Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-187

That was indeed a problem.

Joshua began to furrow his eyebrows. He really could not wear this female-style ring. However, this Twin Infernal Serpent Ring was still a Gold-tier Extraordinary equipment. Speaking of its tier and practically, it was not low at all. It would not be a great idea to just put it in the mansion. It would be a waste though.

"Maybe when I need to return a favor, I can just give this back to Vale Dani."

By the end of it, the warrior had made that decision. "If that doesn't work as well, then I shall put it in the mansion and make it into a decoration for the room."

However, upon done saying that, Joshua suddenly had a sense of déjà vu.

He always felt as if he had always been hearing someone saying the very same thing.

(This thing is not practical… Just put it into the family's secret warehouse.)

(This thing is not suitable for me… Put it into the secret warehouse. See if someone suitable would appear and claim it.)

(This ring… no one in our family meets the conditions to use it. And it would be too much of a loss to just give it to someone. So just put it into the secret warehouse temporarily. Let's see if someone can use it in the future.)

—Could it be such a way that the collections of those big families became so rich…

Shaking his head and dispelling the idea out of his head, Joshua let out a breath and continued to listen to Ling reporting the messages and news to him.

Today's official business has yet to be completed.

—A few days later, Starfall Year 832, 2nd of May.

In order to meet Moreila and his people, Joshua had brought Ying along with him and left the main city. They traveled around the side of the Great Ajax Mountains heading North. Meanwhile, Ling was carrying 03 around in the mansion as he was handling official matters. In the meantime, he was also taking care of Black that seemed to have gone into a deep slumber.

Other than eating, Black had been staying in the stable, sleeping. Its appetite had gone better and better as it was consuming more and more food. Its food intake had become as much as the food intake required by a daemon already. Meanwhile, its body had grown some tough shells and long thorns across the surface of its skin. Its teeth had also fallen off. And now, they were being replaced by layers of sharp fangs and tusks. In the meantime, its fluffy ponytail had begun to gradually shift into a long tail that seemed similar to the tail of a dragon.

In addition to the general appearance of a horse, in the details of its body, Black had currently looked more like a draconic beast. It was emanating high heat as if its appearance had a touch of kingly aura.

After flying for quite a long time, when Joshua had finally met Moreila, he had already passed over a few mountains and arrived at an offshoot of the Great Ajax Mountains

On the mountainside of a snow-capped mountain named Nissia, the old dwarf and Nostradamus were surveying the terrain and discussing something. After seeing the warrior flying from afar and landing near them, Moreila stepped forward and greeted Joshua warmly.

"It's been so many days since we last met, Joshua, my friend."

Moreila opened up his warming hands and ready to give Joshua a hug. Then he laughed out loud and said, "When I was half the way to your main city, I met Nostradamus. Then he asked me to help him choose a suitable site to build his magic academy. After I thought about it, and it's just along the way to your place. Furthermore, it is for your territory's good as well. Since that's the case, why don't I help then? So I've decided to help him out a little. You wouldn't mind, right?"

"Of course I wouldn't mind, my friend."

Right before he answered, he gave it some thoughts though. After that, Joshua decided to bend down and accept the warm hug from the old dwarf—compared to Moreila, he was indeed a little too tall. If he did not bend down his waist, the old dwarf would only be able to hug his waist. "But this sort of survey activity, you shouldn't be doing this all by yourself. Moreila, didn't you bring a few servants along?"

Upon saying that, Joshua turned his eyes to the side and looked at the dwarves that were trying to warm themselves up by a burning fire.

"Them? They'll still need to learn one more thing."

Moreila shook his head. "These guys are too young. If I ever give them this job, I won't be able to rest well. This time, I bring them along is to purely let them learn something by experiencing it. They should be able to obtain life experiences. I've not intended to let them do work for real though."

Meanwhile, Nostradamus was standing right beside them. Other than saying hello when Joshua came, he looked at the snow-capped mountains at some other times. He frowned and kept silent.

The snowy mountains of Nissia was located in the northern region of Moldavia, which was close to the borders of the Empire. The surroundings of snow-capped mountains would always undergo changes. There were valleys, rivers, hills, and forests all around the region. It was an unusually high peak which was up to 3,320 meters tall, being second to the Great Ajax Volcano which was 3,760 meters tall. Joshua looked towards the angle where the old mage was looking at as he looked into the surroundings. He could not help but nod his head, then commented, "In the mountainside, that location is quite good. There's plenty of space on the mountainside, and the density of magic energy is relatively high. This is a good location for building an academy."

"But it's still a bit too small."

The old mage heard what Joshua had to say. He agreed and nodded his head, but he was still hesitating. "The scale of the academy that I planned is not large, to be honest. But, if it is on the mountainside, it will look a bit narrow. Then the flatland on the mountainside is a little wrong. It's triangular. The academy that I designed and planned would not fit in well."

"Then you can empty the hillside and erect half of the academy here by the mountainside."

Joshua shook his head and refuted Nostradamus. He continued to observe the surrounding environment and reached out his finger to point at the river on the flat land beside the mountainside. "You see, just hollow out the rocky wall behind the flatland and connect it to the flatland that is already there. Then the place will become a large foundation made of rock. As a Supreme-tier mage, it will not be difficult at all for you to do that."

