Badge in Azure

Chapter 869: Giant City (Part 2)

“Master, what should I do?” The water puppet knew that Saleen needed his help. He would have to put aside the things that he had yet to resolve in his mind.

“You will control the Witcher Spider. The thickness of the city wall should be about one-hundred and twenty yards. After six hours, lure the two grade-9 stone statue soldiers over, but don’t fight them. They cannot be killed. The moment they try to attack you, turn yourself into water. If they try to return back to their fixed location, change back into your original form to lure them over again and again.”

“Understand. Six hours later.” The water puppet answered simply and walked towards the city wall.

Saleen did not say much. He manipulated the water current into digging a deep hole in the ground. The water current had been newly refined by Saleen, so it was able to dig much faster compared to when Metatrin City was being constructed. Saleen did not care to preserve any rock materials, so he dug with abandon, so he could enter the city as soon as possible.

Saleen had also been using his devil ring to store the stone materials that have been dug out. When the hole was ten yards deep, Saleen turned around and filled up the entrance with the stone materials and sealed it off with magic. Finally, he stored all the seawater in the hole into his devil ring as well. Just like that, there would be no seawater in the hole that would interfere with the air that Saleen had created.

Saleen removed the water shield so that he would not waste his magic chords. As the water currents were cutting ahead, he was keeping stone materials behind. That would allow him to move the quickest. When the hole was sixty yards deep Saleen finally began to dig towards the city.

Very soon, Saleen reached the foundation of the city wall. He pondered for a while before making a turn and continuing to dig downwards. The materials that made up the city wall was even harder than the rocks on the surface of the ground. It would be extremely difficult to dig a hole if he had not used magic to grind them slowly.

When the hole was two-hundred yards deep, Saleen had finally reached the bottom of the city wall’s foundation.

Saleen changed his direction again and began to dig towards the city. When Saleen estimated that about six hours had passed, that was when he started to dig upwards. The thickness of the city wall was only one-hundred and twenty yards while Saleen had dug in the direction of the city for at least six-hundred yards.

When Saleen was sure that he would not end up below any magic arrays, he decided to dig upwards. After digging a distance of one-hundred yards, Saleen was ten yards away from the surface of the ground. Saleen sealed off the hole behind him and sucked out all the air in it. Finally, he continued to make his way up.

Saleen and the water puppet had agreed to meet at that time. On the surface of the ground, there were huge vibrations that seemed to be produced by the stone statue soldiers running. Saleen’s water current finally cut through the surface and cut out a small hole of less than a yard in diameter, then he quickly dug his way out completely.

The two huge stone statue soldiers had already sprinted to the edges of the city wall and they were smashing at the water puppet with their giant war hammers. Saleen knew that the water puppet was not afraid of physical attacks. He only took one glance before turning around and swimming as hard as he could into the depths of the city. He did not dare to activate his water shield, so he let the bubbles stick to his body so that friction would be at its lowest. He utilized both his hands and feet and swam into a gigantic house.

He entered from a small hole beneath a gigantic door. It was about one-hundred yards tall. It was as if the small hole was the result from some gigantic mouse’s chewing.

The moment he entered the room, Saleen felt that his senses had been cut off. He could no longer sense and judge the battle outside and had no idea how the water puppet was doing. In the room, there were enormous tables and chairs. The feet of the tables were already tens of yards tall.

Saleen was determined. He swam past the underside of the table and upwards past the broken windows before entering a gigantic courtyard. There was another room after the courtyard and after passing through three courtyards consecutively, Saleen finally came before a huge door. It was designed similarly to the courtyards of Cloudflow and there were two gigantic stone statues.

The stone statues were not humans but were two blue-eyed golden lions.

The blue-eyed golden lions were more than fifty yards tall and were crouched at the entrance of the door. Saleen hesitated for a moment before walking up the steps to the door. Both statues turned their heads towards Saleen at the same time. Saleen continued to walk with confidence without looking back them. As expected, the two statues turned back and ignored Saleen.

The principle of magic was that there must be consistency. If the two blue-eyed golden lions were supposed to differentiate between friend and foe based on aura, then they could not possibly be placed at the entrance, otherwise all visitors would have been killed by them. Even if they were built with magic components that were supposed to differentiate between friend and foe, they were probably already broken after so many years. Only combat components could last the that long.

Saleen gambled on the fact that the two items must be used as deterrents and after so many years, the magic components that allowed them to differentiate between friend and foe were already broken. Without such an ability, these stone statues would no longer initiate attacks on anyone, unless they were attacked first.

Saleen looked to his left and right. The entire street was close to the city wall and looked like it was built for horse carriages. The houses on both sides of the street were abnormally huge and looked like they were built for giants instead of humans.

Saleen did not dare to swim upwards. This city most likely had anti-flying measures in place. He was previously attacked because he had gone over a certain height limit in order to peek inside the city, hence triggering the magic array into attacking him.

