The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Chapter 799: Chapter 0796: Great Whirlpool at Sea (First Update)
 

“Your Highness, can you take me and my sister with you when you and Teacher Ach go to explore the New Archipelago?” Ruth asked with her big, adorable eyes.

Lucy immediately scolded, “Ruth, do not make such impudent requests to His Highness!”

Although Ruth was somewhat bold, she didn’t dare to defy her sister and could only bow apologetically to Liszt, “I’m sorry, Your Highness, Ruth has been too reckless. I ask for your forgiveness.”

Liszt waved his hand dismissively, “Don’t be nervous, Lucy, Ruth, if your Teacher Ach doesn’t object, I don’t see any reason not to take you along.” Having two cute little lasses for company during the voyage could indeed be a delightful and interesting affair, especially since they could operate the Magic Platform.

Therefore, Ach, who was researching on Dragon Turtle Island the project “How Dragon Turtles Mutate into Lightning Dragon Turtles,” quickly agreed to the sisters’ request.

With Liszt’s encouragement, he had already taken Lucy and Ruth on as his Magic Apprentices—a move to which their previous teacher, Chris Truth, had no objections. In fact, she envied the twins for being able to receive instruction from an Archmage at any time.

Of course.

In truth, Chris was overthinking it. Ach was only nominally the twins’ teacher and had no real intention of teaching privately. She preferred conducting her own magic research, or assigning tasks to Magicians, rather than interacting with others, let alone teaching.

Having an Archmage teach Magic Apprentices was indeed overkill when just about any common Magician from the Magic Guild could handle the teaching.

“Thank you, Teacher, thank you, Your Highness,” the twins cheered excitedly.

Liszt nodded, “Pack your bags, we could leave at any moment.” His and Ach’s voyage was always ready to go without any delay.

At this moment.

Source: , updated on ƝονǤօ.ᴄօ

From a Jade Box hanging from the roof, came a somewhat weak cry from Nami, “Chirp.”

It flew out of the box and landed on Ach’s palm, looking pitifully at her. It hadn’t been out for work lately but stayed in the laboratory waiting for Ach’s return, seeking care from its master. Its expression was listless, still struggling with the forces inhibiting its evolution.

Ach held Nami in her palm and smiled, “Don’t worry, Nami, Ach will take you with us. We are off to explore the new world in the archipelago my brother has discovered.”

“Chirp,” Nami nuzzled Ach’s fingers with its head and fell asleep contentedly.

One day later.

Liszt got his affairs in order, and Ach handed over her busy magic experiments one by one. Only then did they set off for the New Archipelago.

Boom!

The sound of rushing water!

“To the sea, we set sail!” the twins shouted joyfully from the bow of the ship.

Before coming to Black Horse Island, they were serf children from the countryside of the Eagle Kingdom and had never seen the sea in their lives.

After settling on Black Horse Island, taking a sailboat had become a common occurrence. They had long overcome their fear of the sea, except for swimming in it.

The Flame Number, loaded with supplies such as fruits, vegetables, and Magic Potions, cut through the waves along a structured sailing route, reaching speeds of up to five hundred kilometers per hour.

The New Archipelago is approximately four thousand kilometers away from Black Horse Island—if we calculate using Earth’s measurements, that’s roughly the distance from Bohai in the northernmost part of China to the South China Sea in the far south.

The average sailing speed of the Court fast sailing ships is about 10 knots, which is approximately 18 kilometers per hour; with a tailwind, they can sail up to four hundred kilometers in a day. It was relying on these Court fast sailing ships that the Sapphire Family was able to dominate the Sea of Azure Waves; however, there are many instances of sailing against the wind or without any wind on the sea, so at most two hundred kilometers can be covered in a day.

To go from Black Horse Island to the New Archipelago, even using a Court fast sailing ship, it would take twenty days to reach the destination, and if you were to use one of those merchant ships with a sailing speed of 3 knots, it probably would take two months, provided the sailing goes smoothly.

However.

For Flame Number, there is no distinction between sailing against the wind, with the wind, or with no wind at all. Ach controlled the Water Tornado to propel itself, essentially “speeding” on the sea. Eight hours later, they had already arrived at the location recorded on the nautical chart, and then Liszt summoned Little Fire Dragon Leo, flying between the blue sky and white clouds, to search for the land.

The search went smoothly, and it only took fifteen minutes to find the island—this was also due to the ever-increasing accuracy of nautical charts.

Ach had been studying “Astrology” for a long time and, combined with telescope technology, developed a set of devices capable of measuring the angles between the sun or other celestial bodies and the sea level or ground level. He also wrote a book, “Methods of Measuring Celestial Positions with Light in Navigation,” to direct the application of the device.

Upon seeing this device, Liszt immediately claimed the naming right: “Let’s call it a sextant!” In fact, the device was a sextant from another world.

With a sextant, they could measure the ship’s bearings more accurately while sailing.

Essentially, it eliminated the possibility of getting lost at sea. The ships from the Flame Territory used the sextant during both day and night, and only on cloudy days would they rely on the nautical compass—a device similar to the compass, fixed in pointing towards a specific direction, not the north-south direction, but rather west by fifteen degrees to the north.

There was no theoretical explanation for why it pointed in that direction.

“Ach, head in the direction of 195 degrees, the island is right ahead!” After finding the island, Liszt immediately contacted Ach—As for the “195 degrees,” that was Liszt’s own invention. He divided the nautical compass coordinates into 360 degrees, clearly indicating every direction.

195 degrees is slightly south-west.

This invention stemmed from his experience playing the game “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” on Earth, which conveniently displayed directions in 360 degrees for notifying teammates of enemy locations.

However, before Flame Number could get closer to the island.

Lucy and Ruth started to shout loudly, “Your Highness, Teacher, the Magic Platform reports that Discovery has encountered an unidentified Great Whirlpool and is being swallowed by it, calling for our help!”

Ach immediately asked, “Coordinates, direction!”

As soon as the twins reported Discovery’s location, Flame Number immediately turned and rushed towards the sea area where Discovery was located. They maintained communication via the Magic Platform all the way, with Discovery still struggling incessantly, while Explorer and Opportunity were too far away to render assistance, they could only wait for Flame Number.

Unfortunately, when Ach continuously corrected the direction and finally arrived near that Great Whirlpool, the signal for Discovery had already disappeared from the Magic Platform.

“Your Highness, Teacher…” Lucy said sadly, “The Magic Platform signal for Discovery can’t be found.”

Liszt walked to the bow of Flame Number, his mood somewhat gloomy, but still he consoled himself, “Maritime adventures unavoidably face misfortunes. They are pioneers of nation-building, and the new nation will not forget their contributions.” His gaze lifted, looking toward the Great Whirlpool that seemed capable of swallowing both heaven and Earth.

With Ach controlling the Water Tornado, Flame Number slowly approached the Great Whirlpool.

This was a huge whirlpool without visible boundaries, so immense that not even the Water Calming Pearl could affect its operation. The surface of the whirlpool sloped towards a distant center point, dark and deep, making it nearly impossible to see how deep it went to the seabed.