CH 28

Nightwing led the pursuers away, with the help of the Batmobile and the entire Bat family, he was unlikely to encounter any problems.

Mason and Catwoman also used the magical effect of the invisibility cloak to leave the combat zone and "borrowed" a car to cross the Gotham City area to reach Pier 7 of Miller Port.

This is the oldest dock area in Gotham City and one of the oldest and most complex areas in this city, which was founded on shipping and heavy industry.

The entire pier has undergone multiple renovations over the past hundred years, and even the dock workers cannot fully grasp the complexity here, especially the underground areas.

Just like a maze.

Mason doesn't know much about this place, but his little brother Kite Man, who followed the Joker and was chased by Batman, hid around Miller Port for a while. He told Mason that there was a passage to the underground in Pier 7, so this became Mason and Catwoman's temporary stopping point.

"You know a lot for such a young age. I didn't even know there was such a place to hide."

In a specially developed hiding place in the not-so-dirty sewer, Catwoman looked at the opened light above her head in amazement, and turned to Mason, who was disassembling and maintaining his gun, and said:

"I feel like you're not a 17-year-old boy anymore. You also have a hidden identity, right? Little guy, now that we're a team, I think you should be honest with your sister."

"My hidden identity is Mason Cooper."

The young man said without looking up:

"It's not as complicated as you think. You should rest for a while. Are you not tired after a night of tossing and turning? Our friend will meet us here tomorrow afternoon, and we need to be prepared for a sudden attack before that. Can you use a sword?"

"Sis, I grew up in Gotham and have been entangled with Batman for more than ten years. What do you think I can't use?"

Catwoman leaned against the wall with her hands on her hips.

In the next moment, the strange blade with the golden eagle hilt was thrown by Mason and caught by Catwoman. She pulled out the blade with skill and swung it around.

She looked at this beautiful and majestic sword with the eyes of a world-class thief and examined some decorative features of the hilt with her fingers.

A few minutes later, she gave a fairly accurate evaluation like an antique appraisal master, saying:

"It's at least an antique of more than 800 years old. Judging from the inscription on the blade, it should come from a monastery in France, and the strange light refraction should be some kind of supernatural power. But even if you remove those unscientific powers, the material and craftsmanship of just the hilt are enough to make it sell for a staggering price in any auction house in the world."

Catwoman squeezed her eyes and laughed, then made a charming pose and said to Mason:"Well, so this is the first gift you gave to your sister? From my experience, men who are so generous usually have ulterior motives."

"I'm just lending it to you."

Mason clicked as he loaded the shotgun with deer slugs. He glanced at Catwoman, who was playing with her sword, and said, "I'm not good at close combat, nor do I like it. It will be more effective in your hands. We are like crickets on a rope. Trusting each other will give us more chances to survive. If you can, Selina, please don't disturb me now. I need to prepare some potions and weapons for us to use in battle. This work requires me to stay highly focused. So, whatever you want to do, please don't make any noise, okay?"

He took out a set of simplified alchemy containers from his luggage. Although Hogwarts had found the orthodox magic cauldron and alchemy test tubes, they were the real deal. Just assembling the complete set of alien test tubes was as tall as a cabinet. Mason put them in his carry-on suitcase, which was still with Kite Man.

After sorting the medicinal materials into categories, Mason took out a lot of C4 and disassembled drone components and placed them beside him. When Catwoman saw this young man taking out one dangerous item after another from his waist bag like magic, she couldn't help but raise her eyebrows. She was becoming more and more interested in this young man who was twenty years younger than her.

When she saw Mason carefully lighting the alcohol lamp and squeezing some chopped herbs into the bowl, Catwoman stood up and walked towards the hiding place outside. "Where are you going?" Mason asked.

Wearing her unique ruby goggles, Catwoman said, "Of course, I'm going to get back the thing that's killing both of us. Do you think I would carry that kind of thing with me? And since we've made up our minds to fight back, I have to bring over the weapons that are suitable for me, right?"

"There are people everywhere outside who are trying to kill us," the young man said, and then threw the folded silver-gray invisibility cloak to Catwoman, saying, "Put it on. Just drape it over you. You don't need to make too many movements, but it's best not to wear it in battle. This thing has a bad temper and a nasty personality. It wants to see the person who uses it suffer misfortune."

"You're giving this to me?"

