Leona was having a mood swing right at the moment, she was furious at Zick but suddenly he proposed to trade leaving her completely dumbfounded.
Leona had two tempting red eyes, which right at the moment were filled with bewilderment. Her waist was slim and she wore a brown hunting dress along with a white robe. Her golden hair was left free, cascading behind her.
Leona wore two deep blue gloves reaching above her elbow. She looked to be 16 years old with a strong disposition.
'Trade?' Leona was left speechless for a while, thinking quickly.
This person, who she had never met in her life appeared out of nowhere and was proposing a trade. Of course, Leona wanted to reject him.
'No, in the first place, these two appeared in the underground research facility, so that must mean they are criminals and must be captured.' Leona thought quickly and rationally.
Zick and Levienel appeared here, a place that was restricted by the four alchemy towers so it was of course a crime. A breach of territory.
But for some reason, she had a bad feeling in her heart.
Thinking about how Zick and Levienel broke through the trap and appeared here like it was nothing, Leona was hesitant.
"Leona, Let's trade with him," Anastasia spoke with shock and apprehension visible on her face. She was shocked to come across Zick in such a place.
Seeing her friend say such a thing, Leona considered it with a difficult look. She was raised as an alchemist from a young age, she knew to think rationally when the need be.
'Anastasia is right, we should just trade with this person. Though they are criminals and have to be apprehended, it doesn't necessarily mean we must do it.' Leona's expression turned calm.
She was the daughter of an alchemy master, but that didn't mean the enemy couldn't harm her. They could just abduct her and ask the alchemy tower for compensation to redeem her.
Leona felt embarrassed thinking about how she scolded Zick before. She had really lost her cool at that moment.
Fortunately, Zick didn't care one bit. If scolding and cursing could kill people, he would have probably been the person who cursed the most in the world.
Leona nodded her head towards Anastasia who looked at her with a worried look.
just that: ' Even if they captured me, they would unfortunately not benefit. Father will....probably just abandon me.' Leona smiled sadly thinking about this.
Leona shook her head lightly dispelling this thought.
Turning towards Zick, Leona spoke calmly: "What do you want?"
Zick smiled happily upon hearing this: "I knew that you wouldn't make the wrong decision. As for what I want...."
Zick's expression became serious: "It's the round-shaped device that you picked up from the room a few floors below."
Silence descended upon them instantly. Leona's expression mildly changed, she had a struggling look.
She was unwilling to part with that round device. It was even considered her main gain this time around.
Though its function and use were unknown, just the material used, and the complicated work on it showed that it was something important.
Leona spoke unwillingly: "What will you give me in exchange for it?"
"Mana Crystals." Zick was totally loaded with mana crystal after looting one of the main bases of the Everlor organisation. He even had a chunk of apex-grade mana crystal, which was the highest-grade mana crystal existing in the world.
And there was also the Lectic mountain range that he could explore in the future. So he didn't care about this puny mana crystal.
Hearing mana crystals coming out of Zick's mouth, Leona was a little tempted.
"Which grade and how many," Leona asked immediately.
"A complete peak-grade mana crystal," Zick said with a serious look.
Leona's expression changed to surprise this time. Zick was actually offering a whole peak-grade mana crystal, this was only used by the most influential and rich alchemist.
Just using one such mana crystal, tens of golems with quasi-master strength can be made.
Leona was not aware that Zick had six such mana crystals in his space ring.
???????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????-????????????.????????????
Zick wanted to keep a good relationship with Leona thus he didn't sting in giving up this mana crystal.
People must know to sacrifice smaller things for the bigger picture. This concept was grasped by Zick thus he wasn't bothered by giving up this mana crystal.
"Let's make a deal," Leona spoke with no hesitation. She had never imagined she could gain a peak-grade mana crystal from here.
Though the device was intriguing and surely important, its use was unknown. For this reason, Leona's heart was inclined toward trading with Zick.
Not saying anything, Zick took out a mana crystal from his space ring. Immediately, a meter-long crystal appeared on Zick's palm. This crystal gave out dazzling light as if trying to blind everyone and it was transparent like glass, in the middle of this crystal blue mana was densely packed.
This mana was so densely packed that it gave out an inexplicable sensation to anyone who saw it.
Looking at it, Leona was sure that it was a real peak-grade mana crystal. This sensation had left a deep impression on her in the past.
