Badge in Azure

Saleen’s pan’s turtle alchemical boat turned north after traveling one-thousand miles from shore. As expected, they did not encounter any trouble. Fellet and Lanny spent most of their time talking to Saleen. Saleen concluded that he was still too naïve.

In the beginning, he had considered Aini to be analytical, but compared to his parents he was still very innocent.

In the blink of an eye, it was already December and Saleen’s pan’s turtle alchemical boat had returned to the northern seas. The alchemical boat traveled underwater for one-thousand miles when bypassing Lianyun City to avoid alarming the Lianyun City combat vessels.

Saleen had much to gain from talking to the Fellets so he did not mind the slight delay to the schedule from traveling underwater.

Saleen felt relaxed on the boat and could feel his magic chords growing. Unfortunately, they were not transforming yet and were still very far away from advancing into a sorcerer. Even so, the magic chords he currently possessed were twice as much as most mages of the same grade.

On this day, the pan’s turtle alchemical boat stopped by the shore. They were now at the natural port that was seven-hundred miles south of Metatrin City. Some time ago Saleen came to know that there was a mine there that could produce magic crystallites. He did not have enough manpower so he never began mining there and only instructed the dragon skeleton combat vessel to patrol this area once in a while.

This time around, construction had begun at this natural port.

This location was seven-hundred miles away from Metatrin City and the waters would only freeze in December. Only the dragon skeleton combat vessel could go ashore. The pan’s turtle alchemical boat was sighted when they were fifty miles away.

The dragon skeleton combat vessel released two small boats which approached the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. Once they saw the boat, they turned around and returned.

Saleen frowned when he realized that the security was lax. The winged skeleton then said, “Master, the combat vessels already have a way of recognizing each other. When I was creating the pan’s turtle alchemical boat in Metatrin City, I had also created a few small tug boats for transportation of goods. They can recognize us.”

“Let’s take a look ashore. Uncle Fellet, please come along.” Saleen knew that he did not spend a lot of time in Metatrin City so what the winged skeleton and the rest had managed to accomplish was actually impressive. In his plans, Saleen had intended for the port to follow a military port, so regardless if the incoming boat was familiar or not, it should still be thoroughly inspected before being allowed to enter.

Saleen walked onto the deck with the Fellets. Narnia stayed below. She was involved in the designing of this port and was not interested to see it again.

When the alchemical boat entered the port, it was empty except for a few small boats. The security on shore was much better. Saleen’s elemental eye could see more than twenty magic stone artilleries. On a cliff that was a distance away, countless darkrooms were chiselled into it to set up alchemy crossbows.

The port was not intricately designed, but there were two castles built on both sides of the port that were more than twenty miles apart. They were chiselled out from two mountains.

Saleen calculated that each castle could contain up to ten-thousand men. On top of each castle was an unfinished magic tower. Under normal circumstances, such castles could contain two-thousand soldiers. Since these castles were meant to protect the port and had strong military implications on the city behind them, they could contain more than five-thousand soldiers each instead.

The remaining vacancies could be filled by craftsmen, mages, servants, and auxiliary soldiers.

“The Lord has returned! The Lord has returned!” The men that were working on the pier began to clamor and the winged skeleton unrolled the flag on the boat.

“My Lord, you are back early!” Gurney brought some men over as Saleen’s boat approached the shore.

“Hmm? Why are you here?” Saleen was confused to see Gurney there.

“Lord Daniel said that this is an important site that should be heavily protected for the time-being, so he sent me to here to monitor,” Gurney said excitedly. Daniel had begun to trust him, this meant that he was beginning to enter Saleen’s inner circle.

“How is the construction of the city coming along?”

“Those three old fellows have yet to come. We have been using slaves so it has been slow. It will have to wait until summer next year before the new city can house people.” Gurney was talking about the Three Kings. No one could command them around since Saleen and Aini had left so they only focussed on training in Metatrin City. Without the help of the Three Kings, very few spirits of the dead could be produced and utilized.

“How dare they not take their job seriously? Hmm…” Saleen thought to himself, “Once I advance into a sorcerer, I will not have to fear those three fellows anymore. For now, I shall put up with them first.”

Gurney brought Saleen and the rest more than ten miles towards the west before they could see the new city. This city was situated in a strategic location as its city walls could be built to join together a valley that was two miles wide and a fortress could be constructed once the mountains on both sides had been slightly adjusted. The geographical location meant that armies could only attack from the sea. The other regions were mountainous so there was no other way in or out.

If not for this, Saleen would not have chosen to venture seven-hundred miles to build Metatrin City at its current location. In terms of defense and security, this location was one-hundred times better than Metatrin City.

“Why are the docks not constructed yet?” Saleen’s elemental eye could clearly see the entire port and one-hundred square yards of empty space. He did not see any underwater docks, but for some unknown reason, a deepwater port had been roughly chiselled out.

“My Lord, we are focusing on building the shipyard first. At the moment, we don’t have enough sailors to build fleets yet,” Gurney replied.

