Mercenaries and Adventurers

The magic sailboat did not take advantage of the sea wind, but still sailed at high speed in the direction of the Farah Peninsula.

The mages gathered on the deck in twos and threes, observing the approaching land with far-sighted magic. They have been sailing intermittently on the sea for five days. Although the magic sailboat has crossed the ocean in a straight line on the map, the mages who are tired of the ocean scenery can't wait to come to this land that has never been set before. land.

In the distance magic of the mages, the coast of the Fara Peninsula can already be seen clearly. The continuous desert, the towering coconut groves on the coast, the golden sandy beach, and the mermaids playing by the sea.

Seeing the mermaid, the mages were pleasantly surprised. They discussed the appearance of the mermaid on the magic screen and which type it belonged to. Shallow Sea Mermaid or Deep Sea Mermaid? Or a mermaid?

In this regard, the mages who were still on the deck were divided into three parts. A group of people think that those mermaids are so close to the coast, according to the traditional classification, they must be shallow sea mermaids. Another part of the mages disagreed. They believed that although this place was close to the coast of the Farah Peninsula, it could be judged only by the color of the sea surface that the deep sea was beyond the coast of the Farah Peninsula. A mermaid living in the deep sea must be a deep sea mermaid.

Master Donella was alone in the third opinion. He thinks those mermaids look pretty good from a distance, maybe they are rare mermaids!

Everyone scoffed at this view, only Master Donila insisted on his own view.

After arguing for a while, finally the mages sought the Archmage for judgment. The two parties each sent a mage down to the captain's cabin to seek the old mage to judge.

After a while, the two mages came back from the captain's room, and all the mages gathered to see how the archmage handled it.

"What did the Archmage say?"

The two mages who went down handed out a pirate parrot that was jumping on their shoulders and said: "The archmage told this parrot what he meant. He and Coney are packing up the captain's cabin. It won't be long. It's time, we're going to dock."

Everyone put the parrot on a small round table on the deck, and gathered around to see how the parrot could resolve the dispute on behalf of the Archmage.

The parrot was bouncing up and down on the round table, its paws scratching the table restlessly. A mage had kept pet birds before, and knew that this was a place for parrots to stand on. He took out a lampstand from his arms and asked the parrot to grab the lampstand so that he could pass the message with peace of mind.

The parrot that flew to the lampstand was very satisfied with this place. It looked at the mages around it, and opened its mouth to say what the old mage told it: "Gah! Gah, about what kind of mermaid it is. Gah, gah, you don't need to argue. Ga, ga, just go and ask yourself. Ga, qua, those mermaids will tell us. Ga, ga, no guessing! Just ask. Ga!"

As soon as the parrot finished speaking, the magic sailboat changed its course from driving along the coast to heading in the direction of the mermaids.

The mages all chuckled. It turned out that such a simple solution, all of them were arguing endlessly just now. Now that the sailboat had changed course, everyone stopped arguing and asked each other which of them could speak the mermaid language.

Fortunately, a few mages who like to travel around have a little understanding of the mermaid language, and they volunteered to take over the translation work waiting for them.

Against the sea wind, the magic sailboat sailed towards the mermaid on the reef not far from the coast.

Mermaids have good eyesight. They saw a sailboat approaching strangely against the wind from a distance, but they did not enter the sea. Most of them still lazily leaned on the reef to bask in the sun, and washed each other with brushes. Catching the fish tails of his companions.

They brush off the parasitic seaweed attached to the scales of their tails with pig hair brushes, use magnifying glass lenses to gather sunlight, and burn the small parasitic sea fish sticking to the surface of the scales and not loosening their mouths.

There is also a strong male mermaid who set up a fire specially on the surface of the sea, put the carefully selected deep sea sand on the scorching crucible, and prepared to cast glass.

These are all seen clearly by the mages using the magic of looking into the distance. As the distance gets closer, everyone can already see more clearly with the help of magic. These merfolk look weird, some even wear clothing (fireproof smocks), and don't behave like either shallow or deep sea merfolk. As for mermaids, it is even more so. Obviously, they all have scales on their bodies, both on the tail and on the body, but the tail has large traditional scales, while the body and limbs have very fine and small scales. The back of the head is not hair, but very slender sensory tentacles.

