Loki was part of the latter group of people who didnt go down. He decided not to go down when he could attack from where he was. The rail guns were still mounted on his shoulders, so he thought that it was a good idea to make use of their ranged firepower.
In just a few moments, he noticed some differences between the body refining of Forgers and that of the Giants of the Martial Body Sect. He noticed that they were absurdly strong for their ranks, but were lacking in defense.
He noticed the lack of physical defense because the armor-piercing rounds that he shot pierced through their flesh and exited at the other side easily. The only times the shots didn’t penetrate their bodies completely were when the bullets struck bone.
This made him say, "They have powerful muscles and highly durable bones, but their bodies are still flesh. It isn’t like the metal that we refine our bodies into."
His eyes flashed as he used the Power Identification Ability to examine their enemies. He saw that the weakest of them had a level 2 Dao Status while the strongest only had a level 3 Dao Status. Even their captain, the rank 4 cultivators, only has a Level 3 Dao Status too.
He also saw the Metacs that the people of the Martial Body Sect were using. He saw that the Core Metac of the giant cultivators was the Giant Bones Metac, while the Core Metac of their smaller counterparts was the Beast Skin Metac.
Aside from their Core Metacs, he saw other Metacs flashing in his vision as they were activated. He saw Metacs like the rank 4 Elephant Strength Metac, the rank 2 Boar Strength Metac, the rank 3 Rhino Strength Metac, and so on and so forth.
From what he saw, the higher the cultivation of the Giant Bones Core Metac, the more Strength Metacs the giants could use. So a rank 3 Cultivator could use three different Strength Metacs to increase their strength, while the rank 4 captain was able to use four Strength Metacs.
As he watched, he did a mental calculation of their strength. He calculated the average power of the rank 3 giants to be 2(Status) × 3(Giant Bones) × (3 Body + 3 Life Ability + 50% Energy Well) × (3 Bull Strength + 3 Boar Strength + 3 Rhino Strength) × (250% Overdrive), which is 877.5 points.
This kind of power is far more than the peak theoretical power that he can produce once he refines his body to rank 4. That power will be 3(Telekinesis Metac) × (4(Body) + 3(Life Ability) + 357% Energy Well) × (4(Body Lever) + 4(Living Armament)) × (210% Overdrive), which is 482.328.
He is currently weaker than that, as his body is only rank 1, so they are definitely twice as strong as he is right now. Be that as it may, he has his own advantages.
His entire body is already in the process of being turned into metal. When the transformation is complete, every inch of his body, from his skin to his bones and even his hair, will be as hard as copper.
That will improve he defense of his body drastically. His defense still wont be enough to stop a bullet, but it will be tougher than raw flesh.
And this is just the rank 1 body of a forger. Once he achieves the rank 4 titanium body, the durability of his body will skyrocket. So even though he won’t be as strong as those of the Martial Body Sect, he will be much more difficult to kill.
This is obvious by the fact that despite their great strength, his Life Ability, with a power output of 3(Telekinesis) × (3(Mind) + 357%(Energy Well)) × (3(Life Ability) + 4(Living Armament)) × (210% Skill), which is only 289.737 units of power, can still harm them.
To be fair, it wasn’t that the giant warriors were easy for everyone to kill. Their bones were as strong as their maximum strength output, so anyone who hacked at them with swords would only do surface damage to their flesh.
Any kind of attack would fail to kill them as long as it encountered their bones. They only fell easy prey to him because his bullets could avoid their bones and strike the vulnerable internal organs behind their bones.
Another thing that he noticed, and quickly too, was that the small counterparts of the giants, the Transformation Cultivators, were more difficult to kill than the giants. This was because the phantoms that surrounded their bodies served as strong armor that could be easily healed of damage.
A transformation cultivator actually became way bigger than a giant after activating their tattoos. The phantom of the beast took up most of the space while they occupied the center of the phantom. So anyone who wanted to harm them would have to get past their phantom beasts. This made them very difficult to defeat or kill.
As he shot at them, the phantom beast would dampen the power of the bullet before it struck the cultivator at the center. By then, the power of the bullet had been diminished to the extent that it was no longer lethal to the cultivator.
These transformation cultivators also possessed strong bodies, so they were able to withstand his bullets after their phantom beasts had dampened the power of the bullets.
In rare situations, the bullets failed to pierce their skin. The bullets only left a small injury on their skin. But in most cases, the bullets never reached their bodies. Their phantom beasts blocked the bullet completely.
This made him grumble to himself, saying, "It is unfortunate that I don’t have a Dao Status, or these people would be screwed right from the start."
Since he couldn’t do much against the transformation cultivators, he decided to focus on the giant warriors. The giant warriors were also more than the transformation cultivators; he had a lot more opportunities to earn merit points to buy the Dao Status that he needed so much.