Mechanical Alchemist

Chapter 46: Ancient relics at the auction

Su'en emptied his savings and bought the blueprint for the "Eight-Armed Spider God Spear Implant".

But besides feeling fortunate, he also found it strange.

This alchemical implant blueprint seemed to be tailor-made for his "Illusion Puppeteer" profession, with its strict usage conditions and perfect compatibility.

In this world, there was a concept of "profession-specific implant blueprints", which had been improved by countless generations of alchemists to achieve the highest level of compatibility between implants and professions.

However, generally speaking, only the major families in the inner city would pay attention to the combination of professions and exclusive implants.

For the people in the outer city, being able to change professions was already extremely rare, and finding an alchemical implant that was somewhat compatible was considered good enough. It was too much to ask for an exclusive blueprint.

Moreover, it was extremely rare for a golden blueprint to appear in the black market, and yet he happened to come across one. It was too much of a coincidence.

However, it didn't take long for him to realize that it wasn't just his luck. It was because a large number of astonishing treasures had indeed arrived at this black market auction.

The golden blueprint he had won was considered mediocre by others, just an appetizer.

***

While Su'en was still lamenting the loss of his 800,000, the next auction item appeared on the projection on the rock wall.

It was a piece of dark hand bone.

The product description showed that it was a cursed item called the "Flame Demon's Hand Bone", an excellent silver-quality material for the rare magic profession "Dark Fire Mage". It was also a recently unearthed ancient relic.

As soon as this item appeared, it immediately caused a fierce bidding war among the people in the black market, eventually selling for over four million to a mysterious buyer.

But the climax didn't end there.

The next item was another golden-grade blueprint, the melee-type "Diamond Skeleton Implant Blueprint", with an auction price of 1.9 million...

The next item was a "Alchemy Codex" excavated from an ancient ruin. Its contents had not been deciphered yet, but it was suspected to contain second-tier or higher elemental conversion techniques and spell formulas. The auction price was 2.1 million...

The next item was an ancient animal skin alchemy scroll. It had also not been deciphered yet, but it was believed to contain advanced rune knowledge. It sold for 1.3 million...

One rare treasure after another appeared, and the prices kept getting higher.

The atmosphere in the dark underground auction house of the black market became extremely heated.

It seemed that some wealthy tycoons had received advance information and had prepared a large amount of cash for these valuable items. They bid generously without hesitation when they saw something they liked.

While Su'en marveled at the existence of so many hidden rich people in the outer city, he also realized that most of these treasures today were products of the same ancient ruin.

He immediately realized that a new large-scale ruin had been discovered.

Clearly, he wasn't the only one with this idea. Many others had guessed that a large ruin had been found, and whispers could be heard on the streets of the black market.

"A large ancient ruin?"

Su'en suddenly thought of the city ruin he had seen deep underground when he traveled here.

Could it be that the city had been discovered?

Although the auction did not specify where these items came from, Su'en couldn't confirm his speculation. However, there were powerful figures in the outer city who had connections. Since these were ancient relics, they must have been brought back by the hunting teams. There were no secrets in the world, and after this auction, news of a sudden wealth would likely spread quickly.

***

This was a rare auction, even the shop owners in the black market were amazed.

If someone were to leave now, they would definitely be followed by the beggars waiting outside the black market.

So Su'en, after winning the blueprint, did not rush to leave.

The shop owners in the black market usually had more sources of information than ordinary people.

Perhaps because he had sold materials before, the owner of the Gerson Alchemy Shop decided to give Su'en some free information.

The old man spoke up, "There's a rumor that these goods were brought out from the 'D33 Wasteland' underground ancient ruins by the Red Gauntlet Hunting Team from the inner city. However, before the hunting team could enter the city, they were ambushed by a group of mysterious looters and completely wiped out. These items are naturally stolen goods. That's why they couldn't be auctioned off in the inner city..."

The "looters" were actually professional bandits who would ambush hunters on their way back to the city.

But usually, those people were professionals, mercenaries, or even other hunters.

When Su'en heard the old man say this, a look of realization appeared on his face.As expected, these items could fetch a better price in the inner city, but now they appear in the black market of the outer city. Only illicit goods that can't see the light of day could explain this.

However, upon hearing this, Su'en's brow furrowed slightly, thinking to himself, "The D33 Wasteland? If it's nearby, it could indeed be something produced from that ruined city..."

Upon hearing this news, he even felt that the blueprint of the "Eight-Armed Spider God Spear Implant" might actually be the exclusive alchemical implant diagram for his profession as a "Puppeteer".

If his guess was correct, then the place where this blueprint was found could very well be the "Storm Manor" from before.

Could it be that after he left, some scavengers went and cleared out the "Cursed Space" in the Storm Manor?

That's not right, Pestoya is clearly very strong.

In Su'en's view, she has at least the combat power of a cadre level, and is a very tricky "Ghost Species". Ordinary scavenger teams can't handle her at all.

He had heard the boss mention the "Red Spear Scavenger Group". It seemed to be composed of only a few senior first-order professionals, without even a second-order one. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so easily ambushed and wiped out.

Could it have been found somewhere else?

Did those guys go to the city?

Su'en's thoughts drifted as he pondered, feeling it even less likely.

He still clearly remembered that there were even more terrifying mutant monsters roaming in the ruins of that dilapidated city.

At this time, the boss spoke again, "Although the specific location of the ruins hasn't been widely spread yet. But it won't be long before a wave of scavenging fever will sweep through Old Lingdun, and business will be good for a while."

After saying this, the old man added a seemingly regretful remark, "Tsk tsk, it's a pity, a lot of people will die..."

"..."

Listening to this, Su'en's thoughts raced.

The more he understood about this world, the more mysterious it seemed to him, rather than making him feel like he understood it.

The ruins left behind so many treasures, which meant that there was a very glorious civilization and powerful alchemists in the underground city.

If such a powerful civilization existed... how did that city end up destroyed?

The alternation of civilizations must have been accompanied by great disasters.

Intuition told Su'en that the ancient city ruins were definitely not simple.

***

"Something doesn't seem right. It feels like someone is deliberately spreading the news of the ruins through the auction, to attract people to search for the ruins..."

An instinctive conspiracy theory possibility popped up in Su'en's mind.

But he didn't dwell on it too much.

If someone really used such a deadly "bait", even if the scavengers knew the high mortality rate, they would still rush forward.

In Old London, human lives aren't that valuable.