Badge in Azure

Metallic poison was something that could be refined from any metal. However, the more precious the metal was, the more potent and high-leveled the poison would be.

The gold coins circulating in the world consisted of gold that had been refined. There was next to nothing else to be extracted from them, just the purest of gold. However, that was not the case with ancient gold coins.

As such, when mages wanted to refine metallic poison, they would purchase ancient gold coins. That was the reason why one ancient gold coin was worth a hundred of their contemporary counterparts.

Metallic poisons were not meant for killing people; they were an essential ingredient for corrosive etching of magic armors. A set of magic armor without the use of metallic poisons in their composition would need the use of mithril or metallic poisons to etch magic arrays. There were no other ways of doing it.

If it had been easy to meld elemental powers into steel, mages would have long ago created warrior equipment that enabled their wearers to fly. Mithril was no doubt expensive and their metallic poison was also extremely difficult to refine.

The Grukos royalty gained control of metallic mines precisely for the rare metallic poisons. Not even Alchemy City would have been able to wrestle with the Grukos in this regard.

Saleen’s loot was massive. Even his Starline Ring was filled up, so it was fortunate that he had the Mysticube.

While the Mysticube given to Saleen by Gaine was not dedicated space equipment, its capacity was far higher than that of the dimension stone.

Saleen knew that he had no way of moving the astrology tower at the moment. The huge building was similar to the Magical Element Tower, but definitely nowhere near as portable as the Magical Element Tower. Its internal space was so huge that it would not have been able to fit within the Starline Ring.

Not even the 12 Notes of First Purgatory would have been able to carry it due to reasons related to levels.

Until the day Saleen became an astrologer above level-16, there was no way he would have been able to move the astrology tower.

The only feeling that Saleen had gotten after searching the lower floors to the upper floors, was that astrologers back in the day had definitely been more wealthy than the Goddess of Myers. He came to realize that what the grandmaster said had not been exaggerated after all.

Myers was a mage herself back then, and the astrology tower had probably housed collections of all the astrologers within the city. The size of the Imperial City of the Abyss was at least larger than the Kingdom of Metatrin.

There were many places within it where space overlapped. There was a map of the imperial city found within the tower, and Saleen’s eyelids twitched when he saw it.

It was like a corner of the mainland had been cut apart to build that city. There were mountains and rivers, as well as lakes and plains within the city itself. Saleen was baffled at the extravagance embodied by that city itself.

After he finished collecting all of the astrology tower’s wealth, Saleen left with Sika and the Winged Skull. The tower was not all that far away from the cemetery, and if the general had been able to send a sword soul there, he would have definitely been able to send something even more terrifying.

While the general behaved in a prudent manner, Saleen nonetheless knew that powerful beings of such levels were willing to follow their hearts. It was just like that with Saleen, who found it unthinkable to bow and kneel to a magic apprentice, even if he had a favor to ask.

“We’re finally going home!” Sika was still as she always was. She left the Imperial City of the Abyss and went on to the Pan Turtle Alchemy Ship.

“We’re going home,” Saleen said. Metatrin was indeed his home. Whatever happened, he eventually had to return to the city that he had created.

As for Ceylon City, while he had indeed rebuilt it, he held little memory or fondness of it.

Mages were not people who were prone to sentiments. Returning there once had been enough for Saleen. The city that had given birth to him and raised him became a part of his memory.

The Pan Turtle Alchemy City quickly left and Saleen began to craft the elemental badges on the ship. A set of elemental badges would make his combat capacity more ferocious.

While the Lightning Constellation was capable of holding greater elemental powers, yet it was a pity that it was based mainly on earth elements with water element serving an auxiliary role. It was adequate for Saleen’s own use, but if he were to take care of all the mages around him, then the elemental badges were a must.

Saleen began crafting some elemental badges of lower levels. He wanted every mage close to him to be able to use such equipment. The greatest use of such things was to enable mages to manipulate the elements for doing battle at any time, without being limited by environmental factors after all.

As such, Saleen did not have excessive demands of the badges, requiring all of them to be filled with high-level elemental creatures. In general, he would have refined any elemental creature that had reached level-9. One elemental belt after another formed within Saleen’s Water Flame.

There were simply too many environments, like that of the cemetery of the giant that severely limited a mage’s powers. Worse still, that had been something decided to limit the power of the gods. If it had been made to deal with mages, it would have made it extremely difficult for mages to manipulate all elements in the air around.

An anti-magic territory was no joke.

The Pan Turtle Alchemy Ship left the Oceanic Ice Block and floated onto the surface. That was the way to raise their speed to the maximum and the outer regions overran with magic beasts. The staggering number of beasts killed each other in a frenzy and even then, the numbers were hardly reduced.

Saleen did not want to tangle there. He wanted to head home and lay out his plans anew.

Gaine had taken away the level-19 Star Gathering Needle but left behind three level-18 ones for Saleen. Those were Gaine’s own equipment, which Gaine no longer needed after he left the Imperial City of the Abyss. The value of one level-19 Star Gathering Needle eclipsed 100 level-18 ones.

