Chapter 933: Each Having Their Own Needs
“President Felic, the alchemical ideas of that alchemist who works for you have given us some inspiration yesterday. Now that we are partners, I wonder if we can invite that alchemist to exchange ideas with us about Alchemy Colossuses. I believe it will be helpful for our next exploration and the battles we may encounter,” Donald requested right after they settled on cooperation. Although he claimed to want to interact and exchange ideas with Angelano, he simply wanted to get more techniques that could improve the performance of the Alchemy Colossuses from Angelano.
Logically speaking, that request wasn’t overboard. Since they were already partners, improving the combat power of partners would be beneficial to everyone in the upcoming operations. However, it was too hypocritical of Donald to call it an exchange of ideas. With Angelano’s standards in alchemy, it would be more than apt to say that he was going to educate them.
“Oh, forget about communication or whatever, Angelano doesn’t like to communicate with people. How about this? Bring your Alchemy Colossuses over, and I’ll get him to hurry up and fix them for you. I don’t dare to make big promises, but I can guarantee that he will upgrade the combat power of your Alchemy Colossus by more than half.” Lin Li appeared to be rather magnanimous. Don’t you just want to improve the combat power of your Alchemy Colossuses? Your people don’t have to do it. I’ll get my subordinate to get it done for you.
However, how could Donald dare to hand his own Alchemy Colossuses over to someone else to fiddle with? Besides, Lin Li was just his temporary partner, and there might even be a conflict of interests between them in the end. God knew what strange things they might do to his Alchemy Colossuses. If the Alchemy Colossuses were to break down at a critical juncture… He would be asking for doom.
Even Donald could not stand the contempt that Lin Li had for the Rotterdam Kingdom’s standards of alchemy, which was especially reflected in his words. He couldn’t help but be thankful and glad that Prince Kanber had left a long time ago. Otherwise, he would have flipped the table at this moment.
“Master Donald, since you don’t feel at ease and comfortable with that, how about this? The Tower of Dusk can provide you with some parts of Alchemy Colossuses, such as the positioning devices for the joints of the Alchemy Colossus. Those items are nothing too technical, and you should be able to install them yourselves by following the example shown yesterday. I think this can also play a role in improving the combat power of your Alchemy Colossuses. It will allow you to better exhibit your aggressive attacking ability in the next exploration.” Lin Li obviously had a motive for being that kind. To put it bluntly, he just wanted the Alchemy Colossuses of the Rotterdam Kingdom to be cannon fodder.
Actually, what Lin Li said was the truth. If the actions of the Alchemy Colossuses could become as fluid as humans’, that would definitely increase their combat power by a large margin. If the joint positioning devices were installed in every Alchemy Colossus, it would increase their combat power by at least 20-30 percent, which was significant.
However, when Donald heard those words, he almost got internal injuries because of his infuriation. The positioning device in the joints of the Alchemy Colossus, which they had studied for a long time yesterday and still could not figure out the principles of, was actually disregarded as an object that Lin Li claimed not to require much technical knowledge! To add insult to injury, Lin Li even said that he could maximize the Alchemy Colossus’ ability to fight at the forefront, which was tantamount to making the Alchemy Colossus cannon fodder!
“President Felic, since you’re so generous, I’ll accept it. However, when it comes to attacking, our Alchemy Colossuses are, after all, somewhat inflexible with their large bodies. The narrow streets of the Sky Castle are not suitable for the Alchemy Colossuses to be put into action. On the other hand, the performance of the Tower of Dusk’s knights yesterday really impressed me. I reckon they should be extremely useful in such an environment.” After suppressing his anger, Donald immediately restored his normal expression. He thought, I’ll take the items, but charging and fighting at the forefront is still best suited to your knights from the Tower of Dusk.
As soon as Donald said that, the face of Prince Jeremiah, who had been silent, grew sullen before Lin Li could react. The performance of the Tower of Dusk’s knights that Donald called impressive was shown in the battle they had with the Paladins of the Brilliance Shrine!
