Badge in Azure

Saleen let the winged skeleton stay in the air for a while, while he took out the magic map and compared the locations. They were about 1,000 miles away from the Golden Plains. It would take them 10 hours in flight, riding on the comparatively slow spirit false dragon.

The false dragon suffered injuries all over it and the winged skeleton was able to little other than patchwork for the moment. The effects of the healing were not good, and they were flying at a slow speed. Saleen decided to just land and find themselves a flatland somewhere, then taking out his Magical Element Tower and bringing Hogina inside. Saleen prepared to get to know Hogina’s gun better.

The Magical Element Tower took root. While it was incapable of growing fibrous roots like the Divine Tree Magic Tower, its base was nonetheless capable of turning the ground to stone, enabling it to be connected to the earth. The winged skeleton continued healing the false dragon spirit. He was rather pleased with the new toy, as it was extremely stable in flight. The false dragon itself had been a formidable combatant in life. After being converted to a spirit, it gained the Spirit Breath ability, enabling it to spout venomous gases.

Saleen stayed inside the tower to look at Hogina’s schematics again. He did not find himself missing anything. The cost of having to use seven single-horned white whale’s horns to craft one gun was deemed to be too high.

When all six of the barrels of Hogina’s gun were to be fired at the same time, with all six icicles locking onto their targets, the damage potential achieved would be that of a grade-10 spell. The equipment had a cooldown time of merely three minutes. While the expenditure was huge, it would be worth it. Saleen’s family badge’s offensive capacity was very high, but one use would require half a year to recharge the energies within. It was so because Saleen had 24 lightning dragons with him. If others were doing the same, such recharge would take at least a year to complete.

Saleen’s range of attack had always been his weakness. Almost every single one of his strongest attacks were meant to be used up close and personal. The more his powerful spells, the shorter the range of attack. His Eye of Lightning and the Crystal Finger were like that. Both had a range of about ten yards, and they were both attacks capable of taking out grade-10 professionals.

Hogina’s gun was an intricate equipment, and it had a rather short cooldown time. Even Hogina’s own took only 30 minutes to cool down.

Saleen rummaged through the materials the grandmaster had given him and found something better suited for the purpose—the remaining half of the silverline golden spearfish’s spike. The spike was about six yards long and the tip was cut off by some unknown weapon, with only the latter half remaining. The six yard length proved adequate for Saleen.

He took out one single-horned white whale’s horn to serve as the base of the gun, then unleashed his water flame to begin crafting.

His first attempt was less than satisfactory. While he did not make any mistakes, he was not familiar enough with the details of the gun. The end product came out too long, making it a weapon ill-suited for a mage. It was a rather good item to be installed on the pan’s turtle alchemical boat though.

The quality of the spike was way higher than the single-horned white whale’s horn. If it had not been broken, it would have served well for crafting a weapon of a level like the Gray Memory’s. Saleen’s water flame struggled furtively to compress that half of the spike into a one yard long barrel. Six thin magical tubes were found inside the barrel, and the solid magic patterns were laid.

Saleen went all out with his creativity that time. He was, after all, more familiar with elemental conversions of the six major elements than Hogina. The targeting mechanism in the middle of the barrel was made out of the remaining eye of the spearfish. The thing had terrifying targeting capabilities. With all six eyes opened, locking onto a target one whole level higher than the user would be made possible, so long as the user possessed enough mental power. Saleen took lessons from the crafting of Gray Memory and added a dragon crystal to the eye.

Saleen had Hogina watch the crafting processes closely. Hogina was greatly inspired. Her talents in the field of alchemy were at least ten times greater than Saleen’s after all. Saleen had no intention of teaching Water Flame Alchemy to her. Even if he did, the possibility of her mastering the art would have been small.

The difficulty of Water Flame Alchemy was such that Jason remained the only one capable of performing it out of the entire population of Sregl Island mages. Saleen was able to learn it because he had a body of water element, which made it 100 times easier for him to master water magic than any other mage.

Saleen crafted lightning magic patterns into the barrel of the gun. The advantage of the lightning patterns was that it mitigated any concerns of the inner walls degrading from having to fire icicles.

Saleen hardly made any other changes, as Hogina’s weapon design was near-perfect to begin with. Saleen had simply added one more function to it, installing a purple-gold sea urchin pouch to a plate on his devil suit’s gauntlet, for storing the more than half a yard long gun.

Doing so enabled him to be able to take out the weapon without being affected by environmental factors.

Saleen tested the gun out, taking out the gun from his gauntlet, and the gun wrapped Saleen’s arm with the white outer shell at its rear. It did not affect Saleen’s movements one bit.

The weapon was only half a yard long, which ran the entire length of Saleen’s arm, and extended little more past his finger. That made the gun look like an arm protector of a warrior. The crossings of magic patterns of both black and white imbued it with a peculiar type of beauty.

