Badge in Azure

Chapter 259: Jason’s Gift (Part 2)

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

Jason saw past Saleen as he laughed awkwardly and said, “I have many high-level empty scrolls with me right now. There are many sorcerers on the island, I think…”

“Leave the scrolls behind. I will have them sent to you once I have written on them. This won’t be too much of a problem. Saleen, for a sorcerer, writing a scroll is also a learning process. The most troublesome thing is lacking materials. There are many magic beasts in the sea but it is very hard to find any that are suitable for making high-level scrolls. So long as you have any same level of empty scrolls, I will exchange all of them with you.”

Jason’s generosity surpassed Saleen’s expectations, but he understood immediately that on this island, scrolls were not meant for combat but rather to practice magic. For thousands of years, countless sorcerers had left behind filled scrolls. These mages did not lack money, but rather, materials.

“It’s okay, Saleen. I will get Lex to come up and the two of you can decide what you will need,” Jason said as he activated the magic sound array, calling Lex up to the seventh floor of the magic tower.

Lex had regained her usual demeanor, and when she saw Jason, she bowed respectfully, almost as though Jason had never said anything embarrassing to her.

“Lex, Sregl Island is about to be sealed. Saleen intends to leave early.”

“What? Then…”

“The interdimensional space can be discussed in the future. The island will be sealed for at least three years. Didn’t you say that you wanted Saleen to build a place in the north that could be compared to Alchemy City in preparation for a teleportation portal? I will give you three years. If this place can be built within three years, then we can talk about the interdimensional space.”

Lex eyed Saleen, who nodded at her. She said, “Master Jason, then I shall wait for word from you.”

“Alright. Let’s talk about what materials you will need to build this city.” Jason led Saleen and Lex to the side of his alchemy platform. He took out a large blueprint and laid it down. The magic array on the alchemy platform was activated as a hologram shone. It was the model of a city.

Many cities were designed by mages. This was especially true for cities in the Qin Empire. Cities designed by mages had strong defensive abilities with reasonable arrangements and good plumbing systems.

“This is a city that I have designed. Take a look. How is it?” Jason seemed a little smug. Designing a city was not considered proper for mages, and from Jason’s expression, it seemed that he had a liking for it.

The blueprint of the city was only a foundation, but Saleen fell in love with it the moment he saw it. The city in the magic illusion was half on land and half on water, forming a perfect balance. On the side within the water, there was a thick stone pillar every five hundred meters. There were a total of twelve pillars, and a metal bridge was perched on them with intricate magic patterns all over it. It almost seemed like a temple in the water.

The magic markings indicated that the stone pillars were twelve meters in diameter, rising high above the clouds and deep into the water. There was a platform at the back of the pillar, separated into two stories. The top floor was the port while the lower floor was empty and was hundreds of meters below the surface of the water. In the empty space, there were magic arrays to release magic underwater, attacking any enemies that would come from below the surface.

This design prevented a fortress from being built on the pier, causing an awkward space. Saleen thought back to the pan’s turtle alchemical ship that Lex had built. It would be a perfect hiding spot for it. On the two sides of the pier were tall magic towers, and the designs of them were old, almost similar to Raphael’s.

What was most attractive to people was the fact that the magic towers only controlled the waters behind the twelve stone pillars. Aside from the stone pillars, one could only see an intricate corridor, and there was not a single reminder of war.

Behind the pier was a building shaped like a palace. Saleen saw the remnants of the palace in Holy Rock City. The front yard was enormous and could allow any mechanical puppet from entering. The warehouse design was half below ground and half above. On the two sides of the pier were metal slides that could accommodate large vehicles, allowing goods to be unloaded from a ship.

There were several large statues among the palace-like buildings and they were puppets as well. If there were enough mages, the goods could still be quickly unloaded even if there were not any workers.

“Great, this is a brilliant design!” Lex took a look and was greatly impressed. The city could build the pier first and use it to transport materials. It would be much faster than land, and if they chose the right location, the stone materials that were discarded while building the pier could be used to fill up the land, pushing it down story by story and not wasting any time and space.

In the center of the section of the city that was on land, there were many magic towers. These magic towers formed an even larger magic array and were well-coordinated. The entire city formed a magic web under the control of these magic towers. The magic web provided energy for the entire city, and any mage in the city could release magic with power that was more than ten times greater than usual, just as though they were in a magic tower.

