Mechanical Alchemist

The pirates had all poured into the city in a frenzied plunder, and at the entrance to the black tower of the Duke's Mansion, only a small squad of pirates was left to keep guard.

The firelight exploding throughout the city looked to them like festival fireworks, heralding the start of a wild feast.

To this group of pirates, the prosperous Old Lington City was nothing more than a dazzling gold mine.

The guards were just a bunch of "greenhorns," an easy conquest.

A few pirates, bored with their duty, had gathered for a game of poker, playing with pirate cards.

As they played, they grumbled complaints under their breath.

"Pah—damn it! All the other crews are living it up in the city, while we're stuck here guarding this damned tower."

"Exactly. I heard the strongest professionals in these underground cities are only third-tier, our captain could squash them with ease, it's a giveaway. Unlike out there, in such a big city territory, you can easily find professionals of the sixth or seventh tier... I don't see what's so important to guard. Besides, with the boss Gaal on the ship outside, who could possibly escape?"

"Just my luck to draw the short straw before! Forget it, let's drop it. At least we'll get our share of the loot just by standing guard, so let's just hang around."

"Captain, money is one thing, but I heard from Plank just now, the women in this underground city are slick and tender, not a bit worse than those noble young ladies outside. In those high-rise buildings, you can just grab a handful..."

"Don't worry. When we leave, we'll definitely bring a batch of 'fine goods' onto the ship. Then you can play all you want back on board."

"Heh heh, these fine goods will be taken to 'Pirate City', guaranteed to do great business..."

"..."

The pirates grew more animated when the conversation turned to women, and they cast aside any thought of patrolling and staying alert.

...

Old Lington had a complex sewage system, and in the black market beneath Shadow Alley, there was a secret passage leading directly to the city center's inner areas.

Even though the eight city gates of the inner city were controlled by pirates, Mr. Jing led Su Lun and others smoothly into the inner city through the tunnels.

The Reyis family from the city and other forces nurtured by Mr. Jing had also received the message and had been waiting in a secret underground warehouse.

While the pirates were busy looting the upper-class district, the lower levels remained relatively safe.

By the time Su Lun and his group arrived, the warehouse had already gathered three to four hundred people.

Along with other members brought by the Jing organization, there were nearly five hundred people in total.

Su Lun brought Kai and Pharmacist Danny, along with Sabina and a few of her trusted followers. He also saw the head of the Cross Society, the "Arbitrator" Chak, along with a few core members. Even someone as strong as Chak was merely a reserve member of the Jing organization.

No one spoke, and the atmosphere was extremely heavy before the battle.

After Mr. Jing's arrival, everyone left the warehouse without delay.

Old Lington was, after all, a big city, with dense, vertical buildings.

A ten-thousand-strong horde of pirates spread into it would seem quite scattered.

Moreover, the pirates were still busy with their looting and didn't pay attention to a group sneaking through the dark alleys in the lower levels.

This group knew Old Lington far better than the invading pirates, and so, before long, they had arrived near the Duke's Mansion.

The Duke's Mansion was located at the base of the black tower; to highlight its status and maintain secrecy, there weren't many other buildings nearby.

Most of the troops hid in distant buildings, while eight people in gold-patterned cloaks quietly approached the black tower's moat, hiding next to the bridge towers, covered by the wall.

These cloaks were a high-grade alchemical product capable of blocking perception and aura, so the pirates didn't notice anyone approaching.

At this moment, the air shimmered with a ripple, and another assassin in stealth appeared, reporting to Mr. Jing, "Leader, there are a total of fifteen pirates guarding the tower. One fourth-tier, and four third-tier..."

The defense was not too strong.

Mr. Jing nodded and spoke, "The situation now is that most of those pirates are likely looting the inner city. There are about a thousand men guarding the ships outside, a few fifth-tier crews, and that sixth-tier 'Frost Giant' Gaal Popov. It's going to be a tough fight once we're out. Let's move quickly and try to seize a ship and set out to sea before the pirates in Old Lington City realize what's happened."

Everyone listened quietly and nodded in agreement, "Mhm."

"Prepare to move."

Mr. Jing's tone turned severe, "We must swiftly eliminate these pirates before they can signal others; that will buy us more time to get away."

Everyone responded, "Yes!"

As the words fell, eight out of the nine cloaked figures disappeared in an instant.

For a fourth-tier professional, the distance of over a hundred meters was but a blink of an eye.

And the only one who remained was, of course... the second-tier Su Lun.

Su Lun looked at the big shots disappearing beside him, a hint of awkwardness in the corner of his eye. Although a half-step behind, he followed and charged up as well.

After all, he wasn't here just to faff about.

....

The pirates guarding the tower were playing cards carelessly, not expecting anyone to come back and assault the tower.

But, after all, there were fifth-tier professionals.

Just as Mr. Jing and his group broke out in a sudden charge, that fourth-tier deputy captain reacted.

Watching the flood-like murderous aura bearing down, he immediately realized something was terribly wrong, and stood up abruptly. The word "Not good" that was about to escape his lips, when suddenly he found that the air around his body had solidified.

"Not good!"

Feeling the imminent danger of death, the deputy captain's face drastically changed.

