Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 283 The Missing Treasure

South of Castres.

This is the location of the planned shipyard in the future. Now everything is in ruins and the shipyard is naturally nowhere to be built.

Although the shipyard was not built, the ship had already arrived.

Hughes stroked his chin as he looked at the boat the banshees had towed back. He turned to Richard and asked, "How is it? Have you checked it?"

"The hull is basically intact, with the lower deck still lacking some work. It can be used after some modifications. I'm talking about normal sailing. We don't have any experience in modifying ships, so please don't have too high expectations."

"No problem, give it a try."

How to convert a half-built sailboat into a steam-powered ship is really too niche knowledge. Even Hughes has no research in this area and can only try.

Fortunately, ships are not such delicate things, at least not the kind that Hughes planned to build.

He was even prepared to try to build a ship out of steel if he really couldn't find a ship.

If the only requirement for a ship is that it can float and sail, then shipbuilding is actually a fairly simple matter, especially since Castell has a high steel production capacity and sufficient trial and error costs, and can accumulate experience from scratch.

But that would take up a lot of time. Now that we have this hull, we can just put a steam engine in it, and sailing should not be a problem.

"Renovate it as soon as possible. I'll get the factory to cooperate with you. Castel urgently needs a window for external communication. This ship is very important to us."

After seeing Richard nod, Hughes turned back to ask the Banshee who had pulled the boat back, "How's the exploration of Gem Bay going? Besides the Black Stone we just mentioned, what else is there?"

The Banshee's expression turned strange. "We later went to several other islands. The entire Martha Archipelago is now completely devoid of indigenous people, but most of the buildings have been preserved. We briefly searched them."

"How is it? What supplies do you have?"

"There are a lot of food reserves, mostly dried fish and other things, and a smaller amount of coal - the Martha Islands don't seem to produce coal."

"No coal production? The entire Martha Islands don't produce coal?" Hughes was a little surprised.

"Yes, we found some account books in the warehouse. Almost all of this coal was shipped in from outside. We also found many mines on the island. There are all kinds of mines, but there are no coal mines, not even a single one."

No coal mines?

This is a bit strange. It is normal for an island to not have high-quality coal reserves, but it is almost impossible that there are none at all.

Coal is not oil. To form a mineral vein, it only needs to be covered by a large amount of plants. If there is no coal on a certain island, then Xu Si can accept it, but there is no coal in the entire Martha Islands?
You have to know that the Martha Islands covers a very large area. Although most of them are remote islands, they form a huge entity when added together. How can there be no coal reserves in such a place?
Could it be that these islands were created out of thin air? How is that possible?

"Maybe we just haven't explored it well enough. Coal mines are always there if you look carefully. It's just a matter of quality."

Hughes didn't care too much about this. Castel's current industry was completely independent of coal. It would be better if a coal mine was found, but it didn't matter if no coal mine was found.

"Anything else discovered?"

"Well, there are also quite a few other strategic reserves, whether it's steel or gunpowder. Look at this."

The banshee handed over a notebook, which contained various statistical materials.

"Wow, that's quite a lot! It seems the Pirate King isn't sitting still, he must have quite a few smuggling channels." Hughes flipped through the booklet, speaking with interest. "There's not a lot of steel. Only a few dozen tons in the entire Gem Bay? Repairing weapons would be a struggle, wouldn't it?"

"There's a lot of wood. It seems the Pirate King put a lot of effort into it. This amount is enough to build another fleet."

"What is this? Moonlight sand? Eternally burning earth?"

The banshee spread her hands and said, "We don't know either. This is the name of the warehouse's winning bid."

Richard suddenly came over and said, "My Lord, may I see these?"

Hughes handed the booklet over. Richard only took a quick glance before his eyes lit up. "These are all extraordinary materials, and quite precious ones at that. They must have been collected by the Church of Poseidon. They have the sea at their backs, and extraordinary people from other factions rarely set foot here. They've been hoarding so many for a long time."

"Extraordinary material?"

This is somewhat beyond the scope of Hughes's knowledge.

"Yes, with these materials, more people can complete the promotion. We will soon have more extraordinary people!"

Zeus was surprised. He thought these materials were only used in rituals to allow the fire moths to summon an evil god or something like that, but he didn't expect that they could increase the number of extraordinary people?
"Does the advancement of extraordinary people require extraordinary materials?"

"Of course, and the materials required are extremely valuable. Many poorer organizations are lucky enough to be able to afford one or two extraordinary people. The only exception is the Church of Poseidon. They need physical contamination, as you know."

This actually made Xius feel a little curious: "Doesn't that mean that all extraordinary people have to rely on organizations for resources, and there are no wild extraordinary people who can live alone?"

"That's natural. Supernatural materials have long been divided up by the major churches. Many cults oppose the churches just to grab some resources. As for personal contact with the supernatural? That's almost impossible."

"I remember that one can become a transcendent by relying on one's willpower to cross the high wall of reality and enter the Sea of Unconsciousness. But what would happen if I entered the Sea of Unconsciousness first without these materials?"

"will die."

"what?"

"Many fire moths died this way. They pursued knowledge so intensely that they were willing to go beyond the boundaries of mortals." Richard's expression darkened, as if he were thinking of something heavy in the past. He sighed, "Thankfully, now that we've found these materials, my companions no longer have to suppress their thirst for knowledge."

Zeus nodded with a complicated look in his eyes. In this world, pursuing knowledge is too dangerous. Even if you maintain your curiosity, you may kill yourself unknowingly.

Sometimes he wondered whether the world was malicious towards human civilization.

"By the way, you haven't found the Pirate King's treasure yet?"

The banshee's expression became even weirder: "Yes, and..."

She hesitated for a moment before continuing, "We haven't even found many treasures. They seem to have been hidden away, and well. We've searched most buildings and still haven't found anything. You know, fossils turn to mud."

The whole island was turned over?
Hughes stroked his chin, lost in thought.

If not on the island, where would it be?
Under the island?

(End of this chapter)