Badge in Azure Chapter 245

Chapter 245: Mage’s Temptation (Part 2)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Saleen was determined to keep those pirates, and Lex would certainly not oppose to it. Saleen had a good idea, but there were some technical problems. The shape of the ship’s bottom had been designed specifically against waves, and if the alchemical boat were to be dragged rigidly under it, it would not only slow the ship down, but also affect the ship’s balance.
Lex did not put forth a more appropriate idea. She merely rejected Saleen’s design and added a sturdy hook to the tail of the pirate ship, using chains to drag the secret alchemical boat made from the pan’s turtle.
Even so, dragging an alchemical boat behind them would still affect the speed of the pirate ship and would endanger them when there were storms.
By now, the pirates on the beach were completely obedient and had removed all of the things irrelevant to the voyage from the ship under Daniel’s command. A large amount of fresh water, dried vegetables, dried sliced meat, and uncooked rice were transported ashore. There were not many goods onboard, and the several hundred gold coins turned in by the pirates were given back to them by Saleen.
These gold coins only amounted to the worth of a single grade-4 magic nucleus, but the pirates had risked their lives for those coins, most of which had been taken by the former captain of the pirate ship and buried on his island.
After two heavy showers within three days and a storm that had struck close to this unnamed ghost fog island, the pirate camp had been blown to a mess. After seeing Lex’s alchemical boat nearing its desired state, Saleen went to the pirate camp, called over Jupiter, and counted the number of pirates.
Not all of the men on the pirate ship were pirates. Some of them were kidnapped sailors who had not been rescued and had no choice but to live as pirates. In fact, this was also one of the reasons that a team of pirates could be sustained. No one was born with the wish to become a pirate, and all four empires held the same attitude towards pirates: execution.
Even if those captive pirates who had lived on a pirate ship for a long time had done nothing, no one would bother to check whether they were innocent after catching them. Over time, these sailors would also become new pirates.
Saleen separated these sailors, totalling over forty, from the rest of the pirates. Saleen needed sailors, and these sailors had nowhere to go and had not become complete pirates. They were exactly the manpower that Saleen wanted.
Saleen ordered these over forty pirates to take care of the four seriously injured pirates, and put the rest of the pirates into stringent training.
Saleen knew nothing about the cultivation of sword aura, and even if he did, he could not teach so many pirates. Although the cultivation of the sword aura was not as strict as that of magic, it also needed to be inherited. One could teach themselves to become a junior swordsmaster, and after that, they would need special guidance from a teacher.
Saleen ordered Jupiter to train those pirates to cultivate their sword auras. Leaving out those injured pirates who could not partake in the training, there were one hundred and twenty-eight strong pirates in total.
After examining the weapons and armor of those pirates, Saleen was disappointed. The pirates were skilled in combat, but they had miserable equipment. He asked for over one hundred sets of leather armor from Lex and used these to replace the pirates’ old sets. Their weapons were also replaced with shorter straight knives.
In Saleen’s opinion, the pirates would not be at an advantage when it came to close combat on the sea. Pirates had stone artillery and heavy crossbows, and could attack unhurriedly after crashing into the sails or rudders of their enemies. If they needed to jump on deck and fight in close combat, those guys with no spirit of cooperation, just as Lex said, would be less useful than a squadron of cavalry.
Nevertheless, they would be the first of Saleen’s warriors. As a mage, it was normal for him to not be too skilled at this. Neither Sika nor Nailisi could help him. Sika was not good at positioned combat and knew nothing about battle at sea, and Nailisi knew little about this, even less than Saleen.
Saleen did not ask Lex for help. He simply ordered these pirates to familiarize themselves with their new armor and weapons and trained them every day on how to maintain their equipment. He also asked for ten storage boxes from Lex. This Qin army equipment required a mage apprentice to open and had the same room inside as it was seen from the outside.
The only advantage of this box was that it was completely sealed, isolating the room inside from the outside environment. Food stored in this box would never decay unless the box was broken.
Saleen chose ten young pirates to take care of these ten boxes that were filled with good dried sliced meat, not the musty goods that the pirates stored. These ten boxes of food could help the pirates survive for a longtime and maintain their fighting strength even when they could not fish.
Lex finally finished her alchemical ship, came to the seaside, and simply smiled upon seeing the pirates who had begun to possess discipline after being trained by Saleen. When it came to the actual battlefield, any small attacks by her warriors would reveal the pirates’ true strength. Saleen was only training them superficially. A true army would require several years of time to form its combat effectiveness.
In Qin, the training of a professional serviceman began at an early age. A boy would be taught martial arts at twelve, and sword aura cultivation at fourteen. A child with average talent would become a junior swordsman at sixteen and could receive the formal training of a soldier.
This process would take four years, during which those children were trained to be disciplined and could perform under the command of any professional officer. The next four years would be battle array training and cavalry training. Among all those warriors, some would be selected as archers, crossbow men, light cavalry, heavy cavalry, hoplite, and so on.