Mermaids are different. Mermaids are born with magical powers. They have extremely high intelligence and are hailed as pearls in the ocean by all races. The upper body is completely in the shape of a handsome human, and the lower body is in the shape of a fish. Interestingly, the old mage who had traveled to the land of the elves found that in the sea area controlled by the elves, the upper body of the mermaid looked like an elf. In the human sea, the upper body of the mermaid looks like a human.

He didn't know the specific reason, why did he not have a mermaid friend?

The mermaids didn't run away just because the strange sailboat approached, but warmly greeted the sailboat to approach. A few mermaids also swam to the side of the magic sailboat and guided the magic sailboat to avoid the hidden reefs in the sea.

In fact, mages don't need sailboats to approach these reefs, they can fly. Therefore, after the magic sailboat approached the reef area, it anchored and stopped.

The decorative sails on the magic sailboat were put away together by the sailors. The mages couldn't hold back, cast their spells and flew out.

Seeing the luxuriously dressed humans flying up, the mermaids were very surprised. They stopped their movements and watched these luxuriously robed humans flying over.

Master Donila cast a spell to calm the spirit in the air, so that these strange mermaids would not run away because of fear.

This reef area is not very big, and soon, the mages flew to the largest reef, and the daring mermaid did not run away, but curiously propped up his body with his hands, and then put his tail on the ground, Looking curiously at these strange flying humans.

"Look, these mermaid jewelry and tools are all available. They are obviously members of a civilized society. I don't know if they can speak Imperial language?"

"I haven't seen them speak, so it's hard to say."

Several mages who could speak some mermaid language cleared their throats, told the mermaids that they were mages and had no malice, and asked their leader to come out and speak.

The mermaid language is all about high-pitched chirps. Once these mages spoke, they dispelled the idea of ​​many mages learning mermaid language.

Discovering that these humans could speak their language, the mermaids fluttered their tails excitedly, and several mermaids near the beach even fell into the sea, and then jumped out of the sea with a swish.

Listening to the mermaid language coming and going around, the translators had to ask the leaders of these mermaids to speak again.

A tall male mermaid with a trident bounced and bounced from where the glass was made. When he came over like this, many young mages laughed, but he was immediately reminded by the older mage to take it back.

This tall male mermaid should be the leader of these more than a hundred mermaids. He stands about five meters high on the ground, and his thick and strong tail accounts for most of it. He was wearing a blouse made of heat-resistant stone flakes, and he was holding a bony trident that was at least eight meters long, and the tip of the halberd was made of luminous magic crystals.

As soon as he arrived, he spoke in Imperial language: "Are you the legendary mage?"

Hearing that the mermaid could speak Imperial language, the mages were pleasantly surprised and said, "Tell us quickly, are you a deep-sea mermaid or a shallow-sea mermaid?"

I don't understand why these strange mages are so interested in what kind of mermaid they are, but the leader of this mermaid answered the mages' questions: "We are shallow sea mermaids. I answered your questions, and you have to answer me too. The problem."

Hearing that it was a shallow sea mermaid, half of the mages were rather depressed, and flew back to the magic sailboat.

The remaining mages were triumphant, as if they had won a battle, and asked the mermaid leader to ask questions casually.

"What are you here for? Do you have any plans to make a deal? I heard that you will recruit children with magical talents as magic apprentices. Do you see if there are such children in my tribe?" The tall mermaid leader breathed out. Several questions were asked.

After hearing several questions from the mermaid leader, the remaining mages discussed in a low voice. They used a remote language of the Northern Kingdom. This language with magical rhythms was specially learned for master apprentices to learn, and it happened to be used as a code word that could not be deciphered on many occasions.

Among the mages present, a mage with the highest status in the society answered the other party's question on behalf of everyone: "Haha, it's funny to say, we passed by nearby, and we were going to dock at a nearby port. As a result, we found you mermaids on the way. We are mages. Well, I have some knowledge about mermaids. So we are discussing whether you are deep-sea mermaids or shallow-sea mermaids. Everyone is arguing about this, so come and see, which kind of mermaids you are."

