Badge in Azure

Saleen had no intention to shut up. He continued to tell Hogina, “alright, show’s over. It’s getting boring. I take it that you haven’t eaten anything? Let’s head downstairs.”

The four youngsters were enraged when they heard that Saleen did not even bother paying any attention to them. The four turned around and left. From the looks of it, they were really off to get help without any care for pride.

Saleen laughed out loud. The tower was so sturdy that not even the Divine Baby would be able to budge it. The Grukos might have been powerful, but there were people of level 13 among their ranks. If he simply shut himself in, powerful ones from all over Golden Plains could come and there was still nothing they could do to him.

His Magical Element Tower was capable of flight, after all.

Saleen had no intentions of tangling with the youngsters any longer. While the four of them had decent strength, they were little more than just scouts and vanguards, and there were definitely those who were less than pleased with him, a stranger. Lex said it herself; Saleen was the first outsider who held the mark of the Six-winged Flying Snake. Even though he was married to Lex, his surname remained as Metatrin.

Not wanting to tangle with trouble did not equal being able to avoid trouble. Saleen was not one to be trifled with. If the head of the clan refused to help him because he had moved against their people, Saleen would simply destroy the mark, making it so that neither had nothing to gain from the other.

As such, Saleen deliberately went about provoking them, just to force out the ones who truly meant to insult him and get him into trouble.

“Are you hungry, Hogina?” Saleen did not project their voices this time, as the four had already left with their pet magic beast. They were still teenagers, yet all of them were about to advance to the ranks of grand swordmasters. Even if advancing was easy because powers across the entire mainland had risen, he still deemed it unwise to underestimate the Grukos.

“A little.” Hogina rubbed her belly, and it grumbled in response, just like a cat.

Saleen sighed. He was not into cooking and thought it would have been nice to have Lex around. He took some smoked bacon and some Cloudflow rice wine with milder flavor outside. He cut up two fruits and made a vegetable salad for Hogina. Finally, he added the staple—white bread.

Hogina was not picky with food, as most of her time was spent doing alchemical experiments. Even if Saleen gave her black bread and some crude butter, she would eat it. From Hogina’s perspective, what Saleen laid out on the table was a gourmet feast.

“Master, what should we do if they show up again?” The Winged Skull was feeling irritated by the good-for-nothings who pestered them like flies. The way the Winged Skull saw it, they had better not come looking for trouble if they were not good enough, as it would be tantamount to inviting shame.

“Ditch the false dragon. We can’t really kill them. Attack them using poison, but don’t draw blood.” Saleen gave the Winged Skull his orders. The false dragon had large amounts of spirit toxins stored within it. If it had truly wanted to attack, it would pollute their surroundings.

The Winged Skull nodded. Their movements looked very natural and humanoid. Hogina ate as she admired Mr. Bones.

Fascinating skeleton. It has human-like intelligence and is incredibly powerful. Capable of close combat with abilities on par with that of golden grand swordmasters, and capable of using death magic too. I would like to have such a skeleton serving me. I’m no death mage, but I can still instruct a spirit or two to fight for me.

The Winged Skull looked at Hogina coldly. “You want a spirit too?”

Hogina nodded, flustered, and looked with expecting eyes. She had no pride nor resolve as a mage, and she definitely did not have any semblance of dignity dealing with spirits. The Winged Skull was far more powerful than she was, which meant that she was unable to put on airs even if she wanted to.

“Can you treat it with respect?” The Winged Skull’s words puzzled Hogina.

The Winged Skull added, “If I were to give you an intelligent skeleton, would you treat it well, just like how you treat your friends and family, and never cease doing so?”

“Of course. I’m not wanting one to fight for me. I just want a smart assistant, that’s all. It’s tiring doing alchemy. Can you really get me a smart spirit, Mr. Bones?”

The jade skeleton, which was something they had re-crafted from the jade skeletons they had destroyed in the past, was noticeably smaller and it wore a full set of human armor. If it did not push it steel visor up, no one would know that it was a spirit inside the suit of armor.

“Thank you very much, Mr. Bones!” Hogina was surprised and excited, as she saw unusually stable soul flames in the eyes of the jade skeleton. It turned to look at the Winged Skull and sported very human-like expressions, just like the Winged Skull.

“Don’t thank me just yet. If you can’t fulfill what you promised me, I will kill you, and even Master won’t be able to save you.” The soul flame used for disguise in the Winged Skull’s eyes disappeared, replaced by human-like eyes.

Hogina covered her mouth in fright and lost her voice for a moment.

“It is an intelligent being. If you cast it aside after signing a contract with it, it would be very sad,” the Winged Skull continued, but without the feeling of sadness they had in the past. Saleen was very good to them, insisting on keeping them around even in the most dire times.

