265 Land Reclamation Part 2 (1/2)

Sika, who was absolutely bent on leaving the island, went to find Lex together with Saleen. Once the duo located Lex, the female warrior started chatting with the viscountess animatedly using the Caucasian language. Fortunately, Lex was able to understand every last word that Sika said, as she had undergone very strict linguistics training, allowing her to be fluent in Sika's mother tongue. Saleen, on the other hand, could barely understand what Sika was saying.

As Lex conversed with Sika, her gaze slowly travelled to Saleen. Saleen only shrugged his shoulders and gave her a look of resignation. Sika was a very expressive person by nature. If she was happy, there was nothing that could stop her from openly sharing her joy to the world.

”Hold that thought, Sika,” Lex said as she took out another bracelet and handed it to Saleen before speaking in his direction. ”This bracelet is something I took from Sregl Island. You have over seven hundred swordsmen, three hundred sailors, and one hundred pirates under your command. Focus on building the less important infrastructure first. Only start to build the magic towers when I come back with more people.”

Saleen nodded in understanding as he took the bracelet from Lex. He did not have enough power to operate this spatial equipment. Lex, on the other hand, was able to use the equipment freely.

Lex took out four fully constructed puppets and placed them in one of the cabins before speaking again, ”These four puppets here do have minds of their own, but you can still command them to do menial, laborious tasks. Technically, they'll do whatever you tell them to. There are many robotic puppets stored inside the bracelets. If you have the apprentices control them, the puppets will prove even more useful than the swordsmen.”

”I know… here… take this,” Saleen said as he took out twenty-four level-7 scrolls and handed them over to Lex. He was worried about Sika's safety and knew that Lex had very strong mental power. Given her capabilities, she could unleash the power of dozens of level-7 scrolls in just one battle alone. If twenty-four level-7 scrolls could not stop the enemy, then Saleen could confidently say that the opponent was too powerful for either of them. If Lex was unfortunate enough to encounter an enemy like that, there would be nothing Saleen could do for her.

Lex was not about to pass up on Saleen's offer either. She immediately snatched the scrolls from Saleen's palms and stored them into the god's ring. Given that she was a powerful mage, as long as she did not bump heads with a sorcerer, she would be fine. Now that she had the twenty-four level-7 scrolls, even grade-7 sorcerers would have a hard time defeating her in battle.

Saleen chose to give one of the warships to Lex instead of the pirate ship because it would be impossible for a ship like the pirate ship to dock near Lianyun City. Saleen was not going to have Lex leave with the pan's turtle alchemical boat either. Now that Saleen had many mages under his command, he planned to have everyone practice maneuvering and mastering the controls of the underwater battleship.

Battleships that were less than thirty meters long usually did not look intimidating, nor did they seem to pose a threat. Magic stone artillery could not even be installed on these ships because they were too small. However, the pan's turtle alchemical boat ran purely on magic nuclei that were at least grade-6 in order to operate its offensive magic array. Even though the energy expenditure was huge, it was much more powerful than magic stone artillery, to the extent that the ship could fire mutated ice bombs even when submerged under water.

Even the average battleship would not be a threat to the pan's turtle alchemical boat. Only large battleships operated by sorcerers would potentially be able to leave a scratch or two on it. Even if the most advanced swordsmen were to dive into the waters to personally break the pan's turtle alchemical boat's defenses, they could do nothing to shatter the thick outer shell of the pan's turtle. The situation was no different when it came to swordmasters. This was because swordmasters were not able to rely on the Underwater Breathing spell in order to stay submerged for a long time. Plus, water was detrimental to the sword aura.

Thus, Saleen concluded that the biggest threat to the pan's turtle alchemical boat was magic. There were too many different types of magic in the world. Many rare, uncommonly practiced water-based spells were executed underwater. Even Saleen, a person who specialized in water magic, would be unable to recite all the water-based spells that existed in the world.

Sika's little joyous outburst had made Saleen less emotional about the separation. After sending Lex off, he flew up from the battleship, not giving himself any time to rest. Pitch-black fog shrouded Saleen's body from sight as the grade-4 mage lifted himself further and further away from the ground until he was over two hundred meters in the air. Any height above and below two hundred meters would drain too much energy from his magic chords. Plus, Saleen found that it was a lot harder to continue ascending after reaching a little over two hundred meters in the air.

Two hundred meters was nothing compared to the height of the white stony mountains. Saleen flew towards the mainland as he travelled along the moon-shaped peninsula. The coastal area of the island was also made of pure white rock, and was much higher than the surface of the sea. There were two ways to go about building a pier. The first way was to construct it directly in front of these rocks using metal alone. The second way would involve chiseling and building the pier directly on the white boulders themselves.

Saleen allowed himself to land gently on the ground. Once his feet made contact with land, Saleen fished out a dragon's tooth from the Ring of Gifts. Clutching it tightly in his hand, he brought it down onto one of the white colored rocks. Hard. The piercing sounds of scraping metal filled the air. Sparks erupted as the dragon's tooth made contact with the surface of the rock. They faded as quickly as they came, leaving behind a long, shallow scrape mark.

Saleen had not held back. The amount of force used to leave that scrape mark had easily rivalled the offensive power of a high-grade swordsman. That was excluding the fact that he had the powerful weapon in his hand.

Because the boulders could withstand powerful attacks like this, they would make perfect building materials for the construction of the city, including the walls, doors, gates, and so on. Saleen's action earlier had been to test the elemental makeup of the rock. Upon studying the scrape mark, he realized that it was just ordinary bedrock made up of a good mix of all the elements. Besides the fact that it was unusually strong and durable, the rock was pretty much useless. No magic equipment could be created using material like this. To a mage, this piece of information would mean that the rock was worth significantly less now.

This rock might have been stronger than steel rock, but it did not possess magical properties, making it unsuitable for the construction of magic towers. Even with the dragon's tooth, I cannot slice the rock apart. Perhaps I can use these rocks to build a house after all, Saleen thought. A house like that would be able to withstand low-level magic attacks. Even mid-level magic spells would do little to undermine the structural integrity of the infrastructure.

Saleen tapped the calabash which was secured tightly around his waist. The six meter stream of azure-green water spurted out almost instantly, making its way towards the gravel. The wall of water etched deep scrape marks onto the white boulders, and continued cutting and scratching against the rock's surface for thirty seconds until the rock was completely split into two.