Badge in Azure Chapter 385

Chapter 385: The value of the dragon’s remains (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Observing from behind, Jola was on tenterhooks. Even though the rock dragon was a piece of cake to a mage, Sika was a warrior. “If such a delicate beauty got injured by the rock dragon…”
As Jola thought to himself, he could not help but pull out the Tears.
Sika stood at a distance of five meters from the rock dragon. Suddenly, she mustered strength in her feet, and appeared beside the rock dragon in a flash, even Jola could not see how she managed to do that. Without any frills, Sika bashed the rock dragon’s head precisely using the club.
Om!
Everybody felt the vibration in the air, causing their eardrums to hurt as well. With Sika’s blow, the Rock Dragon collapsed onto the ground with its head buried within all that gravel, spewing blood from its mouth. Sika then executed a beautiful backhanded move, her club striking the rock dragon’s ear, causing the four-meter long Rock Dragon to fly into the air.
Jola’s mouth was agape. His hand paused in mid-air, never touching the longsword on his back.
Was she still human? Even though the four-meter long stature of the rock dragon was not the largest in the world of magic beasts, its outer shell contained a huge amount of metals. Its weight would be more astounding than some large magic beasts. Sika managed to fling this fellow with just a single hit. “Even if I use the Sword Aura, I might not be able to withstand this impact.”
The others were also dumbfounded. Even Nailisi, who was used to Sika’s immense strength, put on the same expression.
It was an entirely different idea when one could hit an object which weighed more than ten-thousand catties into the air. Sika’s attack had even exceeded that of Nailisi’s tolerance capacity. Nailisi was not depressed this time around. In her heart, she secretly thought, “You aren’t Master’s bodyguard anymore, you won’t be able to replace me no matter how ferocious you get.”
When Saleen recalled the massive strength Sika used to pin him down, his heart lurched. It seemed like Sika was already being abnormally gentle that time!
Glancing at the rock dragon which flew away, Sika then fixed her gaze on her own weapon.
This cudgel, which was close to two meters long, was unlike its original appearance. The metallic portion at the front was filled with an abundance of magic patterns. The rear part was finer, making it more suitable for gripping. Sika had used the front end of the club to strike the rock dragon, and that portion was very exquisite. Sika was worried that the weapon might be damaged. In that previous attack, she relied on the power of vibration to smash the rock dragon’s brain, but the rock dragon’s skull did not break.
Such a sturdy external shell!
After making sure there was not even the tiniest of scratches on that the greenish gold metallic portion, Sika then had peace of mind. This weapon was refined by that old man, Faerun. Sika missed Faerun dearly, she did not want to damage the old man’s inheritance just because of a simple attack experiment.
Aini’s mouth twitched. He did some calculations in his heart, “If this Caucasus priestess possesses the highest abilities of a priestess, then my death spells will not have much effect on her. A summoned spirit can harm Sika, but Sika’s offensive power is too strong. Even if I do summon the skeletal dragon, she could also smash it in a single hit right?
Sika did not seem to be satisfied. She twisted the rear end of the cudgel, causing a sharp thorn to pop out from the thick front metallic portion. It looked like a mini spiked mace.
Woo…
Sika spun her cudgel as she approached another unconscious rock dragon, then she hit it. Her goal was the rock dragon’s skull. Since the external shell of such a magic beast had an unparalleled toughness, she wanted to see if the thorn on the club could destroy it.
It was not necessary utilizing the ability of a priestess. Once Saleen refined the magic beast bones obtained from the hell of god’s punishment, he would not have to worry about the distribution of power during a battle anymore. Using a priestess’ power for treatment would be more effective.
Pi chi!
The thorn on Sika’s club pierced into the skull of the rock dragon easily, causing blood and brain matter to gush out. Sika backed away, not allowing this irritating stuff to spill onto herself. At this moment, Sika was clad in an armor personally refined by Saleen, so she was not willing to dirty it.
“Master, could Sika be a descendant of the giants?” Nailisi could not help but ask. She possessed massive strength, but compared to Sika, it was slightly inferior. Sika’s explosive power was unmatched by anything other than the tiago dragon. Perhaps only the mythical giants would possess such a horrifying physical attack ability.
“Nonsense,” Saleen berated, but in his heart, he felt that what Nailisi said was quite logical.
“Saleen, this thing doesn’t pose a threat.” Sika put away her weapon as she walked towards Saleen.
“Mm, very good.” Saleen did not know what else to say, everyone was so bedazzled by Sika’s strength. Jola was even thinking to himself, “If a human can be so strong, then what is the use of practicing the Sword Aura?”
Saleen swiftly straightened his thoughts, then he broke the silence and said, “Do not reveal whatever happened today. Sika, in the future, do not take any action unless necessary. Or should I say, do not let other people learn about your special ability.”
This special ability referred to Sika’s massive strength which could be unleashed without help from the Sword Aura. Anyone else who saw Sika would never discover that she had such powerful offensive abilities, they would only regard her as a normal Caucasus warrior. A Caucasus warrior could easily reach the standard of a swordmaster, but it would be extremely onerous for them to be a grand swordmaster.
