Badge in Azure

Nicholas did not want anything to happen to that holy master, as he had brought Nicholas out to nurture the old man’s combat capacity. Surviving an entire month at the bottom of the ocean would have caused a holy master a huge amount of stress, even without enemies to fight.

However, Nicholas had crafted several pieces equipment for emergencies recently. The only problem was that Nicholas was not a divine smith, so his proficiency for crafting equipment was passable at best.

At that moment, Saleen and the Winged Skull rushed to Nicholas’ side. Saleen put up his Water Shield and pulled Nicholas beneath it for protection.

Only then was the old holy master finally able to rest easy. If he had not been armed with a new Scepter of the Fallen, he would have been crushed by the seawater around him.

“Nicholas, what happened?” Saleen handed Nicholas a small bottle of magic liquid and had him drink it.

Nicholas panted for a bit. It felt good being able to breathe within the Water Shield.

“This thing… When I was picking bones, I didn’t know that it was still alive!” Nicholas said as he pointed at the six meter-tall remains before him.

“Huh? It’s not a spirit!” The Winged Skull was able to tell right away that the huge monster that injured Nicholas was not a spirit.

There was not even a trace that showed that there had been soul flames burning in the remains before. The Winged Skull was capable of dealing with special soul flames like those of the Mechanical Soul, so there was simply no way that they would have overlooked a spirit. That huge pile of bones was about 50 meters long, and it looked like it belonged to a fish-type magic beast.

“We’ll think about what that is later. For now, let’s just bag it,” Saleen said as he put the huge pile of bony remains into his Starline Ring. The ring had been expanded over a hundred times, while Saleen’s mental powers were over 12 times stronger, making the storage of that monster very easy.

“My liege!” Nicholas suddenly shouted.

“What?” Saleen turned to find that Nicholas was looking at him with a pair of wide eyes, as if he was looking at a monster.

“How come I am unable to store this using the dimension stone?” Nicholas asked.

Saleen was dumbfounded for a bit regarding this, but soon came to realize the fact of the matter a moment later. The rules of the Starline Ring were higher than those of a dimension stone. It seemed like Gaine was putting quite a bit of work into his set of armament.

“Let’s go, Nicholas. You’ll get equipment like that someday.” Saleen smiled and patted Nicholas on the shoulder.

Nicholas lowered his head dejectedly. He did not even bother to ask why Saleen’s equipment had changed, as he had already gotten used to Saleen being rich.

Nicholas had cleaned up all of the bones within a thousand miles, picking only the best ones. As such, there was no need to stay any longer. Those bones would be sufficient for Saleen to craft equipment for his mages.

With Hogina added to the fold, his alchemy factories were able to perform even better. Saleen had come to realize the importance of equipment within the previous battles.

Fights usually lasted for a long time in the battlefield, some battles easily lasting months. Soldiers with good equipment had much higher chances of survival, even more than ten times the chances of those with bad equipment.

While this percentage was somewhat affected by one’s own abilities, as soldiers with good equipment were usually the elites, such a huge difference in survivability still said quite a lot. Considering this, Saleen’s thoughts were to arm all of his armies with magic equipment, right from their armor and down to their water bottles, including spears, every arrow, and more.

After all, in his reasoning, he would need to wait 20 years for a child to grow to be a full-fledged soldier. Hence, it was far more efficient for him to keep a soldier alive versus having raise up and train another one!

Saleen’s operation at the Imperial City of the Abyss had been a smooth and crisp one. He had left right after he got what he had come for from Gaine.

Massive amounts of pests appeared less than two days after he left the city. This time, the levels of pests was even higher, and their numbers were in the frightening hundreds of millions!

Gaine was right. The Imperial City of the Abyss was indeed a cursed place, and it was better for Saleen to not dwell within it for too long.

Saleen had been away from Metatrin City for 50 days. According to his original plan, he would have needed to be out for three months.

The remaining 40 days allowed him to get back to Metatrin City without encountering any trouble, even if moved very slowly. However, Saleen had no intention of staying on the road for that long. Hence, he put the Magical Element Tower away as soon as he left the Oceanic Ice Bock, taking flight with the Winged Skull and Nicholas.

In this way, Saleen was able to return to Metatrin City only ten days later. The first thing that he did was to distribute the magic nuclei and magic beast remains among the factories.

The alchemy factories were now being managed by Jason, and Hogina, as Jason’s assistant, had begun working on the designs. Hogina liked Metatrin City very much and thought that it was a hundred times better than Alchemy City.

This was because Metatrin City did not have the feeling of repression hanging over it like Alchemy City. All of the mages who ventured to Alchemy City felt like they had giants chasing after them. Thus, they all lived with enormous burdens weighing on their shoulders every day.

Even the likes of Imposa came to owe a lot of money while struggling to survive within Metatrin City, let alone mages, who went to Alchemy City for better opportunities without any help or support. As such, many people were only able to stay in the city by providing free labor for the Elemental Hand. These people could have worked for ten years and still not have enough funds to buy a house.

But, Metatrin City was different. Here, Hogina did not need to pay any fees, and she had sufficient income as well. Also, if her designs were accepted, she would have extra income.

Hogina was dissatisfied upon seeing how much Saleen had brought home after a single trip, and she started complaining about Saleen’s not taking her along.

