The car left the onlookers into complete silence, then with one voice, the silence turned into commotion.
"What the hell just happened?"
"How can a carriage move like that? Just what kind of godly material and heavenly technique was used to make it?"
"Dwarves are Dwarves, after all, they again made something beyond common sense,"
"Eh... But that man didn't look like a dwarf,"
"What the heck do you mean by that? Do you want to say a foreigner is using a better tool in the top dwarfian kingdom and dwarves themselves don't have it? Won't it be a slap on their faces if it's true?"
"Shhh... Keep quiet idiot, if you don't want to get kicked out of here,"
"Brother Fu, I want that cool carriage,"
"Err... My beauty I will get you one later, for now, we have done shopping so let's go to the hotel in my carriage,"
"No No No, I want that carriage I am going home, I won't talk to you, until you get me a carriage like that, Humph..."
On that day, Desert Queen became the reason for many inborn speed lovers' adoration and jealousy, while Rex earned himself quite a lot of haters.
The car dashed on the roads like a wild beast, wherever it went, it caused a commotion and if by any chance there weren't many pedestrians on the road Rex would use the 'Blow Horn' technique to bring them out of their homes.
There were also a few people who started chasing the car but failed to keep up, they weren't allowed to fly here, and running behind a car like dogs wasn't something anyone would like and if someone still followed him, Rex had the security captain responsible for entering and exiting the underground city right beside him.
Olaf looked at Rex in admiration.
'I knew it, the one who succeeded in clearing Venerable Wolford's trial can be anything but ordinary,' He thought.
Olaf had observed everything inside the car since he sat in but till now he didn't understand a single damn thing, he wasn't a great artifact refiner but he had seen too many of them while living here and knew a lot about them but when it came to this car he failed to see a single thing.
"Sir did you made this?" Olaf asked while showing Rex the way.
"Yeah, it's good, isn't it? I call this baby Desert Queen model 001," Rex said without turning to him.
"So sir invented it? Amazing how did you get the idea?" Olaf asked in excitement, if he could know even a little about his motivation story then he could brag about it to his next three generations that a Venerable personally told him these things.
"So you want to know how did I get the idea? Actually, the first one who thought of this was not me, one of the elders in the history of our Shadow Clan made the first auto-mobile carriage, what was the name again hmm... Yeah, it was Elder Karl, the blueprints were then passed down the generations, I upgraded it and made it into my Desert Queen," Rex said in a nostalgic tone.
[Why don't you also add Einstein Uncle and Tesla Grandfather?]
Rex almost kicked the brakes when he heard it. Fortunately, he held back in the last moment and the old dwarf remained unaware of the fact that he was about to hit his head on the glass just now.
Rex's face thickness wasn't something to joke about, he soon ignored the comment and told Olaf how he failed 1,000 times when making the Desert Queen but didn't give up and succeeded on the 1,001st try. If this wasn't enough, Rex also told him how everyone saw him as an idiot and his teache- elders regarded him as a failure before he worked hard and became the best Crafting Expert of Shadow Clan.
His inspirational story almost moved Olaf to tears while Rose was at a loss for words.
"Sir, I am not going to lie, I have never heard of someone as hardworking as you, I am truly moved from the bottom of my heart, if there is something that this old man could do for you in this lifetime then please ask without hesitation," Olaf said in a resolute tone.
'I thought my life was pathetic after being stuck at this post all this time but to think even an expert like this has such a past, no wonder I made no progress, there is no shortcut to success. If I can follow such a person, then I can live without regrets,' Olaf thought, a flame of resolve had started to burn in his heart, earlier he just wanted to increase his status and live a comfortable life but Rex's 'story' moved him, he remembered the days when he was young, full of vigor and hardworking.
He was like an energetic bird that became lazy and felt uneasy when he thought of stepping out of his comfort zone but now he wanted to spread his wings and took a flight again, to break the shackles of earth, to see the boundless blue sky again.
Olaf was still lost in thought when Rex arrived at the Bond of Steel tower.
Just as the name said it was a big tower-ey building that seemed to be made of steel like metal.
The tower had four big entrances in all four directions.
Rows of carriages were standing in the parking area near the building.
'Why do I feel like I just entered the range of a shopping mall?' Rex thought.
He shook Olaf's shoulder to wake him up from his daze. He then parked the car in the line to let it caught some attention then headed inside the tower.
Guards were doing checkups outside but Rex had an entry pass named Olaf so he easily entered without any check-up or verification.
The second Rex stepped into the building, he felt the temperature go down, it was like someone had put several AC inside to maintain the temperature.
When he checked the surrounding, Rex sighed.
'No wonder I got this feeling, this is nothing but a shopping mall. Seriously, are these guys even focusing on cultivation anymore? Hmm... After I go back I will make one myself to let them know what a real shopping mall looks like,' Rex thought while looking at the different shops with different types of goods and brands.
"Sir, the place we are going to is on the fifth floor," Olaf said then led Rex to the floating platform.