The humans in the past possessed powerful combat abilities and the defense in the city would not rely only on magic arrays. Grade-9 elemental creatures were merely ordinary soldiers. Back then, there were countless professionals in the giant city. Most of the magic arrays complemented lifestyle products while those that were built for combat could most likely be found concentrated near the city wall.

Saleen walked more than ten miles in and did not see any creatures. He could not swim up, so he had no idea what was ahead of him. In the empty giant city, Saleen cut a lonesome figure.

Saleen finally saw a huge and tall tower after walking for twenty miles. Half of the tower had already collapsed and the ancient Myers words on the lintel had faded. Saleen observed carefully with his elemental eyes and just about managed to figure out what the Myers words said.

“Military depot…”

There were no other similar towers nearby. Although the tower might be huge, it was hard to estimate how many soldiers it could station, especially those elemental stone statue soldiers near the city wall, which were over one-hundred yards tall.

“Looks like this is the place!” Saleen deduced that the leader of the elemental stone statue soldiers should be in the military depot.

Saleen did not enter the military depot immediately. Instead, he walked one round around it, at a circumference of one-thousand yards. He could not see any labels of defense on the surrounding buildings. The place was twenty miles away from the city wall. If the leader of the stone statue soldiers was able to control them from there, then it must be a grade-10 creature.

Saleen turned around and headed back to the military depot. More than six hours had passed. He could use the spells on this devil armor again. Saleen took out his magic staff and a small magic scroll.

The magic scroll was obtained from the battle at Separation Sea. Back then, the grade-8 mage had wanted to unleash a grade-10 spell but was interrupted halfway. The scroll fell and Saleen managed to pick it up.

For a grade eight mage to be able to cast a grade-10 spell, the scroll had to be more valuable than a gigantic grade-9 magic nucleus. Saleen was willing to use it now because, as long as the leader of the stone statue soldiers was under his control, all the stone statue soldiers near the city wall would become his subordinates.

Saleen did not believe the armies of the Holy See would be able to repel hundreds of grade-9 stone statue soldiers that were one-hundred yards tall each. Using up a grade-10 scroll was nothing. The scroll was a one-off item anyway, but the elemental stone statue soldiers could be used over and over again.

Once he was well-prepared, Saleen returned to the military depot. He activated his water shield and swam to the second level of the military depot with a magic staff in hand. Although the military depot consisted only of two and a half levels, it was still more than two-hundred yards tall. Saleen felt helpless when faced with such gigantic buildings. He entered through a gap in the window and saw that the items on the second level of the tower had already decayed.

Only high-level magic materials would be able to fight against decay after tens of thousands of years under the sea. Saleen did not bother flipping through the items. He went over to the staircase and removed his water shield before activating his ice plate armor.

Grade-10 elemental creatures would be difficult for grade-9 mages to handle. Although human mages were stronger than elemental creatures, the difference in grade was not something to be overlooked.

Beneath the devil mask, Saleen could feel the skin on his face spasming. That was the first time he would be facing such a powerful being on his own. If he lost, then death would await him.

“Teacher, I will not back down!” Saleen thought encouragement to himself and walked down the stairs. Each step on the flight of stairs was more than two yards in height and Saleen almost had to leap over them. When he was halfway down, there was a rumbling sound coming from one of the rooms below. Saleen saw a gigantic weapon crashing towards him and behind the weapon was a pair of eyes that shone red.

A stone statue soldier that was only twenty yards tall was wielding a giant war hammer and pounced at Saleen. Its movements were so fast that it was comparable to a magic attack. If all warriors could move that fast, then mages would no longer hold any advantage over them.

Saleen cast Ice Attack and another grade-9 spell called Dismantle Element was also activated from the magic staff.

It was a very rare spell and ever since the Sregl Island mages had advanced to grade-9, only one of them had been able to cast that spell. The magic staff that the mage had given to Saleen stored four spells of Dismantle Element. Saleen could not bear to use them until that time, which just showed how precious the spells were.

Once a mage used the spell once, they would not be able to use it again for an entire month. The damage that the mage would sustain from the spell was almost as high as that of crystal finger.

Dismantle Element could dismantle an enemy’s magic completely. When used against elemental creatures, there was a significant chance that the target would be dismantled or knocked out. If it was dismantled, the elemental creature could never be revived; if it was knocked out, the elemental creature would not be able to restore its combat abilities for a short period of time.

For a stone statue soldier of that grade, the grade-9 Dismantle Element would never be able to dismantle it, so Saleen decided to use it without too many concerns.

Six huge blocks of solid ice froze the stone statue soldier’s war hammer. Saleen leapt down from the side of the staircase. The war hammer missed its target and smashed the staircase, which was already in bad shape, into pieces.

When a spell as mysterious as Dismantle Element struck the stone statue soldier, a green light shone on the surface of its body. The stone statue soldier stopped moving. As the light slowly dissipated, that was when the stone statue soldier descended and smashed its hammer at Saleen again.

The grade-9 spell was ineffective. The grade of the stone statue soldier had made it immune to the grade-9 spell.