Chapter 809: Archipelago Map

The construction of the Flameheart Plains camp was not something Liszt participated in. He and Acheronides spent the entire day studying the vortex entrance, which showed no abnormalities when no traversal was occurring.

Even when Acheronides cast high-tier magic here to communicate with the Magic Web, though the Magic Web manifested, no spatial rift tearing through it was observed. Acheronides offered a relatively reasonable explanation: the Magic Web cannot be judged by conventional logic, nor does it have so-called physical distance.

Liszt summarized it as follows:

If the world he inhabited could be described in three dimensions, then the Magic Web was something beyond three dimensions.

Just as two dimensions cannot explain three dimensions, three dimensions naturally cannot explain what lies beyond them. Thus, the Magic Web Acheronides communicated with and the Magic Teleportation Circle tore through were merely certain dimensions within the Magic Web, not its entirety... In short, it was a mystery beyond comprehension.

"We must traverse the Great Vortex multiple times, figuring out every detail of the Magic Teleportation Circle bit by bit," Acheronides declared.

"Then let's go. First, we’ll survey the map of the Fire Archipelago!"

Without delay, after instructing Cross and the others to continue building the Flameheart Plains camp, Liszt mounted the Fire Wyrm Rio, carrying Acheronides as they flew north.

The Vortex Mountain lay deep inland in the eastern half of Fire Island. Due to the island’s irregular shape, the straight-line distance to the northern coast exceeded five hundred kilometers. They began flying in the afternoon, maintaining an altitude of over a thousand meters the entire way, while also surveying Fire Island’s terrain.

From their flight path, Fire Island appeared rugged, with a patchwork of contrasting terrains.

Along the way, they spotted several volcanoes emitting white smoke. However, when Rio excitedly flew closer, they found these volcanoes were dormant, with no exposed magma for it to merge into and absorb volcanic hypermagic.

Additionally,

Liszt employed the Dragon Eye Trajectory to carefully observe the magical traces below, detecting numerous glows of magic power feedback—some from magical beasts, others from magical herbs, and possibly even sprites. Still, he simply marked the locations of these glows without descending to collect them.

After all, Fire Island was his territory, and everything on it belonged to him. He could claim them whenever he wished.

Only the surrounding islands were lands he intended to parcel out. These large islands near Ironhoof Island were more than enough to grant titles to over a dozen marquisates. Moreover, Acheronides had only circled this part of the Fire Archipelago’s waters—the more distant seas remained unexplored, leaving it unknown whether new islands existed.

Even if there were none, it didn’t matter.

The Second Archipelago—which he had just named the Vortex Archipelago—could still accommodate two or three more marquisates. With the Magic Teleportation Circle at the Great Vortex, communication would remain tightly connected.

By evening,

They reached the coastline. Rio returned to his body, and Acheronides took on the role of pilot. Guiding the seashell vessel with a waterspout, she skimmed swiftly across the sea like a streak of light. This time, she followed the coastline, stopping at intervals to measure positions with a sextant.

She recorded each position’s specifics in a notebook, eventually connecting them into a line that would outline Fire Island’s shape and area.

The surveying process was time-consuming, especially since Fire Island’s weather proved highly capricious—sunny one moment, drizzling the next, making direct sextant measurements difficult. They had to rely on other methods, figuring things out bit by bit or waiting for clear skies to resume measurements.

Fortunately, though they were mired in the meticulous task of mapping, the Arcane Communication Hub allowed Liszt to coordinate his territory’s production and construction at all times.

Cross Shaji and others continued building the Flameheart Plains camp on Fire Island, while Kenley Truth and her team worked on constructing the Vortex Town camp on Vortex Island.

The exploration fleet led by Yevich, along with two others, had already set out for the Fire Archipelago, planning to use it as a staging ground for exploring the surrounding waters and lightening Acheronides’ cartographic workload.

Meanwhile, on Heart Island, the knights were still toiling in the pits.

Over in Ironhoof City, Marquis Niuwei continuously purchased serfs, trained them, and sent them to Black Horse Island. The officials on Black Horse Island, following Liszt’s instructions via the Arcane Communication Hub, kept building broad-hulled ships like the Flameheart and preparing various supplies, sealed with bramblewood and rubber water.

