Badge in Azure

Sika was asked to take her leave. There was nothing much she could help with so only Nailisi and Nicholas stayed behind.

Nailisi was in charge of removing the spikes while Nicholas would take out the poison glands within the sea urchins before gathering them together. The poison glands were very small and only a grade-9 Professional like Nicholas would be able to remove them without damaging them.

Saleen was in charge of refining the sea urchins’ skins.

Although only three of them were processing the sea urchins, they were not slow at all. Within ten seconds, the trio would finish processing one sea urchin. Nailisi removed the spikes with her bare hands and did not need to rest at all since she was at full strength. On the other hand, Nicholas used fallen divine spells to retrieve the poison glands easily.

Saleen cast a water flame that was more than two yards in diameter before tossing the sea urchins’ skins in it for simple processing.

Very soon, Saleen realized that he had to find a better way. At the rate that they were going, he would need a week to complete processing all these purple-gold sea urchins.

“Nailisi, ask Cuisi and the rest to come over. Bring a few more middle-grade spirits of the dead. It will take a long time for you to process the sea urchins on your own.”

Nailisi nodded and left. She was not slow, but she could not keep up with Nicholas and Saleen. Saleen could process tens of sea urchins at one go while Nicholas could process almost a hundred.

Nailisi left for the time-being, but Nicholas did not stop. He did not wish to be the one removing the spikes. Soon, Nailisi returned with four demons, twelve jade skeletons and tens of spirits of the dead. These spirits of the dead would be responsible for transportation since they were immune to poison.

The speed increased by more than ten times. Saleen was full of mental strength. He was looking at the rest of the items in the bracelet even as he processed the purple-gold sea urchins.

There was a dark green coral that was similar to a magic crystal ore. Only the Eastern Sea people knew how to process magic crystal ores. Saleen had yet to begin to mine these ores and only knew that a lot of capital would be required to process them. These dark green coral could be used directly.

Saleen already had sufficient magic nuclei for his own use so he was not too interested in a resource like that. Besides, all mages knew that coral took a long time to grow. It was not worthwhile to mine a little, but if they mined too much, the coral would become extinct. Nevertheless, the coral could still be used to enchant special weapons that would only be used by officers, the quantity need not be high.

There was a pile of ore that was size of a fist at the corner. Saleen took a look at them with his elemental eye and realized that they were metal ores with fire element.

The winged skeleton had discovered an underwater volcano. The amount of ore hidden underwater was a hundred times greater than those found on land. When volcanoes erupted, they would usually release metal from the world’s core. These metals possessed very strong fire elements and could be made into offensive weapons. If the volcanoes were still active, it was better not to approach them. If the volcanoes were extinct, one would be able to find many valuable items just by mining its surrounding areas. The winged skeleton did not bring back too many items, but he must have already taken note of the coordinates so that Saleen would be able to send sorcerers and combat vessels there in future.

There was a type of flat fish that was being squashed under many ores. The bodies of these fish were five yards wide and were only four yards long excluding their tails. This magic beast was well-known for being extremely difficult to capture. Some mages conducted research and had drawn out some diagrams to describe how dangerous these fish were.

Saleen looked at the magic patterns on these big black fish and immediately thought of a use for them. These fish could be used to create flying puppets. They would be able to carry at least one rider on them and would not fall apart after flying for a long time like the other flying puppets. It would be a miniature version and could only be used for short-ranged surveillance.

On the right side of the ore was a corpse that was more than ten yards long. Saleen’s interest was piqued, this was a fully-grown sea monster.

Sea monsters liked to skim surface of the ocean. They were born with a magic arrays on their backs that could launch spiritual attacks. Magic beasts that were of lower levels than the sea monsters would mistake their back for food. This was how the sea monster would lure and capture the sea birds flying in the sky. Sometimes, human vessels might mistake them for other humans that had capsized. They would send out little boats to help them, but would end up being sunk instead.

This sea monster must have been killed by the winged skeleton using the poisonous spikes from the sea urchins. That explained why it did not attempt to escape. Normally, even sorcerers would find it difficult to capture such creatures.

In total, there were about seventy to eighty creatures piled up in the warehouse, each of them had their own unique uses. Saleen could only recognize one-quarter of them, but his elemental eye still allowed him to see through the essence of every creature.

Saleen spent eight full hours processing all the purple-gold sea urchins and gathering all the dangerous spikes. If these spikes fell into the hands of the enemy, they would pose a great threat to his mages. Many of his mages would not be able to withstand being surrounded by a group of enemy soldiers and shot with these spikes.

These purple-gold spikes could be incorporated into Metatrin City’s defenses. Saleen took out a sticky sphere that was the size of a fist from the sea urchin’s skin. This was a unique substance secreted by the purple-gold sea urchins in order to grow new spikes. Combining this substance with metal would produce a weapon as effective as the spikes. The only downside was that such a weapon could only be used once or twice.