The mermaid leader opened his mouth wide. He didn't expect these mages to be so curious. When they passed by here, they had to see what happened. "So you have no plans to make a deal? There must be goods for such a big ship. We can trade anything."

The mages discussed it and replied: "We are mages, so we have everything, but our most precious thing is knowledge and wisdom. Are you interested?"

The mermaid leader thought about it carefully, and asked the mages: "Then do you have a way to forge metal tools without using flames? The ones we mermaids can use!"

This question stopped the mages. They all knew some methods of forging metal without flames, but they didn't have a method that could be used by this group of mermaids. This embarrasses the mages who just spoke, saying yes, most of these mermaids can't be used. If they said no, wouldn't that be a loss to the Northern Society of Magic?

The mages gathered together to discuss, while the curious ones among the mermaids gathered around and observed the mages openly.

"This group of mermaids must have been doing business with people nearby. You see, the brush used by that mermaid is obviously a cheap pig hair brush made in a workshop."

"Ah, indeed. There are also the crucible and fuel over there, which are obviously standard items. Of course, this has nothing to do with us. Do you have any methods?"

"The cold forging method is not suitable for these mermaids who live in hot areas. I can't help it. What about you?"

"I can't help it. These mermaids don't know magic, and they don't have the natural ability to cast spells in their blood. How about you, Mage Donila? Do you have any elf spells?"

"Don't look at me, they can't even release human magic, let alone elf magic. In my opinion, it's better to ask the archmage, there is nothing the old man can't solve. Of course, I have to explain first , even if we provide a method, these mermaids have nothing to pay for the transaction."

"You're right. These mermaids can't afford the fee. Now that we've found out what kind of mermaids they are, should we go? If we delay any longer, we'll have to find a nearby seaport at night."

After speaking, the mage cast a spell and flew away, and soon returned to the magic sailboat. It seems that he is a quick-tempered person.

Next, a few mages flew away. After all, these mermaids are nothing special. It’s over after seeing them, and it’s enough to satisfy their curiosity. Mermaids, as long as they run on the sea, they can always encounter mermaids several times a year. In some places, mermaids even formed small countries, and even set up merchant cards on some busy sea routes to collect taxes from merchant ships.

In the end, there were five or six mages left. Among them, the mage who can speak mermaid language has become one with the surrounding mermaids, and they taught other mermaids in other parts of the mermaid how to maintain their tail scales. The new method is very popular among the mermaids.

The tall mermaid leader also put down his trident, and he stopped standing upright. He put the tail of the fish flat and leaned against the rock, looking at the mages who were talking to each other.

He is very patient and knows that there is no rush for anything, let alone something that he can't solve. The method of making glass with flames and crucibles was obtained by saving an exiled nobleman.

The discussions among the mages were finally over. Although they didn't come up with any good solutions, they could at least provide the mermaids with the methods often used by mermaids in other places.

two.

The first is to exchange resources for money, and then exchange coins for processed metal tools.

The second is to exchange resources for money, and then exchange coins for various materials for metal processing, and to forge metal tools by yourself.

In fact, the first step of the two methods can even be omitted, as long as they can find a sea trade route, and then directly collect taxes from merchant ships, and then use coins to trade with bold merchants, and the job is over.

But there is a question, what do the mermaids want to exchange for these two methods?

A mage walked up to the mermaid leader and asked, "We already have a method, but there is a problem. What are you going to give in exchange for this method?"

The mermaid leader gestured to everything around him, and then said, "If you can provide it, my answer is, everything."

The mage smiled, a mockery. He laughed at the mermaid's overreach, and told the mage to trade everything, so what's the difference from telling the devil to sell his soul? Moreover, their magic society governs the entire northern kingdoms, so how could they think highly of this small group of shallow sea mermaids.

Just when the mage was about to sneer and leave, a mage flew from the magic sailboat.

As soon as the mage's shop landed, he said to the mermaid leader: "Then we will accept this deal."

The mages present all looked at the mage who was coming. It turned out to be the young mage Kony. As the assistant of the archmage, he must speak on behalf of the archmage himself.

All the mages gathered and asked Coney in a low voice.

