My inventory is full of monster materials.

Chapter 114 The Great Space Mage

Mark returned to the "Black Scale Workshop".

Miles, the blond-haired guy, sat in front of the counter looking sullen and muttering curses.

"Damn it! They won't listen to reason, so they'll have to suffer the consequences! I've ordered my men to keep a close eye on him, and if they see that bastard in the white mask again, beat him to death!"

Mark stood quietly in front of Miles, listening to the other man's rambling, but Miles was completely unaware of Mark's presence so close to him.

Because at this moment, Mark had already entered a ghostly state, his body entering the ethereal plane, and unless it was a detection magic, his existence could not be detected at all.

Mark plans to sneak into the back room and take a ready-made dimensional bag.

Anyway, this was the black market, and it was common for people to cheat each other. Mark had no qualms about it and turned to leave.

The back room was a long corridor with small rooms partitioned off by wooden boards on both sides. The air was filled with a cheap, pungent smell, and there was a constant clanging and banging noise.

Mark casually walked into a room, and the sight before him made him frown slightly.

The room contained a rudimentary assembly line, and a dozen slaves, both men and women, were chained to a fixed floor. They were all ragged and had empty, numb eyes.

They mechanically repeated the actions of washing and polishing leather on the assembly line. Their fingertips were already raw and bloody from the leather and tools. Even when their nails broke, they dared not stop because the overseer holding a whip was watching them intently.

Mark didn't linger and turned to walk into the next room, a workshop for the renovation and assembly of metal armor, which was even more impressive than the previous one.

A chill ran through Mark.

I knew the black market was a terrible place, but I never imagined it would be this bad. People there were no longer human, but tools to be trampled on at will.

Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, Mark activated his ghostly form and entered another room.

The room was unusually spacious, with a huge blue and white spider suspended by iron chains in the center, surrounded by a group of people dressed in various costumes on the roof beams.

The man at the head was dressed in a black suit with a cigar in his mouth, exuding an aura of authority. You could tell without even looking that he was at least in the management of this store.

Another conspicuous figure was an elderly man wearing a tattered gray robe.

His hair was gray and messy, his face was full of wrinkles, and his hands and feet were shackled with heavy metal shackles. The shackles were engraved with shimmering blue magic runes, which would light up once every few seconds.

Mark recognized it at a glance as a magic-suppressing item, specifically designed to restrict a mage's use of magic.

Seeing this, Mark had roughly filled in the blanks in his mind.

This old man is likely a mage imprisoned here by this group of people, probably being coerced into crafting magical items for them.

At that moment, the cigar-smoking man took a deep drag, exhaled a cloud of smoke, and threatened in a fierce tone.

"Lockland, listen to me carefully, this Phase Spider is something I got by trading five high-grade magic crystals!"

"If you dare to puncture its silken sac like you did last time, I'll cut off your penis and shove it into your mouth!"

Lockland slowly turned his head, his cloudy eyes looking at the cigar-smoking man, but his gaze was fixed on the doorway.

There, Mark stood with his arms crossed, observing quietly.

Feeling the strange gaze, Mark's heart suddenly tightened.

I was clearly in a ghostly state, so in theory no one should be able to detect me. Could this old man possibly see me?

Or is it just a coincidence?

Before Mark could think further, Lockland turned around, holding a slender silver knife, and walked towards the abdomen of the hanging Phase Spider. He precisely inserted the knife, gently pulled it, and made a neat cut.

Then, Lockland carefully inserted his finger and slowly pulled out a clump of white, fishy-smelling, viscous substance, which was the silk sac of the Phase Spider.

Lockland expressionlessly handed the silk pouch to the cigar-smoking man, who grabbed it with ecstatic delight, examined it briefly, and then casually handed it to a subordinate beside him, giving the order.

"Send the material to the finishing room and tell the people there that they must extract 200 grams of spider silk. If they're short even a gram, their lives will pay!"

"Yes, boss!"

The employee quickly took the silk pouch and hurried out of the room.

The cigar-smoking man glanced at Lockland again and said casually.

"This is yours now. This Phase Spider still has quite a few valuable parts. Have Lockland cut them all out carefully, so as not to waste them."

"Also, add a serving of beef to his meals to supplement his nutrition, lest he die before we finish cooking."

After saying that, Remy stubbed out his cigar and left the room.

At this point, several employees burst into laughter, their laughter filled with sarcasm and malice.

