Badge in Azure

It was not difficult to advance the Fire Rain spell to grade-9, but to enhance its damage was not that simple. Fire elements were usually extremely difficult to control. The area of effect of the Fire Rain spell was huge and no mage would be willing to waste time on it.

Each fireball in the sky measured about a yard in diameter and they did not seem too powerful individually. They had been extremely accurate in hitting the magic towers however.

The defense of magic towers were undoubtedly powerful, such that even grade-9 spells were ineffective against them. These magic towers also needed to maintain the defense of the city. Under such overwhelming attacks, they would not be able to defend themselves and the city at the same time.

When the grade-9 sorcerer in the sky noticed that the anti-flying zone was no longer in effect, he did not descend. He instead began to chant a mantra once again.

“Saleen, perhaps our palace is going to be destroyed,” Lex spoke helplessly.

“He wants to destroy the palace?”

“That must be the case. If he began to slaughter innocent people, Alchemy City might order for him to be captured and he would only be able to hide in his lair. Even his own magic tower might not be able to keep him safe. If he only destroys the palace, we can still evacuate the soldiers and officials.”

“Lex, how many more times can your God’s Ring still repel attacks?” Saleen asked caressing his clan badge.

“If it is an attack from the fellow in the sky, only one more time. Saleen, what are you planning to do?!” Lex asked nervously. If they continued to hide in the magic tower, that grade-9 sorcerer would only be able to destroy some of the things in the city and not be able to approach them. In order to kill this grade-9 sorcerer, Saleen would have to get close enough to him so that he could lock on to the sorcerer in order to succeed.

Due to the difference in their grades, the distance between them would have to be very short.

“I want to advance, otherwise Eye of Lightning cannot even be used for the second time. The power of the devil suit cannot be used properly either. Lex, if my devil suit can be complemented with magic advancement, I am confident of locking on to the sorcerer.”

“Endless Night?”

“Yes, grade-8 Endless Night will be able to trap the grade-9 sorcerer for more than half a second, no matter how powerful he may be. By then, not even grade-10 powerful opponents would be able to repel my badge.”

Lex’s expression became calmer as Saleen did not lose his rationality to rage. She could only say, “Let me go and ask Stephanie if she can lend you this space to advance.”

Saleen only smiled. Lex did not ask him if he was confident of advancing. This was a sign of absolute trust.

As Lex walked down the eighth story of the magic tower, Saleen began to meditate. Before long, Lex returned. The huge fire balls outside the magic tower were still raining down continuously. The broken pieces of the fire balls were flying everywhere and the surroundings of the palace were all raging with fire.

“She has promised. Saleen, what do you need me to do?”

Lex spoke very concisely. Saleen walked over and sat down in the position where Stephanie usually meditated. He said, “I may need more than a day’s time to advance. Help me keep a lookout.”

“Alright,” Lex replied with a simple word. She then retreated to a corner of the magic tower and sat down to wait quietly.

The magic arrays required for a sorcerer to advance had already been set up long ago, but Saleen would need Lex to initiate the process. He took out some pieces of dragonshards and a complete piece of divine crystal.

Saleen’s advancement would be as difficult as Lex’s and he would never be able to push through without the replenishment from these two items.

The density of elements on the eighth story of the magic tower was already many times higher than that of the seventh story. Once the magic arrays had been initiated, Saleen felt like he could cast hundreds of middle-level spells all at once. His mental strength began to expand and he felt as if the six major elements in the magic tower could almost combine together and form a solid body.

This was not what Saleen needed though. The devil suit that he was wearing suddenly expanded. The plates of the armor began to grow bigger. The devil suit has now expanded into something like a tentage that enclosed Saleen within. The six major elements came to Saleen’s side after being filtered by the devil suit.

All the elements had been transformed into water elements by the devil suit.

These water elements were not pure, but their densities had increased by tens of times. Saleen’s skin tightened, as if it were undergoing a lot of pressure from the water elements.

The magic chords in Saleen’s body began to grow successfully, without even requiring any prompting. Ever since Saleen possessed the devil suit, he could better understand and appreciate the profoundness of grade-7 spells. His comprehension of the elements was no different from that of a grade-7 sorcerer.

His magic chords could only trigger water elements into spells. In order to trigger spells of the other five elements, there would need to be a conversion of elements. This would differentiate Saleen’s fighting style from other mages.

Saleen was always trying to reduce the time needed to cast spells. He wanted to achieve perfection for every spell and do away with unnecessary steps. This had allowed Saleen to achieve an understanding of water elements that other mages never could.

