Chapter 464: Cracks (Part 2)

“Other than the Stone Statue Ghosts, what else is there?” This time around, the curious person was the female mage whom Saleen did not know the name of.

“Let me think.” Lex closed her eyes, sinking into deep thought. She possessed a swath of memory too, but in a mage’s memory, they could not pick out the corresponding information at will. Most of the time, they memorized the information using rote learning. When the information was required, they would have to organize it one more time.

The interaction between Lex and Bifano did not take place overnight. Naturally, she would be interested in the intelligence from Titan Duchy. Lex had used the Memory Spell to remember all news regarding the Stone Statue Castle. In deep thought, she finally recalled what else was in the castle.

Lex smiled, and said, “Saleen, there is an even larger castle underneath this castle. It sunk due to an earthquake. Other than an abundance of materials, the Stone Statue Castle also has a complete alchemy laboratory. A pity that there aren’t many powerful mages around, it got shut down in the end. It seems like even the earl controlling the castle doesn’t know about this set of treasures.”

Saleen’s eyes lit up, as he vaguely thought of something. Then he asked, “Could it be the alchemy mold?”

“How did you guess that?!” It was Lex’s turn to be astounded.

“Heh…” Saleen laughed mysteriously. The magic notes which he obtained was dated back even further. If the Stone Statue Castle was a new town, he would not have known much about it. The Stone Statue Castle had a longer history than the Titan Duchy though, so Saleen actually knew some relevant information about it.

The alchemy mold was good, but creating it was almost as difficult as trying to create a piece of godly equipment. Across all types of alchemy, one had to rely on handwork and a bit of refinement if they wanted to create complex items. Just like how Aini tapped on the tools to mass produce alchemical arrows. The end product would be defective, and its shelf life would also be shorter.

In order to create true magic equipment, a mage would have to complete it bit by bit. The ancient humans saved on that trouble by inventing the alchemy mold however. They could simply pour the magic materials into the mold and create large quantities of magic equipment, just like how metal ingots were produced.

Such an alchemy technique was dozens of times faster than relying on a mage to refine it. The number of mages required was also much less. Usually, the method of depletion was to use the magic nuclei in a magic array to power the alchemy mold. As long as one had magic nuclei along with a sufficient number of mages, they would be able to use the alchemy mold to craft magic equipment.

That being said, the equipment produced would pale in comparison to the ones which Saleen created using the Water Flame Alchemy. The price would be much lower. If the alchemy mold for producing armor could be obtained, Lex could even help all her swordsmen’s camps obtain magic armor.

“Why would no one pay attention to such things?” Saleen asked, puzzled.

The alchemy mold was highly prized in Qin. Alchemy City had one and Holy Rock City had one, but there were no more complete alchemy molds. The one in Holy Rock City was used to create armor. On the other hand, the one in Alchemy City seemed to be used for producing fundamental materials. Even so, Alchemy City had used their mold to craft a large number of magic warships. It is for refining puppets, and the materials must be similar to the Stone Statue Ghosts. Creatures summoned from other planes can’t be considered as death creatures yet.”

At this point in time, Saleen then realized that no one might recognize this piece of equipment anymore. Even if someone discovered it, they would regard it as an insignificant appliance. This item might be commonplace in the past, when humans could traverse the planes. Creatures which were low in value and did not need to be domesticated would be simply refined into puppets. If the ancient mages were asked to carry out such a refinement, they might not even have the patience.

Producing an alchemy mold to replace tedious handwork thus became a natural affair.

This item was tremendously useful for Saleen and Lex though. The mold could be used to refine the creatures in the interdimensional space into puppets. After refinement, these puppets would not need to consume meat anymore, they could survive solely on magic nuclei. More accurately, the ancient humans had created partial puppets.

Their offensive powers might not be higher than a pure puppet, but they could carry out very complex assignments.

They would be mightier than the death creatures as death creatures could be restrained by divine spells. A partial puppet was almost like a human, one had very balanced attributes. There were no particular spells nor Divine spells which could restrain them.

Only by getting this alchemy mold would the expedition by Saleen and Lex be worthwhile.

When the rain started to let up, Bifano then organized his troops and changed their equipment. Metal armor was removed and replaced by waterproof leather armor. The leather armor had been soaked in a special kind of lipid. Not only was it abnormally strong, it could not be set on fire either. As for the aspect of defensive power, leather armor would never match up to metal armor, unless it had been blessed with very powerful magic. When troops were marching to battle, convenience took top priority though.

Once metal armor was drenched in rainwater for a long time, it would require maintenance, which exhausted time and effort. Only some high level metal armor was totally waterproof, but it was ridiculously expensive. A set of metal armor which would not be affected by moisture could fetch at least five-hundred gold coins, but it still required maintenance and conservation. The advantage of leather armor was that there were various methods of tanning it, it was also hundreds of times easier blessing it as compared to metal armor.

Not only were the troops clad in leather armor, they also donned waterproof capes. All of them also wore caps. Other than that, some low ranking commanders equipped themselves with waterproof glasses. These glasses were produced by polishing abandoned crystals. Once worn, the vision would not be affected, they could also guard against water, wind, and sand. They were considered a more valuable piece of equipment.

