Badge in Azure

Chapter 663: The allure of a quota (Part 2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Saleen gazed at the smiling faces in front of him. Other than Aini and Guya, the rest of the nobles were extremely satisfied with Saleen’s terms. The entrapping plan was a success. What did a noble desire? A status which was in line with their ability.

Since Aini and Guya were mages, they knew what Saleen was trying to do. Their ideals were unlike the other nobles, they were not repulsed by Saleen’s plan. Aini and Saleen were close friends and Saleen enjoyed a cordial relationship with Aini’s parents. On the other hand, Guya’s sister was a valuable asset Saleen wanted to groom. In the future her accomplishments might not be inferior to Guya’s. Saleen valued these two people the most.

They all understood that Saleen was actually in control of everything by having the mages under his control.

Without Saleen’s mages, these nobles were nothing. Given sufficient materials, a mage would not even need to spend a single gold coin. A high grade mage could create food and water, they did not even need to spend money on their meals.

In level-10 magic, there was a very common spell which was learned by almost every grade-9 mage, it was called the Essence of the Elements. It created a paste-like substance. Other than treatment, the largest function of this substance was to allow a mage to maintain their physical strength even if they did not consume any food for months. One serving of the Essence of the Elements could be split into four standard sizes. Creating one set would allow a mage to survive for more than a year. In this period a mage only needed to train, they would not need to do anything else.

That was why a mage would almost surpass the human category once they attained grade-10. The toughness of their body would begin to change. By consuming the Essence of the Element in the long run, a mage’s body could be as tough as some high grade magic beasts.

At this stage, a mage no longer required the supplies normal people needed.

Humans could not do without mages. Without mages, humans would not be able to establish colossal cities, carry out large scale agriculture, or stop the spread of epidemics. Without mages, human cities would be destroyed by powerful magic beasts. If creatures from foreign planes descended on this plane, many creatures here would be exterminated.

Saleen had distributed the wealth, but these people would not get any mages.

Regarding the hunting trips in the Frozen Sea, Saleen conservatively estimated that an annual investment of one-million gold coins would be sufficient. As for the rewards, he planned to hunt two-hundred-thousand red krill. This number of red krill could only sustain the lives of several gigantic grade-9 magic beasts, it would not affect the balance of the Frozen Sea by a large magnitude.

If Saleen took risks, he could increase the hunting numbers by several times.

If Saleen sold the magic nuclei acquired from the two-hundred-thousand red krill at a price of one-hundred gold coins per piece he could gain twenty-million gold coins annually. Even though it was not as much as what Holy Rock City got, Saleen did not have as much land, he could only rely on hunting.

Twenty-million gold coins would be sufficient for Saleen to groom an army with one-million soldiers.

Originally, Saleen had trouble selling these magic nuclei. Now that the nobles were sharing his burden by selling eighty percent of the magic nuclei, Saleen only needed to sit back and receive profits only.

Saleen had prepared a detailed set of distribution rules long ago. Since the nobles did not have any objections, he could thus discuss the details with Daniel.

Daniel was also very jubilant. Originally, the Holy See was going after death mages, but Daniel was no longer the top priority of the Holy See anymore. At least before Nicholas got killed, the Holy See would not have the mood to kill any death mages.

Saleen did not leave, he began chatting with the people around him softly. Such interaction was necessary, especially with the twelve earls. Saleen could visit the four dukes anytime, but the rest of the nobles could only communicate with Daniel first.

Using the shortest amount of time Saleen had understood the scarcity faced by the nobles. The nobles had recouped their investments from selling the magic nuclei last year, they were not short of gold coins. Saleen’s ration supply was also very stable, but the nobles lacked a source of goods. Of course, they were more in need of land. At the moment, they still had to take care of their own farmers.

After interacting with the nobles Saleen felt that it was too late to grow grain, but the city could still grow vegetables. After the vegetable seeds got processed by the magic disciples, they could be harvested within a month. Saleen agreed to purchase all the vegetables and provide processing for the seeds because of that. That way, the nobles would not be taking care of the farmers in vain already.

Since Saleen had given out so many benefits the nobles also had to reciprocate. Saleen did not open many shops in Metatrin City, but he had to open some in the small towns along the commercial route and the cities outside Metatrin. The nobles provided manpower to help Saleen cultivate businessmen, while Saleen provided magic disciples to help the nobles.

After one round of meeting, everyone was very pleased. At this moment, some soldiers entered to report that some skeletal warships were returning.

Saleen then left the meeting hall and went to the harbor. The skeletal warships had sailed at the command of the winged skeleton, but these skeletal warships were commanded by the jade skeletons. They were short of human professionals. they did not dare sail to the Frozen Sea. The skeletal warships’ mission was to hunt in the nearby seas and conduct patrols.

Two skeletal warships returned, they had hunted a huge quantity of low grade magic beasts.

It was difficult to estimate the number of magic beasts in the ocean, especially the low grade magic beasts. Even the smallest group contained millions of them. The lower their grade, the greater their numbers. These low grade magic beasts provided abundant food for the powerful magic beasts at sea, they were also the best hunting targets for Saleen.

