Badge in Azure

“Give me the schematics!”, the water puppet threw out a demand all of a sudden. Tam’enm dug out the power room’s schematics from their bangle without giving it a thought and handed it to the water puppet.

The water puppet smirked and threw the schematics to the Mechanical Soul. It had finished repairing the damages it suffered, and opened its mouth to swallow the schematics. The schematics were unraveled once they were inside Mechanical Soul’s stomach. Its soul flame went on to cover the schematics, copied the item and stored it deep within its soul flame.

“So the warship’s greatest assembly of mechanical systems are placed right beneath the flooring here then, with the power coming from the core, the magic power furnace.” The Mechanical Soul finished analyzing the schematics in a second and was elated. It would have been able to fuse with the great mechanical assembly right beneath them, giving it control of the entire ship.

Since Saleen did say that it was not to leave the ship without his orders, it would be best for it to simply make the warship its home then. Such a huge assembly of mechanical systems would be able to enhance it to terrifying levels, which would mean…

Darn it! It hardly mattered how powerful it would have gotten! The exterior of that broken jade deep within its soul flame had a flash of electricity jumping, reminding the Mechanical Soul that it belonged to Saleen forever as his slave.

“Alright, speak. How can a grand duke have more than a dozen sorcerers under his control?”, the water puppet continued pursuing its original question after asking for the schematics.

“Sir…,” Tam’enm gave a bitter smile and spoke, “Cloudflow is different from Qin. The lands under control of the royal family are not all that vast. The nobles along the seaside control a great number of islands at the southern seas. Some islands are even the size of ten-thousand square miles. The power of the three grand dukes combined is enough to rival that of the royal family.”

“Nonsense. Why haven’t these grand dukes rebelled then?”

“Why would they need to do so? They control everything going on at sea. The royal family hardly has twenty percent of the naval trade profits. If they were to rebel and became emperor, their bases would have to be moved to Misty City, which would diminish their control of the seas. Worse still, their islands might end up being taken by other nobles.”

Saleen was at a loss for words at the moment. While he did have some understanding of Cloudflow’s internal affairs, he never would have thought that the royal family had so little control over the nobles. If things were really such, then the plan to invade Cloudflow was to be delayed. The strength of regional nobles had gotten too large, resulting in Cloudflow’s invasion of other states being diminished, as very few nobles would sincerely backed the royal family. If external threats were to knock at their doors, the invaders would be required to deal with adamant resistance from the regional nobles.

“Islands with an area of over ten thousand miles wide, eh? Such places are even bigger than Lex’s Bitterwater prefecture. No wonder they have so many sorcerers to spare. The ones killed by the water puppet were all grade-7 newbies. These people have probably advanced after power across the entire plane was raised, making them a bunch of weaklings at battle. These sorcerers were probably grade-6, or even grade-5, grand mages just three years prior.

“Tell me then, how powerful is Grand Duke Iron Blood?”, seeing how Saleen did not press on with questioning, the water puppet continued without giving Tam’enm pause or time to think, asking the most direct questions.

“Grand Duke Iron Blood has control over one-hundred islands, and about two-thousand square miles of estate near the sea. More than half of these islands have had no royal documents from the Cloudflow Empire left on them, meaning that these are all the grand duke’s personal islands. Even if Cloudflow Empire was to fall, it would have had little effect on him.”

“What I meant was, how many mages does Grand Duke Iron Blood have serving him? What is the size of the population of his lands?”

“The grand duke has about one-thousand mages serving him. It felt weird as of late though. A good bunch of grand mages advanced into the ranks of sorcerers. I’m not quite sure what the grades of the mages serving him are. The people living on his lands are of a population of about twenty-eight-million, according to official records. If you were to count the ones living on the islands, there would probably be even more. From what I heard, the revenue gained from taxes on the islands is more than six times than that collected on land.”

“More than one-thousand mages!”

Saleen was shocked at hearing such numbers, as Cloudflow was not known for having a lot of them. The number of mages serving under the grand duke almost rivaled that of Bitterwater prefecture. About seventy percent of the over one-thousand mages would have been white-robed ones, twenty percent gray-robed ones, and about ten percent being sorcerers.

“That is to say that there are about one-hundred sorcerers serving under Grand Duke Iron Blood!”

That amount of power had greatly exceeded Saleen’s imagination.

It seemed that humans across the entire plane were advancing. With that said, the population of the grand duke’s territory would definitely have neared one-hundred-million. There would not have been so many mages around otherwise!

“What did you say about Dragon Island again?”

“Grand Duke Iron Blood found ruins of ancient dynasties and discovered methods of keeping giant dragons. Dragon Island is an island specifically made for keeping dragons. This Ancient warship was also found in the ruins. The ancient warriors within have all lost consciousness. There were only eight of the ancient warriors in the entire ship that we were able to control.”

“Eight!” Saleen figured in his mind that that meant there were still three other active warriors lurking in the warship, under someone’s control. They would surly attack his people anytime. That would prove troublesome.

Saleen also recalled the time when he first went to Alchemy City, encountering an injured Tiago dragon along the way. The dragon was obviously injured by a powerful one. It was also very possible that the Tiago dragon escaped from Dragon Island.

“Grand Duke Iron Blood is capable of keeping dragons then. Such powers are indeed terrifying!”

More than a dozen drills scurried out of the Mechanical Soul’s stomach, intending to drill into the flooring beneath, but its strong spirit metal drills were all rendered half a foot shorter from the drilling, and yet no holes appeared.