Catwoman looked at the magic invisibility cloak in her hand, which was priceless to all thieves and pickpockets. She said in a strange tone, "I'm starting to think that your motives are impure, little Mason. Listen to my advice and don't waste time on my sister. I'm past the age of liking young meat."

"Do you really think I'm a virgin who has never seen a beautiful woman?"

Mason replied in Catwoman's tone. He glanced at Catwoman and whispered, "Don't worry, I won't touch your sister.""Coincidentally, I've also passed the age where I would be obsessed with mature women and restless. I now appreciate the beauty of the soul more. Unfortunately, your soul has already been branded with a bat mark.

Good things have an owner. Taking without permission is stealing."

"You speak so venomously!"

Catwoman snorted and stopped arguing with Mason. She put on her invisibility cloak and disappeared.

A few seconds later, she suddenly appeared behind Mason, showing only her head as if to scare the young man, and said:

"Aren't you afraid that I'll take your sword and cloak and not return them? You know I'm a heartless thief, and if I have these things, I can steal the whole world without being discovered.

No thief can ignore these things.

It's like you're playing with fresh fish in front of a kitten, deliberately tempting me."

"I'm afraid, but I have no choice."

Mason poured the crushed herbs into a beaker, added clean water, and shook it without looking up.

"You're the same, Selina Kyle.

Unless you're willing to kill Bruce Wayne in front of the League of Assassins... Oops, sorry, I slipped up. I mean, your beloved Batman."

He grinned and looked at the liquid in his hand gradually changing color, saying softly:

"In fact, it doesn't matter if you take those two things. Anyway, you have a very rich and willing-to-spend-money reservist husband. I know who to go to for debt collection.

So, it's okay, Mrs. Wayne.

Take whatever you like, but remember to leave me a receipt with your signature."

Catwoman fell silent.

Her fingers, hidden in the invisibility cloak, had already grasped the hilt of Sujie's eagle sword. She only needed one ruthless backstab to kill the young man who had revealed Batman's true identity here.

Catwoman was confident that she wouldn't miss.

"When did you find out?"

She asked.

Mason thought for a moment and said:

"Probably when we first met. Do you remember that night when you gave me your phone to call Commissioner Gordon? I saw the number you set as an emergency contact and marked as 'Love Nest.'

Then I tried calling once. Guess who answered the phone? Hmm, I can only say that Mr. Alfred's London accent is really authentic."

"You evil bat brat!"

Catwoman screamed in anger and shame:

"I won't let you become the next Robin! Bruce will definitely be tricked to death by you, you cunning devil."

"Thanks for your help, but I'm really not interested in becoming Robin."

Mason stopped talking.

After making Catwoman wary, he relaxed and began making the beginner's healing potion strictly according to the recipe.With the precise hands of Engineering Level 2, Mason finally succeeded on the third attempt and obtained a pale red liquid in a test tube with a specific capacity.

"Successfully produced a standard alchemy compound, Alchemy skill proficiency increased."

When the prompt appeared, Mason carefully examined the test tube in front of him, and the information label quickly popped up.

Primary Healing Potion

Quality: Standard Item · Mediocre Craftsmanship

Effect: Heals any injury no more severe than [Moderate Damage] within 30 minutes and comes with a weak [Hemostasis and Analgesia] effect.

Item Description: A reminder for novice pharmacists, adding some lemon juice can make it taste better and more nutritious, and mixing it with wine enhances the taste.

"Mediocre craftsmanship?"

Mason frowned at the quality evaluation. He followed the process completely, and the materials he took from Batman's herb warehouse were definitely not counterfeit.

How could it be rated as mediocre?

Was there any trick he didn't discover?

"You seem troubled by the quality of the finished product?"

Just then, the voice of Catwoman suddenly sounded.

As she removed her invisibility cloak and put on a new set of leather bodysuit more suitable for combat, with a cat tail whip attached to her waist, Catwoman casually played with a bag of luxurious gems and took out a black USB flash drive from her waist pouch, throwing it to Mason.

She squatted in front of the young man with her amazingly curved legs, watching him holding the magical pale red potion with a lack of energy, and said in a tone of voice that lacked enthusiasm:

"Perhaps you need some female wisdom. Let me ask you, do you know the difference between cheap industrial standard products and expensive art pieces?"

"Uh..."

Mason frowned and thought for a moment, tentatively saying:

"Craftsman spirit?"

"Are you stupid? Have you been fooled?"

Catwoman reached out and knocked on Mason's forehead, scolding:

"It's uniqueness! The personal characteristics of the creator can never be simulated by those industrial standard parts. Although I don't understand alchemy, I understand art pieces.

