Badge in Azure

Chapter 322: Contract Trap (Part 2)

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

Saleen was not worried that these pirates would cause any trouble for him. Among the pirates that were completely devoted to him, two of them had already broken the barrier of a high-grade swordmaster. As for the ones that were not devoted to him, there were only two beginner swordmasters among them and the rest of them were normal swordsmen.

As mercenaries, these swordsmen would have been a formidable force, but Saleen was not lacking swordsmen.

The only problem was that if he and Aini were to leave the city, who would be responsible for the safety of it? With the three kings gone, if any trouble were to arise, Saleen was afraid that the mages from Sregl Island would not be able to hold it back.

Saleen and Aini talked within his cloud of mist for over an hour before they were sure of how to tempt the three kings.

It was already deep into winter by now and it had snowed consecutively for many days. In a place east of the temple one mile away from the harbor, Saleen chose a piece of land for Aini for the Clyde family to establish their base.

The Clyde family had sent over five-hundred swordsmen though in reality they did not need so many swordsmen to do business. Aini commanded three-hundred of them to follow Saleen temporarily to help in the defence of the city. The Clyde family knew that this was a decent investment opportunity and because of that they were not stingy. Saleen did not lack manpower as Lex had brought with her a third of her men. These three-hundred swordsmen were a timely help.

The Clyde family was not interested in losing anything with this business. As long as Saleen could get over this period, they would definitely receive better treatment compared to the other families.

At the selected piece of land they started building a city hall. Building during the winter was incredibly trying, however most of the buildings there were made of stone and with the effects of magic, it would not affect the lifespan of the building.

This was barely two miles away from the temple too. It was in a very good location close to the port and was on the east-west line of the city. Once the city was built, this plot of land would become very expensive.

One by one, the temporary fortresses were built up. The standard equipment within was an alchemy crossbow and five swordsmen. A mid-sized alchemy crossbow like that required two swordsmen to operate it. The remaining three were there to protect it.

Saleen was relieved. After these temporary fortresses were built there would not be any more people from the Holy See coming during this winter season. Even though Banchajanna had not killed the black bishop, he did give him a scare. Before they amassed enough power, the Holy See in the north would wait for assistance from Glorious City.

Aini was building his own city hall while Saleen brought Nailisi to cut the cannon platforms in the stone mountains north of the port.

This stone mountain was one entire piece of white rock. It was incredibly tough and as Saleen saw it, the stone mountain that was barely hundreds of meters could not be destroyed even with a level-9 spell. He could only use his water current to grind the rocks and create a space at the center of the stone mountain.

He had to set up six different firing points within the space and had to process six different cannon platforms. Saleen's Water Flame Alchemy spell now had some achievements to it but time was precious and he could only create one cannon platform for now. Once the magic cannon was installed and the magic nucleus was inlaid he would be able to control the ships that were coming from the sea.

Nailisi had two fully constructed puppets within her bracelet. Both of them had signs of life and could be commanded according to one's will. With these puppets, Nailisi could control the magic cannons from the platform alone.

It required a huge amount of energy to change the shooting angle of the cannons, but the equipped puppets had energy that surpassed even that of a middle-grade swordmaster when his sword aura exploded while revolving.

There were two flaws of the magic cannon, the first was that it needed a fixed base and it could not be moved. The magic cannon that Saleen had found now had eased this problem slightly. The second was that it required too much. A single shot from a magic cannon was akin to level-9 magic. One could only imagine how many magic nuclei it would require for a single shot.

According to the principal of the revolution of a magic nucleus, a grade-9 magic nucleus could contain enough energy to release six level-9 spells. On a magic cannon, this number would be reduced by half. In other words, only by inlaying twelve grade-9 magic nuclei could Saleen shoot the magic cannon thirty-six times.

Saleen still had the nucleus of the dragonshard with him, but even inlaying that would not solve his problems completely. Using the dragonshard as the power source for the magic cannon would let one shoot almost a hundred times. To let the dragonshard recover would take up to half a year though.

Even so, Saleen still passed the dragonshard to Nailisi. She was nervous, as she had another dragonshard in her bracelet that had not been processed. She had kept it privately. If she used the two shards interchangeably, she could solve this problem completely. No matter how long a battle was, it would not require the magic cannon to be fired more than two-hundred times.

Saleen had gained one-hundred and eighty-eight high-grade magic nuclei from Raphael's magic tower. These high-grade magic nuclei were magic nuclei that had been retrieved from a magic beast that was greater than grade-7. Raphael had killed countless magic beasts in his lifetime but when one was at Raphael's grade, magic nuclei were not the most important thing. He had not left behind too many of them in his magic tower.

