Badge in Azure

After returning to the room on the second floor, Saleen asked Aini, “Aren’t you afraid that the contract might have some problems when I did that?”

Aini answered in embarrassment, “The contract already had problems to begin with.”

Saleen was actually kidding, but when he heard Aini say that, he was dumbfounded.

“What are you talking about?”

“The contractual trap is not owned by the Clyde family. In fact, it was passed down to me privately by my parents. No one knows the source of this magic. My father suspects that this spell originated during the era when humans were fighting with the gods. It was created in order to subdue the gods. During the divine wars in the past, humans would not keep any prisoners. If a god was captured, humans would use the contractual magic to control them for a few days. Before the magic lost its effect, they would then kill the god.”

“A few days?”

“Don’t worry. Magic that can control a god for a few days will be able to control those spirits for at least dozens of years, or even longer.”Grinning from ear to ear, Aini continued, “Before that happens, we will just think of a way to kill them. Once those guys break free from the restraints of the contract, they might turn around and wreak havoc for us otherwise.”

Saleen was speechless. He thought that Aini’s character had changed, but it seemed that Aini was still more ruthless than him. Then again, Saleen could not blame Aini, he was greedy for wanting to control all three kings. It was natural for this spell to be flawed. There was not an Imbalanced spell in this world. Since this spell allowed a low grade human to control a high grade spirit, it was perfectly normal for it to be limited by time.

“What other problems are there with your contract?” Even though Saleen had already used the Figaro Formula to calculate many times over, he was still worried that the contract might have other defects.

“There are some problems, but don’t worry. Once you become a sorcerer, all these troubles will disappear completely. Saleen, I myself, am no exception!” Aini did not reveal the hidden problem in the contract, and Saleen did not continue probing. At first thought, this problem had to be related to their grades.

Saleen was only a grade-5 mage whereas the three kings were at grade-9. It would only be strange if the contract did not have any loopholes. That being said, Aini did not look too anxious, which meant that the loophole was not serious.

After three full days, Saleen immediately returned to the fourth story of the temple to check on the progress. The three kings had made three drawings for the warship. These drawings could only be activated with help of a magic array. Saleen took out some magic powder, meticulously crafting a temporary magic array. Then, he placed the drawings atop of it.

Gray rays of light emitted in all directions, as a three-dimensional design appeared and levitated in mid-air.

Saleen fell in love with this design at first sight, the warship’s design was very meticulous. It had a length of almost one-hundred meters, a ratio of one to two on the drawing. The front most part of the ship was made of the raw dragon head without any sort of treatment. The horns extended outwards.

Behind the dragon’s head was the sharply angled ship’s bow, wrapped in fine scales. As the drawing ratio was big, Saleen could clearly see that the teeth in the dragon’s mouth had been removed. It formed a sealed space inside, and a human could be placed there.

Sealing the dragon’s mouth was a genuine Eye of the Dead. There was a complex magic array within the dragon’s mouth, enabling a mage to control the Eye of the Dead from behind. With this item, the surveillance range of the dragon skeleton warship was no different from that of a spirit king. That meant that even if the magic compass malfunctioned, this warship could still scan everything which was within a distance of one-hundred miles.

The hull of the warship was the most peculiar part. Saleen had left behind a piece of the thundercloud wood for reference before, and the design by the kings made Saleen’s heart flutter. The whole hull was covered in thundercloud wood, yet it would not look like a normal ship whereby the wood was spliced together painstakingly. Instead, a magic array would be drawn onto the dragon skeleton before the thundercloud wood was refined into it. The result was that the pieces of wood would be stacked atop one another, just like the scales of a dragon.

These thundercloud wood pieces could effectively distribute any impact to rest of the materials. At the same time, such a design would reduce water resistance, allowing the warship to travel faster.

The metal-armored warship from Cloudflow had also imitated patterns of fish scales onto the hull, in order to achieve the same effect. That form of imitation would decrease the warship’s defense. The kings’ design, however, had increased the warship’s defensive ability.

Of course, there was a precondition. Such a design required stringent standards in the dragon bones. Even if the impact got distributed, the bones would still receive the most damage otherwise. In other warships styled like this, the most probable outcome after an assault was that the dragon bones would break, causing the warship to disintegrate directly.

The hull of this warship was slender, it was not widened. It was simply designed around the actual body of the dragon’s remains. On both sides of the warship, the bone wings were retracted, forming two colossal platforms. After doing some calculations, Saleen felt dizzy. It was primarily understood that when the bone wings were retracted, it would bring about a balancing effect. People could also stand atop the bone wings. When in close proximity to the enemy’s warship, the warriors onboard the dragon skeleton warship could simply jump from the bone wings onto the enemy’s warship. There was no need to use the gangplank anymore.

The power cabin was situated underneath the bone wings. At this spot, the warship’s armor was six times thicker than usual, it was also the warship’s center of gravity. With the dragon’s bone wings forming a balanced structure, the warship would be able to withstand the intense winds at sea.