After hearing her disgruntled complaints, Saleen took out the Hogina’s Gun that he had crafted himself in order to placate her, while saying, “Here… Take this. Don’t say anything about me leaving to umm… That Jalin…”

Hogina smiled broadly, while taking Saleen’s present. She then said loudly, “Oh, I understand. She’s a bad woman indeed, as she is fighting for your favor with big sis Sika. I like big sis far better, so I would definitely not be on that woman’s side!”

Saleen felt rather bemused by her antics, but he was unable to explain much to Hogina at the moment. Moreover, her mind seemed to be one that was made specifically for magic, alchemy, and nothing else. She simply was not able to comprehend more than that.

There were many grand mages who were similar to this. There were even quite a number of sorcerers who the same.

The advancement of humans would have only been very obvious at level nine, as there were few level nine professionals who were so single-minded. One example of this phenomenon was Sika.

She was far smarter than she had been once she became a nature priestess. But, nonetheless, Sika thought that this was because of her children.

Saleen had been able to get a lot of loot from that trip. When he was distributing the supplies, Sika had brought the children to the factories.

Both of them took one of the children in their hands respectively, while watching the mages taking the goods with glee. In that moment, Saleen felt that his days were going good… If it wasn’t for the contract with the Goddess of Myers and that b*stard called Theisio being around, things would be almost perfect!

Saleen asked Sika, “Shouldn’t we name the kids now?”

“There’s no need to rush. After all, the Caucasians are in no rush. They are still thinking what their names should be,” Saleen replied.

He then laughed heartily and said, “Whatever their names end up being, their surnames will be Metatrin.”

He then took his son by his hand, while the boy kept knocking on his head with his fist. However, Saleen felt no pain at all, as the Figure of Fate was taking the brunt of that boy’s power.

“Sika, you’re able to communicate with these two, right?” Saleen asked.

“Yeah. Why?” Sika replied.

“Just confirming. Let’s go home.” Saleen then took Sika back to the temple.

They went to see Jason first, who did not say much. He even stopped Saleen from telling him about the trip.

“If it’s not something that threatens the safety of Metatrin City, you best keep it to yourself. Some matters are better left as secrets,” Jason said as he looked at Saleen’s Starline Armament.

Saleen and Sika then returned to their room and put the children down for bed. Saleen then took out two figures that were the size of his hand, while telling Sika how the figures worked.

Sika pulled the children to her side, while smiling. She was talking to her children in the Caucasian language. The children took the figures in their hands and looked at them carefully.

They were still too young, and it was rather complicated to control the figures, but since Sika and Saleen were not able to think of any better ways to explain the figures to the children, Sika simply continued to talk with the children about them, while trying her best.

“So, Saleen, Jalin should be back soon. Don’t tell me that you’re just going to keep taking her on adventures and leaving me behind with the teacher.” Sika mentioned Jalin all of a sudden, and she sounded very displeased as she spoke.

She now knew that Arbola had been forced to set her aside against his will. Thus, Saleen had no way to refuse the arrangement.

“What would you have me do?” Saleen lamented.

Even though he now had the Thunder Dragon Blaster, he still would not have been able enough to get rid of Arbola. His understanding of lightning rules simply were not deep enough. Otherwise, he would not be so frustrated.

“I don’t care. You have the Magical Element Tower, so the kids’ protection isn’t a problem, right? Also, Jola has recovered, so you can take him with you. Otherwise, you’ll get entangled with some female nobles, who will certainly get you in trouble.”

“Jola has recovered?” Saleen was elated to hear this good news.

“Jola said that he envies you for being able to marry a mage like Lex. So, he is playing nice with Guya now.” Sika was rather irked as she talked about this, and she thought… Jola is really a handful. If he gets together with Guya, then good for them. But, if he messed things up with her, he will ruin Saleen’s relationship with Guya!

The four dukes and duchesses who were serving Saleen were getting increasingly important in the war. As Holy Rock City was now incapable of controlling Northern Qin and the territory belonged to members of those four major clans, many were siding with Phoenix, and some even came straight to Metatrin City and pledged their allegiance to the four.

Those people brought a lot of manpower and wealth with them into the messy state of affairs, and every one of them was highly capable. As such, the Kingdom of Metatrin continued to expand, and in the later stages, there were little to no worries about its management.

“Alright, Sika. I’ll take you along next time, as well as Jola and Nicholas. We’ll be taking Jalin as well, heading straight for Royal Harbor to meet up with Lex. I still need some hands with me for that,” Saleen said.

“Great!” Sika cheered in the Caucasian language as she hugged and kissed Saleen.

Saleen almost had to wrestle with her to break free from her grasp as he said, while panting, “Sika, you must get a letter to Lex. Have Jalin wait for us there.”

“Your highness!” All of a sudden, a voice that was using the Caucasian language was heard outside the door.

“What is it?” Sika asked after she calmed herself and regained her composure. After all, she was the regent!

“I have urgent news. Daliang City is under attack!” The Caucasian warrior did not enter as he made the announcement.

He knew that Saleen had just returned and would most likely have wanted some play time with their lord priestess. Caucasians were mindful of such things, and if it had not been for the news being very important, he probably would have waited to deliver it the next morning.