Badge in Azure Chapter 309

Chapter 309: Saleen’s Skill (Part 2)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
There was another reason why Saleen was so fixated on learning the crystal finger. After fighting with the black bishop, Saleen had realized that his current offensive power did not pose much of a threat to professionals who were above grade-6. When Sika and Lex had been around, this phenomenon had not been so glaring. But once they had left, Saleen had immediately been able to feel the distress.
Against a high grade swordsman, or even a grand swordmaster, Saleen had some special techniques to help himself gain an advantage, but if his enemy was a mage or a holy master, he would be helpless. Furthermore, Nailisi’s power was limited by Saleen’s grade, so it could not be fully unleashed either. Even if Nailisi and Saleen had combined their power, it would not have caused any real harm to the black bishop.
If Banchajanna had not made it in time to scare the black bishop away, Saleen would never have been able to defeat him. Saleen thus felt that he had to learn a lethal spell whose lethality exceeded that of his own grade. The depletion by the crystal finger was not immense. As Saleen learned this spell, he realized that the consumption of his magic chords by this level-6 spell was only that of a level-5 spell.
While learning the crystal finger, Saleen faced a lot more difficulties than expected. He discovered that this spell came in four different forms.
Crystal Finger (water) – within a distance of ten meters, one could control six water flows and use them to deliver consecutive strikes. If the water flows were targeted at the same spot, the offensive power in each water flow would be double of that of the preceding one. Each water flow was as long as the mage’s index finger. Once the depletion of the magic chords reached that of level-7, the water flows would possess the same effects as the current cutter, which meant they could be cast a second time.
Crystal Finger (ice) – within a distance of ten meters, one would be able to freeze the enemy’s blood. This form had a puncturing effect on the target. This skill could be negated by divinity, magic, or the sword aura. However, the enemy’s strength would be depleted. The amount of strength depleted by this negating process was equivalent to twice the amount as when the enemy was under normal circumstances. With every successful hit, the effect would be amplified several times. In all, six attacks could be launched. This skill could be used twice.
Crystal Finger (vapor) – within a distance of ten meters, one could increase the temperature of the water elements within the enemy’s body, and then cause them to vaporize. This skill could be negated by divinity, magic, or the sword aura. However, the amount of strength depleted by the negating process was equivalent to twice the amount as when the enemy was under normal circumstances. With every successful hit, the effect from this skill would be amplified several times. In all, six attacks could be launched. This skill could be used twice.
Crystal Finger (boundary) – a standard level-7 spell. Saleen could not learn this skill for the time being.
This spell involved some knowledge of the process of elemental conversion. Had Saleen not learned this knowledge systematically in the past, he would have needed to spend several years mastering the crystal finger. Saleen had gained the skill of elemental conversion when he had been at Joey’s house. Hence, it was only a natural progression for him to learn the crystal finger. Other than the fourth form which required the abilities of a sorcerer to be activated, Saleen managed to grasp the other three forms in just three days.
After learning a spell, one had to practice it. When a spell had just been newly learned, one would have to chant a mantra and simultaneously perform some magic hand gestures in order to cast the spell. Furthermore, the activation of the spell would not be instantaneous. The majority of the time was spent on learning how to execute a delayed release, instantaneous release, and secondary release of a spell.
Furthermore, there were no shortcuts to trying to master these abilities. The only solution for the mage was to cast the spell repeatedly in order to increase their reaction speed. Saleen’s only advantage in this entire process was that his body had been transformed by Joey, hence he was able to learn any kind of water spells very quickly.
If one needed a month to familiarize himself with a particular spell, Saleen would only need less than a week to do so. Similarly, if he utilized elemental conversion to simulate spells from other elements, he would need at least twice or thrice the amount of time compared to others.
This meant that Saleen would only learn to simulate a very small number of spells which belonged to other elements. He could only maintain a certain degree of familiarity, but it would be impossible for him to learn and simulate all of those spells. Otherwise, his speed of advancement would only be a fifth of that of other mages.
At this moment, Saleen still could not learn the crystal finger (boundary) skill, as only a sorcerer could learn it. This skill could produce a space of water element stability within an area of about ten meters from the user. As a result, issues like elemental disorder would not be able to affect Saleen’s magic anymore. As for the abilities with other attributes, Saleen could not learn them now. Furthermore, one needed to take the initiative to explore the things left behind by Raphael, because Raphael had not recorded everything in detail.
However, Saleen was looking forward to being able to use this skill. When Nailisi had previously been injured due to her creation of a space of elemental disorder, Saleen would not have been so affected had he possessed the Crystal Finger spell. When he had been in a brawl with the black bishop, he would definitely have been able to strike him hard using the crystal finger, and this fellow wielding a partial divine weapon might even have been killed.
The combat range under a grand mage’s control was nearly identical to that of an alchemical crossbow, and both had a range of two hundred meters. Now that Saleen was a grade-5 mage, he was already able to fulfill this requirement.
Be that as it may, two of Saleen’s most fearsome skills were short-ranged attacks. The crystal finger only had a range of about ten meters, while the current cutter only had a maximum range of thirty meters.
The most suitable range for the Ice Attack spell and the Ice Totem spell were within one hundred meters. The level-5 Fountain Strike spell had a range of over one hundred meters, but it did not possess the ability to pursue the target.
The true power of water magic would only be displayed when one became a sorcerer. Level-7 spells such as the Crystal Guardian, the Frost and Snow Magic Pattern, the Ice Storm, and the Blazing River were all very powerful spells. However, most mages would not choose to make water magic their primary choices for combat as the learning curve was too steep.
