1217 12-Dimensional Metal Part 1 (1/2)
Agares had been keeping many powerful alchemists around for the sake of his equipment, so he definitely knew what Saleen was talking about. That was precisely the reason why he was so surprised—that piece of 12-dimensional metal was the best material that he knew about.
Being able to manipulate it to such a high level of precision indicated that there had been few errors during the crafting process.
Saleen threw his own piece of the 12-dimensional metal into his Starline Ring, but gave the other fragment to Agares instead.
Agares looked at Saleen, feeling puzzled. Saleen explained: ”We'll have an exchange when I'm done crafting it. If I go back on my word, well, you'll still have the other half of the material, which would be enough for you to craft your ideal weapon, anyway.”
Agares was speechless. Saleen smiled and elaborated, ”What I mean is, I don't know if I'll get out of here alive. If I end up dead, I'll have no way to fulfill my promise, no? Our contract doesn't involve any other parties. My followers, children, wife, and others would inherit my wealth, but not the promise between you and me.”
Agares was relieved to hear that. If Saleen were to indeed go back on his word, there would have been little to nothing he could have done. He had agreed to this with Saleen because he knew that he needed the man's help to leave the divine kingdom.
As for the matter of Saleen's supposedly impending death, Agares did not bother giving it any thought. That was because, while the number of level-ten professionals in the world must have grown, there probably were not any who would be capable of killing Saleen in a one-on-one fight.
Agares knew what he was capable of, and if he himself were to set out to kill Saleen without help from anyone, he would probably fail.
Saleen had taken quite a lot of loot from the dragon's lair. His Magical Element Tower had, indeed, been able to contact Metatrin City through the interdimensional teleportation portal.
Jason was unfettered upon hearing that Saleen was trapped. He wrote a long letter to Saleen, explaining, in detail, the rules of teleportation between planes.
That divine kingdom lacked a god to manage it, and so the Lord of Glory would not be able to arrive there personally. As such, it would be relatively easy for Saleen and his people to leave that place. They only needed an elementally stable environment to build a one-time-use teleportation portal.
He could, of course, have used the one inside the Magical Element Tower to get back to Metatrin City, but doing so would have left the tower in the divine kingdom without any way of retrieving it.
As for the 12-dimensional metal and the Genesis Stock Solution, Saleen had also sent some of those back.
Jason instructed Saleen to craft Agares' equipment in the divine kingdom while he prepared the materials required to build the one-time-use teleportation portal back in Metatrin City, so as to enable Saleen to leave that place.
Jason then warned Saleen to refrain from killing too many of the divine kingdom's beings, as it would attract the Lord of Glory's attention.
Saleen was prudent enough to simply stay hidden within the Magical Element Tower while inside the dragon's lair. That place had the lowest number of beings around, and they were not aggressive types, either. This was because there was a dragon there, and many creatures were reluctant to go near it.
Anyone who did dare to get close was stupid and had little offensive capacity to speak of, as such beings would seem insignificant to the dragon.
Saleen had also chosen that mountainous region because of the existence of powerful beings around. As long as he managed to take care of said powerful beings, there was no trouble in any other form to be found.
Saleen had the materials he needed to create a teleportation portal on hand as well, but they needed refining. He cast the Puppet Constellation and sent 500 thousand puppets out to search the nearby areas of the divine kingdom.
Those puppets were all neutral equipment without souls, and so would not be noticed by the Lord of Glory.
No believers in the divine kingdom would have bothered attacking anything that did not have a soul, either, so long as the puppets did not draw the first blood. The area within several hundred miles were picked clean by Saleen's puppets.
Saleen remained within the tower and did not pay any heed to any low-level beings harassing it. He simply crafted Agares' equipment in silence.
Saleen needed to be careful with that equipment, as 12-dimensional metals were precious in the extreme. There were two reasons as to why Saleen had decided to help Agares out.
First of all, it was said that all of the planes were only capable of producing such metals in very small quantities. Any that Myers Mainland might have produced had evidently been found a long time ago and used up, meaning that it was futile to look for any of the metal there.
Consequently, that fragment of 12-dimensional metal was the only piece that Saleen would be able to come by for a very long time.
Secondly, Saleen would make better use of the metal. He had a number of alchemical recipes, especially the ones that he had gotten from Gaine, almost all of which contemporary alchemists knew nothing about.
The 12-dimensional metal could be mixed with some metals that were even more rare using alchemy. With the Genesis Stock Solution that Nailisi had with her, Saleen could acquire more of those 12-dimensional metals.
In actual fact, Saleen would be able to multiply the amount of the material that was in Agares' hand ten times over using said methods, which was why he had generously gave Agares half of the piece that he found.
When he was done crafting the dagger for Agares, the remaining 12-dimensional metals that he still had with him would have been enough to make equipment for Jola and Sul.
Of course, the most important use of the 12-dimensional metals, to his mind, was to craft true space equipment for Sika. That was why Saleen had been so anxious to get his hands on them.