novelTreasure All Over (2)
| ← Ch.0370 | Ch.0372 → |
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The magic beast known as gold coins had low offensive capabilities and low intelligence. Banchajanna knocked their backs, stored them into the dimension stone, then returned to the ship. Saleen nodded and felt reinvigorated for their hunting trip.
Even if they were unable to hunt down any major magic beasts, catching the red phosphorous prawns alone would be enough to regain their expenditures. In the past, Irene had only come here once a year, and each visit had brought her gains of more than one hundred thousand gold coins. Despite that, it was not as great of a business as it seemed once the cost was taken into consideration.
The cost of a ship which could withstand drifting ice was close to that of a warship. With such a large ship, a large number of seamen were required, as well as a few mage apprentices in order to steer it. When they were hunting, they had to patiently avoid powerful magic beasts and put in a large amount of magic medicine. Not every red phosphorous prawn would have a good-quality magic nucleus.
After deducting the cost, the net income would probably be only about ten thousand gold coins. Such yearly income was considered well-off for a ship. However, it could not be forgotten that the pensions would be a great expenditure if anything bad were to happen. Previously, about three-quarters of the people on Irene's ship had not returned, and as a result, she had needed to pay an immense amount to the family members of those people.
Irene could deny that such pensions had ever existed, but if she did, no one would dare to sail with her, let alone swordsmen and mages.
Unlike her, all of Saleen's costs were on his ship. The magic nuclei consumed by the pan's turtle alchemical boat were not any less than a large vessel which was more than one hundred meters long. That aside, he only needed to send out Banchajanna in order to hunt the red phosphorous prawns.
However, if he were to expand the scale of their hunting ventures, this alchemy ship could not be used often and Banchajanna would need to stay in the city to protect them from enemy attacks. Saleen would not risk losing his nest on an expedition out.
When other people discovered this sea route, Saleen would also have to invest in warships to protect the route. Then, his costs would naturally rise.
"Where were we earlier?"
"I told you, you shouldn't obsess over daggers. Those beasts are useless aside from their teeth, " Irene replied, returning to her usual self. Thse one hundred magic beasts which they had caught earlier could be made into eight shields each. The shields could be made into magic equipment which could defend against attacks from mages.
Magic attacks were unpredictable. But regarding long range attacks, most of the time, they would be based off of fireballs, especially during times of war when both parties were far away from each other. Control magic required closer distances and the variety was much more controlled. These shields would not help cavalry much, but would be practical for heavy infantrymen.
The attacks of heavy infantrymen were on par with those of cavalry. Their only downfall was their slow speed, as they could easily be attacked with magic which covered large areas. With these shields, the heavy infantrymen could gather together with no worries, either to defend against enemy cavalry or to attack fortifications like a tight fist.
Saleen did not think the same way. He wanted to gather enough materials for Sika's magic armor. Caucasus warriors with priest's blessings and magic armor would be terrifying on the battlefield. Plus, Caucasus warriors rode on magic wolves that had strong endurance and could continue for more than ten hours without stopping. With magic armor, Caucasus warriors could make surprisingly long distance raids without a mage's assistance.
Making shields? Saleen was not so stingy.
Even so, Saleen took Irene's advice. Since the red phosphorous prawns had speical materials which could be made into arrowheads, he would not go for the daggers. The daggers were too few in number and the red phosphorous prawns were more suitable for killing in batches. If there were billions of them in this area of the sea, they could not be hunted to extinction.
Irene did not hide what she knew and continued sharing knowledge on the magic beasts that she was familiar with. She hoped Saleen would find a better method of hunting, too. Then, the next time she travelled north, it would not require as much capital.
The five mages rested for six hours once they had meditated and then returned to their positions in the front cabin. The ship was still being steered by the winged skeleton towards the north. If there were any accidents, the five junior mages would take over the ship and drive it with mid-grade magic nuclei to increase its speed to the maximum.
The bone spirits in the spirit pool were released to push the ship forward in the water and its speed was increased to forty miles. Banchajanna was sent to lie on top of the ship to monitor any movements in this patch of the sea. Although his combat power had been reduced, his mental strength remained. The distance that he could survey was greater than the magic array in the ship itself.
Suddenly, the area ahead of them was filled with rapidly swimming magic beasts. Saleen could see this clearly and said via the sound magic array, "Banchajanna, take action if there are no enemies nearby!"
Banchajanna nodded and returned to his original body. He dragged his huge tail behind him, held a weapon in each of his six arms, and swam towards the red phosphorous prawns.
The red phosphorous prawns might have been grade-4 magic beasts, but they were very timid. They were frightened as Banchajanna swam over and disbanded as though a tornado had swept through the area.
Banchajanna did not chase after them. He knocked his six weapons vigorously against each other and visible waves dispersed in all directions. The waves of attack brought forth all the red phosphorous prawns within a mile.
