Badge in Azure

This face filled Saleen’s heart with disgust and dread. Even if he was a mage and was used to the sight of monsters, Saleen still found it difficult to accept a humanoid creature as ugly and disgusting as this.

This creature might have the body shape of a human, but it had a rotten and deformed face. In the place a nose were just two cavities with a few slits of crushed flesh that moved in rhythm with its breathing. As for its mouth, it was filled with bulging sharp teeth of a dark and grim color. One could see that the rotten flesh on the creature’s face had the ability to heal only to start rotting again once it was fully healed. As a result, the flesh was constantly moving and wriggling.

Compared to this monster, even a evil dragon or swamp zombie looked a hundred times better.

Saleen groaned in his heart, “Goddess of Myers, surely you aren’t that full of love? This is clearly a pure-blooded creature of Purgatory, and still, you have chosen to protect it?”

Not only Saleen, even the two demons felt disgusted upon seeing this creature. The demon dimension was full of ugly-looking creatures. The two of them were not too pretty themselves, but this monster was just simply…

Cough “Mister Mage, may I know if you are disciples of the Goddess?” What made Saleen most uncomfortable was the monster’s eyes, which were clear and pure, a stark contrast with the rest of his face.

Since the creature was polite and well-mannered, Saleen could not use violence immediately. The Goddess’ Lorga City was not meant to be a battlefield, and many of the Guardians could be persuaded and convinced. That made any fighting unnecessary.

“We are not disciples of any Gods.” Even as Saleen was finishing his sentence, he purposely produced a spark of godly power from his left hand.

“You do have the Goddess’ blessings though. So, Mister Mage, do you wish to defeat and subdue me? Or do you want me to let you pass?” The monster asked a strange question with a sigh.

“What is the difference?” Saleen was patient while cautiously keeping his distance.

“Defeat me and I can follow you, like a stone statue soldier. If I let you go, you can head straight to the heart of the city, which is the Temple of Grace.”

“There is a temple here too?” Saleen was shocked and confused. Although Lorga City was a labyrinth built by the Goddess, he had never heard that there would be any temples, since no High Priests had been sent there.

“We built it ourselves, even the Goddess is unaware.”

Seeing that Saleen was now hesitating, the monster said, “Mister Mage, I will not kill you. I have intelligence, which makes me different from the stone statue soldiers. What good does it do me if I were to kill you?”

Saleen could sense that the creature was trying to lure him into battle. He became even more cautious and asked, “How may I address you?”

“Ismail Augusto. I am from the purgatory dimension and I like to collect items. Mister Mage, I have collected a number of decent items.” This creature who called himself Ismail spoke politely and in a fast but clear pace. If you closed your eyes, you might have mistaken him to be a well-mannered scholar.

Saleen felt like vomiting upon hearing what he said. A dweller from the purgatory dimension? Collecting items for a hobby? Surely, he must be the one creating the Abominations and Evil Knights? According to the Handbook of Monsters on the Myers Mainland, dwellers from the purgatory dimension were notorious. Many experienced mages had also warned in their magic notes against trying to summon such a creature.

Saleen thought, “If I let you follow me, no one else would dare to follow me anymore.” Purgatory dwellers could flesh and soul into pieces before meshing them together again, creating new life.

“And if I choose to leave?”

Ismail smiled, a piece of rotten flesh almost falling off his face, and said light-heartedly, “The Goddess might not like the idea of me killing you, so you can leave someone else behind instead. After all, I have been hungry for many years.”

While he stated his request nonchalantly, on the other side, the two demons were overwhelmed with fear. Saleen could neither leave behind Sika nor Nailisi. If the condition was to leave someone behind, then he would surely pick one out of the two demons.

They would they not resist, they would have escaped long ago if they could.

“I will not leave anyone behind,” Saleen’s hands produced a bubble that floated to the front and said, “Unless you can burst this bubble.”

The bubbles that Saleen possessed in the beginning had all been used up. This was a water shield that he had just created and given life to.

Ismail looked at the bubble that was half transparent and laughed before saying, “Mister Mage, as a loyal disciple of the Goddess, I cannot defeat the godly power that she has left behind.”

The two demons were originally gripped with fear, but finally felt more at ease upon hearing the conversation between Saleen and Ismail. Saleen was not that bad a master after all and was not as depraved as the other people from Myers.

“Then let us pass.”

No matter how powerful this purgatory dweller was, Saleen did not wish to keep him by his side. He might not be able to totally control this creature. Creatures from the purgatory dimension belong to a master the moment they were born. Once the master came calling, Saleen would lose all his control as the new master. Even if Ismail’s master from the purgatory dimension did not come along, Saleen did not dare to take this risk.

This purgatory dweller was of a much higher grade than him and could not be controlled easily. He might be unable to suppress his urges and decide to kill everyone around Saleen, just so he could piece them back together again as part of his grotesque creations. It would be too late for regrets by then. This creature was definitely much more dangerous than the demons.

The purgatory dweller did not collect materials nor tools, but sought after different components from all sorts of creatures. His keen interest in new and fresh components was a stark contrast to his entire body that was only made up of stale and rotten flesh.

