Badge in Azure

Lex had rushed back to Metatrin City, but she came prepared with the letters of credence of both kingdoms and template of the treaty. After packing up the equipment, Lex and Saleen returned to the temple and left her sorcerer in the mansion.

Nailisi was feeling a little frustrated while waiting for Saleen, but immediately put on a smile when she saw Saleen and Lex returning.

“Greetings, Viscountess,” Nailisi bowed politely.

“Nailisi, you have become stronger,” Lex smiled in return. She did not wish to offend the demons around Saleen. When it came to such creatures, sometimes even their masters might find it hard to control them. There was nothing she would gain from offending them.

Nailisi ignored her and said to Saleen, “Master, Sister Sika is asking if you will be going over tonight?”

Saleen coughed and gave Nailisi a stare. She was clearly trying to drive a wedge between them. He has never spent a single night at the South Court. Even if he were to meet with Sika, she would spend the night at the temple.

Lex pretended not to hear. Whether Saleen and Sika developed feelings for each other or not was beyond her control. Although their lives had been intertwined and something strange might have happened between them in the hell of god’s punishment, she was still the bloodline of the Grukos. There was just too many things that she needed to take responsibility for.

The two of them had to go their separate ways and were ten-thousand miles apart. On the other hand, Sika and Saleen spent time with each other daily. Just this point alone, Lex knew there was no way she stood a chance.

As Saleen had already shifted the kingdom’s administrative duties into the palace, the second level of the temple was now empty. Saleen brought Lex to the second level and both of them discussed the treaty between both countries.

Saleen had no expectations with regards to building a country in the first place. He was doing this for the sole purpose of spreading the faith of the Goddess of Nature. The treaty with Lex would save him a lot of trouble.

Deep down, Lex shared the same sentiments. If she was not a member of the royal family, she would rather just be a mage. The main purpose of this treaty was to determine how to deal with a third party should something come up and not to scrutinize if the treaty was more beneficial to one party or the other.

Since the beginning of the Myers Mainland, no two countries had ever signed a treaty like this where both parties shared a common objective instead of trying to take advantage of each other.

First clause of the treaty; From this day onwards, Metatrin Kingdom and Bitter Water Prefecture will be allies forever.

The duration of this treaty was up to one-hundred-thousand years. No bonds would last for eternity, but a period of one-hundred-thousand years was longer than even the history of Myers Mainland. This was more than sufficient to prove that this treaty was meant to stand the test of time.

No treaties lasted forever. The treaties that countries signed with each other usually ended within one-hundred years. Saleen and Lex opted to sign a treaty that would end only after one-hundred-thousand years.

Second clause of the treaty; Metatrin Kingdom and Bitter Water Prefecture would share weal and woe. If one were to be involved in any battles, the other party would automatically join in to support.

This clause did not serve much purpose as this was almost expected when countries signed treaties with each other. Nevertheless, this clause ensured that even if Saleen or Lex were absent, their noble families would still have to carry on and support the other party in battle.

Third clause of the treaty; Metatrin Kingdom and Bitter Water Prefecture would acknowledge the status of both parties’ noble families.

This clause was to give both parties’ noble families assurance. After all, the rulers of both sides could not represent the noble families and their benefits. The noble families would never lay down their lives for their rulers unless their benefits were assured.

Fourth clause of the treaty; If a third party was to join in the alliance, the noble families of both countries would vote on a resolution.

This clause was meant to restrict the noble families. With this clause, the noble families would have less to worry about and would be assured that whatever benefits gained would be shared only between the two countries. Even if a third country wanted to form an alliance, its treaty would not be suitable for Metatrin and Bitter Water Prefecture.

Fifth clause of the treaty; The citizens of both countries must obey the laws of whichever country they are in.

This clause was meant to prevent a conflict of interests. If the citizens of Bitter Water Prefecture were to visit Metatrin, they would have to obey the laws there and if they committed a crime, both rulers would not have the power to bring the criminal back to their own country.

This clause was extremely important. Many treaties had failed because such a clause was not included.

After the most important fifth clause, they discussed about the minor details such as lands, paying of taxes, and the passing through of their armies. In total, there were eighty clauses. They made sure that there were no loopholes so that no third party would be able to intrude.

After studying the treaty for more than two hours, it had finally been settled. This was when Saleen asked Nailisi why she returned so early.

Nailisi did not bother to hide it from Lex since she already knew the existence of the oceanic ice block.

“Master, the winged skeleton really did a great job this time around. We retrieved more than one-hundred ships and while the items we obtained weren’t all high-level, they were the items you urgently needed. We met with a school of fish that were terrifying. If not for the fact that we had many spirits of the dead that cast a region of death, the alchemy ship might have been eaten up by the fish.”

Saleen was shocked to hear that. Some of the magic beasts in the ocean must not be underestimated. The pan’s turtle might be a grade-8 creature, but its defense definitely surpassed that of a grade-9 magic beast. Some small fish might be of a lower level than red krill, but their attacking abilities were unexpectedly powerful.

One such fish that Saleen knew of was the bone-chewing fish. The teeth of this fish were so sharp that they could bite a hole in the pan’s turtle shell. If tens of thousands of such fish attacked the pan’s turtle alchemical boat, it would be completely chewed up within an hour.

