Chapter 146: Duchess of Red Dragon
April 9, 2015
Author: Floating Tower (诸生浮屠)
Gloria’s arrival made Soren’s power even stronger!
No one could ignore a powerful high-level witch, especially one who was a key figure in the Witch Council and possessed her own territory. Information about Gloria was hardly a secret; after all, she had ruled a city in the Northern Region for almost a decade. Gloria had reached high-level status (Witch Profession Level above 15) ten years ago, but she had only recently touched the threshold of being a legendary witch (Witch Profession Level above 18).
The later stages of a wizard’s power growth slowed down, making Soren a complete outlier!
Legendary witches had an exceptionally long lifespan, far exceeding any melee professionists, so they had many requirements when choosing a mate. Otherwise, while they remained youthful and vibrant, their mate might already be old and frail. In terms of longevity, legendary melee professionists were at a disadvantage, possibly due to the excessive bleeding and injuries they suffered before advancing, which consumed much of their life energy. The lifespan of legendary melee professionists was only one-third of that of spellcasting classes, and sometimes they might not even reach two hundred years.
Gloria chose Soren partly due to her regard for his potential; legendary and non-legendary were two different worlds.
…
Ocean Temple.
After sending Soren and Gloria off, the Naga Priestess’s expression turned cold.
“Call the Deep Sea Hunter over!”
The Ocean Priestess, holding a scepter, stood before the statue of the goddess and instructed a nearby servant, “Spread the news about Gloria immediately; we must make Asrold aware as soon as possible. This way, he will feel fear and panic and will likely take drastic measures to eliminate Soren, even prompt the Naga Royal Family to plot early. Otherwise, he is destined to fall in the end!”
“As long as they go to war, Soren’s power will surely weaken!”
“He already controls most of the interests in the Overseas Islands. I must weaken his strength and seize the power that belongs to the ocean so that I can qualify to compete for the position of High Priest!”
“I have a premonition that the goddess will have a new oracle descended soon, and only the High Priest is closest to the deity.”
A hint of deeply concealed ambition emerged.
The Naga Priestess turned and entered the water pool in front of the temple, a surge of divine power flowing into her body. Her azure skin gradually became transparent, revealing scales that were peeling off. This was the divine power of faith gathered at the Ocean Temple. Since being granted a fragment of divinity by the Ocean Goddess, she could attempt to absorb this power. The divine might accumulating in the Ocean Temple was slowly changing her, and eventually, she would completely detach from the realm of mortals, potentially becoming a saint elect or attaining opportunities to ascend to higher domains.
However, everything had to start with her suppressing those disloyal Naga Royal Family members first!
Twisted shadows emerged in the seawater.
A creature, whose specific shape was unclear but filled with a terrifying aura, appeared; it hid in the sea beneath the temple, expressing its emotions in eerie sounds.
The Naga Priestess removed her priestess robe, glanced at the blurred Deep Sea Hunter, and slowly said, “Pay attention to those restless Naga royals; at the first sign of any trouble, immediately open the prison of the abyss beneath the sea.”
“Let the goddess’s pet grant them release!”
At this point, a cruel smile appeared on the Naga Priestess’s enchanting face.
The blurred shadow gradually receded. One could feel its body twisting through the water; although its form was indiscernible, a palpable sense of danger emanated from it, a terrifying predatory aura.
…
Eastern Sea Route.
On an island close to the Eastern trade border. This was a transit station similar to Taro Port and belonged to Pirate King Asrold.
“What did you say?”
A cold-faced man listened to the report from his subordinate. With a grim expression, he remarked, “He actually managed to recruit a high-level witch? How is that possible? How could the extremely proud Northern Witch possibly take a liking to a mere pirate king? Is the Witch Council intending to meddle in the Southern Coast? No, it’s impossible! How could the Witch Council care about the interests of the Southern Coast? This is the domain of the Ocean Temple!…”
“Damn!”
“I knew from the start that we had to get rid of that Throat Cutter with everything we had! I never expected him to grow this fast!…”
“No way!”
“Immediately send someone to contact that Duchess from the Rosad Duchy!… Last time in the Overseas Islands, the Ocean Temple’s attack resulted in the heaviest losses for this Duchess of Red Dragon!… She must also hate the Throat Cutter to the bone! She surely doesn’t want to easily relinquish her interests overseas; perhaps we can try to ally with her!…”
Hearing his words, a nearby half-Naga woman, clearly not human, showed hesitation. She slowly said, “Your Excellency! The Duchess of Red Dragon is now an enemy of the Ocean Temple; if we openly contact her, wouldn’t that be directly defying the Ocean Temple’s orders? In that case, the Ocean Priestess might seize the opportunity to take action!”
