Without Salin, Rex's chances of escaping alone wouldn't decrease much, but without Rex, it was almost impossible for Salin to survive. Not to mention that Salin didn't have any way to return to the Myers Continent.
Now, even if Rex drove Salin away, Salin would have to follow him shamelessly. He wanted to protect Silva, and Rex wanted Bai Meng and Holler to live as long as possible.
Salin's new spell, Windspeed, could allow him to reach a speed of 50 miles per hour, and as long as he was proficient, he wouldn't be affected by the terrain. If Neris carried him on her back and ran, the speed would probably be even faster. But Silva couldn't. Even if Salin could buff Silva with Windspeed, Silva's maximum speed couldn't be increased, and he couldn't adapt to all terrains.
Silva was just a warrior, and couldn't understand the secrets of Windspeed.
After eating silently, Holler returned to his sentry position and used an alchemy telescope to monitor the forest. He guarded the alchemy crossbow. This alchemy crossbow's lifespan would be shortened in a slightly humid environment, but everyone's survival was the most important now. The alchemy crossbow that should have been put away for maintenance could only be used as the most ordinary crossbow.
Bai Meng continued his work, using a dagger to peel the skin. The skin of magical beasts needed to be refined with magic to be suitable for making scrolls. No magic paper could preserve magic longer than the skin of magical beasts. These two hundred skins could be used to make 300 high-level blank scrolls.
Rex was a level-five mage, and could only make scrolls below level-four. If he tried to make level-five scrolls, the success rate wouldn't be higher than 20%. Also, making level-five scrolls consumed too much mental power, and Rex couldn't afford it. Making one a day was already his limit. Even if it was a level-four scroll, in such a dangerous environment, Rex could only make two or three a day.
Even if there were enough materials, it was unrealistic to turn all the skins into scrolls.
In Rex's room, Salin was using magic potion powder to tan clean magical beast skins, while Rex took out all kinds of magic materials, planning to make a puppet.
There were many kinds of puppets. The paper puppet made from walnut was activated purely with his own power, and was generally used for spying and assassination at close range. The puppet materials that Rex was carrying were used to build war puppets.
The Qin Yin Empire had a large number of Magicians. These low-level Magicians who couldn't fly couldn't be used to attack cities, so they relied on magic catapults to attack cities. Both the magic catapults and the stone cannons were huge. The purpose of the War Puppets was to propel these large weapons forward. At the same time, they could also be used in battle.
If the War Puppet was assembled, it would be at least five meters tall and would require a large number of Monster Cores to power it. Such a body couldn't move forward in the forest. Rex needed to redesign and create battle puppets that were closer to the size of humans. Battle Puppets were expendable items, but they were quite expensive, so no country had been willing to use them to replace their armies.
In terms of combat strength, a Battle Puppet worth 500 gold coins might only have the strength of an Intermediate Swordsman. Moreover, this kind of puppet would continuously consume Monster Cores, so the price-performance ratio was too low.
Rex didn't care about that now. What she needed were cannon fodder. As long as she could die in place of the people around her, it would be worth it no matter how expensive it was.
There was a simple refinement array on the table. Rex was processing the bones of magical beasts to build the structure of the puppet. Battle Puppets couldn't release magic, but their internal workings were based on the principles of magic. Thus, metal structures had to be minimized.
Salin didn't know much about puppetry. Puppetry involved all the contents of the six major elements, even for low-level puppetry. However, he knew Figaro's magic formula. After the bones of these magical beasts were refined, he could still help Rex build the internal structure of the Battle Puppet.
"Salin, we'll probably die if we pass through the forest." Rex refining the bones of magical beasts was a simple task, and he could also divert his attention to chat with Salin.
"Even if we pass through the forest safely, there might be even more terrifying dangers," Salin replied casually as he seeped magic potions into the skin of the magical beasts.
"You're not afraid?"
"What's there to be afraid of doing things for you? You'll protect everyone," Salin said bluntly.
"I see you have a puppet."
"It's a Hunter Spider." Salin knew that there was no need to hide it. It would be helpful for them to understand each other's strength in battle. If Rex wanted this Hunter Spider, he wouldn't be stingy.
"How many puppets can you control? I mean, under the premise that it doesn't affect your own spell-casting."
"Three. Hmm, maybe four." Salin gave a conservative answer after a brief analysis.
"Alright, then I'll give you three Battle Puppets. You don't have to cherish them when you use them. As long as we can survive, it doesn't matter if all of them are destroyed."
