Chapter 112 - 20: New Equipment and the Source of the Strange Odor

Chapter 112: Chapter 20: New Equipment and the Source of the Strange Odor

In front of the mirror.

The Light Armor of the Owl Hunting Form materialized on Feng Yin’s body. Immense strength surged through him along with it. Feng Yin could not help but feel a thrill in his heart; every time he manifested his Armor in reality, it made him feel as though he had become omnipotent.

He took down the Canfeng Sword hanging on his back, and with a slight shift in his thoughts, a prompt appeared.

[Would you like to replace the "Long Handle" Engraving with the "Giant Blade" Engraving? The current capacity for Main Hand Armament Engravings is "1". This cannot be changed after entering a stage. Yes/No]

[Yes]

[Engraving equipped. The Main Hand Armament has gained a new switchable form: "Dragon-slaying Sword". Related Traits unlocked.]

The Long-Handled Engraving was unequipped. This meant the Dragon Slayer Spear form had been replaced by the Dragon-slaying Sword.

However, to him in the real world, this amounted to having no restrictions. Unlike Armor Engravings, which could only be changed once before entering a stage, he could swap the Engravings for other components at any time as long as he wasn’t currently in a stage. At most, it just meant he couldn’t have multiple Traits active simultaneously.

Compared to this, Feng Yin was currently more focused on the weapon’s form. He found a few soft cushions to place on the floor, then planted the Canfeng Sword point-down into them. Dragon-slaying Sword form!

With a thought, the Canfeng Sword in his hand began to change rapidly. The blade quickly grew wider, thicker, and longer! The hilt also elongated and transformed. Finally, what appeared before Feng Yin was an incredibly exaggerated super Giant Sword.

Its material looked similar to a ferrous metal, presenting a simple two-tone color scheme of black and silver. The cutting edge was silver, while the inner blade, crossguard, and hilt were pitch-black. The entire sword was two meters long, with the hilt measuring about forty to fifty centimeters and the blade roughly one meter and sixty centimeters. Near the hilt, the blade’s width approached thirty centimeters, tapering to about twenty centimeters near the tip. Its thickness was a staggering five centimeters.

If this was a sword, it was simply too massive. Giant, broad, heavy, and coarse... it was practically a slab of iron! Rather than a sword, it was more like a shield, a coffin lid, or a tombstone.

Just standing upright, the weapon was taller than Feng Yin himself, and the broad blade was more than enough to completely shield his face.

The most important aspect was its weight. He lifted the sword with one hand. Unlike in the game where he had no physical body, here in reality—existing in a state where flesh and Armor coexisted—he could truly feel the weapon’s mass.

The Dragon-slaying Sword was roughly twenty times heavier than the Canfeng Sword! The Canfeng Sword weighed about fifteen to twenty pounds, which meant this Giant Blade weighed somewhere between three and four hundred pounds!

In his current armored state, Feng Yin’s Strength was twenty, which roughly equated to the physical power of twenty people. If a normal person could barely wield a Heavy Sword weighing ten pounds, then he could wield a two-hundred-pound Super Heavy Sword with the same ease as an ordinary person.

However, for the terrifying Giant Sword before him, this level of power was simply not enough! It was just too heavy.

With these thoughts, Feng Yin gripped the Dragon-slaying Sword with both hands and stood in the center of his spacious living room. He slowly raised the sword horizontally and pulled it back, assuming the "Hidden Blade" stance. Due to the leverage, the already incredibly heavy Dragon-slaying Sword felt exaggeratedly heavier.

Fortunately, just like his Armor, this weapon was a Supernatural artifact. Although it was long and heavy, its center of gravity was unusually concentrated near the hilt in a completely illogical distribution. Otherwise, even with his superhuman strength, the weapon’s weight far exceeding his own body weight would make it impossible to maintain his balance.

Feng Yin cast aside his distracting thoughts, held his breath, and lowered his stance before swinging the Dragon-slaying Sword horizontally.

WHOOSH!

Like a rising storm, the Dragon-slaying Sword swept out with a terrifying, muffled howl as it tore through the air. Following the momentum, Feng Yin transitioned into a reverse-grip Hidden Blade stance. He had originally intended to stop the blade, but under the influence of its terrifying inertia, he was forced to pivot a significant angle.

It was too heavy!

Although Feng Yin once boasted that "any weapon I can lift is effectively weightless" while manifesting his armor, that was actually more of a description of the Armor’s "infinite stamina." For instance, even though the Dragon Slayer was heavy, he could still rely on the stamina provided by his Armor to swing it all day without exhausting himself. However, in terms of absolute power, the Sword Speed he could achieve with this Dragon-slaying Sword was far lower than with the Canfeng Sword.

