Badge in Azure

Saleen thought for a bit and decided against taking out his Magical Element Tower. He summoned an Elemental Stone Statue Soldier and dug a hole in the hill, burying the scout from the Holy See in it. The Elemental Stone Statue Soldier even went to set up a grave marker for the poor fellow.

Out of the three scouts, one was eaten, and one was crushed by the false dragon when they fell below the hill. The last one was the only one who had a better fate, as they at least had a grave.

However, Saleen stripped the scout of their equipment. A leather armor with a hole at the abdomen, an iron badge, a pair of alchemy binoculars, a rucksack, a short sword, as well as a divine spell scroll.

He found nothing of much use among the pile of stripped geae. Saleen took up a scroll and felt it was a pity that he did not bring Nicholas with him. He had no idea what the scroll was capable of. It was a low-level scroll made of very common materials, probably the hide of a magic beast.

Saleen scanned the scroll with his Elemental Eye and almost triggered elemental powers to burn the scroll. He retracted and put the scroll away.

Saleen scanned the hole on the leather armor and was able to quickly calculate the power, speed, and targeting abilities of the piece of equipment that Hogina held. Saleen went to new heights with the use of Figaro’s Magic Formula. He became capable of using it to calculate matters pertaining to grand mages and even level seven sorcerers. His speed at calculating fixed values was even greater.

The piece of equipment Hogina held shot six icicles, and the range exceeded eight miles, maybe even ten. The damage potential of the icicles was consistent within the range of eight miles, packing a greater punch.

Hogina looked at everything from the sides and said to Saleen, feeling rather embarrassed, “umm, Saleen…that thing, I can only make one at the moment.”

“Oh? And why is that?”

“I can’t find suitable materials.”

Saleen smiled. “Relax. You’ll get better materials soon enough.”

Hogina said, “And oh, that scroll you just put away, that’s a coordinate scroll of the Holy See.”

Saleen took out the scroll again after hearing Hogina’s words, laid it out on his hand, and studied it repeatedly, before saying, “a coordinate scroll it is indeed. There are some peculiar parts of the divine arts worth studying after all.”

Coordinate scrolls were capable of sending a set of coordinates to the maker of the scrolls, enabling easy construction of divine spell teleportation portals on the given coordinate. Mages had something similar, but the scroll in Saleen’s hand was a very low level, probably equal to that of level one magic. If magic was used to achieve the same effect, a level four scroll would be needed at least.

Saleen put away the scout’s things. “Alright, no need to look into them any further. Bing!”

The Winged Skull was done enthralling the spirit false dragon with death magic and mended its injuries. The spirit false dragon wobbled as it took flight. The Winged Skull sat on it and flew to the top of the hill.

Saleen took Hogina with him and flew upwards. The back of the spirit false dragon had more than enough space to carry all three of them. The creature had scales all over it, and no bones were exposed. Its incredibly huge wings flapped as it took the trio towards Golden Plains.

Saleen was able to conserve his magic chords considerably using the spirit false dragon. He put up the Water Shield and wrapped both himself and Hogina. The Winged Skull did not need such measures as they did not need to breathe. The strong winds whipping at them during flight had no effect on them.

The false dragon was able to fly at very fast speeds after becoming a spirit, close to what Saleen had been able to achieve usually.

Saleen had no need to worry about anything at the moment. With the spirit false dragon under the Winged Skull’s control, he could even go to sleep.

“Hogina, what do you think the coordinate scroll can be used for?” He scanned his surroundings with his Elemental Eye. There were no forces of the Holy See to be found within a hundred miles. That meant that the scouts were not there for some large scale operation.

“Just extract the info and you’ll know soon enough. That binoculars were still intact after all.”

“It’s better to do it inside a magic tower. The quality of that thing…” Saleen did not continue. While the Holy See used alchemy binoculars as well, they did not have mages among their ranks, and divine smiths were in short supply as well. Most of them used massive amounts of equipment left behind over a thousand years ago.

New gear usually had barely passable quality. The equipment that most of the holy masters used were far inferior to those used by mages, if they were not something bestowed by the upper echelons of the Holy See.

There were few mages who were incapable of alchemical skills when they advanced to level four or higher. They needed to at least be able to craft scrolls.

The alchemy binoculars that Saleen had taken from the scout was actually made by a very low level divine smith. The gear could easily be completely destroyed during extraction of information if he were not careful, resulting in the loss of all data within. The process of extracting information and piecing it together had always been incredibly complex. Saleen was reluctant to do it without use of a magic tower.