Saleen knew that this port’s main purpose was to build shipyards and factories to refine magic crystallites and not for transaction of goods. The construction progress was simply too slow. Had they not bought enough slaves? Those slaves from Eastern Sea should be fully utilized. This place was so cold and isolated that it seemed like there was no sense of urgency.

“My Lord, there is no hurry here.”

“How can there not be any hurry…,” Saleen sighed and stomped his foot. He could not expand his territories on land for now, he had to resort to building a city in this wilderness. On the sea, if he could find the route to reach the Island of Eastern Nations, he would need a fleet of combat vessels immediately. There were a number of islands in the northern sea. He would need more than one-hundred boats in order to conquer them all.

These islands also acted as the supply points from the southern seas to Metatrin City. They were not worth much when Metatrin City had not been constructed. Now that the city was prosperous, many merchant boats would head north every summer. Alchemy City would surely take note of this.

If Alchemy City or Lianyun City invaded these islands, it was equivalent to closing off the sea route. If they chose to collect taxes, then Saleen’s business would suffer severely.

The roads leading to Metatrin City were too far. Phoenix alone was two-thousand miles away. Only the sea route was the quickest way to link them to Qin’s businesses. If the sea route was controlled by others, it would be difficult for Metatrin City to become a business hub.

Lianyun City once deployed combat vessels to harass Metatrin City, but were destroyed by dragon remains combat vessel. The people of Lianyun City might not have given up yet. Saleen only possessed one dragon skeleton combat vessel and two Sregl Island combat vessels to guard Metatrin City. He could not even use these vessels to attack, much less defend more than one-hundred islands.

At the end of the day, Daniel was not wise enough to understand the importance of the sea. He chose to devote every energy and resources into building Metatrin City and spared very little for this new city. Luckily, Saleen chose to take a look or he would still be unaware of what was going on here.

Saleen was not in the mood to continue further. He said to Gurney, “You have a lot of free time here. I will send someone else to oversee the construction of the city. Use the time to practice your swordsmanship. You will never amount to anything if you don’t become a grand swordmaster. You are not young anymore.”

Saleen was barely twenty years old himself, but sounded like an old person when reprimanding Gurney. Gurney nodded and said, “My Lord, indeed I am not suitable for such matters. It was just that you were not around and Lord Daniel did not dare to hand this task over to anyone else.”

Gurney was grateful. He was already close to forty years old, but was still a swordmaster and not a zun grand swordmaster. He was not talented so he would only have a chance if he worked hard and Saleen gave him a good teacher.

“I will send someone over in two or three days then you will return to Metatrin City. Hmm, since constructions have just started here, put a stop to it first. Pass me the diagrams. I will bring it back and redesign it again,” Saleen instructed. Fellet was watching from the side and began to laugh.

“Uncle Fellet, what are you laughing about?”

“Saleen, you are too hasty. If you want to accomplish big things, you need to rely on more people and not always be so skeptical of others.”

“Uncle you are right.” Saleen thought, “Looks like I have to look for the Earl that Joey recommended. An Early can definitely govern a city. Since Joey said that Earl could be trusted, then… then I shall use him.”

Once onboard, Saleen was dispirited. His mind rang with the winged skeleton’s voice, “Master, I can take my time regarding the combat vessels. It is not a must for bone combat vessels to be operated by spirits of the dead. Their structure will be the same as a magic combat vessel. We can use magic stone artilleries for weapons so I have reserved a fort. If we ignore the portion of spirits of the dead operating the vessel, I can create a batch very quickly.”

“What about the sailors?” Saleen asked gloomily.

“Master, it will be difficult to recruit suitable ones even if you had the time. Let’s groom the sailors on our own. Didn’t we buy many Eastern Sea slaves? Let me take charge. They will be obedient.”

“I guess this is the only way,” Saleen thought. Even if he managed to hire any sailors, they could not be deployed on the combat vessel. Lex would not be able to help either. Bitter Water Prefecture was in the inner mainlands and there were no rivers, they had no need for sailors.

The pan’s turtle alchemical boat took six hours to travel over seven-hundred miles. The shore has already frozen so the pan’s turtle alchemical boat went underwater. Saleen saw that under the crescent-shaped peninsula was an underwater fortress. Countless spirits of the dead were patrolling very tightly underwater.

When the pan’s turtle alchemical boat passed through, the spirits of the dead followed. The winged skeleton laughed and said, “Master, haven’t I guarded this port well for you?”

“These are spirits of the dead?”

“Master, these spirits of the dead were created by me and not summoned from the death dimension.”

“You can create spirits of the dead?” Saleen was shocked. Only grade-9 death mages could create spirits of the dead. The winged skeleton was only grade-7, but could create spirits of the dead. Clearly, he was different from the norm.

Spirits of the dead that were created were easier to use than those that had been summoned. Their only weakness was that once they had been killed, their soul flame would be lost and it would be difficult to revive them.