The cold-faced man furrowed his brow, lifted his head to glance at her, and slowly replied, “I can’t care about that anymore!”
“If we don’t seek the Duchess of Red Dragon’s assistance now, the Naga Royal Family does not have the resources to help us. We may not be able to withstand the combined attack of the Throat Cutter and the high-level witch. He has already held a grudge against us since our confrontation with the Swamp King! This time, with the Northern Witch as his ally, he will definitely not be merciful!”
“Come in.”
“I need to write a letter to the Duchess of Red Dragon!”
…
Overseas Islands Route.
Soren did not linger too long in Taro Port; the territory of the Overseas Islands was truly his foundation. After briefly handling some matters, he led his fleet back to the camp of the Overseas Islands. However, this time he brought back a considerable number of people, with twelve ocean-going ships alone, which he owed to Pirate King Asrold — his subordinates had robbed Asrold’s Eastern merchant fleet, allowing Soren to amass such a large scale.
This time, the cargo transport was substantial, with more than eight hundred people accompanying him.
Among them, half were slaves from the mainland, many of whom had previously worked in mines. Due to certain circumstances coming to light, they had recently fallen into Soren’s hands. It must be said that a group of bad guys working as subordinates had a remarkably high efficiency; Soren’s current batch of slaves could easily dilute the proportion of indigenous slaves. The number of indigenous slaves could not exceed control; Soren needed a batch of mainland slaves and gradually convert them into town residents.
Nothing could be given without reason; otherwise, they would not learn to cherish and be grateful. Soren had many better plans.
The voyage was incredibly dull.
The extended journey of half a month forced Soren to shift his focus back to learning spells while exploring the secrets from his teacher, Gloria. With a high-level witch as a guide, Soren’s speed of learning spell knowledge had obviously increased, not to mention he had the talent specialties of Photographic Memory and Scholar. After basically completing the most commonly used portions of the first circle spells, Gloria suggested that Soren should not continue learning but rather focus on mastering them to improve his casting speed.
In other words.
She hoped Soren would conduct in-depth studies to rely on proficiency to master the combat specialty of Mastery of Spellcasting.
Therefore, Soren’s upcoming days were filled with constant memorizing of spells, repeatedly casting them after completing their memorization, and once expending his spell slots, he’d continue memorizing, in order to obtain the specialty ability of Mastery of Spellcasting.
About the third day of the voyage.
In Soren’s combat record, a delayed entry finally appeared:
“Astral Battle [Legendary Combat]: In mid-January of the New Moon Era 1676, while you were on your way to the Northern Region to invite witches to the Overseas Islands, you unexpectedly encountered Gisz attacking the Northern Tower. In this legendary event, you chose to assist the Northern Witch in dealing with Gisz and ultimately eliminated an adult red dragon during the battle. This greatly improved your relationship with the Witch Council and allowed your reputation to spread beyond the Material Plane. However, due to the Witch Council’s strict blockade of news related to the astral battle, your legend only circulated among Gisz in the Astral Plane. [Legendary Degree +3]”
…
It was surprisingly late.
Soren’s initial joining of the [Traitor Naval Battle] had also experienced a delayed notification, but it was not as long as this instance. He did not know if it was because the matter had only recently concluded or due to interplanar combat reasons. However, Soren clearly did not have the time to ponder too much now; he simply glanced at it and set it aside, focusing on researching how to master spellcasting.
With this trip to the astral plane.
Soren felt he had already grasped part of the secrets of instant spellcasting and also received a hint regarding Mastery of Spellcasting.
Success was not far; he could feel himself nearing mastery of that spell specialty.
Days passed one by one.
When Soren led his fleet to the Overseas Islands, someone immediately came to welcome them at the camp.
It was unknown when a lighthouse had already been established near the port area; by this time, it had been over a month since Soren left, and the time had transitioned to early February. According to the arrangements Soren made before his departure, the camp was undergoing a busy construction phase, with even a rudimentary dock built near the natural port. Then, a five-meter-wide stone-paved road was created for transporting goods and passage, stretching all the way to the east gate of the camp.
The fleet started busy unloading cargo, with many supplies needing to be transported down.
Soren gazed at the dock before him, holding Gloria’s hand as he walked down. Before they could step onto the land, a girl appeared in a white princess dress, Vivian.
“Brother!”
The little girl joyfully shouted, then directly leaped into Soren’s embrace.
…
(PS: The outline has been整理. Starting tomorrow, I will return to two updates, at 5 PM, with automatic updates. I strive to stabilize things. Writing often has its ups and downs, and I hope everyone can be understanding.) (To be continued ~^~)
