Chapter 265
Chapter 265: Land Reclamation (Part 2)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Sika, who was absolutely bent on leaving the island, went to find Lex together with Saleen. Once the duo located Lex, the female warrior started chatting with the viscountess animatedly using the Caucasian language. Fortunately, Lex was able to understand every last word that Sika said, as she had undergone very strict linguistics training, allowing her to be fluent in Sika’s mother tongue. Saleen, on the other hand, could barely understand what Sika was saying.
As Lex conversed with Sika, her gaze slowly travelled to Saleen. Saleen only shrugged his shoulders and gave her a look of resignation. Sika was a very expressive person by nature. If she was happy, there was nothing that could stop her from openly sharing her joy to the world.
“Hold that thought, Sika,” Lex said as she took out another bracelet and handed it to Saleen before speaking in his direction. “This bracelet is something I took from Sregl Island. You have over seven hundred swordsmen, three hundred sailors, and one hundred pirates under your command. Focus on building the less important infrastructure first. Only start to build the magic towers when I come back with more people.”
Saleen nodded in understanding as he took the bracelet from Lex. He did not have enough power to operate this spatial equipment. Lex, on the other hand, was able to use the equipment freely.
Lex took out four fully constructed puppets and placed them in one of the cabins before speaking again, “These four puppets here do have minds of their own, but you can still command them to do menial, laborious tasks. Technically, they’ll do whatever you tell them to. There are many robotic puppets stored inside the bracelets. If you have the apprentices control them, the puppets will prove even more useful than the swordsmen.”
“I know… here… take this,” Saleen said as he took out twenty-four level-7 scrolls and handed them over to Lex. He was worried about Sika’s safety and knew that Lex had very strong mental power. Given her capabilities, she could unleash the power of dozens of level-7 scrolls in just one battle alone. If twenty-four level-7 scrolls could not stop the enemy, then Saleen could confidently say that the opponent was too powerful for either of them. If Lex was unfortunate enough to encounter an enemy like that, there would be nothing Saleen could do for her.
Lex was not about to pass up on Saleen’s offer either. She immediately snatched the scrolls from Saleen’s palms and stored them into the god’s ring. Given that she was a powerful mage, as long as she did not bump heads with a sorcerer, she would be fine. Now that she had the twenty-four level-7 scrolls, even grade-7 sorcerers would have a hard time defeating her in battle.
Saleen chose to give one of the warships to Lex instead of the pirate ship because it would be impossible for a ship like the pirate ship to dock near Lianyun City. Saleen was not going to have Lex leave with the pan’s turtle alchemical boat either. Now that Saleen had many mages under his command, he planned to have everyone practice maneuvering and mastering the controls of the underwater battleship.
Battleships that were less than thirty meters long usually did not look intimidating, nor did they seem to pose a threat. Magic stone artillery could not even be installed on these ships because they were too small. However, the pan’s turtle alchemical boat ran purely on magic nuclei that were at least grade-6 in order to operate its offensive magic array. Even though the energy expenditure was huge, it was much more powerful than magic stone artillery, to the extent that the ship could fire mutated ice bombs even when submerged under water.
Even the average battleship would not be a threat to the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. Only large battleships operated by sorcerers would potentially be able to leave a scratch or two on it. Even if the most advanced swordsmen were to dive into the waters to personally break the pan’s turtle alchemical boat’s defenses, they could do nothing to shatter the thick outer shell of the pan’s turtle. The situation was no different when it came to swordmasters. This was because swordmasters were not able to rely on the Underwater Breathing spell in order to stay submerged for a long time. Plus, water was detrimental to the sword aura.
Thus, Saleen concluded that the biggest threat to the pan’s turtle alchemical boat was magic. There were too many different types of magic in the world. Many rare, uncommonly practiced water-based spells were executed underwater. Even Saleen, a person who specialized in water magic, would be unable to recite all the water-based spells that existed in the world.
Sika’s little joyous outburst had made Saleen less emotional about the separation. After sending Lex off, he flew up from the battleship, not giving himself any time to rest. Pitch-black fog shrouded Saleen’s body from sight as the grade-4 mage lifted himself further and further away from the ground until he was over two hundred meters in the air. Any height above and below two hundred meters would drain too much energy from his magic chords. Plus, Saleen found that it was a lot harder to continue ascending after reaching a little over two hundred meters in the air.
