570 Sea of Stars' Challenges
Shortly after Vaan grabbed Aeliana's shoulder, they both disappeared from the new city lord manor with spatial shift. They appeared in front of the giant magic tower on top of the Red Goblin Mountain within moments.
Aeliana's vision only blacked out momentarily before she quickly realized her new location.
Immediately, she glanced at her lord on the side with greater awe and worship. Her lord had become even more unfathomable and powerful.
"That was a spatial ability..." Aeliana understood.
The restriction of magic for men did not apply to her lord; he was beyond it. An extraordinary man like her lord would not be subdued by common sense.
Although Aeliana didn't know how Vaan achieved spatial shift, she was relieved it wasn't through wizardry. If he had given up his prized jewel for magic, it would have been considered a tragic and great loss for all witches.
Nevertheless, while Acliana was feeling amazed by Vaan's new ability, he focused on the towering black building before him.
Ever since the Red Dragon Clan revealed their existence in the war between the Kingdom of Black Rose and the Holy Knight Empire, several young elites had been openly helping out with the giant magic tower's construction.
As such, the Red Goblin Mountain's surrounding regions didn't just become popular sightseeing spots to observe the giant magic tower in the making but also to see the majesty of the red dragon race.
"Sup-Err, Sir Vahn."
"Sir Vahn."
Two Rank 5 Red Dragons descended from the top of the magic tower to greet Vaan, one of which nearly exposed his true status in public.
His status as the supreme leader of the Red Dragon Clan was something they had to keep secret to protect the Red Dragon Clan and Pangea from Gehenna.
After all, if word of the Red Dragon Clan acknowledging a human as their supreme leader spread, it was equivalent to declaring the death of their Fire Dragon God to Gehenna's Seven Great Devils.
Losing one or their only deterrence against Gehenna would only hasten the war if it didn't outright start one.
As such, Vaan was only the Red Dragon Clan's friend in public.
"How's the progress on the magic tower, Esteemed Lady Emi and Lady Zeni?" Vaan casually inquired from two Rank 5 Red Dragons.
They were both female dragons.
Supposedly, female dragons were more meticulous with the finer details of construction work than male dragons.
As such, they were assigned the task.
However, that was just a stereotype. Not all female dragons were meticulous - just like how dragons were believed to be wise, but not all were.
The intelligent dragon race wasn't much different from humans.
Dragons weren't wise because they were more intelligent than humans; they were wise because they had long lifespans and time to accumulate their knowledge. Newly born dragons weren't any more knowledgeable than human babies.
As such, between humans and dragons, age and experience were the only true factors in their difference of wisdom.
...
"As you can see, Sir Vahn, the tower has reached sixty-thousand feet high. We are almost at two-thirds of the revised project's goal," Zeni reported after glancing at Emi.
It was Emi who had almost called Vaan by his true title.
"Sixty-thousand feet, huh?" Vaan muttered.
He distanced himself from the region and studied both the giant magic tower and the Red Goblin Mountain before confirming with a nod.
The total height of the two combined was indeed roughly sixty-thousand feet above ground level.
Once they achieved a hundred thousand feet, they would reach the great river of mana flowing in the high atmosphere. From that point onward, their mana shortage would cease to exist, and the city's rate of development would improve significantly.
"Who can accompany me to the sea of stars?" Vaan returned to the two Rank 5 Red Dragons and asked.
"I can, S-Sir Vahn. I should have more magic power remaining than Zeni," Emi volunteered before hesitantly adding, "But I won't be able to stay for long."
"You don't have to worry about that, Esteemed Lady Emi; it won't be a problem," Vaan calmly assured, knowing the female dragon's concern.
Meanwhile, Aeliana softly sighed to herself, knowing she could not accompany her lord beyond this point. She was aware she still lacked the ability to travel where they were heading.
"Then, let us head off!"
"Yes, Sir Vahn"
Shortly after Vaan's urging, the two took off into the sky, first heading to the top of the giant magic tower.