Clearly, Nailisi did not encounter the bone-chewing fish or she would not have made it back.

“Master, it is this,” Nailisi took out a fish from her bracelet and placed it in front of Saleen even as she spoke. Lex frowned, for the fish was extremely smelly. Nailisi was a demon so she could ignore the smell, but Lex could not be oblivious to it.

With an invisible shield, Lex protected herself with her own spell.

The fish that Nailisi had taken out was beautiful. It was slightly more than one yard long and its scales were silver in color. The shape of its body was streamlined in a way like how the tip of some special alchemy arrows had been magnified. Such body types faced minimal resistance in water and were the result of natural evolution.

The fish’s head was not big. Nailisi opened up the fish’s mouth with both her hands. Both Saleen and Lex broke out in cold sweat after that.

When the fish’s mouth was opened completly, it could swallow a human’s entire head without any difficulty. On top of that, the fish’s teeth were clustered together tightly like rasps instead of hooks and reflected light.

The shape of its teeth implied that the fish consumed its food by chewing and not swallowing.

Saleen took out a piece of dragonshard and slid it across the fish’s teeth. A clear line immediately appeared on the dragonshard.

This fish’s mouth could open at an obtuse angle and with such sharp teeth, no one could bear to think of the outcome of tens of thousands of them attacking them all at once.

“What is this thing?!” Saleen had never seen this type of fish in the atlas of creatures.

“This is Stotts, something that can only be found in the deep seas of Tanggulasi Empire.” Lex said.

“Stotts?” Saleen thought this name sounded familiar.

“It is an evil creature in the Code of the Holy See. It originally referred to a creature that dwelled in the water on the purgatory dimension and can devour the souls of believers. The scary thing about this magic beast on the Myers Mainland is its insanity. It is said that these fish were rarely seen after the second dynasty.”

“Why?”

“These fish can be used to feed magic beasts so that the latter can evolve. Long ago, the humans kept too many magic beasts and these fish were the best type of food.”

“So, what is so unique about it?” Saleen knew that this Stotts must possess some magic or it could never survive in the ocean with its mouth as its only weapon.

“Resistance towards magic. This fish’s resistance towards magic is ridiculously high. Any spell below grade-6 will have zero effects on it. I am referring to element magic, of course. The death region mentioned by Nailisi targeted a creature’s soul and life strength instead so a grade-3 magic beast like this would definitely choose to flee.”

After hearing this, Saleen released an ice blade and cut open the Stotts’ brain to reveal the magic nucleus inside.

The magic nucleus was huge and practically occupied the entire brain space. A magic nucleus that was the size of a fist like this could easily be cut up into four standard samples.

This magic beast had a huge magic nucleus, but a small brain so it must possess low intelligence and could only follow its instincts. They would have known that the death region cast by the middle-grade spirits of the dead was not fatal otherwise. If they had chosen to attack forcefully, Saleen’s pan’s turtle alchemical boat might have been lost.

“How many did you capture?”

Nailisi laughed bitterly and said, “We dare not hunt for it. We only managed to kill over five-hundred out of tens of thousands of them. The real reward was that we managed to pick up quite a few skeletons and magic nuclei from areas that they passed by. Fortunately, the fish did not consume these two items.”

“Five-hundred is quite a significant amount still. After removing their skin, they can be used to refine defense equipment for mages,” Lex said.

What Nailisi did not tell Saleen was that the winged skeleton had actually managed to capture quite a number of items. Wherever the Stotts passed by, there would be thousands of magic beast casualties. By following the fishs’ path, the winged skull managed to pick up countless magic nuclei. Although they were mostly low-grade magic nuclei, it was easier and safer than hunting for them on his own.

During this unexpected encounter, Nailisi even witnessed two gigantic grade-8 magic beasts being eaten alive by the fish. She would never dare to underestimate the dangers of the ocean now.

It did not matter that they were only grade-3 magic beasts. As long as they had the numbers, they could still kill a high-level magic beast. It was the same as a grand swordmaster having to flee for his life if he was facing too many swordmasters.

After giving Lex a batch of magic nuclei, Saleen was left with close to nothing. These magic nuclei brought back by the winged skeleton came just in time for Saleen’s alchemy factories to continue their operations.

Saleen had also become alert to the fact that his pan’s turtle alchemical boat was not invincible. There were still many unknown creatures in the ocean that could pose a threat to his alchemical boat. The alchemical boat was still too weak if its attacking abilities only constituted of bone spirits and bloodstones. Now that they were back, Saleen decided that he would ask the winged skeleton to refine the alchemical boat to increase its number of weapons.

There was still hope for the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. On the other hand, the diving combat vessel that was given to Saleen by Ojarvis had poorer defense in comparison. This equipment created by the Grukos royal family was developed in the deepwater lakes of inner Mainland, where the creatures were not as ferocious as the magic beasts of the ocean.

If not for the fact that the winged skeleton had this dangerous encounter, Saleen might have overlooked that. Fortunately, Lex was around. He would have to ask her if there was any way to improve on this type of diving combat vessels developed by the Grukos royal family.

Saleen refused to believe that this diving combat vessel was Holy Rock City’s best equipment. Ojarvis must still have other more powerful equipment. Such weapons must have been kept as a secret in order to deal with Cloudflow’s fleets in the future. It would be disastrous if the secret was leaked.