The process of gathering resources was very easy with Zombies who now were cooperative.
Day by day, the pile of goods in the courtyard of the Mansion continued to grow and multiply.
However, the more time passed, the more they wondered.
How would they carry all these items in the end?
Although the technician team was struggling to repair their ship as best they could, everyone was aware that the ship had been badly damaged and needed new parts.
So, on the seventh day of resource gathering, one of the men in the resource gathering team who followed Zen pulled him into a flower shop that had barely been damaged by time.
For efficiency, Martha divided her current crew of 32 people after excluding the two crew who died, the technician team, and herself - into 8 teams of 4 people in each team.
Among them was a group consisting of a group of newcomers who hadn't even had two months passed since they joined the group.
Zen was placed in this team.
Rictner, the leader of this group of newcomers, pulled back his chair and sat down in front of Zen with a serious expression.
"Ei, boy. Tell me. How do you plan to bring all those things?"
The other three newcomers, consisting of 2 men and 1 girl, pulled the seats at Rictner's side. They stared at Zen who had the appearance of an 11-12 year old boy.
Zen, on the other hand, glanced at the female Zombie sitting beside him.
It was the Zombie owner of this flower shop.
It sat quietly and looked at the people who came into it's shop with blank stares.
Due to the orders from Z-Emperor pouch, it clearly showed no signs of attacking these humans.
Zen answered their question calmly: "Near this town, there is a large lake with about 15 tributaries. Some of these tributaries should be wide and deep enough for a ship to traverse."
Rictner gasped at Zen's answer.
"Using the old way, huh?"
They looked at each other for a few moments.
Then, a girl from the group of newcomers said cautiously, as if hesitantly.
"But... Wouldn't it be difficult to bring such a large ship to the lake? After all, the lake is more than 100 meters away from the town..."
Zen smiled.
"No need to worry. Shouldn't we ask for help from Z-Emperor pouch?"
At that moment, they finally understood Zen's meaning.
"From the beginning, a ship was designed to float on the water, so with a little modification, your ship will definitely be able to sail as well."
Zen muttered; pondering the problem they would face later.
"Hm... That's right... I guess the only problem is that we have to be careful in choosing the cruise route because you should not have a map of the river line. There is also the risk of a dead end, so this solution will only work temporarily..."
The four newcomers opened their mouths wide.
Now, they finally realized how narrow their knowledge was.
Apparently, the ship can also be used in the water, and not just fly in the sky.
***
When afternoon came, Zen and the others, with a sack filled with various intact items that seemed to be worth money on each back, walked back towards the Mayor's Mansion.
On the way, they passed the library building that had been the main residence of Zen some time ago.
The books, as expected, are invaluable.
Through the selection carried out by the Red Trickerss' magicians, they managed to find several things that could be valued as much as several thousand to hundreds of thousands of Gold.
Even now, apart from the Mansion itself, the library was the main focus of resource excavation.
There were more than ten Red Trickerss crews walking out of the library with sacks on their respective backs.
When they saw Zen and Rictner's group, they waved.
A burly man over 2 meters tall named Migell laughed when he saw the sack on the back of them.
"It looks like you guys got a good harvest, huh!"
Rictner laughed.
"Of course! Today we found a drug store and the house of a fairly wealthy merchant. There should be a lot of things that are valuable!
Zen, with a large sack on his back, and a painting twice the size of his body in his hand, watched their conversation as he walked.
After being together with the Red Trickerss Pirates members for a few days, Zen had seen that although there seemed to be no such thing as a cultivator here, the humans in this world – in particular, non-magic warriors – could using some unique way to cultivate their blood energy to become stronger.
This Migell, then Martha, is a living example of this.
Martha, in particular, had quite an abundance of blood energy. Her blood energy density and combat ability could match that of a Martial Realm cultivator without a Martial Technique.
Zen had once asked them about it.
And their answer was that the 'blood energy' that Zen meant was a kind of power in the body that every warrior had to muster.
Their blood energy collection method was also quite unique.
In the universal cultivation guide, the most efficient way to collect blood energy is to strengthen the mind energy by meditating, and then with the help of abundant mind power, start gathering the purest essence in the blood - blood energy.
Actually, since Zen used a cultivation art of his own design, the [Storm Azure Fluidance Serpent art], his method also had a slight difference.
However, even so, the difference is not huge. The essence of Zen's method still remains similar to the universal method.
On the other hand, in this world, these warriors, perhaps because they did not have access to meditation techniques, extracted their blood energy directly while practicing.
Obviously, this method is very inefficient.
Most of the time, it just depends on luck whether or not they are able to gather blood energy.
Well, however, that's not what makes Zen curious about this topic.
In this life, Zen was determined to build a new cultivation path for himself without the core energy of cultivation – spiritual energy.
And to achieve that, what does Zen need most?
The first, obviously, is knowledge.
This "knowledge" wasn't just about something like detailed information about the cultivation ordinances.
This "knowledge" also includes something vague but important – a direction.
Yes, direction.
Zen currently didn't know where to start designing his cultivation path from.
With his experience in modifying various cultivation arts, meditation techniques, martial techniques, magical arts, and even designing his own original techniques based on that knowledge, Zen was quite confident in this field.
Otherwise, Zen would have been desperate for a long time.
However, even so, he was still lost at the moment.
He has the means, but how should he get started?
It was here that he saw a glimmer of inspiration from seeing how the warriors in this world roughly processed blood energy.
It's like a foundation.
The most primitive way to cultivate.
A question arose in Zen's mind.
Was this the initial form of cultivation before the cultivators discovered the existence of spiritual energy?
Martha and Migell, along with the rest of the Red Trickerss crew, also spoke of the existence of the Magic Knight - a warrior who combines the inner essence (blood energy) and magic energy.
This really ignited a fire within Zen.
He felt like he had gotten the answer he had been looking for.
At that moment, Zen became even more determined to follow these people.
It seemed that his cultivation path was not as far as he originally thought.