Badge in Azure

"Lex, this is an experimental product." Saleen rubbed his eyebrows and sighed at the drawing.

"Three of these ships have been produced. We are not the first to do so."

"Oh? Alchemy City doesn’t seem to have such a ship."

"This ship… was produced by my father secretly behind the backs of the houses, so the drawing was not circulated. All three ships were sunk in Lake Ganlan, and aside from the royal mages who were loyal to my father, no one else knows about this." At this time, Lex’s expression turned glum. Her father had not only possessed the intentions of overthrowing the Holy See, but he had also wanted to unify the mainland. In order to do so, he had needed to deal with the Cloudflow Navy.

Alchemy City would never declare war on the Cloudflow Empire, so Emperor Chanake had needed to establish his own magic fleet. Unfortunately, before he could fulfill this wish, he had been killed in the Holy See’s ambush. Safilos had known of this plan as well, but he could no longer control the nobles in Lianyun City. Hence, he had not dared to continue with Chanake’s plan.

Lex’s eyes were brimming with tears as she stared at the alchemical structure levitating in midair. Once her father passed away, many things had simply disappeared. Not only was the magic fleet gone, but the city of magic which her father had supported was also gone.

Alchemy City was already showing symptoms of degeneration. It would not be able to help the Qin Empire unify the mainland. Those sorcerers were too used to being at the top of the society, so they did not bother thinking about the future of mankind. To the sorcerers in City, they were fine with anything so long as no one offended their pride. Alchemy City had leeched onto the Qin Empire and had stopped thinking of how to help the empire realize the glory and dreams it had possessed when it was first founded.

Countless magic resources had been monopolized by Alchemy City. Lex had inched along in the Bitter Water Prefecture for ten years before being able to groom a sorcerer – Faerun. Unfortunately, Faerun was dead. The Bitter Water Prefecture and Alchemy City were poles apart when compared to each other, so there was still no visible hope of salvaging the Qin Empire right now.

"This ship is problematic." Saleen stared the ship for a long time. In regards to how it was powered, Saleen could not figure it out, but he had great understanding of the aspects of its offensive magic. It was far too difficult to carry out underwater attacks, as this ship would need to surface above water before it could open the alchemical magic array in its hull and launch its magic stone artillery.

Lex sighed and said, "Saleen, do you realize just how strong the Cloudflow Navy is? If it was not for Alchemy City, the coasts of Qin would never have been able to enjoy a day of peace. This ship was originally used to transport dead troops. The hull would be piled with magic burning agents, and then the ship would sneak close to the Cloudflow warships before surfacing above the water. After that, the magic burning agents would be ignited and the ship would perish together with the enemy."

"That…" Saleen had not expected that such a complex ship was simply intended to perish together with the enemy. As Saleen recalled the scene when the hunting boats from Alchemy City had been assaulted by that giant ship, he felt helpless. That giant ship had been able to fire its magic stone artillery in quick succession, and no matter how many warriors one commanded, no one would have been able to get close to that ship.

Peng!

The door of the magic tower was rammed by a huge force, causing Sika and Nailisi to grow alarmed at the same time. The ghost fog monsters were trying to gain entry into the tower and had begun attacking! These monsters were still fairly capable while they were in the dense fog, but once they left the fog, they were just like fish who had left the water. If the ghost fog monsters really charged in, Saleen and Lex would not need to do anything, because Sika alone would be able to smash them into mash using her cudgel.

"So troublesome!" Saleen turned his head around and said to Nailisi, "Let Sika get some more rest. If those monsters manage to barge in, just use the scrolls to exterminate them."

"Yes, Master," Nailisi replied solemnly. Most of her scrolls had been acquired from Saleen’s magic practice sessions. Their quality was bad since Saleen was lousy at making scrolls. Saleen had only focused on familiarizing himself with the process of storing magic into the scrolls, and as for the results, they had been out of his control.

"Lex, if the alchemical boat is made using the turtle shell as its material, it will definitely be of great use. But, do you think we will get another opportunity to capture a turtle?"

"It is very challenging. If a normal hunting boat is used, the turtle will cause it to capsize, and if a fleet is deployed, the turtle will simply avoid it.

"If we will face so much difficulty in catching a second turtle, then even if this ship is transformed, it will not be meaningful to you. You require a massive fleet, so what’s the use of just one ship? It would be great if we could think of a solution to install an alchemical machine on the shell so that we could steer it back to the mainland. We will just be wasting our time if we rush to study the transformation when there is clearly no use for it in the future."

"No, Saleen. Before I witnessed that spell of yours, I used to think that this ship was just wasting the lives of our warriors. But if your spell can be used to analyze the magic array, then you can create spells which are suitable for underwater assaults."

When Saleen heard Lex’s words, he raised his hand and an ice bomb appeared on top of his hand, levitating in midair. A thick layer of water vapor surrounded the ice bomb. As long as Saleen continued to release more magic, the water vapor would begin to burn and eventually explode.

"Your ice bomb has already advanced to level-5, and it also contains the attributes of the fire element. If you can use a magic array for casting and a magic nucleus for stimulation, then it can be released underwater. Level-5 magic already poses a threat to the Cloudflow Navy."

"Mm." Saleen dispersed the ice bomb on his hand, leaving behind some ice shards which resembled snowflakes in the air. The ice bomb was quickly dispersed. Those ghost fog monsters outside the magic tower were still trying to break the door down, and Saleen could not be bothered with them. He would only react once the door was broken.