A round object appeared above Leona's palm too. This object looked roughly half a palm in size and had a thick needle protruding from it. Thin Blue lines were flowing on the needle flickering mysteriously.
The air around the passage became tense, Zick was the first to move towards Leona calmly.
Leona took a step forward and handed the device to Zick.
Looking at the device with a content look, Zick put it into his space ring and put the mana crystal on Leona's hand very softly. She too put the mana crystal within her space ring immediately.
Zick stretched his hand forward for a handshake: "It was a pleasure trading with you."
Leona looked at Zick's outstretched hand blankly, before hesitantly extending her hand.
"Ah, Sorry I forgot that you had a problem with your hand." Apologizing with a sincere smile, Zick withdrew his hand.
Leona's palm was eight times more sensitive than that of a normal human being, so even the sense of pain was amplified. Just by touching things lightly, the pain would travel like electricity in her hand.
Because of this, she wore gloves to lessen the pain.
"....Thank you for your consideration," Leona spoke with a little gloominess flashing in her eyes.
Leona's hand had become like such because of her father, who experimented on her.
Zick turned to Anastasia next: "It's been a while, miss Anastasia."
Seeing Zick speak to Anastasia Leona was surprised. She looked at Anastasia who didn't seem to be fazed.
"Yes, it's been a while mister Zick." Anastasia of course had a good impression of Zick. He had let her travel with him to the Academic city with no compensation asked. She had no idea about the deal made between Zick and Anelete.
Leona couldn't control her curiosity, ending up asking a question: "Do you know each other?"
"Just an acquaintance from a long time ago," Anastasia answered Leona.
The other three people who seem to be alchemists 25 to 30 years old, heard them speak quietly.
"Well, I have to get going." Zick bid well to both of them.
'I wonder what kind of expression they will have after finding out that I am a heretic.' Zick couldn't help but think this while snickering internally.
'Should I explore and loot this place right now or not?' Zick's eye flickered with light.
If Zick tried exploring the place right now with Levienel, many things would be destroyed without a doubt. This could cause a cave-in to the upper floors where Leona is.
'I should come to explore this place after acquiring the biological golem. It must have all the locations of the research in its database.' Zick decided after considering it for a second.
"Let's get out of the underground," Zick spoke to Levienel.
Without a word, a golden light covered both of their figures again.
Bam, they shot to the ceiling and started rising rockets.
"That guy....!!" Looking at Zick again going on a stage of bulldozing his way, Leona was left furious.
She was lamenting thinking about the things that might be destroyed by him.
Leona turned to Anastasia with a thoughtful look and spoke in a small voice so that the other three couldn't hear her: "If he is your acquaintance then he must be from the same continent as you."
"Yes, He once helped me," Anastasia answered truthfully. She had become a friend of Leona after helping her once. They had gotten quite close after sticking around each other.
The fact that Anastasia was from the middle continent was only known by Leona and she has been keeping it a secret till now.
The group of five people started walking to the other side of the passage. Along the way, unfortunately, the other three alchemists died falling into a trap.
In the end, only Anastasia and Leona survived and got out of there.
....
A golden streak moved toward the southeast of the Eastern continent at a terrifying speed.
The lab was located in the furthest of the southeast, near the Elf kingdom.
Normally it would take around a few months to reach there from the Leweisert kingdom, but with Levienel's speed, it was only a matter of minutes before they reached their destination.
'With the device in my hand, the lab would belong to me and I can do any kind of questionable thing there with no worry.' Zick thought of this before gloominess took over.
The God or whoever it is had predicted Zick's next aim and tried to get in his way.
This also meant that the lab, which would be his secret base, was exposed.
A fierce light flickered in Zick's eye: 'Hmph, let it send how many priests it wants, I will make it their death place.'
There was a reason Zick was confident in taking care of the priest. Once he gets the biological golem in his hand, he could mass produce the golem using the blueprint stored in its database!
These golems were all very special having the power matching master rank. The only disadvantage was they were specialized in a certain path.
And an immense amount of material would be needed to make them. Zick did not worry as he already had tons of material and he was planning on looting the other main bases of the Everlor organization in the future.
'I can even try creating a second biological golem in the time of war...' Zick started daydreaming thinking of this.
He didn't know the method to make the biological golem so he was uncertain of the level of difficulty to make it.