Marvel: Hunter-Chapter 345: Metals

"If such strange lines were words, then the brain circuits of the people who made them would have to be equally strange."

An answer surfaced in Blaine’s mind, but he dismissed it almost immediately.

"If they aren’t words, then they must be some kind of pattern. But these people put so much effort into carving such bizarre textures onto such an incredible metal material... what exactly were they trying to draw?"

"Oh ho—could it be a treasure map?"

Without realizing it, Blaine indulged in another sudden whim. However, judging only from the overall combination of the two metal fragments, there was no visible difference at all. Even at the corners, the edges fit together so seamlessly that no seams could be seen once assembled.

"It seems this secret will take a long time to uncover."

After staring at them for a long while without making any progress, Blaine gave up and casually tossed the metal key back into the Hunter space.

As for what to do next, Blaine had already thought it through.

After all, he still had a balance of somewhere between 470 billion and 35 million. At present, he could start with 100 billion to purchase any skill, so this amount was far from enough for him to waste recklessly. It was better to save it for now and only use it in emergencies. On top of that, he still had two fifth-level star cores and one first-level star core.

Since he was temporarily short on "money" Blaine also restrained himself from wandering around the system mall, lest he lose control and feel compelled to chop off his hands again.

If he couldn’t buy new equipment or new skills, there was another priority available to him—upgrading. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Upgrading equipment was far more satisfying than simple level upgrades. Whether an upgrade was worth it or not could be seen clearly from the Dragon Trident.

Leveling up might only increase attack power or defense by some amount. But upgrading was different. The Flood Dragon Trident had directly integrated the Cursed Blood Knife, and the White Snake Bow had gained two additional skills. Even though those skills only had a certain chance to trigger, the result was already impressive enough.

Blaine could spend tens of billions in the system mall to buy a single skill. But in the equipment upgrade column, as long as he put in the equipment to be upgraded and threw in the appropriate materials, he could gain skills worth tens or even hundreds of billions. On top of that, it didn’t take time, and it didn’t cost money. Why wouldn’t he do it?

What worried Blaine, however, was that his upgrade materials seemed to be limited to the few star cores he had obtained from the Collector. As for a tenth-level upgrade, there was no need to mention it—Blaine would definitely be reluctant. That was something to consider later, when he acquired a better weapon.

As for other materials, aside from star cores, Blaine had secretly collected several pieces of Uru metal, Adamantium, and carbon-sodium steel from the Collector’s planet. These metals basically encompassed all of the hardest known materials in the Marvel universe—naturally, excluding those two mysterious metal keys.

The main components of "prototype Adamantium" were actually quite common and could even be found on Earth. It was created by integrating vanadium metal with iron.

It was accidentally manufactured by scientists during World War II. Because the precise ratio was unknown, it couldn’t be mass-produced or replicated. This alone showed how vast the Collector’s background was—he could even obtain Adamantium that had gone out of circulation since World War II.

Later came the creation of "True Adamantium," the same metal bonded to Wolverine’s skeleton. Because it had a clear formula, it could theoretically be reproduced. However, this imitation Adamantium was fundamentally different from the truly indestructible nature of real Adamantium. The prototype could absorb kinetic energy and release it later, while heavy alloys relied purely on their original hardness.

The piece in Blaine’s hands was naturally the old, discontinued version—the real Adamantium.

As for Uru metal, its composition was even more special. Its materials all originated from Uru itself, and its most miraculous trait was that it could be infused with magic.

Of course, such miraculous advantages came with corresponding disadvantages. To obtain such effects, a price had to be paid, and that price was the extreme difficulty of forging Uru.

Take Mjolnir, made of Uru metal, for example. It needed to be smelted using the core of a fixed star, and the forging process required the assistance of magic so that the finished weapon could channel its wielder’s power.

Just consider how difficult it was to even melt this metal before forging, requiring a fixed star core. It seemed that to gain greater power, one had to endure countless trials and hardships. This principle applied not only to people, but to weapons as well.

There was also carbon nanosteel. Strictly speaking, this wasn’t a metal but a type of ore. Calling it ore was more accurate, since it contained other substances as well. It was highly toxic and could inhibit self-healing, making it extremely deadly to characters with regenerative abilities. If the target didn’t possess self-healing, then the damage dealt by carbon nanosteel wasn’t much different from that of an ordinary blade.

Naturally, that was under the premise of having no healing ability. Against someone like Blaine—or a freakishly powerful regenerative existence like Deadpool—carbon nanosteel could perfectly serve as a counter.

Moreover, there was one thing Blaine didn’t know: Deadpool had once used this very knife to kill Wolverine.

In other words, Blaine basically possessed all of the famous metals in the Marvel world—except for the one metal that everyone knew best.

Vibranium.

With most metals already in hand and star cores prepared long ago, all that remained was for Blaine to open the Hunter System and place the equipment into the upgrade interface.

"Okay."

"Since all these metals are available, Lu..."

"Then why not make a full set?"

"I don’t know—if all these famous metals are added together,"

"What level would such a weapon even be upgraded to?"

"Forget it. I’ll wait for now."

"You can run from the monk, but you can’t run from the temple. Anyway, it’s stored in the Hunter space—you can’t run away."

Blaine looked at the small pile of metal he had taken from the Collector, sitting quietly in the Hunter space, and muttered to himself.

Since he wanted to gather more metal, there was one place Blaine had to visit.

That’s right—Wakanda, the nation that rose because of Vibranium.

When he thought of the man who ruled Wakanda, the Black Panther, Blaine felt a twinge of curiosity. He wondered what could allow what was arguably the most technologically advanced civilization on Earth to remain hidden for hundreds, or even thousands, of years.

Logically speaking, if the politicians at the top of the United States could lead the world in technology for hundreds of years, then World War III and World War IV would probably have broken out long ago.

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