Chapter 232: Alchemical Boat (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Don’t you need to call Daniel? He is your follower now.” Lex used a small blade to slice some bread before putting a pinch of salt onto the bread. Such a way of eating was exclusive only to the Qin people.
“Allow him to calm down first. Lex, how did you manage to move the turtle shell up onto the shore?” Saleen asked as he consumed the bread which Sika had given him.
This turtle shell was almost thirty meters long and had a thickness of over one meter. Its weight was astounding, and it was possible that even an ancient giant would not be able to lift it up.
“How could I possibly have moved it? I merely used the natural magic array on the turtle shell.”
Then, Saleen had an epiphany. This turtle shell possessed an amazing defensive ability, and its thickness and hardness were unparalleled by any other creature. However, it was a challenge for the turtle to live with such a heavy shell in the sea. There was a magic nucleus and magic array within the shell. When the turtle had been alive, it simply needed to draw power from the magic nucleus and its shell would become dozens of times lighter. Then, it would take this opportunity to float above the surface of the water to exchange the air in its body.
If this turtle shell became dozens of times lighter, then Nailisi and seven other fully constructed puppets would indeed be able to move it. With Lex casting the Binding spell, the shell would be slightly lighter too. It seemed like Nailisi had not been spouting nonsense when she had lamented, because even if the shell was lightened by dozens of times, it would still weigh around hundreds of thousands of kilograms. In order to drag this shell up the shore, Nailisi must have suffered quite a bit.
Lex noticed that Saleen was feeling a little distressed over Nailisi’s plight. She then laughed and told Saleen, “It was not as difficult as what you thought. I cast magic by paving a road on the ground before laying ice over it, and the shell became much easier to transport.”
“Master, I am full.” Nailisi jumped up and sprinted out of the magic tower in a flash before jumping atop of the turtle shell. At this point in time, Saleen realized that he had been deceived. Lex was a grade-6 mage, so she definitely had many ways of making the road flat. After layering the road with ice, she could still alter the thickness of the ice layer to create a gradual slope down the road.
This process had been a little tedious, but was not as tough as what Nailisi had described it to be. In terms of who had suffered the most, Lex must have been the one to do so, because she had needed to cast magic continuously as well as control the changes in the magic. If Lex had not been on a deserted island, she would have utilized dozens of magic beasts to pull the turtle shell along. Now, however, she could only do it herself.
After discovering that the turtle possessed an inborn magic array, Saleen became agitated and lost interest in his food. Saleen then told Lex that he wanted to look at the turtle shell after scarfing down two pieces of bread in a hurry.
As far as Saleen knew, magic beasts never possessed any inborn magic arrays. In the hell of god’s punishment, the magic arrays in the magic beasts had appeared only once they had been transformed, and they were not natural. Now that Saleen knew that the turtle shell contained a natural magic array, he naturally lost all appetite. To a mage, unknown knowledge was more attractive than anything else.
The shell had been treated by Fellett in the past. However, that had been out at sea, and Fellet’s method had been extremely crude since the flesh had simply been dug out from the shell. Having been soaked in water, there was not much of a smell, but when Saleen came before the shell, he could immediately detect a rotten odor emanating from it.
The turtle shell had six openings. Saleen decided to forbear the pungent odor and enter through the opening at the head.
The space inside the turtle shell was larger than expected. Many pieces of flesh were still stuck to the insides of the shell, but most had been removed already. The height of the space inside the shell was fairly uniform at around five to six meters. It seemed like the thickness of this shell was even more astounding than he had imagined. Saleen cast a Fluorescence spell and saw the natural magic lines under his feet. Then, he went into deep thought.
The turtle shell would have been wasted if it was used to craft armor, but it will make a good boat if the six openings are sealed.
“Let’s go. Everybody shall clean up the shell by removing the rotten flesh.” Lex also did not mind the repulsive odor and climbed into the shell.
“Nailisi, be careful. Don’t ruin the magic lines.” Saleen noticed that Nailisi’s movements were hasty, and he was afraid since her nails were extremely sharp. The turtle shell might have been tough, but it was still possible for Nailisi to make a few scratches if she chose to. If the magic lines were destroyed, then the value of this shell would decrease drastically.
The four people began removing the carrion. Once a segment was cleared, Lex and Saleen would use Cleaning spells and Fire Washing spells to create a sterilized area. Very soon, all the carrion inside the turtle shell had been removed and the shell was completely clean. Thereafter, Lex and Saleen used recollection magic to memorize all of the magic lines on the shell.
“Saleen, the sky is dark,” Sika reminded them. After acquiring the abilities of a warrior priest, Sika quickly realized that a dense fog had appeared outside, and some strange creatures had appeared in this fog. These must have been the ghost fog monsters that Daniel had been referring to. They did not feel powerful, but their numbers were shocking.
Lex did not want to take any risks either, so she stopped working and left the shell together with Saleen and the others.
Just as they reached the magic tower, the dense fog had engulfed the surroundings of the magic tower. As there was a magic array under the base of the tower, the dense fog could not enter the magic tower. Saleen discovered that he could only see less than ten meters into the dense fog even with his icy sight, and he saw that within this dense fog, a type of small creature that was only a little more than a meter long was crawling about slowly.
That was a ghost fog monster. It had a human face and slender limbs, and even Saleen was confident that he could breaking its waist with a single kick. However, these small monsters possessed razor sharp teeth and claws. Growing on the surface of its body was neither hair nor scales. Instead, it was a thick layer of rust.
