Badge in Azure

“Master, I could only vaguely feel…” the winged skeleton obviously knew what Saleen thought and he wanted to explain, but he realized that if he were to continue talking Saleen would be furious. He could not be blamed, however. At first, he did not know direct soul connection would have such effects. Even when Saleen sealed off the soul pathway between the two of them, he could still see most of his master’s thoughts.

The winged skeleton forgot his pain and he realized Saleen was a good mage compared to most of the other death mages. Not only did Saleen provide him with the best shelter, he also did not send him out for unnecessary adventures.

Saleen did not continue talking as he could not just tell the winged skeleton that in the future, when he was making love with Sika, he was not allowed to appear. That was too forceful.

Saleen felt vexed and he took a glance at Aini. Aini’s facial expression made him jealous as it was the look of a mage that was inspired and concentrating in his own thoughts wholeheartedly, utter happiness was on his face. “My foundation was solid and I never stop practicing everyday, but why isn’t there any hope of promotion?”

If other mages were to read Saleen’s thought, they would definitely bash him up. Saleen was not even twenty years old and the time he practiced magic was way shorter than those like Lex, but he was already a grade-5 mage. Even though the process was dangerous and there were a few times that he nearly died, any mage would be willing to take on the risk.

If taking the risk could make one a grand mage, the number of mages in the world would double compared to swordsmen.

The water shield on Aini looked like it was going to disappear and just when Saleen wanted to cast another one for him, Aini suddenly shot open his eyes and waved at Saleen. He pointed at the Pan’s Turtle alchemical boat. Saleen understood that the floral death creature had absorbed the power to its maximum limit and Aini needed to head back to stabilize his harvest.

Retrieving his floral death creature and fleshy death creature, Aini and Saleen then returned to the ship. The ship was like a black hole, continued absorbing the power of the dead in the sea area.

Even the winged skeleton himself did not know that the success did not come without any effort. If Judikaka did not make the minor changes back then, the Pan’s turtle shell and the power of the spirit of the dead would not be tightly compatible. Through infection by the spirit pool at the inner of the alchemical boat for a long period of time, the turtle shell had turned into death equipment entirely.

Under the high pressure in the deep sea, among the intense power of the dead, the alchemical boat itself was like a living creature; it evolved together.

Aini returned to his room hastily without greeting Saleen. Banchajanna turned into his skeleton form, then came before Saleen sadly and saluted, “Mage Saleen, can I request something?”

Saleen thought, “You finally know how to respect humans…” but he replied, “Tell me then. If it isn’t too ridiculous, I will fulfil your request.”

“I saw some of the materials that you have collected. There were some magic beast bones. I would like to have them to mend my cracks.”

Saleen nodded with a poker face. Banchajanna then continued, “I know that these things are valuable in this dimension, so I can exchange them with some precious equipment of mine.”

“The equipment for spirits of the death wouldn’t be useful for me. If I were to give it to the winged skeleton, I’m afraid that there are restrictions that I am not familiar with and that might harm the winged skeleton, then I,…”

“No, this equipment is for a human mage. There is nothing related to a spirit of the dead.” Banchajanna quickly explained and he understood the importance of the winged skeleton to Saleen. He was afraid that Saleen suspected that he wanted to play a trick on the winged skeleton.

He had no other better way as Saleen gave him too few bones and the quality was not great. If he were to mend his body, it would reduce his fighting power. Especially the crack on his forehead, that was to protect his soul flame so it could not be mended randomly.

The materials that Saleen collected earlier were extremely precious to a spirit of the dead. He saw and he could not hold back his desire to get his hands on them so he suggested to exchange with equipment that he had collected.

“Banchajanna, I’m only a grade-5 mage. If your equipment is too good, I can’t use it. If it is too bad, it’s not worth the exchange.”

Banchajanna knew that Saleen was a master that did not lose the falcon until he saw the hare, so he took out one of the items and passed it to Saleen.

“Here it is, back then I kept it in secret, even Judikaka and the others don’t know.”

Saleen took over the equipment, it was a mask. He was not sure what it was made of. It was not that heavy and light green in color. The difference between this mask and the common ones was that the eye section was not hollowed out but inlaid with two pieces of black crystal, like a swordsman’s fully enclosed helmet.

The surface of the light green mask had a bright and colorful magic pattern, its level of complication exceeded Saleen’s family badge. With one glance at the magic pattern would drown one uncontrollably. Luckily, Saleen had similar experience and knew that it was a three-dimensional magic pattern, not aiming for mental attack.

