Badge in Azure

Saleen then took out a stack of drawing papers from his drawer and spread them on the table. Aini took a glance and figured that those were the blueprints and all of them were weapons equipment.

“This is the cavalry armor? Is this pattern from a thousand years ago?” Aini felt odd and he took up a blueprint to ask Saleen. Then thought to himself, “This is too heavy and it costs too much to produce so it would not be easy to maintain. If Saleen were to build a cavalry troop that only consists of two hundred of them, it would be understandable. But he wanted to build a mercenary regiment in a large scale, this kind of armor would be meaningless.”

Such heavy armor would have to go with good warhorses as a normal horse would not be strong enough. Calvary in such armor could only get on the horse before charging against the enemy. Normally, they could only transport the armor on the war chariot and depended on the auxiliary soldiers to help them put it on before war.

A good warhorse would be expensive, it might be even more expensive than some of the magic beasts. If Saleen did so, building just one regiment would use up all his money.

Back then, there was still knight ranking. The fourth dynasty was extravagant, so the design of the armor was expensive and luxurious but impractical. The fourth dynasty owned the entire mainland and it was easy for them to put together a few thousand strong calvaries. Saleen could not. Although there were a few places in the north that produced horses, good horses that could transport such armor were limited.

Although Caucasusians’ magic wolves could carry a heavy load, once such calvary got on top of them, magic wolves would lose their advantage. The advantage of such calvary was the powerful attack, it could even hurt the heavy infantrymen. If the number of infantrymen was insufficient, the calvary that was wearing a few hundred pounds of armor could tear apart the formation of the heavy infantrymen.

Saleen smiled, “Why would I make such armor? Even if I have skeleton warhorses, I wouldn’t waste such money. This is a magic armor produced with alchemy skill, the weight is only about a dozen pounds.”

“Magic armor? Doesn’t it cost more?!”

“Magic armor is expensive, that was because we need to make magic attributes and magic defences. My armor only has one, which is a Tough spell. This thing can’t even prevent a fireball.”

“The cost wouldn’t be very low either!”

“Regarding cost, I realized that the seashells are good alchemy material and they could be cultivated. It is very easy to make such armor. There are a few hundred low level mages under Lex and a few thousand magic apprentices. Even to produce ten thousand sets wouldn’t be difficult.” Saleen’s smile implicated another meaning, “Those mages have to practice on a normal basis, I would considered myself providing free materials.”

Aini was left speechless, Saleen wanted to fully utilize Lex too.

“But this can’t defend against heavy weapons, right?” Aini was really from the Clyde family. Even though he did not participate in weapon design, he could tell the armor’s weakness in one glance.

Saleen laughed, “This is not for the general, the enemies were just normal swordsmen, or not even a swordsmen. If the enemy was so strong, like Jola when he holds tears in his hand. A holy armor couldn’t even defend against it, right?”

“That is true.” Aini blushed.

“The main function of the armor is to defend against bow and arrow and light weapons. They were best to fight against the enemy’s cavalry. Even if our warriors lost their warhorses, with the armor, they could be strong infantrymen. A dozen pounds of armor, of course could not be considered as a heavy infantryman, but it will not affect their movement.”

“What is this thing?” Aini took up another blueprint, but he did not understand.

“Spearhead, it could be used as a dagger. The soldier would bring along a piece of fire glue. With suitable wooden pole, they could make a long spear within a minute.

“I know about that. I am asking about this one on the side.”

“This is a fire barrel.”

“What does it mean?”

“Element mages use magic powder to make a burning agent. Take the magic powder without dilution, then add in some sulphur and some magic beast bone powder. The power when it is lit up is strong, but it is hard to control so it could not be used to make metal. This is a double layer ceramic barrel and there is a magic array at the end, even a magic apprentice could activate it. The fire shot out would burn for at least a minute. Within the distance of five meters, there would be nothing left.”

“Five meters? That doesn’t seem to be suitable for war.”Aini mumbled. He knew that Saleen would not design things that were useless, but on the battlefield, the worst arrow could shoot for dozens of meters in distance. Some infantrymen even held spears that were more than seven meters long.

“This isn’t a wild war. The item is to put on the city wall. When the enemy charges forward, it would be a great fire. It’s a pity the powder isn’t stable and can’t be controlled. It would be great if we could control the explosion.”

Aini looked at the blueprint on the table and asked, “Did you design all of these?”

“Almost. I thought up most of them.”

“It’s a waste that you do not produce weapons. If the Clyde family had someone like you, the Williams family would be out of business,” Aini sighed.

Aini realized that the weapons that Saleen had designed had limitations, but they shared a similarity; they were all a low cost to produce. These weapons for the soldiers were meant to be mass produced. If the price was too high, the nobles could not afford them and would lose their business.