Two hundred meters was nothing compared to the height of the white stony mountains. Saleen flew towards the mainland as he travelled along the moon-shaped peninsula. The coastal area of the island was also made of pure white rock, and was much higher than the surface of the sea. There were two ways to go about building a pier. The first way was to construct it directly in front of these rocks using metal alone. The second way would involve chiseling and building the pier directly on the white boulders themselves.
Saleen allowed himself to land gently on the ground. Once his feet made contact with land, Saleen fished out a dragon’s tooth from the Ring of Gifts. Clutching it tightly in his hand, he brought it down onto one of the white colored rocks. Hard. The piercing sounds of scraping metal filled the air. Sparks erupted as the dragon’s tooth made contact with the surface of the rock. They faded as quickly as they came, leaving behind a long, shallow scrape mark.
Saleen had not held back. The amount of force used to leave that scrape mark had easily rivalled the offensive power of a high-grade swordsman. That was excluding the fact that he had the powerful weapon in his hand.
Because the boulders could withstand powerful attacks like this, they would make perfect building materials for the construction of the city, including the walls, doors, gates, and so on. Saleen’s action earlier had been to test the elemental makeup of the rock. Upon studying the scrape mark, he realized that it was just ordinary bedrock made up of a good mix of all the elements. Besides the fact that it was unusually strong and durable, the rock was pretty much useless. No magic equipment could be created using material like this. To a mage, this piece of information would mean that the rock was worth significantly less now.
This rock might have been stronger than steel rock, but it did not possess magical properties, making it unsuitable for the construction of magic towers. Even with the dragon’s tooth, I cannot slice the rock apart. Perhaps I can use these rocks to build a house after all, Saleen thought. A house like that would be able to withstand low-level magic attacks. Even mid-level magic spells would do little to undermine the structural integrity of the infrastructure.
Saleen tapped the calabash which was secured tightly around his waist. The six meter stream of azure-green water spurted out almost instantly, making its way towards the gravel. The wall of water etched deep scrape marks onto the white boulders, and continued cutting and scratching against the rock’s surface for thirty seconds until the rock was completely split into two.
No sooner had that happened did Saleen instantly figure out the best way to utilize the rock. He could use it to build the main battery of the magic cannon.
Magic cannons were not to be confused with magic stone artillery. Firstly, only the former could shoot out magic bombs. Secondly, the firing range of the magic cannon was far superior than that of magic stone artillery. Thirdly, magic cannons were much harder to install on a ship compared to magic stone artillery. That was because each magic cannon needed to be built on one square mile of a flat sturdy surface in order for the operator to shoot out its magic bombs more accurately. Even battleships over two hundred meters long were not suitable locations for the construction of these magic cannons. In the event that they were forcefully installed on these ships, the magic bombs that were fired from the weapons would only land and destroy the ship themselves.
Furthermore, the crafting involved in the construction of the magic cannons was simply far too complicated. There were not many alchemists today that could recreate a weapon which had existed centuries ago. Plus, a lot of the materials needed came from other dimensions and were thus harder to procure. Magic cannons were very rare in the Myers Mainland. The reason why Cloudflow naval fleets did not dare to attack Alchemy City was because of the fact that Alchemy City was home to quite a few of these cannons.
Saleen knew that he would not have to worry about ever running out of these white stones, seeing that they were everywhere. The grade-4 mage allowed his sensory magic to seep deep beneath the ground. Even after his sensory magic travelled about a hundred meters below ground, Saleen failed to hit rock bottom– literally – meaning that the area where he was standing was too high above the sea, which was not ideal. If he wanted to construct a pier here, he would have to chisel his way through over a hundred meters worth of rock. This alone could be considered a large-scale project, as many resources would have to be deployed to do so.
Saleen lifted himself off of the ground again and started doing a survey of the coastal area. The stony landform spanned over a mile in width and was at least a hundred meters tall. However, the rocky landform decreased in height as it continued extending towards the mainland until it was level with the soil, mud and dirt, which covered the back of the landform. That was also the part of the landform where plants could actually grow.
It’s a shame that these aren’t white jades, Saleen thought to himself. If he had come across a landform made of white jade that was a mile wide and a hundred meters tall, even if he had to manually slice them into smaller pieces himself in order to sell them, he would be richer than all the citizens of the wealthiest country combined. It was not that white jades were valuable. In fact, a small piece of white jade was only worth one gold coin. Rather, there were just too many of these rocks. He could not see the end of this landform for miles.
