Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 601 Incomplete Sea Chart
Guterres stepped into Harvey's office, knelt on one knee and saluted, saying, "Your Majesty, the Northern Naval Special Operations Team has successfully completed its mission south. I have come to report to you."

Prall and Sirius, who had accompanied him to the southern seas, also bowed in greeting.

Harvey raised his hand to let him stand up, and asked in surprise, "Did you get the complete chart?"

The major carefully handed the box in his hand to Harvey's desk. It was a box that was completely carved from precious coral. Just from the appearance, it was worth a lot of money... If it was sent to the hands of the nobles in the southern countries, it could be sold at a sky-high price.

Harvey had no time to appreciate the handicraft. After opening the box, he saw a leather scroll that had obviously been sewn together. He spread it out on the table and found that two corners were missing.

"The entire nautical chart is still incomplete..."

Sirius nodded and quickly stepped forward to explain, "There are two settlements of the Abyssal Sea Clan. Although they are willing to form an alliance and cooperate with us, the fragments of their inherited sea charts have long been lost and are difficult to find."

Fortunately, the two missing locations are located in the southeast corner and west of the southern continent, which happen to be the areas controlled by the cave dwarves and demons, and are relatively unimportant.

Harvey scanned the map intently for a moment and finally understood the general meaning of the underground water distribution map. He raised his hand and pointed to a thick line drawn with silver mineral dye in the north direction.

"This is... the glacial river that originates from the Godspine Mountains, right?"

"This is the Chatlan River in Isengard. So... this must be the underground lake in the Great Rift!"

Prall smiled and added, "Your Majesty's guess is correct. The silver lines depict surface water systems, while the black lines represent underground water systems... For example, the Chatelaine River sometimes emerges from the surface and sometimes sinks underground."

Everyone's eyes followed Harvey's finger, following the thin silver line of the Glacial River all the way north to the approximate area where Great Bear Lake was located. Then, as expected, they saw a thick black line connecting it with the large black area almost at the edge of the map.

"As we expected, the Sea of Ice not only leads directly to the Great Bear Lake, but also extends northwestward with countless tributaries. This is also why they can secretly reach the Great Rift of Isengard."

It's a pity that the rough and primitive drawing techniques of the sea people are unable to accurately identify the scale of the underground waterway. After all, their tribe only needs to master the simple route direction. The so-called migratory promotion ceremony... is nothing more than a personal expedition of a few reserve priests. Any place that can be reached by swimming can be mapped into a route for reference.

The floating island fortress of the Lizardmen is huge, and not all marked routes can be used for them to dive through.

So at present, Harvey can only identify two existing routes - the Ice Sea to Great Bear Lake, and the Ice Sea to the Isengard Rift.

"It just so happens that Pierce and his team have just finished inspecting and deploying the armaments at the Ice Sea Base and have summoned several generals from the defense department. I'm afraid we need to hold a meeting to discuss this."

……

The guards hurried away after receiving the emperor's orders.

Harvey, who had a moment of free time, changed the subject and asked Guterres with a smile: "Tell me, how did you get so many chart fragments from them so quickly?" It is impossible that a few warships really sailed over, blasted the gate of the Holy Coral City with cannons, and snatched it from the other side, right?
Guterres straightened his uniform and replied in a serious tone, "Your Majesty, we won the divine duel for the Coral Sea Tribe and also helped the Abyssal Sea Tribe eliminate the savage sea beasts that were wreaking havoc on several tribes."

Harvey was stunned for a moment, then asked in surprise, "It's... that simple? You guys were able to accomplish so much in less than a month?"

Sirius smiled and said, "The Major and his naval soldiers acted efficiently, but in fact, it was not all smooth sailing..."

When the three ironclad warships set out south, they were fully loaded with artillery and ammunition, and also carried a lot of supplies. It can be said that both the "carrot" and the "stick" were fully prepared.

When they arrived at the Holy City of Coral, they found that the two sea tribes had encountered an external crisis that spread throughout the entire sea area - a group of giant demonized horn sharks that accidentally migrated to the edge of their territory and were wreaking havoc on the settlements of several surrounding tribes. These giant sea beasts not only destroyed the fish they fed with corals, but also regarded the sea tribes themselves as objects to be hunted and killed.

The Abyss and Coral tribes rarely joined forces to fight against the invading demonized beasts... However, the tribes were weak, and the already scarce number of priests were simply unable to fight against the demonized horn sharks. If the Northern Navy had not arrived, they would probably have abandoned the Holy City and migrated to the coast of Faros for temporary shelter.

"We used the airship to lock onto the mother horn shark's position from the air, then directly killed it with a salvo of naval gunfire... The remaining horn sharks were no match for the machine gun and beam bombardment, and those that dived deep became perfect training targets for the submarines."

There was a hint of pride in Guterres' words. The navy, which had always been regarded as a joke and topic of conversation by the army, finally became famous in this battle, truly demonstrating its combat strength at sea.

This decisive assistance naturally earned the respect and goodwill of the sea people. In addition, the Undead Cult, where Sirius and Prall originally belonged, had a long-term cooperative relationship with the sea people. After a sincere discussion... the two tribes of Coral and Abyss temporarily gave up their hostility and decided to start a new round of duels in the service of God ahead of time.

Regardless of the final outcome, as long as the Northern Navy can retrieve the sacred object from the abyss for them, they are willing to shake hands and make peace again, and share the treasured sea chart fragments of their respective tribes.

"What kind of sacred object does it mean that they value it so much that they send the best of the tribe to the abyss to obtain it every once in a while?" Harvey's curiosity was completely aroused and he couldn't help but ask.

Sirius and Prair exchanged a strange look. "That thing looks like just an ordinary piece of coral, but it seems to have been corroded by some special magical substance for a long time. Therefore, it has a unique magical fluctuation... And the sea people rely on this property to lure large schools of fish to them for them to catch and eat."

It sounds like a "bait" with magical effects.

Of course, the two former necromancers who had just been transferred to other professions were not good at deep-sea diving. The one who was ultimately responsible for completing the ceremony was a reinforced submarine remotely controlled by Guterres, which easily reached a depth of nearly a thousand meters underwater... and retrieved a designated sacred coral stone for the sea people.

"At the bottom of that long and deep abyss, there are a large number of luminous coral stones embedded in the cliffs. We don't have to bother looking for them. We can just use the grappling hook to pick off a piece and float back up." Guterres also found it a little funny that the sacred tradition practiced by the sea people for hundreds of thousands of years was to dive into the deep sea and retrieve a piece of bait stone.

However, Harvey sensed something was amiss from everyone's stories.

"In areas where submarines can easily reach, why don't they send priests who are also proficient in water magic?"

Unless it is a place with a very special geographical location and a natural magic-forbidden area, making it impossible for spellcasters to reach it smoothly.

(End of this chapter)