It was rust, and the body of this little monster seemed just like an eroded puppet.
Gege… ao…
The little monster had a sharp voice. Saleen felt as if an invisible force had invaded his mind, so he quickly adjusted his mental power to eradicate it.
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Indeed, that was a huge threat. Had Saleen been in a deep sleep when he was assaulted by this sound, he might not have been able to react in time. Fortunately, this monster only appeared at night, because during the day, the fog would disperse and it would disappear into thin air.
“Sika, are you able to deal with these things?” Saleen grew a little worried. Sika had said that she was not afraid of such creatures, but now it seemed like these creatures possessed the ability to carry out psychological attacks.
“Warrior priests are of course not afraid of these,” Sika protested. Her eyes could also see several meters into the dense fog, so she could tell that these tiny monsters were really too frail.
“Master, this thing smells a little like the winged skeleton. It might really belong to the death dimension.” Nailisi twitched her nose and ran into the dense fog suddenly. She grabbed onto the neck of a little monster and pinched it tightly before making her way back to the magic tower.
Zhi zhi!
Nailisi slammed the tiny monster onto the ground, and Sika went forward and stomped on it before putting her cudgel onto the monster’s head. At the end of the cudgel, the dragon’s horns sprung out, and the freezing air encompassed the tiny monster, rendering it immobile.
Saleen detected an extremely fishy smell. That layer of rust on the surface of the body of the little monster was accompanied by a fishy stench which was only found on dead fish.
Lex cast a Cleaning spell, and a faint magic light engulfed the tiny monster. The tiny monster twisted and turned in pain, as its short tail slammed against the ground in desperation.
The odor was greatly dissipated by the Cleaning spell. The body of the tiny monster already looked like it had been burned by fire for several hours, as its skin was shrunken, cracked, and smoking.
Saleen became at ease when he noticed that the monster was indeed afraid of treatment magic. Most treatment spells were instantaneous, sustainable over long periods, low in depletion, and their range could be easily controlled. Even if this tiny monster wanted to launch an assault, it would have to overcome the barrier at the entrance of the magic tower first. The Cleaning spell was only level-0 magic, yet it could already cause such severe damage to this tiny monster.
However, this thing was so noisy that it prevented people from falling asleep. It was truly irksome.
“Close the door. I don’t think we’ll get any sleep tonight.” Saleen shook his head helplessly, then he instructed Nailisi to deliver the tiny monster to the sixth story where Daniel could do some research on it.
“It’s alright. Let’s take this opportunity to study the alchemy drawings. I won’t be able to handle them alone.” Lex summoned Saleen over to her laboratory platform.
Saleen also knew that it would not be practical to slaughter all the tiny monsters out there, because as long as this island had even the slightest of connection to the death dimension, the dense fog would continue to produce such things. Sika and Nailisi leaned on both sides of the door of the magic tower. Thus, Saleen decided to put his mind at ease and study the shipbuilding alchemy drawing together with Lex.
The alchemy drawing was laid over a magic array, and magic nuclei were mosaicked into the six corners of this magic array. A white magic light lit up, and a three-dimensional structure emerged from the alchemy drawing.
“Is this… a ship?” Saleen could not help but feel doubtful when he saw the three-dimensional structure. The drawing was too complex. The core structure in the middle already contained hundreds of magic formulae, and an endless list of materials and alchemy formulae were written on top of it.
“Mm, this is a ship that was created by the empire’s alchemists. Originally, it was meant for the Lianyun City, but as you know, that city has gone out of control because my uncle isn’t capable enough.”
“Where is the source of the power for this ship?”
“Do you see these eight magic formulae?”
“Yes.”
“Give me a moment.” As Lex spoke, she shifted the alchemy drawing and the three-dimensional structure immediately transformed into a strangely shaped ship, appearing before Saleen.
The ship looked more like an octopus. Its front was shaped like an oval, thus obscuring the deck. Eight sterns, each the length of an insect, were present at the rear of the ship, and these sterns looked like the ship’s paddles.
“This is a stealth warship. It is able to move while being ten meters below the surface of water. These eight magic formulae that you see are in fact eight magic sequences, and these are detached magic arrays which are refined into the eight sterns. The sterns can control the direction of the ship and shoot water. Actually, this item was created by the empire’s alchemists after they dissected some sea magic beasts.”
“If this ship is hit, everyone on the ship might die too.” In one glance, Saleen identified the problem with this ship. Being able to travel underwater was not something amazing. The thing was, this ship did not possess the required offensive abilities to be regarded as a warship, and once it was struck by magic, no one on the ship would be able to escape.
Those eight sterns could not possibly be used to attack enemies either, because once the sterns were destroyed, the ship would lose its mobility, and the warriors on the ship would eventually drown as well.
“That’s why we need to transform it. There are very few spells which can destroy the turtle shell, right?” Lex shifted the alchemy drawing once more, thus projecting the internal structure of the magic ship again.
“We are going to transform these eight sterns, and install them onto the turtle shell at the positions where the limbs were originally at.” As Lex spoke, she pointed to the crucial positions on the alchemy drawing. Gradually, Saleen understood that the drawing was simply an experimental piece. Theoretically, it was possible to build the ship, but Lex might not have possessed so much confidence if she were to really build it according to the drawing.