Badge in Azure

Chapter 407: Saleen’s Winged Skeleton (Part 1)

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

Saleen’s trap was not complicated, however, it was hard to carry out. He had let Kredian bring all the mages that could be brought to the ice layer to set a fire trap, when an enemy rushed into the trap, it was surrounded within a sea of fire.

The burning time of such magic flames did not last too long but it was incredibly hot. Even with that, it melted the thick layer of ice. When the flames surrounded an enemy, Truman had fired the magic cannon from the White Rock mountain, completely destroying the ice layer. Any enemy within the target range was either sunk into the sea or killed by the magic cannon.

It was hard for the magic cannon to strike a moving target, but for an enemy that was trapped in such a situation, a magic cannon was even more terrifying than a forbidden curse.

“Master, what do we do with these prisoners?” Jola asked at the side. He was worried that Saleen might kill the rest in a fit of anger. In Cloudflow, there was a saying that killing prisoners was not auspicious and would bring bad luck to the one who gave the orders.

“Separate them, then interrogate them”

Naturally, someone went to carry out the orders, Saleen did not need to say much. So long as Saleen did not point out anything, those in charge of interrogating the prisoners would keep asking until there were no other questions to be asked.

Saleen would not give the orders to kill these prisoners, there did not seem to be any important person among them. The enemy was almost destroyed completely and Saleen’s anger had subsided. His side did not lose too many people only because in the battle, he had the advantage of horses. Even though many were injured, the mages had already prepared a large amount of restorative water before the battle.

Kredian did not look too good. When he was setting up the magic array, he did not know that together with the magic cannon. It could cause such devastating effects.

Thousands died in the attack and those with weapons had almost been trapped to death by the magic array and struck down into the sea. The few soldiers that had not been trapped by the magic array were weapon-less and a single strike by Saleen’s army had left them crumbling.

Kredian had not imagined that he would kill so many people. If he was asked to killed thousands of soldiers, he would definitely be soft-hearted.

The soldiers behind held onto the magic lamp, Saleen looked at the large hole in front of him as he was deep in thought.

The powers of this magic cannon were greater than what he had imagined. If enemies were to infiltrate the White Rock mountain and kill the defences at the top in the future. The magic cannon could destroy the fortresses near the coast. The destructiveness of this thing was many times more that of the magic stone artillery. It had a small body and could easily be taken away by enemies with a spatial equipment.

“Master, you can arrange for the fully constructed puppet to defend the magic canon.” The winged skeleton’s voice sounded. Saleen was stunned before he finally realized that the Pan’s Turtle alchemical boat must have already reached below him. He and the winged skeleton must be less than fifty meters apart.

“I know, Soldier. When this is over, go find the remains of the Second Dynasty combat vessel. Then take any ingredients that are worth fishing up. Nailisi has a dimension stone with her, let her do it.”

“Yes, Master, do you have any other instructions?”

“No, be careful and come back quickly.” Saleen sent the winged skeleton away before turning back to Sika and said, “Sika, tell me, would there be any problem letting Judikaka and the rest swallow the spirits?”

Even though Saleen was not a death mage, he could still feel the thick aura near the battlefield. It was the powers of the soul energy that had condensed after death. Only those who had died in combat would have such powerful energies.

A priestess was very sensitive to such powers and Sika closed her eyes and silently felt before saying, “There shouldn’t be a problem. If this is left unhandled, there might be problems that way instead. Our city needs to do business. If the aura left behind from a battle is too strong, it will affect our income.”

“Yes, let Judikaka and the rest come then.”

On the top of White Rock Mountain, Truman was still sitting beside the magic nucleus of the canon. It had been used up and when Truman fired it, he had only calculated the coordinates that it would land. He had not expected such consequences by firing the magic canon consecutively.

He had killed thousands with his own hands. Even though Truman was not any ordinary person and took death in his own strides, these thousands of people were killed by him and a rush of disgust shot up from the bottom of his heart.

The magic cannon was not actually created for large-scale killing. It was meant to be used to destroy an enemy’s heavy equipment like a giant fortress hammer or a war puppet that moved slowly. Using a magic cannon to kill normal soldiers was too much a price to pay.

If it was not on the ice layer, the number of enemies a single shot from the magic cannon could kill was limited. No matter if the enemy was a grand mage or a normal soldier, they were not any different to the magic cannon. The situation that Saleen had created was special and the large-scale magic array had controlled the enemy’s movement. Using the magic cannon to destroy the ice surface, they would lose their lives when they fell into the sea even if the enemy was not killed outright.