He reacted quickly, instinctively trying to break away from the spot. But as he looked down, he discovered a purple lightning chain quietly locked around his ankle, a numbness sweeping through his body in an instant.

With Mr. Jing personally taking control, how could he have a chance to escape?

The fourth-tier deputy captain was instantly killed; the other pirate lackeys were quickly slaughted by Mr. Jing's organization.

They didn't even have a chance to send a signal.

As soon as the communicator was activated, the main force from the distant buildings immediately swarmed over.

Su Lun walked over, his face full of anticipation as he devoured the Soul Shards floating above the bodies of a dozen pirates.

'You've obtained "Severino Connally's" memory fragment*4'

'You have gained the information: "We're gonna strike it rich this time, after this heist, I'm gonna live it up..."'

'You have comprehended the incomplete 1-4 tier water-related rules'

'You have learned the skill [Diving Mastery]'

'You have mastered [Elementary Sailing]'

'Combat experience +122'

'Spiritual power +4.3'

But right after devouring the fragments of that fourth-tier deputy captain, Su Lun felt a little disappointed.

Apart from the very incomplete water-related rules, which were a pleasant surprise,

The value of the other information was very limited.

Diving, sailing...

Skills that even an ordinary sailor from the outside could extract, totally unfit for the "output" of a fourth-tier professional.

In this guy's head, apart from women and pleasure, alchemy knowledge was negligible.

Su Lun shook his head momentarily, and then he got over it.

After all, stripping Soul Shards was like a "lottery," with no guarantee of extracting something useful every time.

The previous extractions were from a duke's guard captain, a genuine product of the Ru Ying Royal War Academy with incredible knowledge reserves. But the one in front of him was just a pirate, not much different from the gangs of Old Spiriton Outer City, with much less dense knowledge, so the extracting effects were worlds apart.

A thought flashed through Su Lun's mind, and he didn't dwell on it, casually devouring the "mist" from the corpses of the other pirates.

Gleaning skills like [Rapid Cannonball Loading Techniques], [Sailing Ship Handling Skills], [Ocean Currents and Wind Direction Recognition]... pretty much exclusive pirate expertise.

However, it seemed that they might just come in handy immediately, which Su Lun found quite acceptable.

...

After killing the pirates guarding the tower, the group rushed into the duke's mansion, then into the towering black tower.

Since the pirates had already destroyed the traps and bans within the tower, their ingress went very smoothly.

Apart from Mr. Jing, it was everyone's first time entering the interior of the black tower.

The black tower was merely a passageway to a landmark, nothing special. Inside, like the rifling of a gun barrel, there were rings of stone steps on the walls, with no elevator, only stairs to climb. The vertical height seemed to be about three to four kilometers.

Luckily, nearly all were professionals, so climbing was swift.

Members of Mr. Jing's organization led the way, the only ones entitled to be at the forefront.

On the way, they encountered a group of pirates transporting loot, quickly dealt with them, and left behind the corpses.

Su Lun couldn't keep up with the speed and didn't feel he had the qualifications to clash with those fourth- or fifth-order pirates, so he followed the larger troop at the back.

As he walked up the stairs, he noticed that the texture was extremely hard and, out of curiosity, appraised it; to his surprise, the material of the walls even had a name—it was called "Asgard Stone."

He casually tried to scratch it with a pointed knife but found that he couldn't leave any mark on the stone.

Then, he tried with the black scythe.

To his astonishment, the spatial rift, which nothing could withstand, was ineffective this time!

This was the first time that Su Lun had encountered a material that even the black scythe couldn't cut through.

Now, he was even more curious about what this black stone was.

While Su Lun was curiously trying things out, Mr. Jing came up to him.

He had stayed at the back of the team to cover their retreat, setting up some magical formations and restrictions at the place they came up.

Seeing Su Lun's curiosity about the stones, he offered an explanation, "Actually, the Black Tower has been around since the Dawn Era and didn't originally stand here. This black stone isn't a material from this plane either; legend has it that it was taken from a mythical mountain called Asgard. It is one of the hardest materials known to date, and even a god-tier powerhouse might not be able to destroy this Black Tower. My father moved it here and connected it with the underground spatial passages as a reinforcement of the crack in the passage..."

"Oh."

Hearing this explanation, Su Lun finally understood.

So, this was something Sir Isaac had moved from another place?

The thought that the Black Tower might collapse unexpectedly and the seawater flood in also died down in his mind.

After all, a structure meant to guard a spatial passage wouldn't be so easily broken.

Mr. Jing didn't seem intent on saying more and suddenly frowned, "The fight has started outside! I'm going ahead, be careful!"

With those words, his figure vanished from the spot.

Upon hearing this, Su Lun's expression instantly became serious. Without further delay, he spread his eight-armed spider spear and rushed quickly towards the ground.

....

At the top of the Black Tower was a secluded stone house that looked like a basement.

The pirates' assault on the Black Tower had, in a way, cleared a lot of trouble for them.

The mechanisms and heavy cannons in those bunkers had been destroyed, and the pirates, with no intention of a long-term defense, did not repair them. They lazily guarded the entrance to the passageway without any tactical formation.