The dragon claws were not removed. A gigantic magic array was added onto the backbone of the dragon skeleton also. Thirty-six Green Spirits were drawn onto this magic array. That meant that this magic array was to be operated by thirty-six spirits at the same time.

Usually, a complex magic array would only require at most six people. A magic array which required six times the manpower was in fact a compound magic array.

The power of a compound magic array was not very much stronger than that of a normal magic array. There was one advantage though. During an actual operation, the operating requirements could be lowered. It would be just like Saleen’s city. Even though Saleen’s city had thirty-six magic towers, only six needed to be functioning in order to barely maintain the city’s defense.

Judikaka obviously had great insight into Saleen’s thoughts. Saleen was a person who was afraid of dying. Judikaka put a backup plan in his design because of this. This allowed the warship to maintain operation even if it got damaged, enabling it to escape even in times of insufficient manpower.

There was a forty-meter long structure on the deck. Since the whole warship was two-hundred meters long, this building was relatively small. Four flexible planks, which grew out of the skeleton’s back, were located at the front of the deck. They could be withdrawn. Below them was the entrance and exit passageway. The whole warship was sealed. Theoretically, this warship could travel underwater. Obviously, it could only dive for dozens of meters though. A sealed design like this could not withstand the water pressure in deep waters.

Saleen was perplexed. Diving dozens of meters underwater did not really contain any combat purpose. A normal grand mage could easily discover such a ship.

Judikaka hastily explained, “In order to maintain the toughness and speed of the warship, the ship’s floatation ability became insufficient. At maximum passenger capacity coupled with weapons, the ship will sink.”

Seeing that Saleen’s face turned glum, Judikaka quickly added, “As long as the magic array begins functioning, the warship will float on the surface. When the warship is traveling, the magic arrays supporting the floatation can be switched off. The bone wings on both sides can provide a certain degree of floatation already. As long as the warship is traveling above twenty miles an hour, the magic arrays can be switched off to lower depletion. The warship has to stop at some point in time however. In a state of zero movement, a magic pod will be released from under the deck, using metal chains to connect the bones. At this point in time, you can still switch off the magic arrays, and the warship will rest underwater.”

Saleen finally understood. Judikaka was too considerate, such a design could conserve a huge quantity of magic nuclei.

Noticing that Saleen’s face had lit up, Judikaka had peace of mind, then he continued, “When underwater, the warship can be directly activated. By extending the bone wings, the warship’s speed will immediately be boosted and it will burst through the water surface. If necessary, the magic pod can be abandoned, and the speed will reach terminal velocity in that instant.”

A smile appeared when Saleen heard that. Throwing away the pod which provided floatation would allow the ship to travel at maximum speed. Since such a feature would not be utilized frequently, it was not considered important.

“Judikaka, are there naval battles in the death dimension too?”

“Of course. The three of us have territory spanning tens of thousands of miles, our waters are longer than the entire Qin Empire,” Judikaka replied. He did not disclose to Saleen that the mainland in the death dimension was a hundred times wider than the Myers mainland. Their death empires were not a very large force.

Saleen listened, then he nodded and said, “Mm, I understand. In the future, I will accord you the relevant respect.”

Diyabannersa snorted derisively. At the moment, Saleen was saying very pleasant things. Just three days ago, however, he was forcing the three brothers to be coolies.

Saleen pretended not to hear that. Judikaka proceeded to say, “Sir, with this warship, you have to give up the old fighting techniques. Make use of speed to maintain a distance from the enemy. Use the long-range weapons to launch your offensive.”

“But the accuracy of long-range weapons…” Saleen hesitated, awaiting Judikaka’s explanation. Even the best magic trebuchet had poor accuracy. At most, the attack range would be a few hundred meters. If many warships were deployed at the same time for the attack, the target would of course be hit. Saleen only had a few warships at the moment though, a saturated-type assault would clearly be impossible.

“This warship uses the dragon skeleton like a bone, so a larger Spirit Pool can be built. There is no need to use magic trebuchets. The supply of bloodstones from a large Spirit Pool would be sufficient for your usage.”

At this moment, Saleen then realized that there was a huge cabin situated at the rear of the warship, at the front end of the dragon’s tail. Indeed, there was a magic array which was several times larger than the Spirit Pool found in the Pan’s Turtle alchemical boat. This was a Spirit Pool which had a diameter of more than ten meters. Surrounding the Spirit Pool were many more Green Spirits. With so many mosaicked Green Spirits, the Spirit Pool could store all the produced bone spirits.

The attack method of these bone spirits carrying the bloodstone was obviously mightier than that of a magic trebuchet. They had a further range and higher accuracy. Even though a bone spirit was a very low grade spirit, the moment an order was given, it would pursue the target all the way until the bloodstone exploded.

“Why is the tail not treated?”

Saleen noticed that almost one-third of the dragon’s tail was not transformed. In fact, there were no cabins in the spaces within the dragon’s tail. It was precisely because of this design which caused the dragon skeleton warship to have inadequate floatation ability. This dragon tail was almost solid. Other than doubling as a rudder, there seemed to be no other practical use to it.