Badge in Azure

Chapter 664: Riches of the Ocean (Part 1)

Chapter 664: Riches of the Ocean (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

It was clear that the winged skeleton used a lot of the resources obtained from the ocean to create jade skeletons. There were many skeletons in the ocean that could be utilized as long as they had yet to turn into fine powder after more than ten-thousand years.

It was not a waste for the winged skeleton to turn these resources into jade skeletons. The jade skeletons would be intelligent, loyal, capable of combat skills, and capable of magic. They would also need a higher level of equipment that was equivalent to four mages though. As long as these skeletons were fully charged with energy, they had no need for sleeping.

Saleen went down to the underground freezer with Sika, Nailisi, and Nicholas.

Other than the larger vessels used for hunting, Saleen also possessed a few smaller vessels that could hunt within a few hundred miles from the coastline and could only deal with low-level magic beasts. It was necessary for the port to contain a freezer to preserve what they had hunted.

Most of the fish that they hunted would serve as food, it was important to keep them in low temperature to ensure freshness. Fortunately, Saleen had many mages that could help to create ice blocks.

“Nicholas, what do you think of my city?” Saleen led Nicholas down to the underground freezer. What caught Nicholas’ eye was not the sea creatures piled up as high as a mountain in the freezer, but the freezer itself.

“Your Highness...,” Nicholas had already signed the follower’s bond so he had changed the way he addressed Saleen. “Is the entire city built on this type of rocks?”

When he attacked Metatrin City, he had noticed that the city wall’s material was extremely unique and was more difficult to break down than iron or steel.

“Yes, when I arrived, this place was covered with this type of rocks. For the first six months, it was as if I was battling against these rocks,” Saleen answered honestly. He had his own way to deal with these rocks. He had the Three Kings and a large number of spirits of the dead at that time, but Saleen also had his water current which was a very effective in dealing with this type of rocks.

“With six magic towers in the city and Dante’s Sequence in the city walls, unless the Holy See sends forth a one-million strong army and Pope Theisio personally leads the attack... this city cannot be taken down without using a godly item.”

“You are very sharp. We can form a circle of defense with the six magic towers so that the enemy will not be able to fly around the city wall,” Saleen walked towards the alchemy workshop behind the warehouse as he spoke. There were quite a number of low-level mages and magic apprentices there.

The magic beasts from the ocean would be differentiated and categorized by the middle-level mages from Sregl Island. These tasks were overseen by Kredian and Francis. These Sregl Island mages were progressing much faster than Saleen expected, but Saleen should have expected that. Ever since they followed Saleen, they could utilize all the magic nuclei they wanted and could now train much more.

Saleen’s temple was built according to the design of a grade-9 magic tower, that was another important factor that helped with their training. Pasatilo and Kanuka had even advanced two grades consecutively and were now grade-6 mages.

Nicholas followed Saleen and saw that within each alchemy workshop, mages were categorizing magic beasts or dissecting magic nuclei or even carrying out some simple processing. Meat that could be consumed was transported away and stored in the freezer. Bones, tendons, and skin were all materials that could be used for alchemy. Once they had been processed, spirits of the dead would be responsible for transporting them away.

Nicholas noticed that even the organs of the magic beasts were inspected thoroughly before being categorized and stored.

Without turning back, Saleen said to Nicholas, “Don’t look down on these organs. Many of these items can be very useful to us. Some fish maws are big enough to be used for building small boats while others can be used to create glue that can, in turn, be used for wagons and arrows and even houses. Most of the ink from squids can be used to replace dragon’s blood ink for writing on scrolls. Some fish intestines can be used as bowstrings as they can even be more resilient than spiderwebs. The ocean is just like a treasure chest.”

Nicholas was not a mage, but even he was enthralled by Saleen’s description. The Holy See’s navy was weak and did not have many fishermen. In order to defend themselves against the surprise attacks from Cloudflow’s vessels, the Holy See restricted the number of fisheries that the fishermen could work at for ease of control.

“Nicholas, do you have any other suggestions?” Saleen stopped himself from boasting further. He could not help but feel a sense of superiority that mages held over holy priests. This sense of superiority came from the fact that holy priests depended on prayers for everything they possessed while mages had to work hard with their own bare hands in order to obtain anything.

“Your Highness, the Holy See will not send an army over immediately. I have killed everyone and anyone that managed to escape would have been dealt with by Fycro as well. Your Highness will have at least half a year to recover. Even if Theisio managed to obtain a convincing victory at Luolan, he will still need time for preparations again in order to launch a second attack on Metatrin City. We are safe until next summer. We should make use of this time to repair the west gate. The city wall there is thirty yards tall as well, but provided poor defense.”

Nicholas might not be able to say much about other things, but Broken Blade Pass left him with a deep impression.

“That’s not a bad idea. Nicholas, you know about the large-scale equipment that the Holy See possesses. Can you help me design some defensive measures against them?”

