"What exactly have you planned?"
After Aileen left with deep confusion, Liliya couldn't help but ask Rocky.
Now, even she was a bit puzzled by what was going through Rocky's mind, and she was equally curious as to why he wanted to go to Eternal City.
"Don't worry, you'll know when the time comes."
Rocky gave her a confident smirk and then asked, "Liliya, how long do you estimate it will take Thunderhawk City to fly to Eternal City?"
One of the biggest differences between Sky City and cities on land is their ability to fly in the air, meaning they can go anywhere they want, albeit slowly, so when Rocky mentioned going to Eternal City, he wasn't suggesting taking a skyship, but flying the whole of Thunderhawk City there!
"Well... at least a month, I guess. Eternal City seldom moves, and from our current position, it should not be too far."
"That's good to know." Rocky nodded upon hearing the time estimation and then left the City Lord's Hall, diving into his research room as usual.
A month was not too long, nor too short, but he had to finish the runification of the Void Magic Armor within this period, or else the following matters would be troublesome.
So after returning to his research room, he immediately picked up his Magic Energy Pen and continued drawing runes on the breastplate of the Void Magic Armor.
With days of effort, he had successfully drawn nearly a hundred First Level Runes on the breastplate, but even so, it was still not enough.
The Void Magic Armor itself already had extremely high defensive power, and to further enhance it with runes on that basis required a massive amount of runes to provide mana support. Therefore, by Rocky's conservative estimation, he needed to draw over two hundred runes on the breastplate to truly make an effect.
This was a massive project, which not only consumed magic power but also drained his energy, and was by no means a task that could be completed casually.
Consequently, in the days that followed, he never stepped out of his research room, sometimes even choosing to sleep there.
After three whole days, he finally managed to draw a total of two hundred mana runes on the breastplate!
"Phew... it is finally complete!"
Looking at his work, completed day and night, Rocky took a long breath of relief and immediately moved on to the wrist guard of the Void Magic Armor on the research table without stopping.
Yes, simply drawing runes on the breastplate was far from enough for him; he intended to draw runes on the entire set of Void Magic Armor to undergo a comprehensive enhancement!
The reason he called it enhancement rather than modification was because everything he was doing now did not cause any fundamental changes to the Void Magic Armor, it was merely an enhancement using runes.
Frankly speaking, his usage of runes was truly an underapplication, for the potential and changes that mana runes could bring about were far beyond simple enhancement.
But the predicament was that the current Rocky indeed lacked the conditions and capability to bring out the true potential of the runes, and this method of using them to enhance the Void Magic Armor was already his limit.
However, even if his method 'wronged' the mana runes, should it succeed, it would still be considered a pioneering act!
Time went on, day by day, and half a month passed in the blink of an eye. During this period, Rocky spent almost every day in his research room, and the set of Void Magic Armor he owned was gradually filled with runes, one piece after another.
As time progressed, Rocky's speed in drawing runes visibly increased. This was partly due to his increasingly proficient technique and partly because, apart from the breastplate, the other parts of the Void Magic Armor were smaller, hence accommodating fewer runes.
While Rocky was wholeheartedly enhancing the Void Magic Armor, two things happened within Thunderhawk City. The first was the arrival of people from the Golden Purple Flower Commerce Chamber.
As mentioned before, there were only two Chambers of Commerce that had trade relations with Thunderhawk City: Azure Commerce Guild was responsible for selling yarn and food to the city, while the cloth produced by Thunderhawk City would be sold to the Golden Purple Flower Commerce Chamber.
Compared to the Azure Commerce Guild, backed by Canglang City, the cloth-buying Golden Purple Flower Commerce Chamber was much smaller. The Chamber's headquarters were in a mid-sized Sky City, and it was a standard organization with average strength; otherwise, it wouldn't have come to purchase cloth from Thunderhawk City for a bargain.
Fortunately, despite its small size, the Golden Purple Flower Commerce Chamber had a good reputation, so this transaction went smoothly, and Thunderhawk City managed to sell all its cloth without any trouble.
The second event that occurred during this period also involved a transaction—it was the arrival of the Magic Stone merchants contacted by Aileen.