That thing was the key to opening the crystal walls after all.

Saleen’s powers were hardly enhanced, but the Lightning Constellation nonetheless came to possess true growth potential after it had been re-crafted.

If the opportunity presented itself, he would have gone to take the Lightning Moon, which would have enabled the Lightning Constellation to become the most powerful equipment in Saleen’s possession.

Not even Saleen’s family badge would have been able to compete by then. He knew the use of that badge very well. It was little more than an auxiliary item. An attack that was only capable of being used once in half a year would have driven its user insane due to the wait.

The Winged Skull alone was enough to man the ship. An unremarkable floating object was rammed by the ship as it cruised at great speed, shattered upon impact.

The Winged Skull stopped the ship and Saleen retrieved his Water Flame. He scanned the place with his Elemental Eye and was shocked when he saw the fragments.

That was a piece of his own warship!

The entire Oceanic Ice Block had been controlled by his fleet, and he wondered who it was that had assaulted his fleet.

All of Saleen’s warships were basically made of steel. Some were even constructed using thundercloud wood. Their sturdiness was such that so long as they did not go about provoking level-9 magic beasts, they would not have been sunken.

Furthermore, there was no way three to five level nine magic beasts would have been able to take on the warships. It would have required a whole pack of them to ensure a warship would not have been able to escape.

All of Saleen’s fleets were capable of traveling at great speeds. Due to the use of magic power furnaces as power sources, they were capable of a sustained cruise. Saleen left the Pan Turtle Alchemy Ship right away and took to the sky, patrolling around.

The fighting was fierce over 60 miles away in the south.

The Ancient and a huge metal warship were shooting at each other. Both were using magic cannons.

The area was filled with warship wreckages, both Saleen’s and Alchemy City’s.

What came to Saleen’s mind first was the thought of Grand Duke Iron Blood going back on the treaty. There was no way that many warships of Alchemy City would have been able to break through the grand duke’s line of defense.

However, Saleen dismissed that thought soon enough. All of Alchemy City’s warships were new ones.

Having stayed in Alchemy City before, he knew what Alchemy City’s warships looked like. While they were powerful, they had many weaknesses as well. Most of those warships relied on mages when fighting against the Cloudflow fleet.

All of those new warships Saleen saw resembled the Ancient somewhat. Furthermore, the speed of all those warships would have probably come close to that of his fleet.

There was an island nearby that produced copper ores, and that was also the area where the Ancient patrolled, which led straight to the Oceanic Ice Block.

That huge metal warship was made precisely from materials that he had provided the Devil’s Horn with. Saleen’s eyes grew cold as he took in all that.

It was nothing peculiar that Devil’s Horn had acquired metals using deception, but since Devil’s Horn had allied itself with the Elemental Hand, there was no need for him to consider any options for negotiation.

“Sika, we’ll go sink that ship!” Saleen said, pointing at the huge construct.

That was not a fortress at sea, but an all-magic warship. The number of magic cannons installed onboard was greater than those on the Ancient. Metal flyers that flew out of the Ancient were all quickly downed by attacks from the Devil’s Horn’s warship.

However, there were a considerable number of metal flyers that made it to higher altitudes, dropping all manner of attacks below.

Among those attacks were magic fire shells and metal magic balls.

The number of mages on the Devil’s Horn’s metal warship was staggering. There were hardly any attacks that landed on that ship. Even if some managed to drop on to it, they were quickly neutralized by magic.

Only shallow dents were created when huge metal projectiles crashed onto the deck. Furthermore, all of the troops stationed on the deck wore magic armor. Unless they were directly hit by the metal projectiles, there was almost no way for splash damage of any kind to hurt them.

The Ancient was manned by the mechanical soul, Genga. While the ship was bulky, its maneuverability was hardly affected. However, Genga’s attack method was rather one-dimensional and Saleen did not assign many ancient warriors to it. The mechanical soul clones were likewise unable to resist the mages’ attacks.

The Ancient would have still been able to hold out for the moment, yet Genga was unable to protect the surrounding Metatrin warships.

If it had been conventional naval battles, those warships could have still evaded for the time being. As those ships were protecting the island and the route into the Oceanic Ice Block, there was simply no way they could have run.

It was fortunate that there were few sailors on those warships. They mostly consisted of demons and imps.

Demons were hardly afraid of dying. If the ships they were on sank, they could swim for thousands of miles. Saleen’s island was about 200 miles away and there was a smaller version of Demon City on it.

Saleen waited until Sika had gotten into his territory, before bringing Sika and cranked his flight speed to the highest—500 miles per hour.

At such speeds, it took Saleen six minutes to cover the 60-mile distance. His body was shrouded by a thick mist. He was high above and would not have attracted the attention of the powerful ones.

Saleen had also cast the Lightning Constellation, conjuring lightning. While they looked furious, the bolts carried little energy and were unable to attack well.

The speed at which the lightning bolts dissipated made it so that they were almost incapable of attacking anything more than ten meters away.

However, to the mages that had been observing the dark clouds above them, that cloud was definitely not a place humans would be able to hide in.