Looking at the blueprints scattered over the table, there could not be any less than thirty types of weapon. From as big as the combination type shield wall to as small as a drinking water tumbler, they were all made of cheap material. After they would go through the processing of magic, they immediately had a higher practicality value.

Aini was glad that most of the weapon would need assistance from Lex’s mages to make. The initial management of the material was the toughest, it was where the profit was the most minor. Even if Irene got the business, the income would not be too much. According to Irene’s character, she was probably still obsessed with hunting and the business was something she would be okay with or without.

Saleen promised to give the two of them a ship each, so even if Irene lost money, she would take the business deal.

Then, Aini suddenly asked, “Saleen, the ship that you promised to give us, it wouldn’t be newly design too, right?”

“Yeah, how did you know?” Saleen asked curiously.

“Nonsense, you just wanted us to test out the performance of the ship, right? What if something happen?”

“I’ll provide more lifeboats then.” Saleen answered patiently. He promised Aini and Irene that he would give them one ship each, but of course they would not be given for nothing. Firstly, the first harvest from the Oceanic Ice Block was Saleen’s. Second the two of them had to familiarize themselves with the function of the ship. Saleen was not any noble that did charity, why would he give out two expensive ships for free?

Back then, the pirate ships that Saleen took cost more than ten thousand gold coins. According to the design of the regular warship, those dozens of ten-thousands of gold coins worth of ships were only considered as a small amount.

“I don’t care about Irene’s. The ship that you give me, if it were to sink by accident, you will have to give me another one.”

“Of course!” Saleen agreed generously and added, “If something’s wrong with the ship, I will keep sending you more to try.”

“Saleen, your face must have solidified with some sort of Stone Skin spell.” Aini said helplessly. As long as Saleen’s ship did not harm anyone, he was not taking any losses. At the end of the day, he would have a decent ship.

Irene would not be considered to be taking losses either. The ship that Saleen give her had to be precisely made. At the very least, it would not sink immediately. Even if there was some problem, it would take a few trips to realize it. If the ship could take a trip to the Oceanic Ice Block and return safely, Irene already earned something.

Saleen did so to earn himself some experience. He did not have anyone around him that was professional in making ships so he had to recruit from outside. Those recruited would not know much and most of them needed to be nurtured. To make a ship maker do well, they required another three years time or more. Within the three years, they could not have nothing to do.

Saleen was a pure Sikeqinya at the end of the day. He had the talent of running a business in his bones. He did not need to calculate, but automatically knew how to do it.

“Aini, I am a mage. I can’t put in too much energy on this, but there is no one around me that could help me. Luckily designing these items would help me with understanding magic, otherwise, I would go crazy.” Ever since Saleen started building the city, he had stopped sleeping normally, but he recovered using mediation most of the time.

Meditation could not replace sleep entirely and all the mages understood that. Saleen felt that there was not enough time, especially after running into the Black Bishop from Holy See. He understood clearly that if he did not work hard, all the tough life he went through back then would be wasted as Holy See was ready to kick him into hell anytime.

To Saleen, money might not be important but capability was very important. To operate the city safely, he had to maintain a fleet in case the Holy See attacked from the sea. How much did it cost to maintain a fleet? Although Saleen was not sure, he knew that to maintain a warship would cost tens of thousands of gold coins in a year.

These were things that he had to do and had to think about. If he was still the magic apprentice that only thought of having smoked meat and some bread every meal as his life goal, he would not need to think much. Saleen was not the little beggar he was back then, his purpose of life was not only to fill his stomach anymore.

Aini did not know what to say, but he understood Saleen’s pressure. He could not help with these things. He had to practice magic himself and he knew how tight their schedule was. If he did not work hard, he might not be a sorcerer in his life. Not becoming a sorcerer, one’s lifespan would only be a hundred and twenty years at max. No matter where you were born, you would turn into dust and soil.

“Forget it, Aini. Let’s rest. Have a drink and chat for a while, what do you think?” Saleen put off the magic light on the rooftop and lit up the magic lamp on the table. In the huge room, only that place was lit up. In the dark corner, in the eye socket of eighty-seven skeletons, a red color soulflame was waving at a comfortable rhythm.

“Sure.” Aini took a seat again. He had lesser worries. He brought all his savings into the city and had feelings towards this city but the situation on the mainland was not beneficial for the development of the city. He reckoned that the expedition forces from the island nations in the eastern sea had conquered Lianyun city and the possibility of his investment failing was quite high.

The sea route was cut off and the land route was cut off. Aini did not know where hope lay and he did not know what would happen again the next day.