Badge in Azure

Among the armies in Metatrin City, only Sika’s trusted soldiers were fitted with better equipment. The rest of the soldiers could not even wear uniformed outfits. The soldiers from the palace’s swordsmen camp were wearing flashy goods, their equipment had been transferred to the second camp.

The worst thing was that Lex had already begun moving. She was coming to Metatrin City personally. She would arrive in at most seven days. Saleen would have to prepare sufficient equipment within these seven days.

The expansion of the army this time around was very significant for Lex. Her army could be expanded to three-hundred-thousand soldiers very soon. By then, she would be able to cooperate with Holy Rock City and attack the western region.

“What should I do now?” Saleen was out of ideas in that moment. Lex’s equipment was for regular troops. Even if alchemical arrows were unavailable, the arrowheads had to be made of stainless steel. The armor was even tougher, it was more difficult producing armor compared to any other equipment.

The tricky question of preparing equipment for one-hundred-thousand men was placed before Saleen. Saleen regretted selling a huge quantity of equipment in exchange for gold coins. In the past year he had already produced a large quantity of armor and weapons and they had been transported to Loulan. In the armies controlled by the northern nobles one in every ten soldiers would be using a weapon made in Metatrin City.

Saleen had no choice but to summon his closest associates to resolve this problem.

To everyone’s surprise, Nicholas took out forty-thousand sets of equipment. They had been issued when the expeditionary army set off from the Holy See and the excess equipment was placed in his possession. Since the expeditionary army was wiped out, these items remained in Nicholas’ possession. Only a grade-9 holy master like him could use such a huge spatial equipment.

These forty-thousand sets of equipment could not be handed to Lex just yet, the Holy See’s emblem had to be erased first and the Bitter Water County’s badge had to be affixed on them. Sixty-thousand more sets of armor were still needed, this number was still very horrifying.

Eleanor was once again sent to the alchemy factories to help produce feather arrows. Saleen’s followers were also helpless in the issue of armor.

In the end, Jola came up with an idea. The Holy See’s soldiers who died outside Metatrin City had left behind tens of thousands of sets of armor. Even though they were all damaged, it was much easier to restore them than to craft new ones.

Saleen had actually tossed the damaged armor into the warehouse, he was going to smelt them and recycle the metals.

At the moment, Metatrin City did not have many finished stainless steel pieces. Every day the merchant ships would take the ore. Only a small number was left behind for Saleen to refine and craft armor.

“Master, western town’s defense isn’t really in need right now. Why don’t we shift their armor here for the time being?” Isabella came up with another not so brilliant idea, but Saleen could only continue this method of robbing Peter to pay Paul for the time being.

Western town currently had up to fifty-thousand troops, ten-thousand of which belonged to Lex’s army. The equipment of these ten-thousand soldiers could be directly utilized, while the remaining forty-thousand troops could give up twenty-thousand sets of armor. The armor used by the auxiliary troops could be collected during a defensive operation, but it would fail if used for a field battle.

Just like that, there was an extra thirty-thousand sets of armor. Another thirty-thousand sets were needed, this number much easier to handle.

About twenty-thousand sets of armor could be salvaged from the loot left behind by those seventy-eighty-thousand Holy See’s expeditionary soldiers. Gathering the armor from different sources, Saleen realized that he could really gather over ninety-thousand sets of armor.

He had to help Lex in this matter, otherwise Lex would have to request assistance from the Holy Rock City. Even though Holy Rock City seemed to have the intention to make peace, Saleen did not want Lex to owe them any favors.

At this point in time, Saleen got a little emotional, “If the old emperor was still alive, these one-hundred-thousand sets of armor would be a piece of cake for Holy Rock City to come up with.”

The tattered armor, which was regarded as waste, was taken out of the warehouse. Daniel then became personally involved as he commanded the spirits to carry out refinement. Every piece of armor was ruined, they had to be disassembled before being put back together. This was a huge project.

With only seven days, the task of disassembling the armor could be left to the skeletons. The reassembling would depend on the experienced smiths and elite soldiers. A normal soldier would not be able to build armor, the process required at least a year of specialized training.

Other than the heavy cavalrymen and heavy infantrymen, the Qin soldiers would wield bows or crossbows. Saleen had to produce crossbow arrows for around twenty-thousand people and feather arrows for more than forty-thousand people.

Saleen needed more than ten days of preparation to produce feather arrows for forty-thousand men. Each battle day would require at least two quivers. According to Lex’s standards, a quiver of feather arrows would have twenty-four arrows, so two bags would make forty-eight arrows. Consequently, Saleen would have to prepare four-hundred and eighty arrows for each soldier, which meant that he had to produce almost twenty-million arrows. Saleen was greatly aghast at the prospect.

The consumption of crossbow arrows was slightly lower. In a battle, a soldier might not even use more than three crossbow arrows. Due to the twenty times calculation, Saleen still had to produce more than one-million crossbow arrows so that Lex would have sufficient arrows for use.

