<h4>Chapter 464: Cracks (Part 2)</h4>


    Trantor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio


    “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 ce 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 evenrger castle underneath this castle. It sunk due to an earthquake. Other than an abundance of materials, the Stone Statue Castle also has aplete alchemyboratory. 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…” Saleenughed 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 createplex 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 toplete 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 createrge 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 inparison to the ones which Saleen created using the Water me 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 moreplete 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 arge number of magic warships. It is for refining puppets, and the materials must be simr to the Stone Statue Ghosts. Creatures summoned from other nes 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 bemonce in the past, when humans could traverse the nes. 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 rece 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 urately, the ancient humans had created partial puppets.


    Their offensive powers might not be higher than a pure puppet, but they could carry out veryplex 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 bnced attributes. There were no particr 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 reced 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 aspared to metal armor.


    Not only were the troops d in leather armor, they also donned waterproof capes. All of them also wore caps. Other than that, some low rankingmanders equipped themselves with waterproof sses. These sses 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.


    That was the distinct difference between elite troops and normal troops. Elite troops possessedplete equipment, and had practical solutions in the face of unforeseen circumstances. Finally, the soldiers draped a ckish item on the surface of the wheels. That made the wheelsrger, preventing them from sinking into the sloshy ground. This ck 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 J. 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 thend, 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 rm suddenly sounded.


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


    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 toozy to give any orders.


    This was a tant 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 ce was proximal to Titan’s borders. Such militarized towns weremonce 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 withrge surface areas and were wrapped in glittery metal though, so they could not be prated by any arrows.


    As the razor-sharp arrows descended on the shields, the nging 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 simplymand my soldiers to use a magic cannon to bombard the peak, or I will get a grand mage to set the hill aze. 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 urred abruptly on the peak. The mes 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 arge magic trap.


    Themander 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 injuredrades. 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 inly. 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 perfectrge 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.