Elena already had her charcoal pencil in hand, its tip resting on the blank sheet of paper.
"What do we need?"
"Four lines." Su Li held up four fingers.
"First, documents from the Elven Merchant Association. Circuit derivations above the fourth tier, ancient records on aether compression—Talia should have some in stock. I saw a notebook in the lowest level of the archives before. Its approach aligns with what I have in mind."
Elena wrote down the first line.
"Second, goblin mining routes. High-purity aether ore can't be obtained through ordinary channels. Barlow has supply lines into the Free City-State. Have him name a price."
The second line.
"Third, potions from Red Leaf Manor. During a fifth-tier breakthrough, the pressure on the meridians is dozens of times greater than at the fourth tier. We need to stockpile high-grade restorative potions and stabilizing fluids in advance. Your father's apothecary should have the connections."
Elena's charcoal pencil paused for a beat as she wrote.
"And the fourth?"
"High-tier dwarven furnace materials."
Elena looked up. "Dwarves? Silver Crown City has dwarf channels?"
"No, but Barlow does." Su Li leaned back in his chair. "Goblins and dwarves go way back. Half the high-grade refined iron tucked away at the bottom of the Silver Claw Merchant Guild's coffers came out of dwarf furnaces. Have Barlow ask around and see whether he can get hold of a fifth-tier furnace core."
The four lines were swiftly written across the page. Elena capped the charcoal pencil, and the blank sheet had already become a resource procurement plan.
Saina finally spoke.
"You can go into seclusion." She twisted the corner of her apron. "But you still have to eat. In your previous life, when you went into seclusion, you drank only two bowls of soup over three days. When