Badge in Azure

Chapter 263: Up North (Part 2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“I’ve told you what you need to do. There’s nothing more, I think,” Jason said, pausing before cautioning, “Do not provoke the people from the Holy See… at least, not until you’re a sorcerer.”

Saleen nodded in understanding. After advancing to a grade-7 sorcerer, he would be able to fly freely without any restrictions. Grade-6 mages could fly as well, but the speed at which they could fly and the height above ground which they could levitate were limited. Only when Saleen became a grade-7 mage would he be given more options to flee in case his opponent was too powerful – provided that he himself did not fall prey into his enemy’s trap first.

As of right now, Saleen could fly as well, but height and speed-wise, he paled in comparison to Lex, let alone a sorcerer. Jason was simply afraid that Saleen would become too overconfident in his ability to fly and provoke the Holy See on impulse.

The warships from Sregl Island were at least a few hundred meters long and could only be powered up using magic provided by mages. For Saleen, Jason had kindly assigned one grade-5 mage, one grade-4 mage, and six grade-3 mages to each warship. These numbers were enough to ensure that they could go full speed ahead, regardless of whether it was night or day. The warships looked grand and expensive as well. Saleen reckoned that if they were to be constructed by the noblemen over in the Qin Empire, the price would definitely exceed one million gold coins.

To put things in perspective, war horses cost a little over ten gold coins each, meaning that the money used to build these warships alone could have been used to purchase over a hundred thousand war horses. One could say that naval fleets were one of the most expensive armies to maintain. Just like a knight’s war horse needed hay, grass, and whatever other sustenance it needed to survive, a warship fortified by magic needed energy from magic nuclei in order to run smoothly. The cost of maintaining the magic nuclei was definitely not going to be lower than the cost of maintaining a war horse for a sailor and knight respectively.

Yet, the Sregl Island warship was not the most expensive type of battleship. The Cloudflow Empire’s primary battleship reached over two hundred meters in length, and cost over ten million gold coins to build. Only a huge empire could afford to build and maintain a naval fleet on such a grand scale. Ordinary noblemen could only watch from the sides in envy.

To be able to receive three battleships in one go made Saleen feel like a nouveau riche. The concealed ship’s wheel started powering up, allowing the ship to slowly but surely move further and further away from Sregl Island. As the ship started to move, the pirate ship decided to make an appearance from behind the skerry. Saleen allowed Lex to bring Nailisi to retrieve the pan’s turtle alchemical boat.

Lex crossed over to the pirate ship with ease, and it was there she found out that the alchemical boat had been sunk by the pirates. Fortunately, Saleen had a well-rounded plan. Since the waters near the island were not too deep, once Lex returned to the warship, she could bring the six grade-3 mages on a diving trip to power up the pan’s turtle alchemical boat so that it could catch up with Saleen’s naval fleet.

Magic warships could reach a speed of up to eighty miles per hour during battle, and about fifty miles per hour when they were just cruising. Hence, it would be a bit difficult for the pirate ship to catch up. Under the water, the pan’s turtle alchemical boat could barely maintain this speed as well. The mages onboard the pan’s turtle alchemical boat were beyond excited. The people of Sregl Island had attempted to construct an underwater warship, but many unsolvable issues and faults had cropped up, preventing that from happening. For example, warships could not move fast underwater, and the amount of pressure that warships could withstand underwater was another issue. The most difficult problem to solve was the issue of lifespan. If underwater warships were to be built so that they could last for decades or even centuries like those above water, there would be so many zeros attached to the price tags of their construction that they would make a person’s head spin.

It was not that Sregl Island could not afford the cost of building this type of warship. The mages there would not even feel the pinch. The issue here was the cost of maintenance. The Sregl Island mages had calculated the overall cost of building and maintaining this type of battleship before. It would take more money to build a thirty-meter long underwater warship than a lead battleship that operated above water. Furthermore, the cost of maintaining the underwater vehicle would be ten times more than of a lead battleship.

That was why Sregl Island only had a few underwater ships, each roughly over ten meters long, stationed within its harbor. The people on these ships would be in great danger when faced with magic sea beasts because they would not be able to steer them deep into the depths of the ocean to seek refuge. There was a limit to how far these ships could be steered from shore before they fell apart. The pan’s turtle alchemical boat’s hull, on the other hand, had been built directly from a matured pan turtle shell. It was a material stronger than almost all metals. Yet, for the same quantity of both materials, the shell weighed less than half of most metals. The hull was also fused together with many crystals. Behind these crystals were magic arrays which allowed the people inside the pan’s turtle alchemical boat to see magic images of the events occurring outside of the vessel. The four magically fortified paddles had an alchemy cabin built specially for them, so that the ship could still move forward in the event that two of them were either destroyed or damaged.