If not for the risk of materials being shredded by the Great Vortex, they could have simply used any makeshift vessels for transport—after all, Acheronides would catch them at the vortex entrance with water tornadoes.

The role of an Archmage in large-scale projects far eclipsed that of mere dragon knights, who excelled only in charging into battle. Perhaps this was why the Moon Empire could develop a brilliant civilization, whereas the current knight-dominated world had regressed into a brutish, regressive hybrid of feudalism and slavery.

Unfortunately, relying solely on Acheronides’ efforts made it difficult to sustain such a workload or juggle both tasks. She could protect the Great Vortex’s exit but couldn’t stabilize its entrance.

The Great Vortex’s immense shearing forces were formidable—common crates and vessels stood little chance, requiring constant reinforcement.

After all, the iron-poor Sapphire Duchy could only build wooden ships.

...

Before they knew it, a week had passed.

Acheronides finally completed mapping all the islands around the Flame Archipelago, with remarkable results—especially the sheer size of Flame Island, which left Liszt awestruck for a long time. It spanned a staggering three million square kilometers, nearly a third of China's size.

The largest island on Earth is Greenland, covering 2.16 million square kilometers, but Flame Island is a full third larger than that.

Additionally, there were eight other major islands in the archipelago exceeding 100,000 square kilometers—three in the northeastern corner and four in the southwestern waters. Another was found by the exploration fleet, located about a thousand kilometers southeast of the archipelago... As for islands smaller than 100,000 square kilometers, they were countless, dotting the seas.

During this week, while Acheronides was busy mapping, Liszt busied himself naming the islands.

The major islands under the Flame Archipelago’s jurisdiction were as follows (the map has been uploaded to Lao Bai’s public account—just search for "Bai Yu Han" to find it. Follow for periodic writing updates):

1. The largest island, Flame Island, located at the center of the archipelago, spans 3 million square kilometers.

2. The second-largest, Tulip Island, lies in the south, one of the four southwestern major islands, covering 450,000 square kilometers. Liszt had already decided to grant this island to the Tulip family—just as the first Sapphire Duchy granted the 300,000-square-kilometer Iron Hoof Island to the Bull family.

3. The third-largest, Giant Kelp Island, lies to the northeast of the archipelago, one of the three northeastern major islands, covering 280,000 square kilometers.

4. The fourth-largest, Thorn Island, lies southwest, one of the four southwestern major islands, covering 270,000 square kilometers.

5. The fifth-largest, Mangrove Island, is positioned northeast, one of the three northeastern major islands, spanning 230,000 square kilometers.

6. The sixth-largest, Gem Island, is located due west, one of the four southwestern major islands, covering 220,000 square kilometers.

7. The seventh-largest, Phoenix Tree Island, lies northeast, one of the three northeastern major islands, spanning 170,000 square kilometers.

8. The eighth-largest, Pea Island, is situated southwest, one of the four southwestern major islands, covering 150,000 square kilometers.

9. The ninth-largest, Anchor Island, lies deep in the southeastern waters, linked by a chain of islets like a ship's dropped anchor—hence its name—spanning 100,000 square kilometers.

Together, these nine islands cover 4.87 million square kilometers. Including all other islands, the total exceeds 5.3 million square kilometers. When you include the Whirlpool Archipelago, Midway Island, the First Chain Islands, Dragon Turtle Island, and the Three Islands, the total area tops 5.5 million square kilometers.

In contrast, all the islands of the Sapphire Duchy combined only amount to roughly 2 million square kilometers.

"With such vast territory, if the islands also hold abundant minerals and a few more resource dragons, we could achieve self-sufficiency—unlike the Sapphire Duchy, which has to launch expansion campaigns annually... In truth, simply by mastering the invisible dragon and with the Lightgreen Gem Dragon’s recovery, self-sufficiency could be achieved in a few years."

With this thought, he called up the smoke mission.

"Complete the mission, reward: the lost invisible dragon."