Chapter 440: The Price to Stay Alive (Part 2)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Saleen told the eastern sea mage to die straightforwardly. The grade-4 mage had thousands of ideas running in his head. Then, he realized that the young mage before him could not be moved with slick talk.
In the island nations of the eastern sea, language was the most powerful weapon. Even before a battle, both parties had to have a heated verbal exchange to suppress both parties’ imposing manner. This young mage was like a lofty mountain by the side of the sea, splashed on by the waves for tens of thousands years without moving an inch.
Saleen laughed coldly. Looking at the mage, his right hand was pressed onto the Silver Magic Book. Once he flipped open the magic book, he would be able to release the stored magic. It was extremely convenient to use the magic book, the stored magic was dozens fold more powerful than a magic staff. It was sufficient enough to slay the mage before him.
Saleen wanted the sea map and constellation map of the eastern sea as he already set his mind on establis.h.i.+ng the sea route. Although island nations of the eastern sea sent tens of thousands of soldiers to go on a journey to the Myers Mainland, Saleen could tell that the nations in the eastern sea were all too small and there were too many of them. It would be difficult to unite. They had yet to make a breakthrough at the north of the Qin Empire.
The expeditionary force exposed its largest weakness and the wars.h.i.+ps from eastern sea were not strong enough, that meant that it was about the same as Cloudflow Empire. They could not even be compared with wars.h.i.+ps from Sregl Island. As long as it was not sieged, Saleen’s dragon skeleton wars.h.i.+p could fight against dozens of them, one after another.
If there was not any sorcerer among the eastern sea fleet, Saleen could even encroached on them with the Pan’s Turtle alchemical boat through a surprise attack again and again.
If there was not an expeditionary force that looked strong, Saleen would not have the idea to. Once the expeditionary force was defeated, the vitality island nations of the eastern sea would be severely sapped. If Saleen had the sea map, he only needed dozens of wars.h.i.+p to seize the eastern sea.
He did not have dozens of wars.h.i.+ps then, but he would have them two years later. There were not too few wars.h.i.+ps in Sregl Island, and they had workers that specialized in s.h.i.+p making. As long as there was material, they could make many wars.h.i.+ps anytime.
The grade-4 mage knew that it was a life or death situation as Saleen’s eyes grew colder and he obviously lost his patience. He gritted his teeth and said, “Mister mage, the sea route was in the hands of a sorcerer. It is impossible for me to have it, unless you held a sorcerer captive. Or, the grand general of the expedition force has it too. Small mages like us definitely would not have it.
Saleen was surprised when the grade-4 mage called himself a small mage. On the Myers Mainland, once one entered into grade-4, anyone would pay respect to a mage. It seemed that the position of mage was not high in the island nations of the eastern sea.
Saleen got it right, the ranking of mage and swordsman was about the same in the island nations of the eastern sea. There was no special treatment, only becoming a sorcerer would be able to receive respect. There were many a.s.sa.s.sins in the eastern sea and a mage would easily be a.s.sa.s.sinated before becoming a sorcerer.
Within a ten-thousand mile radius in the entire eastern sea, the political situation was related to a.s.sa.s.sination. In the eastern sea, an a.s.sa.s.sin was the scariest type of person. There was no professional union but the a.s.sa.s.sin a.s.sociation.
“You are quite useless then?” Saleen did not see a death wish in the grade-4 mage’s eyes. He knew that the mage had something to say, so he triggered him further.
“No, no, mister mage, there is another way to get the sea route.”
“Things that are too troublesome, I do not want to hear.” Saleen said casually, but he did not take action.
The grade-4 mage said helplessly, “Of course, I am willing to pay the price for the trouble.”
Saleen saw that he was being a hoodlum, he could not help but laughed. He said, “Tell me.”
“Mister mage, can we talk down there? I can’t hold on any longer.” The grade-4 mage pleaded. He relied on the stored magic in the magic staff and he could barely fly. The magic in the magic staf seemed to be running out soon. If he did not land then, he would fall into the sea. According to his body ma.s.s, he would freeze to death within half an hour.
“If I am unhappy with the things that you tell me, then…”
“Mister, I beg you to let my comrades live.” The mage pleaded, the fire on the wars.h.i.+p was still burning in rage.
“If you give me news that is important enough, I will kill all of them to shut them up. If I’m not impressed at the news that you gave me, those people will die anyway. Just follow me.” Saleen would not care about the mage’s request, but released a cloud of mist and engulfed the grade-4 mage to fly back.
It was impossible for the mage to save his comrades. As long as everyone was dead, the mage would not be able to return to the eastern sea because they would not believe in the mage anymore. “Why did everyone die and only you lived?”
The human heart was the most difficult thing to fathom. Saleen learned the way of doing so from Nailisi.
The magic staff could not release any power for flying anymore. The grade-4 mage was brought along with Saleen and he dared not do anything to Saleen as Saleen hid in the cloud of mist again. Without Saleen, he would drop into the sea.
Saleen found the dragon skeleton wars.h.i.+p very quickly and he landed with the grade-4 mage. He directly entered the cabin on the deck. Nailisi saw that Saleen brought a captive and she rushed everyone out of the room besides herself and Sika.
