"Master Wizard, the dock at Turtle Island is already full, so we can only anchor outside and take a small boat to the island."

The sweaty captain ran over from the dock and delivered bad news to Mason. The rude one-eyed sailor cursed, "The Black Death is spreading on the other side of the sea. It is said that the damn ghouls have completely occupied the main island. Fortunately, your wise decision saved us from going there, or we would be doomed."

"Then just take a small boat over. Do I need to be bothered with such trivial matters?"

Mason had occupied the most "luxurious" two-story bamboo building on the dock as a temporary alchemy lab. He was preparing to learn enchanting skills with Shacong, so he had no time to deal with these small matters.

"No, Master Wizard."

Seeing the wizard take out some strange and colorful "evil materials" like magic, the superstitious captain became even more nervous. He whispered, "Those bastards want us to pay! They charge 2 gold crowns for renting a small boat. It's crazy! With 2 gold crowns, I can buy enough rum to drown them all. You are a great hero who saved this island! They cannot humiliate and extort you at this price!"

"Then give it to them."

Mason glanced at him and said, "In the current situation of the apocalypse, is money still useful? Can it buy life?"

The young man's cold and direct answer left the greedy old sailor speechless. He could only turn around and contact the vampires who deserved to go to hell.

Mason really didn't care about the currency of this world. It was just a "mission item" after all.

"Watch closely, I can only do it once. The rain magic just now almost drained all my magic power. I hate this low-magic world. I really don't know how this ghost place was rated as a C-level world. In my opinion, it is no different from a D-level world with no supernatural power."

On the second floor of the bamboo building, Shacong complained while repeatedly rubbing the peppermint in his hand with his fingers, as if giving the herb a massage. But a faint magic power penetrated into it, making the originally light peppermint emit a stronger fragrance.

After a few seconds, Shacong handed the herb to Mason, and the young man saw its changes in his hand:

Enchanted Peppermint (Countdown to expiration: 15 minutes)

Quality: Temporary enchanting material, can be used for high-level alchemy creations.

Item Description: The best materials only need the simplest processing... What? You want to use it without processing? Are you an alchemist born as a barbarian?

Tip: Contact with enchanting items opens up enchanting branch skills, currently at Lv0.

"Indeed, it is very useful knowledge, John."

Mason looked at the temporarily enchanted herb in front of him, feeling joyful that he had learned another small technique that could quickly improve his alchemy and enchanting skills.But then he shook his head and said, "But before continuing my studies, I have to make the Philosopher's Stone. Now, John, I have to ask you to leave. I can't be disturbed while making it."

"Is it because the mysterious inheritance cannot be seen by me?" asked Zha Kang, who had never heard of the Philosopher's Stone. He cheaply grabbed Mason's shoulder and said, "We're already teammates, you can't hide things from me. Let me see it quickly. Maybe I can use this secret knowledge to bring Xiao Zha back into my arms."

"I'm asking you to leave because this thing can explode violently if there's a mistake in the making. I don't want my new teammate, who I cheated to join, to be blown up on the first day."

Mason rolled his eyes and kicked Zha Kang out.

He returned to the table and took out several types of magic ore that he had just found in the warehouse at the dock. He had not attempted to make the Philosopher's Stone before because he lacked these magic-rich stones as basic materials.

The recipe for making the Philosopher's Stone had already been unlocked at Alchemy Lv2.

Mason wasn't lying. Although the finished product had very stable properties, the process of making it was really easy to lose control and explode.

The reason was probably because this little thing had the magical ability to "change the properties of objects."

Simply put, when you hold a piece of finely crafted Philosopher's Stone, you can really turn a stone into gold, but the cost of "turning stones into gold" is that you will lose your Philosopher's Stone.

No one would do such a thing as losing a watermelon to pick up a sesame seed.

Mason put several small stones with different effects into the crucible, poured in the specially prepared solution, and ignited the crucible with magic fire. He took a deep breath and stared at the changing stones in the crucible.

In that instant, he felt that his time had "slowed down," and his senses were enhanced so that he could detect any changes in the small crucible at the first moment.

The talent effect of "Eagle Eye and Quick Hand" unlocked at Alchemy Lv2 was activated. Similar to bullet time, unfortunately, it could only be used when making items and not in combat.

But it was indeed a divine skill.

Under the blessing of "super senses," Mason's fault tolerance rate for each production was greatly improved.

After three near-losses of control and seven rapid adjustments that made the ten minutes seem exceptionally difficult, Mason wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the irregular gray small stone in the crucible.

He used tweezers to place the still-hot stone in front of his eyes.