Saleen had only grown satisfied with his weapon after that. Hogina’s new gun sported similar offensive capacity to the first one that she crafted, but of more exceptional materials and having far higher targeting abilities. What was more important was that the equipment itself was upgradable, and the sturdiness of its materials meant that it would serve Saleen well until he reached grade-16.

Saleen only put the gun away then, and asked Hogina, “Were you able to comprehend anything?”

Hogina nodded. “I fully understood. If I was of your level and had such good materials at hand, what I would have crafted would have blown yours out of the water.”

Saleen choked at the comment, but he did not mind at all. Hogina was unable to understand the lightning magic patterns he laid within after all. The lightning patterns were hidden within three-dimensional pattern, which Hogina saw simply to be magic patterns of higher levels, not knowing that Saleen had developed the comprehension of rules of lightning.

Saleen nodded. “Well, even so, the Water Flame Alchemy would also enhance the durability of the equipment. Give me your gun, Hogina, I’ll re-craft it a bit for you.”

Hogina did not refuse. The reason Saleen had stopped for breaks was mainly to craft equipment for Hogina after all. He feared for the safety of the alchemist girl tagging along. He deemed it best to craft powerful equipment for her to defend herself with, to prevent her from being helpless when something happened. He was unable to do anything for her personally.

Hogina’s value laid not within her capacity for combat, but in her aptitude for alchemy. If Hogina was to lead the alchemic factories, Saleen would gain equipment that was both sturdier and more practical in no time.

The very reason why Saleen had demonstrated what he was capable of to her before they reached the Golden Plains was to catch her attention, in a bid to keep her around. While she had signed a contract with him, it was not a follower’s contract. Hogina could still get herself free if she was able to pay a certain price. If the Grukos from the Golden Plains wanted her to work for them, there was no doubt that they would be able to afford it.

There was a saying among mages that went, “When knowledge lies before you, you should never turn your back against it.”

Seeing what Saleen was capable of doing with his Water Flame Alchemy, there was simply little the Grukos would have been able to do to steal that alchemist with endless potential from him.

Saleen had genuine intentions of hiring Hogina. He would not be able to bag one such genius for himself in any other way, and definitely not through violent means. He felt himself able to understand Imposa a little bit better. Imposa was reluctant to keep her in the midst of conflict, which was why he kicked her out. He had hoped that she would be able to find some place quiet and without conflict, so she would have been able to stay alive, and keep studying.

Hogina did not go to either Cloudflow or Holy Rock City. She returned to Daliang City instead, and that was something Imposa would not have anticipated.

Hogina was indeed just as Saleen anticipated her to be. Even if someone was to put a mountain of gold before her, it would not have been enough to entice her to leave his side.

Saleen took out large amounts of metalized steel rock, to begin re-crafting her equipment.

The problem with Hogina’s gun was that it required constant maintenance, and half of it performed like consumables. The maintenance of the barrel was tricky, and it would be made far easier using metalized steel rock, as it was a material that would be easy to repair.

Saleen noticed Hogina’s change. The girl who seemed to be unable to grow up began to take interest in things around him. Saleen still went rummaging through his pile of materials when he went re-crafting Hogina’s equipment.

Hogina’s eyes sparkled looking at the materials in Saleen’s hands, just like how Nailisi did when she found her targets.

Alchemists were not a greedy bunch. Their greatest desire usually laid with crafting a unique piece of something with their own hands. It need not be something meant for war, but it had to be a magical equipment, and one that stood out from the others.

One example of which was Hogina’s gun. It was something she had researched and completed on her own, and it was anyone’s guess what she had gone through to be able to craft something like that. She did not have Imposa’s aid in completing the weapon, which gave her immense satisfaction when her equipment was finally completed.

The actual power of a mage and financial strength that Saleen had demonstrated would be more than enough to catch her attention.

Alchemists did not yearn for battles. Their training methods were also done entirely through magic experiments, as well as crafting all manner of equipment and pharmaceuticals.

“Alright, Saleen. I’ll stay by your side from here on out and I’ll never leave.” Hogina was not stupid; she was able to tell what Saleen tried to pull.

“That’s nice to hear.” Despite obviously having his cover blown, he did not mind at all. It would have been peculiar if he did not try to do something like that instead.

“I don’t want to just craft weapons. I’ll need an alchemy laboratory. The very expensive kind.” There was sadness in her eyes. Saleen knew that Hogina did not want to lose her freedom, yet she could not help but be attracted to what Saleen had to offer.

With the world being in such a mess, an alchemist like Hogina would either be hired or be killed, stemming from the mentality of “f I can’t have it, no one can”. Even if Saleen would not have gone to such extremes, he would still have thought of ways to prevent Hogina from working with others. The reason why Hogina did not dare to go to Cloudflow or Alchemy City was because she knew of her own value.

It was not always a good thing to be of value. Her intuition told her, from her interactions with Saleen, that the man at least would not treat her with violence. Whatever Saleen had done, he was still a very proper mage.

“That is a given. I have factories, which means I won’t need to craft equipment personally. What I need from you, is for you to continue to go about your research. At the very least, that is the best option you have before you.”