After speaking, his tone paused as he gave the Level 15 old goblin a deep look, his voice somber.
"Mohr, I will mobilize the full power of this city to support you. All I need is for the goblins to produce alchemical bombs in the shortest time possible."
Li De's words stirred Mohr's blood with excitement.
Mobilizing the power of an entire city to support them!!
At that moment, he finally understood what it felt like to be valued.
Goblins had long lived in the sealed Underground World, where resources were extremely scarce. Life only slightly improved after they began trading with Risel City.
But even those trades with Risel City weren't truly fair. What the goblins gained was far less than what they gave.
Yet they had no choice. Without cooperation, life would have been even more difficult for them.
Such was the helplessness of a weak race.
But now, in Li De's tone, Mohr heard respect. His instincts told him that the goblins might really be able to find a piece of land to call their own in this unfamiliar city.
"As you wish, Majestic Iro. The Graymount Tribe will offer you everything we have."
Li De fixed his gaze on the old goblin.
"From now on, within this city, just address me as City Lord Kachar."
Mohr was briefly taken aback. Though he found Li De's reaction somewhat odd, he immediately nodded in response.
"Yes, I'll go back right away and inform the others."
"Very good. You may go. I'll send someone from City Hall to coordinate with you shortly."
"Yes, Your Majesticness."
Once the old goblin, disfigured by dragon breath, had left leaning on his green staff, a contemplative look appeared in Li De's eyes.
There was no doubt that the potential of alchemical bombs was immense. Just from Mohr's account, Li De could vaguely glimpse the brilliance of the ancient era of alchemy.
Alchemical bombs with classification levels equivalent to magic.
To be compared with magic, that in the world of Glory was an unthinkable feat.
After all, magic stood at the apex of all power.
If the power wasn't real, merely comparing it to magic would provoke the wrath of all spellcasters, even if it was just a claim.
Magic was not to be profaned.
"The ancient Alchemy Era was truly a glorious past. What a shame that today's goblins no longer possess the ancient legacy."
Li De shook his head. Several million years ago, Glory had experienced an era of alchemy. According to the ancient books read by the Vampire Progenitor, ancient alchemy could rival magic and possessed immense power.
But for some unknown reason, the Alchemy Era had abruptly ended. Then came the rise of magic, and for millions of years, magic reigned supreme.
Most of the once-glorious alchemical techniques of the ancient era had vanished into the long passage of time, buried under the weight of history.
During the Alchemy Era, ancient goblins were exceptional alchemists. These short-statured, green-skinned beings wielded incredibly powerful forces.
Unfortunately, after the collapse of the Alchemy Era, the alchemical legacy was severed. The little that remained was pitiful. The goblins, once standing atop the pinnacle of Glory, had become a frail and feeble race.
Li De shook his head again, pulling himself out of scattered thoughts.
"No use thinking about that now. What matters is getting alchemical bombs into full production as soon as possible."
But the goblins' unreliability gave him a headache. These guys couldn't even produce Tier 2 alchemical bombs, he didn't even know where to begin complaining.
Originally, he had planned to directly replicate the Crimson Mage Tower's magical factory and run alchemical bomb production as an assembly line. But with Mohr's one sentence, 'unstable performance', he had to temporarily shelve the idea.
He didn't want to produce a bunch of ticking time bombs only for half his own men to die before the battle even began.
Only after the goblins got fully hands-on, and he could confirm that the bombs were stable and mass production wouldn't introduce errors, would he restart the factory process.
For now, it was better to play it safe. Alchemical bombs weren't like ordinary weapons. If it were just cold weapons, he wouldn't care. But once alchemy entered the picture, this fantasy world's version of chemistry, it gave him a headache. Who knew how many times the house of the bomb-improving Nobel prize creator had exploded?
As for the magic crystals Mohr needed, that was easy. Since Spark helped him build the ancient alchemical magic array, it required a massive amount of magic crystals, and the Crimson Mage Tower always had stock on hand.
All he had to do was send the message to his little maid, and Vina would naturally arrange for the materials to be delivered.
Li De had already revealed to Vina that Dark Pact was under his control. That clever girl had long since established a communication channel with Grote, the current manager of Dark Pact.
So he wasn't worried about anything going wrong.
"From the current outlook, it'll take at least another half a month, around mid-December, before these goblins can begin full production."
Li De shook his head. Dawn City's foundation was still too thin. It had only been developing for a year. So any time it encountered novel things like alchemy, it took a lot of time to absorb and digest before it could be turned into combat power.
If this were Green City, the goblins could probably begin production in just three days. The supporting infrastructure of Green City was something Dawn City couldn't even dream of matching.
On the surface, Green City was protected by Transcendent Mages and was a city strong in martial power. But what Li De envied the most was the industrial system Green City had built over a thousand years.
There, every industry had corresponding upstream and downstream chains.
The blacksmith shops that forged weapons could easily purchase high-quality ore and just as easily find suitable buyers.
The apothecary shops that made potions could easily acquire large quantities of raw materials and sell the finished potions without issue.
That was the most basic industrial chain, every step had corresponding supply and demand. But Dawn City was different. There were no supply chains here, only planned economy.