Primary Philosopher's Stone

Quality: Excellent alchemical item · Excellent craftsmanship

Effect: Adding it to the making of potions will improve the quality of the finished product, or putting it into already-made alchemical compounds will put them in an "extraction" state to enhance their effects. It can also be used as a magical medium in other branch creations.

All of the above actions will cause the Philosopher's Stone to be damaged. Currently, it can be used 10/10 times.Item Description: Proudly wear it as a badge of alchemist, and of course, you can also ignite and throw it as a bomb when in danger. Trust me, this thing is much better than ordinary alchemy bombs.

"Plunk"

Mason dropped the gray alchemy stone into the previously prepared healing potion.

As it sank to the bottom of the potion, small bubbles appeared like bubble water.

This extraction process requires several minutes of standing still. While waiting, Mason took out the rare metal he obtained from smelting magic ore with magic fire earlier, and took out a delicate bullet mold.

His fingers jumped out of the magic fire and melted a small lump of rare metal before filling it into the mold. After it cooled down, Mason got twelve bullet heads.

When these things were picked up with tweezers, the surface was still shining with faint yellow spots. Although it was only the simplest solid pointed bullet, it still belonged to the "flashy and cheap" type of bullets without a doubt.

The young man admired his creation and looked at the exquisite bullet head in front of him:

Engineering Bullet·Petrification

Quality: Excellent Item·Standard Craftsmanship

Effect: The bullet head shaped by earth element metal still possesses the magic power of the earth. When hitting the target, it will cause a petrification state of 1-600 seconds, and the duration depends on the target's magic resistance.

This bullet can be further modified to enhance destructiveness and effects.

Item Description: Gaia! Bestow the power of justice on my sneak attack bullet!

Tip: When you have an engineering-modified bullet production line, you can scale up the production of engineering bullets, and mechanical modification blueprints have been unlocked.

"If I made these bullets by hand, I would probably only be able to enjoy the pleasure of pulling the trigger for thirty seconds after spending a day on them... I still need professional equipment. Maybe this is the true meaning of engineering."

Mason looked at the exquisite bullet head in front of him and suddenly felt that it was not as good as he had imagined.

He thought about it and felt that he should be able to find professional bullet assembly line production equipment in the arsenal of the Hogwarts world.

At this time, the extracted potion was also completed. Mason took out the alchemy stone, and the usage became [9/10], while the extracted healing potion was reduced to less than one mouthful from the amount of two mouths.

But the effect has been improved from only being able to treat minor injuries to being able to treat moderate injuries, and the effective time has been reduced from five minutes to two minutes.

The effect was pleasing.

However, it is obviously not cost-effective to use alchemy stones with higher production costs to extract such low-level potions. The true use of this lovely gray stone is to transform advanced potions.

Mason smiled, rubbed his eyes, stood up and pushed open the door, and just happened to see his three teammates welcoming the dawn outside the door while drinking and chatting to relieve their boredom.

"How many people are on this island?"

Catwoman looked at the gradually lively island behind her with binoculars with far-sighted and night vision functions. She took a sip of the strange-tasting rum and frowned, saying:"The population density here is crazier than the poorest slums in Gotham, and all the buildings are made of wood. No wonder a fire can turn this place into hell."

"This place is already hell!"

Beside Catwoman, Scarecrow held his nose and complained:

"Don't you smell it? The smell of death is overwhelming. I can feel that at least ten people have died on this island, in the last 10 seconds."

Mason didn't say anything.

He walked over to Kite Man and handed him the freshly extracted healing potion, asking him to treat the injuries he sustained during the fall.

"Dismiss the people on the ship."

Mason refused the rum that Scarecrow handed him. He looked at the bewildered crew on the pier and ordered the one-eyed, superstitious, and greedy captain standing beside him:

"But we don't want money! We want all kinds of rare items, whether it's magic minerals, leather, herbs, or unique items with special effects..."

"Jewelry!"

The tipsy Catwoman suddenly spoke up:

"Beautiful, expensive, and rare jewelry too!"

"Why do you want those things?"

Mason glanced at the older sister.

It was clear that Ms. Selina had no intention of giving up her love for collecting jewelry. To take care of the emotions of her new team member, the young man also held his nose and added jewelry to the exchange list.

"In fact, beautiful and helpless girls..."

Scarecrow had just started talking when he saw a flash of cold light. The sharp blade of a sword was pressed against his waist, making the black magician raise his hands and stop himself from saying anything more sinister.

The captain found a group of men and quickly brought food.