“This seemed to be for an assassin.” Saleen said casually and dared not probe the secret of these pattern.

“No, although I had never studied the mask before for its origins, I knew there was a rumor saying that there was a godly item on the Myers Mainland. The power of this item shouldn’t be second to a godly item.”

“Banchajanna, should I believe in you?” Saleen took the mask that he could not see through and asked.

“I have no idea. Sometimes I would do ridiculous things, such as trading when the value of the mask is definitely way higher than those bones.”

“Mm, I will take the mask and you can have these.” Saleen took out a few bones that were half a meter long from the dimension stone and passed them to Banchajanna. These stones would be sufficient for him to mend his most important parts and were way faster than recovering naturally.

“Thank you.” Banchajanna took the bones and ran towards the back cabin. Only there, he would not be disturbed and be able resumed his original body as the space in the ship was too small.

Saleen shook his head and put the mask onto his face. The mask suddenly stuck onto his face as though it was growing on it. Saleen was astonished. Then he realized that the mask did not perform any other action and he only needed to lift the mask to remove it from his face.

Saleen calmed and he saw a weird scene through the black crystals in the mask. Everything in his surroundings seemed to change. He was still in the alchemical boat, but the material of the ship looked as though it was transparent. In other words, Saleen could look through everything. That included the magic array in the internal of the ship, the magic rune in the shell mezzanine, and also the motion track of power within.

In the past, if he wanted to analyze the motion track of the power and make prediction, that would required accelerated calculation. That was only able to be carried out using the power from the necklace of Goddess. He then could see the motion track of the power clearly and the mask seemed to assist him in calculation. The surrounding was filled with various energies and each energy could be accurately gauged as to how it would move next.

The item might not be a godly item, but it was definitely worth more than a godly item. At least to Saleen it currently was. He wanted to use the Figaro Magic Formula in battle, but it was much too heavy of a burden to his body and he could not use it on an enemy that was a higher level than he was. The mask helped Saleen to analyze directly and Saleen was certain that he could then use his magic like Lex’s teacher, to break the enemy’s attack.

Saleen released an ice bomb spell casually and turned it into a fire ball. Saleen caught the law of movement of the fire ball in the air and he released an icicle spell.

The speed of an icicle was faster than a fire ball and it was completed within a second. When the icicle caught up to the fire ball and hit the weakest point of the fire ball, it made a bang noise and was annihilated.

The power of Saleen’s fireball was considered an intermediate magic but the icicle magic that he possessed was only a grade-2 magic. A grade-2 magic broke a magic that was at least grade-4!

Saleen was extremely delighted. When he faced his enemy’s locking magic, he could only fight against them with his water shield. Although he had calculating ability and he could use the toughest part of his water shield to block the enemy’s attack, his water shield was a grade-4 spell and the expense was high. The icicle spell was only a grade-2 magic so the expense decreased by a hundred times.

To a mage, controlling the expenditure of magic chords was extremely important. Saleen also had a bronze magic book. In the future, if the enemy was not sorcerer level, he could at least use the bronze magic book to deal with fighting instead of using any of his magic chords or wasting his scrolls.

If he had a silver magic book, Saleen would be confident enough to face a grade-6 mage.

To get such a powerful magic equipment, he only traded with a few bones! Although the bones were valuable, to exchange for such a powerful equipment, it was definitely not an equivalent exchange!

The sudden happiness made Saleen dizzy. He had many different equipments before, but it required time to study or he might not even able to fully utilized it after much effort. The mask was the first item that he could use the very moment he laid his hands on it and could give full play to its fighting power.

Saleen could not control his emotions and started practicing magic in the cabin. One after another intermediate spell was cast and broken with icicle magic. The advantage of icicle magic was its speed due to its disability to lock, that was that fastest spell before grade-7.

Saleen could predict the course of the element energy and casting icicle magic was almost beneficial in every way. If he drilled, he could definitely use it during actual battle.

After ten minutes, Saleen felt himself feeling dizzy. He then realized that he spent half of his mental strength. He immediately removed his mask and breathed out. The power of the mask was great, but it required too high of a mental strength. If it was other grade-5 mage, they might not even withstand it for half a minute and they would be utterly emptied of mental strength.

“Half a minute? No, maximum three seconds, the mage wearing the mask will be turned into an idiot. Banchajanna, you bastard!”