"And there are forests and rivers around. It will save a lot of energy when you're building it."

"… It's a good idea, but I want to see if it will destroy the magic nodes around."

Looking at the mountainside where Joshua pointed a moment earlier, the old mage gave it some thought for a brief moment. Then he nodded and accepted the opinions of the warrior. He immediately flew up and began to look at the magical nodes that were naturally condensed at the mountainside.

Meanwhile, Joshua and the old dwarf walked back to the foot of the mountain in order to observe the snowy mountain from the bottom to the top.

Right at the peak of the snowy mountains of Nissia, was a layer of ancient ice that would not melt all year long. On the mountainside, there were scattered cedar and steel-core trees all over the place. On the part that was close to the plains, the place was covered with all kinds of northern land frigid plants. Many lower-tier daemons were living in that area.

At the foot of the mountain was a deep snow lake. Since it was relatively close to the North and the weather was yet to warm up, the water of the lake remained frozen. However, one could still see right through the ice and see the deep color of the water in the lake behind the ice layer.

This lake was very famous among adventurers. No one knew how deep the lake was because no one had ever been there before. There had been many adventurers who were ready to explore or bet to go into the lake before. However, they did not do so and retreated because the temperature of the lake was just too damn cold. In the case where the person was equipped with protective armor, a Silver-tier warrior who had reached the pinnacle of Silver tier could only dive down to as deep as fifty meters. Meanwhile, at a level deeper than that, there was even a magical force that could dispel all similar type water protection spells and low level spells that people used to breathe underwater.

"The bottom of the lake should be connected to a magic Crystal Vein."

The old dwarf made his judgment based on that point. "In the north side of the northern land, by the surroundings of the shore of the Lost Sea, there's this rich in high-purity magic crystals. The appearance of one or two of these crystal veins in the North is not unusual. The natural magic is connected to the lake water. That will certainly produce some wonderful changes."

"Unfortunately, because the peak of the Great Ajax a volcano as suggested by its name, the nearby snow has already be tainted with a little sulfur and toxic substances, resulting in a lot of non-freezing lakes around. Although the lake water can be sealed off, saying that the water contains poison substances. Even though the poison substances are not really much, however, the water is not suitable to be used by any living beings. Or else, Joshua, you can consider keeping a few types of demon fish. They love this type of environment."

Magic crystals can be used to create storage crystals, or they can be regarded as simple magic materials. They can be considered as a high-value resource that will never be devalued. The industry of Radcliffe, in addition to selling refined ore to the Imperial Legion, would occasionally sell some of these precious materials too.

Of course, recently, due to the full cooperation with the dwarves, the industry of the Radcliffe family had already begun to switch their focus to manufacturing and selling completed weapons. Since it had only just begun for a few months, their reputation had not yet been widely spread across the continent. But according to the only responses of the consumers that bought their goods, from their point of view, the quality of their goods was really good.

However, after the dwarf had said a lot, he found that Joshua did not seem to be listening to him. The warrior seemed to have a great interest in this deep snow lake. He looked at it as if a lot of thoughts were currently running through his mind. His eyes seemed to be able to see through the layer of ice and deep down to the bottom of the lake itself.

"Master…"

Ying who had been standing right behind Joshua gently pulled the sleeve of Joshua. Meanwhile, the warrior was being reminded of something, then he nodded and said, "It's a little pity."

"… Joshua, did you really hear what I said just now?"

"Of course."

Joshua reacted and nodded his head. Then he spoke with an apologetic tone, "I've heard that no one had ever explored the bottom of this lake before. So I've drifted apart into my own effort to attempt seeing what's really down there at the bottom of the lake."

The old dwarf did not get angry, but rather nodded in agreement. "Yes, the bottom of the magic crystal vein must be different to be able to make such a large snow lake undergo some large and strange changes. We should explore it when we have the time to do it."

"Do you still need time?" Joshua shrugged and looked at the lake water. Then he laughed. "We can do it now."

Moreila was stunned for a brief moment. After that, he laughed out loud. "Hahaha! Indeed! Come, let us have a look at it then!"

As Ying was looking at the two of them with helpless eyes, the two Gold-Tier warriors seemed to have prepared themselves smashing through the ice layer, diving straight to the bottom of the lake to explore. Meanwhile, just when they had broken the ice layer and was ready to enter the lake, a shadow of a man came across the atmosphere, along with a wave of magic energy, had arrived before them.

Nostradamus seemed to be almost done with his scouting as had a smile on his face.

"My idea is almost completed. This is really a very suitable place to build my academy… This is probably how I pictured the structure of the castle in the middle of a snow land to be."

He told Joshua and Moreila. In the meantime, the old mage began to gather some magic energy in his hand, igniting light waves and water fog as he was producing a series of images.

Along with the solidification of the images, a huge projection of the snowy mountain appeared right in front of Nostradamus. This projection was identical to the real one, along with clear compositional and perspective views. Joshua and Moreila were able to see the structure and design of it clear as day."

It was a fortress-like building being built on a mountainside halfway down the mountain. The location was about 900 meters above sea level. This fortress was built upon the mountains. Most of the building would be on the mountainside and they looked extremely sturdy. The exposed parts of the building were extremely exquisite. From the looks of it, the designs of the building could be deemed as art already.