Badge in Azure

“Sir, I am not dumb.” Eleanor pouted and laughed, that was the first time Saleen had seen her laughing like a normal woman.

“So does it mean you agree to it?”

“I will try my best, but what about the equipment?”

“It will be fine without you. In the future, just practice in the temple. I will only look for you regarding the drawings, you don’t have to worry about anything else. I hope that you can advance to a grade-7 sorcerer within one and a half years, can you do it?”

“Of course. If I didn’t follow the marquis, I would have become a sorcerer long ago.” Eleanor sighed, her powers were drastically reduced because she had borne a child for the marquis. Currently, if she still could not attain grade-7 in such a conducive environment provided by Saleen, then she would have lived the past few hundred years in vain.

“I cannot help you in the aspect of magic. Regarding your archery skills, tell me, what are they?” Saleen set aside his worries, as he began planning to craft some equipment for Eleanor. All this while, he had not thought of the candidates for the mage’s platoon. Now that Saleen had decided to let Eleanor do this, he felt a sense of assurance in his intuition.

“The archery of the elves is split into three categories. The first is similar to humans, whereby emphasis is placed on internal training. On the elvish plane, there is a similar skill to the Sword Aura, it is called Combat Aura. The Sword Aura is more potent and accurate, but harder to be cultivated. At the moment, in the aspect of fusing archery with Sword Aura, the best performer is Jola. His skills are very outstanding, even I am less powerful than him. The second type is an inborn skill, some elves do not require any training and they can already wield powerful archery skills. Being royalty, I actually don’t have this ability. My special ability has to rely on equipment, or I have to attain grade-9 before being able to unleash my mightiest power.”

Saleen listened intently. If Eleanor was not around to explain, Saleen would not be able to gain any information about the elvish plane. “From Eleanor’s depiction, the power of that plane still isn’t as strong as that of the Myers mainland. According to the ancient legends, the elves were very mighty beings. Seems like the elve’s power declined as well as the humans.”

“Currently I can only use three kinds of archery skills; Space Arrow, Life Arrow, and Emperor Arrow.”

As Eleanor described her abilities, she acted proudly and finally revealed the demeanor of an expert. A person was only an expert once they were above grade-7, but Eleanor was similar to Saleen, she could long release skills which posed a threat to experts. The confidence and majesty, which were cultivated invisibly, came about intrinsically.

“These three archer skills are the secrets passed down within the elvish imperial family, once they are cultivated to their pinnacle state they can kill gods. The Space Arrow can traverse the planes, the Life Arrow can solidify time, and the Emperor Arrow can squelch a plane. At the end of the day, the skills can alter any rules.”

“At the end of the day, the skills can alter any rules!” Saleen felt as if a window had opened in his heart. He had found a small loophole in the universal rules recently, but Eleanor’s words had made this loophole even larger.

“The elf bow which you gave me can unleash these three skills, but the feather arrows are a little…”

Saleen gave Eleanor a total of two bows, the first bow was crafted from divinecherry wood and it could fire the Space Arrow. The second bow was crafted from the branches of the Tree of Taboo. Using a divine tree as the building material, this bow could surely support the ultimate archery skills of the elves. Saleen had injected the Power of Life into it. When this bow released the Life Arrow, it would not have to deplete Eleanor’s lifespan.

Indeed, Saleen did not give Eleanor any premium arrows, he was really too busy. He did not know the secrets of these three archery skills, so he could not produce any targeted equipment. Eleanor had been using the normal feather arrows to practice her archery.

“Okay, I will be here crafting new equipment for you. Eleanor, prepare your elvish magic to help me replenish my strength.” Speaking, Saleen cast his water flames.

The Water Flame Alchemy was one of Jason’s secret skill. When other people crafted equipment, they had to rely on flames, while Saleen relied on the low temperature water flames. Be it in high temperatures or low temperatures, the basic structure of a substance would be altered.

This time around, Saleen did not hold back. The temperature of the sealed room was lowered instantly, frost even appeared on Eleanor’s face. She quickly released a spell, causing a green radiance to be illuminated that slightly raised her surrounding temperature. Saleen’s water flames flickered before her. The Snowkill Skill, which was stimulated at the same time as the water flames, was fully controlled by Saleen. It was not released.

The branches from the four divine trees, the Tree of Life, the Tree of Wisdom, the Tree of Element, and the Tree of Taboo were taken out by Saleen and then added into the water flames. These items were added at the same time with the elvish shortbow which was originally crafted for Eleanor.

Even though the four divine trees had withered, they were not carrying any other impurities. Saleen only made them undergo continuous compression and refinement, using his powerful mental strength to produce a bow whose shape was conceived in his mind.

This was the godly crafting skill circulating among the sorcerers, it was very stressful on one’s mental strength.

Eleanor did not dare act slowly, she blessed Saleen with many elvish spells. She replenished the consumed mental strength, so Saleen’s mental strength was almost always at full capacity.

Saleen had given it his all this time around. Clearly, Eleanor’s archery skills would not be able to achieve a breakthrough in the foreseeable future, so Saleen could only improve her equipment. Her archery could paralyze the enemy. Even though the enemy could not be killed or injured that way, it would give Saleen a chance to use his badge. Saleen’s badge was his strongest attack and even though half a year was needed to attain a full recharge, the offensive power was amazing enough to make people look forward to it.

