Badge in Azure

“Genga, if you are unhappy, you have to tell me.” Saleen walked towards the end of the vessel slowly and spoke to the clone of the Mechanical Soul, who was by his side. Each clone was controlled by the Mechanical Soul, and unless he gave up the power, the clones would not have any will of their own.

“Master, why would I be unhappy? You are great, honorable, and righteous! I will remember everything you say and carry it out, without running away…”

“Alright, I am a human, not a spirit of the dead. If you say anymore, I am going to puke.” Saleen stepped in front of a metal puppet and looked up, only to see the medium-sized metal puppet of eighteen yards long standing in a daze amidst the sea breeze. There were no flashes of light in its eyes and its full body of metal armor was full of smooth grooves.

Such a big-sized puppet might not guarantee high combat abilities, but on such a massive combat vessel, there were many weapons and equipment that humans would find hard to transport. After all, not every human possessed the same strength as Sika.

At the front of the deck, the opening leading to the main motor engine cabin had been sealed. There was a metal tower on top of the opening.

The tower was six-levels tall and was considered short compared to the gigantic body of the combat vessel. There were plenty of such medium-sized metal puppets around the tower as tens of them were propped up on the metal fortress and were welded to the alchemy crossbow stands that were aimed at the sky. The huge stands were used in Qin for large alchemy crossbows.

What the Mechanical Soul managed to duplicate were catapults. Alchemy cannons that could fire consecutively were very costly weapons. Each giant crossbow arrow was worth hundreds of gold coins, and if it required special arrows to be refined, then the cost could easily rise up to thousands of gold coins.

Alchemy cannons could shoot twelve giant alchemy crossbow arrows in one go. In other words, tens of thousands of gold coins would be wiped out in a few seconds. An attack like that could very possibly kill a silver grand swordmaster or a grade-8 sorcerer, so in such cases, those tens of thousands of gold coins would have been worth it. It would only have been foolish they were used on low-level enemies.

Other than the alchemy cannons, Saleen noticed a long and rectangular-shaped shooting mechanism. There were twelve openings on it and it could shoot one-hundred and forty-four crossbow arrows in one go. Saleen deduced that the object must be used to deal with magic beasts. It would not be as effective as alchemy cannons in dealing with powerful human opponents.

That was actually a wrong judgment on Saleen’s part. The rectangular-shaped alchemy crossbow barrel and crossbow notch was more than eight yards in length. There were plenty of wind-element magic patterns that would increase the speed of the crossbow arrows. The speed of arrows shot out from the alchemy crossbow barrel far surpassed any other weapons. As long as the material was of acceptable quality so that there would be no leakage of magic, that type of alchemy crossbow barrel could easily cover the entire sky and ensure that all the humans and magic beasts that bypassed would turn into porcupines.

The enemies of the first dynasty were extremely powerful. The disciples of Gods in some dimensions all possessed flying abilities and some of them were even born with wings. All weapons used to conquer other dimensions were of high quality.

Saleen walked around the tower and continued forward, where he saw another type of weapon on the deck that was aimed towards the sky.

There were hundreds of such items that looked like stone catapults, and they were all connected together. The net sling in the middle was fixed onto the deck and long strands of rubber bands were infused with elastic metal threads. Once they were pulled tight, they would be able to launch hundreds of metal shells.

As he walked further ahead, there was a massive building near the rear of the deck. There were two levels in total and the first level was ten yards tall. On the second level were more than one-hundred small metal towers, which could contain less than twenty people even if all of their space was used up.

“What is this?” Saleen could not figure it out. He used his elemental eyes and only managed to see that the metal towers were interconnected with magic patterns to for one body. Saleen could not understand what the function behind so many metal towers being connected together with magic patterns was.

“This object is connected to twenty-four auxiliary magic power furnaces.”

“Magic power furnaces!” Although Saleen knew about the magic power furnaces on the vessel, he had no idea that there were so many of them! Twenty-four magic power furnaces would provide magic power for these one-hundred and forty-four magic towers. Were all the people in these magic towers mages? How could they improve their magic powers if they were just metal towers? It did not make sense!

It was a pity that magic power furnaces required powerful mages of at least grade-12 in order to be refined. Saleen had never thought about replicating something like that, but he never imagined that there could be so many magic power furnaces on the ancient combat vessel. Perhaps taking apart the vessel was the best option. Then, the magic power furnaces could be transported to Metatrin City. By then, Metatrin City would no longer require sorcerers for its defense. Grand mages alone would be able to ensure the security of the entire city.

In order to attack the Tanggulasi Empire in the future, he would still need to rely on this ancient combat vessel. Once this ancient combat vessel could fully regain its powers and could set sail towards the Tanggulasi Empire, all the Tanggulasi soldiers within more than ten miles of it would have to retreat. By then, Saleen’s armies would have no problems landing in Tanggulasi.

