Badge in Azure

Chapter 339: Snowmen (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Vinz, Singiles, Lola, Gos, these are your weapons.” Saleen summoned the four magic beast swordsmen. In his mind, Saleen felt that in order to help the four men unleash their true offensive power, he needed to search for four magic beasts who were at a higher grade, and the magic beasts needed to at least be as powerful as the kolola beast.

“Sir, should we rest for one more day?” Vinz was the undeclared leader of the magic beast swordsmen. He was worried that Saleen might have expended too much energy during the refinement process.

“No need, we will keep walking forward. There is a narrow crevice up ahead. If the black mages have set a trap there, then we will have no choice but to make a detour of a few hundred miles.”

“But…”

“I am fine. Aini, are you able to get up?”

Aini, who was in the corner, yawned and stretched lazily before crawling out from the sleeping bag and saying, “I can’t sleep with all that noise. You can go ahead first. I’ll be fine.”

“In that case, I will let the soldiers familiarize themselves with their weapons first. We will set off two hours after breakfast.” Saleen energetically blessed everyone with a Cleaning spell. Seeing that, the four magic beast swordsmen then had peace of mind. In the imperial palace of Cloudflow, the magic beast swordsmen did not have the right to do battle with a mage, so they had scant knowledge of mages.

In Daniel’s death flames, the three kings roughly knew what was going on outside.

“Judikaka, Saleen seems to be in trouble.” Diyabannersa was easily unnerved. For the past tens of thousands of years, that constant influence by the scepter had caused his character to change completely.

Judikaka replied calmly, “It’s fine. Even though I have never heard of the black mages, they seem to be a bunch of people who were abandoned by their god. All those things like the black puppets aren’t even strong. One spell from us will already eliminate hundreds or even thousands of them.”

“Why don’t I handle those guys? Otherwise, Saleen will want to take a break on the spot. It’s so troublesome.” Banchajanna had changed his tone, becoming a little similar to Diyabannersa. Banchajanna’s next move was always unpredictable. To his enemies, that was a terrible thing, and to his companions, it was equally as terrible.

“Ignore him. On this trip thus far, have you realized the humans are very much weaker than we expected? Do you all remember when the last time we saw humans was?”

“Was it nine thousand years ago?” Banchajanna was not too sure. To the spirit kings, time was not significant. Even if they could not break free from the scepter’s control, they could still live for hundreds of thousands of years.

“In less than ten thousand years, the humans have already fallen to such a state. Even the black mages can wreak havoc. We might not have to rely on Saleen in the future. Let’s disregard his enemies for now. If we can look for a better partner, we will abandon him after this task.” Judikaka’s soul flames flickered violently.

If all humans are so weak, it will be a good idea to stay on this plane in the long-term. Now, he somewhat understood why the abyssal plane had tried to invade the death dimension. Even though the death dimension was horrible, it was a lot more comfortable than the abyssal plane. To the spirits, the Myers Mainland was like paradise.

If a coordinate was properly constructed, spirits would be able to tap into a limitless supply of power from the death dimension for training purposes. And the power of life on this plane could be converted into strength for the spirits.

If a huge population of spirits were shifted to the mainland, many of them would make a grade advancement, and many more kings would emerge. In less than ten thousand years, the entirety of the mainland would be transformed into a second death dimension.

It was truly a tempting notion. But the condition was that the three kings had to become demigods first, in order to avoid being attacked by the gods on this plane.

By breaking free from the scepter’s control, one would be able to become a demigod in the plane. Coupled with another million years of hard work, one would be able to transform into a real god.

Judikaka cracked up in laughter. Shanglan had left behind many riches for them, but the most important fortune of them all was the knowledge on how to become a god.

It might have been slightly more difficult for a spirit to become a god, but they had an advantage which no other creature possessed. A spirit did not need to train its body. As long as the soul flames were fused with divinity, the spirit would turn into a demigod. Human souls were not developed with time, so humans would have to spend some time in this aspect, and they needed to have a person to guide them along too.

Saleen’s team spent two hours resting and checking their weapons before embarking on the journey. As they had the skeletal warhorses, they could spend more time on these minute details. Otherwise, given the quality of the pirates, marching them would be a troublesome task.

In the beginning, Saleen had used Lex’s technique to command the pirates, but he quickly realized that the pirates were not Lex’s swordsmen and could not obey every single command. When Lex commanded her swordsmen’s camp, it was as agile as her own limbs. However, for the pirates, Saleen felt that controlling them was even more challenging than using prosthetic limbs.

Currently, Saleen had altered the way he commanded the pirates. Anyway, there was only a small group of pirates, so Saleen decided that he would employ magic to transmit his message directly to their ears. Even though this method was more troublesome, it could at least guarantee that the pirates would not misinterpret the command.

The scouts pioneered the journey, and they had already reached the crevice zone which Saleen had mentioned. This crevice was spacious. At the very least, Saleen’s team, which had more than one hundred people, could pass through safely.

The five scouts rode on the skeletal warhorses and traveled through the over two mile long crevice zone. Two of them stopped to stay on alert, while the other three charged back into the crevice. They did not know the meaning of such an action, but Saleen had instructed them to do so.