The Mechanical Soul then crawled near the magic power furnace, weighing the possibility of eating the gigantic device. The elemental fires burned fiercely still in the furnace, and it triggered the Mechanical Soul’s sense of danger. If it was to devour that thing, it would have ended up being assimilated instead.

“Where is this Dragon Island? How big is it?”

“Twelve-thousand miles away from the Peninsular of Blue Mountain. Ten-thousand and six-hundred miles long, four-thousand miles wide. The island is filled with mountain ranges, which are habitable for humans, about one-third of it by the way,” Tam’enm answered in a precise manner.

“Is that where the ruins of the first dynasty lay?”

“Yes, the grand duke had been managing Dragon Island for four generations, and nurturing personal mages on the island. His true capabilities are well beyond what the royal family is able to control.”

“Tell me, Tam’enm. Who is in control of this Ancient warship?”, the water puppet jumped about with its questions. Tam’enm was unable to lie even if they wanted to.

“That would be Master Symoraikar, a grade-9 sorcerer.”

“How many grade-9 sorcerers are there on this warship?”

“Just him.”

“Fine then,” the water puppet smiled. The grade-9 sorcerer that it wiped out was the commander of the ship, and the only grade-9 sorcerer on the ship.

That was hardly surprising, as there were eight grade-9 ancient warriors under control on the warship. That meant there were nine grade-9 professionals holding the place down. If they had not encountered Nailisi, the damage potential of the ancient warriors would have surpassed that of a grade-9 sorcerer. Their defense capabilities were also terrifying. Even with grade-9 spells blasting about, only a few pieces of the plates on the tainted blood armor were damaged.

“Tam’enm, do you intend to surrender to us, or prove your loyalty to Grand Duke Iron Blood?”

“Sir, I have just advanced into the rank of sorcerers. I have not signed contracts with the grand duke. I can surrender!”, Tam’enm pounded their chest saying so, as if they were doing something righteous and noble.

“Cloudflow people…” Saleen was exasperated, thinking what use he could have had for Tam’enm if he took the fellow in. If he had not sign a contract with them, they would be able to betray him anytime. If he was to sign a contract with them, he would have wasted one contract slot by keeping a useless weakling. What would have his other followers thought of him then? “No matter. I will just have him under my thumb doing so, until I am done researching an absolute way to control such rules.”

“If you are able to surrender, come with me then,” the water puppet said, and made its way for the metal corridor. It was being shrouded by a cloud of mist, before flying upwards for the deck.

Tam’enm hesitated for a bit before picking up their staff and following. The Mechanical Soul locked its gaze on the grade-7 sorcerer from behind, waiting for the sorcerer to sneak up on the water puppet. Tam’enm was simply too cowardly to be capable of such feat. They had chosen to truly submit, not pulling any tricks at the water puppet when its back was turned.

“Soldier, Cloudflow armies are weak, but their navy forces are too powerful. This Ancient warship obviously has yet to be under complete control. If the Cloudflow people actually control this ship, we have no choice but to run,” Saleen said to the winged skeleton.

“Master, there is no way for the Cloudflow people to control an equipment of such level, given their limited capabilities. Even Alchemy City would not be able to do so.”

“We have underestimated the Cloudflow people. Alchemy City has not blocked off the sea route and the Cloudflow armada made it here. Soldier, looks like you will have to stay at the sea to protect the route for a long time.”

Saleen was simply telling the truth. Grand Duke Iron Blood would not just sit by having just lost the Ancient warship. If he actually had equipment from the first dynasty at his disposal, and something like the Ancient warship deployed, the trade routes established by his Metatrin City would see the last of their days soon. A warship of such a class was something even the weapons on the pan’s turtle alchemical boat would be able to do little about it.

“Genga would make good use of this ship, master,” the winged skeleton opened his mouth and smiled. As his powers rose, he had lost all interests in naval operations. Being able to fight alongside Saleen became its top priority.

Eleanor listened to their conversation in silence, and then spoke all of a sudden, “Weren’t the top floors of the warship modified? The strength of the metal was so pathetic that even the Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel was even to break through it without problems. The Cloudflow people had yet to master the techniques of the first dynasty then. So my liege, there is no need to worry. If the Cloudflow people had actually mastered such techniques, they would have been able to crush Alchemy City with this warship alone.”

“I know. The original deck of the Ancient was probably something that would have been able to withstand attacks from grade-10 magic. I feel rather heartbroken that they just took it apart. I wonder what they are going to do with it.”

Eleanor was rendered speechless. Saleen was actually feeling unsatisfied with a war trophy like that.

“Eleanor, I’m just kidding. What I’m wondering now is if we can actually have complete control over this warship. Failing to do so will mean that it will be taken from us just like how we took it from the Cloudflow people. If that is the case, it would be best to just take the whole warship apart.”

“Alright, my liege. Your thoughts are just too wise for someone like me to comprehend…”, Eleanor told a joke from Cloudflow, but making Saleen the butt of the joke instead. It was clear nonetheless that the elf understood what Saleen meant with his words.

What the Ancient warship would have brought the denizens of Metatrin was more than only wealth; it would bring them a crisis as well. Saleen felt a weight on his shoulders with the prize, so he joked around to relax, just so that he would not be affected by such emotions, enabling him to make plans with all his might to deal with any revenge from Cloudflow.