965 Destruction Part 1 (1/2)
Lex was no longer surprised by how quickly Saleen was improving. It was just a small and meaningless experiment, but the people around Saleen thought differently.
Nailisi only came to a simple conclusion, which was that, since Lex's God's Ring could be used in many more ways, she could afford to care less about Lex's safety without making Saleen upset. In any case, the woman was ridiculously powerful. She possessed a Godly Item that was so immensely powerful, so she no longer required much protection. Even Divine Punishment failed to kill her. Now that Lex was a grade-9 sorcerer, even grade-10 opponents would have difficulty dealing with her.
On the other hand, Nicholas was fearful of Lex's ability, which could encroach on enemies without being detected. Although she was still a grade-9 sorcerer, she already possessed a powerful spell that could be cast in a short distance. Saleen's Crystal Finger was not an exception. Many spells possessed an effective range of one to two yards, and the damage it could cause was almost a hundred times more powerful than spells that were casted a hundred yards away. Mages were really more powerful than Holy Masters, especially in terms of attack. Holy Masters would always cast spells slower than mages. Nicholas decided that he must be extremely cautious in the future when he encountered sorcerers of high grades.
Cuisi had never been fond of Lex, but since she was married to Saleen, that meant that they were one entity. To a demon, a spousal relationship could not be separated. That was why Cuisi merely smiled without thinking too much about it.
Truman was affected the most. He only saw Lex appearing in front of Saleen out of nowhere. He never managed to detect Lex at all. Was it possible for a mage to become so powerful? It was much more terrifying than assassins' abilities.
Saleen introduced Gugger to Lex in the command cabin. Gugger hurriedly bowed to Lex since she was a member of the royal family of the Qin Empire and possessed the right to inherit the power of royalty. She was also the ruler of a powerful prefecture herself, so her status was not one that Saleen could compare himself with.
It was no wonder that Gugger would think the way he did. The four Empires had been founded for a thousand years, and besides, he was very familiar with Saleen's background. Gugger felt extremely honored to be able to meet Lex.
Naturally, Lex did not care much about Gugger. She was a sorcerer and was one of the most powerful people in the world. Even if Gugger was the Emperor, she would not care much about him.
Status and ranks were as such. When one looked up to someone, that person would rarely notice their existence.
The command cabin on the dragon skeleton combat vessel had been revamped. There was a gigantic table at the back and the magic map was placed on top of it. The magic compass was right in front, and there were two seats for people to sit and observe what was going on in front of the combat vessel.
The magic map was opened, and Lex immediately focused on the regions from the northern sea to Ironwall City.
There were floating blocks of ice in the sea north of Sikeqinya most of the time. It was usually risky for ordinary merchant ships and fishing vessels to go out into the sea. If the merchant ships and fishing vessels were to be fitted with metal armor, the manufacturing cost would increase drastically. That was why Sikeqinya never prospered in maritime trading, unlike the Cloudflow Empire, which had ports all over the shores over tens of thousands of miles.
There were only three ports on the shores of the northern seas of Sikeqinya, and one of them faced directly against Ironwall City. This port was also used for military purposes, and the royal fleet of Sikeqinya was also docked there.
There was a total of 120 ships in the fleet, and the majority of them were small ships. Only 18 of them were big combat vessels, but they were also a few centuries old.
”The level of security of the royal port is still quite high.” Lex pointed at the location and said, ”These military vessels are basically being used for smuggling. Members of the Sikeqinya royal family rely on these combat vessels to travel to the Tanggulasi Empire to carry out illegal transactions. There are magic stone artilleries around the port, but I'm guessing that they won't have enough apprentices to operate them, so it shouldn't be a problem.”
Lex moved on from the port. She shifted her finger 300 miles away and said, ”There is a medium-scale city here. We can station our troops there for rest. The city is three-miles wide with a magic tower and less than 2,000 soldiers.”
”What a terrible defense. Why didn't the Cloudflow forces go over sooner?” Saleen shook his head when he saw the line of defense on the map, which was full of loopholes.
”That's because tens of thousands of mercenary soldiers have been stationed all around, so the Cloudflow forces did not dare to go onshore. If they were to be delayed there for more than half a month, they would be attacked by almost a million mercenary soldiers,” Lex explained.
”Are there many mages in this area?”
”Forget the mages. Within an area of 500 miles long and 200 miles wide, there are a total of nine cities of various scales. Other than in Luogu City, there are no other magic towers. Mages below grade-6 will not be able to handle our metal flying machines. There are another 60 or so castles amongst the villages. There will be some private armies of noble families, but each castle should not have more than 200 soldiers. Their purpose is probably to fight magic beasts to stop them from damaging their lands rather than fighting wars.”
Magic beasts damaging lands? Saleen could not understand it momentarily. It seemed too incredible.
Lex chuckled and did not explain further, but Saleen understood shortly after that. Something like that was entirely possible. There were too many mages in Qin, all the magic beasts that roamed around the cities or villages would be captured by the mages and turned into materials for their training. That was why Qin never had the problem of magic beasts destroying villages, much less the cities.
Every city of a certain scale would have magic towers. If magic beasts dared to get too close, it would be equivalent to giving themselves up to be made into equipment. As for Sikeqinya, the mercenary soldiers were tasked to kill magic beasts while the private soldiers of noble families were responsible for their safety. If the mercenary soldiers were able to hunt down magic beasts, they would be able to exchange them for rewards.