Soul of Searing Steel Chapter 445: The Nature’s Magister Has Come to Visit

Chapter 445: The Nature’s Magister Has Co to Visit

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Joshua returned to the liege’s residence. He had just entered his private collection chamber—a great hall where mana giant dragon skulls hung after being shrunk with magic—when he got more news from his attendants.

Such as his reward for participating in the war against the berserk dragons.

Months ago, in the Sacred Mountain of the Far Sea, the warrior bathed in blood as he toiled in battle, and almost perished. It was thanks to the help from the Nature’s Magister, Pope Igor, and several other Supre-tier clergies that he did not really die.

Naturally, with toil ca rich rewards.

Just before that battle started, Joshua’s weapons—the siblings Ling and Ying had been improved to the level of Sacred Items. The Empire had even presented him an aerial battleship, and while the Gale had been struck down by a Supre giant dragon halfway through the war with its wreck being retrieved by the Imperial Sorcery Laboratory, the warrior already had his fill. It was fine since he could not afford its upkeep anyway.

The reward after the war was even much more substantial. Even discounting the favorability amongst the clergies and the prestige in the Sacred Mountain he gained, the physical rewards alone were innurable.

Due to losses sustained in the war, the Church of Seven Gods did not even have the funds to repair the defensive magic circles that the Sacred Mountain originally held. As such they did not repay him in gold, reimbursing instead with all sorts of items.

Joshua read the inventory in his hand, and turned towards a silver-green box in a nearby corner of the hall which had been placed there carefully by a maid.

Five hundred control cores of automated divine puppets, along with an instruction manual.

“… No gold to build more puppet bodies. That’s why they simply give this stuff, huh…” Joshua mumbled.

Still, the warrior knew that the five hundred cores were an immoderate reward. To Moldavia, a region that never lacks craftsman and minerals, it was equivalent to suddenly gaining a combat force of five-hundred silver-tiers. Furthermore, giving the cores itself also ant giving the final production thod to Joshua and the Empire.

From that perspective, the Church of Seven Gods was being very sincere.

Looking down to keep reading the inventory list, Joshua blinked, before turning again towards another side of the hall.

In that corner was a huge steel container marked with compact magic. On it were several huge Far Southern Kingdom fonts that were written seriously—’Precious Item, Handle Gently’. The large container was steadily placed on a goatskin carpet, sufficient evidence of the transporter’s prudence.

“Floating halo…”

The warrior nodded. He had almost forgotten about that thing.

As a giant dragon and steed, Black was actually flightless—each ti Joshua was in a rush or entering battle against flying enemies, he could only go himself and not by riding his dragon. The warrior always complained about the matter, but the floating halo would solve the issue.

The Church of Seven Gods had developed the floating halo so that giant war puppets could be equipped with flight capability, before the project was put on stasis for all sorts of reasons and only a single prototype was made. And after learning about Joshua’s request, they remodeled the prototype so that it could combine with Black’s body form, allowing the aquatic fire-dragon to fly and dominated the land, the sky, and the seas.

The floating halo could also fend for itself after being equipped with certain enchantnts, but before that it would just be a hunk of fragile tal carved with runes.

“But I recall that Black seems to be acrophobic…” Joshua could not help frowning at the thought, but soon relaxed his brow.

“Whatever she thinks, she’ll learn after more training anyway.”

Outside the residence, the black dragon who was enjoying a pleasant washing service from the divine armant siblings suddenly flinched and shuddered. As Ying and Ling scolded it in disgruntlent, Black, who had been shocked awake from its dream, could not find the source of that chilling sense of danger.

Apart from those two items, there were also so rather miscellaneous objects and personnel. They include a whole new set of state-of-the-art alchemical laboratory equipnt, as well as so elite clergy specially sent to Winter Fort Academy, five pairs of winged warhorses of both genders as well as special excellent quality holy water…

Either way, the Church of Seven Gods had absolutely shown their sincerity. Indeed, the inventory was so long that even the warrior was too lazy to keep reading.

Most of the items would arrive from the Sacred Mountain to Moldavia before spring. The batch placed at the hall right now were the most valuable ones, delivered with a warp portal.

On the other hand, the reward from the Empire may not be as generous, it was still substantial.

Like the Church, apart from gold, the Empire had awarded Joshua in terms of noble titles and family prestige. Now, Moldavia could enlist up to three thousand troops—unlike city guards and patrol security that were more akin to police outfits or Joshua’s own private army and knights’ platoon, it was a formal army conscription, a regint that could receive reinforcents from the Imperial Army itself.