Jeremiah had originally been treating that incident as something that he was ashamed of, yet Donald brought it up. It was just the same as revealing his old injury. Although he agreed with making the people of the Tower of Dusk go as cannon fodder, he didn’t want to make things too easy for the people of the Rotterdam Kingdom. Hence, he said, “Indeed, the combat power of the knights of the Tower of Dusk is excellent, but the Alchemy Colossuses of the Rotterdam Kingdom and their incredible defense are truly enviable as well. If the Alchemy Colossuses and the knights work together, I believe nothing will be able to stop us.”
Jeremiah’s words were actually rather far-fetched. The streets of the Sky Castle were extremely narrow in the first place. If the Alchemy Colossuses and the knights were to squeeze together, they might just create a huge mess, let alone fight the enemies.
All in all, the intentions of the three forces were similar. They just wanted others to take the rap while they collected the benefits. However, they could not ignore that problem, as there would definitely have to be someone standing at the forefront to commit the dangerous acts. If everyone retreated, there would be no exploration.
Due to the fact that the matter was directly related to their immediate interests, the three forces discussed that issue back and forth for two to three hours before finally reaching a consensus. On the side of the Tower of Dusk, Lin Li showed them all the Alchemy Colossus technology that he mastered, thus leaving Donald with no choice but to give in to temptation regardless of how unwilling he was. On the other hand, the Brilliance Shrine made an agreement with the Rotterdam that if they encountered a hostile Undead creature, they would have to enhance the Alchemy Colossuses of the Rotterdam with Holy Light Magic and bear a large portion of pressure in battle.
“Since, we, the people of the Rotterdam, will have to bear the greatest risk, I’m going to make things clear beforehand. In this Sky Castle, there is a lost treasure of the Rotterdam Kingdom that is placed in the control center of the Sky Castle. It is an item that we must obtain, and anyone who tries to get their hands on it will be declaring war against our nation.” After talking about responsibilities, it was naturally time to talk about the benefits. Donald was already suppressing his infuriation from the beginning. At this moment, he immediately stated his demands without any rudeness while taking out a long list of treasures.
The teams from the Brilliance Shrine and the Rotterdam Kingdom had previously explored the goods transfer station that had a Teleportation Portal because it was actually meant for the logistics of the Sky Castle. Although they did not make any actual gains there, they had found some lists of supplies that recorded the various supplies and treasures that had been sent to the Sky Castle, hence the list in Donald’s hand, and the copy of it held by the team from the Brilliance Shrine. They had divided the items when they discussed the cooperation previously.
Donald’s request was actually not excessive, but after the crowd listened to what he said, they couldn’t help but curse in their hearts about how shameless he was. The Rotterdam Kingdom was established at the end of the Dark Age, when the High Elves had already been annihilated. When the Sky Castle entered the spacetime rift, the ancestors of the Rotterdam Kingdom’s royal family were still working for the High Elves like minions. How could they have lost any treasures there?
Actually, the structure diagram of the Sky Castle was what the Rotterdam Kingdom ancestors had left behind! They had probably already been coveting the High Elves’ possessions when they were working as minions for them. Of course, the people of the Rotterdam could explain it by saying that their ancestors had merely infiltrated the enemy’s internal department, bearing with the shame and humiliation while they were just spies in reality.
When it came to benefits, everything else would become secondary. Archbishop Martin then stated his requests and similarly took out his own list. “The main purpose of our expedition this time is to find a crown that once used to belong to the first generation High Elven queen. According to the information we have, it’s stored somewhere in the Sky Castle.”
It might seem absurd that the crown of the first High Elven Queen would actually be in this Sky Castle, but Lin Li was not surprised, because he had met Prince Brahere’s soul. The only thing that he was curious about was whether or not it could be some sort of token of love that the High Elven queen had given to the Immortal King while he gave her his staff.
Lin Li took a glance at the two parties’ lists to see that the items listed were either powerful magical weapons or precious treasures that were already extinct. After briefly reading them, Lin Li returned the lists, and said, “Alright, if there are no objections, everything else that is not included on the lists will belong to the Tower of Dusk.”