Coney replied, it turned out that the old mage checked the situation here when he saw that some of the mermaids hadn't come back after asking about their identities. He saw the discussion between the mermaid leader and the mages, and thought that these mermaids are still very interesting, and there is no mermaid power in the society, so the old mage wanted to move this mermaid tribe with more than a hundred tails to the Northern Magic Society for rule and management As a small force that has been learned to directly control, use them to contain some other kingdom forces in the Northern Kingdom.

Hearing Kony's answer, the mages all nodded, approving the matter. Since the archmage said that these mermaids are useful, maybe these mermaids can be of some use.

"So how did the archmage solve the request of the mermaid leader?" The mage said the method they just gave again. After listening to the mage, Coney was stunned for a while, and then pulled his ears with an ugly face.

"The archmage scolded us again?" The mages asked curiously: "What are you scolding? Tell me, Koni."

"It's better not to say it, the archmage said he will come right away."

"Forget it, let's wait for His Excellency the Archmage to come over." The mages nodded to each other, and then told the mermaid leader the news.

The magic sailboat docked outside the reef area drew up its anchor, and then the sea below the boat suddenly rose three meters high out of thin air. It is so unreasonable to protrude three meters of the sea under the hull of the sailboat.

This time, the magic sailboat can continue driving in the reef area again.

The magic sailboat crossed the reef protruding from the sea surface, crossed the reef below the sea surface, and headed for the largest reef. The bold mermaid dived into the water in the air from the nearby sea, swam curiously for a while, then leaned out of the sea, showing off to other mermaids.

If you observe carefully, you can find that the magic sailboat is not moving at all. What is actually moving is the little strip of water under the hull.

Soon, the sea water carried the sailboat to the largest reef in the reef area. The old wizard noticed the little cauldrons and fires of the merfolk, and was very happy that the merfolk had figured out how to make glass.

The sailboat stopped in the air, and then slowly lowered its height until it was anchored on a piece of sea beside the reef.

The old mage appeared on the deck. He let the mages on the deck do whatever they wanted, then stepped out of the deck of the sailboat, and walked to the reef step by step in the air.

The few remaining mages on the reef paid respects to the old mage, but the old mage stopped them: "They are all on vacation, everyone take it easy."

The mermaid leader didn't know who this was, but he understood that this should be the leader of the mages.

"How did you complete the question I just asked?" The mermaid leader looked at the old mage who was very small compared to him.

The old mage rubbed his beard, looked at some mermaids holding large pieces of glass to focus light to eliminate parasitic small fish, and then looked at the semi-molten sand in the crucible not far behind the mermaid leader, smiled and said: "I see You guys are using some glassware. Why don't you try to figure something out about it?"

"What can you think about?" The mermaid leader picked up a piece of glass attached to his waist and asked while fiddling with it.

The old mage turned around and looked at the mages beside him. The mages immediately realized that the old mage had an idea, and this time was testing their wisdom.

Kony first yelled: "I see! You mean to make a large glass concave-convex mirror and use natural sunlight to heat metal materials!"

"Close, but impractical. Think again."

An older mage tapped his head with his fingers and said with a smile: "Ha, I know. Divide the large mirror into smaller mirrors to reduce the difficulty of production and at the same time adjust the size of light and heat."

"Very close, very close. But there are still some small problems, hints, angle adjustments."

Another mage patted his chest and said affirmatively: "It's not a concave-convex mirror, just use an ordinary mirror! As long as you teach the mermaids how to silver-plate glass, they can make this kind of thing by themselves."

The old mage smiled: "That's right, who has some silver coins? I'll ask for some from the old man, and I'll return them to him when I arrive at the harbor on the Fara Peninsula."

Several mages fumbled on their bodies, then reached into the mage's subspace pockets, and some even checked the space props on their bodies. In the end, everyone evened out a pile of coins more than one meter high. Among them, Master Kony carried the most coins, and the old mage stared at him, which hurt Master Kony. Usually, he was the one who took out the money when the two of them went out. ? This money is still a sum of money specially approved by the society.

The old mage asked the mermaid leader to be optimistic, and at the same time asked him to stop the panic that other mermaids might have.