Woo woo…

As a strong wind blew, a strangely shaped bulge in the snowy ground became taller and taller, as though there was something concealed within the snow. The two scouts immediately discovered this abnormality.

One of the scouts raised his lance and urged the skeletal warhorse to move forward, before stabbing the lance into the ground.

Zhi…

A piercing scream filled the air. The bulge in the snowy ground quickly transformed into a snowman. The snowman twisted its body as it tried to punch the scout.

That was the first time this scout had witnessed such a scene, causing his lance to tremble from fear. Not only was the tip of the lance serrated, but it also contained magic patterns drawn by Saleen. Within the magic patterns, Saleen had concealed holy prose from the Myers Goddess. When the lance trembled, a tiny amount of the power of life was released, and part of it was even contributed by that pirate scout.

Any healthy person would be able to withstand this bit of depletion. However, that snowman could not. It was already a soul which should have dispersed a long time ago, yet it was captured by a black mage and then transformed into a black puppet.

A loud bang came from the snowman’s body, as if something had broken, and dark violet blood began spurting out from its body. As the scout’s lance was too long, the blood could not reach his body.

Woo…

Strong gusts of wind kept blowing. Something in the core of the snowman had been punctured by the lance. The snowman could no longer maintain its shape, and it was felled by the frigid wind and broke down into snow. The dark violet blood on the snow was quickly frozen. Only a tiny bit of flesh continued twisting about.

Ou…

The scout was utterly disgusted. He had killed someone before, but the thing in front of him at this moment was not human at all. It actually resembled a certain human organ. His partner was stronger. When he saw such a sight, he bellowed from the top of a skeletal warhorse, “There is indeed an ambush. We need to get back as soon as possible and report to Sir Saleen.”

The nauseated scout waved his hand as he threw up his breakfast, then said, “This is a sentry, not an ambush.”

His partner was jolted. Had it been an ambush, the two of them would have been dead by now. The snowman left no traces in the snowy ground. Warriors at their grade could not detect the snowmen at all.

However, these black puppets were at too low of a grade, and their offensive powers were quite weak. When the scouts realized this, they urged their horses to stomp at the snowy ground. Very soon, another two black puppets were discovered, and were duly killed by their lances.

“Damn, these things are too creepy. Luckily, Sir refined our weapons for us.”

At this point in time, the pirate scouts then understood why Saleen had taken all their weapons and returned them a few hours later with major transformations. It was because the transformed weapons were very effective against black puppets. The two scouts became emboldened, they surveyed another three miles ahead before retreating.

Without any heavy weapons sealing the crevice, it would be impossible to obstruct the skeletal warhorse convoy with just the black puppets alone. Saleen’s mission for the scouts had been straightforward – to search for every last dangerous heavy weapon.

Take, for example, the magic trebuchet. This weapon could toss a rock weighing more than ten thousand kilograms. No matter how powerful a person was, he would still be killed if he was hit by such a rock. The crevice zone might have been able to fit dozens of horses at one time, but it was still very dangerous if there were any heavy weapons present.

Very soon, Saleen’s team entered from the other end of the crevice and travelled through more than two miles of the dangerous road before arriving at a second plain. The scouts, who were conducting reconnaissance, then rejoined the convoy. The scouts who discovered the black puppets proceeded to report their findings.

Saleen briefly checked their lances. For portability, their lances were slightly shorter than the rest of the pirates. Bloodstains were spotted at the tip of the lances, but those magic patterns which had been refined at the last minute were not damaged. This meant that this crude weapon could effectively take out black puppets.

These black puppets were almost as powerful as those scarecrows in the previous incident. Without a custom weapon, the black puppets would be a nuisance. But with a magic weapon, as long as they were low-grade, the black puppets could also be easily destroyed.

However, given the pirates’ current offensive ability, they would be obliterated in the face of the headless riders.

“Daniel, if headless riders appear, command the pikoosi to attack them. If the evil dragons appear, Aini and I will take care of them,” Saleen briefly instructed, then he allowed his team to slow down and get closer together.

Since those black puppets appeared as snowmen, soldiers who broke away from the main body could easily be assassinated. Saleen was glad that he had decided to refine the pirates’ weapons one more time, or else he would have had to expend a large quantity of scrolls against the black puppets already. He could not possibly use his magic chords to battle with the black puppets.

Aini was feeling vexed. Even though a death mage was the nemesis of a black mage, it did not mean that he loved fighting with black mages. For every black puppet produced, at least one soul had to be contributed. Once a death mage killed someone, they loved sending the soul to the death dimension and rarely dissipated the soul. A death mage and an elemental mage were the same. They loved achieving balance.

A black mage was different. Once they destroyed something, it meant that it would be destroyed for good.

But, if a death mage were to kill a black puppet, it would be difficult to conserve the soul which had been used to produce the black puppet. This situation was akin to two warring states. On one hand, one country would force its citizens to attack the other country. Hence, the defending party would have no choice but to kill those citizens, but it would feel extremely depressed doing so.