Actually, one of the reasons Archbishop Martin and Donald took out the lists was to explain what they wanted, and also to find out what Lin Li wanted. After all, the two lists were decided upon after some eliminations during the cooperation agreement that the Brilliance Shrine had with the Rotterdam Kingdom previously.
It could be said that together, the two lists already contained almost all the valuable items in the Sky Castle. However, now that they had an additional partner, the Tower of Dusk, they decided to take out their lists so that they could find out what Lin Li wanted, and perhaps spare some for the Tower of Dusk after some discussion.
To their surprise, Lin Li did not ask for anything after seeing the lists, and simply returned them while saying that he would take the items not included on the lists. In Archbishop Martin’s and Donald’s opinion, there was nothing else that would be valuable left. Of course, they wouldn’t have thought that the purpose of Lin Li’s visit was actually the entire Sky Castle. That was obviously not on the list.
The last time Lin Li had explored the Sky Castle, he did not have a clear goal. Hence, as soon as he exited the Teleportation Portal, he headed straight to the Central Tower because everyone knew that the treasures there were the most valuable.
However, it was different this time. The people of the Rotterdam Kingdom wanted to go to the control center to find that so-called lost treasure, while the Brilliance Shrine was going to another place to get that crown. Besides, the items stated on their lists were not placed in the same location, or rather, no one knew exactly where they were all kept. Hence, they would definitely have to conduct a large-scale search.
Hence, it was inevitable for them to have different opinions again. After all, the area of the Sky Castle was too large, and they had to take into consideration a Ghost that might be in the Sanctuary-realm. Everyone wanted to reach their goal first so that they would have no regrets in escaping even if they failed to defeat the enemy.
However, regarding that issue, Lin Li was not going to compromise easily. He could forgo the items on the lists, but his goal, which was the Central Tower of the Sky Castle, could not be delayed in any way. Lin Li wanted to enter the Central Tower again. The other two teams could pick up the things along the way, but they couldn’t go on a detour.
Lin Li did not want the two teams to pull out and run away after getting what they wanted, thus leaving him alone to deal with the Ghost. If that happened, what would be the point of a cooperation? Hence, Lin Li thought that if the Ghost came out earlier, the three forces could cooperate and fight with it. If the Ghost refused to come out, they would have to at least obtain the controlling rights to the Sky Castle, so that even if the other two forces ended up running away, he could still suppress the Ghost with the power of the Sky Castle.
This time, they finally saw the benefits of Lin Li’s generosity. Since he said that he did not want any of the treasures on the list, would the other two forces still have the nerve to say anything more about that?
Of course, it wasn’t that those two forces had given up all their rights. They could still find themselves as many advantages as possible in terms of choosing the route for getting to the Central Tower. Apart from not being able to go around to the opposite side of the Sky Castle, they could still choose a good entry route within a certain range left and right of where they were now.
The discussion mainly took place between Archbishop Martin and Donald. They all hoped to get as many benefits as possible before they ran into the Ghost. Hence, the discussion got rather heated as well. Lin Li did not care how agitated they were while arguing. He would only interject and bring them back to reality when they got too much into detouring.
After a heated argument, the two parties finally agreed on an entry route. They decided to enter through a spot that was not too far from them. Actually, the most important point was that the streets there appeared wider than in the other places, thus making it more suitable for the teams of the three forces, especially since they had the Alchemy Colossuses from the Rotterdam Kingdom.
Regardless, the cooperation’s layout was considered to be all settled, and everyone was relieved. Not wanting to waste any more time, Archbishop Martin and Donald stood up to bid farewell to Lin Li. After settling on a time, they eagerly returned to make preparations for exploring the Sky Castle.
Lin Li sent the three of them out of the camp, and when he returned, he gathered the team together with Master Basel to prepare for entering the Sky Castle. Angelano, who was dressed in a fancy and colorful outfit, went to him proudly to inform him that he had taught the mages about the weaknesses of the Rotterdam Kingdom’s Alchemy Colossus.