The red phosphorous prawns struck by the attacks twitched and fainted. Banchajanna held the dimension stone in one of his hands and collected all of the prey with the speed of lightning. The space of the dimension stone was both vast and stable, so Banchajanna had no worries and solely focused on opening up the space.
Irene and Aini were dumbfounded. With one attack, Banchajanna had gotten a few hundred thousand red phosphorous prawns. Even if there was only one standard magic nucleus for every ten of them, there would be over ten thousand grade-4 magic nuclei.
What made Irene green with envy was that Saleen had not invested in magic medicine at all. He had solved his problems with violence, and the cost was almost nothing.
Saleen thought it was a pity since the three kings could not be used for these sorts of things in the long run. If his city was under attack, he would need them to give off good impressions for a short period of time. For this hunting trip, they would be away from the city base for at least two months. Seizing the opportunity that the Holy See had yet to send any terrifying opponents their way, Saleen felt relieved that he had brought Banchajanna along.
Banchajanna's mannerisms did not emerge again, and he controlled his attack range well enough that the ship was not affected. Although Saleen had advanced another grade again, he was still not confident that he could withstand Banchajanna's peculiar attack.
Banchajanna's speed was difficult to gauge with the naked eye, but he still took almost an hour to finish collecting the prey and return to the ship. Irene suddenly shouted, "Get out of here now! There's a magic beast approaching!"
The five mages looked at Saleen and he nodded. The five of them immediately activated the magic array on the alchemy ship. The two water outlets hidden on each side of the alchemy ship were opened, and water was drawn in from the front and spurted out from the back. The ship swiftly changed its direction of travel back in the direction they had come from.
The magic compass showed a red dot approaching them quickly.
Irene's voice sounded nervous as she shouted, "Submerge! Submerge!"
The mages carried out the order immediately. They understood the magic compass very well and were aware that the red dot signified the most dangerous targets.
The pan's turtle alchemical boat submerged all the way down until it finally landed on the sand at the bottom of the sea.
"What is it?" Saleen saw that Irene's face was still terrifyingly pale.
Irene had yet to calm. After panting for a while, she said, "Damn, it's a prehistoric dragon beast. It's way more pesky than a normal dragon since it has no wisdom but acts savagely."
"Prehistoric dragon beast? Aren't those extinct?" Saleen asked in shock. The prehistoric dragon beast and normal dragons were unrelated by blood. Even the most knowledgable mage did not know when they had existed, but their bones had been discovered in the ocean. Mages had only managed to conclude that they were born at the top of the food chain and would consume any other creatures as food. To put it in simple terms, they were born as grade-9 creatures.
Irene replied once she had regained her composure, "Not the dragon defined by mages. Do you know of the evil dragon?"
Saleen nodded. The evil dragon was pesky, but it was a land creature which was forcefully created by black mages. By studying its soul, it could not be considered a branch of creatures.
The evil dragon was the embryonic state of a prehistoric dragon beast, specially researched and developed by black mages.
Saleen did not know much about it because every country kept very little information about the black mages.
"This creature will submerge an extra five to six hundred meters before it stops its pursuit." Irene put her hand on her chest and patted it. Her ship had been damaged last time because of an attack by a prehistorici dragon beast. If not, her ship would not have sunk on the way back. With the speed of her ship, the magic beasts she had met after would not have been able to catch up.
Saleen pointed above and asked, "How long will it stay?"
Irene smiled and replied, "At least half a day."
"Mm. You guys can take a break." Saleen let the five mages rest while the winged skeleton took control of the ship again. Banchajanna had returned to his skeleton form and Saleen ordered, "Guard us here. If there's danger and we can't escape, press forward in face of enemy."
Then, he took the dimension stone and called everyone to the back of the ship.
To the back of the ship, there was a kitchen, a storage cabin, and also a spare engine room. The kitchen was fairly big and Saleen was fondling with the dimension stone when he said, "The speed will be very slow from now on. Since things have settled down, we can take a look at our haul."
"I will go and rest." Irene had already seen the red phosphorous prawns. She was feeling a little tired from the earlier shock.
Saleen nodded. Aini did not leave but stayed and watched as Saleen took out a one-meter-long red phosphorous prawn and put it on the counter. This magic beast did not look any different compared to a normal prawn, aside from the fact that its red, hard shell was covered with natural magic patterns.
On the head of the red phophorous prawn was a one-foot-long spike. On the spike, there were sawteeth. Saleen took out a grade-3 magic nucleus and rubbed it against the sawteeth. The grade-3 magic nucleus was left with a scratch.
"So sharp!" Aini's face changed. No wonder they needed to invest in large amounts of magic medicine when they hunted these. If they are not knocked out, there will be no fishing net that was able to withstand cuts from the spikes.
Saleen's eyes brightened. This is a good item. If it is made into arrowheads, it can be used repeatedly. This material can even rip through armor without the assistance of alchemy.
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