A grade-9 Golden Grand Swordmaster was disintegrated instantly by the badge’s attack. Without this badge, Saleen would have died long ago.

The branches of the divine trees were refined into thin strands as they were assembled into a longbow using the structure of three-dimensional magic patterns. The chord of this longbow was made from strands extracted from the bark. A normal bow chord had about the same thickness as a gold coin, but Saleen had made six-hundred and forty strands and wove them together.

This dark green bow was one and a half yards long. There were neither magic patterns nor the dragonshard on it. This was an elvish longbow made solely from the branches of the divine trees and the Power of Life swirled within. This was a rule Saleen had understood, it could balance out energy and there was almost zero loss.

Saleen himself did not even know how much time had elapsed, he only knew that Eleanor kept consuming magic liquid and casting elvish spells on him, even Eleanor’s face had become slightly pale.

The longbow was bent into a circle within the water flames, then it sprung back vigorously. The bow chords at the tips then opened up. With a whoosh, the dark green longbow suddenly flew upwards.

Pu!

Saleen spit out a mouthful of blood, spitting at the tips of the longbow. This longbow was like a creature, trying to find an exit in the sealed room. The blood sprayed at one end of the bow, then Saleen immediately yelled, “Eleanor!”

Eleanor behaved telepathically, she bit her tongue and also spit out a mouthful of blood. When the longbow was stained by Saleen’s blood, its actions slowed down. When it was hit by Eleanor’s spit, it crashed towards the ground.

Saleen collapsed, but his face was plastered with a smile.

“I am a grade-6 mage, yet I managed to create a pseudo godly weapon.” Even though the materials used were superior, Saleen never anticipated such an outcome.

“Sir!” Eleanor did not look at the longbow, she went to catch Saleen in her embrace. She only relaxed when she saw the smile on Saleen’s face.

Unknowingly, she had consumed all the magic liquid. Her mental strength was totally exhausted, she could hardly cast any intermediate level spells. This sealed alchemy laboratory was originally prepared for dangerous experiments. It was magically reinforced with white rocks and steel rocks, so it could not possibly be destroyed by violence. If Eleanor possessed so much strength, she would not need to worry about getting trapped in it.

Saleen panted, then said, “Let’s meditate.”

After they advanced to grand mages, they rarely meditated. Saleen had the clan badge which could replace meditation skill. Eleanor’s mental strength had never been so exhausted before though.

Placing Saleen into the meditation seat, Eleanor sat across him. Even though the water flames had dispersed, the room was still very chilly, frost had appeared on their bodies.

Two hours had passed and Saleen had repeated the meditation skill several times. When he felt that his mental state did not receive any damage, he opened his eyes. Eleanor had woke up earlier, she had zoned out while holding onto the dark green longbow.

Noticing that Saleen had woken up, Eleanor raised her head and looked at him with a complicated gaze. She felt that this longbow was hundreds of times mightier than the original elvish bow, but she could not identify its material. “Is this Saleen’s secret? Even the gods would be jealous of Saleen’s possessions! No wonder Saleen told me that the thing he was going to execute was so dangerous that he was not confident in doing it, he even wanted to prepare a backup for Sika and me.”

“That will be all for today, I will craft your feather arrows slowly. Too much time has passed, the people waiting outside must be anxious.” Saleen looked at Eleanor, as Eleanor nodded her head.

Saleen had spent seven days and seven nights crafting this longbow.

“This bow shall be called Seven Nights.” Speaking, Saleen stood up and led Eleanor to the teleportation portal, then they left this sealed room.

Many people in the temple had inquiries for Saleen, most of them were about equipment. The most important thing was that Lex had sent a letter over.

Lex’s main point in her letter was that her equipment was starting to be insufficient. She also talked about the strategy Metatrin City would employ in Phoenix.

In the southeastern corner of Loulan, at the intersection with Titan Duchy, the Bitter Water County had occupied a one-thousand-mile land. Lex herself had brought along less than fifty-thousand people, but more than two-hundred-thousand Loulan people had defected to her. That was only referring to the army.

The equipment brought along by Lex was only enough for equipping one-hundred-thousand people. Now that the number of soldiers had increased to two-hundred and fifty-thousand, Lex could not progress any further. She could get a few thousand sets of armor from the Bitter Water County, but she was still short of almost one-hundred-thousand pieces of armor. The blades were still adequate, but Lex was short of magic nuclei and bows.

Currently, Bitter Water County was slightly barren. If it could not receive a resupply soon and some army decided to invade the headquarters of the Bitter Water County, the mages would have to defend the frontlines.

Saleen’s side was also precarious, his resources were moving from his left pocket to the right. It was impossible for Saleen to gather equipment for one-hundred-thousand people immediately. Aini had already set off with some equipment to construct a new city. The situation there was even more perilous, Saleen could not possibly take back any equipment from Aini.

The noble army had entered Phoenix, a war was on the verge of breaking out. Saleen already had some problems supporting the offensive over there, he could not set aside equipment for Lex. Saleen originally thought that his astronomical wealth could sustain him. When he got into a war, he had realized that war would deplete more money than anything.