NOVEL NEXT Chapter 41, Assembling Iron Spears
Chapter 41, Assembling Iron Spears
The stench was overwhelming, reaching even from this far away.
As the only commercial street in the district, it's the central spot for nearby residents to shop.
Not everyone loves shopping, but the shops are concentrated here.
If you want to buy something, you have to come to this area.
But it shouldn't gather so many zombies, right?
Are they having a party? Or some kind of gathering?
No... something’s off...
Even if this is a shopping area, it shouldn't attract so many people, right?
It's almost like a holiday tourist spot.
"It’s probably because of the speakers…"
Wu Heng made a bold guess.
It wasn’t necessarily that so many people were here when the virus broke out.
Rather, after the outbreak, this street kept playing loud music, attracting nearby zombies.
When the power finally went out and the speakers stopped, the zombies continued to wander nearby.
He wasn’t sure if his guess was correct, but it seemed likely.
Wu Heng observed for a while longer, confirming that he didn’t spot any mutated zombies or other monsters before heading back the way he came.
Returning to the skeleton squad, Sword One and Sword Two were commanding the skeletons to clean up the battlefield.
The bodies were piled to one side, and the scavenged kitchen knives and fruit knives were also collected for the next skeletons to use.
There didn’t seem to be any immediate danger.
Wu Heng turned his gaze to the nearby shops on either side.
Restaurants, fruit shops, and milk tea shops—the closer to the commercial street, the more of these types of shops there were.
Almost the entire street was filled with these kinds of shops.
But Wu Heng's attention was drawn to a shop called 'Xinyi Advertising.'
From the name, it seemed to be a shop that made store signs and billboards.
He instructed Sword One, Sword Two, Crossbow One, and Crossbow Two to lead the skeletons to search the other shops, while he took Barson and a few skeletons into the advertising shop.
The middle of the hall was a large empty space, and the dirty floor was covered with red banners and plastic advertising letters.
Wu Heng's gaze swept around and spotted several metal pipes about three or four meters long against the wall.
Iron pipes?
He wasn’t sure if they were iron or steel pipes, but there were probably more than twenty.
These straight metal pipes might be useful for something.
He continued to check the back rooms and the second floor of the shop, finding some cutting and welding tools, but they all required electricity, which wasn’t available at the moment.
After confirming there wasn’t anything else useful, he ordered the skeletons, "Take these outside."
The shop's glass door was already shattered, and a few skeletons carried the metal pipes outside.
Meanwhile, Sword One and Sword Two returned with a few other skeletons.
The skeletal warriors behind them were holding the scavenged kitchen knives and fruit knives.
The harvest wasn’t great.
They all returned to the alley where they had fought earlier.
Planning to lead the team back.
"Carry the bodies, let's go."
The skeleton warriors hoisted the bodies and began heading back to the residential area.
......
Returning to the residential building.
They piled the corpses into a small mound.
Wu Heng sat nearby, looking at the metal pipes and fruit knives they had brought back.
After comparing them together, he took out some tape and wrapped a fruit knife around one end of a metal pipe. Once it was secure, he wrapped some wire around the outside.
After everything was done, he took a closer look.
It looked pretty similar to a store-bought spear.
"Sword One, try this out," Wu Heng said.
Sword One walked over, took the five or six-meter-long iron spear, and made a thrusting motion.
Thud~!
The fruit knife at the end of the spear stabbed directly into a nearby pile of corpses.
When it was pulled out again, it brought out a trail of dark red blood droplets.
It seemed to work well; the fruit knife was sturdy and didn’t come loose.
He had scavenged so many buildings that he had hundreds of fruit knives.
Besides the metal pipes, he could also gather some wooden sticks to assemble more of these makeshift spears.
Feeling that it was worth trying, he said to Sword One, "Assemble the fruit knives and metal pipes like this. You four will work on this tonight."
Only Sword One, Sword Two, Crossbow One, and Crossbow Two had intelligence; the other skeletons could handle attacking and carrying things, but assembling items was a bit beyond them, so it had to be done by Sword One and the others.
Barson needed to follow him back to Blackstone Town, so he couldn’t stay behind to help either.
Sword One understood and started gathering more daggers, tape, and wire to begin assembling.
Wu Heng had Barson bring over a chair, and he sat in front of the corpse pile, casting Raise Skeleton.
The staff's effect was supposed to reduce the mental power consumption when casting spells.
But while using it, he didn’t really feel much difference, so he wasn’t sure if it was working.
Raise Skeleton was cast continuously, and one skeleton after another stood up and slowly joined the ranks.
By dusk, he led the skeletons back to the rooftop and then returned to Blackstone Town himself.
......
Blackstone Town.
He headed straight to the weapon shop.
Inside, there were two groups of customers, and the shopkeeper and assistants were busy promoting the weapons on the shelves.
When the shopkeeper saw Wu Heng come in, he waved a hand to greet him, indicating for him to browse for now.
After sending off the previous customers, the shopkeeper wiped his hands with his apron as he walked over, "What are you looking to buy today?"
"Besides spears, do you have any other long-handled weapons?" Wu Heng asked as he walked around the shop.
"Yes, over here we have long-handled battle axes and war hammers, all with decent killing power," the shopkeeper led him to a shelf and introduced several weapons.
They all looked good, but they weren’t what Wu Heng needed.
"Do you have any trident-like long-handled weapons?"
"Uh, we don't have that kind of weapon in stock," the shopkeeper frowned, then said, "But we have something similar."
"Show me."
"Alright, this way." The shopkeeper led him to a corner where a wooden barrel was filled with wooden handles topped with four iron spikes.
"Is this what you meant? It’s a hayfork, used for handling hay," the shopkeeper explained.
Wu Heng picked it up, frowning slightly.
He knew what a hayfork was, a common farm tool seen in most villages.
It did match his description.
"How many do you have?" Wu Heng asked.
"There are probably five or six," the shopkeeper replied.
"That few?"
"Well, this is a weapon shop, and who in town would buy a hayfork?"
That made sense; a hayfork is classified as a farm tool, not a weapon.
"How much for the hayforks?"
"55 copper each."
Compared to weapons, hayforks were much cheaper.
But he wasn’t sure how effective they would be against zombies.
"I’ll take them all," Wu Heng said directly.
"Alright."
The shopkeeper smiled in agreement and quickly went to prepare them.
In no time, the shopkeeper brought out all five hayforks.
The number wasn’t much.
"If you need more, we can make another batch for you later," the shopkeeper added.
"No need for now, we'll see later."
After paying and settling the bill, Wu Heng and Barson carried the hayforks back to their place.
Returning to his place.
He sent the hayforks to the zombie world.
Wu Heng picked up an iron sword and started his swordsmanship practice.
So many days had passed, with Sword One sparring with him and Otruluk guiding and correcting him, yet he still hadn’t unlocked the swordsmanship specialization.
This was a bit frustrating.
After practicing until evening, Wu Heng went to bed.
......
The next day, in the zombie world.
Wu Heng went to the rooftop.
He saw the assembled iron spears on the ground, 22 in total.
The fruit knives at the tips varied in length, but the iron pipes were all about the same length, secured with wire.
Overall, they looked quite decent.
He selected 22 skeletons from the group and ordered, "Drop your weapons."
The skeletons dropped the kitchen knives they were holding and stood still.
"Take these," Wu Heng handed them the iron spears.
The skeletons reached out and grabbed the iron spears.