Chapter 98 - Design

Now that Viktor had established a target to aim at, he planned to once again head toward the arctic landmass in order to hunt more mutated leopard seals.

Considering how he was going to be gone for an entire day, he inquired as to whether the group would rather stay in the town or return to the bunker.

The bodyguards, Tori and Boris, appeared to have no preference, while Barry was content to wait for Eva to make a decision. With a smile on her face, the girl expressed her wish to get to know more about the people of Arkhangelsk.

She made her decision, and to her surprise, the rest of the group instantly followed her lead without any hesitation.

This made Viktor question his plan to continue living in the bunker once again.

Thinking about it, even though living in a bunker was safer, living among a group of people, a community was probably much more preferable for them.

People were curious about Torri and Boris' profession, and when they found out the two were former military members, many of them liked their group even more. As for Eva and Barry, both were very likeable, hence its easy for them to get close with the Arkhangelsk residence.

When the night come, they returned to the house provided by the mayor. While the others were resting, Viktor took out the five new tier 1 weapons he got from Martha. After some deliberation, he decided that it would be best for him to fuse the metals now.

First, he took out two balls of metal; one was gold and the other was the tier 1 shiny metal. These two metal balls were the ones he used for his [Metal Fusion] skill.

He then began to fuse the tier 1 sword, which was the lightest of the weapons and worked his way up to the saber with the spear being last. In order to have enough tier 1 material for his [Metal Fusion].

After that, Viktor experimented with [Metal-tempering]. He had to repeat the process five times until he was finally able to reach excellent quality. In addition, based on his observation the last time he tempered the tier 1 item, it seemed that excellent was the maximum level of tempering that could be achieved. At the very least, that was the case for a tier 1 material with a stage 4 Core of Anvil.

After the metal of the tier 1 weapons came together into a ball, because Viktor had successfully tempered it previously, he attempted to use his skill once again.

[You have completed a metal fusion.]

[Your body has been strengthened.]

[Viktor Romanov]

[Strength - 30 (42)]

[Agility - 60 (72)]

[Endurance - 42 (54)]

[Battle Power - 44 (56)]

A total of 12 points were added to all of his stats, showing that it was a full excellent-quality tier 1 metal. Viktor became excited upon discovering his new power.

His tier 2 ax and metal suit, both of which had undergone successful tempering and upgrading, became even more impeccable as a result of this process.

The result he now had was satisfactory, but there was still one thing he was dissatisfied with. Even though the all-glossy metal suit was sturdy and looked quite nice, it was too plain to excite him. It was just light metallic colour from top to bottom, nothing more.

This made him once again consider adding the gold as an ornament to his ensemble, and while he was thinking about it, an idea came to him.

'Maybe I should design a helmet too.'

Even though his battle power had increased quite significantly, the helmet might come in handy if he were to be involved in a fight. Not only would it protect his head, but it would also protect his identity.

While he was designing the helmet, he cant help to chuckle. Will he really walking the path of a superhero?… or supervillain. The thought amuse him

Viktor was so absorbed in the idea that it took him a few hours to come up with the idea for his suit that night. A suit with sleek metal and golden lines as its ornament, as well as a helmet that would cover his face up to his mouth, leaving just a small space for him to see and breathe through. He might even use this way to mask his own voice.

Since everything had been prepared, he only needed to practice his proficiency in the skill. Mastering the skill was necessary if he wanted to be able to swiftly form and deform it.

"What do you think, Djinn? Pretty cool, if I do say so myself," he satisfiedly said to himself while looking at a mirror.

<I really have no comment.>

Now that he was sure that he had enough tier 1 weapon, he took out the last three tier 1 weapon in one place. Instead of using [Metal Fusion] on them as he did with the other two, Viktor intended to turn them into something useful.

First, he made a round shield out of it to upgrade the shield that kept breaking. After that, he attempted to form a dagger which he could either give to Boris to replace the one he took or keep for himself.

It was not that difficult to make the round shield. With it, he was able to finish making the entire thing in a short period of time without spending much effort on it. However, the moment he bent the metal to create the dagger, he realized that something was not right.

The thing clearly resembled a dagger, but the blade looked extremely dull. Viktor tried to graze his finger with the 'dagger', but it did not even leave a lasting mark.

It could not even be used to cut his finger, so how could it be used as a weapon for self-defense?

He tried everything he could with all his concentration focused on it, but he just could not seem to make it sharp enough as a weapon.

His concentration broke from the frustration.

Viktor exhaled a sigh of disappointment. This process made him realize how useless his skills were when it came to making sharp weapons. If he wanted to be able to sharpen his own weapons one day, he most likely needed to learn a real blacksmithing skill.

Thinking about the chores that required a lot of muscle and heat, Viktor heaved another exhausted sigh. This, he understood, was exactly what would transpire in his life in the future.

After taking some part of the metal for the shield, he only had roughly 20 kilograms worth of tier 1 metal left.

[Metal Extraction]

As soon as he touched it, the alien metal started to steadily enter his body until it eventually reached his Core of Anvil.

[70 medium-level metal essence extracted.]

[8% progress to stage 5 Core of Anvil.]

[Metal forged successfully.]

[Core of Anvil stage four: 16.78%]

"Dammit, isn't this too little!" he exclaimed, a tinge of dissatisfaction in his voice.

<Of course it would only give you that much. After all, you will most likely be able to bend tier 2 metals when you reach the next stage.>

The Djinn almost reflexively retorted when he heard Viktor's complaint, but instead of becoming even unhappier, his eyes lit up.

Viktor could not wait for that to happen, after doing some quick calculations, he found that he would require about 30 tier 1 artifacts or 300 kilograms of gold in order to reach his next level.

Fortunately, he still had time.

Early the next morning, Viktor once again left the town. This time, it gave him great pleasure to try his newfound power and get those skins that would be used to trade for the weapons.

Viktor grabbed his yacht, and just like before, he looked for a particular landmass that had numerous mutated leopard seals. When he finally found a place, Viktor started with 3 hours of [Metal Fusion] and one [All might].

With his new tier 2 hammer added with the tier 2 ax, Viktor managed to reach 50 points of strength making it much easier to cut the seal open.

He already knew how useful the ax could be, but the hammer's usefulness exceeded his expectations. One smash was enough to make the seal stagger.

Bam!!

Multiple hits of 50 points of strength were enough to incapacitate the creature, and with the mutated seal rendered powerless, Viktor easily went in for the kill.

A hammer needed a completely different skill set, so fighting with it gave him a good experience.

When Viktor finally finished them all, he counted the number he killed.

10, 20, 30, 40! 40 mutated leopard seals!

Now that he had fought and killed so many of them, he almost forgot how hard fighting these seals was the first time.

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Author Note

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