When I saw you making the potion so mechanically, it was like a robot. Come on, this is industrial production again. The characteristics of handmade products are that even with the same pair of hands, the finished products will have slight differences every time, right?

Just like two art pieces that are exactly the same, they are definitely not valuable."

"Uh, let me think about it."

Mason lowered his head and pondered for a moment. He looked at the item description of the potion and took another bottle of freshly squeezed juice from Catwoman. When he completed the second potion production, he added some passion fruit juice to it according to the prompt.

"Successfully produced a Special · Alchemy Compound, Alchemy skill proficiency X2 increased."

Mason's eyes lit up, and he examined the potion with the darker color due to the added fruit juice.

Passion Fruit Herbal JuiceQuality: Abandoned Item · Standard Craftsmanship

Effect: Drinking a cup of passion fruit-flavored potion will not provide any healing effects but will make you feel happy.

Item Description: Look at what you've done! You've wasted a bottle of good medicine!

"This..."

Mason looked at the bottle of medicine in front of him, his expression becoming very strange.

Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.

The potion should have failed due to its expiration, but the prompt told him that the alchemical compound was successfully made and gave him double proficiency. So, is the essence of alchemy really just messing around blindly?

Is it really like the nursery rhyme says, "The secret to making soup is to add a little poisonous mushroom and an old shoe root"?

No.

To be precise, it should be "experimentation."

The young man felt that he had grasped the essence and should be brave enough to try more unknown formulas to go further on the path of alchemy. But this kind of experimentation is definitely not just randomly adding juice.

It is to have a second processing with personal characteristics based on the characteristics of different materials after thoroughly understanding the formula.

"I think I understand now."

Mason narrowed his eyes, picked up a very good quality ginseng beard, and began his third attempt. This time, he received a prompt of five times proficiency, and the finished product became a very strange thing:

Primary nourishing ointment

Quality: Standard Item · Excellent Craftsmanship

Effect: Unknown

Item Description: Feels like the body has been emptied...

"I understand now."

Mason saw the item description and drank the potion, then continued to make his alchemical potions.

This tedious experimentation continued until the afternoon of the next day.

He had already arranged thirty-seven standard primary healing potions of pale red color in front of him, as well as fifteen colorful and fancy things.

The effects of these things were all unknown and needed to be tested by someone, but Mason was sure that they were not poisonous... Well, they probably weren't.

The young man moved his slightly sore neck and wrists and looked at the screen showing that he had successfully reached level 1 in alchemy skills. While putting away his potions, he muttered to himself:

"It looks like I need to find some 'test subjects'."

"Someone's coming, Mason!"

Catwoman's reminder sounded at this moment. Mason immediately grabbed the dual-barreled gun at hand, while Catwoman, wearing a invisibility cloak, held the hilt of her sword at her waist.

In the gaze of the two, a light and brisk footstep came from the entrance of the sewer, humming a strange song. When he approached, Mason waved his hand to Catwoman.

The person who came was a friend.

"Hey, boss! You're really here!"

Wearing a sharp suit and a windbreaker, dressed like a successful person with a red face, Kite Man Charles appeared at the door of their hiding place.

He was holding a very beautiful briefcase in his hand.Mason hugged his boss first, then opened his briefcase to reveal the vintage magic suitcase inside.

"I have a surprise for you!"

Kite Man opened the suitcase with a smirk, activated the invisible extension spell, and in the next moment, a tightly bound guy was thrown in front of Mason.

Judging from his drunken appearance, he was probably knocked out and thrown into the suitcase in a gang bar.

"This is the guy who commands the Penguin Gang to chase after you in the gang bar, boss."

Charles picked up a cigarette, sniffed it under his nose, and introduced to Mason:

"I followed him all the way and found that he was dealing with some mysterious guys. He must know something, so I knocked him out and brought him here."

"Good, let's start interrogating him and dig out all the secrets in his mind!"

A hint of coldness flashed in Mason's eyes.

He took his own suitcase, feeling a sense of security, and threw a truth serum that Catwoman hated to the Kite Man, who was hiding.

He signaled him to start working.

At the same time, the Hell's Eye pendant hanging on Mason's collar suddenly "opened its eyes", and Scarecrow's voice came out from it and rang in Mason's ear.

He said:

"Find a safe place, Mason! I want to talk to you about your curse research progress. I mean, prepare the reward quickly!"