenient to use pieces of armor, she was not sure if she would encounter mineral materials to absorb and heal herself.

Veronica had finally begun to understand how strong Living Armors were… if such unique powers could be developed even further, she would be capable of doing many amazing feats.

Perhaps if she were to develop her strength like this even further to take care of herself no matter what life threw at her, having a relaxing and carefree life was not just a dream anymore.

However, if she were reincarnated again in Kritias as she was suspecting, it could also be possible to avenge her people, the demons. And to protect the ones that have survived after the war.

If that were to be possible, Veronica would take any tool given to her to accomplish such goals.

"Perhaps I should first regain my magic skills before picking a Job, so I could obtain something related to it… or a stronger Job," muttered Veronica, as she slowly began to control the flow of mana inside of her soul…

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