Badge in Azure Chapter 387

Chapter 387: Trouble in the lair (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Fundamentally, Saleen was not a greedy person. Due to the overwhelming stress caused by the Black Bishop the previous time, Saleen had to take this risk up north.
If he could not amass sufficient power before the Holy See’s army arrived, everything would come to naught. When the Holy See wanted to exterminate a person, they would start by destroying the soul This was in order to remove all traces of the person from the face of the plane.
Saleen’s idea was very simple. The Cloudflow army was the weakest out of the four empires, it was even weaker than the mercenaries from Sikeqinya. Their navy was extremely powerful though. The Cloudflow navy had even sealed most of Tanggulasi’s waters, forcing the Tanggulasi Empire to station their iron cavaliers along the coast. The Cloudflow fleet could easily deploy their troops onto the coast and conduct a raid otherwise.
The Holy See might have countless of fearless warriors, but they were helpless against the Cloudflow navy. Saleen also wanted such a naval fleet. Out of all the ideas, this was the relatively simpler one.
Even though Lex had groomed more than twenty-thousand elites over many years in Bitter Water Prefecture, it was still impossible for her to resist the Holy See. The sea was the only weakness of the Holy See.
Against violent magic beasts, Saleen did not dare harbor any thoughts. Once the magic beasts dispersed, Saleen had to return to check that place. If too much time had passed, anything valuable there would have also been devoured by the infinite creatures in the ocean.
“Let’s go back.” Suddenly, Saleen felt a change in the goddess’ necklace which made him rejoice. The lightning dragons which just hatched finally had a presence of life.
Saleen followed the notes in the magic book and used a magic array to incubate the lightning dragon eggs, he even added tourmaline in it. The hatched lightning dragons showed no signs of life even though they were overjoyed swimming in water. It seemed as though the lightning dragons did not have souls. Out of desperation, Saleen only stored twenty-four of them in the goddess’ necklace.
Originally, the necklace belonging to the Goddess of Nature and provided Saleen with a space for training his mental strength and calculations. It had now become a farm. Each lightning dragon occupied a space. Just like that, they were reared by Saleen. It was only this day that Saleen felt the presence of a soul in those lightning dragons.
Since the inspection of this island had been completed, Saleen did not need to stay any longer. Even if there were any mineral deposits, he would have to analyze the samples back on the alchemical boat.
Saleen summoned the winged skeleton, and the alchemical boat docked at the shore. This time around, Saleen did not make life difficult for Jola. He blessed Jola with a Water Shield, then everyone dived underwater to enter the alchemical boat via its underside entrance.
“I am going to take a break. Soldier, continue with the drawings. Once Banchajanna is done with his recovery process, ask him to continue hunting.” Saleen instructed succinctly, before returning to his own room. This time around, Nailisi followed at the back closely. Saleen did not call for Sika.
“Master, what happened?”
“The lightning dragons are starting to grow.”
“What about the rest?”
“You can eat them.” Saleen laughed. Even if a soulless lightning dragon matured, it would not possess the special feature of an adult lightning dragon, it would simply be a large sized magic beast. By giving them to Nailisi, she could receive lots of nourishment.
“Master, I will stand guard for you.” Speaking, Nailisi wielded her dagger and sat down beside Saleen.
“Mm, other than Sika, you can take action if anyone else comes close.” When Saleen finished talking, he had already channeled his mental strength into the goddess’ necklace.
The space in the necklace was not big at all. Saleen was already jubilant at the fact that it could support life. There were twenty-four segments in this necklace, and each segment reared a lightning dragon. What Saleen needed to do right now was to sign a contract with the lightning dragons before they grew up. He needed to turn these twenty-four lightning dragons into his own summoned creatures.
Within one of the spaces in the necklace, a finger-sized lightning dragon was swimming about freely. When it detected the entrance of Saleen’s mental strength, it seemed to be frightened as it flipped its body hastily in the water. Saleen realized that this lightning dragon was different. There were magic patterns on the surface of its body which were formed by interweaving a layer of golden lines.
Saleen’s powerful mental strength enveloped this lightning dragon. Under the tremendous vibrations, the lightning dragon immediately got subdued. In the face of a powerful adversary, a young lightning dragon had zero resistance. Otherwise, given the unique attributes of a lightning dragon, it would have been the king of the ocean. Even though such a creature was indomitable, its younger form was extremely vulnerable.
Saleen’s mental strength vibrated within the space of the goddess’ necklace, producing various magic symbols condensed from the water element. The lightning dragon which was engulfed by Saleen’s mental strength could not resist at all. Saleen could easily place a soul imprint on it, and thus a soul connection with Saleen was established. Before this, Saleen could not do such a thing. It was only after Nailisi’s evolution that Saleen obtained the ability to sign a soul contract with other types of creatures.
Saleen was not that courageous either. He only dared to test it out with a young lightning dragon that just got its soul. Saleen would never want to run the risk of getting controlled by a magic beast’s soul by dealing with an adult lightning dragon.
Saleen’s mental strength scanned all the spaces consecutively, not daring to have the slightest bit of tardiness. Even though a young lightning dragon could not retaliate, Saleen’s soul would get damaged if he erred in the control process. Nailisi wanted to protect him and not let anyone get close.
