Badge in Azure

Saleen’s caution paid off. While the bird had only attacked the magic array out of instinct, even if it was unable to plunge Saleen into a space-time turbulence, it would easily stop the self destruction process of the magic array.

If it had not been for the Fireball spell that Saleen had set up before he left, the Holy See would have been able to develop tactics allowing them to directly attack the temple at Metatrin City, by using the magic array.

The Holy See might have even ambushed Saleen using the coordinates from the portal, sending infiltrators into the temple at an unknown time. The construction of Saleen’s temple had been free of exploitable flaws, making infiltration impossibly difficult, with the only problem being teleportation portals. Saleen left the task of confirming and securing the coordinates of his temple to no one else.

The huge bird that came as soon as Saleen left was a level nine magic beast, but it was completely burned by the fireballs. The water element with the Fireball continued to vaporize and transmute. Its attack speed and time were only twice the conventional Fireball spell, but even Saleen had no idea how long the spell would actually last.

An inferno soon raged beneath the Skywell. The huge Fireball spell that Saleen had left behind split up into thousands of smaller fireballs, spreading all over the place in the Skywell. Even rocks were melted into puddles where the fires burned.

Saleen left his people behind as soon as he returned to the temple in Metatrin City and headed to find Jason, his teacher.

Jason was briefly stunned when he saw Saleen, and then laughed heartily. It was rare for Saleen to see his teacher in such an excitable state. “I’m a bad teacher and yet you, my student, are able to become a level ten sorcerer. You have good luck, Saleen, and mine isn’t all that bad.”

“Teacher?” Saleen did not know why Jason laughed. Even though his advancement to level ten was good news, it should not have pleased Jason that much.

“I’m laughing because mages of our lineage finally freed ourselves from the shackles of fate. I’d been able to make it in time to be in the midst of the raising of power across the entire Myers Mainland, and I advanced. You had lots of mystical encounters and adventures. I assume that you haven’t got wind of it yet, but your student, Truman, is now a level nine sorcerer.”

“Wait, what?” Saleen was surprised, but quickly became impressed. While Truman had written all of his magical experiences in magic books, and Saleen had left a good number of magic notes for his student, he never expected him to be able to advance to level nine in such a short period of time.

Speaking of which, there were, at the moment, only three mages from Jason’s line, Saleen having the worst talent among the three. As soon as Truman had gotten opportunities to learn and ample magic nuclei and materials, he advanced to level nine in no time. While the rise in levels across the entire mainland had something to do with it, not every mage was able to advance to level nine so easily, even back in ancient times.

“You’re back in time, Saleen. It’s absurdly difficult to craft your Magical Element Tower. There are only three level ten sorcerers in the entire Metatrin City, and I sent one to the Principality of Bitterwater. It took a lot of time, and progress is excruciatingly slow with just two working on it. Stay behind for a bit and all three of us will get your tower finished before you leave. Or else, I won’t be at ease with you out there, even though you’re now level ten.”

“Why’s that, teacher?” Saleen had thought that he was nearly invincible after advancing to level ten. He did not expect Jason to say that he was still in danger.

“Saleen, you’re not the only one who advanced. Others did too. There are level ten professionals in Lianyun City, and they repelled attacks from Holy Rock City. However, Lianyun City does not seem to be in a hurry to take any other cities. It seems that someone there is planning something big.”

“Think about it: one single grand duke in Cloudflow proved enough to fight us, a nation. There is a good number of level nines not showing themselves, and they have advanced using the instability throughout the entire mainland. Someone like Joey would probably advance to level 11.”

Saleen listened to his teacher’s lecture attentively, feeling that he had been too confident before. While he had powerful equipment and had become a level ten sorcerer, when he thought closely, he was quite a distance away from where Joey was. If someone like me could advance, would someone like Joey just stay where he was?

“There’s no need to be anxious. I’m just reminding you. There are level 11 professionals in the mainland, so don’t let your guard down. A level 11 professional won’t be able to do much to you if you have that tower with you. You should hear about Daliang City as well.”

Saleen had spent a month and a half in the temples, so things at Daliang City had gotten somewhere no one anticipated.

First, there was the case with Holy Rock City. Prince Safilos had finally come to his senses and knew that now was not the time to be petty with Lex. He deployed a 50,000-strong army to Daliang City, passing through the Principality of Bitterwater and marching hundreds of miles through the mountains. He constructed a huge, sturdy fortress east of the city. There were also 100,000 soldiers gathered from the nobles of the north all stationed in said fortress. Nearly 150,000 soldiers held the mountain passages tight, preventing the Holy See’s forces from attacking the Principality of Bitterwater.

Daliang City was considered free of further worries at the moment. The troops were holding the place. There was no way anyone would be able to take down the fortress between the mountains, unless a great number of powerful professionals were gathered. During times of peace, no one would build such a fortress in the mountains, as it was pointless. A fortress like would only prove useful by keeping the situation stable and under control.

The fortress that Safilos built was coincidentally located at the edge of the cemetery of the giant. If the Holy See forces attacked the fortress, they would need more than ten times the forces they had fielded. It was a testament of Safilos’ aptitude in military affairs. He was able to choke a great amount of forces from the Holy See with less than 150,000 soldiers.

