Badge in Azure

Chapter 285: Ghost Ship (Part 2)

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

There were more changes made to the interior of the alchemical boat. After entering through the teleportation portal, one would arrive at a tiny cabin which could only be accessed from the exterior of the boat. If a person wanted to leave, they would have to go to another cabin. This was in stark contrast to the original design.

The original teleportation portal was bidirectional, and the entrance and exit were at the same location. With the current design, the alchemical boat was more like a warship. Even though Judikaka was not human, there were wars in the death dimension too. Hence, when it came to making weapons more logical, Judikaka was superior to Saleen.

Saleen did not know whether he was overthinking it, but he felt that the interior of the alchemical boat was kind of gloomy. At a glance, the space within the turtle shell was not altered at all. One example was the five machinery cabins. However, Judikaka had changed all the segmentations carried out by Saleen and Lex.

The partitions across the entire layout had been removed, and the cabin was now separated into just three regions.

The last six meters at the stern were the accommodation cabins. It was separated into two levels by Judikaka, and was enough to house more than one hundred people at a time. However, what astonished Saleen was the bathroom.

The accommodation cabin was decorated in an elaborate manner, and Saleen even noticed that there was a small kitchen. What made Saleen realize the generosity of Judikaka was the many spatial lattices which Judikaka had produced.

The turtle shell possessed some spatial attributes, and Judikaka had maximized that point. Every room had a spatial lattice which could be used to store some items as the space was very narrow. The only advantage was that these space lattices were catered to people who were at the grade of a magic disciple.

With these spatial lattices, the crew could store their daily necessities into them.

On the other hand, there were two larger space lattices in the kitchen which were used to store food and water.

Located in the middle of the boat was the power cabin. Both ends of this cabin was sealed. There were five control rooms, and a guardroom was situated right beside each control room.

Saleen had never considered the possibility of an intrusion, but Judikaka had covered that aspect. There were spaces solely for guards beside these control rooms. In order to disrupt the movement of the boat, one would have to kill the soldiers first.

These portions were designed in a greatly regulated manner, similar to what a military general would have done. The only gripe was that not all the details were exquisite.

“Soldier, where are you?” Saleen called out to the winged skeleton in his heart.

“Master, I am at the front.”

Saleen approached the bow of the boat. Once he entered the front part of the ship, he realized that there were no partitions here. There was only a space which had an area of about one hundred square meters.

Levitating inside this cabin was an enormous eye of the dead which was mosaicked into the black crystal.

Under this eye of the dead was a spirit pool with a diameter of about two meters. Black fog filled the spirit pool, but it did not spread outwards. Huge quantities of green spirits were mosaicked into the surroundings of the spirit pool. These magic arrays had a complex structure, and every single one of them was three-dimensional, similar to the magic patterns on Saleen’s badge. It would be difficult for someone to use their mental power to detect these things.

A message which was left behind by Judikaka was transmitted straight into Saleen’s brain, causing Saleen to be petrified. Judikaka was a spirit king, so he was able to forcefully transmit a mental message into Saleen’s mind without his permission.

Such was the difference in abilities between Saleen and Judikaka. Judikaka was also reminding Saleen not to repudiate their agreement.

The message was not elaborate. It only briefed Saleen on the usage of the spirit pool.

This spirit pool would produce twenty-four bone spirits every single day. There were two options for the bone spirits. The first option was that the bone spirits would be bone fish and carry bloodstones to carry out kamikaze missions. As long as Saleen threw bloodstones into the spirit pool, the bone fish could already be produced.

The twenty-four bone fish produced from the spirit pool could be sealed into the green spirits. There were a limited number of green spirits, so this boat could only carry twenty-four bone fish at most.

Those magic arrays which were fused with the green spirits were teleportation portals connected to the black crystals. Once the teleportation portals were activated, the sealed bone fish would be launched from the boat.

The winged skeleton was inside a three-dimensional magic array located behind the spirit pool. This magic array was engraved into a colossal piece of crystal. As this piece of crystal was completely sealed, it was unknown as to how the winged skeleton had gotten in.

The two pairs of wings on the back of winged skeleton opened up and began flapping inside the crystal. The soul flames within his orbitals lit up once again. After being betrayed by Daniel, those orbitals had been filled with pitch darkness most of the time, but at this moment, they were filled with a lively red flame.

“Master, I feel that I can control this boat on my own!” The winged skeleton could not contain his excitement. The winged skeleton realized that every single item on the boat had fused perfectly with himself. Even that enormous eye of the dead seemed to be part of his body. The winged skeleton could view the external surroundings of the boat clearly. This experience of being able to see through an eye had caused the winged skeleton to be entranced.

So these were the colors which the humans talked about. There was a portion about colors in the human memories which the winged skeleton had swallowed. However, most spirits did not have any eyes, so they could not see any color.

“Soldier, do you like it here?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Stay here then,” Saleen sighed. Judikaka had created a ghost ship which had to be steered by spirits. Saleen was not a death mage, and he could not possibly ask Daniel to control this ship.