At this height, there weren't many members of the Red Dragon Clan that could reach purely by the strength of their wings. This was due to multiple factors such as gravity, body weight, and lower air density.
But as a Rank 5 Red Dragon, Emi had no problem flying to sixty-thousand feet altitude with just the strength of her wings.
Vaan brought Emi along to collect data on a Rank 5 Red Dragon's ability to enter the sea of stars.
As such, after he explained the details to Emi, he observed her attempt to ascend the high heavens and break past the sky's barrier.
Without any surprise, Emi entered the sea of stars without a problem when she had the support of her magic power. Coincidentally, she was proficient in spatial magic. Thus, she consumed far less mana than she would have needed to cross the same distance with thrust power.
Vaan released oxygen from his Heaven-Swallowing Space and locked it within their region of space, allowing both of them to breathe in the sea of stars.
The biggest challenge for the red dragons to stay in the sea of stars was the lack of air. Thus, once Vaan resolved their breathing issue, the duration of their stay in the sea of stars would drastically increase.
In other words, they would have more construction time.
Emi had only consumed a tenth of her mana to enter the sea of stars through spatial magic. She also estimated it would have cost eight-tenths of her mana reserve had she done the same with fire magic.
With that information, Vaan understood it was possible for every Rank 5 Red Dragon to enter the sea of stars.
Nevertheless, he only needed a dedicated team to build his space station - a place to supply oxygen during people's stay. It also had to be large enough to accommodate both humans and dragons.
Such a large space station would take time to construct.
Furthermore, he couldn't accompany them throughout the construction process. After all, he had other things to do. Thus, he had to come up with another solution to their breathing problem to replace him.
Vaan immediately thought of the simplest method and couldn't help but feel amused.
'Dragons with space helmets... That's probably a first in history,' Vaan mused.
As long as the Rank 5 Red Dragons wore space helmets specifically designed to trap oxygen inside, they would have no issue breathing in the sea of stars.
Furthermore, they were also proficient in producing interspatial storage. Thus, there wouldn't be a problem stocking up on a tremendous amount of oxygen to support them in the sea of stars.
Interspatial artifacts were far better for storage than any oxygen tanks.
'Supreme Leader, if we want to build a large space station according to your requirements in this region, we'll need an enormous amount of resources. I also estimate it would take around three months to complete... but if you give me a full team, one month is doable,' Emi mentioned telepathically.
'Time and resource is not the issue; it has to be done,' Vaan decisively replied.
'However, we won't be building the space station right away. We need to set up a space gate first. Once we have an active space gate deployed, it'll be more efficient and convenient to send resources and people to this region of space.'
'That should also greatly cut down on travel time and mana reserves for construction,' Vaan added.
Emi blanked for a moment before performing her own calculations. Once she got the results, she blinked with surprise.
'You're right, Supreme Leader,' Emi acknowledged excitedly.
'If we have a space gate set up, we could greatly cut down on magic power expenditure. In that case, I can confidently say it won't take longer than two weeks to complete this space project with a full team.'
'However...' Emi suddenly became discouraged before mentioning, 'But if we want to reach the moon to commence the colony construction, we'll need to build at least ten to twenty Rank 5 Space Gates between Pangea and the moon.'
'That's right,' Vaan acknowledged before further adding, 'And that's not the last of the problems either.'
The Red Dragon Clan's Space Gate needed to be powered with mana. Without mana, it was just pretty scrap metal.
Although they could supply mana from the giant magic tower, it would only be limited to the first Space Gate they intended to set up for the space station.
The subsequent Space Gates they had to set up further away from Pangea would require manual maintenance.
After all, the Space Gates could also potentially drift away from their ideal positions, increasing the distance beyond their capable function and disabling the entire path to the moon.
As such, the subsequent Space Gates required constant realignment to give them a straight path.
The sea of stars was definitely not a place for the ill-prepared.
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