The situation had reached a stalemate.
Although resource development could bring in a fortune daily, extracting resources was not something that could be accomplished with just a few words.
To develop resources, slave labor was indispensable, but in addition to slave labor, mining such mineral resources also required the assistance of Alchemy Machines.
For deep ore veins like this, the rental cost of the necessary Alchemy Machines alone was a significant expense.
Moreover, the most ridiculous part was that he might not even be able to rent one.
These large machines were not just available for rent on a whim; the trading company renting them had to have sufficient strength and foundation to qualify for such large Alchemy Machines.
This brought them back to square one.
Richard tentatively asked, "Master, have the applications for the other ore veins been approved?"
"Not yet. Their applications are still with me. After all, the portal hasn't opened yet, and I don't want to disturb the teacher with these matters."
Gano gestured to the bartender behind him, and a glass of a wondrous liquid that changed colors continuously was delivered to his hand.
Beside him, Vladimir, who was familiar with Gano, frowned. Gano never drank while working. Now that he had ordered a drink, it indicated that he believed there was no room for negotiation in this transaction.
Although Richard was unaware of Gano's habits, he could see a hint of regret in Gano's expression as he looked at him.
Was he regretting missing out on a bit of Magic Essence? "Master, I don't have a big appetite," Richard said, his eyes flickering. "A small ore vein would be enough."
Gano raised an eyebrow and replied lightly, "To be honest, while I could allocate a bit from those applications, they are my friends. And you, consultant—"
Gano pointed at Richard, "We just met. I hadn't even seen you before this."
Gano brought the glass to his front, shaking the liquid inside, watching its colors change.
If Richard's next words couldn't sway him, then there was no point in continuing the discussion.
Richard maintained his expression and said, "Since Master is friends with those Wizards, they should be happy to see you profiting. I recently acquired something from Fire Lizard, but my skills are lacking, and I can't quite understand it.
Would Master be so kind as to take a look for me?"
Gano revealed a hint of a playful smile:
"Oh? What is it?"
At this moment, whatever Richard could produce would certainly not be an ordinary item.
Richard rummaged through his pocket and finally pulled out a chunk of blue frost.
The moment Gano saw the frost, his expression changed instantly, and a drop of the shaking liquid spilled out.
"Dead Silence Ice Mountain Sealing Art, how did you—! No, it's just similar."
Gano's face shifted through three expressions in an instant, and finally, with a hint of jest, he said:
"Consultant, you seem to have quite a bit of knowledge about Sealing Art. This Sealing Art of yours is quite similar to my teacher's. I almost thought my teacher had taken on a disciple outside."
Richard smiled and replied, "I was fortunate enough to witness the Frost Grand Wizard's seal in the Insect Nest world. After observing for decades, I have gained some insights."
Richard's words were casual, but as a student of the Frost Grand Wizard, Gano felt a slight tremor in his heart.
The Dead Silence Ice Mountain Sealing Art was his teacher's proudest work, and he was well aware of its complexity. Just by observing the results of Sealing Art for decades, he couldn't achieve the same effect.
Gano scrutinized the Wizard before him again. Although Richard was wearing a cloak of concealment, the life radiation leaking from him indicated that he was likely a Second Circle Wizard, and quite young at that.
For someone so young to design a Magic Support Vehicle, an Alchemy Weapon that received high praise from the command center, this Wizard's future was limitless.
"Should I invest a little?" Gano thought to himself.
Richard unsealed the Sealing Art, revealing a piece of blue flesh exposed to the air.
In an instant, a loud thud was heard as the bartender behind the counter went weak in the knees and collapsed to the ground. The several White Wizards present didn't pay attention to the abnormal behavior of the aberrant slave; their gazes were all focused on the piece of flesh in Richard's hand.
Gano stared intently at the thumb-sized piece of flesh in Richard's hand, feeling a suppression emanating from the level of life itself.
He was a Third Circle Wizard, a level three being, and to be suppressed at the level of life, could this piece of flesh belong to a World Master? No, the aura of a World Master's flesh wouldn't be so weak.
In an instant, Gano made a decision.
"There's a Red Sun Gold-Vein Stone ore vein with a production capacity of fifty thousand tons located in a rather remote area. If we want to mine it, transportation might be a bit inconvenient. I don't think my friends would be interested in this ore vein.
What do you think, consultant?"
Richard smiled slightly, the balance of power shifting.
"Since your friends aren't interested in this ore vein, then it's easy to handle."
Richard took out a vial with a Magic Stone and stuffed the piece of flesh inside, handing it to Gano.
"I can't make sense of this thing; consider it a gift for you, Master."
Gano took the vial, and immediately a mass of seemingly living blue frost appeared in his hand. When the frost touched the vial, it quickly spread over it.
In no time, the vial transformed into a solid block of ice.
This was the authentic Dead Silence Ice Mountain Sealing Art.
Gano gestured to the back, and the bartender immediately handed over a glass of the same liquid as before.
He offered the glass to Richard, "Consultant, let me treat you to a drink."