"I will alter the portion regarding its mechanical power. You will be in charge of the study into the offensive magic array."

"That will be difficult." Saleen was ashamed. Saleen’s original choice of direction had been in magic pharmaceutics, so it was not a problem for him to create some strange medicines. However, asking Saleen to research magic arrays was equivalent to making a fish learn how to run on land. The only possible method was to analyze it using the Figaro formula. However, that would require an immense amount of analysis.

"You still have to do it even if it’s challenging. Saleen, I am but a single person. It is really exhausting." As Lex spoke, she took the chance to sit down and leaned against the chair, looking a little vexed.

Saleen looked at Lex. Her face had never been so haggard before. Other noble ladies her age would have been married, and some might even have been pregnant already. However, Lex had to complete numerous tasks which were fraught with difficulties, because she had no choice but to inherit her father’s bequest.

Saleen really wanted to say this to Lex – you should just drop everything and leave it alone. However, that tinge of lingering sadness in Lex’s eyes made Saleen unable to say so outloud.

It seemed like Saleen’s wishes were not as intense as those of Lex’s. If Saleen had been in her shoes right now, would he have been as persistent as her?

Lex’s uncle was not willing to support her while her brother was an emperor who was powerless and disrespected by the noblemen. Lex had established her county in the barren Bitter Water Prefecture, where the food supplies were barely self-sufficient. The county was in an isolated environment, and even commerce could hardly take place there. With such conditions, was it possible for a county to resist the entirety of the mainland?

"Okay, I’ll do the calculations." Saleen pointed at Lex’s chair, Lex understood what he wanted and stood up before giving the chair to him. In Lex’s god’s ring, there was only this single chair. Usually, her and Saleen would simply sit on the floor.

Saleen took a seat and glanced at the levitating alchemical structure before taking a deep breath. Fortunately, Saleen still possessed the necklace belonging to the Myers Goddess. Saleen channeled all of his mental power into the necklace and entered the space of the Figaro formula, then he began analyzing his Ice Bomb spell.

Lex had not been acting pitiful in front of Saleen. After spending so much time with her, Saleen knew that Lex was actually a fairly simple person. All the hypocrisy associated with the nobles was unrelated to her. Had Lex wanted some peace of mind by marrying herself off to Cloudflow, the Cloudflow royal family would also not have dared to anger Lex given her status and capabilities.

With a certain type of significance, Saleen was full of gratitude towards Lex. When Saleen had been destitute, it was Lex who had given him shelter. Lex treated Saleen and the rest of the mages equally. She did not belittle nor boss him around. At that point in time, Lex had never harbored the intentions of making use of Jason Statham.

Saleen had been greatly influenced by Lex. When Saleen had been his old self, he had always gone into hiding whenever he ran into problems. However, after spending so much time with Lex, Saleen had gradually gained the courage to face challenges and perils. The environment in the Bitter Water Prefecture had also greatly changed Saleen’s character. He was now not so gloomy and easily roused. If Saleen met Earl Sufonso’s son right now, he would definitely not act so reckless as to kill him.

That killing would have been a mere act of cowardice by Saleen. Perhaps it might have seemed like decisive revenge, but it was, in fact, Saleen’s inferiority complex at its peak. Saleen was glad, because nobody would have known how he would have turned out had he returned to the Clyde family with Aini. Aini might have been Saleen’s friend, but if his character and Saleen’s mindset influenced each other, Saleen could have easily became a wayward mage.

Once a person became wayward, it was difficut to get them back on the right path.

Lex was also furiously calculating away. She was not as proficient as Saleen in the Figaro formula, but she was more familiar with the changes in a magic array. The Figaro formula was only a tool. Lex’s ultimate goal was to transform the magic array so that the original concept of the alchemical boat could be compatible with the new materials.

Lex did not need to calculate many things, and as for the alchemy drawing, she could not have been more familiar with it already.

The turtle shell was very special. The space in the middle was not exactly empty. There were vertically positioned bones at the openings for the limbs supporting the shell, forming a sealed natural cabin. Lex needed to think of a solution to maximize this space and install the alchemy machine, so that even if the machine was destroyed, the ship still would not sink. In order to achieve that, Lex would need make bigger alterations to the structure of the machine. Since Lex was also adept at alchemy, this was not a big deal to her.

However, the things which Lex and Saleen wanted to accomplish had indeed exceeded their capabilities. Usually, only a sorcerer would have been able to carry out activities such as designing a new magic array and refining huge pieces of equipment. Right now, Saleen was merely a grade-4 mage while Lex was a grade-6 mage, so the amount of calculations they had to do were very shocking even though they had obtained the alchemy drawings from a predecessor.

If Saleen had not possessed the Myers Goddess’ necklace which enabled him to calculate large scale formulae in a short time, he would have never been able to solve this problem.

The alchemical boat needed to have offensive abilities, or else it would be easily captured by other people. Saleen was well aware of what it would mean for the Qin and Cloudflow Empire the moment the alchemical boat could be produced successfully.

In his heart, Saleen was secretly excited about the task he was going to carry out because it would likely influence history throughout the entire Myers Mainland. As a mage, it was an extremely rare opportunity to be able to leave such a mark in history. It was just like Raphael. Many people did not know what Raphael had done, but his name had already become an eternal legend.