Sika’s attacks had already reached the proficiency of a grand swordmaster. As Saleen contemplated their relationship, he realized that they might encounter some special danger in the future, such as an assassination. If the enemy was in the dark about Sika’s capabilities, Sika would remain much safer.
In that instant, that was the first problem Saleen thought of.
“I will not say anything.” Aini was the first to agree, he also knew about the relationship between Sika and Saleen.
“You are the master.” Nailisi shrugged her shoulders, she did not want to anger Saleen. Sooner or later, such a matter would spread to other people’s ears, she did not have to ruin Saleen’s mood though.
“Sir, I will not say anything even if I get killed.” Jola recalled the moment when Sika took that step forward with such speed. Had it been himself, he would not have been able to dodge, he could only use the weapon to block. Then again, could he even block Sika’s weapon?
“Okay, let’s go take a look what else is there on this island.” Saleen signaled for Sika to put away her weapon. Nailisi stored the bodies of the rock dragons into the Dimension Stone gleefully. As the external shell of a rock dragon contained a high proportion of metals, it would make a good material even though it could not be crafted into magic armor. A Rock Dragon was a grade-5 magic beast, it would have some good magic nuclei.
This time around, Aini was prudent. He summoned five skeletons to scout the route ahead. Saleen and the rest followed behind, as they walked once around the island.
Other than the rock dragons, the island did not really have any other dangerous magic beasts. There were a number of nests on the southern cliff. These seabirds should be around grade-3. No matter how powerful a sea magic beast was, it would never fly into the air to threaten the seabirds.
On the southern part of the island, Saleen spotted the lair of the rock dragons. In the vicinity of the lair was a crimson hued opencast mine.
“Nailisi, bring some samples back. I want to analyze the type of mineral here,” Saleen instructed. Nailisi went forward immediately, collecting the samples of the nearby ores and storing them into her bracelet.
Aini also summoned a few more skeletons to collect the mineral samples. The Clyde family owned many mining businesses, but the mines were mostly controlled by the imperial family and noblemen from various cities. As a result, the Clyde family could only get a tiny share of the profits due to its technical advantage. A huge portion of the profits were dominated by the nobles.
If this place had an extraction value, Saleen could only gain possession of it, but he did not actually have the ability to extract it. Aini did some calculations repeatedly. If this area contained more than one billion catties of metals, then it would be valuable for extraction. At the very least, Aini could rent Saleen’s ship to transport the miners and various extraction machines over. Excluding the amount spent on renting the ship and an army, Aini would still make a profit.
Since this place was located near the hunting route, Saleen just needed to visit this place twice a year. That way, he would be able to allow the fleet to provide resupply and bring back the finished metal ingots.
It was a pity that Saleen did not bring any puppets over. Under normal circumstances, he would have left a puppet here in order to record the security situation. The next time he came, he could analyze and decide how many soldiers and mages were required in order to guarantee zero disturbance by any magic beasts.
The main agenda of the expedition in the Frozen Sea was hunting, Saleen and Aini did not bring along any prospecting equipment. In order to understand a mine, one had to drill into the ground, it was not sufficient to just collect the surface ores. Fortunately, the both of them were mages. By collecting the surface plants, they could analyze the elemental content inside the creatures. In the process, they could also comprehend the specific material composition of this mine. If they did calculations using magic formulas, they could even roughly determine the amount of mineral deposits.
Neither of them had this ability, but the Clyde family had mages who specialized in such calculations.
When the collection of samples belonging to the surface ores and creatures was almost completed, Saleen then said, “Nailisi, take out the dragon’s remains. Let everybody study them.”
The space in the alchemical boat was too minute. Ever since Nailisi stored the dragon’s remains, Saleen still had not had a chance to study them.
“Give me some space.” After receiving the Dimension Stone, Nailisi did not even wait for everyone to back away before taking out the dragon’s remains. This set of dragon’s remains were almost two-hundred meters long, and they still contained seawater from when it was being collected, causing Nailisi to be sapped of almost all her mental strength in the process. It was not so tedious when the dragon’s remains were taken out.
As the waterlogged dragon’s remains appeared on the flatland, the seawater released from the Dimension Stone caused Saleen and the rest to be washed away. Fortunately, everyone was pretty skilled. As the seawater flowed north, Saleen and the rest held onto their magic shields as they stared daggers at Nailisi. It was apparent that Nailisi did that intentionally.
Nailisi turned around, and said to everybody, “This thing is too humongous. I don’t want to control it, the amount of mental strength depleted would be equivalent to that of hours of consecutive battles.”
Saleen was speechless. Indeed, a Dimension Stone could be used to collect enormous structures, but the consumption of mental strength was so much greater than using a spatial equipment. The larger the object collected, the more horrifying the consumption of mental strength. Even though Nailisi acted in such a brash manner, she could lower her usage of mental strength. Saleen did not have any reason to blame her.
“Never mind, let’s see what this big guy can do.” Saleen waved his hand and walked towards the dragon’s remains which were lying motionless on the ground. Even though the skeletal wings of the dragon were retracted, its body still had a width of over ten meters. “When this thing was alive, could it really soar in the sky?”