Daniel would never make the Winged Skull feel sad anymore. However, the small jade skeleton was something that the Winged Skull had crafted personally and given intelligence. The jade skeleton resembled the Winged Skull too much. It had devoured the soul of a human mage and began developing emotions. If it were to be cast away, it would want to die, just like the Winged Skull had once wanted.

“Of course not. Why would I want to cast my bonded creature away!” Hogina raised her voice. She then extended her hand. “Mr. Bones, the contract.”

The Winged Skull took out a contract scroll under Saleen’s watchful eyes. It was covered with words. Hogina took it and was frustrated to find it written in huge amounts of spirit script. How would I dare to sign a contract that I can’t read?

“Master, please translate this.” The Winged Skull handed the contract over to Saleen, who was now quite learned in spirit script, but he was unable to recognize spirit magic patterns. Their system of magic patterns were more complex than their script and he was not able to learn it even after spending huge amounts of time and effort on it.

Saleen read the contract carefully and began to explain it word by word to Hogina after finding no traps in it. Hogina looked much better after hearing Saleen’s explanations.

She looked at the jade skeleton, grit her teeth, and left her spiritual imprint on the contract scroll. The Winged Skull then picked a bit of soul flame from the jade skeleton with their finger and threw it into the scroll. The contract was established, and Hogina immediately felt the connection between her mind and the jade skeleton’s.

“What’s its name?” Hogina was rather excited. She felt really happy to have a summoned creature by her side, and it felt as if the creature was an extension of her soul.

“Master, I do not yet have a name. Perhaps you’d like to give me one,” the jade skeleton answered eloquently, with an accent of Qin nobles.

Hogina ruffled her hair and wracked her brains to think of a name, and finally settled on one that surprised both Saleen and the Winged Skull—Grand Duke Iron Blood.

Hogina hated the grand duke’s guts. If it had not been for Grand Duke Iron Blood, her teacher, Imposa would not have clashed with Saleen, and he would have not developed a dream to conquer Alchemy City. It was the Iron Blood warriors of the grand duke that stoked the fires of ambition within Imposa.

“Alright, Grand Duke, we’ll stick together from here on out.” Hogina smoothened her hair. “I’ll need to get you a place to stay, but I don’t have a Green Spirit…”

“I do.” Saleen interrupted her as he took out a Green Spirit Gem. The quality of the gem was somewhat inferior, but the jade skeleton was a level seven creature. Even the worst Green Spirit Gems would be superior to black crystals.

Saleen deemed it safe to finally invest in Hogina. The Winged Skull had done something to the depths of the jade skeleton’s soul flame. While Saleen was not sure what the Winged Skull did, the Winged Skull had a shinning track record, which put Saleen at ease. Saleen did not pursue the matter. The tacit understanding between both of them had long become second nature.

If Hogina had not been Imposa’s student, Saleen would not have acted so carefully. He feared that Hogina would become something else someday, no longer the pure, naive person and dedicated alchemist she was now.

After all, Imposa dared to modify his own body. So what the hell was deemed beneath him?

Saleen would never entertain the thought of turning himself into a monster in exchange for power. Imposa had gone thoroughly crazy, turning his back on the very reason why he learned magic in the first place.

While Hogina was busy crafting a shelter for Grand Duke Iron Blood, the four young grand swordmasters-to-be showed up outside the magic tower again, with a number of people in tow. The leader of the group was not all that old, looking about Saleen’s age. The young leader wore a white robe and had a longsword at his hip, looking like someone from Cloudflow.

The Cloudflow people were known for their varied and extravagant way of dress, which was more attractive than Qin’s subdued styles. The young man looked up at the false dragon circling about in the air and gestured to the ones behind him to not attack. He then said to the magic tower, “Your Highness Saleen, is it? I know you can hear my voice. I have only one question.”

Saleen said nothing. The young man added, feeling rather prideful, “so, Your Highness Saleen, you don’t dare to answer even a question then? Are you scared?”

The young man had looked proper and polite, but when he uttered that line, he turned pompous and reckless instead. The change in attitude was incredibly natural, and he was in a normal state, mentally speaking. He was simply trying to incite Saleen. He has trained in some kind of secret arts, and that makes him rather peculiar, mentally-speaking.

Saleen was unable to simply sit by any longer. He spoke to the pompous face outside the tower in a crystal clear manner. “I assume your folks are still around and you have teachers. If you have any questions, it’s better to ask them. If you want advice from me about anything, there are two possibilities where I might entertain you. One, you bow to me as your teacher, or second, well, you know what to do…”

The young man turned polite all of a sudden again after hearing Saleen’s words. He smiled. “I’m just kidding, Your Highness. I hope you don’t mind.”

“And I wasn’t being serious either, and I hope you’d understand that,” Saleen replied calmly. Both failed to provoke one another.