Then, there was Alchemy City, which dispatched more and more mages into Daliang City. After the magic net in Daliang City was completed, combat capacity of the mages within Daliang City was restored to how they normally were. When they had a great amount of mental powers to spare, they were twice as effective in combat.

The battle at the entrance of the cemetery was abnormally fierce. It was a battle royale between three distinct forces. Both the fossilized gods and the Holy See forces were the city’s enemies. The Holy See kept dispatching troops to fight for the fossilized gods. Both had gains and suffered casualties. Due to the magic net set up in the city, they were able to gain more than 60% of what there was to gain from the fossilized gods, while the Holy See forces were able to get only about 30% of the fossilized gods’ fragments.

Due to the massive investments made in the city, Ceylon City and Royal Harbor were secured.

Metatrin City had begun to deploy its naval forces to hunt in the Oceanic Ice Block as the city had no wars to fight, restoring the supply of magic nuclei. The warehouses of Metatrin City saw a surplus of over a 100,000 magic nuclei every month.

Due to the rise of powers across the mainland, humans were no longer the only ones who advanced, as magic beasts had undergone similar changes as well. The number of magic beasts found in the oceans had increased considerably, so much so that they began to show signs of disrupting the ecological balance at the Oceanic Ice Block. Metatrin City had no choice but to deploy their forces en masse to hunt as many magic beasts in the ocean as possible to prevent an explosion in the population of magic beasts, which would threaten the sea routes.

Magic nuclei below level seven were becoming less important to sorcerers, but Saleen had a great number of mages to take care of, and he needed to provide low and mid level magic nuclei for the magic power furnaces as well. As such, the hunt bore significant importance. Furthermore, they did not need to get too near to the Oceanic Ice Block to gain more than what they were able to gain before.

“So Daliang City is safe then, Teacher?”

“Yes, Daliang City is indeed safe, but…” Jason hesitated for a bit. “Your territories are too widespread. You have to support three cities at the border of Phoenix, and you can’t afford to lose Lonestar City. Now that you’ve added Ceylon City and Royal Harbor to the list, that means that your tiny kingdom has to secure six vital locations. What do you think will happen when the battle at Daliang City is over?”

Saleen grinned when he saw his teacher not sporting a worried look. “Teacher, the battle at Daliang City is not going to end soon, at least not in the next ten years. I don’t even dare to think about what’s inside, for fear that the temptation would get the better of me.”

“Heh, glad to know that you know what you’re getting into, Saleen. Mages of our lineage don’t need much external help when we need to be aggressive; we simply need better luck.”

Saleen was at ease about Daliang City when he was done talking to his teacher. He was afraid that there were spies at Daliang City, so he did not contact Lex. Even the nobles in Metatrin City knew nothing.

He needed to attend to the crafting of his Magical Element Tower. Two level ten sorcerers adept at Water Flame Alchemy, as well as a level ten sorcerer from Sreeger Island who had just advanced, were giving their all into crafting the tower. It took Saleen merely a week to finish patching up the lacking parts of the tower.

Saleen took Jason’s words to heart and was on high alert. His current combat capacity proved more than enough to deal with mages of the same level, but he dared not say the same having to go against a level 11 professional wielding high level godly items. A level 11 human professional was not something dumb like the angel of fear. The handful of times where his family badge failed to work were all when he had to deal with humans.

The reason why Nailisi advanced easily and there was no need to worry about Ceylon City was because Saleen had advanced. That meant that the Winged Skull would advance as well. A level ten spirit armed with a Reaper Scythe, and furthermore, one with intelligence comparable to humans, made it far stronger than a pure king level spirit.

The magic net at Ceylon City was about to be finished as well. There were more than 12 palace sorcerers there to take care of things, so Saleen did not need to worry about it. The Ancient warship was stationed at Royal Harbor, which could be given up as it was too difficult to defend. Saleen would be able to retake the place any time when his naval forces grew powerful enough.

Saleen began planning to head to the sixth temple as he became free of pressing worries. Saleen had the Magical Element Tower with him in his expedition to the sixth temple. As such, regardless of whether the temple was on an island or beneath the ocean, it was no longer a problem for Saleen. What he needed was enough equipment to deal with unforeseen trouble.

There were 12 equipment slots on Saleen’s Starline Bangle and he planned to fill all of them before heading to the next temple. An enemy above level ten would be able to use territorial powers if they had corresponding equipment with them. The most powerful skill that Saleen had at his disposal was the lightning rules. However, he had not been able to use the powers in a territorial manner yet, which he found very frustrating.

They stayed behind at the temple at Metatrin City until the end of August, before Saleen became ready to make his next trip. He did not bring many with him on the trip, just Sika, Nailisi, Eleanor, and Sul. He left Jola behind in the temple to protect his children. Furthermore, if something happened to any of his cities, Jola, the true might, would be able to be deployed at any given moment to deal with the crisis.

Finally, Saleen summoned Cuisi to return under Nailisi’s suggestion. All six of them rode on a diving combat vessel the alchemy factories made specifically for Saleen and departed for their next destination: the sixth temple.