But their work efficiency was impressive, and it also showed K Squad how cheap human lives could be in a world on the brink of the apocalypse.

A group of ragged young women soon came knocking, saying that they would do anything as long as there was food, even including children under ten years old.

Kite Man sighed repeatedly at the sight. A man with children cannot bear to see this. Even the usually lazy Catwoman fell silent in her drunkenness.

She turned to Mason.

The young man was exchanging enchanting knowledge with Scarecrow. He noticed Catwoman's silent gaze and paused for a second before waving his hand, letting the two of them decide on their own.

Watching Catwoman and Kite Man distribute food from their bags, Scarecrow, who was smoking a pipe and holding a bottle of wine beside Mason, said drunkenly:

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"You know, Selina is not a good team member. I know what she did before. Now it seems that the annoying Batboy has really 'trained' her successfully. Her kindness will bring trouble to her and us in this apocalypse.

Your little brother Charles is not a qualified explorer either.

Indecisive, lacking in courage and strength."Although it may seem cold-hearted, Mason, if the world we are going to in the future is mostly like this, they obviously need to change their mindset.

"But you're not bad."

The black magician took a sip of his drink and stared at Mason, saying:

"I saw the way you looked at these people, like a group of 'consumables'. I know you won't hesitate to shoot them when you need to.

But I also believe that Batman is willing to give up his lone ranger principle to save someone who obviously isn't a scumbag who doesn't care about human life. So, Mason, did joining the Star Alliance and being cursed make you cold-blooded?"

Mason took out Old K's alchemy notebook and looked at it, seeming uninterested in the question of the scumbag, but the black wizard kept asking, annoying Mason.

He frowned at the scumbag and said:

"I don't know how the other captains of the Star Alliance select members, John, but I think my team has done well so far.

Even you."

"I think you're insulting me, Mason."

Scumbag grunted unhappily and asked a few seconds later:

"Can you tell me what your code of conduct is? Considering that we will be working together for a long time in the future, I don't want to anger you over trivial matters and have you throw me into some godforsaken world.

What I mean is, bottom line.

Just like Batman's 'no killing' principle, you should have something like that too, right?"

"I do! And it's very simple."

Mason looked at the scumbag, pondered for a moment, and said:

"If I am forced to the point where I have to betray my morals, it means that I am desperate or there is a great benefit to be gained. But look at those people, John."

The young man pointed to the poor women and children begging for food around Catwoman and Kite Man below, shaking his head and saying:

"Please tell me, what can I gain by abandoning my morals for these people? If doing a good deed at no benefit, why not be a good person?

Does doing a good deed at random make you feel bad?"

"Haha, it seems that we have very different views."

Constantine blew a smoke ring and covered his expression with magic smoke, saying:

"I didn't expect my captain to be a kind saint. Oh my god, I'm becoming more and more pessimistic about the future of the K team."

Mason lowered his head again to look at the alchemy notebook.

He didn't care about Constantine's sarcasm, because he knew that this guy who had no bottom line and behaved recklessly was definitely not a good person deep down in his heart.

But he couldn't be considered a traditional bad guy either.

"This is a good thing, John."

The captain of the K team decided to end the unpleasant conversation of mutual testing, saying:

"Being a good person means that when I need to pay a price to get something, you don't have to worry about becoming that 'price'."This sentence made Shazam silent for ten seconds. He took a deep breath of smoke and said, "Damn, what you said makes so much sense that I can't argue with it. But I still think if our team wants to go further, we need at least one guy who is pessimistic and cautious about everything like Batman and as ruthless as Green Arrow when it comes to taking action. Only then can we turn the tide at critical moments."

Mason raised his head with a strange look in his eyes and glanced at John. "Don't worry, John. We already have one asshole like that, and he's sitting in front of me talking nonstop. I believe you won't let us down when we need to be tough... Don't give me that creepy smile, asshole. I'm not complimenting you!"

By the way, about the problem we just discussed, how can we more effectively tap into the wealth of this world, I suddenly have an idea."

Mason closed the book and said to Shazam, "I suddenly think that we may need to modify our action goals this time. In addition to the original plan to find the resources we need, K team may be able to do more.

I have a plan!

John, do you know what is the most valuable thing in the world on the road to the apocalypse?"

"The future?"

Shazam, who was drunk, sneered, "Or some imaginary things like hope?"

"Yes, it's hope!"

Mason looked at the ragged women and children downstairs, his eyes shining, and whispered, "I have a new idea. Instead of searching for every penny ourselves, it's better to play big and find a way to make them willingly offer their most precious things to us.

What I mean is, let's sell hope."