Chapter 12: Rich Spoils of War

Baldy died, and Su Lun began to collect his spoils of war.

The mechanical arm on his right arm had been badly damaged in the previous fight, with the gun barrel, air valves, and high-pressure pipes all sliced open.

However, this did not hinder Su Lun's research into this steampunk technology.

He had just stripped Baldy's memory, adding some basic "steam mechanical knowledge" to his mind, and now he roughly understood the construction of the mechanical arm.

"The technology tree of this world seems a bit skewed, a combination of Alchemy and steam power..."

Su Lun looked at the runes engraved on the mechanical arm, falling into thought.

Simply metal materials could not support such a complex structure, especially the ultra-high pressure steam cannon. These mysterious alchemical runes played a very important role in stabilizing the structure.

However, his mechanical knowledge was still quite limited, and he couldn't yet understand the principles behind these engravings and enchantments.

....

Without lingering, Su Lun started to scour the rest of Baldy's equipment.

Unfortunately, apart from the dagger he had taken moments before, almost all items on the corpse had been damaged. The musket was cut into several pieces, leaving only half a handle in the holster.

Su Lun couldn't help feeling disappointed – he hadn't found the supplies he wanted, wondering to himself, "Is this it? Don't these guys carry food with them when they leave home?"

Just as he was pondering this, suddenly, he noticed three black gemstone rings in Baldy's hand.

If he remembered correctly, one of them was even stripped from the finger of the dead Cock's Comb man.

Upon closer inspection, the "All-knowing Eye" immediately responded with information.

[Inferior Space Ring]

Details: A storage ring with 1/2 cubic meter of substandard space.

"Space equipment?"

Seeing this, Su Lun revealed an I-knew-it expression.

In this desolate underground, water and food should be more important than weapons; these guys not even having water bottles on them was abnormal.

He stripped off a storage ring and then put it on his finger; a thought later, he suddenly saw the storage ring's "black gemstone" was a folding space.

About half a cubic meter of space, it was densely packed with various bottles and jars.

Red and green, row after row, it looked like potions.

Su Lun casually took out a red test tube potion and identified it with the "All-knowing Eye".

[Inferior Healing Potion (Internal)]

Details: Rapidly stops bleeding, accelerates wound healing; despite its impurities, it has no serious side effects.

Then, he looked at a blue one, which was for restoring dark spiritual power.

The rest were some high-grade potions in test tubes with engravings, but in small quantities.

"Exactly, emergency medicine is essential for adventurers. Now it looks like I might not die after all..."

Su Lun felt a surge of joy.

A moment ago, he was worried about the lack of essential medicines, and that his wounds might get infected and inflamed, posing an unpredictable fatal threat.

Now, seeing these potions, he directly opened a mid-grade healing potion and drank it down. He also used a topical disinfectant potion to clean his wounds.

If it weren't for the "All-knowing Eye", Su Lun felt that even if he saw these potions, he wouldn't know that these test tubes contained life-saving medicine.

Of course, there were also poisons.

Now it seemed this innate ability was indeed a perfect match for him as a transmigrator.

Strangely enough, after taking the potion, Su Lun suddenly felt the injuries on his palms itch – he knew it was cells dividing rapidly, a sign that the wounds were healing.

Normally, this healing sensation would only become noticeable several days after the injury occurred.

"What a miraculous potion, if I had this in my previous life, it would be a lifesaving miracle medicine for surgery..."

Su Lun's current vision allowed him to clearly see his wounds healing at a visibly fast rate.

It looked like it might fully recover in less than half an hour.

However, he then mumbled, "It seems kind of wasteful to use a 'mid-grade potion' for such an injury..."

The super effectiveness of the "Mid-grade Healing Potion" seemed more suitable for more fatal injuries. The minor injuries on the palms might have been enough with just an inferior potion.

But using it on himself, Su Lun didn't feel it was a waste.

....

In the second storage ring, Su Lun found the food and water he wanted, but they looked quite hard to swallow.

The food was some kind of hard bread, black as a brick, and the water was not clear at all.

If he hadn't identified it as [Inferior Drinking Water], Su Lun wouldn't have believed this faintly black liquid was potable.

Not in a hurry to eat, Su Lun checked the last storage ring, and inside were indeed weapons.

There were two punk-style pistols and a short-barreled shotgun.

Then there were numerous bullets and some mechanical arm replacement parts.

The guns were good, and the bullets weren't just simple gunpowder ones.

After identifying them, Su Lun found among the ordinary bullets, there were some special bullets with magic engravings – [Alchemical Bullet (High Explosive)], [Alchemical Bullet (Armor Piercing)], [Alchemical Bullet (Magic Breaking)]...

