Badge in Azure Chapter 308

Chapter 308: Saleen’s Skill (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Saleen was not doing this on impulse. He did not want to be on the run anymore. Ever since leaving Ceylon City and spending some time in the Bitter Water Prefecture, Saleen had never enjoyed a peaceful day.
His time in the Bitter Water Prefecture was his sweetest memory. Saleen missed Faerun dearly, as he missed this mage who had given him a lot of help. If Faerun had still been alive, Saleen would have surely treated Faerun like he treated Jason. He would have respected him as though he were his teacher.
Faerun had been killed by the god’s punishment cast by an oracle, and this event would be an eternal wound in Saleen’s heart. Even the three kings would not be able to locate Faerun’s soul. Hence, Saleen would not even be able to convert Faerun into a spirit.
Jason had changed Saleen’s destiny, while Faerun had changed Saleen’s character. Through Faerun, Saleen had begun to realize that there were still beautiful things in this world, and there were things which were worth being sentimental over.
At this moment, Saleen had a strength which he could rely on, Sregl Island. If he still wanted to escape, the only other alternative left would be to steer the pan’s turtle alchemical boat out to sea. However, even if Saleen did so, he would still face threats from the country of Shengfeng, the Cloudflow Empire, and Alchemy City. Thus, Saleen wanted to build a fortress as strong as Holy Rock City in order to resist the Holy See.
After all, this city was too far away from the Holy See. If the Holy See wanted to deploy troops here, the troops would either have to pass through the Qin Empire or sail on the sea. These two methods limited the possibility of the Holy See launching a large-scale attack against the new city. With this adequate distance, Saleen would be able to buy time and wait for Sregl Island to reopen.
The moment the mages from Sregl Island could enter the elemental space of the hell of god’s punishment, Saleen would very quickly be able to use grade-9 sorcerers. By then, would he still be afraid of the Holy See? Saleen would have thirty-six grade-9 sorcerers under his command, and that was a power which even Alchemy City would be wary of. As long as these sorcerers were gathered together, they would be able to guarantee the security of the city.
Of course, the thing which Saleen emphasized most was his personal cultivation. He needed to be like his teacher, who had become a sorcerer early in life. As long as Saleen became a sorcerer, he would be able to enter the elemental space and subsequently advance to grade-9. By then, Saleen would truly possess his own power.
Only by advancing to a grade-9 sorcerer could Nailisi’s power be unleashed to its maximum potential. Including Sika and the winged skeleton, Saleen would truly possess formidable strength.
A demon whose abilities were completely developed, an intelligent spirit, a warrior priest from Caucasus, and many more followers behind. All these factors would enable Saleen to enjoy a future greater than Lex’s. Lex had never restricted Saleen’s development, but she would also never change her ambitions for Saleen.
It was only a matter of time before Lex produced a batch of sorcerers. This teleportation portal was only half the size of Lex’s.
However, Saleen would never be jealous of such things. He had grown up as a child beggar, while Lex had already been a viscountess from birth. She had received guidance from a sorcerer and had enjoyed a huge supply of financial resources. If Lex still achieved less than others despite all these advantages, then she was definitely dumber than a low grade magic beast. Saleen had simply been lucky to be Jason’s sole student.
This kind of luck was a thing which would cause envy in others. In the past, Walnut from the Nut Mercenary Group had tried to kill Saleen because he had become envious of him.
Even though Saleen had experienced such catastrophes, his efforts had eventually paid off. Even though a mage like Walnut put in more effort than Saleen, he was still stuck in the realm of low grade mages. It would be a long time before he could even become a grand mage.
At the moment, Saleen stayed in the temple. There were no magic patterns carved into the temple yet. Such a job could not be completed by spirits, and even if the spirits could do such a task, Saleen would not be at ease knowing that the three kings were in charge of it.
Currently, the three kings were submerged in the world of magic knowledge. They could not be bothered with Saleen’s construction projects. Because the magical towers had not been built and the maps belonging to the three kings were incomplete, the three kings felt that there was nothing great about this city. They lived in a massive structure which Saleen had built specifically for them. This building was located two and a half miles north of the temple, and it had been specially built for the three kings.
The three kings were all more than eight meters tall, and during battle, they could even grow to be more than ten meters tall. Hence, this building was enormous. With a twelve-meter-tall door and three stories, this building was already taller than most magic towers.
Every single day, Saleen would dispatch a person to deliver two magic books. Since each of the three kings would read each book once, their reading speed was extremely slow. The magic books did not only contain words, but they also contained the smell of the author. Only the spirit kings were able to analyze the contents of these books. This was a lengthy task, but the three kings did not mind spending a few years in Saleen’s city in order to achieve true freedom.
Saleen had far too many magic books in his possession. By now, the three kings also knew that a person like Saleen who owned so many magic books was very rare. Furthermore, they could not afford to trifle with someone who was richer than Saleen.
Saleen’s days had become smooth sailing, but Saleen was very anxious deep in his heart. It was impossible for the black bishop to disregard this matter. The discovery of a heretic would drive every person in the inquisition insane. The Holy See might not have been able to attack the city through the land, but it could create ships to mount a naval assault.
Setting off from the port of the Tanggulasi Empire, even the lousiest ship would be able to cover one thousand miles each day. At most, a ship would only take two months to reach this city. The production duration of the ships might have been longer, but given the Holy See’s capabilities, it would be able to assemble an expedition fleet in two years at most. This meant that even if the Holy See could not pass through the Qin Empire on foot, it would still be able to get here by springtime two years later. On the other hand, the mages from Sregl Island would need three years to arrive. Hence, Saleen would need to rely on his power and Lex’s power for some time.