It was impossible for the soldiers to stop marching just because of a torrential rain. The warhorses were fed medicine in order to prevent colds and rickets. Thereafter, the soldiers put on armor for the warhorses, as they prepared to carry on with the journey.

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That was the distinct difference between elite troops and normal troops. Elite troops possessed complete equipment, and had practical solutions in the face of unforeseen circumstances. Finally, the soldiers draped a blackish item on the surface of the wheels. That made the wheels larger, preventing them from sinking into the sloshy ground. This black substance was a type of gum, produced in small numbers. It was only produced in the southern seas of Cloudflow. Only in special situations would the troops bear to use such an item.

Before the rain could stop totally, Bifano’s team had continued on their journey.

Saleen had mosaicked a level-3 magic nucleus into one of the magic arrays onboard the magic war chariot. This caused the crystals located on the hollow part atop the windows on both sides of the chariot to look like they had melted, as the whole window became transparent. This transparency was one-sided, it was impossible to look into the chariot from outside.

Lex’s swordmasters stood on both sides of the chariot, while Wild Bear had boarded the other magic war chariot. Even though he was unrefined, he was extremely respectful of mages. He would never act in a manner which would displease a mage. As a result, all the mages serving Lex were very fond of the guy who had absolutely zero talent in magic.

The worst was Jola. He was following closely behind the magic war chariot which Saleen was in, his magic armor filled with water droplets.

In the evening, the convoy was approaching the next town already. Be that as it may, the soldiers did not let down their guard. They maintained their strict formation. The clouds were less thick, there was even a hint of sunlight shining onto the ground. As the crimson sunlight shone across the land, reflecting on the puddles of water, a mesmerizing glow was produced.

The soldiers were also fatigued. Seeing that the town was just up ahead, they sped up unknowingly. As the wooden huts catered for traveling guests came into view, a shrill magic alarm suddenly sounded.

The scouts actually did not discover the presence of the enemy, it was revealed by the magic alarm.

A dense rain of arrows descended from the sky, it was not known how many arrows were fired at the approaching convoy. Bifano snorted unfeelingly through his nose, he was too lazy to give any orders.

This was a blatant act of harassment. Their current location was less than twenty miles from the town, it was impossible for the enemy to attack now. The town up ahead was licensed to contain an emblem group’s worth of cavalrymen since this place was proximal to Titan’s borders. Such militarized towns were commonplace hundreds of miles from the Princess’ Castle.

Bifano’s trusted soldiers did not let him down either. When the sound of arrows piercing through the air first sounded, the soldiers had already set up their shields, protecting their bodies. The water vapor in the air was so thick it could almost condense onto one’s skin. In such weather, any other kind of crossbow would be adversely affected, with the exception of the alchemical crossbow.

The enemy was smart knowing the soldiers in leather armor were more susceptible to an attack by arrows. Bifano’s troops carried shields with large surface areas and were wrapped in glittery metal though, so they could not be penetrated by any arrows.

As the razor-sharp arrows descended on the shields, the clanging of metals filled the air, and the arrows fell to the ground lifelessly.

The arrows had originated from a hill on the left, with a height of about one-hundred meters. All of a sudden, a team with only forty men branched out from the group of soldiers. This team rode on horseback towards the hill.

The mountains in Titan were mostly mounds, very gentle and not arduous. These forty men were not cavalrymen. The moment they reached the peak of the mound, they immediately abandoned their warhorses and shields. Drawing their longswords, they leaped off their warhorses and charged towards the location the archers were hiding in.

Another two groups of forty cavalrymen went around the hill, with the intention of cutting off the enemy’s escape route.

In the chariot, Lex told Saleen, “Do you see this? These are real soldiers.”

Saleen thought to himself, “If I am wealthy, I will never cultivate such an army. I will simply command my soldiers to use a magic cannon to bombard the peak, or I will get a grand mage to set the hill ablaze. No matter what traps the enemy has, they will be destroyed, why go to so much trouble.”

As if to humor Saleen’s thoughts, a blistering explosion occurred abruptly on the peak. The flames became widespread, countless of rocks flew into the air and spewed in all directions.

Horrifying screams spread for more than a mile, and Bifano’s expression changed abruptly. The enemy did not fire a second wave of arrows, it seemed like a batch of contraptions had been installed, and it was detonated on contact. The peak did not have many enemies, there was only a large magic trap.

The commander of the pink army was a ruthless mage.

Out of the forty soldiers who charged uphill, half of them were obliterated in that instant, while the remaining eighteen men were supporting their injured comrades. They had abandoned their weapons as they escaped from the hill. Some magic traps were sequential, so none of them dared linger atop the hill for more than a minute.

“The pink army was trying to rile Bifano,” Saleen said plainly. Saleen might not have any talent in warring techniques, but his understanding of other people was not inferior to anyone else. In such a small battle, Saleen had an even keener intuition.

Setting a perfect large scale magic trap was pretty expensive, but it would not actually create many fatalities. This was just the first harassment, and if Bifano continued getting tricked, he would get extremely jumpy. When that happened, the real offensive would then be unleashed.