Mechanical Alchemist

"Captain!"

As the clan leader's head fell to the ground, the "Elemental Witch" Frida was filled with horror.

She had been waiting in a tree, hoping to join forces with Selt for a pincer attack on the enemy, but to her dismay, the combined strike that had succeeded many times before had failed this time!

Rather than reacting as they had anticipated, this small mistake had led to the direct demise of their clan leader.

She wanted to rush to the rescue, but it was already too late.

The Puppet Master's wide-range ice frost attack deterred her from approaching, knowing that if she got stuck, death would be her only fate.

This time, she clearly understood the seemingly formless method of killing.

As she had previously suspected, it was definitely an artifact of the "restricted item" level.

"Damn it, how did we provoke such a freak!" Frida cursed in her heart.

Having fought for so long, she had recognized that this was indeed a genuine third-tier professional.

When it came to treasures, whether it was the mecha or the restricted artifact, some top-tier nobility might possess such resources.

But this fellow's personal strength was what truly baffled her!

Puppetry, silk control secret techniques, martial arts mysteries, Space Law... Each ability was mastered to a degree far beyond the reach of ordinary third-tier professionals.

She had seen Puppet Masters before, but whose Puppet Master could simultaneously control hundreds of puppets?

And also be so strong in person?!

Rather than saying this guy was alone, it was more accurate to say he was a one-man puppet legion!

Moreover, the chilling murderous intent was the real source of fear for her, a fourth-tier professional.

This guy... he's truly a madman!

Now that their captain Selt had been killed, Frida immediately thought of retreating.

She was very aware that she could not kill that Puppet Master not far away on her own.

Though she didn't know what means he used to detect her "Elemental Escape," all signs indicated that she had been discovered by the enemy.

Intuition told her that if she stayed any longer, it would inevitably lead to a dead end!

...

Su Lun, of course, had sensed that individual escaping underground, but he had no intention of going after her.

The "Cocoon World" created from the witch's hair provided physical isolation but had never stopped that woman from the beginning.

Su Lun found it difficult to keep her if she was so bent on escaping.

Su Lun went over to the headless corpse and prepared to collect that clump of "gray mist."

The surging turmoil in his heart had finally calmed down a bit, and he dared not continue to use the Reaper's phantom, casually devouring the gray mist from the corpse.

But luck wasn't always on his side, and the result of this blind box draw was disappointing.

The fragments held little of value, and Su Lun frowned slightly, muttering to himself, "It's hard to downgrade from luxury to simplicity..."

Having become accustomed to the precise harvest of the Reaper's phantom, the "blind draw" felt like a significant letdown.

He didn't dwell on it, though, since he ultimately needed to address the issue of his warped mental state to fully utilize the second tier of the Reaper's talent.

Now that the two fourth-tier enemies were gone, Su Lun could focus solely on dealing with the members of the slaver party.

Out of the seven or eight hundred people who came in, probably only a few dozen remained after the onslaught of the puppet legion.

Su Lun had intended to reap them all, but just then, a green flame suddenly appeared on the silken cocoon walls, burning through the layers of silk and creating an opening.

The surviving slaver members were overjoyed at the sight and escaped in a swarm through the breach.

"A cursed item?"

Su Lun instantly identified the flame as originating from a decent fire-based cursed item.

It wasn't surprising that such a large-scale slaver party had one or two good artifacts.

However, Su Lun watched the escaping people but did not pursue them.

Separated from the "Puppet Theater," his puppets' combat effectiveness would significantly diminish. With more enemies outside, he might not instantly gain the upper hand if he pursued them.

Most importantly, his dark spiritual power had reached a critical low.

If the battle continued, with the enemies' greater numerical strength, Su Lun might have to be the one to tactically withdraw first.

But it looked like the fight wasn't going to happen after all. Judging by the noises from those outside, it seemed they had no intention of seeking a decisive battle to the death. The people who escaped joined the one or two thousand inside the encampment, and without even bothering about the demi-human slaves, they hastily retreated into the forest.

"Heh... quite decisive."

Su Lun raised an eyebrow and chuckled lightly, not too surprised by the outcome.

As long as that dark-skinned woman wasn't foolish, she definitely wouldn't opt for a last stand.