The weight of the pan’s turtle alchemical boat could be controlled using the magic array found in the main control room. However, for it to become buoyant now, it would take up a lot of energy from the magic nuclei. If it were to continue travelling underwater, the amount of energy expended would be much less.

Saleen stayed behind on the flagship to do a headcount of the crew onboard the battleships. He had not had a chance to do so earlier because they had left in such a hurry. After finishing his headcount, he realized that he had oversimplified the entire situation earlier. The pirates did not possess decent combat abilities. These three-hundred-meter- long warships and their accessories were all Saleen needed for his mission.

It was easier to operate a magic battleship than an ordinary sailboat. There were over ninety sailors split into groups of three, and they would effectively operate the ship twenty-four hours a day through a regular watch system. The main thing allowing the ship to move forward was its magic nuclei. Without a mage to activate them, the warship would be as immobile as a floating island.

Upon skimming over the nominal roll, Saleen realized that there were over two hundred warriors onboard each battleship. The ideal number was five hundred. However, Sregl Island was not about to hand over that many men to Saleen. Nonetheless, the numbers were still sufficient for maintaining the combat prowess of each ship.

In addition, approximately a dozen alchemy apprentices had been added onto each ship. They needed to work hand in hand with the swordsmen in order to operate the magic stone artillery and magic alchemy crossbow, as well as a few simple magic arrays. The four story battleships could accommodate over eight hundred people each. However, as of this moment, there were only a little over three hundred people onboard each battleship. It was not hard to visualize how empty the ships looked.

The weapons found on the battleships were very different from those available on the mainland. On this ship, Saleen found seven-meter-long lances and different types of arms, mostly daggers and swords which were easier to maintain. There was not a single wooden compound bow in sight, only metallic crossbows which were fortified with ratchet drawing mechanisms. These metallic crossbows had been made using materials of the highest quality, preventing them from rusting under the humidity-clodded ocean weather and making them a lot easier to maintain.

The boats were even equipped with a few simple puppets that were controlled by mage apprentices. Their main role was to help the sailors wash the decks and perform other menial tasks. Each warship even had its own motorboats. The lowest deck of each ship even had its own freezer large enough to preserve the freshness of tons of kilograms worth of fresh fish if they were to catch any. The sailors did not stay on the bottom decks. Rather, they lived on the first floor of the ship together with all the warriors. The space in the bottom decks was already occupied by alchemy mechanical devices. Unless puppets were considered people, a person would rarely see anyone there.

Saleen requested the blueprints of the warships, and studied them intensely once someone had passed them on to him. He knew that given the pirates’ capabilities, it would be very hard for them to power a magic warship.

However, unlike the warships in Alchemy City, most ships could not afford to run solely on magic alone. That was far too expensive. Therefore, those pirates could prove useful in the future.

After studying the structure of the battleships, Saleen started to match the names of the crew members to their faces. Magic images depicting each crew member’s particulars were attached to the nominal roll, making it easier for Saleen to learn all of their names instead of going up to them and requesting information.

From the looks of it, Sregl Island mages were very experienced in managing their warriors. They did not show any signs of inexperience or incompetence. Every day, as the ships sailed towards the north, mages requested instructions from Saleen through magical videos sent via the magic arrays. However, Saleen’s only commands were to never jam the brakes on the warships, and to only travel towards the north.

Even though the ocean was so vast that Saleen could not even see land for miles, the grade-4 mage was still afraid that he would be unlucky enough to bump into Cloudflow naval fleets. Performance-wise, his three warships were definitely far superior to the bronze warships that had launched an attack on Sregl Island. In fact, Saleen was confident that even if they were hopelessly outnumbered, they would still be able to win a fight against the Cloudflow Navy. However, Saleen was afraid of encountering a battleship as ginormous as the one that he had seen before. That battleship had possessed too much magic stone artillery for its own good. Saleen knew that those artillery could fire munitions far beyond the range and power of any weapons and firearms Saleen’s battleships had on hand. Saleen knew that if he was unlucky enough to bump into that battleship, he, along with Lex and the other crew members, would be doomed to a terrible end.

The functions of a magic compass included locating and confirming coordinates as well as the monitoring of enemy movements so long as they were within the range of forty miles. However, once the Cloudflow naval fleets spotted Saleen’s ships and vice versa, Saleen was certain that the crew members from the enemy ships would deploy flying puppets to delay the retreat of Saleen’s fleet. At that point in time, even if they did manage to scatter and escape, Saleen was certain that the Cloudflow warships would have sunk one of his vessels.

