The commotion caused by Chad earlier was quite significant, so Carlotta clearly couldn’t remain here any longer.
She took Amelia and quickly left at high speed, vanishing into the dark alleyways. Along the way, she used the Illusion Mask to alter their appearances, and switched their outfits using cards, completely transforming them into different people.
She had no intention of stopping there. She immediately headed towards two other individuals, capturing the last two of the original five managers and taking them to the seaside for interrogation.
The interrogation didn’t last long. She dealt with both of them quickly before departing with Amelia.
As for Simon Guild’s shop, she didn’t attempt to loot them, law enforcers had already mobilized, making it difficult for her to act.
Besides, she didn’t particularly care about those goods of moderate value. More valuable treasures had already fallen into her hands.
Chad was truly from Mechanical Fortress, his spatial item contains quite a number of alchemical creations. Although many of the alchemical materials weren’t exceptionally rare, their sheer quantity was impressive.
After returning to the hotel room on Island 9, Carlotta took out all the alchemical materials and fed them into the Stellar Workshop’s furnace. This immediately boosted the progress of the tier one ship by 3%.
"It seems this guy really had a significant status within Mechanical Fortress. An ordinary alchemist wouldn’t carry around so many materials."
Carlotta murmured softly.
In truth, Chad had attempted to reveal his identity before dying, hoping to intimidate her, but she never hesitated because of someone’s status.
The first-class ship’s progress now reached 55%.
Carlotta then took out the metallic orb and examined it. This was Mechanical Fortress’s latest achievement, the Alchemical Armor.
"Mechanical Fortress has always pushed far along the path of alchemy. I never expected they’d developed something so novel... But really, was this independently researched by them? Could it be that they excavated some ancient ruins and obtained this relic from antiquity?"
Amelia was somewhat suspicious.
After all, Mechanical Fortress hadn’t released any transitional research results, going straight from nothing to possessing Alchemical Armor was unreasonable.
But in truth, the specifics weren’t important to them.
Carlotta glanced at the Stellar Workshop, then at the Alchemical Armor. She immediately placed the orb at the workshop’s entrance, allowing it to be absorbed.
Then, her gaze settled on the wall screen, the page displaying the first-class ship’s construction.
This page showed the ship’s progress. As long as alchemical materials or finished alchemical creations were added, the progress would increase. Even if the materials weren’t exactly what the blueprint required, the Stellar Workshop could automatically convert them, ensuring that any material added would be useful.
This was exactly why Carlotta had set her sights on Swan Guild’s batch of low-compatibility alchemical materials.
Now, with the Alchemical Armor absorbed, the ship’s progress bar suddenly surged by 15%, bringing the total progress directly to 70%.
Carlotta sucked in a sharp breath.
She knew the Alchemical Armor must be extraordinary, but a boost equivalent to half of Moonlight’s contribution was still astonishing.
After all, Moonlight was massive and contained vast amounts of alchemical materials. Meanwhile, the Alchemical Armor appears to be just a small orb. Even when deployed, it could only cover a single person and form armor, it was still too small.
How could such a tiny object contribute 15% progress? This could only mean the materials themselves were of exceptionally high grade, premium quality.
Carlotta took out the Alchemical Armor again, wondering if she could use it herself.
Chad, merely a early tier Listener, had displayed astonishing combat power when using the Alchemical Armor. What about if she used it?
But after examining it closely, Carlotta couldn’t figure out how to activate it. She could only hand it to Amelia and ask her to study it.
Amelia looked at it, hesitated, then said, "This Alchemical Armor might have a lock."
Carlotta didn’t understand.
"Yes, a lock. Perhaps when it was created, it was bound to a specific owner, only that designated person can use it."
"If the owner dies, it can’t change hands?"
"Maybe people from Mechanical Fortress have ways to change ownership, but we probably won’t be able to use this item."
Carlotta sighed in frustration, then tossed the item back to the Stellar Workshop. Although feeding it to the workshop meant acquiring its blueprint and allowing her to recreate another Alchemical Armor, the material cost would clearly be much higher. She couldn’t afford to waste materials now, especially since the Alchemical Armor itself was worth 15% progress. Any minor loss would equate to a significant amount of alchemical materials.