"Another serving of meat? This old man has one foot in the grave, why would he need such good food? It's a complete waste of resources!"

"Exactly! Let's divide the beef tonight."

The group of people talked without any restraint in front of the old man.

Lockland's expression remained calm, as if he had expected this, but a glint of light flashed deep in his eyes.

Mark stood at the door, glanced at it thoughtfully for a few moments, then turned and left the room.

The current goal is the dimensional bag.

Taking advantage of his ghostly form, Mark quickly searched the various rooms in the workshop. The workshop wasn't very big, and before long, he found a metal door engraved with magical patterns.

Mark was overjoyed and instinctively reached out to push.

As a result, the magic circle on the iron gate suddenly lit up with a blue flash the moment the palm touched it.

Mark was violently thrown back by an invisible force, his ghostly state momentarily blurred, and he was in excruciating pain all over his body.

"What happened?"

Mark staggered back to the iron gate, forcing himself to calm down and ponder the reasons behind it.

His "ghostly traversal" involves transforming himself into a ghostly state and then using the "etherification" property of the soul to enter the etheric plane and freely traverse the material plane.

This is actually somewhat similar to the 7th Ring spell "Aetherification," but the fundamental difference is that the latter does not involve the process of converting ghosts.

So, this iron gate in front of us has been designed to defend against ghosts?

Mark shook his head.

The conditions for the birth of ghosts are extremely demanding; they can only appear in environments rich in dark energy, such as cemeteries.

Although the black market is corrupt, it does not mean that dark energy is abundant.

Mark was more convinced that the iron gate was just a lucky coincidence, managing to keep out the ghost.

Since that's the case, let's take the unconventional path.

Mark floated straight to the wall next to the iron gate, then passed through the wall without hindrance and entered the room.

Before Mark could even feel happy, he was completely stunned by what he saw.

This is an exquisite mage's studio.

The room was spacious and bright, with tall bookshelves on the walls, neatly displaying all kinds of magic books, scrolls and manuscripts.

In the center of the room stood a huge enchanting table, scattered with magic crystals and powder.

Various enchanting tools.

Mark's gaze was quickly drawn to the two spindles next to the enchanting table.

Two spindles are wound with two different kinds of silk threads.

One type is silvery, with a soft luster and a faint magical glow. This is the famous mithril, and it is mithril wire that has been purified and drawn into threads.

Another type is pure white, with a fine and tough texture, somewhat similar to the spider silk that the old man had just taken from the phase spider.

Looking along the direction of the silk threads, two threads are cleverly twisted into one, and woven stitch by stitch along a simple weaving frame into a palm-sized silver pouch.

It was a brand new mithril dimensional bag, exquisitely crafted, with faint, intricate magical patterns engraved on its surface.

Mark's gaze was completely drawn to the dimensional bag. He immediately exited his ghostly state, strode forward, picked up the silver pouch, and probed it with his mental energy.

There were no magical restrictions; the inside of the pouch was a space about 200 square meters in size.

Overwhelmed with joy, Mark was about to slip away in ghost form.

Just then, Mark noticed a yellowed manuscript among the messy books and papers next to his workbench.

Mark picked up the journal, opened it, and saw that the cover read "Lockland's Spatial Conjecture".

After a quick glance, Mark was shocked to discover that it was actually a journal of insights into spatial magic.

In an instant, a nameless rage surged within Mark.

These beasts actually imprisoned a spatial mage to save their own lives; they are utterly depraved!

Mark originally only wanted to get the dimensional bag and leave, but now he has changed his mind. Since he has received a favor from Lockland, he must lend a hand, even if it is only to do his best.

Mark then took out three scrolls from under his cloak: "3rd Ring Fireball", "3rd Ring Vaporization", and "3rd Ring Advanced Illusion".

These are all spell scrolls that were taken from Zefer's safe.

The biggest advantage of spell scrolls is that they do not require the user to use their own magic power. They can be triggered by simply injecting a small amount of mental energy, making them very suitable for Lockland's state of being under magic suppression.

After a moment's thought, Mark buried the two scrolls, "Fireball" and "Higher Illusion," under the messy manuscript paper.

A 3rd-circle spell scroll is a very precious item for Mark, so keeping one to save his own life isn't unreasonable.

Whether Lockland can seize this opportunity to escape is up to fate.

After doing all this, Mark put the notebook into his mithril dimensional bag, activated his ghost form, and silently floated out of the room.