Chapter 620
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Saleen's pan's turtle alchemical boat turned north after traveling one-thousand miles from shore . As expected, they did not encounter any trouble . Fellet and Lanny spent most of their time talking to Saleen . Saleen concluded that he was still too naïve .
In the beginning, he had considered Aini to be analytical, but compared to his parents he was still very innocent .
In the blink of an eye, it was already December and Saleen's pan's turtle alchemical boat had returned to the northern seas . The alchemical boat traveled underwater for one-thousand miles when bypassing Lianyun City to avoid alarming the Lianyun City combat vessels .
Saleen had much to gain from talking to the Fellets so he did not mind the slight delay to the schedule from traveling underwater .
Saleen felt relaxed on the boat and could feel his magic chords growing . Unfortunately, they were not transforming yet and were still very far away from advancing into a sorcerer . Even so, the magic chords he currently possessed were twice as much as most mages of the same grade .
On this day, the pan's turtle alchemical boat stopped by the shore . They were now at the natural port that was seven-hundred miles south of Metatrin City . Some time ago Saleen came to know that there was a mine there that could produce magic crystallites . He did not have enough manpower so he never began mining there and only instructed the dragon skeleton combat vessel to patrol this area once in a while .
This time around, construction had begun at this natural port .
This location was seven-hundred miles away from Metatrin City and the waters would only freeze in December . Only the dragon skeleton combat vessel could go ashore . The pan's turtle alchemical boat was sighted when they were fifty miles away .
The dragon skeleton combat vessel released two small boats which approached the pan's turtle alchemical boat . Once they saw the boat, they turned around and returned .
Saleen frowned when he realized that the security was lax . The winged skeleton then said, "Master, the combat vessels already have a way of recognizing each other . When I was creating the pan's turtle alchemical boat in Metatrin City, I had also created a few small tug boats for transportation of goods . They can recognize us . "
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"Let's take a look ashore . Uncle Fellet, please come along . " Saleen knew that he did not spend a lot of time in Metatrin City so what the winged skeleton and the rest had managed to accomplish was actually impressive . In his plans, Saleen had intended for the port to follow a military port, so regardless if the incoming boat was familiar or not, it should still be thoroughly inspected before being allowed to enter .
Saleen walked onto the deck with the Fellets . Narnia stayed below . She was involved in the designing of this port and was not interested to see it again .
When the alchemical boat entered the port, it was empty except for a few small boats . The security on shore was much better . Saleen's elemental eye could see more than twenty magic stone artilleries . On a cliff that was a distance away, countless darkrooms were chiselled into it to set up alchemy crossbows .
The port was not intricately designed, but there were two castles built on both sides of the port that were more than twenty miles apart . They were chiselled out from two mountains .
Saleen calculated that each castle could contain up to ten-thousand men . On top of each castle was an unfinished magic tower . Under normal circumstances, such castles could contain two-thousand soldiers . Since these castles were meant to protect the port and had strong military implications on the city behind them, they could contain more than five-thousand soldiers each instead .
The remaining vacancies could be filled by craftsmen, mages, servants, and auxiliary soldiers .
"The Lord has returned! The Lord has returned!" The men that were working on the pier began to clamor and the winged skeleton unrolled the flag on the boat .
"My Lord, you are back early!" Gurney brought some men over as Saleen's boat approached the shore .
"Hmm? Why are you here?" Saleen was confused to see Gurney there .
"Lord Daniel said that this is an important site that should be heavily protected for the time-being, so he sent me to here to monitor," Gurney said excitedly . Daniel had begun to trust him, this meant that he was beginning to enter Saleen's inner circle .
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"How is the construction of the city coming along?"
"Those three old fellows have yet to come . We have been using slaves so it has been slow . It will have to wait until summer next year before the new city can house people . " Gurney was talking about the Three Kings . No one could command them around since Saleen and Aini had left so they only focussed on training in Metatrin City . Without the help of the Three Kings, very few spirits of the dead could be produced and utilized .
"How dare they not take their job seriously? Hmm…" Saleen thought to himself, "Once I advance into a sorcerer, I will not have to fear those three fellows anymore . For now, I shall put up with them first . "
Gurney brought Saleen and the rest more than ten miles towards the west before they could see the new city . This city was situated in a strategic location as its city walls could be built to join together a valley that was two miles wide and a fortress could be constructed once the mountains on both sides had been slightly adjusted . The geographical location meant that armies could only attack from the sea . The other regions were mountainous so there was no other way in or out .
If not for this, Saleen would not have chosen to venture seven-hundred miles to build Metatrin City at its current location . In terms of defense and security, this location was one-hundred times better than Metatrin City .
"Why are the docks not constructed yet?" Saleen's elemental eye could clearly see the entire port and one-hundred square yards of empty space . He did not see any underwater docks, but for some unknown reason, a deepwater port had been roughly chiselled out .
"My Lord, we are focusing on building the shipyard first . At the moment, we don't have enough sailors to build fleets yet," Gurney replied .