After much time, Truman’s feeling returned to normal. Those people were already dead and anyway, they were thieves. More than a hundred warriors had been killed by them and they were not even resisting.

At this thought, Truman no longer had that pressing feeling at his chest. Humans would always find excuses for their action, no matter how poor that excuse was or how real. They all had the same purpose. Truman was merely convincing himself that what he did was the right thing.

Truman used his hands to touch the magic cannon, the second time would come easier than the first time for such things. It was merely lighting a cannon, inlaying the magic nucleus, adjusting the coordinates, storing energy, and activating the magic array. Such simple steps could have been accomplished by a grade-3 mage.

The port settled down as the three kings were released to absorb the souls of the battlefield. Before this, Daniel had already let the pikoosi have his fill. The only one without any psychological burden from the battle was Daniel. As Daniel saw it, since the people had already decided to stir trouble on the mainland, they had to be mentally prepared to die.

Three-thousand skeleton soldiers had almost been lost in this battle. He could only wait for the three kings to call upon them when they had recovered fully. The remaining one-hundred skeletons also absorbed a large amount of the soul energy, evolving on Myers Mainland. Daniel did not dare keep the eighty skeleton soldiers for himself, he knew Saleen had a winged skeleton in his hands.

These eighty skeleton soldiers finally had evolved intelligence, they moved much quicker than before too. Even though their combat powers had not increased and their bodies were still slightly weak, they could carry out more complicated orders. Once these skeletons had their first evolution, they would slowly become more perfect.

There were metal skeletons, winged skeletons, and even jade skeletons in the death dimension. They all had decent intellect and would even grow to an existence similar to that of the death kings. What was most unusual was that some of them could learn magic and become a skeleton mage.

Even though there were a large number of skeletons, the intelligence they produced was miniscule. Among the three-thousand skeleton soldiers, only about one-hundred of them had intelligence and they all managed to survive in the battle. One could only say Saleen was lucky, he could hand over these skeletons to be dealt with by the winged skeleton to be his men. The winged skeleton could command them more precisely and use the spirit pool to process them, letting them evolve at a faster rate.

Skeletons would not get tired and with the spirit pool, they would be able to survive. If they had the death flames, they could survive well in any dimension.

Every time a war broke out on the mainland, death mages would summon a large number of skeleton because even though their combat powers are ordinary, they had a high performance to price ratio. So long as some of them were intelligent, they could become an officer among the spirits and allow the death mage to control more spirits in battle.

It was already late at night and many had fallen asleep. Saleen on the other hand, was still busy.

During this expedition to the north, Saleen had gained many ingredients. A large number of grade-4 magic nuclei, magic beast’s shells, skeletons, and fresh meats. These fresh meats were kept in the dimension stones and would not turn bad.

There was a magic laboratory in the temple and Saleen had already analyzed the mineral reserves on that island. It should have a huge reserve of steel, not the rhenium gold that Saleen was looking for though.

This was normal, the supply of rhenium gold was little and it came from red copper fort. Finding a large mine was a decent find too. To process steel, one needed to have good metal. These exposed mineral vein were of high quality and the associated mineral had a great variety too. Saleen had found a windfall.

In the Qin Empire, all the mines belonged to the royal family and any miners could only keep ten percent of the profits. This mine belonged to Saleen entirely. A processing facility could be built directly on that island and the steel ingot mined could be directly shipped to there. Saleen had no intentions of selling them either. Instead, he was going to keep it for his army.

Not only did any army require steel, Saleen had intended to reclaim the nearby wasteland and to do so there. The best way was to learn from Alchemy City and use low-grade puppets instead of animals to tend the pasture.

These puppets that were only used for agriculture required a large amount of steel to ensure their structure. It did not matter if they was flexible. They would not be used in combat anyway, it didn’t matter if they were a little clumsy. What was most important was that they were not easily damaged, minimizing any need for maintenance.

A mile east from the temple was a tower form from a few structures. It was now used by Daniel and all those living inside were military personnel. They were responsible for the safety of the city. The over one-hundred prisoners were kept inside there. They were sent directly to the underground cells and locked away separately.

Daniel was interrogating a low rank officer, he was probably a group leader. He was one of the highest ranking among those who were lucky enough to survive. The higher ranking the officers were in the army of the Eastern Sea islands, the more garish their outfit would be. It was almost like a light attracting enemies to attack. As Daniel saw it, such armor did not provide much defence against leather armor and wearing it was akin to seeking death.

It was the same as telling enemies that they were the leader and to kill them.

What stupid person would design such an armor? Daniel looked at the officer, his thoughts showed on his face. The group leader took it in, he felt that the death mage in front of him was incredibly savage and terrifying.