Nailisi did not think that Saleen would be soft hearted and keep any captives. When Saleen saw the dead bodies of the swordsmen from Sregl Island, Nailisi could feel the sorrow at the bottom of his heart.
The captive should have some secrets. If it was a secret, the less people that found out the better.
Nailisi dared not rush Sika aways. Not only was Sika a better fighter than she was, Sika’s position in Saleen’s heart was not lower than hers either. “This person would give birth to master’s child, it would be unnecessary to get into trouble with her.”
Nailisi pa.s.sed a chair to Saleen and grabbed another one for Sika while she stood next to Saleen. The grade-4 mage saw that the young mage that held him captive kept two women next to him and thought to himself, what if he surprise attacked him?
“Forget it, there were a hundred swordsmen out there and a grade-5 mage too. Even if I hurt the mage, I wouldn’t be able to escape. He looked at Saleen’s facial expression that looked like he was smiling but not, he was suddenly awakened.
So what if there was no one outside? Could he drive such a big s.h.i.+p alone? If he couldn’t, did he want to swim back?”
“Mister mage, my name is Aesop Faustin.”
“Saleen.”
“Mister Saleen, I can sign a contract with you first to guarantee what I said was the truth.”
“There’s no need to. There are loopholes in the contract. What if you said that you would follow the contract, but you hide something from me? I wouldn’t be able to kill you. Say it straight, the people in this room will be able to tell if you lie to me.”
Ever since he brought the Three Kings under his control, Saleen knew that the magic contract had flaws too.
The power of a magic contract was an inability to breach the rules. The sentences of the contract could create an illusion to make you feel the contract was just or extremely lopsided though.
Aesop smiled bitterly and gave up on playing a fool of Saleen.
“Mister Saleen, let me tell you the important points. The sea map and constellation map from the eastern sea to the Myers Mainland can only be retrieved from the sorcerer. Although you are strong, to capture a sorcerer among an army would be impossible.”
“Sorcerer! Last month, I’ve killed one.” Saleen recalled the sorcerer that the three Kings killed and told him casually.
Aesop left his mouth hanging. He knew that Saleen was just saying that, but not to refuting him. Even if Saleen could frame a sorcerer, it would be under special circ.u.mstances. It would be impossible if he were to really capture the person from the allied army.
“But, mister, if you want to go to the eastern see, it’s not necessary for you to get the sea map and constellation map.”
“Are you talking about a magic compa.s.s? I’ve tried. The mage had erased this piece of information from all the magic compa.s.ses on the s.h.i.+ps.” Saleen knew what Aesop was going to say and cut it. The twelves s.h.i.+ps that were sunk by the Pan’s Turtle alchemical boat, besides the fully armed merchant s.h.i.+p, had magic compa.s.ses. Every compa.s.s was taken care off. The eastern sea allied army obviously did not want anyone to find out the secret of the sea route and did a thorough job.
Saleen only managed to a.n.a.lyze one thing. It was that every five hundred miles that the fleet went, they would purposely erase the trace of the sea route so that the magic compa.s.s was unable to recover the information. If the enemy held the wars.h.i.+p captive, there would not be too big of a danger that way.
To get to the eastern sea, was impossible without the constellation map and sea map. Especially the constellation map, they could tell the season and accurately determine the safest time to travel the sea route. Between the eastern sea and the Myers Mainland, there were tens of thousands of miles of coastal areas and territorial seas called the Stormy Sea. Gale-force wind battered there all year long. Not only the dragon skeleton wars.h.i.+p, but not even a giant dragon would not want to move around there.
The wind had its pattern, especially related to season. The people from eastern sea spent years and sacrificed lives to be able to figure out a sea route.
If it was only wind, Saleen could go through with the Pan’s Turtle alchemical boat under the sea. A few hundred meters below the water, the effect of wind would have disappeared. The deep sea magic beast may not be any weaker compared to the Oceanic Ice Block though. There were grade-9 magic beasts everywhere. Saleen could remember clearly that he fled with the Pan’s Turtle alchemical boat. In the deep sea, the human power was so small.
“Mister Saleen, only I know the secret…” Aesop hesitated. He did not intend to negotiate conditions with Saleen but said, “On the wars.h.i.+ps of eastern sea, the alchemy telescope is extremely huge. The usage of it is different from the ones in the Qin Empire. Actually, such large alchemy equipment has memory.”
“Oh?” Saleen was interested then. He found the alchemy telescope on the sunken s.h.i.+p. Although Nailisi brought it back, Saleen threw it into the storehouse. Compared to the alchemy telescope of Qin Empire, the eastern sea’s was too heavy and the effect seemed to be one third of the Qin Empire’s.
“My grandfather was a pirate once….” Aesop brought up about his family and he looked proud as though being a pirate was something to be boastful about, an even higher ranking compared to a mage.
Saleen was not surprised, the people in the eastern sea had something wrong in their heads. There were many mages that did not research about magic, but ran to the Myers Mainland to help the Kings from the smaller nation to invade. He listened to Aesop quietly as he was not concerned about Aesop’s origin and he was not concerned if his moral standards were similar to his.