Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 282 Black Stone
The banshees gathered around, looked at the building carefully, and discussed in low voices.

"It does look like a treasure trove. It's quite large, with no windows. Well, the walls are pretty solid."

"Yeah, I thought so right away. Look how big this door is, and there's a sentry next to it."

"Will this place be filled with gold coins? I've seen novels describe it that way."

"Where did you get the novel?"

"Knock on Zoe's door at night and she will tell you about the church's secret library."

Ash didn't look at these noisy tribesmen. She frowned and looked at them for a while, then nodded. "It should be an important warehouse, but it shouldn't be used to store gold coins."

"Why?" The tribesmen looked at Ash curiously. "Pirates should have a lot of treasure, right?"

"The pirates do have a lot of treasure, but it's not here—this warehouse is too big."

The banshees then noticed that this warehouse was indeed absurdly large.

Its area is almost as large as that of a factory, which is why it was discovered first.

"If a mask this large were filled with treasure, the pirates would have had to plunder the entire world to have found it. I think it must be made of some important material."

"Important materials?"

Ash walked forward and hammered the wall. "The overall quality of this building is much better than the surrounding ones. Look at these sentries. There must have been quite a few guards here before. I think they're probably storing important supplies like ammunition and weapons."

"That makes sense. We have to be careful when opening it. At least we can't blow it up directly with explosives."

Several banshees put away the bombs in disappointment. In order to prevent accidents, they carried a lot of these things. These bombs were specially sealed in pottery jars, specifically for the banshees to carry across the sea.

Finally, a few banshees discussed it, picked a location, and used the fossils to turn into mud together.

The solid stone quickly turned into liquid and slid down, leaving a large hole in the wall.

The house had no windows and was very dark, but the banshees had dark vision, so they walked straight in.

"This is this"

"How can it be!?"

"It's actually this thing? Why are they in the pirate warehouse?"

Ash's eyes widened as well. The contents of the warehouse were completely beyond her expectations. All the banshees had guessed wrong. The warehouse was neatly filled with—

"Black Stone?!"

Black stone, this kind of thing is not unfamiliar to the banshees. They have been dealing with this strange mineral deposit for a long time.

Before the banshees arrived at the Abyss and signed the symbiotic contract, they were still slaves of the fishmen and had to do hard labor every day.

Their hard work is mining.

Digging a kind of mineral deposit on the seabed is the black stone in front of you.

Black Stone is just the name given by the banshees. It is black and looks like stone. That's all the banshees know.

The banshees had no idea what it was used for or why the fishmen dug it. But now they knew where the black stones they dug day and night were transported.

Are these things used on land? Are they even important enough to require a warehouse to store them?

Looking at the black stone ore piled up to the ceiling, the banshees were shocked.

"Those murlocs have been digging for black stone for Gem Bay?" "That's impossible! Didn't the murlocs obey the Pirate King after he turned into a monster?"

This was somewhat inconsistent with the known information. Ash's face darkened slightly. The deep sea, the murlocs, the Black Rock, and the Gem Bay might be hiding a bigger secret.

"Don't touch these black stones for now. Take some samples back and we will continue searching other places."

The banshees looked at each other, then finally nodded and left.

The island was not big, and the banshees searched separately and quickly searched the entire island.

The banshees discovered a total of four similar warehouses.

There are four warehouses filled with black stones. A quick calculation will reveal that the amount of black stones stored here is simply astronomical. Although it is not known how much black stones the fish people have mined, it is very likely that they are all piled here.

This result silenced the banshees. It seemed that the pirates might not have perished under the influence of the Pirate King, but had had various connections with the murlocs long ago.

In addition to these conspicuous Black Stone warehouses, other warehouses were gradually discovered.

This made the banshees feel somewhat relieved. If the Gem Bay was full of this kind of black stone stockpile, it would be really chilling.

Several banshees were inspecting a new warehouse, and one of them was taking a count with a pen and paper.

"A little bit of coal, steel, what else?"

"Um, wood."

"wood?"

The banshee scratched her head with the pen in confusion: "What does wood mean?"

"It's just really long, really thick logs." The banshee extended her six hands and gestured. "There's quite a bit of it piled up inside."

"That's probably for shipbuilding," Ash interjected. "I asked the shipbuilders, and they say the keel and mast require a whole, huge piece of wood, processed through various complex techniques, and need to be prepared in advance. These should be it."

Ash paused, then suddenly said, "Where did you find it?"

"Look, over there, not far from the sea."

"Isn't that next to the docks? Is there a shipyard over there?"

The banshee who reported the information was stunned for a moment, then realized something and nodded excitedly: "Yes, there is a huge shed on the beach there. I don't know what it is used for, but now I think it should be a shipyard!"

Before landing on the island, the banshees looked around the island and found that there was no fleet docked, not even at the pier.

The whole island seems to be in good order, but the sea is empty, which is not normal.

Now that we have found a shipyard, there may be unfinished ships there. Without a ready-made fleet, some semi-finished products can be taken back and modified for use.

"Take me to see it."

They soon arrived at the beach, and Ash finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the wooden boat in the shed with the deck already laid.

Although there was no trace of the pirate king's treasure, their trip was not without gain. Except for the mast, the other parts of the ship were in good condition. It might need to be carefully designed for long-distance voyages. If the purpose was only to reach Tis, a steam engine and a few propellers could be installed.

Although Ash's grades were average, he had completed the basic courses in the advanced class and had at least a general understanding of various machines.

"Take a few people and drive this boat back." Ash looked at the empty deck and sighed, "Tie a rope and pull it back."

(End of this chapter)