Amelia asked curiously, "What does ’damn it’ mean?"
"Nothing. It’s just a curse. Whatever you do, don’t learn to say it."
Carlotta said seriously.
At this moment, chaos erupted on Island 6. Law enforcers appear in large numbers, quickly investigating and concluding that the offenders were the same group responsible for the earlier destruction of Dunkinson Trading.
The bodies of Lars Houston and Sally Lake were also found, further confirming the connection.
While law enforcers gathered more information, many members from Mechanical Fortress arrived, conducted serious investigations.
Because Chad Castro had died.
The surname Castro was no ordinary name within Mechanical Fortress, it belonged to the upper echelons. This time, a high-ranking descendant had perished.
Even more alarming, Chad had possessed Mechanical Fortress’s latest achievement, the Alchemical Armor, and now that item was missing. To the other members of Mechanical Fortress, the loss of the Alchemical Armor was even more severe than Chad’s death.
In an instant, the atmosphere across the Island six turned grim, and this oppressive tension spread to the other islands as well.
Meanwhile, Carlotta acted as if nothing concerning her, casually strolling around Island 9 with Amelia, enjoying a normal life.
Having avenged her hatred, her mood had relaxed considerably.
When the day broke, she headed toward Island 8 to search for Zorn Wilson, hoping to learn more about the Sky Cornerstone.
At this time, the capital manipulation incident at the Blood Arena hadn’t started yet, and Carlotta’s funds hadn’t arrived, but that didn’t stop her from coming to gather information.
After learning Zorn’s location through intelligence, she naturally didn’t miss the opportunity, easily finding Zorn Wilson just as he returned to his residence.
He was a young man with thick eyebrows and sharp eyes. When he heard Carlotta intended to purchase the Sky Cornerstone, his expression didn’t change, after all, he hadn’t hidden his identity. Everyone knew he possessed the Sky Cornerstone, and many had approached him for purchase these past days. However, the prices offered hadn’t satisfied him, so he hadn’t sold this precious alchemical material yet.
"How much can you offer?"
Carlotta calculated and quoted a figure, not particularly high, but certainly not low either.
Upon hearing her offer, Zorn pondered: "Your price isn’t outrageously high, but your sincerity is greater than the others’. Still... let me think about it. I don’t necessarily have to sell the Sky Cornerstone."
The intelligence clearly stated that Zorn Wilson was eager to sell the Sky Cornerstone, yet at this moment he said he wasn’t in any hurry at all, his expression as calm and composed as could be.
’You’re putting up quite an act. If I hadn’t had that intelligence, I might actually believe you’re not in a rush to sell.’
Carlotta thought inwardly.
She sighed and said, "Since you’re not in a hurry, let’s put this matter on hold for now. We’ll come back to you when we think of it again next time."
"Wait, at least leave a contact method."
"We’re just passing by. Leaving contact details would be useless. Let’s leave it to fate."
Carlotta took Amelia’s hand and turned to leave.
This left Zorn momentarily stunned. He wanted to say something, but couldn’t bring himself to, and in the end could only watch helplessly as Carlotta and Amelia disappeared down the street.
The rigged match at the Colosseum was scheduled for the afternoon, so there will be no results to see in the morning. Therefore, Carlotta brought Amelia back to the inn on Island No. 9.
When she woke up, the sky outside was still bright.
In a place like the Bass Archipelago, the days were characteristically long and the nights short. Not to mention Carlotta had woken up quite early today, around five in the afternoon.
After getting up, Carlotta went straight to the bank. After checking her balance, a string of numbers appeared before her eyes.
She nodded in satisfaction, then withdrew the entire sum, leaving nothing in her bank card.
As she walked out of the bank, a newspaper boy outside was loudly calling out:
"Bloody arena! The werewolf with 44 consecutive wins has been defeated! Many gamblers have lost everything! Come take a look!"
Carlotta shook her head silently.
She didn’t return to the inn, but instead used her previous identity from contact with the Swan Merchant Guild to visit the guild again, meeting Jessica Gray once more.
"Regarding our last matter, Miss Gray, have you thought it over? I truly can’t offer more than this price for that batch of alchemical materials. If I pay any more, I wouldn’t dare accept them. These alchemical materials have very limited versatility. I’m only buying them to conduct experiments that most likely won’t yield results."