This time around, the two skeletal warships had run into pikes, a type of low grade magic beast. Pikes had differing grades, the lowest at grade-1 while the highest was at grade-3. Adult pikes were all at grade-2.

The two skeletal warships did not carry any spatial equipment, but each of them still captured about forty-thousand to fifty-thousand pikes. A pike was not huge, so the storeroom could contain them. The jade skeletons onboard were intelligent spirits between grade-5 and grade-6. Under the winged skeleton’s upbringing, they could advance continuously. If a spirit’s promotion relied solely on natural progress the speed of promotion would be extremely slow though.

Pikes were creatures with magic nuclei, their skin was very tough and they swam at high speeds. They had fallen into a trap set by the two skeletal warships. The skin of almost one-hundred-thousand pikes, excluding their magic nuclei, could be used to manufacture many pairs of boots.

Saleen’s army was located in the north, their boots needed to shield against the cold and be waterproof. Since the pikes lived in frigid waters, their skin was the best material for insulation. Even though it was a little wasteful, Saleen had not planned to use these materials for other uses.

Saleen kept the low level magic nuclei for himself, he did not plan to market them. The market for low level magic nuclei was larger, but the profits were small. The profits of the nobles would also reach a plateau, it was not very meaningful to transport these magic nuclei to other places.

Gazing at the busy silhouettes working in the port, Saleen sighed in his heart. “Now I have another route of obtaining magic nuclei. Sooner or later the price of magic nuclei in the Qin Empire will be lowered slightly. Since the quantity of magic nuclei will be kept steady, many mages will increase their training tempo. Alchemy City will release twenty percent of the magic nuclei every year because they are afraid that the number of mages on the mainland will reduce drastically.”

Saleen had not thought about increasing the hunting numbers. Firstly, he was not clear about the threshold for overhunting. If he killed too many intermediate grade magic beasts, the population of the sea magic beasts could not be recovered easily. He had to figure this problem out gradually. A huge number of land magic beasts had gone extinct because of overhunting by humans, Saleen did not want this to happen to the ocean too. If that happened, mages would find it challenging to survive in the future.

The port had warehouses, but these magic nuclei could not be stored inside them. Daniel was discussing matters with the nobles, while Nailisi was overseeing the activities on behalf of Saleen.

Nailisi ordered two demons to lead some spirits and Caucasus troops to transport the unprocessed pikes to the underground cold storage first. At that place, the hunted creatures would be further processed. Their magic nuclei would get extracted while their skins would be carefully removed. The teeth and bones of many magic beasts were useful, it was the same case for these pikes as well.

In the future, the arrowheads of Saleen’s main forces would be reliant on these magic beasts. Of course, it was more durable to use metals, but it was very tedious for mages to process metals. In comparison, the cost of production would be lower if bones were used. The effect of refining a magic beast’s bones was much easier than using magic to refine steel.

Most of the holy masters and heavy infantrymen from the expeditionary army were killed by the alchemical arrowheads.

Jade skeletons from both vessels came to visit Saleen, he had chosen to meet them in a fortress. When the jade skeletons bowed at Saleen, Saleen realized that the two spirits possessed a high level of intelligence. These summoned creatures would not just listen and obey orders, they were like the winged skeleton, they could act on their own initiative.

“My Lord, Sir Soldier has gone to the Frozen Sea alone, he asked us to transport these goods back. There are some hunted creatures here as well, please inspect them.” The two jade skeletons handed over their spatial equipment.

“You can use this thing too?”

“Yes, but the space inside isn’t very big, only important items are stored inside,” the jade skeletons replied.

“What else did Soldier say?”

“Sir asked us to look out for pirates. After returning, we are to travel south to protect our ships. Sir wishes to tell the Lord that he will not venture too deep into the Frozen Sea, he will return in about two and a half months’ time.”

Saleen looked at the skeletons’ bodies, they were only clad in normal bone armor. Saleen then asked, “Why is your equipment so lousy?”

“Sir Soldier doesn’t have the time to craft new armor. Speaking of this matter, we still have to ask the Lord to help us.”

Saleen pondered, “Indeed, the winged skeleton’s death alchemy skills are pretty good, but they consume too much time. I can use my Water Flame Alchemy to help him resolve this issue quickly.”

“How many of you are present at the moment?” Saleen was enquiring about the number of jade skeletons.

“There almost one-hundred of us already. Sir Soldier will not create too many, he said one-hundred is the limit.”

“Mm, you two can go do your work first. Later on, I will craft one-hundred sets of armor which will be suitable for you. If you have any special needs, tell me now.”

“My Lord, as spirits, we are most afraid of drawing power from the death plane. It will be good if the armor contains Green Spirit rocks. If it is not available, obsidian rocks will be acceptable too.”

“What about your weapons?”

“My Lord, we are skeletons, we can wield whatever the humans wield. It would be best not to use any metal materials, as we can use magic too.”

Saleen cackled, “The tone of this skeleton is no different from that of a human. When making requests, it feels perturbed as well.”

Be that as it may, the jade skeletons had delivered a piece of good news, they could use magic, which meant that the winged skeleton could create one-hundred intermediate grade mages for Saleen and these mages would also possess good melee abilities.

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