Dang dang…
Hearing that someone was knocking on the door, Nailisi’s eyebrows arched up.
“Is Saleen in? It’s Irene.”
“Master is training. Come back later if you want to say anything.”
“But…”
“If you don’t leave, I will go out and slaughter you immediately.” Nailisi was not joking. Her dagger was already in hand, and she had already deduced Irene’s exact position. If Irene continued pestering Saleen, she would definitely use the dagger to penetrate the door and pierce Irene’s heart.
Irene stood outside the door stunned. Then, she remembered that when a mage was training, they could not be disturbed. That was why a mage would construct a magic tower once they got to grade-6, so as to ensure their own safety. That being said, Nailisi was being extremely impolite, and Irene could not tolerate it.
“Irene, come over.” Jola waved his hand at the end of the corridor. Holding back her tears, Irene walked towards Jola.
“Jola…”
“I heard that, don’t say anything.” Jola turned around and led Irene down the stairway. Upon arriving at the cabin on the first story, Jola then said, “Saleen is a mage. Don’t behave the same way like you do in your family, otherwise you will be at the losing end.”
Irene bit her lip as she recalled the first time she met Saleen. Indeed, Saleen portrayed a cold and unfeeling appearance. Was she not attracted to that appearance in the first place?
“Mages are different from us. You will never understand their pursuits in life. You are in love with Sir Saleen, right?”
Irene nodded, she had nothing to be embarrassed of anyway.
“Give it up, otherwise you will get into huge trouble.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t know how to live with a mage. Just now, you still wanted to continue blabbering despite Nailisi warning you to leave. You know, if you did not leave, she would have really murdered you. A mage’s assistant will never joke with you.”
“She could do it? A maidservant? The guts of her!” Irene was enraged.
“Why not?”
Irene was speechless. She was outraged because she had come forth this time around due to Nailisi’s deception. She did not expect Nailisi to change her attitude so quickly, as though their conspiracy did not exist at all. All of a sudden, a notion popped into Irene’s mind, “This time around, I have tagged along to supplement the missing contents in the magic compass, and I had no reservations at all. Does Saleen want to silence me now that he has gotten what he wanted? It shouldn’t happen. I have signed a magic contract with Saleen. Even Saleen himself wouldn’t be able to violate it. If I were to get into a conflict with Nailisi, and Nailisi decides to be physical, who would come to my aid? None of my family’s swordsmen are on this ship, all of them are Saleen’s people.”
The more Irene imagined, the more fearful she got. Her expression became calmer, however. Jola did not know what Irene was thinking about, otherwise he might have given her a tight slap. If Irene continued using the mindset of a noble to evaluate a mage, her thoughts would become increasingly chaotic.
“Why did you go to see Sir?” Jola did not know what Irene’s plan was. He was afraid that Saleen might be adversely affected if Nailisi had barred an important matter.
Irene hesitated for a moment, then said, “Nothing much. It’s just that I had not seen him for a few days, and I would like to ask him where the next destination is.” Seeing that Irene had fabricated a lie, Jola was helpless. He could not possibly force Irene to spit out the truth.
Back in the room, Saleen slowly opened his eyes and looked at Nailisi, then said, “Did Irene come by earlier?”
“Mm, I chased her away. I was afraid you might be affected.”
“It’s fine. The lightning dragons have been subdued. Inside this space, they will grow up swiftly, but their depletion will be enormous. We will have to stay at this place for an additional month.”
When Saleen was subduing the lightning dragons, he discovered that the speed of time within the necklace could be altered. There were both pros and cons by making the lightning dragons grow faster. In order to help the lightning dragons grow, one would have to provide fresh meat and magic nuclei, otherwise the dragons could starve to death anytime while inside the goddess’ necklace. An adult lightning dragon was even larger than a pan’s turtle. Even though the frequency of meals was low, each meal they consumed a massive quantity of meat. At this moment, not only did Saleen have to take care of his soldiers, he also needed to rear these twenty-four lightning dragons. He had to accumulate enough food.
A portion of the tourmaline rocks obtained from the lightning dragon’s nest were going to be given to the lightning dragons, in order to develop their inborn magical spell. The intended purpose of these tourmaline rocks were for the offspring of the lightning dragon. Given the nature of a lightning dragon, it would never rear its descendants along a coastal area otherwise.
The necklace of the Goddess of Myers was definitely a godly item. In order to use this piece of godly equipment, one had to put in a lot of effort. Saleen had managed to collect tens of thousands of grade-4 magic nuclei this time around. Of which, only about four-thousand of them were of a good quality and a large portion of them would be fed to the lightning dragons.
Be that as it may, Saleen could not possibly conserve these magic nuclei. If the lightning dragons could not mature quickly, then what would he use to protect the route to the Frozen Sea?
A team of twenty-four lightning dragons might not be able to kill a grade-9 magic beast, but the magic beast would definitely not want to get close either. Only with the protection by these lightning dragons would Saleen be able to hunt freely in the Frozen Sea.
“Master, it seems that Aini has analyzed the composition of the ores from that island.” Nailisi had gotten this information from the winged skeleton. In the process, she had realized an advantage of the winged skeleton; whenever she needed information, the winged skeleton could transmit it via the method of soul interaction. It was convenient and swift.