Since Rocky had only a few Medium Magic Stones, the Chamber of Commerce would not make a special appearance for this, and only a few merchants came to Thunderhawk City.
However, due to the previous failed negotiations with the Azure Commerce Guild, Aileen felt very guilty, believing her own incompetence led to the failure. So when dealing with the few Magic Stone merchants, she really put her heart into it.
Who knows what method she used, but when Aileen sold all the magic stones that Rocky had handed over to her, she actually fetched a price of a full three thousand gold coins!
This price greatly exceeded Rocky's expectations!
He may not be a businessman, nor was he familiar with the market, but he still had some understanding of the approximate price of a medium magic stone; a fully charged medium magic stone typically valued around five hundred gold coins, and since Rocky initially only found four medium magic stones from the research institute, he estimated that these four magic stones could sell for two thousand gold coins at best.
However, he never expected Aileen to be so amazing, managing to increase the final price by a thousand gold coins. That was equivalent to a fifty percent increase!
"Aileen, how exactly did you do it?"
When Aileen told Rocky the result, even he, who wasn't much interested in trading, couldn't help but ask.
"My Lord, I just took advantage of the other party's mindset," she said.
Looking at the ever curious Rocky, the frustration that had been weighing on Aileen's chest these past few days finally relieved itself quite a bit.
Her last negotiation with the Azure Commerce Guild had cost her several sleepless nights; she had never thought she would lose so miserably. Even though Rocky hadn't complained about her at all over this matter, Aileen couldn't get past it herself.
Her resilience, and her pride, couldn't accept such a crushing defeat, so she was very driven in the trade of the magic stones, determined to perform well in front of Rocky.
It wasn't that Aileen valued Rocky's opinion of her too highly, but rather she didn't allow anyone to look down on her!
"Hehe, it seems that Lord Voss's recommendation was indeed correct," Rocky said.
Seeing Aileen's confident demeanor, returning to the proud noble young lady she once was, Rocky was reassured. As for the specifics of the deal and exactly what methods Aileen used, he actually didn't care.
"By the way, how much money do we have in the city now?"
Thinking about the recent sale of the city's fabrics and now the sale of the magic stones, Rocky felt like he should have quite a bit of money by now, right?
"My Lord, there are roughly sixty-seven thousand gold coins in the city," Aileen, the finance officer, naturally knew Thunderhawk City's financial details like the back of her hand, and so she gave him an exact figure on the spot.
However, after giving this number, the previously somewhat exuberant Aileen lost her smile, and her expression turned serious, "My Lord, winter is approaching, you should consider purchasing grain."
"Our last trade with the Azure Commerce Guild made it clear they intend to take advantage of the Canglang City war to hike their prices, and as a result the price of yarn has gone up. In a few days, the price they sell us grain will also rise."
"And ... the increase won't be small."
The saying that one falling leaf foretells the coming of autumn was evident through the increase in yarn prices by the Azure Commerce Guild. It could be inferred that the price of grain they would sell to us would not be at the original price either; it was bound to rise as well.
What was more important was that Rocky had easily accepted the price of the yarn before, which undoubtedly signaled to the Azure Commerce Guild that Thunderhawk City had money! So, not only would they hike the price of grain, but the increase would certainly not be small.
As the finance officer, Aileen understood this matter better than anyone, so she had to remind Rocky, warning him not to think that a few tens of thousands of gold coins made Thunderhawk City secure. When the need arose, those sixty or seventy thousand gold coins might not be enough at all!
"I know, how could I possibly forget something like that."
"But don't worry, I have a plan in my mind, and you'll see when we get to Eternal City."
However, faced with Aileen's warning, Rocky dismissed it with nonchalance and didn't wait for Aileen to continue before sending her away, which caused her considerable consternation. She even felt that Rocky had become arrogant due to having some money.
It wasn't just her who thought so; even Liliya, who was beside Rocky, frowned after the event and couldn't help but say to him:
"You should have let Aileen finish speaking; she was indeed looking out for you this time."
"I know," Rocky replied.
After glancing at the furrowed brow of Liliya, Rocky smiled faintly and then, unexpectedly, made a proposal:
"Liliya, would you be interested in joining me for some martial technique practice?"