Badge in Azure Chapter 183

Chapter 183: The Undead Spirits (Part 2)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Saleen carefully studied the more than three hundred symbols. He had never seen them before, but he could understand all of them objectively. This was an advantage of having studied the Figaro formula. So long as they were words with order, Saleen could vaguely understand the meaning they held.
This was enough. Saleen was not looking to create a piece of holy equipment like the Book of the Fallen. He only wanted to understand where these evil spirits came from and how to destroy them.
Mages thought that the world was composed of the six types of elements, and from the very beginning, each and every dimension had started at a point where there were only the six elements. These six elements had combined to slowly form a dimension. The process was long, and the longer the evolution took, the longer the lifespan of the dimension was as well.
These six elements were based upon ground, water, wind, and fire, and had twenty-four simple transformations.
Hence, no matter how complicated this world was, each detail could be calculated in reverse to deduce its original appearance.
In reality, there were twenty-four spaces in the Goddess Necklace and they each represented one of the twenty-four beginnings of the Myers Mainland. Once a person grasped these beginnings, in theory, a mage would be able to create a world of their own.
Inside of Raphael’s magic tower, in the cheese-like metal pillar, one such world had been created.
Saleen, of course, did not want to copy Raphael. He only wanted to understand some of the changes that had taken place in order to completely wipe out those evil spirits.
Saleen had not planned on learning these beginnings at this time, but now that he was stuck within the cage of the black deacon, he had no other choice.
The bodies of the evil spirits had still been created from the six primary elements. Hence, magic was able to hurt them. This was in line with the first law of the Myers Mainland. Saleen thought quietly as he investigated other possibilities.
Within the Goddess Necklace, his speed of calculation was much faster than it was when he was outside. He was not anxious.
As Sika waved her cudgel, the evil spirits were attacked from all directions. The ice plate armor on her body had already disappeared and since Saleen had entered into his meditative state, four hours had passed.
The evil spirits began attacking more frequently and the three of them started taking turns to rest. If the two constructed puppets had not been blocking the attack from one side, the situation would have been even worse.
“Nailisi, I need to rest another ten minutes,” Sika said as she put away her weapon and came before Saleen. Closing her eyes, she fell asleep almost immediately.
“Okay.” Nailisi nodded and took out a large number of level-1 scrolls from her bracelet. These scrolls were from Dragon’s Tooth Town and Saleen and Nailisi had not taken much notice of them. Levl-1 scrolls were created by grade-2 mages in order to familiarize themselves with level-1 spells and did not have much value to them.
Hence, the materials used for level-1 scrolls were very common and the spells inside of them could not last for more than three months. Once three months had passed, these scrolls would become useless.
If Saleen and the others had not come, these level-1 scrolls would have been sent away from Dragon’s Tooth Town and would have been quickly sold in the towns nearby.
Level-1 scrolls could be released by magic disciples and their low prices were their advantage. Most mercenaries could not afford to hire mages, and sometimes, even the wealthy were not able to. An inferior level-1 scroll had a price similar to that of a grade-1 magic nucleus, and was worth less than five gold coins.
Five gold coins was certainly not a hefty price, but it allowed a magic disciple to release a level-1 spell like the frost array.
If it surrounded a grade-3 or below magic beast, the frost array could cause any target’s speed to be irreversibly slowed and could create suitable conditions for a swordsman to deal a fatal blow.
Nailisi was making good use of these low-grade items. She did not need to use much energy and only needed to open the scrolls one by one to defend against the attacks. She had only become able to release scrolls after maturing, and her focus was as ample as Saleen’s. So long as there were enough scrolls, Nailisi could serve as a mage with incredible close combat skills.
Daniel did not waste any time in restoring his death flames and he was no longer interested in finding out more about Nailisi, who was both able to release scrolls and was good at close combat. After over four hours of battle, his death flames had dimmed considerably and he was in dire need of replenishment from a magic nucleus.
Nailisi’s face looked incredibly devilish under the eerie glow of the purple flames, and as she opened a scroll, her sapphire eyes shot out a shimmering gold light which shined onto the scrolls and activated the magic. There was a pile of over a hundred magic scrolls by her feet, and the value of these magic scrolls was probably less than an effective level-3 scroll. Right now, the level of the abilities used was not important. The number of scrolls was more important.
Nailisi reckoned that if she continued to battle and rest like this, she could hold out for three to five more days without much trouble. The evil spirits were too weak and were not even comparable to magic insects.
Suddenly, Saleen opened his eyes just as Nailisi was about to open a fireball scroll. The giant fireball was shot out without any aim and it seemed that the mage who had created this scroll had not grasped the true meaning of the Fireball spell.
The Fireball spell was essentially a level-2 spell and there was a simplified level-1 version of it. A level-1 fireball could not lock onto any targets, but it also did not fly away unsteadily like what it was doing now.