Saleen looked at the one-hundred and forty-four metal towers on the second level. He was still doubtful.

“Genga, are there any records on these metal towers?”

One of the clones of the Mechanical Soul took out a book. The book was very thin, and each page was made of golden metal slices. It was information that the Mechanical Soul had replicated. Saleen took it in his hands and felt relieved that the words in the book were in ancient Myers language.

Saleen used the Recollection spell to store all the information in the book into his brain before returning it back to the clone. The metal book re-integrated back into the clone’s body without leaving any traces.

When Saleen looked through all the information that he had just stored in his brain, his legs stopped moving. He looked up at the one-hundred and forty-four metal towers with a heavy heart. The ancient humans had developed such unique concepts!

The twenty-four magic power furnaces formed a magic net that covered the entire magic tower. The net was formless and allowed the humans in the magic towers to absorb magic power and cast spells. As long as one possessed sufficient mental strength, one would be able to make use of the magic net to cast grade-9 spells, even without magic chords.

What a creation it was to allow a person without magic chords to be able to cast grade-9 spells!

The magic power in the magic net flowed continuously and the magic power furnaces did not use up too much energy. Within the area covered by the magic net, as long as one remembered the mantra and the frequency of the spell, one could very quickly become a sorcerer with training.

The magic net was equivalent to a magic book or magic staff that had stored countless spells. The only difference was that activating the spells was more complicated. Nevertheless, training magic chords was a long and arduous process and the wealth in the world was limited. If everyone trained in magic, the amount of magic materials being used up would be unimaginable. In the end, no one would have any magic materials left to use.

It was precisely for that reason that Alchemy City was trying to control the transaction of magic nuclei, which then allowed them to control most mages. Without the need for magic chords, magic nuclei would become less essential. That meant that controlling magic nuclei might not necessarily mean controlling all mages.

Saleen had thought that he was approaching the peak of the world, but as he gazed upon these one-hundred and forty-four metal towers, he realized that he was still far from it. He was so far away that he had no idea how to get there.

What kind of a person was the grade-18 Emperor of the first dynasty?! Joey was only at grade-10 and every time he advanced, his powers would transform drastically. Saleen gradually set his mind straight and took a deep breath in. He walked around the metal towers and towards the back of the deck.

Each of the one-hundred and forty-four metal towers could contain more than ten people. The people could focus on only training their mental strength and once they were familiar with magic curses, it would be equivalent to having more than one-thousand sorcerers…

The safety of the ancient combat vessel would definitely be assured in that case.

Fortunately, Grand Duke Iron Blood did not manage to obtain the diagram that would have explained how the metal towers should be used, otherwise Saleen’s dragon skeleton combat vessel would have been bombed into pieces instantaneously.

That defensive equipment on the deck were nothing compared to the design of the magic net. More than one-thousand sorcerers was an unimaginable concept and that figure was probably equivalent to the number of sorcerers in the entire Myers Mainland.

The future would be unpredictable though. The grand mages under Grand Duke Iron Blood were all advancing while Saleen would also expect his Metatrin City to produce more sorcerers as well. Even so, the design of the magic net was still an unexpected but pleasant surprise.

If there were sufficient magic power furnaces in one city, then everyone in that city could possibly become a mage and would not need to accumulate magic chords. If an entire country was covered by the magic net, then it would become a country of magic. If the entire Mainland was covered by magic net, then Lex’s dream would no longer be impossible after all.

The design of the magic net left Saleen feeling fearful because there was a price to pay for the people in the net to try and use magic. Living creatures that cast spells would have to return a part of their own mental strength to the magic net in exchange. Such a process required the mental strength of the living creature to be cut out and given to the magic net entirely. Therefore, the magic net would obtain a large amount of mental strength if plenty of spells were cast.

Without proper Rules of Meditation, it would be difficult to grow one’s mental strength. If they were taken away for good, one would have to give up life power in order to recover it.

The training of Rules of Meditation was something that only proper mages would undergo. No matter how powerful an ordinary human’s mental strength was, it would be difficult to grow consistently. Besides, meditation was linked to magic chords. If one did not possess magic chords, he would find it extremely difficult to meditate.

In other words, if the humans or living creatures in the magic net wanted to use magic, then they would have to sacrifice parts of their lives in exchange. The more one used spells, the weaker they would become.

A grade-9 sorcerer’s lifespan would reach more than twelve-hundred years because their body would be transformed due to magic chords. As for those who used the magic net, their lifespans would be reduced if they managed to reach the level where they could cast grade-9 spells.

The magic net was a double-edged sword. If everyone stopped training their magic chords because of the shortcut provided by the magic net, in the long run, mages would no longer be mages. They would just become pathetic creatures with poor physiques that would be unable to battle the moment they were out of the magic net.