Carlotta approached Jessica with a smile.
She knew from the situation that the Swan Merchant Guild was eager to offload this batch of alchemical materials with extremely poor versatility. Jessica even seemed somewhat regretful about the previous failed negotiation, so this time the discussion should proceed smoothly.
And indeed it did. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⚫𝙣𝙚𝙩
Jessica politely conversed with Carlotta, agreed to the transaction amount, and immediately handed over the spatial item containing those alchemical materials.
"Pleasure doing business."
Carlotta smiled contentedly.
After completing the transaction, she returned to the inn.
Inside the room, Amelia was practicing cultivation. Seeing Carlotta return, she couldn’t help but ask, "Where did you go?"
Carlotta had gotten up quite early today. When Amelia woke up, she found Carlotta wasn’t beside her, only a note left on the nightstand saying she’d gone out for a walk.
Carlotta then told Amelia about her gains from the Crimson Colosseum and from the Swan Merchant Guild.
After that, she took out all the alchemical materials from the spatial item.
The quality of these alchemical materials wasn’t bad, but the only problem was their extremely limited versatility. They seemed unusable in any standard alchemical formula, leaving one wondering what they could possibly be used for.
But such alchemical materials were perfectly suited for the Stellar Workshop. The Stellar Workshop only cares about the quality of alchemical materials, not whether they matched the materials required in the blueprint. It will automatically convert them.
Of course, if materials didn’t follow the blueprint specifications, the resulting alchemical creation would inevitably differ from the original intended result.
After feeding all these alchemical materials into the Stellar Workshop, the progress of the tier-one vessel immediately jumped to 85%.
"Only 15% progress increase from all these materials? Same as a single alchemical armor."
Carlotta was speechless at the result. After all, the quantity of alchemical materials in this batch was substantial.
How to make up the remaining 15%?
Carlotta was very determined to complete this tier-one vessel. According to her judgment, this vessel was almost equivalent to the third prize General obtained on Sky Island, an alchemical ship capable of directly confronting a Weaver.
As for tier two... it was simply unthinkable.
"If I’m short 15%, another alchemical armor might do it, but this kind of thing... hmm, probably won’t be easy to obtain."
Carlotta muttered to herself.
Chad, whom she’d previously eliminated, clearly held a high position within the Mechanical Fortress. So such things could only remain as thoughts. Alchemical armors were certainly not something one could easily acquire.
As night slowly descended, a storm swept across the Bass Archipelago, sparking discussions among different people on various islands.
First, members of the Mechanical Fortress surfaced, announced a bounty: an important member of their organization, Chad Castro, had been murdered, and a crucial achievement of the Mechanical Fortress had been stolen. Whoever could identify the culprit would receive a generous reward from the Mechanical Fortress.
This news stirred great discussion. To many, the Mechanical Fortress was a colossal entity, an unavoidable presence.
And Chad was a very well-known alchemist, his murder was equally shocking.
But what drew even more attention was the "crucial achievement" mentioned by the Mechanical Fortress.
The Mechanical Fortress didn’t specify what this achievement was, but the more vague they were, the more intriguing it seemed, giving people the impression it must be something extraordinary, filling them with curiosity and desire to investigate.
Not long after the Mechanical Fortress’s bounty sparked discussion, another piece of news arrived, stirring up even more talk.
This commotion originates from Island No. 4.
That island was filled with bloodshed and gambling. Numerous bloody arenas were located there, where death played out daily.
On this day, the beastmen who served as gladiators in the Crimson Colosseum suddenly revolted. Many beastmen somehow broke free from the colosseum’s restraints and escaped, killing many people.
This was an extremely sudden emergency. With large numbers of beastmen fleeing and the coliseums unprepared, they were utterly unable to stop them, instead suffering heavy losses themselves.
Even more terrifying was that after escaping, this group of man-eating beastmen began advancing toward the other islands!
Instantly, the people on the other islands turned pale, their bodies tensing up. Especially those islands not too far from Island No. 4 became extremely nervous. Many people, upon hearing the news, immediately fled toward more distant islands.
Meanwhile, law enforcement personnel from the Bass Archipelago began flooding into the islands near Island No. 4.