Now that she knew Su Lun was skilled in Space Arcana, she also understood that with mere numbers, they would have a hard time killing him.

On the other hand, in this forest, failing to kill the enemy would become a nightmare for their large-scale team.

Enough...

After taking a few bullets,

And killing a few hundred of your men,

That should settle things.

Su Lun didn't plan to pursue,

The bloody slaughter had calmed those restless negative emotions.

As he looked at the bodies strewn across the ground, the red glow in his eyes began to fade away.

Su Lun controlled the puppets, beginning to clean up the spoils of the battlefield.

Despite the "World of Cocoons" secret technique of controlling threads having impressive effects, just setting up the formation had consumed nearly ten million lysi of cursed crystals. Magicians, being the most money-burning profession, is not an overstatement; the bigger the move, the more willing one has to be to spend.

Su Lun intended to recoup some losses from these spoils of war.

The soul shards and equipment of these few hundred people were also not a small harvest.

...

In the forest, the only two remaining fourth-tier members of the Sun Catchers Slave Group withdrew in complete disarray.

The people previously staying at the fortress didn't understand what had happened, they only heard the retreat order coming through their communicators.

On the way, everyone then started to discuss.

"Frieda, what the hell is going on?"

"The leader is dead, hurry up and go!"

"What! Could the enemy be a fifth-tier professional?"

"No! But... there's no time to explain, let's get out of here first. That guy knows space arcana, we can't kill him at all. Also, he is totally a madman, he's probably exhausted his spiritual power by now, so he hasn't pursued us. Just wait for him to recover, he will definitely kill all of us here!"

"..."
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The few dozen survivors were still trembling with fear.

They described the terrifying battle they had just experienced to their companions, talking about the overwhelming threads and puppets as if they had a horrifying experience right on the doorstep of hell, which made the listeners' scalp tingle.

Just one person killed two of their fourth-tier professionals and a quarter of their main force?

This was a loss they had never suffered, even when they had previously conquered the Subhuman village.

Once all the members of the Slave Group learned the truth, they fled even faster.

....

"What exactly happened in there?"

Atop a giant tree, Yuta watched those enemies fleeing in complete disarray, too shocked to speak.

She had intended to help, but Su Lun had shut her out of the battlefield.

Looking at the cocoon-like closed space, she felt both anxious and helpless.

Originally thinking that Su Lun's erratic behavior was due to mental derangement, Yuta had pondered how she might save people.

But with the enemy in overwhelming numbers, she was completely alone and without any means to help.

The turn of events was so sudden.

The Slave Group suddenly became chaotic. That fourth-tier magician who was originally guarding in the village rushed over in haste, took out a strange oil lamp, burned through the wall of threads, and then a group of people fled in a sorry state.

Only... so few people had escaped?

Before Yuta could understand what was happening, all the enemies in the village dispersed in panic, fleeing into the forest.

Seeing their panicked states, Yuta immediately realized that something major must have happened to Su Lun.

As soon as the enemies left, she rushed in without any hesitation, only to be met with a scene she had not anticipated at all.

That man was leisurely sweeping the battlefield.

....

Su Lun saw Yuta coming in and greeted her with a smile.

Concerned about his mental state, Yuta asked, "Mr. Su Lun, are you alright?"

Now considering themselves friends, she didn't shy away. She gathered a green light in both hands and directly touched Su Lun's temples, seemingly to check on him.

Su Lun didn't refuse, only shaking his head with a smile, "I'm fine."

Hearing this, Yuta's brows relaxed, and not finding anything seriously wrong upon her checks, she let out a huge sigh of relief.

Then, glancing at the bodies around her, her azure pupils filled with shock.

Only then did she realize that Mr. Su Lun had really defeated the enemy on his own.

Although she found it hard to believe, having witnessed everything firsthand, Yuta genuinely exclaimed, "Mr. Su Lun is so impressive..."

Su Lun neither agreed nor disagreed with a shrug of his shoulders and then asked, "Have those people left?"

"Yes. They've all fled into the forest!"

Yuta remembered, and her eyes suddenly brightened, "That's right, the people of the White Deer tribe weren't taken away!"