Richard took the glass, looking at the constantly changing liquid, and casually asked:
"Why does the color of this drink keep changing? Is there a significance to it?"
"This drink is called Mood. Each color represents a different flavor. The constantly changing colors reflect the unpredictable nature of human emotions."
Gano raised his glass to clink with Richard's. Richard lifted his glass and drank it all in one go.
"Not bad, this drink is quite sweet."
...
The matter of resource development was resolved in this bar, where a logistics Wizard was slacking off.
With a small piece of mutated Flame Behemoth flesh, Richard exchanged it for fifty thousand tons of Red Sun Gold-Vein Stone.
This transaction was a huge profit for Richard. And for Gano, it was equally profitable.
It was a win-win transaction, with only the several Wizard Chambers of Commerce that had submitted applications suffering a loss.
But they were large enough that this minor loss was inconsequential.
Leaving the bar, Vladimir looked at Richard with some astonishment and said:
"You really didn't come here in vain this time; you managed to get your hands on such good stuff."
Richard smiled slightly and said, "Just good luck. If Master has nothing else to do, why not accompany me to take a look at the Red Sun Gold-Vein Stone ore vein?"
"What, are you afraid Gano will trick you?"
"Not at all. I just want to take a look at the Magic Essence buried in the ground ahead of time."
"You rascal!" Vladimir laughed and scolded, "Go flaunt your wealth to someone else; I'm off to catch some slaves."
With that, Vladimir pulled out a magic carpet from his Magic Pocket, sat on it, and instantly transformed into a streak of light flying into the distance.
"Ah, that old man."
Richard shook his head with a smile, then took out a map and began to fly to the marked location.
Half a month later, Richard found the ore vein in the western part of the Morik Empire. It was a dormant volcano, and in a cave at its foot, a Wizard exploring the minerals had found the ore vein and made a rough estimate of its reserves.
Richard landed on the ground, preparing to enter the cave to see what this Red Sun Gold-Vein Stone was all about.
The entrance to the cave was small, barely large enough for a person to enter. But looking at the cave entrance, Richard didn't rush in.
He casually summoned a breeze to blow away the volcanic ash on the ground. Among the stones covered by the ash, a piece of metal with golden patterns was wedged in.
"Alarm device; it seems something has entered this cave."
Richard didn't pull out the metal piece but instead took out a piece of metal from his pocket and used Dragon Alchemy to create a similar metal piece, wedging it over the original one.
After refining the techniques of many Fire Lizard Alchemy Masters, Richard's Dragon Alchemy had become the pinnacle in the entire Crimson Sun World.
This metal piece was just a small trick; he could find a dozen ways to crack it without even thinking.
Taking out his staff, Richard bent down and entered the cave.
The cave was low, and everywhere was volcanic ash. As Richard moved through it, he quickly became covered in dust.
But Richard didn't mind; he occasionally bent down to disarm the little tricks left by the Fire Lizard that had entered the cave.
From these little tricks, it was evident that the Fire Lizard that entered this cave had a high level of vigilance and was quite skilled in Dragon Alchemy. Moreover, Richard also found a few drops of dark blood beneath the volcanic ash.
This indicated that the Fire Lizard had been in this cave for some time, and there must have been injuries. Injuries meant that this group of Fire Lizard had clashed with Wizards, and they had hidden here without being pursued by the Wizards. This suggested that there were no particularly outstanding individuals among this group of Fire Lizard; if there had been a level three Fire Lizard, they definitely wouldn't have escaped.
Without a level three Fire Lizard, Richard had no reason to feel any fear.
Continuing deeper into the cave, Richard encountered many forks in the path. However, he noticed that the Fire Lizard only set up those little tricks along the paths they had taken.
This saved Richard a lot of effort.
Soon, Richard arrived at a not very large cave.
The cave walls were adorned with golden patterns and emitted a slight warmth, which must be the so-called Red Sun Gold-Vein Stone. In the center of the cave sat two Fire Lizard, one young and one middle-aged, who was injured.
The injured Fire Lizard was gravely hurt, with black patterns all over its body, a type of necromancy that continuously drained the life force of living beings. This injured Fire Lizard's body temperature had already dropped significantly, a sign of impending death for a Fire Lizard.
But Richard paid him no mind; his gaze was fixed on the young Fire Lizard.
The young Fire Lizard was playing with a piece of metal that seemed to have a life of its own, constantly flowing in its hands and occasionally changing into various shapes.
Without a doubt, all the little tricks he had encountered along the way originated from this young Fire Lizard.
"Such skilled Dragon Alchemy; this is a talent."
Richard didn't hide his presence and walked boldly into the cave.
The Fire Lizard lying on the ground saw Richard and immediately tried to get up, but its injuries were too severe to support any further fighting.
So after a slight movement, it collapsed back to the ground, its mouth opening and closing as if trying to say something to the young Fire Lizard.
Richard glanced at him, stepped over, and approached the young Fire Lizard.
"Fire Lizard, what is your name?"
(End of Chapter)