Rex was surprised by what he saw but then his eyes shined.
He saw that several rectangular stone platforms, floating in mid-air, were arranged in a row, people who wanted to go to the next floor would step on them and they would fly, carrying those people to the next floor.
Olaf saw that Rex was observing them so he stopped and explained.
"Sir, it seems like you haven't seen floating platform before, these were something that was made by late Venerable Fredizen in the past, he used the Earth Repulsion stone together with Flowing Wind Orb and an array to make them," Olaf said.
He then explained what was Earth Repulsion stone, when an Earth Stone mine is dug out it also has Earth Repulsion stone, as the name suggests it always repels earth like the same poles of the magnet and won't touch it until an external force is applied, after refining, the purer the stone is, the higher its repulsion force would be against the earth. Venerable Fredizen used its strange characteristic to first make the platform weightless and used the Flowing Wind Orb for propulsion, the array works as a power supplier and controller.
'Excellent, if I used this method then the problem of the Combat Bots not being able to fly would be solved shortly. Venerable Fredizen was it? No matter the world there is no lack of geniuses, such people even when they leave this world their inventions would keep them alive,' Rex thought.
Rex analyzed the floating platform, added the materials needed to make it on his list then headed to the fifth floor with Olaf.
From what Olaf said, the whole fifth floor was under the management of only one shop. The organization behind the shop was also the one who made the tower... Bond of Steel.
When Rex entered the fifth floor, he got the same feeling when someone enters a big museum.
It was like an exhibition hall, several types of tools, weapons, and equipment were put on exhibition. Customers were swirling around them and they had gleaming eyes like they were looking at some heaven-defying treasures they might not see again in their entire life.
The number of people on the fifth floor was not even 1/10 of other floors, Olaf had told him the reason behind this, this floor had a requirement that is one cannot leave without buying something, no matter what it was and even the cheapest thing here was highly expensive for a normal citizen.
The system was precisely created to remove the people who come for making trouble or just look at the things on exhibition. The shop may have such a rule but it also guaranteed the quality of things that are sold here.
Rex then looked at the things on exhibition, he saw a Spirit rank Mid grade sword, Spirit rank Mid grade shield, Spirit rank Body Cleansing Pill, and the likes. He realized that even the cheapest thing in the exhibition here could seduce the big sects to make a move if placed outside.
He was still observing when one of the free girls working here noticed them and approached Rex.
"Welcome to Bond of Steel pavilion guest," The girl said in a polite tone and respectfully bowed.
She wore the brown white uniform similar to other girls working here, the dress only revealed a small part of her tummy and some of her thighs, it was still under a passable grade, this raised Rex's favorability towards the shop.
According to him, only those that are not confident in their products use those kinds of methods, since he started Frozen Flame he didn't use any trick like this or sending gifts as bribes and the likes to attract rich buyers. He was confident in his products.
"I want all the things on the list," Rex nodded and said while giving her the list.
"I see, sir please wait and enjoy the wine here while I prepare these things," The girl said, she then called another girl who had the vibe of a newbie to take care of Rex and headed into the inner region of the shop with the list in her hand.
The girl was short, Rex could tell she was a dwarf, the girl looked a little timid and was having a hard time looking back at Rex in the eyes when he stared at her, Rex just smiled and retracted his gaze from her.
The shop had separate boxes similar to restaurants for resting and waiting, Rex could go and wait in there but he decided to look around instead so the new girl just followed him behind and gave a description of the things that Rex observed for more than 3 seconds.
While looking around, Rex reached the centermost part of the big hall, he found several people crowding around something and it caught his interest, he walked forwards to take a look and saw three different things were placed inside a glass case on a cylindrical platform.
One was a glass Orb, the second was a lamp with a deep bluish flame burning inside it and the last was a pure white pill with a feather-like symbol on it.
"What are these things?" Rex asked the timid girl beside him.
"Thes... These three things are the most precious items on the display at present. The first is the memory orb found in the inheritance of a Spirit Alchemy King, the second is Bottomless Ocean Flame, it's an Essence Flame and the last is Spirit rank 8th-grade Soul Tempering pill refined by the current head of Alchemist Association himself, who is a Spirit Alchemy Emperor," The girl said in one breath.
Rex calmly listened to her, then looked at the ceiling, he looked like he could see the boundless sky above the underground city from here, Rex sneered inwardly.
'Hehe... Heavens, you are finally got charmed by my beauty and now want to compromise with me, don't you?' Rex thought.
No matter what item, all three had great uses for him. Especially the memory orb and Soul Tempering pill, he had Reverse Engineering Talent, what he would be buying is not just the pill but the recipe itself. As for the flame, it also had a very special use for him.
"I want to buy them all, what's their price?" Rex excitedly asked but when he saw the girl blinking her eyes at him, he knew he shouldn't have asked it.
"This... They cannot be bought like that," The girl said in a low tone.
Rex again looked at the ceiling but this time his face was dark.
'Heavens, did you take my joke seriously?' Rex felt like he had been wronged.