All the mages and magic apprentices around Saleen gave their compliments and their mages’ salutes. Saleen led Nicholas and Nailisi to the last warehouse and took out the two spatial bracelets that the jade skeletons handed to him.

“I wonder what the winged skeleton has asked the two jade skeletons to bring me,” Saleen smiled and said.

The spatial bracelet was not considered big if it was compared to Saleen’s dimension stone. Even Nailisi’s bracelet was not as powerful as these two spatial equipments from the death dimension.

The warehouse was a pretty big one, but it was filled up instantaneously. Saleen realized that his mental strength had increased after he had made a full recovery. The warehouse was filled almost entirely with the corpses of creatures that gave off golden light.

Saleen saw that this ocean creature was filled with spikes and was the size of a watermelon. He hesitated before picking one up.

This creature was a little deflated now that it had died, but it must have been a circular shape when it was still alive. There were more than one-hundred sharp spikes on this creature that measured about a foot in diameter. These spikes were purple-gold in color and were abnormally sharp. Saleen took out a magic nucleus and pierced it with the purple-gold spike. Although it took some effort, he still managed to do it.

“Purple-gold sea urchins? I thought this creature couldn’t exist on the Myers Mainland?” Saleen was suspicious. This creature was not from the Myers Mainland. It should come from a dimension that had no land and was filled with seawater. Humans took an interest in it long ago because of its unique properties, but they were not able to live for long on the Myers Mainland or reproduce.

“What are purple-gold sea urchins?” Nailisi asked out of curiosity. She thought that the sharp spikes on these sea urchins looked terrifying, especially when they could even pierce through magic nuclei. A magic nucleus was one of the hardest materials in the world. In the natural world, there were not many unrefined materials that were harder than magic nuclei.

“This thing only looks like a sea urchin on the surface, but it is actually a magic beast that does not have a grade. Do you see the sharp spikes? In the ocean, the sea urchin will shoot out these spikes when the enemy approaches. Even a whale can die from the poison on these spikes. This poison is very valuable so the purple-gold sea urchins used them only when necessary. This creature has a really good appetite. After a meal, it can hide under the sea bed for a few months without eating.”

“Stop eating for a few months after a meal?” Even Sika was curious.

“This thing has a very big stomach. It may only be a foot long, but its natural ability is spatial. Its stomach can contain a few square yards of food. After a meal, it will hide itself and slowly digest the food. By moving around less, it will not have to fight so often which will allow it to preserve its poison and live longer. It does not have a magic nucleus so the purple-gold sharp spikes have evolved to become very terrifying. These spikes are the only thing helping it to stay alive.”

“Spatial ability?!” Even Nicholas seemed to recall something. The most valuable thing about this purple-gold sea urchin was not the spikes but possessing an ability similar to spatial equipment that could be achieved after simple refining. Putting an item through the mouth and retrieving it through the anal opening, even normal humans would be able to use it.

Back when humans were powerful, they had no need for such abilities. During the second dynasty, purple-gold sea urchins were used as rubber balls to entertain the noble families.

By the time the fourth dynasty came about, a few sea urchins were already being used as spatial equipment. At this time, humans were no longer able to wage wars against other dimensions so these sea urchins gradually disappeared.

Purple-gold sea urchins were extremely easy to capture. Their spikes’ only ability was penetration and was unlike red krill, where their spikes possessed other abilities such as separation and stopping recovery. One only had to cast a spell to shock the purple-gold sea urchins hiding underneath the sea bed before spreading a huge metal net to capture them all. Human tools were the most effective in capturing such magic beasts that did not have magic nuclei. The sea urchins did not have any teeth so there was nothing they could do against the metal net.

“Nicholas, since you have nothing on hand now, stay here and settle this with me,” Saleen laughed bitterly. He would have to process these sea urchins himself since the others’ level of alchemy might spoil their skins. After processing these sea urchins with his water flame alchemy, they would more or less be finished products.

These purple-gold spikes must not be known to anyone else. They were an extremely useful material for dealing with mages, holy priests, and even grand swordmasters. Not even Professionals would dare to approach alchemy crossbow arrows made from these spikes.

There were more than fifteen-thousand purple-gold sea urchins in the warehouse and there were more than one-hundred spikes on each of them. In total, there were more than one-million and five-hundred-thousand spikes. If others took them and used them against Saleen, even his water shield might not be able to protect him. When faced with arrows in every direction, even sorcerers could be shot dead.

The most important thing was that the watchtowers in the city used large crossbows against sorcerers, but these purple-gold spikes could be used on small crossbows too.

There was no way an army would be able to bring along its watchtowers for battles and large crossbows could be destroyed by the enemy quickly. In a real battle, there was little use in counting on large crossbows to deal with sorcerers.

The winged skeleton had really brought back a load of useful items. The only thing was that these items could not be sold and could only be kept for Saleen’s personal use.