Saleen knew that this port's main purpose was to build shipyards and factories to refine magic crystallites and not for transaction of goods . The construction progress was simply too slow . Had they not bought enough slaves? Those slaves from Eastern Sea should be fully utilized . This place was so cold and isolated that it seemed like there was no sense of urgency .
"My Lord, there is no hurry here . "
"How can there not be any hurry…," Saleen sighed and stomped his foot . He could not expand his territories on land for now, he had to resort to building a city in this wilderness . On the sea, if he could find the route to reach the Island of Eastern Nations, he would need a fleet of combat vessels immediately . There were a number of islands in the northern sea . He would need more than one-hundred boats in order to conquer them all .
These islands also acted as the supply points from the southern seas to Metatrin City . They were not worth much when Metatrin City had not been constructed . Now that the city was prosperous, many merchant boats would head north every summer . Alchemy City would surely take note of this .
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If Alchemy City or Lianyun City invaded these islands, it was equivalent to closing off the sea route . If they chose to collect taxes, then Saleen's business would suffer severely .
The roads leading to Metatrin City were too far . Phoenix alone was two-thousand miles away . Only the sea route was the quickest way to link them to Qin's businesses . If the sea route was controlled by others, it would be difficult for Metatrin City to become a business hub .
Lianyun City once deployed combat vessels to harass Metatrin City, but were destroyed by dragon remains combat vessel . The people of Lianyun City might not have given up yet . Saleen only possessed one dragon skeleton combat vessel and two Sregl Island combat vessels to guard Metatrin City . He could not even use these vessels to attack, much less defend more than one-hundred islands .
At the end of the day, Daniel was not wise enough to understand the importance of the sea . He chose to devote every energy and resources into building Metatrin City and spared very little for this new city . Luckily, Saleen chose to take a look or he would still be unaware of what was going on here .
Saleen was not in the mood to continue further . He said to Gurney, "You have a lot of free time here . I will send someone else to oversee the construction of the city . Use the time to practice your swordsmanship . You will never amount to anything if you don't become a grand swordmaster . You are not young anymore . "
Saleen was barely twenty years old himself, but sounded like an old person when reprimanding Gurney . Gurney nodded and said, "My Lord, indeed I am not suitable for such matters . It was just that you were not around and Lord Daniel did not dare to hand this task over to anyone else . "
Gurney was grateful . He was already close to forty years old, but was still a swordmaster and not a zun grand swordmaster . He was not talented so he would only have a chance if he worked hard and Saleen gave him a good teacher .
"I will send someone over in two or three days then you will return to Metatrin City . Hmm, since constructions have just started here, put a stop to it first . Pass me the diagrams . I will bring it back and redesign it again," Saleen instructed . Fellet was watching from the side and began to laugh .
"Uncle Fellet, what are you laughing about?"
"Saleen, you are too hasty . If you want to accomplish big things, you need to rely on more people and not always be so skeptical of others . "
"Uncle you are right . " Saleen thought, "Looks like I have to look for the Earl that Joey recommended . An Early can definitely govern a city . Since Joey said that Earl could be trusted, then… then I shall use him . "
Once onboard, Saleen was dispirited . His mind rang with the winged skeleton's voice, "Master, I can take my time regarding the combat vessels . It is not a must for bone combat vessels to be operated by spirits of the dead . Their structure will be the same as a magic combat vessel . We can use magic stone artilleries for weapons so I have reserved a fort . If we ignore the portion of spirits of the dead operating the vessel, I can create a batch very quickly . "
"What about the sailors?" Saleen asked gloomily .
"Master, it will be difficult to recruit suitable ones even if you had the time . Let's groom the sailors on our own . Didn't we buy many Eastern Sea slaves? Let me take charge . They will be obedient . "
"I guess this is the only way," Saleen thought . Even if he managed to hire any sailors, they could not be deployed on the combat vessel . Lex would not be able to help either . Bitter Water Prefecture was in the inner mainlands and there were no rivers, they had no need for sailors .
The pan's turtle alchemical boat took six hours to travel over seven-hundred miles . The shore has already frozen so the pan's turtle alchemical boat went underwater . Saleen saw that under the crescent-shaped peninsula was an underwater fortress . Countless spirits of the dead were patrolling very tightly underwater .
When the pan's turtle alchemical boat passed through, the spirits of the dead followed . The winged skeleton laughed and said, "Master, haven't I guarded this port well for you?"
"These are spirits of the dead?"
"Master, these spirits of the dead were created by me and not summoned from the death dimension . "
"You can create spirits of the dead?" Saleen was shocked . Only grade-9 death mages could create spirits of the dead . The winged skeleton was only grade-7, but could create spirits of the dead . Clearly, he was different from the norm .
Spirits of the dead that were created were easier to use than those that had been summoned . Their only weakness was that once they had been killed, their soul flame would be lost and it would be difficult to revive them .