That was why Saleen wanted to see Aini so urgently. He needed Aini’s mysterious contractual magic to subdue the three kings. If the three kings escaped back to the death dimension before the Holy See got here, or if they simply did not want to put in the effort, then Saleen’s city would undoubtedly be destroyed by the Holy See, not to mention his ambitions.
Even if the relationship with Aini was disregarded, Saleen still had enough bargaining chips to force Aini to share the secrets of his mysterious contractual magic.
Besides training every day, Saleen also focused his efforts into the construction of the port. He regretted not giving one fully constructed puppet to his teacher for research purposes. If this puppet could be successfully replicated, they would perform exceedingly well in the defense of the port.
Any people below the level of a high grade swordmaster could easily be destroyed by the fully constructed puppets. Even if the puppets fought against people above the level of a high grade swordmaster, they would still outnumber their enemies and attain victory. The mages from Sregl Island would definitely have been able to unravel the secrets of the fully constructed puppets. How could Saleen have forgotten about them?
On the crescent-shaped peninsula, Saleen had erected twenty-four gigantic stone columns. In Jason’s design, there had only been twenty stone columns. Originally, Jason had not expected to have a natural peninsula act as the foundation. When too many stone columns were erected, the entire project would become incredulously huge.
It was also in the style of a temple to have twenty-four stone columns. Saleen would have to wait for all the mages from Sregl Island to arrive before starting to cast the magic patterns. Underneath the peninsula was the nest of the lightning dragon. Each day, Saleen would go and expand the nest bit by bit, in order to create one more hiding spot under the peninsula.
The most important thing was the white colored mountain situated to the north of the port. After the mining of rocks from this mountain had been completed, a fort which was over six hundred meters tall had been built. If one wanted to install a genuine magic cannon, they would need a foundation with unparalleled toughness. Average stone ground would require a space with a radius of more than one mile.
This mountain was only about four hundred meters in width. Since its quality made it sturdy enough, it would likely be able to withstand the weight of the magic cannons. Saleen decided that he would discuss the issue of procuring the magic cannons with Lex the moment she returned.
At this moment, no one knew how to produce magic cannons, as all the magic cannons had been left behind by the Second Dynasty. There were very few left on the mainland. However, the Grukos royal family would likely know where to purchase them.
With the magic cannons, huge warships would not dare to come close, so they would not be able to use magic stone artillery to bombard the port. The only method would be to deploy small boats with soldiers to carry out the assault. The attacks from a magic cannon were very powerful, but their expenditures were also just as great. No one would utilize a magic cannon to destroy small boats.
About one hundred miles south of the port was another location which could be used to build a second port. However, that location was more isolated and was not suitable for agriculture, hence it could only be used to establish a military naval base. However, at this moment, Saleen only possessed five ships, so there was no need to develop a second port.
Out of these five ships, three had come from Sregl Island. One pirate ship had been seized by Saleen while the pan’s turtle alchemical boat belonged to him and Lex. These five vessels could only handle normal combat. If they ran into the Cloudflow Navy, all of the ships would most likely be obliterated aside from the pan’s turtle alchemical boat.
Lex had taken one-third of the mages from Sregl Island with her, while two grade-5 mages had taken another four away. At this moment, the remaining mages followed Saleen and trained in the temple. They also helped each other, making Saleen feel as if he had returned to the days when he was in the Bitter Water Prefecture.
Saleen kind of missed Sika. Now that he had already advanced to grade-5, he wondered if Sika had managed to acquire the true powers of a warrior priest. Saleen was more confident in Lex. With Lex’s protection, Sika should have made it back to her village safely. Only by shifting Sika’s village to the new city would Saleen be able to set his mind at ease.
The raging war between the Holy See and the Qin Empire would inevitably affect the Caucasus region. Saleen could not possibly ignore Sika’s feelings. He felt that he was very much indebted to her.
What made Saleen quite ecstatic was that now that he had advanced, he could practice some of the things left behind by Raphael. Crystal Finger was a level-6 spell while Saleen was only at grade-5 now, so it was unknown why he could already practice this spell. Perhaps, this was compensation from the gods because Saleen’s magic chords only allowed him to practice water element magic. Hence, for Saleen, the difficulty of learning water element spells had been slightly reduced.
Saleen also did not mind the fact that he presently faced several times more difficulty when simulating spells of other elements. For every gain, there had to be a price. Saleen was already used to such things.
The crystal finger was an extremely amazing spell. The method of attack for this spell was somewhat similar to that of a swordsman. The user had to be around ten meters away from the target in order to unleash its maximum power. And, the closer the user was to being at a distance of ten meters, the greater the power.
Very few mages picked up close combat spells, as these spells were already nearly non-existent. However, Saleen had a soft spot for the crystal finger, because this spell was one of the strongest he had ever seen in his life. The physical human body could barely withstand the stress from learning this spell. Hence, Raphael had created a ring to store all of its power. One could only imagine how much damage this spell would cause to the enemy.
This was normal though. Flawed spells usually possessed greater offensive power. Take, for example, the Ice Ring spell. Its cutting ability even exceeded that of the Current Cutter, a level-4 spell, and yet it was only at a level between level-1 and level-2.
As a level-6 spell, the Crystal Finger only had an effective range of about eighteen meters. In terms of balance, it was fairly normal for such a spell to possess higher offensive power. The attacks from a grand swordmaster might not have had a far range, but their instantaneous explosive power would be higher than that of magic. This could also be considered a form of balance.