This was a good thing to Saleen. Arrows refined with such a substance would possess the offensive abilities of the spikes, but they would become expendables and could not be used repeatedly. He would not have to worry about these arrows landing in the enemy’s hands since they could not be re-used.

Saleen kept the skins of more than fifteen-thousand purple-gold sea urchins and each of them possessed about four to five square yards of space that could be utilized without using any magic. To Saleen, it was as if he had gained fifteen thousand spatial equipments and would no longer need to configure so many grade-5 mages.

Saleen was extremely satisfied with the items that the winged skeleton had brought back. Saleen has yet to take a look at the other bracelet but was already more than happy with this one.

Saleen was not aware that the winged skeleton had just gotten lucky. He was heading towards the oceanic ice block with two skeletal warships when he encountered an underwater volcano erupting near an island. The pan’s turtle alchemical boat was heading towards the volcano to collect the metals that would be released but to their surprise, they discovered that the purple-gold sea urchins had been shocked by the eruption and were trying to flee from the sea bed. In the end, the two skeletal warships cast a gigantic metal net and captured all the surrounding sea urchins.

If the volcano eruption was even stronger, the winged skull would not have dared to approach. On the other hand, he would not have managed to capture so many sea urchins without the eruption. At the end of the day, it was all luck.

Mages never believed in luck most of the time. They believed that success came with hard work. Nevertheless, luck definitely existed. Saleen had always been unlucky until he defeated the expedition, then his luck seemed to have improved.

The first batch of goods brought back by the winged skull had already boosted his abilities by another notch. With fifteen-thousand purple-gold sea urchins, Saleen had the best materials to threaten Professionals with. The purple-gold spikes would enable Saleen to ensure his city’s safety even before the Sregl Island mages arrived.

All the corpses of the ocean magic beasts contained either natural magic arrays or magic patterns. In other words, Saleen could make use of these corpses to invent new spells.

In the magic notes recorded by Joey and Raphael, it was mentioned that it was best if mages could utilize their knowledge of elements to invent new spells as they advanced into a sorcerer. If one could invent a new spell thoroughly and completely, the amount of effort required to break through the grade-9 barrier would be much less difficult.

The water shield could not be considered as Saleen’s unique invention, it was only an improvement. Now that Saleen had obtained so many new and strange magic beasts, his heart was filled with joy. Surely he would be able to invent a new spell from studying the magic patterns and magic array of more than eighty magic beasts. This was how humans in the past came up with new spells too.

The second bracelet had been cleared out and its contents filled up an entire warehouse again. The contents in this bracelet were a mess. The entire warehouse was piled up with seaweed that was more than ten yards long. Within the seaweed were a number of magic beast corpses and most of them were a type of poisonous sea serpent. These sea serpents would hide amongst the seaweed to prey on unknowing creatures for survival.

Saleen began to laugh heartily. The seaweed was extremely valuable and it only grew in the cold seas of the north of Sikeqinya. This type of seaweed grew very slowly, but it had a very unique use.

On the Myers Mainland, all warhorses were basically magic beasts. Every empire had tried to cross breed warhorses with other similar magic beasts, but after two or three generations, the magic beast bloodline would disappear completely. A really good warhorse was extremely expensive for that reason.

A warhorse with a magic beast bloodline would not panic on the battlefield. Even if a spell had just exploded next to it, it would still be able to continue cooperating with its rider. Not only that, but the warhorse would also be able to carry heavy loads and travel at high speeds.

Only warhorses with a magic beast bloodline would be able to carry heavy-armored knights for long periods of time. A normal warhorse was thought to possess excellent bloodline if it could battle for even half an hour.

In order to ensure the warhorse’s bloodline and allow it to maximize its abilities on the battlefield, its diet was extremely important. Sikeqinyans used to mix the seaweed with grain to feed the warhorses.

The way to mix the seaweed with grain was not a secret, but the seaweed was produced only in Sikeqinya. All the Mainland countries had to buy it from Sikeqinya. Sikeqinya had always been able to earn plenty of gold coins from the three Empires.

Warhorses had huge appetites. The seaweed contained much more nutrients than grain. With such a diet and some grass, a warhorse would be able to maintain its bloodline and fighting abilities.

The winged skeleton was trying to tell Saleen that he had found a place that grew such seaweed. In future, Saleen would not have to worry about feeding the warhorses of his knights.

“Let’s go. We will return to Broken Blade Pass to see how we can rebuild it,” Saleen could not stop smiling as he led Nicholas back to the temple.

Saleen usually depended on skeletal warhorses as he did not have many warhorses. Skeletal warhorses had as many weaknesses as they had strengths. The most troublesome part was that they needed to be taken care of by death mages and that they feared the Holy See’s bright divine spell.

The Holy See was Saleen’s main enemy. He could never use skeletal warhorses in place of normal warhorses in his battles against the Holy See. With the seaweed, he would be able to breed his own warhorses without fear that their bloodlines would degrade.