Almost all of these level-7 spells could be advanced to level-8. Hence, the mage could save time as they would not need to learn any new spells. Furthermore, when a mage advanced to grade-9, pinnacle spells would appear in water magic. Pinnacle spells were also known as matured magic.
Raphael had created an extremely concise summary of the six branches of magic, allowing Saleen to ignore his defective magic chords. Anyway, if Saleen focused on studying water magic, his offensive power would not be any less than that of other mages once he became a sorcerer.
After Saleen had advanced to grade-5, Nailisi had entered a state of deep slumber. She had absorbed the essence of the tiago’s heart, so her powers were being increased once again. At this moment, she possessed more strength than Sika. However, it was not known if Sika’s strength would increase if she became a warrior priest.
Currently, Saleen placed a great deal of emphasis on the quality of equipment. All of Saleen’s equipment was pretty good, especially the demonic set. Previously, during the period of elemental disorder, he had remained fine due to two factors. First, he had realized what was going on very quickly, and thus he had cancelled the spell which he had been using at that point in time. Second, the demonic set provided a great deal of stability, thus the magic chords in his body had remained unaffected by the elemental disorder.
The only problem was that the demonic set had been around for a very long time. Even though its material was good, it was not suitable for a mage like Saleen. Besides learning level-5 and level-6 magic every day, Saleen still had to spend some time learning water flame alchemy. He planned to transform the demonic set by fusing the magic patterns acquired from the lightning dragon onto it.
He was not Nailisi, who could actually control the growth of magic patterns on her body. Saleen still had not solved the mystery of those three-dimensional magic patterns in his pupils, but he was very hopeful of the demonic set.
In terms of quality, every single item in the demonic set was priceless. If a mage possessed this set of equipment, they would already not need to worry about their equipment for the rest of his life.
After Saleen had been promoted to grade-5, he realized that the space within the demonic ring had gotten larger. This meant that when he finally became a sorcerer, the space within the ring would expand until it was sufficient for his use.
Ever since the demonic bracelet had been mosaicked with the dragonshard, Saleen had hardly ever used magic nuclei to restore his magic chords. The exception was when the dragonshard was temporarily empty in order to conduct self-recovery.
Saleen’s fitting demonic robe was not even considered a magic robe, because one would not be able to wear another layer of clothing outside a magic robe. However, the demonic magic robe had this ability. Two layers of magic robes caused Saleen’s surrounding elemental environment to be extremely stable.
As for the demonic magic book, its value could already match that of a golden magic book.
All along, Saleen had not been able to utilize the function of the magic books because his grade had not been high enough. But the moment he became a sorcerer, the power of his magic books could be fully unleashed. He would be able to store various spells into the golden magic book and silver magic book at will, and use them repeatedly. Unlike the production of magic scrolls, this process would not consume huge amounts of materials and was not restricted by one’s grade.
The golden magic book would provide Saleen with six level-7 spells, six level-8 spells, and six level-9 spells. On the other hand, the demonic magic book would provide Saleen with six spells without any type of restrictions whatsoever. That way, Saleen would thus be able to cast twenty-four additional high level spells compared to other sorcerers of his grade.
What effect could twenty-four high level spells deliver? A level-7 spell with a long range would be able to kill dozens of enemies who were at the grade of a swordmaster. Twenty-four high level spells would thus be able to kill more than one thousand swordmasters. A regular cavalry regiment only had ten thousand people, roughly equivalent to hundreds of swordmasters.
These two magic books would allow Saleen to destroy a ten-thousand-strong cavalry regiment without depleting his magic chords at all.
If scrolls were used instead, Saleen might have faced difficulties trying to control the magic, not to mention the massive depletion of his magic chords. If a spell was not controlled properly, its lethality would be sharply reduced. A swordmaster was not a weakling. If the swordmaster was not locked down by magic, it was also not entirely impossible for them to kill a grand mage, given their speed and assuming that the battle took place at close range.
Furthermore, there would be countless swordmasters on the battlefield, and it would be immensely difficult trying to differentiate them from the others. It was rare for mages to engage in a direct battle during wartime, because if mages were not able to fly on the battlefield, they would sustain many casualties as well.
The process of grooming a grand mage took at least ten years, and no one would be willing to let a grand mage be exposed to the dangers of the battlefield. Even if mages were deployed on the battlefield, they would be under heavy protection by the soldiers, and would only release magic at crucial moments.
However, the magic books which Saleen had could change this situation. It simply showed how precious magic books were.
Time flew by quickly when one trained. In the blink of an eye, it was already deep winter. The entire city base was covered by a thick layer of snow. In such an environment, the people from the Holy See would not appear. The port was completely frozen. The warships from Sregl Island and the pirate ship were docked at a deserted island far from the city. The warships were produced from premium materials, and they would not disintegrate even if they were frozen. The pirate ship, however, could potentially break into smithereens if it was frozen.
On this day, Saleen was practicing water flame alchemy. He could already release a bundle of water flames from his hand, and was able to control it for more than fifteen seconds. He could already be considered an amateur in this skill. Just as Saleen was feeling jubilant and was planning to look for Nailisi to find out about her progress, a grade-2 mage from Sregl Island entered the temple urgently. This mage entered Saleen’s room and whispered into Saleen’s ear.
“Hm? I will go and take a look.” After listening to the message from this grade-2 mage, Saleen decided to take some precautions and summoned dozens of swordsmen. Under the escort of these swordsmen, Saleen began to make his way to the port.