After Jacob's announcement, the Alchemy Guild started to buzz with activities as all those Grandmasters madly started to prepare for the upcoming test as well as they used every contact to search for the materials and information Jacob wanted.
The three types of materials Jacob made them search were naturally the White, Assassin Parasite Bug's Blood, Night Salve's Poison Magic Core, and Nightmare Lilly.
The blood flower turned out to be the same blood flower required for the enslavement ritual array. So, Jacob now already has two materials, and as long as he gets his hand on the remaining three, he will start the process of taming the Brain Hunter.
Jacob knew these dark nobles were not without connections, so he decided to use them by giving them enough motivation. The permanent member slots cost him nothing, and they were useless once he exited the rare plains.
So, he wasn't losing anything by giving those useless slots as rewards to them, and he didn't care about controlling those useless guys like Braylon.
Even if they didn't manage to get their hands on any of the materials, he already knows where to find two of them, while the Assassin Parasite Bug could pose some problems.
But he was confident in finding it since he knew what environment they resided in.
He would at least get information on the star ocean from all of this, which was as important as those materials. He still wanted to avoid traveling with the alchemy guild entourage if he could.
At this moment, Jacob was sitting in his workshop, which was now clean and spotless, as if it were not in use for twenty months.
He was looking at his star watch interface, and a message box was opened, and he was reading some unread messages which he didn't bother when he was busy. He even put his star watch away so he won't be disturbed.
'Faceless Ancient to (Great Earth Minor): Go Ahead! (20 months ago)
'Faceless Ancient to (Great Earth Minor): If you encounter any problem you're your breathing, don't come begging me to save you! (20 months ago)
'Great Earth Minor (Reply): What do you mean?? (20 months ago)
'Great Earth Minor (Reply): ??? (20 months ago)
'Great Earth Minor (Reply): Fucking Idiot! (20 months ago)
'Great Earth Minor (Reply): Hello! If you're still interested in our deal, I can forget about our past transition. (17 months ago)
'Great Earth Minor (Reply): Hey buddy, I was thinking about your offer lately, and I would be happy to work with you! Please reply for further discussion! (16 months ago)
'Great Earth Minor (Reply): Man, please reply if you want the silver ore. I can even give you a discount, and I have 13 KG! (16 months ago)
'Great Earth Minor (Reply): Alright, I was wrong back then and shouldn't have believed that prick Dark Moon. I'm suffering from a strange breathing problem, and my lungs are always on fire, and with time past, it is getting worse! So, please help me. I'll fully cooperate with you! (15 months ago)
'Great Earth Minor (Reply): Why aren't you replying?? (15 months ago)
...
Jacob looked at hundreds if not thousands of unread messages from Great Earth Minor, except for the first ten or twenty messages; the reaming was filled with pleading and begging as he was suffering from a strange illness that was getting intensified by the day.
His lips curled up in an icy smile, 'If you work with plutonium without even knowing what it is, especially if you have a large amount, then the alpha particles will kill your lungs at terrifying speed, which will cause scarring of the lungs, leading to further lung disease and at the end terminal lung cancer.
'I wasn't sure if cancer could occur in this world since the species here had very powerful immune systems. So, I was merely firing in the darkness, but it seemed diseases would find their way.
'But still, to get rare being effective by plutonium's radiation, it should be at least over 5 points while it would take 10-point radiation to effect an extraordinary. In any case, he had to be exposed to more than twenty kg of plutonium to reach any aforementioned results.' Jacob thought as he was calculating as if Great Earth Minor was his experiment subject.
His eyes shimmered darkly, 'Well, I don't need it anymore, but having it with me will not hurt, I guess. Besides, I'm really immune to radiation of over 10 points, so my immunity to harmful objects is legit. Now I just need to test slave objects. Anyhow, l should contact this guy now before he dies with all that plutonium buried somewhere.'
Jacob types a message, 'Give me your location.' And then sent it before he opened another message which he was from the Black Robe Alchemist.
'Faceless Ancient to (Black Robe Alchemist): I'll reach out when I'm done. Keep the Nightmare Lilly safe for me. The price is not an issue. (20 months ago)
'Black Robe Alchemist (Reply): Sure, it's not like I can go anywhere with those damn corpses running amok outside. (20 months ago)
'Black Robe Alchemist (Reply): I'm texting you to inform you that I'm going to flee from my base because the situation is not looking good for the freedom plains. But I'm leaving the Nightmare Lilly in my herb garden as well as its cultivation method buried right underneath it. So, if you're still interested, you can pay me, and I'll give you the location of my abandoned base, and you can retrieve it from there. (12 months ago)'
Jacob narrowed his eyes when he saw this message, 'It could be a scam, but I guess if I didn't get any luck in the dark city or the beast forest, then it's still better than nothing.
Jacob then replied to him, 'How much?' and then closed the interface.
He then looked at the brightly lit city outside and thought, 'I should take a stroll in the market, especially the ship company. I need a fast ship to travel in the star ocean, and its size should be enough to put in my pendant.'
However, he pulled out of his thoughts when his star watch started to vibrate and when he looked at the caller's Star ID. He frowned deeply.
"Amiable Monk Fish wanted to send you a Projection Call!"
"Accept / Reject / Projection Setting!"
'What did she want?' Jacob was still on guard against this woman, and her timing of the call was simply too impeccable as he had just exited his seclusion, so he was not going to believe that it was a coincidence.
He thought of ghosting her since he was no longer a reserve member, but then he thought about that ride to the epic plains in sixteen months. He still needed to be in her good books until he made the final decision about his traveling problem.
So, he accepted the call, and Ellie wearing a white veil, and silvery robes, appeared. She was sitting behind a desk, just like the last time she called him.
"Vice president, what do I owe the honor?" Jacob coolly stated.
Ellie looked at Jacob's same outfit as the last time, and her eyes shimmered strangely. But she wasn't in the mood to have a chit-chat after talking to her father. So, she got straight to business.
"Foremost, congratulation on becoming an Epic Alchemist in such a short amount of time. Consider the ten thousand ZC before you reward, and you can spend them freely now."
Jacob scoffed in his heart, hearing this with coldness creeping in his eyes, 'So, she was keeping an eye on me, huh? As for that ZC, if I hadn't robbed Braylon, I'm afraid those ten thousand was only enough to practice either potion, pill, or magic smiting to Senior Grandmaster rank. Yet she had the nerve to said I can use it as I pleased?'
Still, he impassively replied, "Thank you for your generosity, Vice President."
Ellie nodded before her eyes turned sharp, "Second, when were you going to tell me that you were the champion of the rare plains?"
Jacob wasn't the least shocked by this as he already knew this woman could learn this from the Guild President as well since a Gunnar can. But it was also quite clear that the President only decided to reveal it to her now, which means the President had some motive to hide it from her before.
"What would you do if you knew? Last time I recon, I'm not obliged to report to you about anything other than guild matter, and that is also under the condition that I'm under the suspicion of some crime against the guild." Jacob emotionlessly uttered.
Ellie was lost for words when she heard Jacob's valid refute and narrowed her eyes coldly while looking at the hooded figure. She never thought he would dare to refute, but it wasn't out of her expectation either.
Still, she didn't push the matter since it was not what she had contacted him for; she asked coldly, "Fair enough. Then tell me, were you contacted by someone named Rich Winter Lady?"
Surprised flashed past Jacob's eyes for the first time!