“Mister Mage, I am a disciple of the Goddess. Even if you do not trust me, surely you should have trust in the Goddess?” Ismail lectured.

Saleen thought to himself, “The Holy See is filled with a bunch of bastards, and every single one of them might have been ten-thousand times worse than the Lord of Glory.” but he quickly stopped himself. He was a mage and he should still maintain a certain level of respect towards the Goddess of Myers.

“Besides, even if you pass through me, there are still others that you have to pass through. Without my help, there is no way you can reach the Temple of Grace,” Ismail revealed.

“Didn’t you say that they can just let us through?”

“If you leave someone behind for me, I will be happy to send you through. If you intend to pass through without leaving anyone behind for me, I cannot possibly disobey the wishes of the Goddess and allow you to reach the Temple so easily.”

Saleen groaned in his heart. If this was indeed the case, then he was left with no choice but to accept him.

Nailisi whispered in Saleen’s ear. He nodded and said, “Ok, I can accept you as my follower, but you have to sign a contract with me.”

Ismail laughed uproariously as the holes in his face squirted out some green and sticky liquid. Upon contact with the ground, the liquid slowly crystallized and became little gemstones.

“Hand me the contract!”

“Wait.”

Saleen took out an empty scroll. This was a scroll of excellent quality that was given to him by Aini’s parents. He had planned to use it to create a scroll of forbidden curse in the future, but now it seemed that he would need to use this scroll on Ismail. Saleen’s gut feeling told him that using a scroll of normal quality for the contract would not be able to ensure Ismail’s allegiance and loyalty.

Due to the discrepancy in their grades, Saleen would not be able to control the purgatory dweller easily. Naturally the contract would contain a trap. Once the trap was triggered, the purgatory dweller would inevitably end up like the Three Kings to be completely reduced to the status of a slave.

Saleen quickly finished the contract and included his spiritual imprint on the scroll, before throwing it to Ismail. Without even taking a glance at the contract, a string of Holy Prose flew out from his eyes and entered the scroll, turning it into ashes instantaneously. He thought that there was no way a weak mage like Saleen could have any tricks up his sleeves.

The two demons were unsure of what was going on, but since Nailisi was the one who came up with the idea, they would not have dared to oppose it anyway. Sika knew how Saleen managed to trick the three Kings of Death and felt more assured. Once the contract had been signed, Saleen said, “Your current image is not suitable to be my follower. Some changes need to be made.”

Ismail wriggled his mouth apologetically and said, “Please go ahead.”

Nailisi gleefully stepped forward and cast the Ultimate Transformation spell on Ismail. This time around, she did not dare to play a fool, since Ismail was much stronger than her and Saleen did not have full control over him yet. She transformed Ismail into a male human body that was muscular and fit and was about two yards tall.

Ismail was already wearing a black robe originally, so now with this new body, he looked like a judge that worked for the Holy See.

With the intention of lowering Ismail’s guard towards him, Saleen asked him directly, “You said you have collected many items? Show me.”

“Yes, Master Saleen.” Ismail reached into his sleeves and took out two items. Saleen’s eyes widened. One of the items was a piece of armor that he had seen before in the Handbook. It could be tied to the forearm, and was made from the rare Chaos crystal. Although the Chaos crystal could not enhance one’s magic powers, it was stronger than any other metal, making it a very useful armor.

The two Chaos crystals had been sculpted into the shape of leaves, marking this armor as the ones typically used by the temple troops of the Goddess of Nature. This armor could be given to Jola. He was highly-skilled and would be more than capable of wielding this armor that would not be too heavy for him. It could replace his old armor. In fact, if Jola was a disciple of the Goddess, he would have an even better chance of maximizing its potential.

What caught Saleen’s attention, however, was not the armor. When he saw the second item, his heart filled with glee.

It was a calabash that was green and yellow in color, no bigger than a palm in size, and had not undergone any modifications. Saleen recognized straightaway that this was a Shenhe. His own Shenhe had already been used previously to refine the water element. Now that he had another calabash, he would have the chance to refine the water puppet while he was still in grade-7.

“I know master will feel uncomfortable towards my other collections, so I shan’t bring them out. These two items were gifts to me from the Goddess, I hope you will accept them,” Ismail said politely.

Saleen took the Chaos armguard and Shenhe, and nodded.

“Surely you must know what type of creature we will be facing next?”

Ismail said, “Master, it is a grade-7 Flying Dragon. It is big in size so it can serve you as a coolie, if you wish.”

Saleen could hear the arrogance in his voice. Although the Flying Dragon was a Wurm, a grade-7 Flying Dragon was still capable of killing a grade-8 beast. He asked, “So what is your grade then?”

“When I am at full strength, I am grade-9. Now, I am probably at the level of a grade-8,” Ismail answered seriously.

“In that case, I shall count on you to settle the Flying Dragon,” Saleen said with a smile.

“That goes without saying. Since you are now the master and I am your follower, of course I must settle such problems for my master.” With that, Ismail turned and crossed into a wave of ripples. Saleen did not even realize the appearance of this formless barrier until now.