One of the rules that the new skill Viktor got his hand on was that he needed to be in direct contact with the object he wanted to extract from. And of course, the object needed to have metal in it for the skill to work.
[Metal Extraction]
[Metal forged successfully.]
That was how much essence and progress Viktor managed to extract from a worn-out broken car.
With the car’s current condition, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Viktor could crush it with one hand without breaking a sweat.
𝒊𝒏𝒏𝙧𝗲𝓪𝙙. c𝒐𝙢
Viktor knew that extracting from only cars would not be enough, so they were not the only objects he extracted from. As he walked through the entire town, he also entered the houses that were still intact and extracted the metal in objects like fridges, washing machines, and even cooking utensils.
During his rampageous streak of recycling, Viktor discovered that some types of metal had and would give a higher percentage than others. As he extracted from all sorts of objects, he noticed that steel, iron, and aluminum each differed in the amount of metal essence they contained.
[12 low-level metal essence extracted.]
Street signs, electricity poles, and even steel fences; there was always at least a metal object for every few steps he took and Viktor would definitely extract them all. The manhole covers on the streets didn’t even escape from his clutches.
[Metal Extraction]
…
[Metal forged successfully.]
[Core of Anvil – Stage 1: 77%]
Viktor had scavenged and taken almost all the metal in this town, yet he still did not have enough to fill the first level. While pondering what he should do, he noticed the house column out of the corner of his eye.
The columns of most houses were made of metal. Not only that, but building foundations were, too!
“Let’s see if this is possible,” he muttered.
[30 low-level metal essence extracted.]
[Core of Anvil – Stage 1: 79%]
The loud sound was quickly followed by multiple howls.
“How many?”
“Sh*t,” cursed Viktor as he got an idea who these uninvited visitors were.
Viktor quickly ran toward the edge of the town and headed back to the hut. Even though there were still several houses he had not extracted from, there was no way he was going to stay and wait for danger to arrive.
Viktor only needed about 21% more metal essence for his skill to level up. He was hoping he could do something with this new skill of his.
No matter how tempting it was, Viktor was not willing to risk his life for it.
After a few hundred meters, he saw something that excited him.
Right in front of him was a steel bridge created to cross the small river. Based on what his eyes could see, it was about 50 meters in length. The bridge served as a two-way street, so it was also quite wide – enough for 3 regular cars moving side by side.
This was the apocalypse, after all.
[Metal Extraction]
[40…]
The extraction took much longer than he thought.
[140…]
[220…]
With that notification, the extraction stopped abruptly.
This sight made Viktor wonder if this was the range limit of the extraction spell.
[Metal forged successfully.]
[You have successfully forged Core of Anvil – Stage 1]
[Your spirit force has increased by 5 points.]
Not only did Viktor get a new skill, but he also received a huge amount of stat points. Even though it did not seem much at glance, he very well understood that 5 spirit force points were significant for the current him. Even killing 50 undead only gave him 2 points, so these were definitely good.
The crashing sound this time was a few times louder than the one before. It even caused the ground to tremble, albeit not that much.
Fortunately, with his 49 points of agility and the Djinn’s sensor, he was able to avoid almost every creature that headed in his direction.
“Let’s see what it can do.”