The Elf Empire Under Crushing Pressure

Sputon City.

This port city, bordered by the Dwarf Kingdom to the north and the Boya Sea Region to the east, was not only the trade hub between the Elf Empire and the Dwarf Kingdom, but also a key eastern stronghold defending against the humans of the Sea of Ten Thousand Islands.

With a developed economy, complete facilities, and a dense population, it ranked among the top three major cities in the entire Elf Empire.

As such, the Elf Empire kept heavy forces stationed here year-round: two Legendary experts, over ten thousand mages, and tens of thousands of elite troops.

Viewed from the sky, most of Sputon City seemed to sit atop the sea itself, its broad, orderly harbor packed with all kinds of warships.

A closer look would reveal that nearly half of those vessels were warships—three to four hundred of them in total—and every last one was a magical warship.

Speaking of which, the Elf Empire's navy had to be mentioned.

Among all the coastal nations on the continent, even if one included the countless pirates and nobles who once controlled the Sea of Ten Thousand Islands, their combined naval strength might not have matched that of the Elf Empire.

At least in terms of the ships themselves, they were far inferior.

After all, compared to humans, the nature-loving Elf Empire possessed countless magical trees that had grown for centuries, millennia, or even tens of thousands of years, giving them an abundance of high-grade timber for shipbuilding.

Furthermore, the Elf Empire produced mages in great numbers. It had more alchemists and Magic Pattern Masters than even the Arcane Empire. Forget simple magical warships—they could mass-produce floating cities.

Thus, the Elf Empire had none of the clearly tiered single-masted, double-masted, or triple-masted ships common among humans. All their vessels