As Saleen continued travelling northwards, he stumbled upon a few small streams, which seemed to be river channels carved out by mountain snowmelt itself. The sea was located to the north of the white rocky mountains, and the forests were not located on a huge plot of land. In fact, it was probably about thirty miles in diameter. Behind the forests, Saleen saw more mountains. However, there was a huge opening that extended beyond the mountain ridges, almost as if the gods had used a knife to forcefully split the mountains into half.
This area appeared to be half sealed from the world. The small plains overlooking the ocean spanned about a hundred miles in length and over thirty miles in width. However, the mountain opening was slightly wider than the plains, meaning that constructing roads connecting this area to the inner mainland was not going to be difficult.
Saleen was almost done with his survey of the place. He had not stumbled upon any magic beasts in the forests so far, which was a good thing. He decided that he was done for the day and made his way back to the battleship, where he ordered the swordsmen to start pitching tents and other makeshift shelters on the shores.
After giving away one-third of his mages to Lex, Saleen still had two grade-5 mages, two grade-4 mages, and twelve grade-3 mages under his command. They gathered together and started to bring down a batch of building materials from the ship to facilitate the construction of a barrack. After the alchemy stage had been set up inside the barrack, Saleen placed Jason’s blueprints over it, activated the magic array, and started discussing land reclamation matters with the mages.
Once Lex’s ship came back, Saleen would have nearly one thousand people under his command. Thus, job allocation was going to be very important to ensure maximum efficiency. Saleen was not very good at it, and thus, he left the task of job allocation to the two grade-5 mages.
Saleen already had a rough idea of how everything was going to play out – while he let the two grade-5 mages assign the task of building the barrack to the swordsmen and sailors, he brought Nailisi to the crescent moon-shaped peninsula.
The arc of the peninsula spanned over ten miles in length, and reached deep down into the ocean waters, almost as if it were a naturally occurring dam. The widest part of the peninsula was about four hundred to five hundred meters in breadth and was over ten meters higher than the surface of the sea. It was this part of the island that gave it its distinctive moon-like shape. Saleen dove into the water to survey the landform. The submerged part of the peninsula was very steep as well. After diving over a hundred meters below the surface, Saleen started feeling queasy from the water pressure. However, he managed to locate the bottom of the ocean using his senses.
The peninsula was located in a part of the ocean that was over two hundred meters deep – meaning that it was a naturally occurring harbor. Even the primary warships from the Cloudflow Empire could dock here. As Saleen made his way towards the south of the peninsula, he realized that the southern area submerged beneath the waters was extremely sturdy and durable as well. In fact, there was not a single crack, hole, or joint in sight. Saleen knew then and there that it would be very safe to construct magic stone columns here, as the bottoms of these columns would never be damaged. In fact, he could drill even a hole through the submerged area of land and consider it a secret chamber. The area overlooking the ocean was embedded with rocks. If Saleen could get his men to build an offensive magic array in the secret chamber, in the same the way it was constructed on the pan’s turtle alchemical boat, he could launch defensive attacks underwater.
Saleen could not think of a more perfect location. If anyone wanted to dock here, they would have to travel around the peninsula and enter through the harbor from the other side. Another side of the island was occupied by enormous white stone mountains. If he were to install a magic cannon on top of any of the mountains, he would be able to seal off the harbor entirely. Even large battleships would not be able to make a dent in these mountainous regions.
To attack the island from the north was not a good idea since it was a good eighty miles away from the only area suitable for docking and disembarking. Plus, a magic cannon fixed on any of the mountains here would be able to fire magic bombs at a distant range. The only problem now was that Saleen did not know where he could purchase these magic cannons.
As Saleen and Nailisi emerged from the water, the latter spoke to the grade-4 mage as she gently rubbed her finger. “This stone is too hard to drill through. Are you sure you want to build the city here?”
“Of course, it’s doable! We just need enough mages,” Saleen replied confidently. No matter how durable the white stones were, they could never resist the forces of magic. Earth magic, in particular, would be able to corrode the rocks to a large extent. Unless someone had either cast a magic immunity spell on these rocks or carved out magical patterns on them, these rocks would almost always yield under the corrosive power of these spells. This meant that they were much easier to deal with compared to steel rocks.