Did that mean the tribespeople had been rescued?

Su Lun wasn't surprised.

Those fleeing for their lives naturally wouldn't take slaves with them.

He said to Yuta, "Go check on your people, they should still be bound. I'll clean up here."

Seeing that he was alright, Yuta nodded vigorously, "Okay!"

She was about to rush to the village in a hurry when she looked back, thinking of something, and smiled brilliantly, "Our Dalu tribe has a prophecy, that a warrior who follows the ancient covenant will save our people... I think Mr. Su Lun must be the 'warrior' mentioned in the prophecy!"

"Oh?"

Su Lun raised his eyebrow as he listened, having personally experienced the prophetic abilities of the Dalu tribe, he didn't find it unreliable.

But hearing this made him feel a bit strange.

He himself had indeed rescued a few Dalu tribespeople.

As for a "warrior following the covenant"?

He just smiled, probably referring to Mr. Jing.

With the crisis of tribal annihilation averted, Yuta's previously furrowed brow relaxed, her pretty face beaming with excitement. She ran off, looking back to wave her hand, "Mr. Su Lun, I'll go check on the people in the village first. I'll come find you later~"

"Okay."

Su Lun watched her and nodded, then continued to clean up the battlefield.

The puppets helped sort the spoils from the bodies, which were packed into a storage ring.

The damaged dolls were also collected; after some fixing up, they could be used again in the next fight...

If they couldn't be fixed, they could be melted down to extract the materials.

He didn't neglect the broken parts and bullets scattered on the ground either.

Su Lun was not rich at the moment, in fact, he had a very large financial gap.

To make the battle capabilities of his puppet dolls strong, aside from craftsmanship, good materials were also needed.

He wanted to make a "black iron quality" third-tier doll now, but just one of the materials cost over five million, and the recent few silver [Ice Dolls] capable of engraving third-tier runes were priced over ten million each.

A hundred of them would cost a billion, and he was far from reaching that sum.

The materials needed for fourth and fifth-tier puppets were even more expensive.

This battle had shown him how useful a puppet army could be, and he would definitely need to adopt a strategy of overwhelming numbers in the future.

Without a solid foundation of wealth, one simply couldn't manage the profession of "Puppeteer."

Alchemy bullets required money, and casting spells cost money...

Not to mention the research on mechanical puppets, which were the real big burners of cash.

Apart from those few banned items, Su Lun's entire fortune added up probably couldn't even produce a complete set of [Colonel-grade Mech Armor IX].

"Puppets really burn through cash..."

Su Lun couldn't help but feel both amused and distressed at the thought.

....

Now that the enemy had left, Su Lun could count the spoils at ease.

The Octopus Spear was controlling the spears, sorting and packing away the standard spoils into the storage ring to sell later.

From such a large team, the low-tier professionals didn't have much aside from standard gear and some possessions.

He turned his eyes to the two fourth-tier bodies he had killed earlier.

The alchemical armor condensed on the corpses were still pretty good, both silver quality, one set of [Spiked Bear Needles] and one set of [Ironback Centipede].

Close-combat gear was in high demand on the market, and although there was some damage, they could still be worth tens of millions.

Su Lun then gave Selt's storage ring a look, and as the group leader, the Spiked Bear had many good items in it.

To his pleasant surprise, the storage ring wasn't very large and didn't contain much, but he scanned it and saw a huge gemstone.

"This... should be a gemstone stolen from the village?"

Looking at the unpolished sapphire the size of a fist, Su Lun also guessed the origin of the item.

Even he had never seen one so large.

Such a large chunk of high-purity gemstone, whether used for jewelry or as alchemy material, was excellent.

In an auction, it would probably fetch at least a hundred million.

It was a break-even at least.

Su Lun stashed it away.

But he didn't plan to sell it. Higher-level puppets also needed these materials for rune engraving, and the high-level gemstones were monopolized by the nobles, impossible to buy from the market.

The storage ring also contained some alchemical items of decent value, but they were of no use to Su Lun; they were all just goods to be sold for money.

However, in the pile of items within the storage ring, Su Lun finally found a tightly sealed rune box.

Upon opening it, he discovered a roughly made gold coin bearing a human head.