This led to Su Lun and his group emerging to come face-to-face with the pirates guarding the passageway. The guards were just lowly pirate minions, with the elite troops being on the ship or underground. Mr. Hei and his group took action and quickly cleared them out.

At least, they didn't let anyone block the raiders in the underground.

The five hundred people rushed out of the Black Tower; the first step of the plan had been perfectly achieved.

Su Lun arrived just in time to see several bodies in the basement.

The Soul Shards were still quite distinct; he harvested them effortlessly and learned more about the pirate gang known as "King of the North Sea."

While harvesting the bodies, he made an unexpected discovery.

That was despite the fact that these pirates were all at least first-order professionals, the gear and materials conjured from their bodies were mostly of very low quality!

In Old Lington City, "Black Iron" materials were considered the lowest grade.

Yet to his surprise, he found gear on the pirate bodies that was identified as "inferior quality" whiteboard equipment.

Such occupation materials and gear provided very low attribute enhancements but, correspondingly, had much lower advancement requirements.

One could say that as long as one practiced breathing techniques, just about anyone could become an advanced professional!

On second thought, he understood why.

The development of Old Lington City was based on "archaeology," with many professionals' advancement materials being fine products left over from ancient times.

Because of the harsh living environment and the dark magicians' lineage absorbing dark spiritual power, which could lead to mutation at any moment, there were fewer professionals. But correspondingly, the materials for advancement tended to be of much higher quality.

Thus, when it came to combat power of the same tier, underground city professionals were on average even stronger than those above ground.

At least, they were much stronger than untrained pirates!

....

Su Lun didn't linger in the basement; he harvested the "Mist" and followed the main force rushing out.

The intense battle had already begun outside, with the sound of gunfire booming.

Not all pirates were high-order professionals; the fourth and fifth orders were in the minority.

Moreover, the majority of the pirates' elite forces were down there robbing the underground.

Mr. Mirror led a group of people in a fierce charge out, catching the guards outside unprepared!

This was a gothic-style ancient castle, a standard military fortress.

Entering the eyes, the castle was everywhere a high wall with arrow towers, dense artillery battlements, and "U-shaped Harbor" filled with moored ships.

Su Lun, from his dissociated memories, already knew that the Black Tower was on an isolated island known as "Lighthouse Reef," home to a military fortress.

But the others did not know this.

They had never left the underground before, nor did they know that, besides Old Lington, there were other cities in the world.

Even the elite guards trained by the Reys family did not know what their mission was until two hours before!

The time outside was also midnight.

The night was stunning,

with a moon that shone sparsely amidst the stars.

Moonlight enshrouded the castle in a faint silver glow.

The stars in the sky twinkled brilliantly, vast and profound.

The waves rhythmically lapped against the shore with a lulling sound...

The refreshing breeze carried a hint of sea brine, making one feel every pore in their body open with comfort.

Freedom was in the air everywhere.

When the underground dwellers burst onto the surface, everyone was shocked by the scene before them.

It was like prisoners who had been trapped for generations suddenly obtaining freedom; despite being mentally prepared, huge waves of astonishment still surged in their hearts.

Having only seen lamplight before, they were seeing the pure moonlight for the first time, gazing upon the endless world, and beholding the stars for the first time.

"Look... that's the legendary moon! Is this the sky... How high is it!"

"This is unbelievable; you can't see the end at all. Is this the great sea? I thought it was just a bit bigger than an underground lake..."

"My God, the world outside is so vast..."

"..."

Shock from their collapsing worldview was evident on everyone's face, their eyes alight with life.
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But before they had time to be entranced any longer, the harsh voice of the Commander came through the communicator: "Don't just stand there, head to twelve o'clock direction, commandeer the ships! Board the ships!"

Hundreds of people instantly snapped back to reality.

Following the Commander's directions, they rushed out from the castle toward the port where the ships were moored.

The pirates in the city were instantly scattered, and they stormed into the harbor.

But looking at the more than a hundred ships before them, they hesitated again.

Two types of ships were moored in the harbor, one was the traditional wooden ship powered by wind sails, flying the "Wolf Fang Club and Skull" pirate flag.

The other was the steam-powered ironclad ship emitting billows of white smoke, mostly bearing the noble crest patterns exclusive to the Rafael family.

Even... there were two small steam airships drifting in the sky!

Someone asked urgently, "Commander, which ship should we seize?"

A prompt response came through the communicator: "Take the wooden ship..."

Obviously, the tone was a bit hesitant and uncertain.

Though none of the underground world people had ever seen a ship, ironclads were not considered.

Even if seized, they wouldn't be able to figure out how to operate them straight away.

As for wind sail-powered ships, although no one had operated them, there were records in ancient texts, and they had theorized about it previously, so one could roughly understand the principle by just looking.

However, there were seventy to eighty wooden ships, each with bizarre and exotic shapes, two-masted, three-masted...

It felt overwhelming, not knowing where to start.

Upon hearing this, Su Lun, recalling his previous dissociated memories, decisively said through the communicator: "Everyone, seize 'Sea Breeze' with the black sail, that's the fastest ship in the pirate fleet!"