Then the old mage pointed at the pile of coins, and the pile of coins flew into the sky. Then the eyes of the old mage shone with light, and the lights in the left and right eyes could faintly reveal two mysterious symbols.

The other mages wanted to help, but the old mage held out his hand to stop the others, and told Coney to go to the boat and tell the other mages to stay out of it too, and he was going to relive a little passion of his youth.

The old mage raised his hands, and the surrounding sea shook slightly, and then the sea receded towards the surroundings, leaving various standing reefs in the sea exposed to the air.

This time, the magic sailboat was nailed to its original position in the space by the old mage waving his left hand, so that it would not move with the surrounding changes.

The reef towering in the air trembled and deformed. The old mage felt a little slow, and waved his right hand to release a one-meter-wide space door. All kinds of luminous fairies immediately swarmed out from inside. These fairies circled around the old mage, and when the old mage gave orders to all the fairies in the inaudible fairy language, these luminous fairies immediately scattered. And open.

The goblin glowing red all over came to the pile of coins in the air, and helped the old mage heat the coins, melting the pile of coins into a liquid state.

The goblin with yellow light all over came to the surrounding reefs and helped the old mage transform the reefs, turning the scattered reefs into cylinders.

The goblin with blue light all over came to the top of the surrounding waves, and helped the old mage freeze the sea water, purify the sea water and then freeze it into blocks.

The goblin with white light all over came to the surrounding ice cubes and helped the old mage cut the ice cubes into suitable ice mirrors.

After all the coins in the air melted, the old mage cast a spell to make the molten metal in the air rotate, and the molten metal mixed with various metals was illuminated by the old mage's eyes, and it was consciously divided into various elemental metals. A small amount of gold was circled by the goblin emitting blue light, and then returned to the side of the Kony mage on the ship. Iron, tin, lead, silver, copper and other metals are lined up in the air one by one. With a wave of his left hand, the old mage returned all the metals except silver to the ship.

The metal silver cluster in the air was divided into many small parts, and each part became a silver mirror with a diameter of two meters, which was exactly the same size as the ice mirrors made by the fairies.

The silver mirror here is just right, and the yellow fairies have processed all the reefs. They modified the reefs into cylindrical shapes. Because the redundant parts were removed, all the cylindrical reefs protruded high and low. The original sea.

Only then did the old mage let the nearby sea water return. After the sea water slowly and steadily returned to calm under his control, the old mage then released the space nails of the magic sailboat, allowing the sailboat to float and move freely on the sea.

The goblins returned to the old mage at last, pestering the old mage not knowing what to say. While talking to them in the inaudible fairy language, the old mage cut and processed each cylindrical reef, and cut off the excess part of the nearby reef to make it lower. The reef in the distance adds excess to make it taller.

In this way, a rather neat theater-like shape with low near and far high is formed.

The old mage then applied constant magic to all the ice mirrors, and connected these magics to the cylindrical reefs. Every time the waves hit the reefs, the ice mirrors would be maintained for a while longer.

The old mage blew out a breath to cool down all the silver mirrors. Wait until the temperature of the silver mirror is not high, and then stick the silver mirror and the ice mirror together.

With a slight flick of the finger, the ice mirror wraps the silver mirror inside, and then each of them flies in the air, connecting with the cylindrical reef below.

When the old mage was modifying the reef, he had adjusted the steering angle and height angle of all the cylindrical reefs. So, after all the ice mirrors were connected to the reef, the sunlight from the sky shone on each piece of ice mirrors, and beams of light were reflected to a place ten meters above the head of the mermaid leader.

After appeasing the goblins, the old mage coaxed the goblins into the space door.

"It's done. The method you want!" The old mage closed his eyes, put his hands into the wide sleeves of his robe, and said to the mermaid leader.

All the mermaids and mages were speechless in amazement. Everyone looked at the old man with white beard and hair.

The mermaid leader straightened his fish tail, extended his arms, and stretched his trident towards the intersection of the rays of light in the sky.

In no time, the crystal tip of the trident halberd softened and changed shape.

The mermaid leader took a deep breath with his gills and said, "You can do whatever you say afterwards. You have the final say."