Chapter 42: 42 Metal Control
"Metal Control·Junior?"
The Four-armed Corpse completed the Fusion with LV3 ordinary metals, and its physical appearance did not change much, still around two and a half meters tall, but a new strength surged within its body.
"It's not a bodily skill, but with Metal Control, the potential shouldn't be too bad, right?"
A flash of joy crossed Su Han's eyes, then he immediately calmed his mind, carefully sensing the skill while commanding, "Four-armed Corpse, test the skill on that white car."
The Four-armed Corpse strode towards the white private car. Junior Metal Control couldn't completely manipulate metal through the air; its ability only activated when its large hand touched the car door.
The metal car door gradually deformed under the control of the ability. The originally hard metal softened like modeling clay, then formed into a metal sphere under manipulation.
With the approximately 44-pound metal sphere in hand, the ability continued to affect the metal, which acted as if alive, continuously transforming, at one moment into metal gloves, and the next into a Long Knife with a blade measuring one meter.
After experimenting for a while, Su Han made a rough assessment of the range of abilities of Junior Metal Control.
'Maximum control distance no more than one meter, but the closer, the stronger the ability. The main abilities are metal activation, shape reshaping, and some degree of compression and strengthening. It is more an auxiliary than a combat function.'
He assessed the current positioning of this ability in his mind, but soon shook his head, overturning this assessment: 'That's not right, not just auxiliary functions. If shaping and enhancing a batch of suitable weapons, it could also significantly enhance the combat power of both the Four-armed Corpse and ourselves.'
His mind immersed, the connection with the Four-armed Corpse became even closer, then he deployed the Metal Manipulation ability through its body.
More metal from the white car deformed under Metal Manipulation, gradually gathering in the hands of the Four-armed Corpse.
After about 440 pounds of metal had fused, Su Han had the Four-armed Corpse manipulate the metal to deform and used the ability to compress the metal, enhancing its strength based on its original foundation.
He could feel that compared to simple physical forging and compression, this type of compression clearly integrated some kind of energy, so that the enhanced strength was significantly greater than mere physical compression.
Under his manipulation, two sharp blades quickly appeared in the hands of the Four-armed Corpse.
Long handles, long blades, and broad sharp edges, the style was somewhat like Pu knives and Horse-Cutting Sabers, but obviously much heavier.
Although Tang Knives and Miao Knives were more stylish, most of what Su Han and his team faced were monsters, unusually large and formidable like Spider Monsters, so the long-handled broad-bladed sabers were more powerful and decisive for chopping; hence, Su Han chose to forge such weapons.
Su Han's own Pu knife had a 40 cm handle, a one meter blade, and weighed around 66 pounds, a weight he found just right to swing with his current strength.
The Pu knife of the Four-armed Corpse was even larger, with a 60 cm handle and a 1.2-meter blade, the whole knife measuring 1.8 meters in length and weighing over 220 pounds.
As Su Han gripped his Pu knife, the weight sank into his hand, tightly held, and swinging it felt extremely smooth; if he faced a corpse, a single strike could split it along with its spine into two halves.
With one arm behind its back holding the knife, the blade long and imposing, the Four-armed Corpse appeared every bit the tyrant warrior, its aura even more fierce. If a Spider Monster were in front of it, a single slash could probably kill it.
Su Han wore a satisfied expression, thinking, 'This weapon is good, although it's mainly auxiliary for now, the combat strength enhancement from weapon forging is not inferior to combat skills, and this is just Junior level. If it can be further enhanced, then the controlled weight and range should also increase...'
He did not underestimate any newly emerged skills but instead, the importance of controlling metal in this world was self-evident.
After losing large machine tools and other modern industrial forces, even metalworking posed a challenging task for humans.
"Four-armed Corpse, continue the Fusion."
Letting the Four-armed Corpse hold the saber, Su Han then immediately proceeded with the next Fusion.
There were still 15 and a half cars in the parking lot, and a Fusion Degree of LV4 ordinary metals wasn't out of the question.
After obtaining the control over metal, the Four-armed Corpse's compatibility with metal materials evidently improved, speeding up the Fusion of a car's metal significantly, reducing it to parts in just seven to eight minutes.
Su Han was carrying a Pu knife by his side, watching the Fusion Degree slowly increase from 1%, 2%... continuously and unhurriedly.
As time progressively passed, Su Han and the others had gradually reached the back half of the parking lot where a deep roaring sound once again echoed in the night's mist. Three distorted figures appeared within the range of the Lamp Tree's crystal yellow light.
The back half of the parking lot was similarly close to buildings four and five. Earlier this morning, the group hadn't ventured here at all, naturally leaving the monsters uncleaned.
In such pitch-black night, the light from the Lamp Trees immediately caught the attention of the three corpses, whose growls became more vigorous, then they rapidly charged over.
They didn't care for any vehicles obstructing their way, even taking large steps to jump onto the roofs, crushing the windshields beneath their feet, then lunging towards Su Han.
"Just in time."
Su Han didn't show any signs of nervousness but instead smiled, he didn't even summon the Four-armed Corpse that was merging with the metal but wanted to test the weapon's strength.
He stepped forward, met the first corpse head-on, gripping the handle with both hands, his Pu knife dropped from above at high speed like a guillotine.
"Crack"
A flash of the knife, the sharp blade slit diagonally from the corpse's shoulder, splashing blood instantly. At the first contact, the blade had already cut through the body of the corpse, completely severing its upper half.
'The sharpness is not bad.'
Su Han became more excited, two more corpses rushed over in succession, his movements did not delay a bit, striking left and right chopping off the heads of the corpses as if slicing through vegetables.
The blade covered in blood, he stood with the knife, his face breaking into a smile, thinking to himself, "This is much more convenient than a crowbar."
After dealing with the corpses, the Four-armed Corpse began merging the metals from the last few vehicles, and the Fusion Degree was gradually nearing 90%.
The night grew deeper, and the chill of the surrounding mist became more distinct indeed causing a significant change in temperature.
The bushes in the residential area had visibly turned yellow and withered after more than ten days, emulating a sense of desolation.
However, Su Han didn't have the energy to think about these things at that moment. After merging the metal from the last vehicle, the LV3 common metal fusion progress reached 100%.
[LV4 Common Metal Fusion successful, acquired the skill Black Armor]
With the skill fusion, this time the Four-armed Corpse underwent a significant transformation, its stature continuously elongated, from the original 2.5 meters, it suddenly grew to a height of 3 meters.
The muscles became more bulging, each muscle like a piece of hard, reddish granite, and on this reddish skin, black patterns started to appear, spreading from the head across the body, and reaching down to the sturdy legs.
The black patterns were faintly visible, looking like dense scales on the front and a ghostly face on the chest, appearing as tattoos but alternately seeming like armor upon closer inspection.
"Black Armor draped over"
With a thought from Su Han, he activated the skill, suddenly seeing the black pattern light up, radiating a cold, dark light, and then the patterns interconnected, creating a set of thick, shiny black armor with a ghostly face in the front and scaly body.
This Black Armor didn't just appear on its body; it also wrapped around its fierce head, the four arms were armored, covering the body without a gap, like a heavy armored warrior, like a can of iron.
Su Han moved the knife in his hand, directly chopping towards the Black Armor, clang, surprisingly sparking a trail of sparks.
"Good defense."
Su Han's eyes brightened, his mind immersed, carefully perceiving the skills of this Black Armor, and when he opened his eyes, his pupils shimmered with delight.
This Black Armor was incredible.