In the memories collected by the Reaper, there were legends related to this object, which the All-Seeing Eye immediately identified with terms he could understand.

[Black Sam's Cursed Gold Coin]

Details: Legend has it that collecting three of these gold coins will lead to the sunken treasure of the Pirate King, Sam Bellamy; inscribed on the coin are some incomplete secret messages;

"The Pirate King's treasure?"

Looking at the object, Su Lun grew slightly interested.

An item treasured by a prominent large-scale slaver was likely credible.

Besides, the All-Seeing Eye had also identified some hidden messages.

It appeared to be the "real" thing.

Su Lun had also heard this legend.

This world has endless seas, and pirates have always existed; very few could claim the title "Pirate King."

One legendary Pirate King, "Black Sam" Bellamy, was the most recent to be acknowledged by pirates and officials across the four seas.

And now, the "King of the North Sea," Oleg, was only just the king of the northern waters.

Bellamy didn't concern himself with building powers; he preferred adventuring and exploring unknown routes, raiding nobility.

That's right, they were "noble thieves."

That guy had a good reputation among the poor, living a life full of legend.

He himself was also a powerful Alchemist, collector, Navigator...

His pirate group dared to rob anything, whether it was dukes, princes, or even royal treasures.

Consequently, he had countless treasures in his hands.

However, thirty years ago, the legend goes that he led a top tier pirate crew on an adventure to uncharted waters, encountered sea monsters and storms, and their ship sank.

It's said that a few survivors lived to tell the tale, and the legend of the "Pirate King's sunken ship" spread.

Legends say that aboard that ship, in addition to gold and silver treasures, there were various high-level cursed objects, [Sealed Items], ancient weapons, and legendary artifacts...

This is also one of the biggest lures that has drawn countless adventurers to the sea in later generations.

....

Su Lun only took a second glance before he tucked it away.

Whether the legend was true or not, even if it was, how could the sea areas that sank the Pirate King's ship be easy to reach?

Moreover, he now had only one gold coin; without the set of three, daydreaming was futile.

Su Lun wasn't one to fuss over things beyond his reach.

He then took out the body of the previously killed [Insect Controller].

Only after examining the storage ring did Su Lun feel fortunate that his decision to kill him quickly was the right one.

Had that guy been given a chance to use those bizarre poisons and venomous creatures, it would be uncertain who would have died.

The [Insect Controller] was a mysterious lineage Alchemist, and that one named Petra specialized in the lineage of venomous creatures. His storage ring was filled with various poisonous materials and jars.

Even though Su Lun's resistance to toxins was quite high now, the sight and identification of many poisons still sent chills down his spine.

The storage ring was mostly full of poisonous materials, as well as some toxic tomes, like the"Poison Encyclopedia","Poison Insect Breeding", and the like.

Su Lun casually glanced at them and then tucked them away, planning to study them in depth when he found time later.

What surprised him slightly was that he also acquired a "cursed object"!

[Anniestora's Poisonous Incense Burner]

Description: I aim to concoct the world's deadliest poison;

Cursed Properties: The fuel in the incense burner is the poison gland of the ancient Poison Snake 'Hydra'. Lighting it will lure venomous creatures from miles around to converge, fight, and devour each other, after which there's a chance for the creatures to evolve into a Poison King and produce even higher-tiered mixed toxins; these toxins spread through the air and are just as deadly to humans;

Details: A poisonous Magician named Anniestora from the last epoch created an alchemical item used to cultivate venomous creatures;

Su Lun raised his eyebrows at the information identified.

From the description, ordinary gas masks wouldn't be able to protect against the poison. He happened to have a [Plague Doctor's Beaked Mask], which had poison-resisting properties, and he wondered which cursed object would be stronger.

Although the incense burner was a cursed item, it seemed that its use in killing wasn't that great.

The toxin would naturally disperse slowly in the air, making it easy to detect.

For high-tier professionals, a whiff of something unusual would be enough to avoid danger.

Its use would probably only be in poison crafting?

The art of poison wasn't a niche, for it was genuinely a branch of the "Plague Laws".

Looking at the incense burner, Su Lun had an idea: "Why not create a bunch of poisonous dolls?"