Chapter 423: Preparing for the naval battle (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Judikaka replied respectfully, “Sir Saleen, the dragon tail will be treated. Look at these magic runes. I am preparing to refine a large amount of starlight silver into them in order to reduce the weight and increase st.u.r.diness. If any small wars.h.i.+p tries to approach from the rear, a swipe from the dragon tail will smash it into pulp.”
“You are saying that this tail can actually move?!” Saleen was greatly astounded.
“Sir, the empire has war puppets for land battles. This wars.h.i.+p is a giant puppet on the sea, the whole s.h.i.+p is flexible. It would not be the fastest s.h.i.+p otherwise. This design allows the wars.h.i.+p to change its direction of travel swiftly. Even though this wars.h.i.+p is two-hundred meters long, its agility is similar to that of smaller boats who are only dozens of meters in length.”
Saleen began calculating the s.p.a.ces in the wars.h.i.+p. This two-hundred meter long s.h.i.+p would require seventy-two spirits to be operated. Since Saleen had more than eighty evolved skeletons, this was no problem. Next, the magic array controlling the bone spirits would require six spirits too. Saleen would be self-sufficient, he would not need anyone’s help.
This wars.h.i.+p was a purely magic wars.h.i.+p. One death mage was needed, along with at least twelve low grade elemental mages. The sailors had to at least be high grade magic disciples. According to the calculations, he would need three cla.s.ses of magic disciples. Since so many magic disciples were needed, Saleen had to request a.s.sistance from Lex.
In order to prevent the enemy from boarding the wars.h.i.+p to kill the mages, a corresponding number of swordsmen were also required. Jupiter and company could not be used anymore. The swordsmen from the Sregl Island would have to take on this task.
If a grade-6 mage was deployed aboard the wars.h.i.+p, then this mage would be able to provide the spatial equipment to store food and water. The s.p.a.ce within the wars.h.i.+p could transport one-thousand soldiers.
The offensive power of the wars.h.i.+p seemed pretty good, just that the pa.s.senger capacity was slightly small. Be that as it may, the function of this wars.h.i.+p was not for transporting soldiers, so Saleen could accept this design.
Saleen had promised a batch of Green Spirits to the three kings however. If more Green Spirits were used on this wars.h.i.+p, then he would have almost none left. It seemed like it was extremely costly producing large equipment. After all, Saleen had discovered a mineral vein. All his income was going to be depleted in the blink of an eye.
Given the capabilities of the Qin Empire, it would take years to produce a war puppet. That being said, Saleen was not sure which was more costly, the war puppets or the dragon skeleton wars.h.i.+p.
“Sir, actually this design will allow the wars.h.i.+p to go ash.o.r.e.”
“Go ash.o.r.e? Judikaka, stop kidding me.”
“Sir, this wars.h.i.+p is in fact a puppet made from a dragon. The whole wars.h.i.+p is alive. The deck and exterior sh.e.l.l are shaped like scales, while the cabins are individually refined on to the dragon bones. The north will be frozen for more than five months. In these five months, there are no suitable docks to maintain this wars.h.i.+p.”
“Then… wouldn’t it fall apart?”
Judikaka cackled, causing his Soul Flame to flicker vigorously. Slowing down his tone, Judikaka said, “Sir, the essence of the dragon skeleton might be lost, but its toughness could hardly be overwhelmed on this plane. A sorcerer can destroy the exterior sh.e.l.l of the wars.h.i.+p, but the dragon bones won’t be damaged. In the face of pesky enemies, this s.h.i.+p can run on land temporarily, it will also be slightly faster than a normal horse.”
“Why do I feel that all your designs are intended for escaping?” Saleen asked suspiciously.
Judikaka thought to himself, “I am catering to your hobby. If you cannot win, you will simply run, it’s better than dying at sea.” As Judikaka’s mind swirled with these thoughts, his ma.s.sive arm had pressed against the magic array on the ground. The light rays circulated, causing that levitating drawing to begin moving. Saleen noticed that dragon claws had emerged from both sides of the wars.h.i.+p, twisting their way forward. The middle section of the body did not twist a lot, while the dragon tail swayed vigorously in a regulated fas.h.i.+on.
The magic runes inside the wars.h.i.+p flowed on the surface of the dragon bones. As the dragon tail swayed about, the tremendous stretching force was distributed to every single piece of bone. The cabins attached to the dragon bones did not tremble violently, but the magic runes were flowing atop each cabin. Clearly, in the event the wars.h.i.+p went ash.o.r.e, its depletion would be astonis.h.i.+ng.
“Okay, that’s all, I will take this.” Saleen clapped his hands. Nailisi understood that signal and took out all the Green Spirit rocks in her possession before handing them to Judikaka.
“Other than the ones required to be mosaicked into the wars.h.i.+p, the rest will go to the three of you,” Saleen said generously, but his heart was hurting crazily. There was no choice, he was a true-blue Sikeqinyan.
Saleen did not know that Judikaka was feeling the pinch too, even though a spirit did not have any flesh. Judikaka’s first design was good, but the other two designs could help him save on a huge amount of materials. The first design enabled the wars.h.i.+p to go ash.o.r.e, but this ability had a huge consumption. Judikaka thought that Saleen would toss this design aside after learning of this ability. Unexpectedly, Saleen took out the Green Spirits immediately, causing Judikaka to be momentarily stunned.
The other two designs would make the dragon skeleton wars.h.i.+p resemble a traditional vessel, with similar capabilities. The only inability was that the wars.h.i.+ps could not go ash.o.r.e.