The kind of training they had been ordered to conduct by Saleen was just a joke in Lex’s eyes.
Lex called Daniel and they went on the pirate ship to repair the main mast. She had five fully constructed puppets, and together with Daniel’s death creature, they lifted the broken mast without any trouble and put it back into the place where it had used to be. Lex used a two meter long metal sleeve to fix it there, and cast a Fossilization spell for refinement.
The next matter was dealing with the internal structure of the pirate ship, which belonged to the shipbuilding style of Cloudflow and was outdated. The watertight cabins were all solid, and there were special cabins available for sailors to paddle in.
Half of the paddles of the pirate ship were hidden in the cabin and were divided between two decks. The paddles would only be used when enemies were chasing after the ship, and the ship was normally driven by its sail, not by paddles.
Lex removed the double-decked paddles from the pirate ship and replaced them with wheel paddles. Wheel paddles had been invented in the Qin Empire and had a much higher efficiency than normal paddles. However, their construction required expensive materials and the process for their creation was relatively complex.
In reality, Lex had added those refined wheel paddles directly to the ship, which would not be beneficial for it. Because of their structure, wheel paddles changed the force-bearing points of the ship. If the ship had possessed thirty years of life before, it would have only five years left after adding those wheel paddles before it would break down from its keel.
The heavy crossbow at the ship’s bow was removed and replaced by a more sophisticated metal crossbow. Lex did not add an alchemical crossbow to the pirate ship because she knew they were threat for mages. She did not believe in the power of contracts as Saleen did.
Stone artillery, which was superior to a trebuchet, was at the stern. Lex made over two hundred marbles from the island’s rocks, and those marbles were also used for adding pressure.
The fresh water tanks were reinforced and fresh water created by Saleen and Lex was added into those tanks. Every cabin was cleaned using a Cleaning spell, getting rid of the strange smells that had used to linger in the air.
The pirates were summoned onboard, and every pirate was also treated with a Cleaning spell to ensure they did not have any infectious diseases. After all that work had been done, Saleen gave the order to set sail.
Several houses, which had been built by the pirates, were left behind on the ghost fog island. The over forty sailors were also left behind together with the seriously injured pirates who had not recovered.
The business continued until night and all of the pirates were locked inside the cabin under the supervision of Sika. Then, Lex began to transport her alchemical boat to the sea.
By now, the shell of the pan’s turtle had been reconstructed. Its limbs and tail were equipped with special paddles and its head was completely sealed by a huge crystal. The boat did not have normal hatch like other ships did. Lex had created a teleportation portal at the abdomen of the shell.
The high price of a teleportation portal was relative to its transmission distance. The price for transmitting one person from Bitter Water Prefecture to Holy Rock City, which were six hundred miles apart, was over ten thousand gold coins. The prime cost of this transmission would be six grade-6 magic nuclei and over five thousand gold coins.
When the transmission distance was one-tenth of its former distance, the magic nuclei necessary would be halved.
The transmission distance of the teleportation portal Lex had created was only three meters, and it was a bidirectional teleportation portal, which halved its cost. This portal could transmit up to ten people at a time at the cost of several hundred gold coins.
This design was to ensure that the firmness of the pan’s turtle alchemical boat would not be affected by the reconstruction. All vents had been constructed at the location of the paddles, so the boat was only required to float at the surface of the sea.
Saleen and Lex began to pave an ice trail on the road from the platform to the sea. It was much easier this time since the ice road had a naturally downward slope. A long chain was hung on the pan’s turtle alchemical boat, and Daniel’s death creature, the pikoosi, served as the labor this time, dragging the chain and struggling to the seaside.
In the twilight, a ten-meter-long, three-headed death creature was dragging the chain and plodding in front of the boat, giving out crunching sound. The weight of the pan’s turtle alchemical boat was too great. Even though it was put onto a sloped ice trail, the boat still made the bones of pikoosi give out scary sounds, as though they would crack at anytime.
The alchemical boat, which was about thirty meters long, was finally dragged into the sea. Lex looked at Saleen and asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to come below with us?”
“I need to be on the ship. I’m the captain. This alchemical boat does not need to be started, so you can control the boat by yourself. Nailisi will be with you.”
“What about me?” Daniel asked.
“You will follow me.” Saleen laughed, thinking, I will feel worried if you stay on the boat. Death magic was too strange and Daniel was going to advance to grade-4 at anytime. Even Lex might not have been able to control herself in the closed environment.
“Nailisi, you’ll be with Lex. Pay attention and keep in touch.”
“Yes, Master.” Neilisi smiled happily and stood on the teleportation portal of the alchemical boat together with Lex. Daniel did not say a word, but thought to himself, It’s better to be on the ship. If the boat cannot float, I will die a most unworthy death.