Initially, most official military forces in Moldavia were stationed at the Dark Forest Fortress to combat against the yearly Dark Tide. Now, however, apart from being allowed to increase the number of those soldiers, other conscripts stationed at towns and villages away from the main city were granted huge allowances. This was certainly sothing important to the northern territory that had long suffered cultists and lawless adventurers—but more vitally, most of the costs would be absorbed by the Imperial Army, so why not go for it?

That reward alone was completely enough on its own, but the Empire clearly do not lack money, nor do they want to mistreat Joshua.

Israel had promised, in his own na, that he would provide Joshua a set of materials that would allow the divine armants to ascend. It was different from the bathing in holy light power on the Sacred Mountain, and was another type of empowernt. According to a herald, the materials had arrived at the checkpoint of Mount Ural at present—a dozen days more, and it would reach Moldavia.

Beyond that, there’s a small-scale airship. The thirty-seven-ter long flying craft inherited the designs of the Gale, along with quite a few enchanted weaponries equipped.

It was a new creation by the Imperial Sorcery Laboratory thanks to the experintal data from the Gale . Not only could it fly swiftly, it could also plunge into and navigate through seawater—a dual-use warship for both sea and air. Of course, the laboratory gave it to Joshua in hopes that he would help them collect more data in his next expedition, since everyone knew that the Count of Moldavia was not a man who would remain in his own domain for a long ti.

The rest were rather varied. Including an assortnt of gratitude tokens presented by Moldova, they were rather substantial but trifling.

Nonetheless, Brandon, who prepared for a return to the Imperial Capital after sharing a tender mont with his wife and daughters a few days ago, had co over to et Joshua. Apart from having a spar with the warrior, he also inford the warrior about an important piece of news.

“The Imperial Capital isn’t at peace at the mont.”

When he said that, the blond swordsman had been fixing his collar, but it soon beca obvious that he was no savant on dressing. Giving up after quite a while, Brandon spoke seriously and expressionlessly to Joshua as if to conceal his embarrassnt.

“Since returning from the Sacred Mountain, the Emperor has not made a formal appearance for so ti. According to Master Nostradamus, he seed to be troubled over so matter. There’s also a weird atmosphere amongst the nobles in the Imperial Capital.”

“You know,” Brandon added with a shrug, “I’ve been staying in the North for too long, but I could still make guess even if I’m not clear on the situation.”

“Dimore Diamond. You’ve t him, Joshua, and you understand the strife within the Imperial Royal Family. Be careful, or you’ll be seen as a thorn on soone’s side.”

Despite the severity of Brandon’s tone, Joshua curiously scratched his head, before working his fingers subconsciously.

“See as a thorn in their side? I say, shouldn’t they be the ones who should be careful?”

As he recalled the speechless expression of the blond swordsman, the warrior suddenly rembered sothing.

Damn it. He thought annoyedly. I forgot to ask Brandon for a look at his Dual Blades of Order.

Still, it was no huge trouble. The blond swordsman would often co to the North to et Vale Dani—there was no harm in asking next ti.

Peaceful days often pass quickly. A dozen days soon passed, but quite a few things still happened in those dozen days.

After the students at Winter Fort Academy had an adventure at the Great Ajax Mountains, it was the ti for another live combat examination. This ti, it was neither Alia or Ivan who ranked first, but that half-dwarf in their party. The robust half-dwarf who had just entered adulthood had awakened his innate racial talent of anti-magic and stone-skin ability.

In the academy that only had Steel-tier talent, he was essentially peerless even though he had had the sloppiest written test results. Laughing sonorously, he defeated twelve despairing opponents, before kicking his best friends off the stage.

After Nostradamus and Joshua, two of the academy’s deans examined his case for so ti, they decided to give the half-dwarf a choice of whether he would transfer to a faculty for combat specialist or remain with the main spellcasters faculty.

The result, however, was unexpected—it turned out that the little fellow nad Nick was a devotee of the Seven Gods Church. With the Gold-tier clergies sent to the academy also having developed a liking to the young boy, he thus beca an apprentice holy knight.

anwhile, the juvenile white dragons flourished under the guidance of the blue dragon, Suralno. In months, so of the hatchlings had learned to manipulate magic and flight.

Ordinarily, white dragons that have an affinity for water and ice elents should first awaken their abilities to control frost and liquids, and not flight support that leans towards air-type. However, their instructor was a Supre blue dragon after all—being influenced by elents that drift from its body is nothing they could help.

There were quite a few pieces of good news from the dwarf settlent too. The urgent ssage that ca at the sa ti as the Holy Mountain’s turned out to be a notice from the old dwarf, Moira.