The four-hundred and sixty-six middle-grade magic nuclei could not be inlaid into the magic cannon either. The lowest attacking strength of the magic cannon was equivalent to a level-7 spell, so it needed at least a grade-7 magic nucleus to work.

"Master, you are going to the Chaotic Marshes. Why aren't you bringing me along?"

"With the three kings around, I won't be in any danger, but I need someone that I can trust here." Saleen patted Nailisi on the head. He was finally taller than Nailisi and that left him gratified.

"Master, you have changed, do not rush in front of danger. There are the pirates and Daniel, they can do the dangerous work." This was the first time Nailisi was separating from Saleen. She had no idea why she was becoming a little sentimental.

"I know, I have brought the pirates with me to get rid of them. I have given them enough chances, but there are still some of them who aren't satisfied and want to lead their old lives. I have seen such things in books and I used to think it was incredible, but now I know that when one has gotten used to his life, it is hard to change."

"Master, I think I have already gotten used to you." Nailisi winked as she looked longingly at Saleen.

Saleen's face turned red but he did not have the heart to reprimand Nailisi. He coughed and said, "I will be back soon. This will take at most three months. By then, the snow here won't even have melted."

"I hate waiting. When I was at the temple, I waited for ten-thousand years. It felt worse than dying." Nailisi thought back to when she was a prisoner in the temple and was not sure if it was pain or bitterness in her heart. Her voice was incredibly cold and lonely.

"If you have the time, train the warriors, but don't keep disturbing Soldier."

"Master, that winged skeleton is incredibly crafty." Nailisi knew that Saleen had found out that she had bullied the winged skeleton. He must have complained. The winged skeleton was a spirit and could talk directly to Saleen through their souls. As long as they were within one mile no one would know that they were interacting. Once Saleen was gone, she would deal with him herself.

"He isn't as crafty as you. Nailisi, when I'm gone, you need to help me look after Aini's men. Even though Aini wouldn't pull any tricks on me, I am not so sure about the people from the Clyde family. Find the danger within and try to get rid of it, but don't be too obvious because it won't be good if others find out."

"Master, if there is a spy among the Clyde family everyone will know once they are dead," Nailisi warned Saleen.

"Oh?" Saleen thought about it and indeed it was true. If he arranged one-hundred people in Alchemy City and two of them were spies, if the two of them were to die the people from Alchemy City would realize that it could not be by pure chance.

"Master, why don't I let Aini deal with it after I have found out?" Nailisi gave a suggestion.

Saleen considered it for a moment and agreed. He wanted to be friends with Aini, but not the Clyde family now. Even though Aini was responsible for this city, he could not represent the Clyde family yet. Once he could push Aini up, these two problems could be considered together.

He wanted to see what Aini would do. If he sent them back to the Clyde family, he wanted to be loyal to his family. If he helped him kill the spies, it meant that Aini wanted to start his own career. He could then consider working closer with Aini.

Before they knew it, it was the start of December. On that day, Saleen went to look for Judikaka. The three kings had been looking for clues in different magic books every day and they had not seen Saleen in a while. With Saleen paying them a visit, Judikaka knew something was up.

"Saleen, what good news did you bring with you today?" Judikaka had been suppressing Diyabannersa's displeasure recently. Saleen had been providing enough magic books but for every ten of them, two were relatively low-grade and it was unnecessary to look at them.

"Master Judikaka, I have much to tell you, but I do not know how to start."

"Saleen, just speak, we are bonded together. You know that besides Banchajanna, Diyabannersa and I have nothing against you."

"Then can you tell me what you are all looking for in the Myers Mainland?" Saleen lifted his head. Judikaka was seated in a special chair and he had to look down to even see Saleen's face.

"Saleen, why have you suddenly asked this?' Judikaka did not answer him directly. Saleen had never asked about this before and the fact that he suddenly did so today had left Judikaka a little surprised.

"If what you are looking for is related to magic, I can give you better leads." Saleen did not have any emotion to his voice and hid it very well. As long as Judikaka was interested, it would make what was about to happen much easier.

Judikaka looked at Saleen for a while and asked, "Saleen, do you not trust me?"

"This has nothing to do with trust, mages only believe in contracts. This lead isn't from me, but I cannot let my friend lose out."

"The new mage that has just arrived?"

"Yes, him." Saleen laughed. Judikaka was following his train of thought. He was half-confident in completing this successfully.