There weren't many, but they all looked quite formidable.

In the last storage ring too, no other food was found, and Su Lun had no choice as hypoglycemia had already made him somewhat dizzy. He picked up the black bread and nibbled on a few bites, then gulped down some water with a slightly strange taste.

As he ate, he also felt very strange.

Considering the equipment Baldy carried, like firearms and bullets that were very well-made, the industry in this world should be very advanced. But the food situation was quite dismal.

"Could it be that those guys can't even ensure basic clean drinking water and food?"

Having transmigrated, Su Lun found it hard to understand how these people could possess such refined equipment yet lacked a pot of clean drinking water.

He faintly guessed that the living conditions in this world might be extremely harsh.

....

Su Lun sat beside Baldy's corpse and ate, watching the physical characteristics of a living being gradually fade from the corpse, the skin whitening, the body heat slowly dissipating...

While he was still checking the items in the storage ring, he suddenly noticed two glowing objects on Baldy's corpse.

A palm-sized blue scale armor slowly condensed and appeared from the skin of the corpse; and another item was a dark red strip that looked like a bundle of muscle fibers.

Upon identification, they were two special items.

[Diamond Scale Armor (Damaged)]

Explanation: Already damaged Alchemy gear, you might be able to extract some extraordinary materials from it;

[Cursed Item: Tough Magic Muscle (Damaged)]

Explanation: Magician power series 'Iron Strongman' initiation material; missing part of its cursed properties, it needs the curse runes to be redrawn for use;

"So this is the scale armor that made Baldy impervious to knives and guns? Turns out it's a kind of gear..."

Su Lun suddenly found it amazing, wondering what exactly this thing was. It could turn into a tattoo covering the body, be activated by magic arrays to materialize, and now, after death, it had peeled off.

The more he saw "Alchemy" appearing frequently in the All-knowing Eye, the more curious he became.

And after the "Magic Muscle" had peeled off the corpse, the corpse visibly shrank a great deal.

Su Lun also realized something, thinking to himself, "So initiation materials are used like this... directly merging into the body to enhance physical attributes?"

He immediately thought of the "Puppeteer" initiation material he also had, which after initiation could greatly enhance agility and skill.

It turns out, Baldy's exaggerated strength had this "Magic Muscle" as its underlying reason!

However...

Even though the principle was understood, Su Lun found that he still didn't know how to "initiate."

...

Having barely filled his stomach, Su Lun had also almost finished inventorying the items in Baldy's storage ring.

It wasn't that he didn't want to figure everything out, but using the All-knowing Eye to identify items was not without cost.

Identification required the consumption of dark spiritual power.

The higher the item's level, the more it consumed.

Now, the dark spiritual power inside him had only a few dozen points left in reserve. Even if he drank a recovery potion, it would take several hours to fully recover.

Since he had found the urgently needed medicine and water, there was no rush to know what use the remaining items had.

Su Lun loaded the two pistols with bullets.

One was loaded with regular bullets, the other with special alchemic bullets, and then he tucked them at his waist.

He planned to leave this place first, find a human city, and learn about this world.

When leaving, looking at Baldy's corpse and the desolate manor, Su Lun suddenly had another doubt.

"Based on this, the original owner came looking for this relic. Why did Baldy kidnap the original owner? Was he specifically tracking the original owner or a teammate turned hostile during the journey?"

Su Lun felt the former was more likely.

The original owner, no matter how foolish, might not share something as crucial as "Baron Isaac's treasure." And even if picking teammates, he likely wouldn't choose a group like Baldy who could turn hostile and murder for wealth anytime.

And based on the information left on the retina, the original owner's identity was likely very sensitive, seemingly an exile from a major family.

These conditions combined were quite intriguing.

"First, the chances of a random encounter in such a remote place are very low. And from the questions Baldy asked before, they didn't know about the treasure or the original owner's real identity. So, their purpose in following was simple, to kill and silence!"

"And the reason they didn't act immediately might be because Baldy was greedy, coveting some secret from the original owner, which led him to follow all the way here..."

"With no previous acquaintance, there's no old grudge. Thus, it's likely a case of 'murder for hire'."

Su Lun connected the limited information in his brain and roughly restored the truth of the matter.

He speculated, "This also means, the place the original owner came from, someone wants him dead? If I go back, I might still be targeted for assassination?"

Thinking about this, he frowned slightly; this was not good news.

It also meant that even if he returned to the city the original owner came from, he could not reveal his identity.

Otherwise, he might invite lethal danger.

"This really puts me in a difficult position..."

Su Lun thought of something and muttered, "Such a handsome face, high level of recognition."