The city walls on land were even more bizarre. They were formed from giant rocks that were of different colors, and these different-colored rocks were obviously arranged in a Dante sequence. The empty spaces within the arrangement formed six stone doors. What was even more bizarre was that on top of the wall, the giant spaces that were formed from the piles of rocks seemed to form countless stone houses on the wall.

The entire part of the city that was on land was arranged with different types of magic arrangement and sequences. Apart from the magic towers, the bridge, and the main roads which war chariots could use, the other parts had very few buildings, and there were no residential areas.

This was an unbelievably complicated structure. The entire city was like a giant magic formula, and Saleen became dizzy just by looking at it. His teacher’s design had surpassed that of a normal city. This was indeed a magic city made specially for mages.

Under the city was not just the sewer system, but there were three stories of passageways. The lowest one led to many warehouses and they all linked to the pier. These warehouses were coordinated with the magic towers and they served as storage space for each of them. A design like this essentially did not use up any energy but was merely used to ensure that the things in the warehouses would not rot.

“This, how much money would it take to build this?!” Saleen could not help but exclaim, looking at the underground.

“The main materials needed to build the city cannot be bought with money, but Sregl Island has quite an abundance of them.” Jason laughed.

“What can we exchange for them?” Lex understood Jason’s words. The ideas on this paper had come from a genius mage, and the plans themselves were essentially priceless. If Jason provided the materials as well, she would not dare accept them.

“What do you have? I’m fine with anything.”

Upon hearing that, Lex heaved a sigh of relief. Jason did not want to make things hard for her and so long as she produced something of equal value, she would be able to exchange them for the materials needed for the city. As for whether those materials were something that Jason needed urgently, it would not matter.

Lex took off the ring on her finger and handed it to Jason, saying, “This is something my father left me. I think it is enough to exchange for your gifts.”

Jason took the ring and inspected it, saying a little unexpectedly, “This odd thing used to belong to the Grukos family. I don’t understand. Why didn’t your father build this city? If he had, unless the God of Light had landed on the mainland, the Grukos family would not have needed to bother with the Holy See.”

Saleen had no idea what Lex had taken out and looked a little curiously at the ring in Jason’s hand. Jason stared at Saleen as he said to Lex, “Why didn’t you try to exchange this with me earlier?”

Lex gave a bitter laugh and said, “It was impossible for us to gather all of the materials to build a city on the mainland. I did not think you would be interested in this, but it is the best thing I can give you. It is just to express my gratitude.”

“It has enormous research value!” Jason took the ring, a little hesitant. He had only produced the blueprint for Saleen’s sake. Lex’s gratitude was a little too precious.

“This isn’t much. I think if you had researched all of the contents within the blueprint, you would not have refused to impart them to me,” Lex replied, smiling.

“Teacher, what is this?”

“Ask Lex yourself. I am only aware of the general idea behind this thing. It seems I’ll need to give you two something good,” Jason said as he waved Saleen and Lex onto the teleportation portal.

“Follow me to meet Lancelot. I do not have the authority here.”

Lex was secretly happy. Her item was not something that could not be completed, but the blueprint that Jason was giving her was something tangible. If the city from the blueprint was built, it would not only be comparable to Alchemy City, but at the very least, it would not be far off from it. Saleen’s teacher possessed everything in his brain and had even been able to come up with a city like this.

“Lex, what did you give my teacher?”

“The Heart of the Sky.”

“What is that?” Saleen did not react.

“It is the nucleus blueprint that the First Dynasty used to build a sky city.”

“Cough…” Saleen started coughing violently. The humans from the First Dynasty had still able to travel through dimensions and had not needed any teleportation portals, being able to count entirely on the power from their bodies. Cities back then had floated in the sky. The strong could not bother fighting with the weak down on land. They were high above the clouds and could not have cared less about the rulers of the dynasty.

There were some remaining sky cities during the Second Dynasty, but they were completely destroyed during the Third Dynasty. The remains of these cities had been defaced and destroyed. There were no longer any sizeable remains left on the mainland, much less a nucleus blueprint of one. This technology had disappeared as humans had become weaker. Lex had actually given this to Jason.

“Teacher, what do you intend to take out then?” A magic light flashed past them as the three of them reached the outside of the magic tower. Saleen held onto Jason’s sleeve as he questioned him.

“The materials needed to build the thirty-six magic towers and the real blueprint of that city wall.” Jason looked at his student as he thought, In terms of research value, the two can’t be compared. However, the materials needed to build a sky city are unique to other dimensions, and it cannot be built. His gift was of equal value to the one Lex had given him to express her gratitude.