“Stay? Master, I…”

“It’s fine.” As Saleen spoke, he took out the piece of green spirit which had been used to seal the winged skeleton. When he came to the three-dimensional crystal magic array, he found a groove which could contain the green spirit.

Saleen then fused the green spirit into the groove. He then realized that Judikaka had already considered all the aspects.

“I am giving you the green spirit. Soldier, you will control this ship in the future. You can delegate the work to the crew in the power cabin, but when I am not around, you will be the captain of this ship.”

By doing so, Saleen had given the winged skeleton partial freedom. Even though the contract could not be dissolved, it was equivalent to the winged skeleton becoming a creature as big as the turtle by being inside this crystal. The winged skeleton could move the warship freely in the ocean.

“Master, I cannot do so.” For the first time, the winged skeleton had displayed loyalty towards Saleen. He wanted to follow Saleen, just like Nailisi, to ensure Saleen’s safety.

“Soldier, this ship is very important to me. I will rest assured knowing that it is in your hands. With this ship, even if I run into strong adversaries, I will be able to remain safe as long as I can get inside. Be it a grade-9 mage, a golden grand swordmaster, or even the pope with a divine weapon, they cannot kill me in the water.”

Saleen explained calmly this to the winged skeleton. Saleen was not a dominating person. He would not lose out by giving partial freedom to the winged skeleton.

The winged skeleton remained silent for a while, then said, “Master, become a sorcerer as soon as possible. That way, our soul connection will remain effective for more than ten miles. When you become a grade-8 sorcerer, we will be able to communicate across a radius of one hundred miles, and when you get to grade-9, I can transmit all sorts of information to you within a distance of one thousand miles. If you manage to break through grade-9…”

“Is the distance going to be ten thousand miles?” Saleen joked.

“It will be farther than ten thousand miles. As long as I am on this plane, you will be able to locate me. It is just that when that time comes, you will no longer require my protection.”

Saleen felt a little sad when he heard the winged skeleton say that. A contract was never equal. There were many other sacrifices besides the contract alone. The winged skeleton’s loyalty had largely been brought about by the contract which had altered his psychological state. In the winged skeleton’s heart, Saleen’s safety was his top priority, but before that came Daniel’s safety.

No matter how his master turned out, he would have to protect them.

Saleen did not continue brooding. Instead, he changed the topic and said, “Judikaka left me a message, but it is not complete. Since you have grasped the workings of this ship, can you tell me what it does?”

“This ship is called… Green Spirit Liner.” The winged skeleton said something that was compltely unrelated to the topic at hand. However, the green spirit had been fused onto the crystal, so the winged skeleton would not need to return to Saleen. He would be able to survive and train on this ship. This ship was now part of the winged skeleton.

“The Green Spirit Liner has five methods of attack.”

“What’s the first one?” Saleen was shocked, he had thought that the ship only had three methods of attack. It seemed like Judikaka had taken things into his own hands again. He had changed the offensive parts of the ship.

“It is the ice bomb magic array which Master originally designed. It is located to the left of the spirit pool, and a mage master is required to operate it.”

“The second is the soul corrosion magic array. It is located to the right of the spirit pool, and a death mage is needed to operate it. Grade wise, Daniel will be up to the task.”

The winged skeleton did not seem so agitated anymore when Daniel was mentioned. Without the contract with Daniel, the winged skeleton could not maintain his loyalty. It was just that it was very difficult for him to accept that he had been abandoned by the death mage.

“Mm,” Saleen whispered, and did not continue along this topic.

“Master, if there are no death mages, I will be able to control this magic array too,” the winged skeleton reminded Saleen, and Saleen understood what he meant. Daniel was not important, so Saleen did not need to accede to any of Daniel’s requests just because a death mage was needed to operate the magic array.

“What is the third method of attack?”

“It is this spirit pool. The spirit pool can produce up to twenty-four bone fish a day, and if they aren’t sent into the green spirit for storage, no new bone fish will be produced. Which means that in the best case scenario, we will only be able to deploy two hundred and sixty-four bone fish.”

“Only? That’s already a lot. It will be enough.”

“Master, in order to ensure the lethality of the attack, we will need to use three to six bone fish each time. Against a large ship, at least twenty bone fish will need to be deployed in one go. The magic inside the bloodstones are formed naturally within the spirit pool. In order for an attack to be strong enough, at least three fish will need to be deployed at any given time.”

Saleen calculated things for a moment. If that was the case, then such an attack method was indeed not sustainable for this alchemical boat. After all, two hundred and sxity-four fish were deployed, and he would need at least one full day to replenish another twenty-four fish. In order to replenish all two hundred and sixty-four of them, he would need eleven days.

“Okay, then tell me, what’s the fourth method of attack?” Saleen was very curious about the offensive ability of the remaining two attacks. As a spirit king, what surprises could Judikaka have given Saleen? If these presents were good enough, Saleen would not mind lending a large number of magic books to Judikaka, and he would not bring up the issue of rewards anymore. Saleen was already very satisfied that Judikaka had made a spirit pool which could dispense bloodstones. Otherwise, these items were only available in the death dimension, and Saleen could not guarantee that he would be able to obtain them.