Through an examination of the living tal over Steel Elental Unit-01’s body, they had produced a brand-new runic puppet successfully. Still, there were many aspects that were not satisfactory. For example, if it was too far from Unit-01, the living tal would gradually lose its liveliness and revert into normal alloy in days.

But in the last dozen days, the rune dwarves had made significant breakthroughs. Through imitation of the energy flow in Unit-01, they managed to keep the runic puppets animated for more than ten days. Naturally that was far from enough, but Joshua believed that since the dwarves had found the right path, they would soon acquire the final product.

When that ca to be, a certain thing that he had promised another person would be fulfilled.

Starfall Year 834, the 18th of February. The liege’s residence, main city of Moldavia.

Joshua was having lunch at his own dining hall.

The warrior, who had ascended to Supre, could now no longer maintain his body functions through energy conversion from food. Even the energy to keep his own digestive organs running far exceeds the nutrition values in most food ingredient, although whatever the case may be, eating was not purely for survival.

The main dish on the banquet table was the most exquisite steak made from a daemon bull. It was grilled so aromatically, with its surface crispy and the inside tender—perfectly chewy along with the rich earth elent mana it was brimming with.

Side dishes were a variety of magical plants to complent the special delicacy cooked from daemon flesh. Pure taste or not, each dish could provide substantial mana to empower body and spirit, a pleasure that most food could not provide.

Even if the enriching effects had long since becoming inadequate and ineffectual, the warrior was willing to sit on the dining table to sweep away the food for the sll alone, since his part-ti’s chef had refined his culinary skills.

Taking about five minutes to clear the table, Joshua then took the letter from Ying’s hands as the divine armant girl watched on in shock beside him.

“What, Ying, another urgent ssage?” He then asked casually.

“It’s not that urgent, but it is sothing written by Mister Nostradamus himself. I believe it’s better that Master opens it himself.”

The silver-haired girl had to compose herself and wipe away that image of her own master eating like a cyclone, before speaking with a slightly doubtful voice. “But weren’t you having a discussion with the old mage in the academy a few days ago? Why didn’t he ntion it then?”

“Because it ans that the letter is wrote sothing that happened just a few days ago.”

Opening the envelope, Joshua scanned through the letter with concentration, and his expression soon beca solemn.

“The Nature’s Magister’s procession had arrived secretly at the Empire’s border yesterday…” the warrior mumbled as he read. “A legendary champion is visiting, bringing along ambassadors from the Elven Court, His Majesty Emperor Israel would receive them in the Imperial Capital… Both would enter a series of strategical partnership agreent in order to complent each other according to each’s advantages, mutual benefit, long-term cooperation and principles of mutual developnt—that’s the official statent, nothing to do with .”

Bypassing the middling paragraphs that were mostly nonsensical content such as ‘cordial and friendly dialogue’, ‘strategic partnership’, Joshua looked at the final part.

“I see… After the Nature’s Magister has her reception at the Imperial Capital she would head for the Great Ajax Volcano directly. The Empire’s reward would arrive around the sa ti, while I would lead the elven procession to check if see the dinsional doorway was still where it was, and whether they could head for Illgner.”

Largely understanding the aning of the letter from Nostradamus, Joshua placed the letter on the table, muttering to himself.

He had long been prepared for that matter. The underground karst passageway that heads towards the depths of the Great Ajax Volcano had been excavated by the workers wearing enchanted armor. Whilst Joshua had not gone to take a look himself, the workers had claid that there was a low chance that the dinsional portal was in good condition.

It should be noted that the one who had destroyed the dinsional portal was the Evil God of Calamity himself. The World Regulator Circle had lashed out in full-power, pulverizing Mount Sigma itself as well as blowing up the underground magma reservoir beneath it. The shockwave even caused the Great Ajax Volcano to show signs of pre-eruption on the other end. Naturally, Joshua knew that the dinsional portal would not be destroyed in its entirety, but to traverse it like normal was not possible now.

Still, the warrior was alright with that. Joshua just had to lead the Nature’s Magister procession to the location of the portal—with the expertise of the Legendary champion and the Elven Court, they would definitely find so traces the warrior would miss.

Perhaps they would really find the way to Illgner?

“What’s the matter, Master?”

Ying could not hold back her own curiosity as she stared at Joshua’s thoughtful look. She herself considered it, before asking softly, “Still hungry?”

“I’d still be hungry if I had ten tis the courses I had just now. Of course, that’s not the issue,” Joshua replied, shaking his head before standing up and flexing his fingers. “Right. Ying, you’ll co with to Mount Nissia for a bit later.”

Caressing the girl’s hair as she nodded, the warrior smiled. “I will prepare for a bit. We can’t have our visitors from a faraway land feel that we’re insincere.”