Chapter 71 - Gold
Viktor was hoping that he would be able to get something good out of this shining diamond, but unfortunately, diamond was not metallic material.
[Metal extraction failed, no metal essence found.]
Well, he did remember that diamond was not part of the metallic periodic tables, but there was no harm in trying.
Gold, however, was indeed metal. Viktor\'s expectation was somewhat lowered after finding none in the diamond, but it was soon exceeded when he touched the gold bar.
It surprisingly had a much higher concentration of metallic essence than normal steel.
[1 mid-level metal essence extracted.]
[Metal forged successfully.]
[Core of Anvil - Stage 3: 1.21% (1.28)]
Upon seeing these notifications, Viktor\'s previous disappointment quickly turned to glee. It was not the amount of increase that surprised him. After all, a 0.07% increase was not really much. Instead, it was the three words \'mid-level metal essence\' that caught his eye.
He only extracted from one medium-sized gold bar weighing 100 grams, yet he received six times more metal essence than when he extracted from a whole car!
\'Isn\'t this basically a treasure trove!?\'
Unwilling to delay, Viktor opened all the boxes in the vault and quickly cleaned up all the gold bars and gold jewelry he could find.
Meanwhile, the others simply watched in silence as Viktor happily took all the gold items in the vault and extracted the metal essence in them.
After he finally finished extracting, Viktor checked his gains with anticipation.
[Core of Anvil - Stage 3: 1.28% (4.21%)]
It was only a 3% increase, but Viktor\'s smile turned much wider as he looked at it. Thinking about the possibility, he really could not contain his excitement.
Not only did he believe that gold would be something invaluable in this apocalypse, but his Romanov family had a large amount of it. In fact, each vault the Romanov family owned had a hundred times the amount of gold this tiny bank had.
With this in mind, Viktor\'s decision was finalized; he would first head toward the hidden vault near Arkhangelsk City before heading to the nearest alien construct.
"All right, no time to rest! We need to speed up. If everything goes according to plan, we might be able to arrive at our destination by tomorrow," Viktor dusted his hands and said to the group.
The others nodded in understanding. Seeing Viktor in such a good mood also put them in a good mood.
And unlike him, they had plenty of time to rest while he was gone, so they were full of energy at the moment.
Before leaving, Viktor did not forget to extract the metal essence in the thick steel vault until the building itself collapsed. Viktor had warned the group about it in advance, but Barry and Eva still could not help but get a little startled when it actually did.
The group then quickly left the bank and walked into the street closely following behind Viktor.
With the sun already out, the group was able to see the mess from the previous battle. When they saw the hundreds of monster carcasses on the white snow messily dyed with red, the group was taken aback.
Barry even reflexively took a few steps back. The abyss creatures were dead, but they still looked as ferocious as when they were alive.
"Dear, did you do all this?" Eva asked, stunned. As the girl thought of what Viktor must have gone through against these terrifying monsters, she hurriedly turned to look at him with worry.
Hearing this, the others also turned to look at him.
Under their questioning gaze, Viktor could only say, "Well, it would be better to say I received some help. I\'ll tell you all about it later. For now, let\'s get out of this town first."
As they walked out of the town, the group saw a few critters still around. Of course, although Viktor believed that he could take care of them since there were only a few of them, he did not want to endanger his companions. Therefore, he instead led them to sneak out of the town and killed the ones that got in the way.
After they finally made it out of the town, the group began to track their way into the snowy hills, depending on the Djinn\'s sensor once again.
Fortunately, yesterday\'s travel with the wolves\' sleigh had covered most of the way. Not only that, but everyone already had the physique to run all day in the frozen snow now thanks to the spirit stones.
Even so, it was still a tiring journey for them. Because of that, just before sunset, they quickly looked for a place to rest and found a sturdy shed to stay in.
While the others were putting down their things, Viktor took out all the spirit stones they had collected so far. They did not receive that many from the battle against the undead yesterday as half of the undead were killed by Viktor.
The hellhounds and critters, however, occasionally dropped more spirit stones. This was the case with the ones that were killed by his companions, at least.
They managed to collect 36 spirit stones from yesterday\'s group fight, so after briefly thinking about it, Viktor decided to divide all the spirit stones to all four of his companions equally, with each receiving 8 spirit stones.
Viktor then told them to consume all the spirit stones while he took the first watch.
Now that Viktor knew what creatures actually lurk at night, his heart became filled with anxiety as he occasionally looked out the window.
Viktor could understand what a mutated creature was, but an abyss creature? Hellhound and gargoyles were names of creatures they could only find in myths.
\'What are they, actually?\'
"Djinn, what do you know about these things?" Viktor muttered.
As if he thought about it first, the Djinn was silent for a moment before he finally responded.
<Abyss creatures are not natural creatures. Simply put, they are creatures created by powerful spells, but they vary on each planet, so I can\'t say where this type came from.>
The Djinn\'s response properly answered Viktor\'s question, but it only confused him even more.
"What\'s that supposed to mean? And what other planets? Are you saying that there are other lifeforms out there? Real aliens?"
<Kekeke. Of course. There are millions more out there. At least, that\'s what I knew before I was trapped in this form.>
"What do you mean, Djinn? Explain it to me properly."
<I can\'t say more. I will have enough strength to overpower this restriction if you get stronger, but with your current strength, there is not much I can do, really.>
The Djinn did not say anything else afterward. It seemed that there really was nothing he could do about it, so Viktor decided to take out the 4 yellow spirit stones.
He really needed to quickly advance to the next realm to face whatever threat he would find at their destination tomorrow.