Hogina thought for a bit. “Coordinate scrolls are used most of the time for creating teleportation portals. But the three that we killed had no capabilities of creating such portals, so the scroll could have been used as a marker to be left in some location when they were searching for some place, allowing the ones who came after them to find the exact location, and then create a teleportation portal.”

Hogina’s mind worked over a hundred times faster than it used to when professional questions were addressed.

Saleen was reminded by Hogina as well. He thought that it did not necessarily mean that there was something important laying around, and that the Holy See had perhaps wanted to set up multiple coordinates, to provide maps for the time when their god arrived. The Holy See had definitely thought of ways of calling upon their god. Saleen had faced the Divine Baby personally before. The Divine Baby, whose actual powers were far below that of the angel of fear, was actually far more threatening due solely to the ability to master rules.

If the Holy See managed to call upon their god, it would spell a great deal of trouble for him. At the very least, among his cities, Lonestar City would be caught in a very tight spot. The soul flames of spirits were inferior to the souls of humans; they were more vulnerable to divine spells. Furthermore, Aini could become a level ten sorcerer, and there would still be no way he could have taken on a god.

Saleen learned a lot about the divine arts from Nicholas, and he was most knowledgeable on the advent of gods. When gods were to descend onto their plane, it was unimaginable for them to be able to descend at a fixed point like the oracles, as the power of gods was simply too strong. Their advent would derail passage between the two planes.

When a true god were to advent, multiple sets of coordinates were required to perform coordinate correction between planes.

What was most dire was that when gods first descended, they would be unable to accustom to the rules of another plane immediately, which made them weak. As such, the gods would not take risks and would send a double instead.

“Saleen…” Hogina still had a hard time addressing Saleen as Master or Your Highness. Saleen did not mind at all and simply listened to what Hogina had to say.

“Actually, my teacher isn’t all that bad. The reason why he went to help Grand Duke Iron Blood was because the Grand Duke was one of the few among the Cloudflow nobles who refused to cooperate with the Holy See. If you are not going to work with my teacher…”

“Hogina, what happened between me and your teacher stays between us. I would never get you involved. If I were to come into conflict with him, I won’t ask you to make me something. It is true that I need your skills, but even without your help, I still have means to do alchemy,” Saleen said as the Water Flame floated above his hand.

“Water Flame Alchemy!” Hogina shouted. Such means of alchemy were one of the ancient secret arts, which were incredibly precious to mages. However, it was not something that all mages were able to learn. Talent mattered little if the mage in question was ill-suited to learn the art.

“Indeed. So long as we are on the right track, both me and your teacher would be able to craft the correct alchemical equipment. Furthermore, the beef between me and your teacher isn’t the usual type.” Saleen sighed. He had wanted to conquer the entire plane. I bet Imposa had the same thought.

Hogina was silent for a while before saying, “my equipment is not of a very high level, and its attack period is limited. Firing once requires a cool down of half an hour to prevent the equipment breaking.”

“Faster rate of fire would require stronger materials, no?” Saleen asked.

“Indeed. But then again, it’s not worth it.”

Hogina was right. The icicles that she fired were lethal to any professional below level six, but if she were to run into professionals of level seven or higher, it would not be so powerful, especially so in the case of someone at a level like Saleen. There was no way he could be killed by the icicles, as his Water Shield would be more than capable to defend against such attacks.

Hogina’s equipment seemed to require mages to be at grand mage levels to operate. Such equipment was useless to common troops and would not be of much use to Saleen either.

“Is this something you researched on your own, or did you get it from Imposa?”

“I made it myself. My teacher wouldn’t have researched something so boring. I’ve intended to use it to hunt magic beasts underwater. The six icicles can be fired even further underwater.”

Saleen’s eyelids twitched but he quickly regained his composure. “Let me look at the schematics.”

Hogina did not mind. Saleen was a level nine sorcerer and would not be very interested in the schematics of level six equipment. Furthermore, she was more than willing to give it to him if he asked. She had a lot to gain from being a palace mage, and there were duties that she needed to perform as well.

The schematics that Hogina took out looked extremely complex. If he were to judge by just the schematics alone, he would have thought it to be for level ten equipment or higher.

Saleen calculated mentally. That thing could have been installed on metal flyers or on metal diving combat vessels, especially the diving combat vessels. When used in conjunction with bone spirits and bloodstones, there was no doubt it would pack a massive punch, but it would make targeting difficult and the gear very explosive as well.

If such explosions were to happen in his ship, it would be the end for everyone onboard. There was basically no way anyone could survive a warship exploding underwater.

If the equipment could be modified, then it would serve a greater purpose, be it on the diving combat vessel or the metal flyers, instead of being expensive to make and hardly any use.