Luckily, the enemies were everywhere and as the giant fireball exploded, it destroyed over a dozen of the evil spirits’ bodies. The oncoming evil spirits were kicked away by Nailisi and waited to be revived.
Saleen shook his head at this scene. If he had been the one to release that scroll, he would have realized its problem even before he had opened it and would have made adjustments to it. At the very least, it would have been able to aim at its target. Even though Nailisi was able to open scrolls, she did not know any magic and could only release them haphazardly.
A spell that had not been learned that was released from a scroll could not be controlled, and most mages prepared scrolls with spells that they had learned. Otherwise, the offensive powers of the spell in the scroll would be greatly reduced. Hence, Saleen possessed a great number of mid-grade scrolls which he had not given to Nailisi.
Having Nailisi learn how to control magic by opening scrolls would require much more effort than it had when Saleen had learned it. Saleen was a mage and did not need to release a scroll to feel the details of the spell inside. However, in order for Nailisi to familiarize herself with a spell, releasing scrolls on her own would be the only way.
Nailisi released over three hundred scrolls before she managed to hold off the assault of the evil spirits.
“Nailisi, go rest. I’ll take over.” Saleen had not interrupted her since he had been calculating the speed of the evil spirits. He was contemplating which method would be the best for dealing fatal blows to them.
“Saleen, should I take over?” Daniel volunteered.
“I want to restrain an evil spirit but I don’t want to waste too much energy. What level of magic can you use to restrain them?” Saleen knew that he would not be able to succeed in one try and would need to experiment continuously. Hence, he needed to control the rate at which he used up his magic chords.
“I can use bone shackles, a level-1 death magic. I have always deemed it useless,” Daniel said in embarrassment.
“Alright, go prepare.” Saleen took a deep breath and looked inside of the purple flames in front of him. Many evil spirits were reviving. At least the evil spirits did not have any vision and were not under the direct control of the black deacon. Each time they were revived, they required some time to find Saleen and the others.
“Daniel, try to restrain as many as you can!” Saleen said as he started preparing a spell. A green light shone from his hand as an enormous ice bomb froze upon it. This ice bomb was much bigger than a pumpkin and had a cold metallic glow to it.
By this point, Saleen was incredibly confident that he would be able to deal a fatal blow using this level-1 spell.
The ice bomb began to evaporate and a mist surrounded it. The enormous ball began to expand and could not be controlled as it started breaking apart. Saleen had taken longer than a second to prepare the spell, and the ice bomb with the mist surrounding it was still on his hand. If it had been any other mage, they would have thrown the dangerous object away long ago.
The ice bomb became two, which became four, and then eight. When it finally reached sixty-four, Saleen felt that he could no longer control it and all the ice bombs were released. In midair, the mist separated and began to burn.
The sounds of the explosions were endless as the ice bombs shattered and flames shot out everywhere. The evil spirits instantly fell to the ground, and some of them burned to ashes.
Saleen was delighted. This experiment had gone incredibly well and had exceeded his expectations.
Sixty-four ice bombs meant sixty-four level-1 spells. If this had been the past, they would have used up one-third of Saleen’s magic chords right away.
This time, Saleen had experimented with alignment magic. However, the alignment magic of others was incredibly monotonous and was simple only when it was completed, not when it was used to counter other magic.
Saleen’s alignment magic had only made the magic more complex. The ice bomb had not been simplified and had instead taken on three different forms, with Saleen having involved the technique of elemental change.
Usually when a grade-4 mage did so, their magic chords would be completely wiped out and they would be in a weakened state for an extended period of time. Not only did Saleen not feel weak, but he had also calculated the amount of magic chords that had been depleted.
He had depleted the equivalent of seven and a half level-1 spells. This was to say that this attack had the power of sixty-four level-1 spells but had only used up an eighth of his magic chords.
This technique was not provided by the Figaro formula and it had been discovered while Saleen had been calculating the weak point of the evil spirits. Once the evil spirits had devoured the corpses and split into two evil spirits, they used up less energy. This was different from a mage’s understanding of magic, and Saleen had cleverly discovered it.
For something to transform into something else, the energy used could not be less than the total amount needed to transform the two objects. This was common knowledge in alchemy.
However, the release of magic was not alchemy and these evil spirits were not giving birth to each other. As the evil spirits split, in addition to devouring the corpses and souls, they were sucking in energy from the ice cold flames.
As Saleen had prepared his spell, he had absorbed the elemental energy within the surroundings. When the ice bomb had split into two, Saleen had only used up one and a half portions of his magic chords. When the ice bomb split again, he had kept the same ratio. Not until the sixth division did he feel that he could no longer control it and released the magic immediately.
If it had continued splitting and the spell had gone out of control, not only would have Saleen been unable to save anything from those sixty-four portions of magic chords, but he would have needed to pay a similar price. Saleen’s magic chords would have been wiped out completely and would have begun taking elements from his body, cancelling out the spell. It would have been the perfect example of counter magic.