Today, the atmosphere of the Alchemy Guild in the inner circle has been quite subtle. All the Grandmaster Rank Alchemists have been missing from their posts and weren't in their research labs either.
However, no one seemed to surprise because they had some idea about where they had gone.
According to the announcement made three days ago, today was going to be a big event for all the Grandmaster Rank Alchemists, and this event was held by none other than their new tyrannical guild leader.
There were also rumors that this was going to be the guild leader's last day, and a new guild leader and vice guild leader will take his place. But it still remained to be seen if this mysterious rumor was true or not.
But one thing was sure many people were paying attention to the alchemist guild today.
As for the people in question, they were all gathered on the 99th floor of the building where 59 Grandmaster Alchemists were standing in front of their own workstations while facing Jacob standing on the platform right ahead.
Jacob was looking at those 59 Grandmaster Alchemists standing in rows, looking at him with excitement, anxiety, perplexion, and such emotions.
"Alright, today, as promised, I will invigilate all of your ranking tests. You guys might be wondering why I'm taking tests not in your profession-related workshops but in this place.
"The reason being extremely simple, if I were to invigilate all of your tests one by one, then it would take too much time, and I don't even have knowledge about some of your unique professions."
The other alchemists' expressions turned grim as many of them were wondering about this exact same thing after they had time to mull over it.
Normally, a Senior Grandmaster level test was conducted by a Senior Grandmaster of the same profession and judged by four others judges. But in their case, the only Senior Grandmaster available was Jacob, and they didn't even know his profession. Still, they were sure that he was the only grandmaster of a single profession since they had no idea about how a reserve alchemist has to be proficient in four different professions.
Some of them even thought that Jacob would take them to the common circle branch and have their tests taken by those old alchemists all at once, so they were not worried.
However, when they were summoned here and saw the set-up of those workstations which were used to teach novices and then Jacob had them choose one each, they were no longer sure about this anymore.
They even think Jacob was messing with them, but no one had the guts to raise their indignation.
Jacob didn't care about their reaction as he knew what he was doing, "Alright, before I continue, I want to inquire about the two other tasks I have handed to you guys. First, if any of you found the materials I have requested, then raise your hands.
"Even information about those materials will be helpful, and I will give ZC for it. But if you know the exact location, just tell me about it, and I will reward you with a permanent member slot. But if you lie, then just know that you can't hide from me."
Some of the alchemists' eyes brightened, and some were dimmed while some of them appeared helpless.
Jacob saw eight people raise their hands which was quite a good result, in his opinion.
"You, wolf face, speak first." Jacob declared while looking at the wolf face orc standing in the first row.
The orc quickly spoke, "Guild Leader, I didn't manage to get any of the materials, but I do know the information about the Night Salve's location."
Jacob coldly said, "Let me guess, it resides in the Western Star Ocean, at two miles depth?"
The orc's happy expression wrapped as he dryly nodded, "Y-yes."
Jacob snorted coldly, "By the exact location, I mean if a person had them. As for the locations of their inhabited areas, I know as much. I want information about if someone had them already and where to find them. If you guys have information like this idiot, then don't waste my time and lower your hands."
The reaming seven people looking excited were started by this new development, and six of their expressions turned hideous as they reluctantly lowered their hands.
In the end, the only one whose hand was still in the air was a tone skin gnome.
"Speak," Jacob asked dismissively.
This was quite a letdown when he saw those six were like the orc, and he was no longer as hopeful as before.
"Replying to Guild Leader, when I was searching for these materials, I got a very interesting piece of news from my friend in the noble circle of the dark city.
"According to him, there is only a single person in the entire dark city who might have all three materials." His tone to extremely respectful as he spoke.
"Who might that be?" Jacob's interest was finally piqued.
The gnome quickly replied, "It's the Dark City Administrator, the Dark Earl! According to him, the Dark Earl is also a Pill Alchemist, and his rank far surpasses Senior Grandmaster Rank.
"He owns a pill shop in the noble circle, which only opened once a month. But that shop only sold ten pills refined by the Dark Earl himself, and all those pills were auctioned, not sold like normal.
"Furthermore, every dark noble fought for those pills in that auction with everything they had. The auction items can be bought by either ZC or alchemy materials above type-0.
"Just three months ago, someone had bought a pill with materials, and one of those materials happened to be the five carcasses of Extraordinary-Tier-6 Assassin Parasite Bugs. And this is just a drop in the wealth of Dark Earl's ocean-like wealth, which he had been accumulating for who knows when!"
Everyone in the room was looking at the gnome as if he was a monster because none of them had any connection to the noble circle of the dark city since those dark nobles of barren ranks were simply too arrogant.
In their eyes, the rank of Lower and Upper Dark Nobles were like commoners, and only those barons or higher rank dark nobles were true nobles.
Furthermore, everyone knew just how mysterious the enigmatic Dark Earl was. After hearing this piece of information about him, these lower and upper-rank dark nobles were even more awed by Dark Earl.
Even Jacob's eyes contained a hint of astonishment after he heard about this Dark Earl. If this gnome was telling the truth about this shop of Dark Earl, then he might really get everything without searching for those materials himself.
Especially the Assassin Parasite Bug, which was the most difficult to find because they only exist in poisonous swamps and not just any poisonous swamps but poisonous swamps with at least an extraordinary tier poison effect.
In the entire rare plains, only one poisonous swamp met this requirement, and it was right in the heart of the Wild Nation!