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.

Fortunately, any sort of metal was fine. Otherwise, he would be royally screwed.

[Metal Extraction]

[20 low-level metal essence extracted.]

[Metal forged successfully.]

[Core of Anvil – Stage 1: 2.5%]

That was how much essence and progress Viktor managed to extract from a worn-out broken car.

Brakes, engine, exhaust, wheels, and chassis. As soon as he willed it, the skill would magically extract the metal from the car and turn those parts into corroded brown at a speed visible to the naked eye.

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.

Unfortunately, only one out of every three families owned a car here in Russia, so Viktor only found a dozen of them in this town.

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.

Put it simply, anything containing metal which Viktor’s eyes managed to lay upon would immediately turn into scraps in the moment.

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.

[Metal Extraction]_-.

[12 low-level metal essence extracted.]

At this moment, Viktor had basically turned into the very example of a dedicated scavenger. Except for those houses that had turned to rubble and those with filthy, gruesome corpses, he did not leave any room nor cabinet untouched.

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 Extraction]

[Metal Extraction]

…

After three hours of this tedious chore, Viktor finally stopped and sat on someone’s porch. Sweat covered his entire body as he panted heavily; he was exhausted to the core. A bitter smile couldn’t help but break out on his face when he saw the result of his hard work.

[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.

Immediately, his eyes lit up as if a light bulb existed there.

The columns of most houses were made of metal. Not only that, but building foundations were, too!

With this thought, Viktor couldn’t wait to try his theory. He felt his exhaustion disappear into the air as he quickly stood up and put his hand on the house column.

“Let’s see if this is possible,” he muttered.

He concentrated on the word [Metal Extraction], and once again, light flashed in his mind. This time, it took him more than one minutes to extract the metal hidden inside the house columns as well as the foundation underground.

[30 low-level metal essence extracted.]

[Metal forged successfully.]

[Core of Anvil – Stage 1: 79%]

Right after the silvery mist entered his body, cracking sounds came from the house. Realizing what was about to happen, Viktor immediately ran from the house and entered the street again. A moment later, the house fell crashing down.

The loud sound was quickly followed by multiple howls.

<There are multiple tier 2 creatures approaching.> The Djinn’s voice sounded in his mind, alerting of the incoming danger.

“How many?”

<Nine, and more are entering my sensor.>

“Sh*t,” cursed Viktor as he got an idea who these uninvited visitors were.

That’s got to be the wolves.

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.

He kept running in the direction opposite where the wolves were until the Djinn told him that he could no longer detect them in his sensor.

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.

The house just now gave quite a lot of metal essence, but it was currently too risky to return to the town and extract from those houses again.

No matter how tempting it was, Viktor was not willing to risk his life for it.

He thought about extracting from the highway road he was walking on right now, but nothing happened even after he attempted a few times. It seems that there was no metal in it, so Viktor threw the idea away and continued walking.

After a few hundred meters, he saw something that excited him.

“Now this is it!”

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.

The size of the bridge made Viktor wonder how much metal essence he would be able to get from it. Although there was a small voice telling him not to do it since destroying the bridge would make transportation difficult for others, this samaritan-like thought quickly disappeared as if it didn’t exist.

This was the apocalypse, after all.

With a wicked smile, Viktor crossed the bridge before putting both of his hands on the ground.

[Metal Extraction]

[20…]

[40…]

[100…]

The extraction took much longer than he thought.

After a while, Viktor suddenly felt a sharp and suffocating pain on his chest. Even so, he endured the pain because he knew this was a crucial moment. He took a deep breath to compose himself before continuing the extraction.

[140…]

[180…]

[220…]

[260 low-level metal essence extracted.]

With that notification, the extraction stopped abruptly.

Viktor was glad that the pain in his chest gradually subsided after the extraction was complete. However, he noticed that his skill only managed to cover up to about 10 meters away from where he was standing; the extraction was stopped before it could reach the entire bridge.

This sight made Viktor wonder if this was the range limit of the extraction spell.

Fortunately, the amount he extracted was enough for him to reach the stage one limit.

[Metal forged successfully.]

[Core of Anvil – Stage 1: 100%]

[You have successfully forged Core of Anvil – Stage 1]

[Your spirit core has been upgraded to stage 2.]

[Your spirit force has increased by 5 points.]

[You have learned a new spell – Metal-bending]

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.

At the same time the notification came, the bridge shook and rumbled. Knowing what was going to happen next, Viktor quickly stepped away from the steel bridge.

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.

Because of that, Viktor continued to run even further. This was especially the case when the Djinn warned him about multiple creatures approaching.

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.

He was only a few miles away from the hut, but with the sun still high in the sky, Viktor decided to give his new skill a test.

“Let’s see what it can do.”