In exchange—its destructive power was vastly superior to the Canfeng Sword!

This perfectly corresponded to the effect of the Giant Blade Engraving’s first trait: "Heavy Sword is Bladeless." Currently, his Armor’s Strength was at "20", which perfectly met the first-tier requirement, meaning his Sword Speed was only reduced by fifty percent.

As for the specific slashing power... Feng Yin looked around his home. There was absolutely nothing that could withstand a strike from his Dragon-slaying Sword. It didn’t matter; he only needed to know that a flesh-and-blood body capable of taking this attack head-on practically didn’t exist.

Feng Yin admired this domineering Heavy Artifact for a while longer, his eyes full of affection. As expected, a Giant Sword was true romance! Afterwards, he transformed the Dragon-slaying Sword back into the Canfeng Sword and returned it to his back.

Next, he looked at his left arm. It was time to check out the Repeating Crossbow.

[Would you like to equip the "Continuous Fire" Engraving...]

[Yes]

[Engraving equipped. The Secondary Hand Armament has gained a new form: "Repeating Arm Crossbow". Related Traits unlocked.]

With a slight shift in Feng Yin’s thoughts, the originally fully enclosed Arm Armor opened up. A closed-type Arm Crossbow, which looked much more refined than the previous Simple Arm Crossbow, popped out.

He walked over to the Black Pile at the edge of the living room—this was also bought for him by Xiao Yu. It was of the same quality as the ones in the Gangrou Sword Hall, meant for daily sword practice and testing strength. This Black Pile might not survive a slash from the Dragon-slaying Sword, but it would have no problem withstanding a Crossbow Arrow shot.

He raised his Arm Crossbow and aimed at the Black Pile. First, a single shot...

SWISH!

A Crossbow Arrow shot out, hitting the Black Pile with a THUD, before falling to the ground with a CLANG.

Feng Yin glanced at the displayed Value.

[15]

It was more than three times higher than a normal Slashing strike in his unarmored state. If he were to slash with the Canfeng Sword while in his Armor, the Value would fluctuate around [20].

Continuous Fire mode!

With another thought from Feng Yin, the Arm Crossbow quickly underwent a subtle transformation. Fire!

SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH!

Amidst the high-speed clicking of mechanisms, a continuous string of Crossbow Arrows shot out steadily and rapidly, striking the Black Pile with pinpoint accuracy. Then, with a CLATTER, they fell to the ground.

[7]

The Black Pile displayed a Value less than half of the previous one. It seemed that the power of the Crossbow Arrows in Continuous Fire mode was reduced by half.

Feng Yin pondered silently, quietly staring at the pile of pitch-black Crossbow Arrows on the floor.

Thirty seconds after the first Crossbow Arrow was fired, Feng Yin’s gaze focused.

The nine Crossbow Arrows scattered on the ground abruptly vanished without a trace. CLICK. A Crossbow Arrow popped its head out of the device on his left arm. Recovery and reloading were complete.

Feng Yin nodded in satisfaction. He could only say that as expected of a surreal object from a game, its method of recovering Crossbow Arrows was completely unreasonable... At least this setting was beneficial to him. He wouldn’t have to bother retrieving his Crossbow Arrows in the future.

The test was over.

Feng Yin was just about to retract his Armor when his nose twitched slightly under the visor. Earlier, he had been too focused on testing his newly acquired equipment to notice anything else. Now that his attention had returned, he immediately caught a faint, pungent odor that made him feel nauseous.

This was... Feng Yin remembered this scent. He had smelled it outside the hospital and the villa area. He had previously wondered where this smell was coming from, harboring some vigilance in his heart. However, since he hadn’t smelled it again over the following days, he had ignored it. Yet now, bolstered by the Armor, his senses were vastly enhanced, and he actually detected this odor once more...

He thought, "So, the reason I haven’t been smelling it is because something is making the scent too faint for me to detect in my normal state?"

Feng Yin frowned slightly. He decided to run an experiment.

In the next second, he dismissed his Armor. Then, he took a deep breath... There seemed to be a faint trace of the smell, but it was so weak that he even wondered if it was just his imagination.

Next, Feng Yin manifested his Armor once more. This time, he detected that extremely faint, foul odor again.

Feng Yin’s expression remained calm; it seemed this scent truly existed. Unfortunately, the public hallways of this high-end residential complex were equipped with surveillance cameras. It wasn’t convenient for him to go out and investigate in his Armor Form... Otherwise, he could have found the source of the smell.

So, was this distinct odor simply everywhere? Or was there truly an entity emitting this scent that had come close enough for him to smell it?

Feng Yin decided to find a way to investigate it later. However, it was already late into the night. He would sleep first.