"If only you were at the sixth-level." Salin sighed. At the sixth-level, there was a water-type spell that could create a Water Puppet made of water elements to fight. This Water Puppet's combat ability would be equivalent to that of a sixth-level mage. It was a pity that Rex couldn't level up. At the fifth-level, she could only cast a sixth-level spell. The Water Puppet she created was also equivalent to that of a fifth-level mage.
Actually, Salin was thinking that it would be great if he were at the sixth-level. Many of his water-type spells had mutated, so the Water Puppet would be the same. Also, he could learn Joey's Elemental Conversion, which could make the Water Puppet more like a person and possess magical abilities. But the path to leveling up was too long. To Salin, the sixth-level was still an unattainable stage.
"If only you were a fourth-level mage." Rex was also sighing. If Salin were a Great Mage, the two of them would be able to launch many powerful attacks together. But Salin had just leveled up from the second-level to the third-level. Rather than counting on him to continue leveling up, he might as well count on himself.
The two of them smiled bitterly at each other. Even if they left the Hell of Godly Punishment, their lives wouldn't be easy. If the Oracle was counterattacked by the Ring of God Sifting, there was a 99% chance that they would die. In the past thousand years, no Oracle had ever been killed in the Vatican. A full-scale war would break out. If the two of them didn't become Magic Shooters, they would still be insignificant figures.
Communication between mages was the easiest. Rex prepared enough materials and gave Salin a blueprint. Salin stopped tanning the magical beast hide and began to help Rex build the structure of the Battle Puppet.
Rex took out a large number of magic armors and began to remodel them. The upper body of the Battle Puppet was humanoid, but the lower body was four-legged. To put the armor on the Battle Puppet, he had to remodel the armor of humans.
After disassembling and refining the bones of more than two hundred magical beasts, there were only enough materials for a dozen Battle Puppets. After Salin finished building the structure of the Battle Puppet, he was already a little tired. His mental power was starting to run out. He thought for a moment and said to Rex, "I need to meditate for a while."
Rex nodded. Salin got onto the bed and sat down. He held the family badge in his hand and cast a level-0 spell. Salin had many times more Magic Strings than when he was at level-2 now, but they were still sucked dry by the badge in less than a second.
All kinds of negative effects directly affected the depths of the soul. It was unavoidable. Salin was used to enduring. He opened his eyes and observed Rex's actions.
Rex was carefully observing the structure of the thirteen Battle Puppets that Salin had built. She discovered that Salin had actually made some minor adjustments to the blueprint during the construction process, making the structure of the puppets more reasonable. Hundreds of magical beast bones were combined together. They didn't even have to be fused with magic, but they already felt alive.
It seemed that Salin already had a very deep understanding of Figaro's magic formula. Otherwise, his mental power wouldn't have been depleted so quickly.
Rex had a lot of materials on her, but she didn't have a suitable magic laboratory. She could only make these low-level puppets. She originally felt that it was a waste of materials. Seeing Salin's adjustments to the structure of the puppets, Rex thought about it seriously and came up with a new magic array.
Salin quietly watched Rex draw the magic array on the structure of the puppets. Rex was so focused that it was as if Salin didn't exist. From the side, her eyelashes were very long, her nose straight, and she looked delicate.
Under the illumination of the magic lamp at the top of the barracks, Rex's skin glowed and emitted a faint fragrance.
Salin suddenly got distracted. How good would it be if there were no conflicts, no danger, just a life like this where he could focus on studying magic. Unfortunately, even Magic Shooters couldn't really control their own fate.
He couldn't retreat at all. Salin's name was probably already on the Church's black list. He was someone that had to be killed. If he had always been a level-one Magic Caster, perhaps the Church wouldn't care about his life or death. But once he became a Great Magic Caster, the Church would see him as a threat.
It was impossible to hide what happened in the Chaotic Swamp forever. Picasso would find out sooner or later that he killed his men.
Salin didn't regret what he had done. If he hadn't resisted back then, would the people of the Church have treated him well? In the sea west of the Tanggulas Empire, there was a small island. It was said that the people on that island were heretics that the Church had caught.
The Inquisition didn't have to kill heretics. You could also choose to repent on the island until you received the God of Light's forgiveness.
Repent? Forgiveness?
These were the two words that every Magic Caster would sneer at when they heard them.
Not a single sound could be heard in the entire camp. Holler stood next to the alchemy crossbow like a statue. Bai Meng had already dealt with the skin and bones of all the magical beasts. He was sleeping in the barracks. Middle-level Swordsmen wouldn't make a sound when they slept. Their breathing was so deep that it couldn't be heard at all.
Schika hugged her club and sat at the door in a daze. She couldn't help with magic. Bai Meng and Holler took turns standing guard. She was full of energy now, but had no place to vent it.
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