Judikaka did not know that Saleen possessed powerful calculation abilities. Saleen could a.n.a.lyze that the materials needed to build a wars.h.i.+p like that contained high performance. In comparison, Saleen would not be making a loss by giving those Green Spirits away.
“Judikaka, not bad at all. If there’s a chance, help me to design a s.h.i.+p too. I don’t want it to be too big, and normal materials will suffice.” Aini could keenly detect Judikaka’s intentions, so he decided to provoke this spirit king too.
“Sure, I can design a spirit s.h.i.+p for you. Other than it having weakness to the Holy See’s divine spells, the capabilities will be pretty good.” Judikaka did not rebuke Aini. After all, Aini was his controller.
“Very good, then I will have two s.h.i.+ps already,” Aini grinned, taking the opportunity to remind Saleen that he still owed him one s.h.i.+p.
Saleen had received all the income from the first hunting expedition, as he had promised to give one s.h.i.+p each to Aini and Irene. If this s.h.i.+p had the ability to travel across the ocean and reach the Frozen Sea, it would require one-hundred-thousand gold coins to be constructed.
Saleen pretended to hear nothing. He would not repudiate this promise. At the moment, he was afraid of not being able to hire enough workers. He would have trouble producing those s.h.i.+ps for Aini and Irene because of this.
As the three kings watched Saleen take his leave, they had an unexplainable uneasiness in their hearts. The Green Spirits Judikaka received were genuine though. To a spirit, such gemstones were way too precious.
Even though the three kings knew the location of the coordinates to the death dimension, they did not have any help from a death mage. If they wanted to train on this plane, their training speed would be very slow. Their powers were also limited due to the contract, they needed to work even harder. Judikaka was doing fine as Aini would allow him to use the Death Flames occasionally. Banchajanna and Diyabannersa were not so lucky. Since Daniel had left, they could do nothing.
With the Green Spirit, the three kings would be able to regain their training speed. At the very least, they could bring their powers closer to grade-9. Once Saleen and Aini advanced, the kings might even be able to recover their grade-9 abilities fully. If Saleen and Aini became sorcerers, the three kings would definitely regain their powers. Once Saleen and Aini succeeded, the contract would be even more secure and there would be less loopholes.
This kind of soul contract had a close relation to one’s mental strength. Since Saleen’s mental strength was so immensely powerful that it could rival that of a sorcerer, he could control two king-grade spirits. The moment Saleen became a true sorcerer, the three kings would not even be able to create trouble for the next few dozen years.
Judikaka was very clear about the crux of this issue. It was almost a dead cycle. Even if Saleen and Aini did not increase their levels, the kings would still be oppressed. If their grades got advanced, their restraint over the three kings would also get more powerful.
At this moment, Judikaka could only hope that Saleen would travel on his own and run into an enemy at a location where he could not summon them. Once he got killed, the contract would no longer be stimulated.
Saleen was very cautious however. Previously on the trip to the Frozen Sea, he had brought along Banchajanna. If Saleen went to more dangerous locations, he would definitely bring along Aini and the three kings, which was what he did when he went to the Chaotic Swamp before.
“Judikaka, what do we do?” Banchajanna’s Soul Flame flickered like he was one the weakest skeletons. He was feeling frustrated, so he did not bother suppressing the movements of the Soul Flame.
“We cannot do anything unless he’s dead. He has to die somewhere far away. Let’s get to work.”
As he spoke Judikaka split the Green Spirits, putting away his own portion before handing them to Diyabannersa. After Diyabannersa made his selection, he then gave the rocks to Banchajanna.
After the Green Spirits were distributed, Judikaka took out a large quant.i.ty of magic materials from his own spatial equipment, and he began setting a magic array in the room.
After one whole month, Saleen received some news from the three kings. Given the kings’ experience and power, coupled with sufficient magic materials, a s.h.i.+p whose materials had met the standards of magic refinement was finally constructed. Since there were too many trivial aspects, the three kings had to refine almost all of the materials once using the magic array. That included the divinecherry wood and thundercloud wood.
The length of the dragon skeleton wars.h.i.+p was not increased, but the wars.h.i.+p’s quality had been improved several times. When Saleen stored it, his mental strength was immediately depleted by half. For the past month, Saleen had been rearranging his teams. He grouped the Sregl Island swordsmen and the sailors together, as he prepared for the launch of the dragon skeleton wars.h.i.+p.
During this period, the winged skeleton had been helping Saleen feed the evolved skeletons. Out of these skeletons, two of them underwent another transformation to become gold-armored skeletons. After recruiting eighty-seven subordinates, the winged skeleton was almost on the brink of breaking through grade-7 to grade-8 already. If he acquired grade-8 abilities, he would not be afraid of the tricks up the kings’ sleeves anymore. The moment the three fellows tried to harm Saleen using their death techniques, the winged skeleton would be able to detect it.
At the moment, Saleen did not have any grade-5 mages serving him. As a result, one grade-4 mage, twelve grade-3 mages, seventy-two jade skeletons, two-hundred Sregl Island swordsmen, and about one-hundred sailors were deployed onto the wars.h.i.+p. If this wars.h.i.+p was not magical, these sailors would not even be able to control it. Currently, the sailors were only responsible for some simple cleaning tasks and to wait on the mages and swordsmen.
Saleen did not test the wars.h.i.+p’s ability to walk on land. Instead, he brought the Dimension Stone directly to the port. The mages, swordsmen, and sailors were all awaiting his arrival. Saleen also brought along one-hundred Caucasus warriors. Everyone was exhilarated to see Saleen because they knew he had created a ma.s.sive wars.h.i.+p. This wars.h.i.+p was even mightier than those metal-armored wars.h.i.+ps from Sregl Island.