That was why Saleen did not dare to stop the ships even for a second. He did not bother to stop near the Qin shores for fear of being spotted as well. He simply commanded the ships to go full speed ahead.

Everyday, if Saleen was not honing his magic, he would be studying the structure of the city that Jason had designed through the blueprints that the latter had given him. After closely studying them for a few days, Saleen had a minor epiphany. All cities, including Holy Rock City, Alchemy City, and even the one which Jason had designed, could technically be considered an enormous complete magic array.

Although the city which Jason had designed was much smaller than Holy Rock City or Alchemy City, the way he was going to build it was very similar to both cities. The outstanding thing about Jason’s design was the magical network created using the thirty-six magic towers. Not only would this network raise the might and power of the magic towers, but ach mage would be able to have their very own magic tower. They would be able to control the areas within range of the magic towers from there.

Jason had also used the magic towers to create some sort of magic net which shrouded the entire city. This allowed every single piece of magic equipment to become more fortified and powerful. Not only that, but the energy required to power this equipment would be drastically lowered, thanks to the magic net.

Alas, there was one flaw in Jason’s blueprints. To be able to realize the full potential of his design, the city would need the combined powers of at least thirty-six sorcerers at all times.

Sregl Island was home to only thirty-three sorcerers. One might be able to find thirty-six sorcerers in Holy Rock City. However, both places should not be used as a basis for comparison. If Jason wanted to build a city as large as Holy Rock City, and still achieve the same effect, he would need at least a hundred sorcerers.

However, even if they did find these numbers, it would be impossible to get so many powerful sorcerers to meekly obey the commands of one person. Perhaps it would have been possible during the time when the Qin Empire was still being founded. Currently, the probability of that happening, and hence the construction of the dream city, was close to zero. This was because the Myers Mainland of today had been severely affected by the internal conflicts with and within the Holy See.

Saleen finally understood why Jason wanted to build only thirty-six magic towers. This city had clearly been designed with Sregl Island in mind. The mages on Sregl Island were the most united bunch that Saleen had ever seen. Perhaps there was hope that they could amass thirty-six sorcerers after all.

Saleen silently admired his mentor’s wit and cleverness. Even if Lex did go ahead with the construction of the city, she would need the help of Sregl Island in order for the city to be at its maximum combat effectiveness.

Lex would not be getting the short end of the stick either. The city shown on the blueprints could be copied and duplicated. After building up one city, Lex could immediately start building the next one. Plus, because she would have gleaned some experience from building the first city, Lex would be able to save on a lot of money and time when building the second one. Compared to building a city similar in size and grandeur to that of Holy Rock City, building two smaller cities would cost a lot less in terms of construction fees.

Saleen was a lot more confident in undertaking the task to build a city of a smaller magnitude anyway. No one would be able to replicate Holy Rock City. Just thinking about the pitch black walls of Holy Rock City that towered over him like a mountain as well as the gigantic magic clocks that peppered the city made Saleen realize just how weak his powers were. Saleen knew that his mentor was right about not provoking the people from the Holy See.

To travel from Sregl Island to Phoenix, Saleen would have to travel a distance of ten thousand miles towards the north. From Phoenix, Saleen’s fleets would have to travel around a bend and continue for another fourteen thousand miles before they even reached the Myers Mainland. Saleen’s warships travelled at a speed of fifty miles an hour, which translated to over a thousand miles a day. Not once did they stop to take a break, and half a month passed just like that. However, their efforts bore fruit, for the Myers Mainland was finally in sight.

Strictly speaking, the Myers Mainland was not actually in sight. Rather, it was the outline of islands which were located in the Myers Mainland that had been spotted. These islands were “pieced” together by tall, steep, and sturdy rocks. The only flora spotted were plants sprouting from the joints and bedding planes of these boulders. Now that it was close to wintertime, all the sea breeze carried with it was raw, biting, and bitter cold. Instead of being greeted by a mixture of black and green, the sight that awaited them was that of withered trees and grass, as well as black rocks, of course.

“Find a suitable place to dock our ships,” Saleen ordered. There were no naturally occuring harbors here. If they wished to construct a coastal city, he would have to locate an area together with Lex first. Saleen was in a particularly good mood today. Ever since he had left Ceylon City, he had experienced the smoothest fifteen-day journey in his life. Not only had he not encountered any Cloudflow ships, but Saleen and his fleet had also not bumped into any powerful magic sea beasts. The best part about the whole journey was that they had not even run into any torrential storms. It was a good sign that everything was going to be okay.