The only thing Saleen was not worried about was the equipment for riding horses. The equipment included horse armor, saddles, horseshoes, leg guards, and pouches for the cavalrymen. Saleen owned less than five-thousand cavalrymen due to a shortage of warhorses. He could only prepare these accessories first and use normal inferior horses for training.

In the battle with the Holy See’s expeditionary army, he had looted quite a number of horse accessories. Lex would receive a sufficient quantity of horse equipment as a result.

The feather arrow reserves in Metatrin City amounted to ten-million arrows, while there were around three-million arrows for military practice. The battle with the Holy See enabled Saleen to loot so many appliances.

Saleen thought to himself, “If someone took this opportunity to invade Metatrin City, I would be in hot soup.”

By gathering feather arrows from northern and western town, each soldier would be left with one quiver. They had to give up the rest of their arrows. Saleen had collected fifteen-million arrows and these arrows formed a mountainous pile.

The arrow materials Saleen stored in the alchemy factories were also retrieved. Metatrin City was never scarce on lumber, the whole northern region was abound with hills and forests which covered filled with towering ancient wood.

A span of seven days passed by in a flash. Lex had returned to Metatrin City by noon on the seventh day.

Lex immediately returned to the county queen’s residence Saleen had built for her. Since Metatrin City was Saleen’s capital, Lex could not build a palace there. Her county queen’s residence was very small.

Lex only brought along a grade-7 sorcerer, both of them had used the Wind Travel spell to fly back to Metatrin City. Back at the residence, Lex was beyond fatigued. Saleen immediately paid her a visit anyway.

Saleen brought along his two new followers, Nicholas and Isabella. These two Tanggulasi people were now Saleen’s important associates.

Isabella needed no explanation, she had all along been at odds with the Holy See. On the other hand, Nicholas was fully depraved. He had turned into a fallen holy master and the Holy See wanted to exterminate him.

Saleen introduced his new followers to Lex. Through letter, Lex already knew about their existence. At the moment, she was only meeting them in person to avoid any conflicts in the future.

Seeing Lex’s appearance, Saleen swallowed his grievances. He simply said, “Why the hurry? I have deployed troops on two fronts, the number of people deployed have already reached one-hundred-thousand.”

“I know.” Lex yearned to speak to Saleen while lying down, the undisrupted flying had caused her to be exhausted beyond imagination. Lex had never worked so hard before. Over twenty-thousand miles, she traveled for at least half a day every day, her mealtime and rest time had been pathetic.

She had to return personally because only her God’s Ring could contain all the equipment. If Saleen was the one transporting it, the equipment for these one-hundred-thousand soldiers would not reach her hands for at least the next few months. If any mistakes or troubles occurred during transit, it might have taken at least half a year before Lex could receive Saleen’s aid.

“Saleen, I have to launch the offensive before October. After October, Loulan would be very frigid. I need to conquer at least three cities and you have surely met with the Holy See’s army. If I attack during winter, my losses will be massive.”

“You should install a teleportation portal between Bitter Water Prefecture and Metatrin.”

“We will talk about it in the future.” Lex thought to herself, “Before the mages from Sregl Island arrive, it would be better not to establish a teleportation portal. It would become a weak spot in Metatrin City. As long as the city has sufficiently powerful mages, other people will then be unable to exploit this teleportation portal.”

“How’s the preparation of the equipment coming along?” Lex leaned against the chair tiredly, she really wanted to fall asleep there and then.

“You only gave me seven days, everyone is now working on this job. I will not be able to gather equipment for one-hundred-thousand people, but it should be sufficient for ninety-thousand people.”

“Mm…” Listening to Saleen’s response, Lex finally shut her eyes and stopped talking. Saleen had produced equipment for ninety-thousand people, which had surpassed Lex’s expectations. The moment the burden in her heart was lifted, she could no longer stave off exhaustion. She fell asleep in front of Saleen.

Saleen sighed, he could not leave yet, the county queen’s residence had no guards. This place was only for Lex to take a break. The people in Metatrin City were occupied, and Lex might not trust Nicholas and Isabella. If they were made to protect Lex, Lex might not be able to sleep well.

“Nailisi hasn’t returned and those demons will not be up to the task. If they eat Lex, I would be utterly depressed.”

What about Sika? Saleen would never allow Sika to act as Lex’s sentry, even if Sika did not mind. Saleen would also not be able to make such a decision.

The only person free was Jola, but the thing was, Saleen knew that this fellow was lustful. Jola definitely had the guts to take advantage of Lex.

He was a Silver Grand Swordmaster. In a head-on battle, Lex would not be his match.

In the end, Saleen chose to remain there alone to wait for Lex to wake up. Saleen cast a Chunlin spell, causing Lex to sleep even more deeply. Observing from the sidelines, Isabella was envious.

The image of Lex lying on the chair was mesmerizing. Her colored magic robe could not conceal the curves of her figure. Her hair was spread out, swaying with the wind. There was a light fragrance in the room, it was unknown what kind of magic medicine Lex was using.

“She has so much trust in Sir!”

Isabella tilted her head sideways, and noticed that Saleen was looking at Lex in a daze. “Sir already has Sika, so what relationship does he share with County Queen Lex?”