Lord of the Sky City-Chapter 832 - 814: Accumulated into a Mountain

Thinking about the price the Alliance paid to Rocky to rescue him, even the far-sighted Elder Gandalf couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret.

Alas, the situation had already progressed beyond the point of recovery.

The celebratory ball soon concluded, and the following day, Martin left Thunderhawk City with satisfaction written all over his face, returning to the Empire to resume his duties as Chancellor. Coincidentally, on the same day he departed, the freighter sent by the Sky Alliance arrived at Thunderhawk City.

Rocky clearly regarded this shipment with great importance, personally leading a team to inspect the cargo at the Skyport. He even went through the crates one by one with Aileen. Such painstaking attention wasn’t unwarranted, given the value of this shipment; any City Lord would treat it with the same level of seriousness.

"Two and a half tons of Fine Steel, totaling five hundred and eighteen crates."

"Sir, everything checks out."

Seeing the Guard confirm no issues, Rocky turned his gaze toward the mountain of crates before him, opened the nearest one, and reached inside for a block of iron. Although the block was roughly the size of a standard brick, it was extraordinarily heavy—just one weighed several dozen pounds. This was the raw material for the new generation of White Demon Armor, one of the world’s most precious metals: Fine Steel.

Previously, in an effort to develop the new White Demon Armor, Rocky had spent tens of millions of Gold Coins purchasing a significant amount of Fine Steel from Eternal City. Even so, the quantity procured was measured only in pounds, as this metal’s rarity made it exorbitantly priced; the cost per unit weight was several times that of gold. Despite spending tens of millions of Gold Coins, he hadn’t acquired much.

But now, the Sky Alliance had delivered two and a half tons of Fine Steel in one shipment—a value so incomprehensible it couldn’t be calculated. If it were converted into Gold Coins, Thunderhawk City wouldn’t exhaust the wealth in decades. Of course, Rocky wasn’t foolish enough to exchange such a valuable material for gold, especially given Fine Steel’s proven status as the optimal material for bearing Elemental Technology. Thus, this batch would be entirely dedicated to research and the production of new armors.

"Alright, transport all these goods to the warehouse. Where are the teachers? Send them there for further inspection."

"Understood!"

With a resolute response, the Guard immediately summoned personnel to transport the mountain of Fine Steel to the warehouse. Meanwhile, another colossal item was being unloaded—a Magic Dragon corpse over a hundred meters long!

As one of the most renowned and formidable high-level demons, every part of the Magic Dragon’s body was a treasure. Its scales were sold piece by piece, its hide by the yard, and its bones by the section. Seeing an intact corpse like this was exceedingly rare.

Unfortunately for the Sky Alliance, the Magic Dragon was a crucial material in Rocky’s required shipment. Initially, Athena had demanded the Alliance surrender ten fully intact Magic Dragons. After much haggling, the final agreed number was reduced to five. Nonetheless, the cost for the Alliance was astronomical. To transport the five complete Magic Dragon corpses, the Alliance even retrofitted battleships into cargo carriers—such were the creatures’ immense sizes.

The Alliance, however, employed a subtle trick. While Magic Dragon sizes varied—larger specimens being inherently more valuable—Rocky had not specified size criteria. Thus, the Alliance shipped five of the smallest Magic Dragons. Even so, each measured over a hundred meters in length.

Rocky paid little attention to the maneuver. Even the five smaller dragons would suffice for his long-term needs. After conducting inspections on each one, he dispatched the Void Magic Warriors unit to carry the corpses to the research facility.

"Sir, these are here for your inspection."

As he watched the five Magic Dragon corpses ascend to the skies, Rocky turned around to find several Guards opening a row of crates before him.

The number of crates was modest, only a dozen or so, but upon opening them, the contents caused Rocky’s eyes to light up.

Demon Cores. Every crate was filled with Demon Cores, and all were from high-level demons.

Demon Cores could be considered the most precious resource extracted from demons. Every demon possessed only a single core, and not all retained their cores after death. As a result, the market price for a single Demon Core often exceeded that of a complete demon.

Of course, by now, Rocky was no stranger to Demon Cores. When he absorbed Backhill Village, its inventory included a large number of Demon Cores, which he sold to purchase his first large-scale warship.

This time, however, Rocky had no intention of selling the cores delivered by the Alliance. These were high-grade Demon Cores, invaluable resources applicable in various domains and essential top-tier materials in technological development.

The primary motivation for Rocky demanding so many high-grade Demon Cores was the hypothesis proposed by Orton and Pelaya—that these cores could significantly advance Elemental Technology. High-grade demons possessed numerous unique abilities, making their cores distinct. The reaction and adaptability of these cores to Elemental Magic Energy far surpassed those of ordinary Demon Cores. To validate this hypothesis, Rocky ordered numerous high-grade cores from the Alliance, intending to conduct further experiments. If proven correct, the implications for the advancement and application of Elemental Technology would be profound.

Given the context, Rocky meticulously examined each high-grade Demon Core within the dozen crates. Though it was unlikely the Sky Alliance would commit the base act of substituting lesser-quality cores, it was always possible. High-grade and standard Demon Cores bore similar appearances, and Rocky refused to be duped. Only after individually inspecting every single core did he nod and send them off to the research facility.

Once the Demon Cores were transported away, Rocky raised his head to gaze at the sky and found the sun hanging high at its zenith, signaling midday. Upon lowering his head to glance at the inventory list in his hands, he realized that after working tirelessly all morning, only a fraction of the shipment had been unloaded and inspected—many items still awaited processing.

Rocky turned toward the Skyport, spotting dozens of freighters queued for docking.

"Looks like this will take more than a day or two to finish."

Seeing the numerous freighters awaiting their turn, Rocky understood that completing the unloading in a single day was unrealistic. Handling all the goods brought by the Alliance would take at least several days.

At that moment, he realized just how abundant his request had been...

Thinking of this, Rocky chuckled lightly, feeling no remorse but rather immense satisfaction. With this shipment, Thunderhawk City would experience unprecedented development and finally establish some foundations, allowing operations to move forward without excessive calculations and constraints. More importantly, these were just the materials delivered by the Alliance; the goods from other parties had yet to arrive!