In Sedona City, during the afternoon, a carriage came speeding toward the area where the Research Department was located and finally came to a steady halt in front of the department's main gate.
A man and a woman stepped down from the carriage—it was none other than Lucas and Mina.
"My Lord," The guarding soldiers saluted Lucas.
Lucas nodded nonchalantly, then led Mina into the Research Department, heading straight for the research institute.
Inside the institute, the fox-eared girl was fiddling with a lump of something. Hearing footsteps, she turned her head.
"Master." Seeing that it was Lucas, Annie wagged her tail and revealed a joyful smile.
"You've worked hard," Lucas smiled gently.
It was Annie who had sent the message to Lucas earlier. The bounties Lucas had written down previously were sent to the underground Bounty Guild. He just didn't expect the Bounty Guild's efficiency to be this high, finding the materials he wanted so quickly.
"Master, it's not hard work. Come take a look quickly, is this rubber?" Annie was very happy and handed over the item in her hands.
Lucas curiously took the object from Annie's hands. It was a spherical object, grayish-white in color, mixed with a lot of impurities inside. It felt quite heavy in his hand.
"This looks quite like it," Lucas said in pleasant surprise after inspecting it.
"Master, is this rubber? The material to make bicycle wheels?" Mina asked curiously. Seeing the happy expression on her master's face, a smile also appeared on hers.
"Not yet, it still needs processing. This is just what the resin looks like after it coagulates. It needs processing before it can be used for tires." Lucas tossed the rubber ball in his hand, unable to conceal the smile at the corners of his mouth.
He turned his head to look at the fox-eared girl and asked, "Annie, who did we get this from?"
"The message from the Bounty Guild says it was obtained from a small city in the south of the Kingdom. I heard it was extracted from the sap flowing from a type of tree with three leaves." Annie took a letter from the desk behind her and handed it to Lucas. Ever since Sedona City introduced some rougher paper to the market, commoner families would buy some to let their children practice writing.
After all, Sedona City was vigorously promoting reading and literacy, so paper was an absolute necessity.
Therefore, some other factions within Sedona City had also made improvements in terms of writing, abandoning parchment rolls and switching to paper.
"A tree with three leaves... Isn't this the three-leaf rubber tree?" Lucas exclaimed in amazement as he read the contents of the letter. He hadn't expected there to be three-leaf rubber trees in this world as well. It was completely beyond his expectations, yet also somehow expected.
The rubber trees he had planted outside Sedona City were also three-leaf rubber trees. The three-leaf rubber tree could be planted in many regions and climates and had an extremely high survival rate. This was also the reason why Lucas chose this type of tree to harvest rubber.
He didn't expect that before his trees had even grown up, they had already been found elsewhere.
Moreover, the letter mentioned that the trees planted on the mountains surrounding that small city were surprisingly all three-leaf rubber trees. They covered the entire forest, and they were all very old, which made Lucas even more ecstatic.
"It seems I'll have to send someone on a trip to the south." Lucas put down the letter and looked at the rubber ball on the table, a look of absolute determination in his eyes.
Rubber was of immense importance; the future development of Sedona City would be inseparable from it.
It wasn't just bicycle wheels that required a large amount of rubber. The cars they hoped to build in the future would also need it. Even the current carriages—if their wheels were replaced with rubber tires, their speed would jump up by a large margin again, and the ride would be much smoother.
Furthermore, having rubber meant that footwear could be reformed. Replacing soles with rubber would make them far more wear-resistant.
Giving them to soldiers to wear could enhance their combat capabilities. During operations like night raids, they would be more agile and less easily discovered by the enemy.
"As for the south, I remember a branch of the Whispering River flows deep into that area. We can get there by boat." Mina's eyes flickered as she spoke softly.
"Going by boat works. We can conveniently transport some goods over to open up the market there first." Lucas nodded. He was thinking about who would be best to send over there.
"Is the master looking for a candidate?" Annie asked softly.
Lucas nodded. Right now, most people have their own work on hand. He needed to find someone trustworthy.
"I plan to directly set up a workshop over there and transport the rubber back after it's processed."
After all, the processing technique for rubber was extremely important. For this trip to the southern lands, he planned to establish a workshop there. It would be much more convenient to process the rubber directly before shipping it back. Given the confidentiality required for the rubber process, Lucas couldn't trust just anyone.
"Let Jack go. He's recently been training the third war wolves squad. It's the perfect opportunity for him to take them out to gain some experience. If we're setting up a workshop there, we'll need people stationed there anyway, and the accompanying merchant ships will be much safer too," Mina suggested after some thought.
"Jack, huh? It seems there isn't a more suitable candidate than him." Lucas pondered slightly and felt it made sense.
Jack had already been freed from the logistics department. Recently, he had been training the third war wolves squad, preparing them to serve as a reserve force.
Currently, there are a total of three war wolves squads. The first one was the one Lucas had initially formed. Now, the members of that squad had basically all become instructors, leading the new recruits in training.
The second war wolves squad was stationed in Liberty City, managed by Aiden. The rest of them were out on missions or monitoring other cities.
The third war wolves squad was the one Jack was currently training. Those selected for it were all the best among the soldiers.
"Let's go back to the castle first. Ayesha wanted to eat hotpot tonight." Lucas chuckled lightly. Finding rubber put him in a very cheerful mood.
"Hotpot tonight? That's too great!" Annie was thrilled. It had been a long time since they last had a hotpot. Just talking about it made her mouth water.
She started listing dishes as she walked. "I want beef tripe, and tofu too. Oh, right, let's get some beef as well."
She had only eaten these things once before, all prepared by Lucas. After eating them once, she had been craving them ever since.
"Alright," Lucas laughed softly. Talking about these things stirred up his own appetite as well.
"All you know is how to eat, yet I don't see you growing any bigger," Mina teased, taking a glance at Annie's chest.
"You cat girl, take that!" Annie angrily lunged right at Mina, and the two started playfully wrestling on the road. "Ah... don't touch me there, ahhh..."
"Yah, I'll scratch you to death..."
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