Saleen sat there with the mask still on his face. On the forehead of the mask there was mounted a grade-12 magic nucleus, which was equivalent to the dragonshard of a grade-9 giant dragon.

The branches of thirty-six magic chords extended out of Saleen’s body. His magic chords were clear and transparent, with a faint tinge of blue. Saleen’s body was already surrounded by water elements. When the magic chords extended out, they absorbed the surrounding water elements hungrily.

Most of these water elements were converted from other elements and were somewhat heterogeneous. They were only purified after being filtered through Saleen’s body.

As a result, Saleen’s body regained the attributes of the other five elements. There were some instabilities at first, but it became easier over time.

This process was necessary. Water elements alone would never allow Saleen to advance into a sorcerer.

Saleen’s magic chords grew very quickly. He had the advantage over Lex in advancing because his understanding of sorcerers was not limited only to knowledge picked up from books. It also came from personal experiences in learning high-level spells.

All that Saleen lacked was the confidence to advance.

Now, he was full of confidence because less than five minutes before, he managed to kill a grade-8 sorcerer. This gave him tremendous self-confidence and he no longer felt that becoming a sorcerer was unattainable. He had not used Crystal Finger, nor his clan badge. Instead, he had relied only on his own equipment, abilities, and strong decision-making.

This was why Saleen decided to advance into a sorcerer. From then on, he would need to deal with people from Alchemy City as they would definitely come looking for him once he returned to Metatrin City.

Although this grade-9 sorcerer before him was powerful, Saleen could still deal with him using his clan badge. Against Alchemy City, he would only be able to rely on his own abilities.

After advancing into a sorcerer, Saleen would be able to enter the Six Elements’ Space and advance into a grade-9 sorcerer in the shortest possible time.

Without even looking at the information that Lex had gathered from all over the Mainland, Saleen could already tell that the abilities of humans on this dimension were on the rise again. In the past, he would need a large pool of candidates in order to recruit high-level swordsmen, but now, he could easily form a regiment of warriors of the level of swordmasters.

If not for the fact that the power within the army might be imbalanced, Saleen could even construct a battalion of swordmasters.

In other words, Saleen could almost recruit about ten-thousand swordmasters under his command even before Metatrin could completely take over one-third of Phoenix territories.

The improvement in the different grades of mages was even more obvious. Lex had left behind close to a thousand low-level mages for Saleen, but back then when they first met, she did not have so many mages under her command.

Now, Lex had more than a hundred grand mages. Even though most of them were at grade-4, it also meant one thing – humans’ abilities were advancing collectively.

This advancement was so obvious that Saleen felt even more pressured because of it. He was unsure if the holy priests of the Holy See would also become more powerful as a result, but he had to be ready for that. Perhaps in the near future, he would need to battle against a group of powerful holy priests unlike then, when the number of holy priests in the army was few and far between and could never match up against mages.

Low-level mages only had six strands of magic chords and each strand could cast one type of spell. The number of times they could be cast was equivalent to their grade. After casting the six spells, the magic chords would have been completely expended. Only after they had been recharged would the mage be able to readjust the power of elements again.

As for grand mages, each magic chord would split into six new branches. The original six chords would gradually shrink and the total number of magic chords would become thirty-six. It was only at that point that a mage was considered to have advanced into a grand mage. This would not occur for a few mages though. Perhaps their six magic chords would become abnormally strong and tough and would only split when they advanced into sorcerer. To a mage, the number of elements that could be adjusted by the magic chords was the same.

Right then, Saleen had thirty-six magic chords and they were continuously absorbing the power of water elements, completing the advancement.

Saleen also knew that the advancement of his magic chords would not be dangerous because of his body of element. Since he already had sufficient experience and theory, his grasp of the balance of energy was much better than most grade-7 sorcerers.

Saleen was beginning to understand more and more of the power of rules in the book that Isabella had given to him.

What Saleen wanted to advance was the power of the Eye of Lightning. In the Goddess’ necklace, the twenty-four grade-9 lightning dragons were advancing in a unique way. They would hibernate most of the time and only wake up for short periods of time to consume large amounts of food and also to shed their skin. The skin that they shed was valuable because they were covered with lightning magic patterns, which Saleen had already studied thoroughly.

Only by grasping the power of lightning would he be able to face Alchemy City.

Saleen opened his eyes slightly and a golden beam of light flashed across. A total of three-hundred and sixty golden runes floated in front of Saleen and between them were blue streaks of electricity.